Raju ban gaya gentleman is a Bollywood film, meaning “Raju has become a gentleman”. A film about a young engineer comes to big city (Mumbai) with a dream of becoming successful.

I used it as a title to tell the story of real life hero Raju, Who is like a son to me not a flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone but still my very own.

I remember the day when Raju walked into my apartment and became part of our life. Raju came with other three street boys to my apartment. They all were looking for a safe shelter, running away from the abuse the faced form other older street boys, police and places of shelter they have been. The common factor in their story was that they were homeless, run away from dysfunctional and poverty stricken home at very young age.

This is his story.

Raju is from Jabalpur city in North of India. Father’s alcohol addiction was main reason for the poverty, domestic violence and other dysfunctions that the family faced. At the age of 4-5 years he got in train thinking that in the evening he would get back home like previous days, but that particular train took him to a big city and he couldn’t find a way to get back home. He felt secure inside the train so it become his home for many days. He travelled around in the train until one day he decided to get off at Pune Station a Central-West region of India. Here they spoke different language than his mother tongue.

He learned to live on the food and money given by people, soon he learned and adopted the norms to live with the culture of streets. One day someone guided him to a children home where he was given food, shelter, cloths and also started going to the school. But due to the harsh discipline which included physical hitting, Raju and other boys escaped that home. And that is when he came to my apartment looking for safer place to live.

We prepared Raju and other kids so that they could join the mainstream education system. They started going to the public school. These schools in our area are famous for producing students with very weak academic foundation. Therefore only children from poor background attend these schools. But Raju worked hard, was always one of the good student and was loved by teachers. One of his teacher even wanted to adopt him and other boy.

Raju has always been different from other children, he was timid, obedient, and cautious. “Loyal”, is the one word that can describe Raju, he is loyal to everyone who is in his life. This made him desired by family, teachers, friends and wherever he goes. He had learned to “choose life” and “do good”.

After finishing higher secondary school, Raju wanted to be a doctor or Nurse. The main reason was to serve the afflicted, poor and needy. He had enough marks to get into nursing. He finished B.Sc. Nursing with very good grades. Many people helped us financially so that Raju could complete the studies.

On July 30, 2016 I got a message from Raju asking prayers, this kind of messages or phone calls were very common whenever he faced challenging circumstances, such as health issues or exams. But today was very special prayer request because he had job interview for the position of nurse in one of the best hospitals of India.

“Why do you wanted to be a nurse and are seeking job hospital?” asked a hospital nursing superintendent who was interviewing Raju for the vacancy of nurse in one of the big and prestigious hospital of India. There were around 50 candidates from different parts of India for handful of positions. Raju had already made it through the difficult written exams as part of the interview.

“I’m an orphan and many people have helped me, showed kindness, that is why I could survive and made it thus far in this world and now I would like to help and serve others” responded Raju

Later that day I phoned him and got the news that he had got selected. We were celebrating that our boy Raju has achieved one more milestone in his life. He became a gentleman!!!!

He fought hard battle, made choices that kept him on the firm path. Above all Raju fears God, is also active in the church youth group. He knows that his achievement is just small part of the “God’s original design” for him. He continue to desire walking towards that higher calling of living out the “his original design”.

We will appreciate your prayers and constant support for Raju.