Meenakshi Temple views Music 00:00 SARA: It’s the heart and soul of a profoundly spiritual place, the holy centre of a holy city--- the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Southern India. 00:14 Music 00:28 SARA: Madurai’s by no means big by Indian standards. Just over a million people call it home, but they share their city with the ebb and flow of countless others - the Hindu faithful from all over India drawn to this mesmerising complex of towers. Some seek blessings, some give thanks and others submit their wishes for the future. It’s a magical place. 00:23 Sara to camera at temple. Super: Sally Sara “Well this remarkable temple has been drawing pilgrims on spiritual journeys since the 16th century, but we’ve come to this area to meet a man who’s nurturing the souls of some of the forgotten people of this city”. 01:15 Music 01:30 Men/Pandi in pipe SARA: And there are many. Forgotten people like Pandi. He’s been living in this pipe for more than six years, sleeping next to the filth of an open drain. Pandi is just one of an estimated seventy million Indians with severe mental illness. That’s three times the entire population of Australia and many of them simply abandoned. 01:41 “What do you think about those families who just 02:10 Sara interviews Krishnan dump their relatives on the street? What do you think about that? 02:13 Krishnan. Super: Krishnan Narayanan Akshaya Trust KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “Equal to murdering. It’s a very cruel attitude. They’re not supposed to do that”. 02:17 Krishnan delivers food in van Music 02:22 SARA: Many come from far away to look for the meaning of life here in this temple town. Krishnan Narayanan didn’t need to go anywhere. It was right outside his door. KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “These people are my inspiration. I take energy from them”. 02:29 SARA: And now, three times a day to a growing and appreciative clientele nearing 450, he’s making it his life’s mission. 02:48 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “We are feeding these types of people - mentally ill people and old people who’ve been left alone on the roadside for the last nine years, rain or shine. 02:58 Diwali, Ramzan, Christmas, Thanksgiving - whatever it may be. We are feeding them without any break”. 03:10 Music 03:15 Krishnan preparing vegetables SARA: He could have been a highly paid master chef. Ten years ago, Krishnan was on his way to a five star career. He’d graduated from a prestigious hospitality course and been offered a lucrative job at a hotel in Switzerland. The high culinary world was before him, until he stumbled upon a deeply disturbing scene that would stop him in his tracks. It was grim and confronting. 03:22 Krishnan cooking rice KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “I saw a very old man. He must be somewhere around 75 to 80 years old. He was having his own human waste for hunger. 03:59 Krishnan I was shocked and froze for a second. What is happening? What is this guy doing?” 04:08 Krishnan cooking SARA: Krishnan returned to his upmarket restaurant, his head spinning and stomach churning. 04:15 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “That night I thought what am I doing? I am selling a plate of fried rice for ten dollars 04:25 Krishnan in my star hotel where people come and have food for fantasy, fun, joy and recreation, not for hunger. I know they eat only half portion of it and leave half in the plate. 04:32 Cooking pot on flame It was a spark, a very powerful spark which I had”. SARA: Krishnan still cooks with passion, but now he serves those who would otherwise go hungry - Madurai’s mentally ill, dispossessed and dumped. 04:46 Krishnan cooking rice KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “We start the cooking process at ten o’clock in the morning. The food will be ready, the vegetable pilau and the sabzi will be ready in one, one and a half hours”. 05:08 SARA: “So you can cook food for hundreds of people in just an hour?” 05:16 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “Maximum, maximum”. 05:19 Opening sequence of Indian Masterchef 05:25 SARA: India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and here too food has generated a celebrity culture of television chefs and high-end cuisine. It’s one of the more graphic examples of the ever expanding gulf between rich and poor. There’s a rush on here to buy more, eat more, own more. 05:36 Vegetable market [at market] “Food is a really powerful indicator of where India is at at the moment. Traditionally people bought their vegetables and their spices and herbs from markets like this one, 06:11 Sara to camera at market but now things have changed. There are two extremes. At one end of the scale there are hundreds of millions of people who’ve become very wealthy in this country, who have left this kind of diet and lifestyle behind but are now facing issues like obesity and diabetes. But hundreds of millions of other people are still stuck in poverty. They have children who are stunted and many families are still struggling to find enough food to eat each day”. 06:21 Krishnan in Akshaya trust van 06:46 Krishnan visits Pandi It’s even more difficult for those with no family at all. Pandi doesn’t speak any more. Mental illness and a family break up have left him all alone, despite the hundreds of people who pass here everyday. 06:50 Krishnan helps Pandi KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “They do not know that Pandi is sitting here. Like dogs are there on the road, like how dust is there on the road, like how garbage boxes are on the road --- human beings are also the same for them. Nobody is bothered”. 