Aim for Seva in Rishikesh

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.

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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.

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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!

  

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