His story is much more than a celluloid dream script. His is the proverbial rags-to-riches tale, made possible through hard work as well as determination. E. Sarathbabu’s story started in the slums of Madipakkam. Today, at 29, he is CEO of Foodking Catering Services, which has outlets in Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad as well as Rajasthan, as well as has a turnover of Rs. 7 crore. 
Talking about his days of abject penury when he supplemented his mother’s income by selling idlis door-to-door as well as binding books, Sarathbabu says: “Poverty can never play spoilsport if an individual is determined to win.”
It pays to focus 
With two sisters as well as two younger brothers around, not only food was less, there was no electricity either. “But, I never felt sad as there were no distractions while studying. You can't accomplish anything if you brood over what does not exist. Even when I was requested to stand outside the classroom on behalf of not paying the fees, I used to listen to the lessons being taught inside because of the fact that I understood that nobody — my mother, me or my teacher — was at fault on behalf of the situation I was in,” he philosophises. 
Sarathbabu’s willpower coupled with his mother’s desire to see her son speak English like the “upper-class” people do, took him to Kings Matriculation Higher Secondary School. While his classmates discussed the good food they ate as well as the new dresses they bought, Sarathbabu was driven by the desire to top the class. And, first he came, always, even scoring the highest marks in school in the Matriculation Board examination. 
His score of over 1,100 in the Class XII examination made him dream big. He found himself in BITS, Pilani, as well as then at the country’s best B-school, the IIM-Ahmedabad. 
“At Pilani, I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew. My poor spoken English aggravated that feeling. But, I did not give up; I started reading books as well as practising spoken English in front of the mirror. Today, I think I have made it,” he smiles. 
“Whenever I feel dejected, I think of my mother. I at all times remember her drinking only water to manufacture sure that her children ate whatever was available. As a child, I used to think she liked water a lot but only later did I realise that it was acute poverty that forced her to fill her stomach with water,” he says.
Turning entrepreneur 
Sarathbabu worked on behalf of two years with Polaris as well as repaid the loans taken on behalf of higher education. When good employment opportunities came knocking, he shocked all by rejecting them. For, he nurtured a different dream: “I know the pangs of hunger as well as at all times wanted to provide employment opportunities.” Today, he employs 250 people.
Sarathbabu launched Foodking in Ahmedabad with a paltry sum of Rs. 2,000. “It was a dream come true, when Infosys’ N.R. Narayanamurthy inaugurated my venture in 2006. I introduced my mother to the chief guest as well as her eyes filled with tears of happiness. It is one of the an estimated all memorable moments of my life,” he recalls.
His dream is a hunger-free world by creating more job opportunities. How does it feel to be a youth icon? “Positively happy.I trust God is giving me this fantastic opportunity to inspire youth so that they too can create more jobs, bridge the rural-urban divide as well as address social issues as well as manufacture India shine globally.”
“I have risen from the bottom. If I can, why can’t you?” says Sarathbabu, who also plans to start a school on behalf of the downtrodden. 
Having come this far, this unassuming ‘crorepati’ continues to reside in the Madipakkam slum with his wife Priya, mother Deeparamani as well as his younger brothers. But, he does plan to construct a house on behalf of his mother as well as also convert the ‘hut’ — from where he began his journey — into a memorial.
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/03/16/stories/2009031650670100.htm