Gaumaya: The Person and The Persona
If you’re one of those people who like to put down beauty pageant participants as superficial and daft, Miss UK Nepal 2011, Gaumaya Gurung’s story will eradicate all your preconceptions. If the extensive amount of social service she has done so far is not enough to convince you, one meeting with this completely down-to-earth but passionately and practically idealistic personality is sure to melt your hard cynicism.
While you might be sitting there in your comfort zone, shaking your head to the degenerating values of women, engaged in such discussions with ‘like-minded intellectuals’, Gaumaya has been fundraising for various charities including Maiti Nepal, supporting initiatives like Hamri Bahini and crossing borders to donate books to rural areas like Jajarkot, Nepal, to mention just a few of her recent activities. Along the way she has inspired and challenged young women and men alike to do the same. Indeed, she has proved to be much more than her title and this article based on an interview with DREAMS reveals Gaumaya as an ordinary person, much like you and me, with extraordinary drive to serve.
In Conversation with Jerusha Rai. Photographer: Nilesh Singh
Family comes first?
Gaumaya comes from a lineage of Gurkha soldiers. She is the first generation in her family to receive higher education, and yet credits her family for teaching her about honesty and hard work, maintaining that she inherited her giving nature from her mother. She is the middle child with an older and a younger brother and currently resides in North West London. As with any philanthropist, she seems to have contradictory feelings when it comes to family life: whether to put her family ahead of work or to attend the calling of caring beyond the personal circle.
No excuses
Indeed, when asked whether she thinks social work is a choice or a moral duty, without blinking, Gaumaya says it’s the latter. She provides a befitting analogy of an ecosystem. “Every member of the system must give back what they can, otherwise resources are exhausted and the whole balance crumbles.” She goes on to explain that whatever we have accomplished did not come from individual effort but because, along the way, people provided help and support. If we do not do the same for others, progress stops.
“Life doesn’t go as planned”
It comes as a surprise when someone with a portfolio like Gaumaya’s says something like that. Gaumaya had varied interests growing up and admits she could not sustain many of them long enough. She fondly recollects mischievous memories of cutting up her grandmother’s old clothes for her own designs and recording herself talking on cassette tapes. In retrospect, she finds she always had a lot to express. Gaumaya only stumbled upon social work as an outlet to express her love for the country and its people, when she volunteered as required for her university application. It was an organization supporting people affected by Down’s syndrome. The things she came across while working there, she relates, were “heart-breaking” but also “heart-strengthening” as this gave her the push she needed to pursue social activism as a way of life. She admits to being a bit stubborn and short-tempered as a child, but she is on her way to becoming her ideal self by being open to all prospects that life brings.
Negotiations: not as hard as they seem
There is always the issue of negotiating between your career advancement and integrating social service in daily practise. Gaumaya strongly advocates doing what you are best at for the sake of others. Currently training to be an optometrist, she plans on continuing serving people with free treatments for those who can’t afford it. In addition, she continues to use her title and connections to serve as a bridge for making collaborations between different social circles possible. “We seem to be on a continuous race; trying to score best at exams, ace job interviews and so on. Well, what about the test of life? How human and holistic are we?” she asks, arguing that the point is to be happy, not come first in the proverbial race. Social service, she admits, takes a lot of time and perseverance but nobody can be excused from doing little helpful things for people around them, for example just giving someone your seat on the train. “It is these intangible achievements that matter more in life”, she says with a knowing smile.
Presenting Rewards in Gorkha, Nepal
Social service: not as easy as it seems
Gaumaya’s mountain of work so far can easily baffle any writer google-ing her, trying to figure out what to start with to talk about. Always seen smiling while going about challenging charity works, she makes it look like a nice walk in the park. Only when asked does she reveal the challenges she has faced during her years of experience. She is, firstly, concerned by the dependence of beneficiaries on NGOs and volunteers. In her recent trip to Jajarkot, where she took the 1000 books that she had collected to donate to a school there, she was met by an unimpressed and disappointed response. “Is this all?” she remembers them saying. Gaumaya points to a growing culture of expecting more and more from NGOs and perhaps even laziness on the part of beneficiaries. She has now made it a point to provide her time and service instead of just fundraising, with the awareness that the priority is to empower the beneficiaries to become independent. Besides this, Gaumaya’s challenges have mostly been psychological. She relates that she has as much insecurity as the next person, “but the real struggle is filling your mind with positive thoughts. If you can maintain that, you can also exude positivity around you”.
With Students in Jajarkot, Nepal
A Plea to all Nepali Youth
Gaumaya observes that volunteering culture among our generation has gotten a lot better but there is a hint of warning in her voice when she says “We must not get caught up in comfort”. She is also very particular about promoting Nepali culture. “Look at this” she says, pointing to her dhaka patterned top. “Isnt it just as pretty as Western designer clothing?” She calls on all Nepali youth to listen to Nepali music, read literature and support Nepali industries to maintain their pride and love for the country. She also points out that there is an abundance of issues and needs that Nepali youth abroad can help with, so are the ways in which they can provide that help: the straightforward fundraising, offering your professional services, using artistic talent to add to Nepali culture or introduce it to others and, quite simply, being nice to each other, appreciating our own diversity. Gaumaya, though her title and plethora of work may suggest otherwise, says she is just a normal human being. She readily talks about her own limitations but believes there is no excuse big enough to keep ourselves from pursuing our full potential. This is one beauty queen who makes you see past looks, focus on the person that she is and inspect our basic moral obligations and the needs of a whole nation.
More Pictures Below:
Volunteering at Para-Olympics 2012
Donating Eyeglasses/Frames at Tilganga Hospital, Kathmandu
With Anuradha Koirala, Maiti Nepal
Categorised in: Features