Ravinder is a Junior Field Engineer who has been working in our school projects for 4 years now. He has installed all the machines in the Nestle school projects. School and students have been always been close to his heart.
Ravinder is an international Kho-Kho player who has played two international and 26 national tournaments with his hard work and passion for the game. He could not afford a coach for formal training as he hailed from a family that could barely make both ends meet. Because of his father’s poor health and him being the eldest son, had to take up a job to support his family. Being from an engineering background, he could manage a junior field engineer’s job in a technical company like ours.
With a job in hand he could run his family’s expenses, even got one of his 3 sisters married. He had gone through a rough time himself because he did not have enough to brush his talent. This thought gave him restless nights so he decided to coach other Kho-Kho players who could not afford to coach like him. For over a decade he has been coaching 23 girls and boys who come from very small villages without charging any fee. They are a mixed bag of govt school, college and local children who practice with him and play at national/international levels.
He performs his tasks well and does complete justice to his job while at work. Even with a full-time job, Ravinder manages to take time off to mentor these kids. He starts his day at 4am, doing a 2hrs early morning coaching from 5am to 7pm. Again, from 4pm to 7pm these kids come to the school ground for their evening rounds.
On speaking to Ravinder about his schedule, he says, "It gives me immense satisfaction to mentor these kids. I could not get enough training to be an international player so I can resonate their feelings. These children are hardworking however do not have financial support. I am elated to see them bring laurels at international levels. With this, they not only get recognition for their talent but also get eligible for good jobs. What more can one ask for if one can make a difference in someone’s life.”
For the last 8 years, his team has been winning gold medals each year. 7 girls from his coaching batch have been on 3rd position consistently. Recently Mukesh Kumari one of the Indian KHO KHO team players won a Gold Medal for India in 13th South Asian Games 2019 Nepal. She is from Manana village (Haryana) trained by Ravinder Singh Saini. She studies in one of Nestle’s adopted school- Manana Girls Govt Senior Secondary School.
His dedication to this sport and commendable passion to serve the sports fraternity has pushed him to limits. Along with his coaching sessions, job and family, he has currently taken up a bachelor degree course in Physical Education in Sports so he can mentor more children who are passionate about sports.
While speaking about welcoming the international gold medalist winner of his team with a grand celebration, he smiles and says, “God is sending a gift to me soon, a baby is awaited”.
Kudos to such heroes who are selflessly serving the society in whatever way they can. They definitely call for a celebration!!
