When his grandfather died, and there were funeral ceremonies spread over several days, the fact that there wasn't a single well maintained crematorium in and around Goregaon, a suburb in Mumbai where they had resided, left businessman Aneel Murarka and his father Kashiprasad Murarka deeply saddened. So much so that the Murarkas decided to do something about it.
With the support of local government officials, Murarkas built Shivdham, a new crematorium in Goregaon. The state-of-the-art crematorium has all the facilities to ensure that the last rites of the dead are fulfilled peacefully.
Aneel Murarka is a businessman and runs Mirachem Industries, which has been manufacturing specialty chemicals for textiles for more than 35 years. But, more close to heart perhaps is philantrophy.
The Murarkas run Samarpn, a family trust that focuses on the construction of various public service projects. Separately, there is Ample Mission, which carries out various social awareness programmes.
The crematorium that was built in Mumbai in 2011 is just one of many activities of Murarka's philantrophic work.
They have constructed an air-conditioned bus stand at their village of Lachhmangarh, as a part of their efforts to give back to their roots.
Aneel and his father are also trustees at the Narayani Dham, a sprawling temple complex, which focuses uplifting marginalised and impoverished communities through awareness campaigns.
Separately, through Ample Mission, Murarka has carried out various activities like medical camps for police personnel, stationary distribution for children, filing potholes on streets and even milk distribution on Maha Shivartri, among other things.
Ample Mission has also produced many short films that aim to raise awareness and promote social messages, be it around eye donation, to the value of girl child and cleanliness mission.
"Our short films give a social message. The idea was to appeal the masses and raise awareness among them. When Aneel Murarka speaks, people may not listen. So how to reach out to the masses was via bollywood faces. When they talk something, it hits the masses," said Murarka.
Ample Mission has also held various award function to honor the differently-abled, martyrs of the armed forces to honoring common people with a brave heart.
"There are so many unsung heroes of life, the government can't reach everywhere. We try to hunt those faces, bring them to a common platform and honour those faces. The thought behind that is to give them upliftment, honour the work that they are doing and to let them know that the society needs them," noted Murarka.
Whatever you have, has come from the society, and when you leave this world, you go empty handed, so its important that every individual should contribute to the good of the society, says Murarka. Clearly, he not just preaches that, but also practices it in his daily life.
