I had a great
opportunity to visit Rishikesh this week for AIM for Seva activities. There is
a girls hostel in Rishikesh currently that operates out of a rented space.
Last year, a very generous donor from Seattle, Mr Shyam Oberoi, decided to
sponsor the building of a brand new hostel so that that girls can have a permanent
space which can also accommodate more girls. I was joined on this trip by Mr.
Oberoi’s son, Rajat, and his daughter-in-law, Nidhi, plus some of our other
family members from India.
The purpose of my
visit was to first visit the girls in their space and also to do the inaugural
pooja for their new space which is almost ready to move-in. Also, as a bonus, I
got to visit Pujya Swamiji’s ashram in Rishikesh and see Swamiji’s maha-samadhi.
The current
Chatralaya has about 15 girls who go to a local private English medium school.
They greeted us with a beautiful welcome song in English.
The girls ranging in age from 8 to 16 are super excited about learning. So many of them have math as
their favorite subject. So many of them dream of becoming doctors or teachers.
Here is a picture of the girls with all the visitors, their warden, their chef,
and Swami Hamsananda who runs several AIM for Seva hostels in North India.
Here are some
pictures of the new space for the girls — sponsored by our Seattle donors — a
three story building which can accommodate about 50 girls moving forward. The
building is almost ready and the girls will be moving here by mid-November.
. 
To inaugurate this
new space, we participated in a traditional Pooja ceremony. There was a Ganesh
pooja followed by a Navagraha Homam. Here are some pictures of that ceremony.
The Pooja was followed by an unveiling of the plaque commemorating the main donor.
. 
It was an emotional
and eventful visit and we came back re-energized about AIM for Seva. After
meeting the girls, we are even more convinced about enabling underprivileged
children to get a good education and get them out of the poverty trap.
My faith in the
efforts of AIM for Seva were enhanced further after meeting Swami Hamsananda.
He has dedicated his entire life’s work to AIM for Seva! He loves the children
in the various hostels that he supports as his own kids and the kids in turn
adore and respect him tremendously. His warmth and caring is infectious and
after meeting him I felt so confident that AIM for Seva is in such great hands!
Here is a picture of Swamiji with me and Rajat and Nidhi.
Finally, the bonus
part of my trip was visiting Swami Dayananda Ashram in Rishikesh, on a
beautiful location by the Ganga, and getting a chance to see Pujya Swamiji's Mahasamadhi!
