Excellence seasoned with altruism: Bocha Ravi, the Chemical Engineer

It was just a year ago that Bocha Ravi, a youngster from a hamlet near Kondadaba (Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh) started his specialisation studies at Kanpur and now having completed that, has six job offers, given his excellent performance as a Chemical Engineer. But the story is far from over. “This is just a stepping stone to my real dream,” says Ravi. “I shall soon be an IAS officer in Vizag or Vizianagaram and empower the rural interior villages.” Now this is not just some wishful thinking but a determination which makes him see what he wants to be as clearly as the shining sun. Welcome, once again, to the life of Bocha Ravi.

“All that I had was a passion to study and barely hundred rupees with me, when Fr Jose agreed to pay my entrance fees to the college. That is what has helped me to be what I am today...,” says Ravi amidst tears of nostalgic joy. Having stood third in the batch of 80 students (at IIT, Kanpur) and recruited within days of completing his engineering studies by nearly half a dozen Petrochemical industries, Bocha Ravi now stands a good chance to make a rich living. But Ravi has his eyes set on something else. “I'm not for accumulating money. I have my dream set and that I will achieve,” is what Ravi is sure of when lured by an offer to work abroad which certainly has a higher monetary benefit than the offers at hand.

With a fat paycheck assured, Ravi has not forgotten the little help he once received from a handful of well-wishers, especially St John's Regional Seminary, and in particular the person of Fr K.T. Jose (Rector). It was this sense of humble gratitude that saw this youngster walk through the gates of the Seminary, the job invitation letters in hand, to acknowledge in person, the great benefits that he received while still a school boy. That was just a day before he left for Delhi for a three-month training programme with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the offer he opted for.

After the training programme in Delhi, he plans to return to his village to take his aging mother, the only one whom he can call as family, along with him. For the mother, who has slogged it out through hard daily labour in the fields and construction sites, this achievement is certainly joyful. However, her true joy is not that he has become a successful job holder, but that he will certainly fulfill his dream of being an instrument of growth and empowerment for many more women (and families) like her. Mr Sastry, a resident and supporter of the educational dreams of quite a few young people in the village too feels the same.

Thanks to the generosity of benefactors, especially Fr Luigi Zuffetti and Don Bosco Missioni (Turin), that thousands of young people, like Ravi, have been and are being provided an opportunity to study and come up in life. The seminary looks forward to a day when more young people, inspired by Ravi and his life, take up as a challenge to redefine the socio-economic status of the remote villages of Kothavalasa Mandal.