The Lone Guru of Pashupatinath

In the heart of Kathmandu’s stunning Pashupati funeral pyres, a world renowned destination for Hindu burials along the river, lies a Gurdwara run by a single man for decades. Once a place for drinking and gambling, our Guru cleaned up the building and established this place of worship open to all. Born in Nepal and converted to Sikhism after a trip to India at a young age, the Guru is an extremely humble man, very tolerant of those around him but slightly jaded to the new generation’s trajectory - living his life out in peace and offering wisdom to those who ask. He struggles to maintain the Gurdwara by himself, surviving off a modest stipend from the government as it is a Unesco World Heritage site. Ten minutes before the first earthquake hit, the Guru felt something wrong. He got up, walked outside, and held tight onto sturdy bars next to the Gurdwara just as the tremors struck. The structure just next to him crumbled in the quakes but miraculously the Gurdwara remained standing but structurally damaged. Caught between the corruption that rebuilders are involved in for renovating and the 10-12 years Unesco would take to rebuild this sacred structure, the Guru had to double his efforts in his old age to maintain the building himself.