Irony of life…
I recently came across a quote from Mother Teresa: ‘the good you do today may be forgot tomorrow; do good anyway’. I began wondered how easy it is for people to implement this especially given their own life is full of obstacles. Thinking it would take me many lifetimes to find such individuals, to my pleasant surprise, I came across several individuals born & raised here in India.
One such person is Gurbaksh Singh Chahal.
He is a 33 years old USA Indian Entrepreneur. At the age of 16, he started his first company. At the age of 24, he sold his second company to Yahoo! and at the age of 27, he started his third. Now he is off to starting his fourth company – despite many obstacles that have been laced on his path. Yet, he continues to stay positive, keeps a good heart and not only battles against the injustice against himself persistently, he continues to inspire the youth daily. Irony is, with all the good this man has done in various communities, no one stood up to support him during his trying times. Are we that selfish of a society???
Today, we take great pride to highlight the accomplishment of this young man, who grew up in the States, yet comes back to his roots to help those in need.
In his recent trip to India last month
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-S3J24IW8Q), he has helped the following institutions:
Delhi schools/ NGO visited
1. http://www.aryagurukultg.com
it's a hostel where children from Naxalite areas from north eastern area of India are adopted and given food clothes and admitted to school fees is also taken care by the Gurukul
Gurbaksh has commited aid to build one full floor of the hostel which would cost approximately INR 700000.
2. Pragati wheel school http://www.pragatiwheel.org
The school imparts free education to the underprivileged and is being run by Mr Raman Khanna
Gurbaksh visited the school and donated 5 iPads for the use by the students and also committed upgradation to the existing Library which has not so many books.
3. Blind school in New Rajinder Nagar . The resident blind school for girls located on new rajinder nagar we helped them by providing each student supply for full month of needs such as toothpaste washing soap bathing soap tooth brush washing powder and awaiting next session to start to provide Braille slates which they require and will be provided by Gurbaksh
4. My perch Library located in sector 49 Noida and run solely by a single girl who helps the street kids to come and learn basic education needs for free
Gurbaksh helped the library by getting water purifier for kids installed desktops for the kids to start learning computers and also iPads to learn and be at par with everyone around. The girl was speechless when Gurbaksh came to know she was running the school without having any resources to pay even the rent and handed over 2000 dollars in cash would try n get mail from her
5. Society for advanced studies and rehabilitation
The society is located on faridabad and was given desktop computers laser printers to set up their computer requirements and helps the children with special needs and provide alternate teaching methods
Amritsar
1 Goodwill Public school
The school has many students who belong to poor families and have no money even to buy uniform.
Gurbaksh supported the fees of the students and the uniforms besides the water cooler and other requirements of the school
2 Dr earnest School
Dr earnest school is a free school where besides education alternate options of making families belonging to poor families start up their own livelihood by sewing etc
They required laptops and iPads to which we supported and also needed financial help for a widow later which also was provided
3. S D school Tarn Taran
The school has good number of students but no computer library and Gurbaksh committed setting up the same which is under process and also they required the sports Goods which were also committed
One of the girls was introduced by principal who was very bright Gurbaksh asked her about her Dream and she said she wanted to become Doctor Gurbaksh commited full scholarship for the Girl besides giving her an individual laptop to pursue studies the video is uploaded on the page as well for the girl Laadli
4 Baba Deep school pahukhand
The Baba Deep Singh memorial school were given ten desktops and 5 iPads to expand their school computer library setup with large no of students Gurbaksh addressed the students and also shared the success mantra there was question answer session also organized
Mumbai
Magic Bus http://www.magicbus.org
Magic bus Org runs program for student to livelihood and wanted support for backend office like computers printers etc which wee provided the Magic bus helps slums children to come out and get into main stream of studies
2. Akanksha foundation
Akanksha foundation runs free school with government aid for children from slums the school was given iPads for enabling teacher to teach the students with latest technologies
Besides we have lined up smile foundation which due to the restriction could not be covered and would be done in our next trip
Handed out numerous scholarships and stipends to needy children, who are either parent-less or are in extreme difficulty to acquire education
Delhi schools/ NGO visited
1. http://www.aryagurukultg.com
it's a hostel where children from Naxalite areas from north eastern area of India are adopted and given food clothes and admitted to school fees is also taken care by the Gurukul
Gurbaksh has commited aid to build one full floor of the hostel which would cost approximately INR 700000.
2. Pragati wheel school http://www.pragatiwheel.org
The school imparts free education to the underprivileged and is being run by Mr Raman Khanna
Gurbaksh visited the school and donated 5 iPads for the use by the students and also committed upgradation to the existing Library which has not so many books.
