Beyond that Gate!

Maybe I went near that gate for more than 20 times and always wished to go beyond it. Thousands of people entered and disappeared. I always used to sneak out and always have the imagination of different scenes beyond that Gate.

I grew up in a small village called Changu Narayan in a middle-class family. People in my village are happy with their small dreams and almost identical daily chores all the time. Being a female, I felt suffocated while growing up in society because of so many prejudices and gender discrimination. I felt nothing is new and was desperately waiting to escape and explore in all my youth. A sense of claustrophobic essence hunts my mind. Most of my friends ended up getting married and got busy raising kids at in early age and they never got any chance to have freedom in life to explore any new places or to learn any new things other than what a small village offers. The feelings of loneliness were crawling back to me as I was more inquisitive to explore a new place. For the moment, Life was stuck in a maze. I was screaming but people were busy fixing their earphones and I was crying but people were busy mending their spectacles. No idea where to start and where to finish. Life is full of miseries when one misery is over the other emerges soon. But I always used to believe that every cloud has a silver lining.

I never give up. Finally, in 2017, we founded the NGO: Girls Empowered by Travel Nepal with the help of national and international friends with a vision to empower the girls through travel and making them the community leaders. To acknowledge the needs of the girls like me get out of the frustration, we wanted to share the skills and knowledge to the young girls through the means of travel. Hundreds of young girls from rural and urban areas experienced meaningful travel by exchanging their ideas and skills with each other through many service learning and interaction programs within the past few years. They were never the same after travel.

One morning, while I was checking my emails, my eyes caught some words on the inbox about the 'With and For Girls Award'. Our team freaked out with happiness that we got selected and were invited to receive the award in London. We were so happy that we got selected from 170 organizations. Our dedication and hard work really pay off. To be honest, it wasn't an easy journey. We had many sleepless nights, never-ending discussions, abuse of Human Traffickers, crazy people and what not.....But we didn't give up and we never will. The world should know that goods deeds are unstoppable.

 Our GET-Family is big. It is growing day by day. Every day we are coming closer to our mission. The mission to create the Girl Travel Alliance in every corner of the world.

Finally, I got the pass to enter the gate and go beyond it. The pass wasn't just a paper for me. It was my rope to pull me in the bigger world. On that day, I realized how small we human being s are and how small space we occupy in the earth. All the credit goes to our team who helped me to get the pass and made me realize that Travel really empowers.

My first step at the airplane

I finally made it go beyond the Gate of Tribhuvan International Airport. I have been to the airport many times to drop my friends' bidding farewell or welcoming them back to Nepal. I promised myself that "One day I will go beyond this Gate" Here I am with the happy face mixture of excitement, fear, hope, and curiosity. I was trying to be normal but I simply couldn't. I was waiting for the moment to scream and say it, " See Pals, I did it. Nothing is impossible. If you dare it and follow with all your heart you can experience and live the dream." Even I wouldn't be caring if people found me crazy and bizarre.

The Journey starts from a small village to the city of dreams, London. I have watched so many movies shot in London and different parts of England. After 17 hours of Journey, we finally reached the city. The city is famous for its magnificent ancient buildings, the Palace of Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Tower of London, the London Eye and many others since the middle ages. And so many words to attract you on the walls.

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Life and living standards are totally different there than in my village. The magnificent buildings with great architectural details, clean streets and pavements, well-decorated shops and shopping malls, the retro-styled coffee shops and restaurants and so on draw my keen attention everywhere I roam during my stay there. The people I met were very helpful and polite and also well educated both academically and morally. The houses were very well managed and so neat and clean with space for a beautiful garden. It's very hard to see houses clustered and unmanaged like here in my country. The roads are so clean that I barely saw any dust or litters around it and I was comparing the dirty and muddy roads we have in here. I think we still need to learn and apply so many things in life to improve our lifestyle. We are still way behind in having a modern society in so many aspects. Probably illiteracy is the major factor.

