“What a beautiful world we live in. It is a world of extreme joy and of extreme pain and suffering. A world full of sunshine and rain, it is a world full of life, and sad to say, of painful death. It is full of inequalities of riches in the west and of hardship in the developing nations. There is a distinct lack of food, water and shelter, and an overwhelming fight against disease, pest and drought.” – Jay Tailor
Over the last year and a half, Abhi has been working with The U foundation Charity which “helps to promote self sustainability through the provision of food, water and shelter and by way of empowering people to achieve this by themselves.” It has its administration base situated Hinckley but it operates 5,000 miles south in four main locations in Zambia. It reached charitable status in 2006, and from then on has grown in size and has successfully been fundraising and aiding those less fortunate than ourselves even more.
1. How did you get involved in doing these events for charity?
I’ve always enjoyed helping people, and one of the easiest ways to aid in such a way is to get stuck in, hands on, with a charity which you are regularly involved in. So The U foundation being so close to home, operating from Hinckley and Leicester provided a firm basis. I also play the Sitar, which parallel to the music aspect; I have been fundraising from charity events, festivals and various performances to donate to The U Foundation. So a direct link was set up since then, and last year I had the opportunity to travel with my family and the charity to Zambia where it operates and see for myself, where the money I raised was going to.
2. I bet that seeing first hand the effect the money that you raised has, made the effort worthwhile, and was it emotional in any way for you to know you’ve made such a difference?
When I landed in Zambia last August, it was an amazing feeling. It was the first time I had stepped into Africa, first time below the equator, and it was a different feeling which I experienced on my trip. I visited three out of the four areas where The U foundation operates, and for the first time I experienced real poverty, children orphaned due to AIDs related diseases. For the first time I realised how important a glass of water and a grain of rice can be. I saw how much we in the UK take for granted, and it really moved me and made me think. But the most amazing thing I remember from the journey is that everyone was smiling, all the kids were running around and having fun, with what little they had. Shoes made from plastic bottles, and a small football made of a stone wrapped around with old rags. Here I realised why I was raising money for charity, and how the money I would eventually raise would help them in much more than one way. I visited a range of schools, ranging from kids as young as 2, to senior schools where some children has aspirations to become lawyers and medics…but just lacked the educational services, even though they gave their all to what they had. I spoke to one boy who was 15, “I walk to school with my brother and sister who are 4 and 6, they go to the preschool and I go to the middle school. We walk about 5miles every morning to travel to school. Then we walk home and then we have to find firewood, cook, tidy up and sleep. Our parents died when we were young, and now we do all the work…but now I can come to school and study, I would like to become rich and help my brother and sister more…” I put myself in his shoes, and then realised how much hardship these kids go through. Come the blistering heat, the torrential rain or the unpleasantly cold nights, they don’t have parents; they don’t have brick houses with central heating and double glazed windows with blankets or just clothes to keep them warm. They live in mud-huts which are open, and often collapse in the torrential rain, these kids walk up to 17km a day just to fetch firewood and water to cook with and keep warm! These things we don’t see in Britain, but it’s out there in many more places just like this. It is really moving to interact with these children who can’t complain, who will they complain to? They can’t give up, or they will die, and thrive on what they have, yet they miraculously keep a smile on their faces! The money which I raised is going to help in the development of the schools and the investment in Solar Cookers so that these villages can cook using the sun, rather than having to walk 17km. After all that long and deep explanation, yes it had a phenomenal emotional impact on not just me, but my whole family. I think it’s fair to say that after that experience, I look at life in a different view, remembering those children who I visited every day.