3. Blind school in New Rajinder Nagar . The resident blind school for girls located on new rajinder nagar we helped them by providing each student supply for full month of needs such as toothpaste washing soap bathing soap tooth brush washing powder and awaiting next session to start to provide Braille slates which they require and will be provided by Gurbaksh
4. My perch Library located in sector 49 Noida and run solely by a single girl who helps the street kids to come and learn basic education needs for free
Gurbaksh helped the library by getting water purifier for kids installed desktops for the kids to start learning computers and also iPads to learn and be at par with everyone around. The girl was speechless when Gurbaksh came to know she was running the school without having any resources to pay even the rent and handed over 2000 dollars in cash would try n get mail from her
5. Society for advanced studies and rehabilitation
The society is located on faridabad and was given desktop computers laser printers to set up their computer requirements and helps the children with special needs and provide alternate teaching methods
Amritsar
1 Goodwill Public school
The school has many students who belong to poor families and have no money even to buy uniform.
Gurbaksh supported the fees of the students and the uniforms besides the water cooler and other requirements of the school
2 Dr earnest School
Dr earnest school is a free school where besides education alternate options of making families belonging to poor families start up their own livelihood by sewing etc
They required laptops and iPads to which we supported and also needed financial help for a widow later which also was provided
3. S D school Tarn Taran
The school has good number of students but no computer library and Gurbaksh committed setting up the same which is under process and also they required the sports Goods which were also committed
One of the girls was introduced by principal who was very bright Gurbaksh asked her about her Dream and she said she wanted to become Doctor Gurbaksh commited full scholarship for the Girl besides giving her an individual laptop to pursue studies the video is uploaded on the page as well for the girl Laadli
4 Baba Deep school pahukhand
The Baba Deep Singh memorial school were given ten desktops and 5 iPads to expand their school computer library setup with large no of students Gurbaksh addressed the students and also shared the success mantra there was question answer session also organized
Mumbai
Magic Bus http://www.magicbus.org
Magic bus Org runs program for student to livelihood and wanted support for backend office like computers printers etc which wee provided the Magic bus helps slums children to come out and get into main stream of studies
2. Akanksha foundation
Akanksha foundation runs free school with government aid for children from slums the school was given iPads for enabling teacher to teach the students with latest technologies
Besides we have lined up smile foundation which due to the restriction could not be covered and would be done in our next trip
Handed out numerous scholarships and stipends to needy children, who are either parent-less or are in extreme difficulty to acquire education
He regularly supports students with scholarships, funds schools, support programs to prevent youth from using addictive substances
Recently on Facebook page, saw gratitude note of a widower thanking him for financial support for her three daughters, which inspired me to start this page.
His heart is not just bounded to the geographic of this land alone. He sends countless prayers to every part of the world, especially when an atrocity has struck them due to terrorism (Paris, Belgium, Mumbai, to name a few) or natural disasters such as earthquakes in Nepal. On his social page, one can count to see his prayers as well as request to raise donations to help those in need. With a bit of research, I discovered he spent more than $1 million US dollars of his own funds to promote awareness of the Sikhs in the US, right after the Wisconsin shooting of the Gurdwara in 2012. (Here is the link showcasing his public announcement of supporting to spread awareness: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224248.
Irony is even as a child he had been bullied. As a grown up, he continues to suffer the abuse of social media bullying).
He rallied the entire community, regardless of faith, color, or race, to join forces to end hate, bring awareness of the religious differences in the US and promoted to spread this awareness through social media efforts. The message was simple – “End Hate”.
(Link to that video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKEdThFX1Tg)
Yet, the irony of the situation is, he is unable to end hate in this country or in the US. Rather, he has become one of the favorite targets of the social media cyber bullying.
In the recent times, ripping off any successful young person to shreds is the favorite part-time hobby of many Internet trolls as well as media companies (sadly). Any person, who is successful, has to be extremely caution, for they live in a glass cased home. Any troll, foe or friend can throw a stone at them, and then step back to watch them tumble down to nothing in minutes.
As reported by The Sun of UK, an online media publication, many celebrities continue to fall victims of the vile online bullying. Sadly, I have a feeling the same has happened with Gurbaksh. As I read numerous articles, one can only surmise his trolls and bullies intentions were laced by political motivation to bring him down. However, this young man refuses to being bullied by his media and US political system.
Regardless of Gurbaksh’s circumstance, he continues to be an example of resiliency. He serves as a reminder to the rest of us, "when we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets.” Yet, we should ‘continue to do good anyways’.
I encourage you to send and share your stories of the way this organization has helped you. Send me these stories and I will promote them on this site. In this manner, with the help of one site, one person, and a shared unity of gratitude, we can attempt of thank the divine for enabling people like Gurbaksh to continue do good unselfishly - regardless of vile attempts by political social media.
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