It’s been quite a while since I wrote about our last event. In all that time, we’ve been to different places to help out those in need. Old-Age homes, Children’s Hospital, Disabled Rehabilitation Centers, Earthquake affected areas and streets of Kathmandu. From the faces of the children of Dhuseni, Kavre which was one of the places that got hit badly by earthquakes where we distributed blankets to the faces of the mothers of the Old-Age homes where we distributed rations and some clothes, the smiles upon those faces is what keeps us going, the smiles fuel The Ktm Drive.
Well, this time, we went to Bangalamukhi, Mangalbazar and Batuk Bhairav scanning for people who are in need of clothes. This was our 69th Rucksack project. Bangalamukhi was the place where we first started our Rucksack project. If you don’t know what a Rucksack project is, it’s an event conducted by us where we prepare a bag that contains some clothes, foods and other useful items just like a rucksack and give them to people who are living on the streets and could use a little help to brighten up their day a little.
Shikha and Surbhi were already at Bangalamukhi, I was running a little late, luckily, Nimesh found me right in front of the Patan gate. Then, the four of us set out to put the plan in motion after briefly talking about it.
I, Nimesh and Surbhi went around the temple looking for people who could use some clothes and food while Shikha stayed back with the rucksacks. Most people there were just to visit Goddess Bangalamukhi and pray to her and lots of priests were inside the temple’s vicinity conducting various worshiping rituals for many people. The neighborhood around looked pretty badly hit by the earthquake as most of the houses were pretty old. Lots of cracked buildings and some had no walls and were abandoned. But, the temple looked pretty fine. There were a couple of old ladies, an old man and a couple of women with kids. We went to the women and offered her some clothes fit herself and her kids and some food to go along with. She accepted them happily so did the other woman. Then, we reached out with some saris and clothes that we thought she might like and some food. She and her friend accepted them happily. Then, we went on to the man in the corner behind the temple. He was in dirty clothes and definitely could use some clean clothes. He accepted the clothes and told us that he would change the clothes later in private. He had a cup of tea beside him and we have him a few packs of biscuits and asked his name. His name is Krishna Bahadur Lama and he was from Ramkot. A teardrop rolled down his cheek as he said there was no one in his life, he was all alone in this world with no home. It turned out that he was yet another victim of the earthquake. We gave him some more biscuits and told him to stay strong and positive. No one really knows what the future has in store for them.
After Krishna dai, we went around Mangal Bazar on the lookout for more people but we found no one who could use
some help over there. Then, we headed towards the Batuk Bhairav temple. We found an old couple at the door of the temple, Bishnu and Laxmi. We gave them few clothes and some food. They told us that they also had children and we gave them some more clothes for their children. We asked them about their life, what they do for the living etc. Bishnu works as a porter and said that there is no work these days, it’s hard to find jobs so he and his wife begs at the temple. His wife is weak and can’t work like Bishnu. Bishnu has head full of silver hair but he looked surprisingly energetic for his age. We decided to end our event here and head back home when a girl (who looked like a boy because of the short hair, I guess) asked for clothes peeking above the wall from within the temple premises. We had already given clothes that would’ve fit her to the couple. Her name was Kusum, we gave her some biscuits and upon questioning found out she was one of the daughters of Bishnu and Laxmi.
Well, The event went pretty well, we gave out lots of clothes and foods. However, the image of Krishna Bahadur Lama from Bangalamukhi was a sad reminder for us that people who lost their homes and families are still helpless even though it’s already been a year since the big one. The authorities responsible for the rehabilitation of the victims seem to be silent these days and the world has already started to forget that Nepal was struck by a massive earthquake which claimed more than 8,000 lives.