Shri Radheshyam Agarwal

An article by Himanshu Murarka, Christ University, HOSD 2014

Shri Radheshyam Agarwal is 75 years old. He was a ‘pediatrician’ by profession before retiring from his long career. He chose this profession not because he was a scholar in medical, but it was his spirit to not let any parents, feel the pain of losing their young kids, as he himself has lost one and still shed tears after 55 years of his death.

 He started his career in a remote village of Iraq. He had just married when he was posted in Iraq. It was a tough living there with a family as the condition of the country then was no different and was constantly under threats or wars. Living there with three women made it even more difficult. He knew that he will soon be in a situation to face exile. He decided to return to India along with his whole family leaving everything behind that he had earned over the period of time.

He then returned to Bangalore, which was a small city then, joined a hospital and began the journey of building up his career again. Time though took almost everything away from him but what it failed to deprive him off was his love for his and ever other kids. Seeing the sufferings of children in Iraq, his dedication towards nursing and treatment of children had increased in multiple folds.

His daughters were never a burden for him and he considered them no less than his son – a very rare scene those days. He always encouraged his daughters to do what they loved doing because nothing mattered more to him than the happiness of his children.  He spent all his earnings to help his daughters get a brighter future and spent all his life on kids around to make their life better.

The definition of success for him was never money, all he strived for was - smile on the face of innocent children around him. He did every bit to help the kids either be it in form of free treatment or small contribution for their education. He believes that success of each of those children is his success.

He is bedridden, he doesn’t practices his profession any more, and he doesn’t cure any more kids, but still does his bit by blessing them all. In his words, “life is only worth living when you live it for others”