Boss turns Shravan for staffers’ parents

SURAT: Emulating Shravan Kumar, a diamond merchant here has sent the parents of all his employees on a 17-day pilgrimage of Haridwar and Rishikesh. In all, 1,100 elderly people embarked on the pilgrimage on Monday by two AC trains — Valsad-Haridwar Express and Dehradoon Express — with a group of 35 swyamsevaks who will look after them for the entire period.
A charitable trust run by Harikrishna Exports, the diamond firm, will spend Rs 50 lakh on this tour meant for the parents of 350 employees.
Savji Dholakia, owner of Harikrishna Exports, a Rs 1,600-crore diamond polishing firm, said, "I never forget that I am what I am today because of my workers. But, I also remember that above my workers are their parents and so it becomes our duty to accept their debt in our life and repay it if we can."
"The idea of this pilgrimage came to us when we saw many workers struggling to find time and money necessary for 15-17 days of pilgrimage for their parents in comfort required for old age. We thought if we could take all of them at a time and give them the satisfaction of Ganga snan, nothing would be better," said Dholakiya.
"Our estimates show that we would spend nearly Rs 40,000 per person and they would be provided total comfort. They would be put up at different ashrams like Premanand Ashram and all their requirements would be taken care of," said Aashish Desai of Harikrishna Exports.
"We have not put any tab on expenses as we are looking at giving maximum comforts to our elderly parents," said Desai. "Thirty-five of our colleagues have volunteered to take care of the pilgrims."