Tea seller praised by PM overwhelmed

BHUBANESWAR:FOR the children of rickshaw-pullers, daily wage earners and municipal drain workers in the millennium city of Cuttack, life would have probably ended in the gutters had Devarapalli Prakash Rao not been around.

The 59-year-old tea seller, whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised during his Mann ki Baat programme on Sunday morning, has been the guardian angel to over 70 slum children for the past 18 years, by helping them get education.

Rao, who runs his shop in Buxi Bazaar area, has been spending more than 50% of his daily income on education and food for the children, who otherwise would have been loafing around in the bylanes of the city.

“I was overwhelmed with joy when PM saheb spoke about me in radio today. I am an ordinary tea seller and never thought in my wildest dreams that Modiji would praise me. Yesterday, he had invited me and the children of my school before his public meeting at Baliyatra ground. During our 18-minute meeting, he enquired about my school like a family member would. He seemed to be tense before the meeting, but he looked relaxed after meeting all of us,” Rao said.

A school dropout himself, Rao started ‘Asha O Ashwasana’ in 2000 when he saw kids in his neighbourhood taking to petty crimes or becoming alcoholics. In the 1960s when his father, a World War II veteran, started a tea shop in Cuttack, he encouraged Rao to help him. Rao’s father thought schools were waste of time.

Rankled by the memories of his incomplete education, Rao started the school but had to face unsupportive parents for whom his interest meant loss of a working member in the family. After much persuasion, they agreed. Today, the school runs classes until third standard, after which students take admission elsewhere. Rao also feeds milk and biscuits to the kids as ‘mid-day meal’ apart from giving them uniform and slippers to wear.

Rao’s wife is a nurse in the SCB Medical College and Hospital and sustains the family with her income as a major part of Rao’s income from the tea stall is spent on the school and the kids.

Rao is also a blood donor. To date, he has donated blood 214 times and platelets 7 times. Rao took to blood donation when he suffered from paralysis in 1976. When he recovered after spending six months in hospital, he learnt that someone had donated blood to save his life.