Jagriti Yatra 2018, that’s where I met him. With facilitator badge, I assumed he will be around 30 years old. My brother mentioned that he’s doing great work in Mumbai for the upliftment of the children living in slums under the flyovers. I wondered what he might be doing? Maybe providing food to them, or good clothes or maybe teaching them all in the part-time. When all these running over and over in my mind, my brother pointed me to him in Nalanda where the buses are parked. He was buying all the kids there some ice creams. Kids there started getting more children and he bought them all till the liquid cash he has in wallet got empty.

With a surprised smile, I went to him and asked him if I could know his story so that I can write it down on my blog post. “Yes, of course, it will help my kids in getting some traction solving their problem little more,” said Prince.

1

Those were the days when he was travelling about 120KM every single day to go for CA classes just after his second-year college. One day he saw some kids playing near the Thakur junction flyover near his college. He went to them and spent some time and at the same time, he enquired about their education and they mentioned that they go for mid-day meals. He went to the government school nearby to see what’s happening. Abusive teacher paid no attention to his questions, he went and checked the torn bags of children to see what they teach. It only added more disappointment to see blank books and empty bags. He slowly followed some kids to their houses to the so-called slums by the urban population, interviewed the parents.

“They go to temples and traffic signals in the morning begging and by lunchtime, they go to the school for the meal and play there till evening and continue begging in the locations they share”  mentioned most of the elders in the slum.

Prince started back home with thoughts as deep as the ocean! Next day he went straight to his Principal and mentioned to him that he will spend half of his time teaching the kids there and he needs his help.

“As long as you can manage your studies on your own, I don’t mind. I will take care of your attendance too. It’s for a good cause. If I don’t support there is no point in me sitting in this chair,” said the principal.

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With things turned towards his support, he changed his timetable from the very next day. Day used to start at 5 AM at his house in Boisar. From there to Kandivali, where he used to spend time from 7 AM to 11 AM  teaching the kids “School on Street.” From 11 AM to 2 PM college and from 2PM to 7PM CA classes and some more time with kids there. By the time he reaches home, it’s 10 PM every single day during his college days.

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Humanity, it shouldn’t be an extra quality in human but should be a primary quality

Prince was never satisfied with what he was doing. He wanted to do something more than teaching.

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He wondered why those kids can’t get all the opportunities he got as a student in school?

Why should they not have all the facilities like good books, games, Co-curricular activities, competitions etc? With this question popping up in his mind, he started taking some extra time to reach out to schools to request them to enrol some kids into their school. He couldn’t really get a positive reply from them. Reputation, societal problems and other factors bothered the management.

But wind always doesn’t blow against you when trying to do good. One of the reputed institutions was ready to let them only on two conditions - take care of their expenses with no compromise on anything, do not tell anyone that they are from slums. He immediately accepted not thinking about where he can get the finance arrangement.

His own principal supported the cause, his savings from pocket money, friends. Children from slums started going to school.

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Once they enter inside the gate nobody can figure out who’s from a slum, who’s from riches or who’s from the middle class.

That’s the beauty of having a school uniform. It maintains fairness with no status symbol. All are equal before knowledge.!

For the 2014-15 academic year, there were 24 students enrolled for studying in that school, provided Prince arranges the fee and other expenses of those children.

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Prince started spending more time to teach them so that they give a healthy competition to the students in their class. Results started showing up with good grades. Volunteers started coming in teaching or with money knowing about the cause. Volunteers came from backgrounds like law, medical, education etc. They helped the kids in homework, exams etc.

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A wise man once said, “You start walking immediately when you want to do good, the rest of the world follows you.”

All his earnings from three years through internships, family help, friends kindness all were put in for financial help. He even sold scrap newspapers to not let even the small source which could help the kids.

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A reporter from DNA had written an article and published on the front page. It helped some more in bringing in the funds for the kids. News on Zee brought him articles on almost all local news articles.

Some of them:

93.5 Red FM Asli Heroes of Mumbai Season 2   India Mantra

Rediff - CA quits the job to teach slum kids   The Better India

By 2015-16 he added 49 more to existing 24 making it 73 children going to school. In the first year, he spent 17 lakhs from his own, raised 3 lakhs. MD of Abhitech Biofuels called him and gave him a cheque of Rs. 25,000 with no date and name. He said you cash it whenever you want and if needs to be paid pay it.

Following year he raised 38 lakhs for the education of the children. It all sounds amazing right.  There is one dialogue I heard in a movie in Telugu,

By the time you realise with happiness that you have eyes, God reminds you of the tears in the same eyes.

26th Jan 2016, one of the kids was not in school. Same day midnight he got a call from the govt hospital from the kid’s parents. She’s serious. The local paediatrician referred for blood checkup and nothing was found. CT scan, MRI - nothing out there. She was taken to a better children hospital. Dr Perera confirmed that she got Tetanus - a very dangerous bacterial infection. It’s very rare in India.

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Vaccination costs about 4000 rupees for 2-5ml. 8-10 shots per day. Total of Rs. 70,000 worth medication done in a day. She was taken to Kokila Ben hospital by end of the night. She spent 2.5 months in ICU. Prince spent 17 lakhs for treatment where his Dad helped him with 10 Lakhs despite not supporting Prince for his social work.

Slowly things started coming into place post that. On 23rd November 2018, another flood came in the form of cancer to an 11-year-old boy. This time the flood made permanent damage. At Tata cancer institute Prince tried to get him a Chemotherapy for which they received a negative response. An 11-year-old fighting cancer. With a lot of effort, there was an air ambulance arranged to take the kid to Germany for Bone marrow transplant which is a little tricky in India. But the kid this time gave an opportunity to Prince to spend the money on rest of the kids not using it for his treatment by passing away leaving the body behind the day he was supposed to be taken to Germany.

Prince never backed from what he’s doing irrespective of all the pain he saw and all the sleepless nights he spent. Now there are 100 children and 33 families he takes care of. He named his foundation as “Teresa - the ocean of humanity.”

Now he’s aiming to build a school reviving the old gurkulam practices where practical education is more concentrated. He’s acquiring around 70 acres of land in the outskirts of the Mumbai to build Rishi Gurukulam and at the same time give some kind of employment opportunities to the parents through some farming opportunity in that place.

Listening to the whole story, I wondered whether his mother named him Prince after he was born or after he started doing all these good deeds. He praises his mom for all the good he’s trying to as she was always there supporting him in all the hard times in his journey so far.! All the happy moments, festivals, functions, say it any celebration it is with the kids 24-year-old Prince celebrates with.

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In almost 3-4 hours conversation I had with him, he never mentioned or referred to the children as slum kids, he only said my kids. He took the ownership of their well being and visioned that it should be with all the facilities he had in life. Even though he could lead a comfortable life being a son of an industrialist, he never got attracted towards that. He stayed with his humanitarian effort.

Let’s all support for the ecosystem which Prince is working for in the upliftment of the young generations for the betterment of developing India. He’s on a national duty! Let’s respect with support!

Milaap - Fundraiser in support of the cause

Facebook

You can also do a bank transfer to the below mentioned account setup for this fundraising campaign:

UPI: givetoprincekumar@yesbankltd

Or

Video Gallery:  Neko Soap -Sweat is Good   Mumbai Ki Asli Hero Red FM 93.5

Zee News - Choti Koshish Bade Kaam    Dream School

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