[1] 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.
[2] Krishnan founded the Akshaya Trust organization in 2003, which helps to feed the homeless and mentally-disabled in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
[5][6][7] The character Narayanan Krishnan played by Jayaprakash in the 2012 Malayalam film Ustad Hotel is based on him.
[9] Although the Akshaya Trust home was exonerated by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court,[10] It was asked to submit regular monthly reports, due to the rather high number of human rights abuses that have been reported from the home.