God's Own Kitchen: The Inspiring Story of Akshaya Patra - A Social Enterprise Run by Monks and CEOs

by Rashmi Bansal

People often asked Madhu Pandit - “Why did you leave Iit to become a monk? ” Had he followed the conventional path, Madhu Pandit would have been a big-shot in some large corporation. Instead, he was the 'Ceo' of a large temple. Guided by his guru A C to Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada. Propelled forward by the Divine Plan. A chance meeting with Mohandas Pai inspired Madhu Pandit to use the spare capacity in the Iskcon kitchen. To start a mid-day meal program for 1500 children, in and around Bangalore. Today, Akshaya Patra is the world's largest Ngo-led mid-day meal program, with 27 kitchens across 11 states. Serving 1.5 million hot lunches to government schools each day. This is the exciting story of spiritualists and capitalists coming together to launch a unique start-up. And taking it to scale. A 'Made in India' success story using the head, the heart, and a whole lot of soul.

Genres: Nonfiction, India

264 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2017

About the author

Rashmi Bansal is a writer, entrepreneur and youth expert.She is the author of two bestselling books on entrepreneurship. ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’ features the stories of 25 MBAs who left lucrative jobs to follow the rough road of entrepreneurship. The book created a new record in Indian publishing by selling over 300,000 copies and has been translated into 8 languages.

Rashmi’s second book, ‘Connect the Dots’ focuses on non-MBA entrepreneurs. It has also been a bestseller, selling over 100,000 copies.

Her third book ‘I Have a Dream’, on social entrepreneurs, is releasing in May 2011.

Rashmi is co-founder and editor of JAM (Just Another Magazine), India’s leading youth magazine. She writes extensively on youth, careers and entrepreneurship on her popular blog: Youth Curry.
Rashmi is a columnist on popular Indian news portal Rediff.com. She has been Consulting Editor with Businessworld magazine and Bloomberg UTV, where she hosted India’s first interactive show on careers.

Rashmi is a consultant for international youth research agencies such as The Futures Company (a division of WPP, London ) and Flamingo Research (Singapore ).A guest lecturer at various business schools of repute including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, ISB, S P Jain among others, Rashmi mentors numerous students and young entrepreneurs. She also conducts motivational talks and youth insight seminars for corporates.

Reviews

[Ashish Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a light and refreshing read for me atleast considering the kind of books i am reading these days. This book was written in a very simple language. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Akshay Patra is the best example of how corporate and religion can work together to serve the purpose of feeding kids. Even Akshay Patra (Mahabharata) name is kinda perfect, it means utensil which will never run short of food. For every Indian child knows the story of the rice bowl blessed by Krishna which produces endless rice. Nothing is greater than giving food to others as per our culture and ISKCON has done it. I love the way how author narrated the story from the scratch till this initiative became magnanimous. Akshay Patra is an organization which not only promises a good nutritious hot meal but delivers so consistently to participating schools across India.

Now i have a huge respect for this organization. Even i will make sure that i will donate to this lovely organisation in every Diwali, Sanskranti and Ganesh Chaturthi.

[Keerthi Kiran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rashmi Bansal does an amazing job of picking interesting human and business stories tell. Given the dearth of good contemporary Indian non-fiction, non-socio-political writing this is a very valuable niche. Her success highlights this.

The book itself has lot of potential. Akshaya Patra is a familiar organization that has done amazing work away from the spotlight and away from the personality cult. I picked up this book to learn about the people and process of creating this inspirational organization. While the book does do justice in telling the story, but it is a plain narrative or a timeline rundown of how the organization grew. The book could have gone a little deeper and added lot more richness to the story by adding more personal stories from different stakeholders. The book comes across as a collection of interviews than a story. But having read her previous works, my expectation was set to this and she lived up to it.

I think Rashmi fills an important void and I congratulate her for that and would continue to read her work for the subjects that she picks.

[Gracelinvidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

God's own kitchen by Rashmi Bansal gives a complete picture of the spectacular Akshaya Patra story. The initial idea and people behind the scenes, the various challenges faced, the different solutions applied which ultimately transformed the mid day meal programme to cover across India feeding over a million kids daily, are all explained in detail. Besides the noble cause of feeding children, I particularly liked the various solutions implemented to give preference to the kids' food choices across India yet never compromising on the nutritional value. Be it visiting Amritsar Golden Temple kitchen or Dharamshala kitchen, to making their own roti making machines- people who had no experience in running such programme came together to setup kitchens, manage the logistics, and make it a success despite all the difficulties faced. Like the 'akshaya patra' granted by Krishna to Draupadi, may the modern Akshaya Patra be that inexhaustible vessel. Definitely one of my favorite non fiction books!

[Anbukarasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is modern charity and real

The journey of Akshaya Patra is wonderful.

As always the pictures and flow is excellent in Rashmi Bansal words.

Read this to know modern Indian monks who reached the world.

The challenges faced and the steps moving ahead are inspiring.

[Tanay Agrawal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite knowing about Akshaya Patra, Rashmi Bansal's narration made me feel how much ignorant I was! This is a must-read for all. Every page is a management case study and solutions look simple only in hindsight because they come from simple-hearted monks yet profound!

[Sankalpita (bookGeeks India) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full review here - http://www.bookgeeks.in/gods-own-kitc...

[Aoi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring stuff. I love the sometimes funny, sometimes touching anecdotes on the journey to setting & scaling up India's largest mid-day meal program for underprivileged school children.

[E.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For hungry minds work best on full stomachs." - Rashmi Bansal in this book
अक्षय - जिसका क्षय न होता हो
"अक्षय पात्र " - What a beautiful and inspiring name !
Roughly, the "Paatra" (Cooking utensil) which will never run short of food. (Mahabharata)
This was the story of how (highly-educated) monks from ISKCON started with the midday meal program to feed school-children on the insistence of Mohandas Pai of Infosys. And how starting from a few 100 kids, they have scaled it up to 1.5 million kids per day and growing. Each stage of the journey has been described by the author. There were a no. of hurdles from running out of money, harassment from vested interests, inventing new ways of preparing and distributing food and learning all along the way.
Read it in a single sitting and was such an uplifting experience ! Recommended !

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought that the monks, corporates and government can pull together such a great initiative. An interesting read and truly inspiring.

[Radha Shukla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an academician in a field of social work and I think all the Social Work students should read this book.. it will not only give them practical illustration of the theories they study but will definitely boost their morale to do something efficient for the society.
Moreover talking about spiritual beliefs and faith... It's not exaggeration if I say that I've got goosebumps on almost each page!

[animesh jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feeding a child is not charity,it is our collective duty..
During a recent visit to Vrindavaan I came across the name Akshaya Patra (which I assumed to be the name of a person).Later on,We visited the akshaya patra kitchen and was surprised to see the huge project being run by saints-who claimed to be devotees of lord krishna and associated with ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness )surprised by the scale and ambition of their project I picked up this book to dig deeper about the story behind..
Started with serving mid day meal to just 1500 childrens,akshaya patra currently serves 1.5 million meals every day from 24 locations across 11 states. The story of Akshaya patra is a perfect example to show how public-private partnership (PPP) model can bring about a change.
What is more interesting is the intent behind the cause!! This is a story of innovation, entrepreneurship,bhakti and a desire to see future generations getting nutritious and safe food.
A phone with 10% battery cannot last the day.So it is with a hungry child.The mid day meal is a charger.Infusing energy in the body,accelerating the mind.

[Shivesh Back · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enlightening read...!!!! The book was simply unputdownable..:") The journey of Askhay Patra which began with a simple wish to do something different is highly commendable. I think the men & women who diligently toiled and embarked on this soujourn make it a unique and unparalleled program in the entire world touching so many lives maintaining extremely high standards of hygiene and seamlessly assimilating management sutras and amalgamating with the technology to constantly evolve is something worth reading. The photographs with no captions were a let down though. Simple, lucid and very well written book.Strongly recommended. The book firmly entrenches the fact that education which cannot deliver back to society is meaningless. The role of Infosys in Akshay Patra has been an eye opener. One of the few books which I picked up and could only put it down once I reached the last page and finished within 24 hrs itself speaks about the book. Would have loved to pen more but its would have spoiled the joy of reading the book...Happy reading to all..!!

