THE CHITTAI STORYRam Lakshmanan has a never ending thirst for building technologies for a common man. It was natural for him to get attracted toward Chit Funds, which has been helping common man for several centuries in several countries.
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Ram learnt about Chit Funds from his mother-in-law Sigappi Alagappan who herself runs Chit Funds in a village in India. Ram was fascinated to hear various success stories from his mother-in-law about individuals who were able to alleviate from poverty, helped them to go to school, take their business to next stage, buy better household things (like TV sets, Computers, ..) and improve their quality of life by participating in Chit Funds.
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Selvi makes her living by doing house-hold chores for wealthy families in the village - dish washing, cleaning, cooking. She makes around 2600 Indian Rupees (60 USD) per month. She was paying 35 USD just in interest for the private loan that she owed. Selvi got this private loan, when her husband was injured due an road accident and couldn't continue to work. Obviously, her family was in severe poverty, not even able to get 2 meals per day. She subscribed to Chit Funds run by Sigappi and on the very first month, she got Chit Fund prize money and paid off her high interest private loan. She regularly paid the chit fund due amount and now she is completely debt free. She is able to spend her entire monthly income on her family. Her Family is now able to meet at least their basic needs. After tasting her first success, Selvi continues to subscribe to new Chit Funds run by Sigappi to save money for her kids college education.
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This story was the turning point, Ram decided to build a sophisticated online platform, which would help common people like Sigappi, Selvi to conduct and participate in Chit Funds effectively and efficiently. Thus came chittai.com. Word "Chittai" in ancient tamil language means piece of paper to keep track of things.
There are several things which have been lost in our generation including: Hand-written Letters, Wallet full of greenback cash, Walkman, audio cassettes, Milk Man........ Chit Funds has been able to survive and thrive for several centuries only because there is a value in it, there is a truth in it. Chittai takes immense pleasure and great pride in taking this time tested solution to next stage in its natural evolution.
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