Retired but not tired, the spirit of Lalmohan Guria makes him livelier than a youth. His works speaks loud, for which we can say he is an inspiration for any other youth. Far away from hassle bustle of daily news, demonetisation, politics and the rat race in the market of competition, a retired police constable Lalmohan Guria in the Nadia district of West Bengal has been training village women how to make handicrafts so that they can enhance their family income, to have a little better and dignified life.

A little more than 60 years youngLalmohan Guria, who is a resident of Bhandarkhola village in Krishnagar, the district headquarter of Nadia District of West Bengal, a prominent place of historical importance of Vaishnava Movement has become a change maker once again making the place a movement for women upliftment.

Since February this year Lalmohan Guria has trained more than 100 women belonging to the poor economic background. The women are wives of drivers, cycle-van operators and farm laborers.

Every day from morning to evening, Guria visits villages in the area to organise free sessions on how to make home decor and other items such as models of Lalan Fakir, lamp shades, flower vases, trays, tooth brush holders, decorative containers, fruit boxes, spice containers, jewellery boxes, pen stands and flower pot holders.

An ardent devotee and follower of 19th century mystic poet and saint Lalan Fakir, Guria says,“I learnt from Lalan’s songs that man is the ultimate God. So, by helping the poor, I feel I am praying before God.”

With this inspiration after his retirement Lalmohan Guria started his work now the women, who have started making handicrafts, have been selling them in village fairs, which are fetching good money as the prices range between Rs 20 and Rs 500 a piece of item.

“I use easily available materials such as jute and wood. I supply the materials and teach the women how to prepare the handicrafts. At times, I also take the products to fairs,” Guria said.

The materials required to make the handicrafts include jute threads, needles, adhesives, scissors, chisels, hammers and other carpentry tools, which Guria himself bought spending some 4000 rupees to buy the tools as initial investment.

“This is my passion. I am not a trained artisan. During my life as a constable, I could not do all this. After retirement, I decided to share my knowledge with the village women, who find it difficult to make ends meet,” said Guria, while speaking to Youthens News.

Lalmohan Guria has also organised a number of handicrafts exhibitions on Lalan Fakir and of home decor at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshanshala in Calcutta and have achievement acknowledgment for his efforts.

A share of the profits from the exhibitions goes to the village women.

“My desire to help the villagers became stronger after I retired and shifted to my home in Bhandarkhola in February this year. I found that a large section of the people are extremely poor. My objective is to make them independent,” says Lalmohan Guria.

The efforts of Lalmohan Guria is not going waste, Shanti, whose husband is a farm laborer says, “What my husband earns is not much for the family of five of us, so to support the family I use to do odds jobs, but now we are having a dignified life with Kaka (Lalmohan Babu as fondly called) providing us work to lead a dignified life, we are very happy now”.

Guria says he was very inspired by the “Philosophy of Lalan Fakir”, but as government servant would not able to do much, now after retirement he has full fledgely involved himself fully in the upliftment of the people’s life as he says “I have read a lot about him and also listen to his songs. I try to share his thoughts with these people and encourage them to be good human beings“. The spirit makes Lalmohan Guria an inspiration for youth, he life teaches us, as at any age you can begin a new life, if you wish.

Tags: handicraftRural WomenSocial