It was in elementary school when I started developing a passion for sports.

A friend of mine
introduced me to basketball and I was hooked. I spent all my recess time shooting hoops and
when there was no ball I played tag with the other kids. I noticed that they quit trying to catch me
and never wanted to make me the one chasing when we played. When the track season came
around I was the fastest out of the bunch. That was how I spent grade 1 to 3 apart from Nerf
gun fights and trading Pokemon cards and Lego.

During summer break between grade 3 and 4 I developed a subdural abscess. That was when
the biggest most significant turn in my family’s life occurred. This infection spiraled into more
complications including a stroke for which I had 8 brain surgeries. For a year I was cycling
between the hospital, the rehab center and home. But during these trials my parents
encountered Jesus and that was when they stopped being namesake christians and accepted
the Lord truly. They stopped worrying and started praying instead. They understood that
regardless of the amount of money they could provide for my healthcare no one could
guarantee that I would live a normal life again, matter of fact, the doctors said I wouldn’t make it
and if I did I would have significant deficits. For this reason, my parents decided to move back to
India (we were settled in Canada at the time). But instead of going to south India where we were
from and where all our family was, they wanted to move to north India to a small town to help
out the less fortunate people who had very few medical care facilities.

This was all behind the scenes for nine year old me, I only knew the pain I was going through.
When the doctors came for rounds and asked what that thing was on his wrist I knew it was a
watch but my mouth kept saying clock. When my parents asked me what I wanted to drink when
I was actually able to, I wasn’t able to say “iced cap” so I would motion to the baseball hat sitting
on the couch. When my parents couldn’t understand I would give up and sleep. When I was
finally out of my paralysis and able to move again, I built Lego sets to better my acute motor
skills.

By the time all the medical complications settled down, we had sold our car and packed our
bags to move to India. Before this I went to say bye to my old friends at school and my teachers,
I saw them playing basketball and it was discouraging for little Rohan when my dad said I
couldn’t go play with them yet but it made sense as I still had medicines running through the
PICC in my arm. When we got to India I was to join straight into grade 5 and even though I
missed most of grade 4 my performance on the days I did make it to class were impressive.
God's blessings continue to shower on me. My father works at the small community hospital
that runs there and my mom at my school.

Till grade 7 I wasn’t able to play any contact sports but in grade 6 I was able to continue
physical activities. To my surprise that very same field day (that's they called the one day of the
year for track events) I performed better than I would have ever expected, beating almost
everyone in my age group in running events. The next year I gold a silver in cross country and I
was finally allowed to participate in contact sports. This meant that I would try out for the
basketball team and start what I onced loved all over again. I had to start all over again as I lost
pretty much all my skill but that summer I spent 2 hours in the gym everyday putting up shots.
I made the team every year since then. Outside basketball, I also started taking violin lessons in
grade 5 and learned to play various instruments in my general music classes. Being a town on
top of a hill, I had many opportunities to go on hikes which I made the most of. The views were
great and the experiences were unforgettable and there was just something about being
surrounded by nature with friends and good food.

As I grew older I started to develop my own relationship with God and I started a small
prayer group which met once a week in the mornings and we discussed school life inlight of
Biblical teachings and every other weekend we had a bible study which I attended. I was part of
my church’s worship team and I taught sunday school for the little kids.

Then Covid 19 hit and we were forced to social distance. School stopped in person so
basketball practice stopped as well. I struggled as everything from church to my classes were all
through Zoom meetings. Then it hit me. What about the kids who didn’t have these facilities,
those kids who were missing out on education due to a situation that wasn’t even their fault?
That was when I decided to start the Vidyodaya project. I came in contact with someone who
visited the local villages regularly and I picked out a few villages and met with their presidents.
This allowed me to go another day to visit the villages and interview the kids and local teachers
to see what they required to continue education. To my surprise it wasn’t devices that they
needed but steady wifi. So I did some research and found the best network provider in those
areas and I started a crowdfunding page to collect the required capital. To promote my page I
called my cousin who had experience with digital design and came up with posters to post on
the social media pages created. After a lot of phone calls from inquiers I finally had collected
enough to acquire the wifi devices I needed and pay for wifi plans for them. Finally, to
implement these I hosted an event where I handed over the devices and registered them to the
respective heads of the villages and principals of schools who were to be responsible for them.
After two months I started fundraising again to continue paying for the network. After that I held
a meeting with the people responsible once again to formulate a viable plan to keep paying for
the network. My efforts were recognized by the local news channels in the Garhwal area and
the event I hosted was displayed in the newspaper and on television. Not only that but The
Hindu which is one of the biggest newspaper organizations in India wrote about me in an article
and a Spotify talk show had me on to discuss my project.

After that I did a summer internship at school where I helped with office work and I
volunteered at a friend’s café. I also was finally old enough to learn how to ride a motorcycle
and I immediately was fascinated by it. Last winter I noticed that the stray dogs around my
place had no good shelter when it snowed. So I collaborated with a local group of adults who
also cared about local animals to get portable wood shelters built for them fitted with mattresses
to keep them warm. I went around town and spotted areas with the right dimensions for the
shelters to fit and everything seemed ready but the local authority kept delaying
acknowledgement of this proposition. So I went out and found a spot right outside my house
and fitted it there. It hosted two dogs and I fed them warm food till winter was over and they
could fend for themselves again.

Watching my parents sacrifice their careers at the top of their game to serve the needy
motivated me to also help others. This is what initially struck interest in me for medicine.My
previous experiences would allow me to empathize with patients and show God’s love to their
families. From watching my dad operate and watching medical series I grew very fond of
surgery. The skill and focus it requires but also the interest and practice. It required basketball-
like preparation and precision like Lego. I found thrill in it and it provided a way to glorify God
and serve in a way very few could.