Mumbai: Ravi Bhandari, the Amazon delivery executive whose timely intervention had saved a 11-year-old girl from serious injury, has been inundated with calls from all over the country and has even started receiving financial donations. Bhandari has vowed to not spend any of the money for personal use and donate it to charity instead.
Bhandari was making deliveries as per his usual routine on Friday when he heard the screams of Janhavi Bhoye, a student of the Vasant Vihar municipal school. He rushed to her aid to see that a metal piece from the school’s gate had embedded itself in her cheek, dangerously close to her right eye. In the pouring rain, Bhandari stood holding the gate in place till a team of doctors from the nearby Vasant Vihar hospital arrived.
Bhandari had left after the doctors took Janhavi to the hospital, eager to complete his deliveries for the day which had already been delayed. However, a local resident who had also helped with the effort had tweeted about Bhandari’s efforts, and by the end of the day, Bhandari was widely hailed as a hero.
“My phone has been ringing constantly since Friday with people from several states in India calling me simply to congratulate me. I keep telling them that I only did what anyone else would have done but many of them insisted on sending me some money to show their appreciation. The minute the first payment was sent to me, I vowed that I would not use a single paisa for myself,” Bhandari told the Free Press Journal on Sunday.
Till now, Bhandari has received donations amounting to a total of Rs 1800 and he has now started making inquiries about how best to use the money for social service.
“I am asking around in my circle of friends and acquaintances for verified Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and the causes that they work for, so that I can donate the money to them. The donations are still coming in and I will soon reach a decision regarding this,” Bhandari said.
He added that he had informally heard from his reporting head that his feat had not gone unnoticed by his company and that they, too, would be formally acknowledging his good deed soon.