[Vani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by no means a well written book. It skims through the Akshay Patra history and reads more like excerpts from interview transcripts, rather than a story. But the book is about an organization I greatly admire, so I enjoyed reading the interesting tidbits about how it started, how it grew leaps and bounds, and how people overcame practical and social obstacles using ingenious and deceptively simple approaches. One of the many examples given in the book is about when a new kitchen was set up in a remote tribal area in Rajasthan. The local tribal women were hired to do the cooking, but there was a concern since the women did not focus much on hygiene, they did not even bathe everyday. Instead of lecturing them about the importance of cleanliness, the person incharge simply asked them to offer the cooked food to the local deity as bhog everyday. This did it. The women automatically started caring about cleanliness because their religious beliefs prohibited them from praying to God without taking a bath.

[Gïrīśḥ Öm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing real Life Inspiring Story! Must Read!!!

I was not at all aware about Akshay Patra before reading this book. This is most inspiring real life story of the people like you and me. The only difference is they were driven by a big dream. A selfless dream in fact. And the one who is selfless then entire cosmos stand by its feet to make that dream come true. This book is live example of such selfless work. And truly after reading the title stands true that this is God's own Kitchen. Rashmiji has plotted this story beautifully right from the scratch till this initiative became magnanimous. Thanks for including the photographs too. The struggles through these sages have passed and their challenges were not easy. Anyone can lose hope in such circumstances.But looks like there was divine will backing up such great initiative and everyone succeeded. A truly inspiring and life changing story.Must Read for everyone. Hare Krishna _/\_

[Lahari Gowda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a noble need of feeding the hungry. This books tells us how humanity is Alice in the form of modern educated monks and also the corporate head honcho of the world. It's 15+ years of hard work full of belief n perseverance which has made Akshaya Patra what it is today. At the end of the book u really wonder what does Rs. 950/- mean to you means much more to a child... Its his/her one years one time meal. Hats off to Rasmi Bansal for making the read so smooth story like making it more gripping and interesting.

[Marut Arya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read! This book will tell you about the journey of how SCION Temple and Mohandas Pai build Akshaya Patra, a foundation that feeds poor children in government schools. They started from feeding 20 children daily and within few years they were feeding 20 Lakhs children. Read this amazing story of the largest kitchen in the country and twist and turn it has faced to achieve this unbelievable feat.

[Yogendra Kumar Bairwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to read

Even while the book describes the story of The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF), it is still interesting read. The reader comes to know about how the TAPF became successful despite facing hardships and troubles. Hope the Foundation scales new levels of heights while continuing their noble work.

[namith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Namith

Wow just awesome book .Great insight into a spiritual enterprise that is flag bearing social cause at the core and yet has all the qualities of a well run F&B industry .Thank you Rashmi ji ,u always inspire through your books.

[Karuppiah Senthil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping chronological narrative of an organization serving for a noble cause!

But I expected an in-depth behind-the-scenes and behind-the-minds account of the journey. Anyway a good starter kit to warm up your senses of hope and humanity.

You can "Be the change you want to see in this world" !

[Sudha Subramanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story of Akshaya Patra is very inspiring, I am not completely impressed with the narration. There are interesting anecdotes but I felt some parts were hurried through without much pause . Yet, the story is such an inspiration that, the reading takes over most of what we miss!

[Jiten Upadhyay (Team ThinkerViews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give it around 7.5 stars out of 10. The stars above are rounded off.
[Detailed review is available at: https://thinkerviews.com/books/englis...]

[Shaurya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished reading this book in flat two days. The book is so engaging that you need yelling from your wife/kids to have the breaks and do some mundane chores. A very inspiring tale of Akshaya Patra. A must read.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy and quick read, as usual works of Rashmi Bansal with her research work on the projects seen in this book as well. Good book on the Akshaya Patra of ISKCON.

[Prashanth Mysore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring story of successful social venture - Akshaya Patra

[Shweta B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tells how Iskon is running their akshay patra service to all the kids, how it started what problems they have faced and so on.

[Shreesh Acharya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly inspiring.

[Amritmay Pandey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

It is a very good read - very well written. . . . . . . . . .
.

[Siddhartha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong message and that 'never back down' attitude can really move mountains.

[Saket Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring story on how small group of people can do something revolutionary in a country where you face difficulties on each and every step

[Abhimanyu · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the Content!