‘25 years of pleasant journey in Rotary’                – by Rtn. Binay Bajracharya

In 1996, Rtn. Puskar dai walked into Hotel Clarion; he told me that he was planning to form new Rotary Club. He asked me to be one of the members of said club. He said that the club would be called ‘Rotary Club of Patan South’.  He informed me that the ‘Rotary Club’ is humanitarian club and here we do different service projects for needy. In order to tempt me to join the new club, he added you would meet very interesting professional people from different classifications (or professions).

Yes when I joined the newly formed club as a charter member, it was nice meeting friends from different walks of life. Some of them were quite wise and they influenced my thinking process in good way.

In ancient times or in gurukul days, it’s always students who go to guru’s place in search of knowledge. Here in Rotary, gurus themselves join the club so the student like us could quench our thirst for knowledge.

We are all connected. In Rotary, we learn disease anywhere is disease everywhere. We realize you can’t be happy when others are suffering. We contribute time, talent or money to fight disease, hunger, illiteracy and poverty.

Here we begin to understand the value of ‘service above self’. When we do something for less comfortable, we develop compassion; then we gradually see ourselves in eyes of less privileged. We see no difference between haves & have nots. We experience different kind of happiness when we learn to give without expecting anything in return.

I always enjoyed doing projects which shows quick results (short term projects) like providing computers, printers, photocopy machines, dictionaries, encyclopedia, organizing blood donation camps, eye check-up camps, health camps, scholarships and school uniform distribution etc. Through some wise senior friends in Rotary, I learned  that we should also do a ‘long term projects’, the result of which we may not see immediately like in CLE (concentrated Language Encounter) project our club did. The result can be seen only 15 to 20 years later or perhaps, it is for future generations to analyze. When I talk about long term project I feel we should also do projects like preservation of big and small rivers (tributaries) in valley. This is one project I feel all the Rotarians in the valley should take up seriously. The rivers and it’s tributaries are drying up (except during rainy season) due to over use or global warming. It would be nice to see rivers clean and beautiful. Occasionally, we have had planted plants in the river corridor. But I feel we should do more with the sense of urgency.  We should save the river for future generation.  Also, We should appreciate our government for renovating  & expanding wastewater treatment plant and running it smoothly in Gujeswori Kathmandu. All Rotarians  should persuade the government to  complete wastewater treatment plants in Lalitpur (Balkumari & Dhobighat) and Bhaktapur (Sallaghari) as soon as possible.

When we go abroad we see rivers always enhance the beauty of the city. Though rivers are so sacred and holy for all of us; we have polluted them so much. Still it is never too late to contribute in our own modest way to keep our sacred rivers and tributaries clean and beautiful. We should refrain from throwing our garbage and putting sewage pipe directly into the rivers. We can all can keep our river corridors tidy and maintain the greenery. He profits most who serves best.

Finally, I would say the Rotary is the place where you make lifelong friendship with the people who believe in humanitarian and community service. Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah.   – Thank you