My youngest brother John Carvalho lives and does his business at Pune, Maharashtra for the last 37 years. I share his story to encourage our youth to seek and fulfill their own dreams. John studied in a Kannada medium school at his native village in Coastal Karnataka. He was not much interested in studies. Cricket was his passion and hobby. Mummy was highly disappointed with him. She didn’t know what to do with him. So in July 1983, I asked him to come to Pune to join our St. Joseph Technical School to pursue technical studies. He knew only Konknni and Kannada languages. In Pune he struggled to learn Marathi, Hindi and English. He worked hard to complete his ITI diploma course of 3 years. Jesuits, teachers and his classmates liked him because of his simple nature. At the end of the course, then his principal Fr Joseph Menezes, sj called him and said that there is a job as an assembly worker in a private firm with a low salary of Rs 400/- only. He accepted the offer. His classmates laughed at him and said, “When you can get a job in near future in reputed companies in Pune with a starting salary of 4,000/- rupees, it is foolishness on your part to accept this job. “ They proved wrong. They remained unemployed for a couple of years. Within a year he took job in a small factory which was producing and servicing yarn winding machines. This job gave him an opportunity to travel to various parts of India to install and to do servicing job. This job gave him a lot of experience and self-confidence. After a couple of years, he and his colleague left that firm and started their own firm of servicing of such machines with zero investment and later started to produce such machines. When the business was not progressing, John sold his rights to his partner and began his own “Canara Coffee and Foods Trading Private Limited Company” with Rs 70,000/- in hand and with a bank loan of 225,000/- rupees. Today, due to his hard labour and association with value based friends he runs his small business with 9 full-time workers one part-time office staff. John and his life partner Jacintha (commonly called wife) and business partner are working full-time. His annual turnover is 6.5 crores. He has no interest to expand his business, because his son Jeffrey has joined the Indian army as a Lieutenant and daughter Janice is studying designing at Ahmedabad. John's philosophy is “ Bite as much, that which you can chew” or “Choose the amount, which your fist can hold”. He is happy while earning his daily bread. He is very active in his Model Colony Parish, especially with the Vincent de Paul Society which reaches out to the needy irrespective of caste and creed. Till his marriage, John lived in a hostel run by Prof Vasant Nulkar of Wadia College, Pune at Sadashiv Peth. In the entire area John was the only Christian. Prof Nulkar and his family guided John in all respects and inculcated in him universal values. They still have a great influence in his life. They love and respect him as their own family member!!! In fact, Prof Nulkar's family became his foster family. Today, John lives in a posh area, Avaneesh Apartments Kothrud, Pune. It has 195 families, in which his is the only Christian family. In Pune, John has earned name, fame and livelihood by following the values his devout parents taught him from his childhood. If John, once a village boy shy and timid by nature, today God's grace, guidance of value based people and his own hard work, has become the owner of a successful small company, then our youngsters too can do great things if they have a vision and ready for steady hard work. What is the secret of John's success? True Love of God and love of neighbour and following the teachings and values of Jesus. Pratap Naik sj
