Kochi: P.G. Ravi Prakash, 51, a railway employee, who is disabled from birth, has a life lesson to share with others-- ‘anything is possible.’ The office superintendent working at Ernakulam south railway station has always believed in doing what other people thought he could not with the disability of his limbs.
And he has won this year’s state award for efficient differently-abled employee of the central government. He would receive the award from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at a function to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on December 3, the World Disabled Day.
Ravi, who acted in the 1984-Mohanlal starrer ‘Unaru,’ said, “while I was studying in class eight, I requested the organisers to give me a role in the school drama team.
However, I was denied it due to my disability despite the fact that my mother was a high school teacher in that school. Rather than feeling let down, it made me inspired. I went to the library and took out a ‘One Act’ play of Kesava Dev. I wrote down the script and enacted the play all by myself to win the second prize in the competition,” he said.
But for his parents, Ravi believes he would have been into script writing. “My parents were worried about my disability and they wanted me to have a secure government job. They didn’t heed my requests and finally I started taking tests. I got the 16th rank in the RRB exam and joined the traffic department at Olavakod station on December 4, 1992,” he said.
During his career, Ravi was given the work related to the historic closing down of the Harbour Terminus station in Willingdon Island.
“Those days, the Netravati Express, Tea Garden Express, Sabari Express all were operating from the Harbour Terminus station. One fine morning in July 2005, I got a message that the station was going to be closed down permanently. I was assigned the work related to closing the mechanical IOH depot there,” he walked down memory lane.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
