Gyan Singh Rawat - SBMA

I was born on 10th October 1973, in Chamiyadi Village, PO Jamnikhal, Distt. Tehri (Garhwal). My mother was my father's second wife, due to which we were not very much cared for. We had heard a lot of appraisal about Swami Ji, his Ashram and their work for the upliftment of the community, so we decided to leave home and live in the Ashram in 1976.

Life in the beginning, at the Ashram, was very tough and we went through a lot of hardships. We didn't have any beds to sleep on, clothes to wear or food to eat. Our daily routine was to milk the cows, work in the fields and sell the produce to buy some of the rations. Due to scarcity of food we sometimes ate boiled corn, for days at a stretch. Though I faced a lot of problems and severe conditions during this part of my life, still I learnt a lot from it and it is still helping me to face life, in the present. I was very young, about four years old, when I met Swami Ji, so I don't recall much but of whatever I can remember, he had a magnetic personality and whosoever came in contact with him, got a positive impact in their lives. I was very close to him and felt bad about the way he died. He should not have had this kind of a death.

I received my primary education in Kaintholi village and secondary education in Anjanisain. During my schooling in Anjanisain, we had separate uniforms for girls and boys and since I did not have a proper one, I had to wear the girl's uniform. I was teased and bullied by the rest of the children at school.

After completing intermediate, I did my graduation through Sociology & Anthropology and post-graduation through Social Anthropology. In 1999, I joined the SBMA office as a Purchase Officer, then went on to become the Habitat Coordinator and presently, am the Joint Secretary of SBMA. During my work in the Ashram, I went back to my village (Chamiyadi) and there I initiated development programs like Watershed Management and Panchayti Raj Institutions.

The Ashram gave me everything - food, shelter, education, love & benevolence, exposure and learning. It is a platform where anybody who is interested to do anything can very well do it. The most important thing in life for me is to always do better and improve on whatever we have.

I never thought what I wanted to be, where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. All I knew was, that I wanted to work for the betterment of the society, as a whole and work towards the all round development of the community.