Narayanan Krishnan

Narayanan Krishnan (born in 1981 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu) is an Indian chef-turned-social worker.

Krishnan was an award-winning chef with Taj Hotels, Bangalore and was short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. After witnessing a distressing incident in 2002, he quit his job and began feeding the homeless and mentally disabled in his hometown. He said, "I saw a very old man, literally eating his own human waste out of hunger. I went to the nearby hotel and asked them what was available. They had idli, which I bought and gave to the old man. Believe me, I had never seen a person eating so fast, ever. As he ate the food, his eyes were filled with tears. Those were the tears of happiness."

Krishnan founded the Akshaya Trust organization in 2003, which helps to feed the homeless and mentally-disabled in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to 425 indigent and elderly people in Madurai.

He also provides haircuts and shaves to give dignity to those he serves. He was selected as one of the Top 10 in "CNN heroes 2010" list.

The character Narayanan Krishnan played by Jayaprakash in the 2012 Malayalam film Ustad Hotel is based on him.

In June 2014 a 23-year-old inmate who escaped from the Akshaya Trust home alleged that she was sexually abused. The news was featured in the media. However, the Akshaya Trust home was fully exonerated by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. They later ordered the Madurai police to rescue the mentally distressed from the streets of Madurai and house them in Akshaya trust.