Do you need to be rich to live your life to the fullest? Nope! All you need is the spirit to succeed like Lavanya Gudelli. Although born in a small town, she was educated in good schools of Hyderabad and had the zeal to conquer the world. Being an introvert, her parents’ financial situation as an auto driver and domestic help and constant change of school – none of this could affect her academics negatively. She was known less by her name and more for being the topper. In every school she went to, Lavanya set high standards for others.
Even as a little girl, Lavanya was never interested in the regular doll-play. Her methods of spending leisure time were way more mature than her age. She would read missionary books as a 5th grader. Her world was limited to home, church, and school. She never desired to go beyond these places. Lavanya also exhibited an interest in poetry and article writing at a very young age. She would pick up the newspaper and start pretending like a newsreader. The little girl’s skill and enthusiasm took her parents by surprise. Her interests started penetrating the media.
A nomadic childhood
When the family moved to Hyderabad with zeal to conquer the world of problems, Lavanya or her siblings never felt the pinch of the family’s struggles. She attributes this attitude to the regular church visits. Lavanya always felt a sense of inspiration from the talks at the church. She studied in Hyderabad from 1st to 4th grade when the family’s financial situation wasn’t great.
Lavanya’s father never really enjoyed living in the city. Whenever he found himself in a better situation, he would insist on returning to the village. He wouldn’t even consider that his kids’ education would be disturbed. Such was his unconditional love for the village and its people. But when problems troubled him, and he was pumped with the zeal to conquer them, he would go back to Hyderabad. Owing to this situation, Lavanya and her family kept going to and from Hyderabad.
Even amid crisis and instability, Lavanya’s father never stopped helping people and encouraged their zeal to conquer the world. He would bring them to his barely sufficient shelter, feed them well, find them a job and only then breathe a sigh of relief. Lavanya says her father’s never-give-up attitude has a significant influence on her. Lavanya started expanding her personality when they relocated to the village once again in her 9th grade. In both 9th and 10th grades, she started participating in inter-school competitions. The school’s staff also encouraged her well.
Gradually, Lavanya got rid of her hesitation to express herself. She was the district topper in the SSC exam. When Lavanya began to put her first steps of success with the zeal to conquer her problems, a severe problem struck her siblings. These problems pushed Lavanya’s father to the strong desire to end his life. It was the time when many colleges approached Lavanya to teach her without charging a fee. Despite these advantages, her family wasn’t able to guide her like she guides others today. Although circumstances would sometimes force them to say so, Lavanya’s parents never compelled her to quit education.
Like they say, where there’s a will, there’s always a way. Lavanya’s father found a college close to their place. The reason for finding this college is as enjoyable as finding the college itself. Lavanya’s father befriended the watchman of that college, enquired from him, and finally enrolled his daughter into it. To add to his reassurance, he found another man from his village teaching at this college.
Lavanya’s zeal to conquer academics seemed to have worked. Finally, Lavanya went to Sharada Girls Junior College, where they taught intermediate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, and vocational courses. It was an arrangement made for people who couldn’t spend much on education. With so many courses in one place, one batch of students had to leave the class to accommodate another.
Tussle with academics
The first day of college is a unique experience for everyone. Lavanya, too faced her share of insecurities and newness especially being an introvert. She went into a class of 150 girls and realized that the lectures were in English. Although she understood the language, she wasn’t confident enough to speak as she came from a Telugu medium school.
After merely two weeks of attending college, Lavanya had another break in education. Her uncle passed away, because of which her father took them back to their village. Lavanya could not reach out to her friends to find out what she had missed in college. She requested her mother to allow her to stay with her aunt in Hyderabad to study. However, her aunt wasn’t in favor of this idea. Sometimes, the zeal to conquer is ineffective without support from family.
Despite all the struggles, Lavanya passed the first year with flying colors. She started getting noticed by teachers for being the girl who silently finds her way to success. Lavanya aspired to write the EAMCET exam, but her limited resources never seemed to give her a chance. Her only source of information was the Eenadu newspaper. When the last application date was close, she went to the nearest Mee Seva (internet cafe) to apply, but without an email id. With the cafe owner’s help, she learned what an email id is and created one. After the entire struggle, she successfully applied for the EAMCET exam.
She wrote the EAMCET exam in CBIT, which is very far away from where she lived. Her father was away and there was no one else she could go with. Her father recommended that she go for the exam with a relative. At first, she was reluctant, but on her sister’s insistence, she went. Lavanya recalls that every step in life was a struggle. Coming to think of it, what’s the fun in trying to conquer the world if there’s no struggle in it?
Lavanya went to Stanley College of Technology for Women.
A shaken college life
College seemed to be a different story for Lavanya. She struggled with English again, and she also felt that maybe Engineering was not her cup of tea. Despite these difficulties, she had the highest attendance in class. After doing well in academics all her life, Lavanya suddenly started having backlogs. Lavanya is someone who cannot continue something if she doesn’t like it. Her father was putting a lot of effort into getting her to and from college.
