Humbled. That’s the word. That’s exactly how I feel whenever I read about certain exceptional people in this country who walk amongst us. People who have succeeded against all odds to arrive where they are today, and/or continue to serve society selflessly, seeking no reward. This piece is dedicated to five of those, among many hopefully, who have earned my respect and awe.
Sreenath K is a licensed coolie at the Ernakulum Jn railway station at Kochi, Kerala. He will soon become a Kerala Administrative Services Officer (KAS) after passing the difficult Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) exam. (KAS is not exactly the IAS, but he can be transferred to that service laterally in later years and become a senior IAS officer.) By just using a free Wi-Fi connection at the railway station, he did it. No books, no fancy education, no coaching centres—he could afford none of these. I mean, what are the odds? While carrying loads of other people’s luggage on his head Sreenath listened to online lectures through earphones plugged into his smartphone. While waiting for the next train to arrive, he downloaded the necessary material on the internet and studied them on his phone.
Success didn’t come overnight. On his fourth attempt in 2021, Sreenath made it, scoring 82% in the Written. Now if he clears the KPSC interview round he will be appointed as a Village Field Assistant under the Land Revenue Dept. At the time of writing, he continues to work as a coolie, waiting for the interview. And he prepares....
Clockwise from left: Sreenath, Sridhar Vembu, Prakash Gidwani, Pratiksha Tondwalkar, Dr. Ravindra & Smita Kolhe.
Image source:- https://www.newsunzip.com/wiki/sreenath-k/ https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/10/Sridhar-Vembu.jpg https://mumbaimessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FB_IMG_1595491022029.jpg https://feeds.abplive.com/onecms/images/uploaded-images/2022/06/24/fc252581ce143f444d5733db7d4fb4a7_original.jpg https://en-media.thebetterindia.com/uploads/2016/03/Dr.-Kolhe.png
The middle aged man often seen on a bicycle in his native village in Tamilnadu, clad in a lungi, is none other than Sridhar Vembu, whose nett worth is about 3 billion USD. Neither of Vembu’s parents went to college. But he did and how! Finishing his schooling in a Tamil Medium school, he got into IIT Madras through sheer merit, from where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1989. He went on to secure his MS and PhD degrees from Princeton University, NJ. Beginning his career as an engineer in California, he founded his own company AdventNet dealing with software in 1996. Renamed Zoho Corporation in 2009, the company began to make and sell cloud-based business software. Zoho grew and grew. It became a MNC with offices in seven locations worldwide and its global headquarters in Chennai. By 2020, the company had more than 50 million customers, including Amazon, Phillips, Godrej and Hotstar, making Sridhar Vembu a billionaire. The company now employs more than 10,000 people.
But wealth is not what defines this man. What defines him is his vision for India and his desire to help the disadvantaged. Vembu set up an informal Zoho University in 2004 to catch college dropouts and underprivileged teenagers, some from remote rural areas, who had barely finished high school and began to teach them software coding for free. Since then, Zoho University is known for training handpicked, bright students in coding, mechatronics and other software to help make IT professionals of them. There are no school fees; the students get stipends instead! The school is not focused on merely handing out diplomas, but on providing real skills to be employable. And it is debt-free education. Most of these students find employment—such is Zoho’s reputation.
Thirty years ago, the region of Melghat in Maharashtra, comprising about 300 villages, did not have a single qualified doctor in the entire area! To transform one of the poorest regions in Maharashtra to a relatively prosperous, farmer-suicide free zone with improved health outcomes, access to electricity, roads and primary healthcare centres has been the work of Dr.Ravindra Kolhe and his wife Dr.Smita Kolhe.
Ravindra Kolhe completed his MBBS in 1985. The young doctor decided to make it his life’s mission to provide medical care to remote areas where there was none. He set out to reach Bairagarh, a remote village in Amravati district in Melghat, travelling the last 40 km on foot. Once he started work there, he realized that he had much to learn. So he went to Mumbai to intern for six months at a local hospital and learn about childbirth, maternal healthcare and other basic skills. He completed his MD in 1987 from Nagpur. His thesis Malnutrition in Melghat became the subject of a BBC documentary. Before returning to Bairagarh, Ravindra decided he didn’t want to go back alone. He began looking for a suitable wife, a partner who’d be prepared to walk 40 km, accede to a court marriage as the expense was only Rs.5 and manage their household on Rs.400 per month, since his consultation fee was only Re. 1. He found who he was looking for in Smita, a homeopath with a practice in Nagpur. That is how the region of Melghat got its second doctor in 1989. Ravindra came to be known as the One Rupee Doctor, because that is what he charged his patients.