07:13 SARA: Krishnan is bothered. He sees the disparities like few others and views India’s new rampant consumption with contempt. 07:27 Krishnan KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “They have ten cars. They can travel in only one car. They have fifty slippers, a hundred shoes, twenty watches -- for what? Are they mad? The people on the road are not mad. People who buy so much stuff and dump it in the wardrobe are mad”. 07:38 Krishnan at home SARA: It’s a surprising viewpoint, after all Krishnan has been very much a part of his nation’s upper castes. Krishnan grew up in the folds of a comfortable, well off Brahmin family, but he was always different. 08:04 Krishnan and family around table NARAYAN LAKSHMI: [Krishnan’s mum] “He was like that in his childhood - parting with all the material things that he had”. 08:21 SARA: At first his parents struggled to understand why he gave away a promising career to work with destitute street people, but now they’re proud of him and value what he’s taught them. 08:26 NARAYAN LAKSHMI: “I used to think everything is alike – beggars, mentally ill -- 08:41 Krishnan’s mother so I used to think everyone alike but he taught me the difference”. 08:44 SARA: “So often mothers are teaching lessons to their sons, but in your case was it almost the other way around, that your son was teaching you?” 08:48 NARAYAN LAKSHMI: “That’s right. I was not a teacher, he was a teacher to me. People used to ask me, how did you brought up your… I didn’t bring up my child. He only brought up me. (laughing) That is the irony”. 08:57 Young woman clears table/ Mother cooks SARA: Many Brahmin Hindus have a strict code of behaviour, especially around food preparation and eating. For generations they’ve been taught that some of the poor are untouchable. Senior community figures frowned on Krishnan’s work. KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “They said, no you can’t do that - you’re a Brahmin. You must not do it. 09:10 Krishnan. Super: Krishnan Narayanan Akshaya Trust I said fine, if that’s going to bother you I’ll throw that out. I’m not a Brahmin. Now I’m not Brahmin. I’m a human being”. 09:35 Krishnan shaves and bathes Murugan Music 09:46 SARA: Feeding the poor and disadvantaged is one thing, but in caste conscious India, this is a revolutionary act. The simple ritual of touching and bathing those who are said to be untouchable is a big shift. For 72-year-old Murugan, it’s a cherished moment of kindness. 09:52 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “He has got a family, even now he has got a family. His wife is dead. He’s got a son and daughter. They’ve thrown him out of the house because he has got no money to live. He’s just on the road. He never speaks. We are feeding him for the last six years. He has given birth to the kids. He has been playing a very active role in the family, but because he has got no money now, the family have ditched him. This is something very, very bad”. 10:17 Krishnan dresses Murugan SARA: It’s the sad face of abandonment in India. 10:55 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “So nobody’s coming forward to clean these people and I personally feel happy do to so. How am I going to use my time? Seeing television? 11:02 Krishnan Watching movies? Updating the Facebook? No! With the human beings!” 11:15 Sara in car Music 11:22 SARA: The treatment of the mentally ill, or lack of it, has a tragic history in this part of India where services have been scarce and traditions strong. 11:27 Sara in car to camera “Well we’re on the road going to another town about three hours away. At this place in 2001, a terrible incident happened that shocked many of the people involved in mental health in Tamil Nadu and really highlighted the plight of some of the most vulnerable people in this region”. 11:40 Ervadi Music 11:59 SARA: Like Madurai’s pilgrims, the people who flock to Ervadi from all over India are on a mission of faith, but there’s a tense desperation here. They come with their loved ones whom they believe are cursed, in the hope of magic and miracles -- anything that will soothe or even end the torment of inner demons. The town’s Muslim shrine has a reputation as a place of healing for people of all creeds. 12:04 Sara walks with Abdul Samad S. ABDUL SAMAD ALIM THANGAL: “This is the only place you can cure black magic and witchcraft through the power of the saint. 12:38 Abdul Samad Hindus come. Muslims come, Christians come. All of them have been affected by black magic. 12:46 Women at shrine/ inside shrine, women screaming SARA: The leaders of the shrine give us permission to film inside and what we see is extremely disturbing. The paranoid, the bewildered, many frightened and confused all camp on the hot sands around the shrine. 12:55 Man lying in sand/ Indira They’re mentally ill but they’re not diagnosed or offered psychiatric care. Instead they’re told and believe they’re possessed by evil spirits and they’re offered coconut oil said to be blessed by a Muslim saint. 13:19 S. ABDUL SAMAD ALIM THANGAL: “As it’s peaceful here, after 41 days they are cured. Their prayers are heard by God and that’s why they are getting cured”. 13:45 Shrine SARA: It’s a blur of religion and superstition. Indira is trapped in a cycle of ritualistic behaviour trying to rid her mind and body of pain. 13:46 INDIRA: “It feels as if something is coming out of my body”. 14:09 SARA: She came here with physical symptoms. 