Coming back to our own business:
'The Award Week' Celebrations start from an interacting session. Our team was involved in a week of celebration and discussion which follows: Collective Care and Wellbeing, Imagining our Feminist Future, Sisterhood and Solidarity, Networking, Donors meet up and Award Ceremony. We presented our collective manifesto to the World. In a big hall, there were different youths from 21 different countries representing 25 different women-led organizations working for girls in different parts of the world. Thank you so much With and For Girls Collective team at Purposeful for amazing life-time experiences and unique opportunities. The Opportunities to receive the award in London help me to come beyond that gate and beyond that sky, I used to see every night.  Now, I have sisters from five different regions. Sisters from different countries of the same mother.

2019 Award Winners at Southbank Center, London

My biggest strength- Pabitra Majhi, a true leader

               
It was the proudest moment for our team for being acknowledged in the international platform for the work we are doing now. The way we were empowering young girls through Travel was totally different.  Thank you WFG Collective at purposeful.

Thank you, Mark and Jonathan, for this opportunity

                                           
Girls Empowered by Travel was also one of the winners of the Ripon Racecourse Charity Christmas Dash. We were interviewed by Jonathan Mullin, Marketing Manager of Ripon Racecourse
It was a lovely visit. The footmarks of the horses remind us that our life is like a race, we are running after our name, fame, and money and ended with emptiness from the heart.

Interview: Ripon Race

                   I was one of the panelists of the WOW event, sharing the work  we are doing in Nepal

And our Travel Journey starts to explore the different parts of England. We are really grateful to Mark, Claire, Stephaine, Richard, Tom, Samphel and Arun to show us these amazing places. Within six days we got to see Covent Garden, London Eye and Buckingham Palace in London, Sunday Roast (Traditional English food) at Baldock, Riponrace course at Ripon, English tea at Harrogate, Cathedral at York, Beautiful Sunset at Thornham and Holkham, Colleges visit at Cambridge and Nepali families at Aldershot.

Ohoh what a trip it was!
We must say that our first travel was the best one.

Posing with my Genie in front of Buckingham Palace.

The queen was inside the palace and maybe she hears me giggling so loud. Pabitra Majhi asked our friend, Mark, "What is the reason behind the female holding the power in this giant country?". The history behind it was amazing. Ask Google dai if you want to know the history. I promise you will enjoy it.

Holi, Me, Claire, Mark, and  Luna in front of the Goddard's  House at Baldock

  And on that day, I learned people are rich by heart. We found this family in another part of the world.

And my cozy bed at Stephanie's Home

These people are my strength. They are my guardians, mentors, friends and what not? The time we spent together will be the best memories ever. I am very lucky to be part of this family.

Cathedral Visit

"York's cathedral church is one of the finest medieval buildings in Europe. The Minster is also known as St Peter's, its full name is the 'Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York'. 

  In front of Cambridge University

Youth like us die to be the students of Cambridge University but we were chilling out to see the beautiful ancient buildings and its structures of each college. Do you know who is the middle?  He is our superhero, Pabitra met him in a small village in Nepal back in 2017. a down to earth person recently shifted to the UK. Thank you,  Samphel Ji, for your Hospitality and touring us in Cambridge in the windy weather.

We are Nepali and proud to be known as "Bir Gorkhali"

Our Nepali team posing at BBC headquarter

Thank you Navin sir for letting us explore the BBC headquarter. He is currently working as an Environment correspondent at BBC World Service. About six thousand people from different parts of the are working under the same roof. What a proud moment to meet a multi-talent, genius Nepali in this biggest and worldwide service.

Two crazy Hitaishis, enjoying the  never-ending tides of the North sea

"Do you believe in destiny?" If somebody questioned me.. My answer will be..

''Hell yeah .... we two idiots are destined to be together, Togetherness for sharing crazy ideas for the communities, togetherness for sharing dreams"

Don't judge us. It was our first visit being out of our country, the first time to be on the plane, the first time to experience the underground tube and FastTrack train.

  "You know the first experience is the best experience that you hold to the end of your Life" I came beyond that Gate. The gate which was holding me back became my bridge partner to experience this beautiful part of the world. Travel has changed my perspective.

I came back to Nepal after 12 days with mixed feelings. Nepal has still way more to go. We youths have so many to-do lists. The unity of youth power can uplift the nation. We will reach there sooner and later.

I have listed the lessons I learned after my visit to the UK. 

"Don't waste your valuable time to be happy. You are the happiest being ever. The happiness is always within you just go beyond it. Grab it. Enjoy it. Experience it. See, you can be happy whenever you want!"