A tribute by a devotee associated with Ravi..... From the desk of Sh.Sudarshan Kamath Chembur

An ode to Ravi

 I have had the good fortune of being with Ravi – knowing him and participating in Sai Activities with him since the mid eighties. He was the  one who always had a word of encouragement for everyone. One who was extremely selfless – a simple example would be - he would ensure that everyone else got the coveted mike and a chance to sing before he himself would sing and on many occasions  he would not get a chance - but he would be completely unmindful of this.

 One who sincerely carried forward and nurtured many Sai Activities in Chembur and elsewhere.  For quite some time on many Sundays he would be the sole person going around the streets of Chheda Nagar singing the glory of our lord, with whole hearted devotion.  He knew and always maintained that our Lord was always with him. He would recount this story as to how a stray dog once accompanied him for the entire nagarsankirtan and disappeared as he was nearing the Subramaniam Temple. During the last two Nagarsankirtans that Ravi attended in ChhedaNagar, we could motivate some balvikas students to attend the early morning nagar sankirtan and Ravi was overjoyed at this development. Maybe Lord in his own inimitable style was preparing us for a world without his best instrument. We still imagine Ravi would turn up for the next Bhajan and Nagarsankirtan and are yet to come to terms with our loss.

Ravi used to always mention that,

if only we could have more people going around doing Nagarsankirtan,

if only we could always have all our devotees from Chembur attend our Saturday bhajans every week,

if only some of us could go on a regular basis and participate in the bhajans at Dharmakshetra,

if only we had more doctors helping out at the Trombay dispensary –

and the list goes on and on because all our activities were extremely close to his heart !!!!

Today is the day that would as per our religious beliefs mark the ascent of Ravi to heaven – I am sure he would be received with open arms – God would be waiting to receive his favourite devotee.

We can only pray for peace and succour for his family and for each one of us and resolve to carry on all the activities that Ravi used to undertake in Chembur with more vigour and devotion.

My wholehearted namascars to Ravi ………..

Sairam.

Sudarshan