14:15 INDIRA: “For a year I had stomach aches. I went to a lot of places, then I got to know of this place”. 14:18 SARA: The diagnosis at the shrine is that her body has been infiltrated by a thousand devils. 14:25 INDIRA: “When I am here I am not afraid. I become like that when the spirit enters me”. 14:32 Indira sits with her son SARA: Indira has come here with her 11 year old son Raisekhar hoping God will bring her some inner peace, but in an instant the calm is gone and Indira is back into her own world of suffering. Her son can only look on, helpless and frightened. 14:43 Ganamani and Petchiannal In another corner of the shrine Ganamani sits patiently with his ill wife, Petchiannal. Neither understands what’s wrong with her, but Ganamani doesn’t believe it’s anything that conventional medicine can treat. 15:18 GANAMANI: “If she had some real problems I’d take her to the doctor. But apart from two things – crying and laughing - she has no other problems. Just crying and laughing by herself, and nothing else”. 15:37 SARA: Priests told Ganamani his wife is affected by the devil. Her mental illness has left her unable to care for herself. 16:00 GANAMANI: “It’s been five years. She lives like a child. How can I leave her alone? We found out later that she was like this, so I feel she should remain with me until the end”. 16:11 Call to prayer at shrine 16:33 SARA: The tragedy is that in India, many people simply don’t understand that mental illness is treatable and the drugs are relatively cheap here, but there’s only one psychiatrist for every million people and most of them are in the cities. For many, this is the best on offer. Some people live in Ervadi for years hoping for a cure. 16:45 S. ABDUL SAMAD ALIM THANGAL: “Once they come here they are happy. 17:12 Abdul Samad We become their family, even when they’re cured. They don’t like to leave and go home”. 17:15 People at shrine SARA: Many at least feel at home here, far from the abuse and victimisation. 17:24 Man in street/ Guest houses Catering to them has become a business in the backstreets around the shrine where dozens of guesthouses have become de facto, unregulated asylums. It’s also our final destination on our journey here. 17:34 Sara to camera on asylum site “Well back in 2001 there was a private mental asylum on this site behind me. At that time it was very common practice for mentally ill patients to be chained so that they could be restrained in these kinds of facilities. But tragedy struck here. A terrible fire swept through this asylum and the patients who were chained up were unable to escape. You can imagine the terror for those people unable to get out as the fire tore through this building. What happened here not only changed the practices in this area, but grabbed headlines around the world about the treatment of mentally ill people in some parts of India”. 17:52 Women screaming at shrine After the bad publicity, the Indian Government drastically increased spending on mental health and tried to enforce laws protecting the rights of patients. 18:40 Abdul Samad S. ABDUL SAMAD ALIM THANGAL: “No chains… we can’t use chains. According to what the government has stipulated we are doing everything correctly, curing people”. 18:52 Man in chains ranting SARA: But it seems cruel and primitive practices diehard. Clearly some families still shackle their mentally ill relatives to keep them under control. 19:07 Abdul Rauf ABDUL RAUF: “Previously I was a mad man, so I was tied to a tree”. 19:22 Sara with Abdul Rauf SARA: This man, Abdul Rauf, has been living in Ervadi for 14 years, four of them shackled to a tree and his chains are still in use. 19:27 Abdul Rauf ABDUL RAUF: “When black magic is practised, it can last for a while. So that I don’t fight with others, I still have them. 19:40 SARA: “Are you tied up at night?” ABDUL RAUF: “Yes, at night”. 19:50 Nightfall at shrine SARA: The magnitude of neglect seems insurmountable, but one man at least is undeterred. 19:55 Frangipani flower Music 20:05 Sara and Krishnan at building site KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “What else can bring them happiness? A Mercedes Benz? A Rolls Royce?” SARA: We return from the mayhem of Ervadi to find Krishnan at the site of his dream project outside Madurai. He’s building a home for those who have no one and nowhere to go. 20:14 Eventually he hopes there will be enough space for more than 400 people. 20:33 “Is it exciting to come out and see the building taking place?” KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “Of course, yes. I almost come here twice a week or four times a week to see what’s happening because it’s more than my house. I feel it’s the Taj Mahal”. 20:40 Music 20:53 SARA: At the very least, there’ll be three meals a day, shelter and someone who cares. 20:59 KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “Whenever I go to bed I used to think, 21:08 Krishnan when are my people on the road going to sleep under a roof like where I’m sleeping. So, that is the ultimate purpose of my life”. 21:10 Building site SARA: Krishnan realises it will take more than food and love to meet the complicated needs of hundreds of people with mental illnesses. It’s a start. 21:24 Sara and Krishnan walk against setting sun KRISHNAN NARAYANAN: “I believe only two things. 21:40 Krishnan They are human beings. I am human being. They are made of blood and flesh, I am made of blood and flesh. They want love, I can give them love. That’s it”. 21:44 Krishnan gives food and water Music 21:58 Reporter: Sally Sara Camera: Wayne McAllister Editor: Nicholas Brenner Producers: Marianne Leitch Simi Chakrabarti 22:15