

AHMEDABAD: Shyam Ravi Shankar Vyas is his name. A school principal in Anand, Shyam has worked tirelessly as an academician and a social reformer much like his father Ravi Shankar Vyas, a freedom fighter and a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

There is a rather humane twist to this tale. In 1967 Vyas senior, who was respectfully referred to as Ravi Shankar Maharaj, was in Gaya district of Bihar along with 150 other people from Gujarat to serve the drought-affected people of the state during Bhoodan Movement. He had set up several community kitchens to help the starving masses. In one such camp Vyas spotted a little boy, three years of age, who was crying. He had been abandoned by his parents. Despite relentless enquiries and efforts Vyas could not locate the boy's parents. After searching for over a month Vyas took the boy under his wing and brought him to Gujarat. The Gandhian social reformer named him Shyam Kumar owing to his dusky complexion.

Vyas enrolled him in a boarding school being run by Shreyas Foundation in Ahmedabad and while registering him in the school Vyas officially donned the mantle himself of the boy's father. Shyam became Vyas' third son. When Shyam completed seventh standard he was sent to Uttar Buniyadi School at Bochasan in Anand district to be educated under the care of Vyas' eldest son, Megavrat. Shyam proved his mettle in academics and later completed PTC course to become a teacher. In 2011 he was conferred upon with the best teacher's award by Sister Nivedita Trust of Rajkot.

Today, he is the principal of a school in Khadipura near Sasha in Anand district and has dedicated his life to carrying forward the legacy of his father. "In a society that is increasingly getting alienated and selfish in nature, he became my father and took care of me. In my own way and through humanitarian projects I want to set an example of compassion for the society at large," said Shyam who is associated with a number of voluntary organizations like the Ravi Shankar Maharaj Eye Hospital in Chikhotra, Anand, where he serves poor patients who flock to this institution. Since the last five years Shyam has taken up another project of compassion - taking care of aged cows which have been rejected by their owners. Saving them from the slaughter houses, Shyam along with other members of a charitable trust is taking care of these bovines as a project of compassion.

