Have you seen hunger? Though this is not glorification of hunger, poverty, helplessness, deprivation and so on that propels ambition. This is truly about the gap between the human being, the life situation he is dropped into and what he makes of it.

Ramesh Dhami ran away from his poor but picturesque life in the Kumaon region of the Himalayas. Giving an innocently simple and truthful reason he says “I was told there was a bigger world outside which caught my curiosity and I wanted to explore. Since I was only educated till 2^nd grade, I couldn’t have done much in the unknown world I was going to enter back then. Acting seemed to be an easy career idea as it didn’t need any educational stamp.  Govinda was my favourite actor back then. I was sure of excelling at comedy at least. I sat in the train without a ticket from Kathgodam”.

What happens when you land up in a city such as Mumbai with no ticket or money only a pipe dream of acting in the back pocket, at the fragile age of 9 years? After many days of roaming without money and food in the belly, Mumbai decided to honour a barely educated, hunger stricken and dewy-eyed boy with odd jobs at restaurants to clean utensils and place to sleep at the railway stations. He had to be on his toes with that too as the police would keep a check on the pavements and stations.

The deluge of 26/11 in 2005 sunk the city and Ramesh’s spirit. Starved, dehydrated and disturbed crossing the railway tracks, he almost got knocked off by a train zipping past. Catching hold of his emotions he cried out aloud missing his folks back home, looking at the misery of the city and darkness around.

Next few months took him to Lonavala, Pune, Goa and Surat. He did all kind of cleaning jobs, got into substance, stole clothes, beaten up by the police, hung around with under belly of the cities. Finally returned to Mumbai again as Ramesh never stopped himself from losing hope. He never judged any job or person or made anything wrong or bad. “Once I was told that an underworld don was hard working and rich. For that time, I believed he was my hero. Another time I grew hair like Salman Khan and friends started calling me Salman. That was a big high”, says Ramesh in a humorously innocent manner.

After three failed suicide attempts, numerous police chases, ticketless travels, perpetual hunger pangs and empty wallet he went along. I question him, “Didn’t you question life?”. With the most compellingly honest air Ramesh replies, “I accepted everything and everybody who came along to make me who I am today. I did not reject anything or thought something was good or bad. I just kept going. There was always something out there helping me. I still don’t know what it is. The days I thought it was over, there was a thought which said maybe tomorrow will be better. Just wait for one more day. And I followed that.”

This boy gave me goose bumps all along the interview. The tenacity, hope and faith in tomorrow moved him from one point to another joining the dots. I would say I am under privileged for the lack of resilience and courage at many points in life. He is chosen one to be the life ambassador for dauntlessness.

Ramesh was picked up by an outreach person of Saathi, an NGO which gave street children better environment, food, shelter and other facilities. Food, yoga, breathing exercises, counselling and other activities helped Ramesh get over trauma and stress. He picked up three life skills; making paper bags, running and taking people on adventure trails. Despite being undernourished the way he took on physical activities is a proof that when the mind decides, the body follows. His confidence level went to another high as he became a professional runner clocking jaw dropping timing for a rookie. Albeit, he picked up running for the prize money.

Saathi shut down and Ramesh had to move out. Maybe that was a deliberate plan from the universe as he was graciously picked up by Mumbai’s most sought after marathon coach to work as an assistant. Ramesh started helping other runners at Priyadarshini Park in South Mumbai. He met people from higher strata of life “I used to keep to myself because I did not know how will they take me” says Ramesh. Since the practice used to happen in the mornings the entire day was left at the feet of boredom. Staring at the fan most of the day, he used to channelise his bored mind to whacky ideas. Dismantling the ceiling fan, making bags out of old t-shirts, footwear out of rubber and rope and so on.

They say ‘Necessity is mother of all inventions’ and in this world of having everything but time, I would add boredom to necessity. Ramesh was given high end expensive shoes by the sponsors which would not last more than few months. It used to pain him watching marginally torn shoes being discarded.

This heartbreak led to creation of ‘Green Sole’. Ramesh Dhami along with a young running buddy Shriyans Agarwal founded this venture to refurbish discarded shoes with zero carbon footprint. They have created a self-sustaining infrastructure that provides basic necessity of foot ware to everyone and also generates employment.

Ramesh Dhami with the designation of co-founder and director, many accolades in his bag still doesn’t know what got him here or believe he could be here. Life trusted him and he paid back by believing there will be a sunnier tomorrow.

If you ever want to meet humility or need hope when you feel helpless or lose faith do read about Ramesh. I hope he is able to convert his life story in to a movie. Well because that was the purpose to leave home. And yes, he met his family after 16 years. What do you think his mother would have felt since she thought her son was gone forever?

Life may happen in between gaps when there is darkness of boredom, fatigue and helplessness. The gap is where the inner light of hope falls. Look for the light. Look out for tomorrow.