Even certain death could not dampen his enthusiasm

December 19, 2004

"TheTimes of India." Section "India." Friday, December 17, 2004 11:38:02 PM.

The article by Mridula Chunduri:

"Even certain death could not dampen his enthusiasm." HYDERABAD: He was

just like any other kid, fond of 'alu fry' and awed by Sachin Tendulkar. He

wanted to be a soldier, but Kolavennu Venka-tesh's battle was of a very

different kind — he fought hard to give life to nameless others with his death.

The muscular dystrophy patient who died before he could donate his organs

was a mischievous child. "He used to pick up fights with other kids in the

colony and come running home," says his mother K Sujatha. "However, he ran the

fastest when he had to read Telugu. He never listened to me, so I made him

study with some neighbours. But getting him a pass mark in Telugu was a great

task, though he was an overall good student," a sad but composed Sujatha told

TOI at their home in Hyderabad's middle-class neighbourhood of Mehdipatnam.

Sujatha refuses to talk about Venkatesh's father, from whom she had

separated many years back. The father was not seen or spoken about in the last

few weeks during which Venkatesh was being treated at Hyderabad's Global

Hospital, which has a speciality organ transplant wing.

Venkatesh studied up to Class V in Vijayawada — first at Montessorie and

then City Public School. Later, Sujatha shifted to Puttaparthi with Venkatesh

and there they spent next seven years. He had already been diagnosed with

muscular dystrophy.

It was during his stay in Puttaparthi that Venkatesh took to Sai Baba and

his preachings. The mother and son followed the Baba wherever he went to

preach. "Sai Baba was a great influence in his life. Venkatesh became mentally

strong after listening to Baba. He even learnt Telugu as Baba did not like

Andhraites who did not know the language," Sujatha says.

After Puttaparthi, where they stayed from 1992-99, the duo shifted to

Vijayawada for eight months. During his stay in Vijayawada in the year 2000,

Venkatesh developed an interest in chess when he saw chess champ Konneru Humpy

play at a tournament. They even met once for a friendly game.

In 2001, Venkatesh moved to Hyderabad with his family.

More than a year ago, Venkatesh and his mother pledged their organs and

obtained donor cards from Multi-Organ Harvesting Aid Network (Mohan

foundation). But this card was of no use to Venkatesh as he did not have a

brain death as the AP Transplantation of Human Organ Act, 1995 prescribes.

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