However, she didn’t want to pursue engineering anymore. Despite her disinterest, Lavanya knew about all the college people and continued participating in essay writing competitions held there.
Finally, after convincing herself that all she needs is a degree, Lavanya shifted to BSC Electronics. She enrolled in a distance education program.
In 2015 she got her first Smartphone, but she struggled to use it. Lavanya may have lacked the technical knowledge, but she is blessed with an abundance of humanity.
Personification of humanity
As a child in 5th grade, Lavanya could quickly feel others’ pain and do her bit to ease it. She gave away her two paise to send her friend home, even when she had nothing left for herself.
The second incident that finally laid the foundation for unconditional humanity was again during the same time. During her 5-6 grades, Lavanya’s family had improved a great deal financially. Her zeal to conquer the world with humanity compelled her to feel others’ pain as her own. When Lavanya heard her neighbor wish for a pair of earrings like hers, she decided to buy them for her.
Lavanya took the girl to the shop, got her to select a pair of earrings, and went ahead to make the payment. Just then, she realized that she had to pay 15 rupees, but she had only seven rupees with her. It didn’t destroy her determination to give a gift. Lavanya ran home, got the extra money, and gave her friend a memorable gift. She did this to see a spark in the little girl’s eyes.
The NGO connection
In 2018, Lavanya explored Google and was looking for opportunities to volunteer at NGOs. She discovered an NGO through a college WhatsApp group and shared her ideas.
Earlier, there used to be interviewed to select people into the organization.
With a great deal of difficulty, she found a place in the organization. The first task she got was to collect 20 rupees per month for a cause. When Lavanya approached the faculty for this, she was misunderstood and removed from college WhatsApp groups. The passionate girl was very disturbed by this.
After this incident, Lavanya got in touch with another NGO called Asya Foundation through a friend. She immediately asked for details and was excited to join. But even here, she was disappointed. Àll the events were on Sundays- the day of the week when Lavanya would not miss going to the church no matter how hard life was. These are some of the obstacles that people with a zeal to conquer face from time to time.
With God’s grace, she got two opportunities: to distribute food to the beggars, and the second was a service at school for children with mental disabilities.
Lavanya’s next social service opportunity came in a suicide prevention event by Malla Reddy College in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. Lavanya sent her story, got selected, but when she went there, she couldn’t talk.
Lavanya’s inspiration
One thing seemed to have led to another. Her friend recommended Lavanya to check out Internshala, a website with a variety of internships. She found the Youth Empowerment Foundation, which is a Delhi-based NGO. Interestingly it was established by Mr. Ram, a slum dweller who grew to earn three lakhs per month in Germany. What started as a slum children’s education foundation now takes care of sanitary pads manufacturing, book manufacturing, and many other things.
Lavanya connected with Ram and shared her ideas. Ram liked Lavanya’s passion for social service and offered the role of manager. Lavanya was now managing people who earned an MBA. It was then that Lavanya realized her true potential. She thought of establishing her organization instead of working for others. Her zeal to conquer her dreams was reaching the sky.
Lavanya faced a significant health issue in 2015. Her mouth suddenly twisted to the left side. Although the problem faded by itself, it came back in 2019. Her prayers kept her brave and also healed her. Despite all these problems, her service never stopped.
A dream came true
In 2018 Lavanya established her NGO. She calls it Be The Change. It started with a single message sent to a friend. By evening Lavanya had approximately 180 volunteers. She hadn’t even decided the theme by then. She would assign tasks to the volunteers on the phone itself. Their bond was only virtual until they met for a big food distribution event in August 2018.
Meanwhile, Lavanya had embraced social media and had developed the confidence to commute by herself. At the age of 20, she addressed audiences in different cities and got featured in newspapers too.
She addressed as many as 5000 people in an Impact talk in Hyderabad.
Lavanya now has a YouTube channel called Celebrate Life to motivate people. She has taken interviews of 30 women that are yet to go live.
She has also started the You Can Production. It is a platform for everyone to express their ideas. There’s also She Empowers, which hosts webinars. It was initially women-oriented but later expanded to general issues of the society.
It wasn’t a problem-free time for Lavanya. Just when things seemed to be going well, many of her classmates defamed the organization and demanded that it be shut. Lavanya overcame all of that by simply ignoring it and moving towards her goal of serving people. In this process, Lavanya realized that it is best to keep our expectations low. She continues to serve society even during the pandemic. Lavanya received awards and gave away many awards on March 8th on the occasion of Women’s Day.
Right now, Lavanya manages all her organization’s activities with the help of a design team that takes care of designing flyers for the organization. Lavanya’s story is an inspiration for everyone who has the zeal to conquer life.
Read such inspiring stories of real people here.
Like us on FB, if you find our content interesting: https://www.facebook.com/hatkestoryofficial/
Do you have an interesting incident or experience to share with the world? Write to us, and together we can discuss how to weave your story and present it to the world. Would you mind sending us your story?
Comments are closed.