{"id":918817,"date":"2022-01-23T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T10:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/23\/making-an-impact-i-had-big-shoes-to-fill\/"},"modified":"2022-01-23T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T10:54:10","slug":"making-an-impact-i-had-big-shoes-to-fill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/23\/making-an-impact-i-had-big-shoes-to-fill\/","title":{"rendered":"Making an impact; I had big shoes to fill"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
Pravir, 28, a director at Sarova group of hotels, Resort & Game lodges has giant shoes to fill in continuing the family\u2019s legacy<\/strong> [Courtesy]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pravir Vohra is half Indian, half Italian. His Italian side is Sicilian, as in from Sicily, like the characters of the Godfather. And like the acclaimed book and blockbuster movie family, his is renowned for shrewd business, but legal. It is also his Indian side, who are Sikhs, renowned for it here in Kenya. <\/p>\n

His friends jokingly call him Iron Man because of the amount of metal he has in his body, thanks to the injuries that he has sustained over the years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to do a lot of kickboxing and I\u2019ve done a lot of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) when I was younger. So I\u2019ve broken fingers, I\u2019ve had three or four knee surgeries,\u201d he says. \u201cI started shooting competitively at the age of 13 in the Air Pistol category. So it was the Olympic-type shooting. At the age of 13, I became Kenya\u2019s Under 21 target shooting champion.\u201d <\/p>\n

He then stopped the Olympic-style shooting and started doing other kinds of training which were paramilitary trainings in Eastern Europe, including counter terror, combat training, maritime, sniper school, medic, combat medic, among other shooting training. <\/p>\n

Last year, he won the African Championship award for the Marks Man division. <\/p>\n

Pravir also happens to be an impact investor, the Director of Sarova Hotels and Aion Properties. He sits on various boards in Kenya and London. We are at one of those hotels, the Sarova Panafric, where he tells me his story. <\/p>\n

It starts many decades ago, when his great grandfather, Sardar Singh Vohra, a man of few means, decided to hop on a dhow from India. The dhow landed in Mombasa, changing the fortunes of the Vohra family forever. <\/p>\n

On landing in Mombasa, Sardar tried his hand at whatever he could, eventually starting a bicycle shop in Nairobi that sustained the family of 10 children, who all shared one room. <\/p>\n

Among the children was Gurcharan Singh Vohra (also known as Chani), Pravir\u2019s grandfather, who worked in the bicycle shop growing up and would later go on to found the Sarova group of hotels together with John Ngata Kariuki. <\/p>\n

Chani\u2019s son, Pravir\u2019s father, Sandy Vohra, would later on become the managing director of the hotel chain and take Sarova to the heights it is known for today, the leading chain of hotels in East Africa. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
\u201cIn my free time, I train in lots of different martial arts. I live by the warrior ethos, which is that you\u2019re continuously training”<\/strong> [Courtesy]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now Pravir, 28, a director at Sarova group of hotels, Resort & Game lodges has giant shoes to fill in continuing the family\u2019s legacy. The shoes were handed to him at only 19, when Chani died in 2013. <\/p>\n

He started managing the family\u2019s businesses then, but, even though a daunting prospect, he had some mettle to do it thanks to his father and grandfather showing them their ways. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a couple of very interesting lessons from my father,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of them is to always be truthful to yourself and never feel sorry for yourself. Just because you had a bad day or something bad happened to you, never feel self-pity. Self-pity is the worst thing you can ever feel. That is not the mentality of a winner. A winner never has self-pity.\u201d <\/p>\n

His father was no-nonsense about the lesson, which has come in handy several times. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat has been whenever I\u2019m feeling, \u2018Ugh, life is hard\u2019, something tragic has happened or somebody has lost someone. I\u2019ve broken many bones and I\u2019d always remember my father\u2019s words: Never feel self-pity. If you carry out life and you\u2019re feeling sorry for yourself then you\u2019re never going to achieve what you want to achieve. Because there will always be something that you can blame,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

