The man with 1,70,002 children

Hyderabad: Thirteen-year-old Poorna, the AP girl who hit headlines for being the youngest to scale the Mount Everest, names one man as the inspiration behind her historical feat — Dr R.S. Praveen Kumar, IPS.

More than a feeling of achievement, Dr Praveen, the secretary of the social welfare hostel, where Poorna and her companion on the trip Anand Sharma study, is relieved that Poorna and Anand will now return safe. “It was one of the riskiest decisions I have ever had to take. But I knew she could do it, you know, and that conviction backed my decision of sending such a young girl. But during my phase of doubt, I had the support of few IAS officers as well as the former chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.”

The tension gripped him till the last minute. “Shekar, who was in the base camp, was on the radio communicating back and forth. I could hear the conversation between him and the shepherds. But there was a point when he suddenly started shouting. And I couldn’t understand what they were saying as they were talking in Nepali. At that moment, my heart skipped a beat. But soon after, I heard the good news.”

The fears weren’t unwarranted, considering that an avalanche had killed 16 people recently. “We also had to win the confidence of the shepherds, who were skeptical of such young children taking up this feat,” he says.

Besides death, the idea of death at higher altitudes, wherein bodies aren’t brought down was another fear that haunted him. “There are frozen dead bodies on the way. This sometimes bothered me. But my training as a police officer helped me,” he adds.

When Dr Praveen talks about ‘his children’, more than pride, it’s a sense of personal concern that is evident. Having served in the hostel for two years, he says, “There are 1,10,000 girls and 60,000 boys. And I have 1, 70,000 children. Oh, and my two children as well. That makes it, 1, 70,002 children.”

Dr Praveen, who calls himself a ‘product of the hostel’, says, “I volunteered to work for the hostel. I requested the chief minister to post me here. I wanted to give these children the opportunity and exposure that we were deprived. The only difference between the rich and the poor are the opportunities,” he asserts.