Honored by His Mother Land, Adored by His Adopted City

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: After all the accolades from ten speakers, after all the applause from a hall full to capacity of adoring people he has worked with through his 40 years in the city, his time came to acknowledge them. But Ramesh Shah has never been a man of many words or given to glorified speech making or using blustery metaphors to describe what he feels, the projects that he has taken on, his role in making things happen or correcting perceived wrongs.

Instead, Ramesh Shah was understated as he spoke simply. “For me, the example of service is Swami Vivekananda,” he began. “My community is here. They give me a lot of encouragement, provide me support. I see many others here who have provided community service, I am just one of them. I want to serve the community till my last breath.”

And, a little overcome with all the adulation over the past 90 minutes, Shah simply folded his hands towards his bowed head in obeisance. The room erupted in standing applause.

Only on major occasions do the parking lots of India House on West Bellfort fill to capacity as it did this past Saturday, February 18 in the late afternoon. Two rows of tables were set up in the small plaza outside the entrance to the building for lights snacks catered by Bhojan Restaurant as its owner Hiren Mathuria and head assistant Eduardo managed the arrangements.

Inside the main hall was likewise full to capacity, mainly with supporters of the Ekal Vidalaya Foundation USA which supports the efforts of the main NGO in India. Set up in 1999 to help fund the work of the Indian parent NGO, Shah has been one of its founding members but certainly has been, and continues to be, its main guiding force and chief proponent. In the past 18 years, he has devoted all his energies into the Ekal movement that aims to eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India and spur village development. After he retired from his career as a financial investment broker, Shah dove headlong into what has become his passion, as his wife Kokila followed and supported him, and the two now spend almost half a year in India in pursuit of it.

One of the other main principals in the EVF USA, Subhash Gupta, later in the program noted in a slide presentation to the audience, the American branch went from no funds collected in 2000 to $7 million in 2016, most of it through annual galas and programs throughout the US, which helps to support 17,000 of 54,000 rural schools in India. This year, the EV Gala tagged “Ek Sur, Ek Taal” is slated for Sunday, May 7 at the Cullen Auditorium at the University of Houston. The Indian tribal musical concert will be on a multi-city bus tour in the US from February 24 through June 23 and Shah will be accompanying them for the next five months.

This past Saturday’s program was to felicitate Shah on receiving the coveted Parvasi Bahrati Samman (Overseas Indian Honor/Award) for Community Service from the President of India on January 9 in Bangalore, India. The Award which was constituted in 2003 and is given to Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin or an organization or institution established and run by the Non-Resident Indians or Persons of Indian Origin in recognition of their outstanding achievements both in India and abroad.

This year there were 30 recipients, of which six were from the US, including four in the Community Service category alone. Shah joins three past PBSA winners from Houston: Dr. Kalpalatha Guntupalli, a pulmonologist, (2012), Dr. Renu Khator, President of the University of Houston (2014) and Dr, Kamlesh Lulla, a NASA scientist (2015).

The program started with singing of the Indian patriotic song Vande Mataram by Hasita Kartick, followed up with another uplifting number Manushya tu bada mahaan hai. Achalesh Amar emceed the program as he welcomed the audience and introduced each of the ten speakers, starting with Dr Manish Rungta, President of India House who felicitated Shah on his achievements.

Others at the program who spoke briefly but glowingly of Shah’s dedication, selflessness and passion for helping the downtrodden were Jugal Malani; Kulbhushan Uppal and Anu Mahendra for the India Culture Center; Dr. Harshad Patel for the Gujarati Samaj of Houston; Abeezar Tyebji for the Dawoodi Bohra community; Arun Sharma of the Hindu Swayam Sewak and Dr. Anupam Ray, the Consul General of India. Bouquets and plaques were presented by Satish Parikh, Krishan Gupta, and Arun Mundra and Amit Misra closed out the event. There was a short video clip of Shah receiving the award, which was displayed in a frame at the end of the stage.

Both Ramesh and Kokila Shah have engendered their spirit of service to others in their three children Sonal, Roopal and Anand who have chosen the field as their career paths, in one form or the other. Roopal attended the program, and read a letter from her siblings who could not be there. She thanked everyone on being there and made it a point to solicit spontaneous testimonials and comments from several women in the audience “as we have heard from the Uncles, now we need to hear from the Aunties,” she quipped.