The two doctors spent the next few decades tirelessly trying to cope with the flood of patients who would come to them, suffering from malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia or snakebite. Not just for medical help, the villagers sought their advice on crops and cattle too. Taking up farming alongside their medical work, the couple organized awareness campaigns for young people to teach them new farming techniques. Their message was simple—farming is essential for growth and young people must engage in it with the right knowhow. Their eldest son Rohit became a farmer.
The Kolhes also espoused the cause of forest conservation. They were able to predict when a drought is likely and help the villages prepare for it. The couple also took on the Public Distribution System and made sure there was enough food for everyone during the rains. Thus Melghat region became a suicide-free zone for farmers. Dr. Ravindra and Dr. Smita, by living among the villagers, nurtured the villages and taught the tribals to be self sustaining. They are still living there today in sparse surroundings. Their younger son Ram is pursuing his MBBS in Akola and will return to the village. Bairagarh will then have its first surgeon.
For more than 50 years social activist Prakash Gidwani has been helping in the dignified disposal of persons who’ve died in obscurity without any known family contacts or relatives—unclaimed bodies, accident victims, beggars etc. He has also been helping, without remuneration, patients in Mumbai’s hospitals who have no family or friends to be with. With no other motive than to serve the needs of patients he has never known! This Guardian Angel has all along felt that merely doing his duty to friends and relatives was not enough; he needed to learn to serve utter strangers with love and patience.
Gidwani was 69 when Covid hit India. His age put him at high risk. However, the gravity of the Corona pandemic and the uncertainty of medical knowledge, misinformation and fear surrounding it did not deter him from his goal. With an acute scarcity of ambulances, Gidwani worked with the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), and did not hesitate to transport Covid patients in his own car to various hospitals. Above all, he dedicated himself to taking care of unclaimed dead bodies, carrying them to cemeteries and crematoriums to give them a dignified burial at his own expense. This was at a time when the fear of getting Covid by merely touching a Covid patient had paralyzed the healthcare system. As unclaimed and rejected bodies piled up, and cremation grounds became out of bounds for relatives, nobody was sure whose body it was that needed to be disposed of. Risking his own life to help Covid patients, this ageless warrior, at any time of night or day, would turn up to help move unclaimed bodies that were piling up within and outside hospitals, or on the streets of Mumbai. He sought neither recognition nor reward. But the word spread. The press hailed him as a Saviour of the Dead. That is how I came to know of him.
He continues the battle even today to protect the dignity of the dead. He has committed his life to this. He even tries to find the religion of the dead body and arranges the rites accordingly. Over a thousand nameless bodies have been cremated by him—an inspiring example of a kind of humanity.
I am flabbergasted—who are these people?
Let me leave you with the story of Pratiksha Tondwalkar. Born into a poor family in Pune, she was married off at 17 in 1981 after dropping out of school. Widowed at 20, she managed to get the job of a temporary sweeper at the local Pune branch of the State Bank of India (SBI), where her husband had worked as a binder. She continued her studies by night while sweeping by day, aware that education was her only way to a better future. She privately passed her Matriculation in the 1st division, and then graduated from SNDT College, Pune. Her rise in the organization was slow and steady, marked by grit and determination. From Messenger to Clerk, then a Trainee Officer, then an Officer—the promotions kept coming steadily over the years. Pratiksha became an Assistant General Manager (AGM) at a Mumbai branch of SBI this year.
From a sweeper to an AGM at India’s largest public sector bank...let that sink in.
What are the takeaways from the above life stories? Well, I think...for one, never give up. Secondly, nothing is impossible if one has the focus and perseverance. Thirdly, there are no short cuts to long term success. Last but not least, it is not essential to be wealthy, or even comfortably middle class, in order to pass exams and other challenges in life.
But how many of us can be like these five I mentioned, and never give up? Yes, I’m truly humbled.
Beetashok Chatterjee is the author of ‘Driftwood’, a collection of stories about Life at Sea and ‘The People Tree’, another collection of stories about ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. A retired merchant ship’s captain by profession, this old sea dog lives in New Delhi with his memories of living more than 40 years on the waves.
His books are available on Amazon. Click here.
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