new delhihaveri naveen shekharappa gyanagoudar the 21yearold karnataka boy who became the first indian casualty in the ongoing war in ukraine was a fourthyear mbbs student at kharkiv national medical university and had just stepped out to buy food and exchange currency when a russian rocket struck the citys historic freedom square naveen the younger son of retired paper mill employee shekharappa gyanagoudar and vijaylakshmi hailed from chalageri in karnatakas haveri districtread alsowhat madeinukraine doctors say about our medical educationindia needs a grand strategy that caters to the ambitions of budding doctors and utilises their services to enhance the reach of healthcare to ordinary citizenswhy indian students in ukraine dont want to come homeindian students in ukraine have been asked to leave that country till theres some clarity on a war with russia but students are reluctant to leave saying they have licensing examswe had dreams for our son those are now shattered shekharappa told toihe said his son who scored 97 in his preuniversity course was a talented student forced out of the country by a system where private higher education institutes were financially out of reachi found out that i would have to spend anywhere between rs 85 lakh and rs 1 crore to put him in a private medical college thats when i decided to send him to ukraine but that proved far more costly naveens father shekharappa gyanagoudar saiddue to the education system and casteism he could not get a seat despite being an intelligent student gyanagoudar was quoted by pti as saying i am dejected with our political system education system and casteism everything is in the control of private institutes he was quoted as sayinggyanagoudar said he had borrowed money from his friends and relatives to send naveen to ukraine to study mbbs naveen lived with some friends in an apartment he would call home five to six times a day since the fighting started and had moved to a bunker below the flat his family said amit vaishyr naveens senior at the university said he left the bunker for a mart at the city centre around 6am local time at 758am he messaged a friend to transfer money to his phone wallet at 810am we received a call from a local who told us that he is no more said amit ading that we had all been living in the bunker for four days without adequate food and water naveens elder brother harsha who is studying for a phd in bengaluru said his sibling was to write his eighth semester exams in june and take up an internshipwho could have imagined we would lose him permanently a childhood friend referred to naveen as a humble child from a humble family nandini ac a secondsemester mbbs student from arakere in tumakuru district said she heard about naveens death on the college whatsapp group and was swamped by a flood of memories from happier times we had gone to freedom square for the new year