Departed Souls Living in Deeds

- Bishnu Gautam

 Chairman

Respected Sir /Mam,

I am a bereaved father that has lost two grown up sons who were doing great in their respective fields. While talking about them, Lt. Kumar Gautam (28) was making rapid progress in a short span of entering tourism field and was able to bring lots of tourists in the year 2008. Second son Lt. Balram (26) was the topper at Northwestern Oklahoma State University and the recipient of President Award, Student of the Year 2008 Award as well as the president of the Maths Department. Unfortunately! Both of them were claimed by road accidents within nine months and departed from us forever. We were wrenched! The children studying with their support became helpless and the nation too is in loss to some extent with the untimely demise of the talents.

Everyone should die once they get birth but the untimely demise is more painful than the natural one. Victimized by the cruel stroke of the fate, I could not even show the tears that pour out to the eyes directly from the heart. Reason behind was my responsibility towards my family that comprise the mom who gave birth to the departed gems, my life partner, my 84 years old father, 78 years old mother and other small children.

I don't want to remember that time. In short, rooms of my home were more like the emergency ward of the hospital. Some were crying, some out of unconsciousness, some acting insanely snatching own clothes and scratching own faces. Though innocent, I was feeling guilty for the situation. I was consoling everyone as if a Psychological doctor. There was tsunami inside myself which tried hard not to reach my eyes. Perhaps I was conscious about my responsibility of controlling those who survive despite the pain of departing with the loving souls. Whatever the situation is, time doesn't stop. Days run faster as usual. I swam on the tears of my relatives for some time. But how long could a man suffer? There came a time when I was thinking about a best plan to commit group (family) suicide. I even decided to run into Bhotekoshi river with all the family inside a car.

It is said that life and death are defined before birth. Perhaps the saying is true. I feel the presence of Kumar and Balram in every faces I saw and feel their cry on the pain of poor and helpless people. Suddenly I realized a greater responsibility that I should work for thousands of Kumar and Balram living in this earth and contribute for making their lives comfortable. Then I committed to make all those deprived people as successful as Kumar and Balram. That, I thought, would be a greatest tribute to my departed sons. Physically they died once but I wished them to keep immortal in contemplation. "Now Kumar and Balram will take thousands of incarnation from your name and your sons will shine in the world in the form of Laxmi Pratisthan"- I consoled the mom who had lost her precious gems. In this way, Laxmi Pratisthan was established.

Since the inception of Laxmi Pratisthan we are feeling Kumar and Balram on it and we are dedicated entirely from feeling, thinking and workings. Friends of Kumar & Balram as well as our well wishers are joining hands in this pious purpose. Our motto is to "establish a new history in the field of Social Transformation in Nepal". Thus we are performing a great Yagya (oblation) of social transformation through our various programmes including education, health, skill enhancement and women empowerment. Our heart has been torn into pieces for two/two times due to road accidents and thus, we are conducting various activities for reducing road accidents in Nepal.

Realizing the need of road workers should be competent, self motivated and obedient to the rules, we are addressing the above mentioned programmes through a driving training project that would train 1000 women from 7 districts of Nepal to become competent drivers. This is a fusion of skill enhancement and women empowerment that would contribute not only for income generation but also for saving millions of life. This is what we believe. Probably, this is the first initiative to conduct such high class training for such a great numbers in the world. And this is the first Yagya of a bereaved parents, who lost their children in accidents, in reducing road accidents.

Respected brothers and sisters,

My intention at writing this letter is not to boost over what I have done but of course, I intend to express that good deeds give positive message to the society. Secondly, Nepal is one of the beautiful countries that is also rich in resources and culture. Yet, the youths are compelled to face hardship in Arabian Countries. That is no lesser than the pain of departing with our loving sons- Kumar and Balram. My sons died once but those sons toiling abroad are dying time and again. Though alive, these children are very far and being far with the children hurts. Tragically, at their return, some of them could not even meet with the family members for whom they are suffering abroad drinking their own tears.

You all know that the responsible persons at high level are being indifferent towards all these hardships of general public. They are committing crimes for the sake of their own children (that they think) but in reality they don't properly understand the feeling of their children and paint themselves with the black spots of wrong doing. This destination is not right. The sensible persons should not simply keep cursing them. According to the report of Transparency International, Nepal is in the 139th position in corruption and those wrong doers have involved us too in this shameful situation because they have introduced our country in that way. We, being the citizens, could not remain apart personally when the nation is introduced in some ways. Now now is the time for us to correct them too and involve them in the pious purpose of social transformation.

Lastly, here are so many pure hearts who always wish for good. When we do good, their aspiration and morale gets boosted while the evil ones are left aside. If we look back to our own history, there are many selfless human who devoted themselves in other's service. We too have suffered a great loss. Yet we are working for nation through Laxmi Pratisthan. The pain of losing Kumar and Balram has been transformed into energy inspiring us to move ahead towards our goal of social transformation. Or, we have chosen the path of virtue to fulfill their absence. Our family has sacrificed a lot to sustain the programmes of Laxmi Pratisthan. I have abandoned all those professions that could earn me millions of rupees. Rather I have spent a large portion of my property for the activities of this organization.

We have visited Prime Minister's office, DDOs and other agencies to get help from the grant that the nation has separated for the social transformation works. All of them appreciated our plan but no help could be received yet. Rather we are receiving help from the individuals, more than our expectations. Those kind hearted persons are our donors who help us achieve more results than those organizations spending huge fund for small works. We don't believe that the success of the program should be counted with the number of participants. Yet, there have always been more participants in our programme to be adjusted. Our trainees are best in their works after training. The learnt skill has become the means earning their living. In this way, training one member supports whole family. We are glad to claim ourselves in the front line both qualitatively and quantitatively. We could held our head high in front of those who are taking huge grant support from the nation and showing fake results in the paper. Crossing the doorstep of a home, we are now residing in thousands and millions of hearts. This is a matter of pride for us and we are really grateful to those helping hands who supported us individually to achieve greater results from minimum investments.

We need pure heart and sacred thoughts for good deeds, not only the fund. Established as a small room of a home in a most tragic moment, Laxmi Pratisthan is dedicated for good deeds. You can log on to www.laxmipratisthan.org to view what we have achieved till date and what we are doing currently. I have spent a lot from my property and now there is none left to spend. I have a house and a small piece of land. There is a shop that supports my family comprising six members. Thus, we are worried if Laxmi Pratisthan, that has been expanded very shortly, would be compelled to narrow down due to budget constraint. We had suffered the untimely demise of Kumar and Balram but we could not bear the demise of all those beautiful plans of social transformation. Those two departed souls were my sons, only mine. But Laxmi Pratisthan is not only mine but you all own it equally. Thus, it should sustain and you all have to help it sustain. If you really wish to do some social service, please do it now. Who has seen tomorrow? Let us live simple life as a citizen of a country with good governance rather than the millionaire of a country with corruption. This is my appeal…..rest depends upon your will.