PAD YATRA TO PALITANA…………by The Oshwal Walkers UK

Article by:

Jenu Dodhia
Past Treasurer, OAUK, 1973-75

(especially for our Gujarati readers, this article can also be read in Gujarati.
click here for the Gujarati version)

I had a dream………once upon a time….……to walk to Palitana again, just for fun, with fun-loving friends, walking in twos and threes, from dawn till dusk, in the scorching heat of Gujarat, talking and singing, enjoying the countryside, the flora and the fauna, tasting the local delicatessen along the way, and making fun of each other, bonding with one another all the way.

So I talked with a few of my previous walking companions, respected Shri Kantibhai Haria (a leading benefactor of the Oshwal Derasar Project and a very active senior citizen), Rajni Bharmal Shah (past Treasurer of OAUK), Shashi Premchand Lalji Haria (past Vice-President of OAUK and current Chairman of South Area), and all the others one by one, and was very positively supported by all to go for it. So much so that Kantibhai, Rajni and Shashi agreed to join me for the walk, not just for fun, but to raise even more funds for a cause, be it the Oshwal Jain Derasar Project (which is still short of its target requirement), the Oshwal Elderly Welfare Association’s need to buy a Day Centre for use by its members, or the Diabetes UK, for its massive research to find a cure for diabetes, a silent disease, an invisible disease. Two of us are diabetic, and elderly, but all of us are supporters of the Jain movement.

So we started meeting together, to organise the walk, and to recruit more participants, as we needed to be a group of 8 walkers. Thus Ashok Gudka agreed to join the walk, followed by respected Shri Prabhulal Malde (current Chairman of NW Area), respected Shri Laxmichandbhai (past Chairman of NW Area) and Nilesh Dhanraj Shah (current committee member of NW Area). Ashok has helped in organising the first Chopdapujan at Oshwal Centre, which has since become an annual event. He is co-ordinating the administration and financial matters of this project.

Actually, the dream was to do the walk from Dwarka to Palitana, via Jamnagar, a total distance of some 400 kilometres, over 14 days, but some members of our consortium could not spare the extra days to do the walk, so the Dwarka to Jamnagar section was eliminated, and it has been decided to do a repeat Jamnagar to Palitana walk over 9 days starting from Jamnagar on 22/10, reaching Palitana on 30/10 or 31/10, with a view to climb Shatrunjaya Hill to seek Dada’s darshan on Diwali Day (01/11/05) and to return to Jamnagar on 02/11/05 (New Year’s Day).

It will be a SPONSORED WALK event, and we hope that many of you will become generous to sponsor us for any one, two or all of the causes for which we are walking, i.e., diabetes research, purchase of a day centre for the Oshwal Elderly, and the Oshwal Jain Derasar project at Oshwal Centre.

It has been unanimously agreed that 100% of the funds raised for the respective causes will be donated to the appropriate charities, and all the expenses of travel to/from India as well as all the expenses during the walk will be met personally by all the walkers.

We have named our group as The Oshwal Walkers UK, and have set up a website, which can be accessed at www.oshwalwalkers.org and which is linked with OAUK website www.oshwal.org, Oshwal Elderly Welfare Association website www.oewa.org.uk and Diabetes UK website www.diabetes.org.uk. We are indeed greatly obliged to Paresh Devchand Shah (Virparia) of Khubi.com for designing maintaining and hosting our website, and for publicising our quest for raising funds for charitable causes, whilst not being able to join us also in our adventure for this year.

Jai Jinendra. Jai Oshwal.