3. Whose idea was it anyway to catapult yourself off Victoria Falls Bridge all in the good name of charity?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCuiiKUZjDQ
Well since I found out that I was visiting Zambia on this charity trip, I wanted to do a bit of fundraising to donate for the cause. I told people and I was collecting coppers for a week…ended up with about £5 in coppers. I thought to myself…ok I need an event that I can do to raise some “proper” money. I researched Zambia, and found that there was a Bungee Jump at the Victoria Falls Bridge, which incidentally happened to be the 2nd highest bungee from a base. As soon as I told people what I intended to do, I was raking donations, from £5 to £150! Eventually I ended up having raised around £1200 which Bablake helped raise £650.55. My target was around £300, so I was really surprised to realise how much funds had been raised. I felt quite good about myself until I reached that dreaded day, when I actually had to leap into thin air, fall 366ft with nothing but a piece of “string” attached to my ankles!!!. It was definitely the most nerve-racking thing I have ever put myself up for, but it was definitely was the most intense experience I have encountered…besides numerous numbers of people warning me of the dangers and just trying to make me back out of it (especially my mum). I still went for it, I leaped off that platform, to hurl myself toward the River Zambezi rapids below me and bungee back up and down repeatedly till I was swinging upside down under the bridge. At this point I couldn’t tell which way was up or down since my head was so confused with the motion. When I got up to the bridge again…after finding my own two feet, I knew that I had accomplished what I had come out for. Knowing that all that money which was raised was going to effectively be used for a cause I had dedicated myself to, and back home I could prove that I had done what I had promised to do.
4. So tell me about London to Paris, all on a bike? That’s got to hurt…
In July this year, after the stress of exams was out, I embarked on a four day cycling trip from London to Paris which was 300 miles. I rode with 19 other people and 4 support staff. We rode from London from 7am through Kent, into Dover on the first day, in extreme cycling conditions, torrential rain, partially flooded roads, and gale force winds over steep undulating hills reaching speeds of 45mph downhill. These 95 miles were the most demoralising part of our journey, yet we over came the weather, the miserable mood, and the one major incurred by a guy from Zambia!, he had a crushed shoulder after colliding and crashing into the floor on a downhill…he had to have immediate surgery and therefore could not carry on the journey…also after the many punctures and we reached a cloudy Calais after catching the ferry at 5.30pm to reach at 8pm. A bed has never seemed so comfortable before that day. The second day was rain, but it was warmer, which boosted our moods, a slightly easier, but still very wet 75 miles through field upon field from Calais to Abbeville. The third day the sun finally came out, and off came the waterproofs…after the two days we had endured before, these next two days came as a breeze to us, with the sun blazing and the shades on, a very calm 70 miles route from Abbeville through small French villages to warm sunny Beauvai s. The last day was the most uplifting and energy filled day, “just ” 6 0 miles (compared to the first day’s 95 miles) from Beauvais to Paris. Spirits were high, we had done it, we had endured 4 days of sore backsides, and tiresome legs. But we gave it our all on the last day; we regrouped four miles from the Eiffel Tower, we had reached the city we set out to reach! I did the last couple of miles on a “Raleigh Chopper Bike” being suicidal whilst riding round the Arc de Triomphe…but we didn’t care, we waved our flags, rung our bells, We had successfully cycled 300 miles in all kinds of conditions, losing a fellow cyclist to the elements but we made it to the Eiffel Tower. I was speechless when we arrived, phones were crazy, ringing parents and friends, then it hit me “I just finished cycling from London to Paris!” It was possibly the greatest sense of achievement for me…Although my “derrière” could only possibly be resembled by the “Japanese Flag” …yet I am still crazy enough to want to do it again…was a wonderful “Sunday lunch” type of ride…well…kind of!
5. So what does the future have in store for you, Mr. Bose?”
Oh…that’s a hard one…I think the simple answer is that going to have a year off from doing anything crazy…might actually use my summer to relax for once this coming year. Maybe in the future, I wouldn’t mind trying to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. Or travelling to see the Inca trails would be interesting. But as ever, the charity work will carry on, and I will keep up the fundraising. You will still see my brother and I play music in charity concerts to raise money for this charity and many others.