His father tragically died when Pravir was only 11, however, which forced him to grow up very fast. It was his life\u2019s most defining moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was forced to become someone that I was not at the time. Because every household has \u2018the man of the house\u2019. I was the first born and then there was my little sister and my mother,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

But his grandfather stepped up, filling the much-needed role of father figure, with Pravir also becoming his faithful apprentice. He was always with his grandfather from the age of 11 onwards, and how he handled people taught Pravir a lot. <\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how to be compassionate from him. I saw how people would find him on the street when he didn\u2019t even know who they were, but they would come up to him and say, \u2018Bwana GS, how are are you? I just want to say thank you so much.\u2019 Because when they were 12 years old, he had sponsored their high school or had bought them shoes so that they could go to school. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe would go to Bata, buy lots of different pairs of shoes and th <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
“I want to be remembered as the guy who was compassionate, who ended up being a philanthropist”<\/strong> [Courtesy]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

en go to the roundabout just up the road here, open his boot and start handing out shoes to the people barefoot, because my grandfather\u2019s one thing was that you need shoes to walk to work.\u201d <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

His grandfather Chani would pass on only eight years later, pushing Pravir head first into the business. \u201cThat one really got me down because then I felt like I was completely alone. Yes I had my aunts, but it was like I was the one who now had to take care of the family. It was definitely a difficult period,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

That, and the expectations that were now on him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely felt pressure because they were two larger than life characters. For me it was like, \u2018How on earth am I going to fill those shoes?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Today, there is little doubt that has managed to do that, seeing as he manages the family assets, is a director in Sarova Hotels and in some of the family\u2019s other properties. Their blood runs in his veins equally. <\/p>\n

\u201cI might have taken some things from both. My father was definitely more of the professional. He is the reason Sarova became a professionally-run company. My grandfather was the one who was the more out-of-the-box creative, made a lot of friends \u2013 so maybe I\u2019ve picked a few things from both of them and that\u2019s how I\u2019m carrying on their legacy,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

I spot a bit of his grandfather in him, the giving side, when he says that considers his biggest accomplishment to be the fact that he has helped companies around him grow as an impact investor, adding professionalism and coming up with the marketing strategies to put the companies out there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI look for startups that will have some sort of social or environmental benefit and then I help those startups grow. That\u2019s another passion I have. I love seeing small businesses and companies start becoming big. So I\u2019ve invested in several different startups which I work very closely with, try and streamline them,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

His love for shooting sports has never waned, however, since his grandfather introduced him to it at age 11. Today, Chani would probably be very pleased to hear that in addition to helping carry the family\u2019s business legacy, he has also excelled in their other shared love, with several certifications and awards. He has also invested in security solutions and some security companies. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my free time, I train in lots of different martial arts. I live by the warrior ethos, which is that you\u2019re continuously training. You\u2019re never good enough. If you think you\u2019re good that is when you will be taken out of commission.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re always trying to keep better, you\u2019re always trying to develop. So whether I am spending my time at the range, spending my time in the gym or I\u2019m training in hand to hand combat, I\u2019m always trying to develop myself.\u201d <\/p>\n

How would he like to be remembered? I ask. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think with my family and friends, I would definitely want to be remembered as the guy who, \u2018Yes, he was strict with us, but he was very loving and everything he did was for us.\u2019 By the public, it would be a little like my grandfather. I want to be remembered as the guy who was compassionate, who ended up being a philanthropist, helping a lot of people, giving people a second chance in life and a dedicated professional.\u201d <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Source: The Standard Media Kenya<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pravir, 28, a director at Sarova group of hotels, Resort & Game lodges has giant shoes to fill in continuing the family\u2019s legacy [Courtesy] Pravir Vohra is half Indian, half Italian. His Italian side is Sicilian, as in from Sicily, like the characters of the Godfather. And like the acclaimed book and blockbuster movie family, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}