Ranabir Bhattacharjee
Indian-origin entrepreneurs Vikash and Madhurita Jayaswal have successfully embarked on their maiden historic Everest Base Camp Trek with their kids Vivaan and Tarannum. They began their trek on the 1st of November 2023. Their campaign is to fundraise for their school Galaxy Gurukul in the Madhyagram, Kolkata, enabling the students at Galaxy Gurukul to reach for the stars. Previously, the family completed their 150-day preparatory phase, working day in and day out. The Jayaswal family has their roots in Kolkata, as both Vikash and Madhurita completed their education here. Their company Galaxy of Homes Ltd has a presence in both India and the UK.
In his early days, life hasn’t been too kind for Vikash Jayaswal. His awe-inspiring story is no less than a fairy tale. In his own words,” I belonged to a lower-middle-class family and lost my father before I was born, and this threw me, my mother, brothers, and sister into poverty for a significant time. My education was stopped twice due to a lack of funds and even putting food on the table was a challenge.” In the case of Madhurita, her upbringing, though in better circumstances had its fair share of day-to-day challenges as well. Things didn’t come easy at all. However, crossing the hurdles one at a time, eventually, the young dynamic couple became super cool Chartered Accountants.
The Galaxy of Homes has been creating employment in both India and the UK. In the UK, the company has a dedicated team of 50+ employees whereas a team of 30+ employees operates in the India office. Both teams are constantly connected via calls, WhatsApp and Zoom. In fact, Vikash and Madhurita have made sure that the established hierarchies are in place across various branches, which are being headed by managers providing prompt reports on the day-to-day activities in the office.
Why Galaxy Gurukul? In this regard, Vikash and Madhurita are very clear with their thought process, “After successfully building Galaxy of Homes and having our fair share of success, we wanted to give back to society. We have been thinking about what we could do for the last few years. We thought of a food bank but decided to open a school because it makes a bigger long-term difference in society. Nothing beats education. The initial hiccups were to successfully transform a building into a functioning school and get the word out to the marginalised section of society. A major ongoing struggle is convincing parents from these poor backgrounds to send their children to school where instead they would have otherwise become child labourers.”
The Galaxy Gurukul looks forward to making a difference in society. This school is for underprivileged children, of whom the majority of the students are first-generation learners. These kids, without proper access to education, would have been lost and succumbed to the evils of society like getting involved in petty crimes and others. At present, there are almost a hundred students at Galaxy Gurukul. No doubt, Galaxy Gurukul near Madhyamgram has received wide reception from all.
The whole idea of planning an Everest Basecamp Trek wasn’t a random one. In the UK, people take up all sorts of challenges to raise funds. The Jayaswal family thought that they should do something exceptional and out-of-the-box as well to raise the rather large 50,000 GBP or roughly 50 lakh rupees for the cause, to improve the infrastructure of Galaxy Gurukul. The EBC trek is undoubtedly a major part of that goal.
The 150-day preparatory phase for the Jayaswal family had been a gruelling one. The family had hiked to 14 prominent mountains in the UK (Mt Snowdon in Wales, the Peak District, and other significant ones) with a total approximating 30,000 feet. Then there were 3-4 days of rigorous weight training and daily steps counted anywhere between 10-15000 steps for each member which amounts to well over 6 million steps within the family. They trained under Jack Clarke who himself has successfully simulated the step mill challenge, scaling an estimated 44,250 steps to scale Everest over 12 gruelling hours.
One can only hope the dreams of the Jayaswal family are fulfilled in the near future. The Jayaswal couple has already planned for Galaxy Gurukul, step by step. Right now, the school lacks basic infrastructure like desks, a library, a computer room, a proper playground and all. The Galaxy Gurukul management is looking to increase the capacity from 300 at present to 600 students and extend the level of education to ‘Class 8’.
As of now, the campaign has gathered fifty percent of their target. Although Madhurita Jayaswal fell ill in between, the Jayaswal family along with the kids, is now safe and sound. May the force be with them!
