For the love of her husband and the food he liked

S Sundari’s husband V Sekar passed away in 2005. “My husband loved me and he absolutely loved the food I cooked. So, every day I keep Rs 100 aside from the money I make selling non-vegetarian meals as the expense for his food. By the end of one year, I’d have collected enough money to feed 500 to 1,000 customers,” says 50-year-old Sundari. This year, on November 1, around 800 people gathered at her stall. They were treated to mutton curry, fish curry, kaara kozhambu , sambhar , rasam , vanjiram , paarai and vavval fish delicacies. She also prepared a special payasam for dessert and bought extra vessels for this occasion. Usually, she invites 200-300 of her regular customers for the occasion but her story caught the fancy of social media after Paul Pradeep Chris put out a post on social media and many of them landed up at her kadai. 

“Some of them insisted that they would pay. How can I take money from a few, while the rest have it for free,” says Sundari, who wanted to keep the memory of her husband, an auto driver, alive after he died of heart attack. She took it on herself to keep the business, which was her husband’s idea, alive. “Before 2001, I sold tiffin items from my home in Triplicane. Once, I came with my family (my husband and two kids) to the beach and didn’t find any place to eat. My husband suggested that I start an eatery here and he would occasionally help me out.” 

After his demise, she handles everything by herself. “I go to Kasimedu in the morning, prepare the food in the early part of the day and then start the business at 2 pm for lunch. It is only a few months ago that I hired a help. Else, I’d do everything on my own.’ Recently, a five-star hotel approached Sundari to cook for them for a monthly pay of 50,000, but she refused. “There are so many memories attached to this place,” she concludes.