Ujwal Thapa — The Phenomenal Man I Knew.
During my engineering school a good friend of mine, decided to drop out of the university. He needed advice and word of encouragement but he found none, instead all he got was words of warnings and discouragement. “You will regret”, “you are a fool”. The friend said to me he would like to meet Ujwal Thapa, who was my uncle and someone he idolized for his success in building a business in IT and then hoping to politics to spark a change. A meeting was arranged, where we had dinner together.
I remember my friend’s hesitation as he told Ujwal “I — I… I have decided to drop out and start a venture instead” and I remember Ujwal’s face, he had no change of expression, for I was looking into how he would react. I don’t remember the exact conversation that went on in that room, but I remember my friend, with ease, being able to talk to him about his struggles with studies and how he was already frustrated by the country’s and his own problems. Ujwal, gave him nothing but encouragement and how he has nothing to worry about and just go for it and advice of try to do something that will make you money, even while you are asleep. There was no dramatic big motivational speech included. The friend came out of the room, such a relived happy face, a smile on his face, and his words to me “first-person to not judge me based on my decision.”
(The friend now has a very successful venture based in Pokhara which has developed some of the most popular apps of Nepal. I don’t know if he credit’s any of this to Ujwal’s talk that day but I know the talk had helped him a lot in that situation. After Ujwal passed away, he wrote to me “…That moment Ujwal dai was the only light that I saw on the other end of the tunnel”.)
And that was the man I know Ujwal Thapa as.
- Ever approving of unconventional ideas.
- Ever encouraging to bring out the leadership in you. Especially, entrepreneurial leadership.
- Somehow, charismatic (even though he wasn’t really or pretended to be so)
While I was an engineering student, we invited Ujwal as a guest speaker. He gave his talk about “How to run an IT company catering to the world ?”. He talked about his journey of how he started his company in Nepal as a one-man-show to a company with 35 staffed one, all amidst constant power cut-offs, next to impossible to work with internet and civil war going on. And how does he end the talk? “And we are here to tell you, you can do it too. In fact, it’s a great time to start, you are a student with nothing to lose. Start now” then legal and administrative tips to start one.
(2 years later, while still a student me and my friends started a venture while we were still a student at the university. His words in that talk were my source of encouragement while I started my entrepreneurial journey.)
He would always advise me not to be “yet another-pampered-college graduate”, who has had no worldly experience, just to be an incompetent member of society and workforce. The screenshot below is a conversation of us, where he is reminding me of this while we talked about my higher studies plan.
After I joined university, he would keep reminding me of this with added words of advice “don’t worry about missing classes for any out of the classroom, real-world learning experiences. It will always be worth it”. Very radical advice to a middle-class family college student of Nepal.
(I did have 2 on-campus jobs, and 1 off-campus job, started a venture, and volunteered at different clubs while I was a student and missed lots of classes. I am sure, Ujwal’s encouragement had a big role that pushed me towards those)
Ujwal’s modest political movement in 2010/2011 was appealing to join for it was a motorcycle rally with “Nepal Khulla Chha” banners defying Bandhas and tyre burning. The frustrated youth in me, infuriated with bandhas, was joyful on hearing the very notion of “Nepal Khulla Cha”. All pumped up to be a 2-wheeler soldier until my mom restricted me to go (at least not until I have a driving license). But then the simple but daring notion of his made me admire his political stances and preach about it. I volunteered in his campaign and participated in his activism.
He genuinely and persistently believed Nepal deserves better, Nepal can do better.
There will be tons of articles, tweets and Facebook status updates how Ujwal inspired them for their politics, or how visionary of a leader he was and more. I have already read most by the evening he passed away.
LBlunt honesty though, never felt he was a very outspoken leader: His debut to political speech is 2 minutes long with no much of charisma or emotional fuel. Yet he never pretended to be one. He believed in his deeds than his talks. But this very genuineness and honesty made him very likable among apolitical urban youth.
Here are some of the instances that I have witnessed.
- A group of my a-political friends who were on a day out in Kathmandu from the Dhulikhel saw a protest under the Bibeksheel Nepali banner (political party co-founded by Ujwal). They canceled the day out to stand in the protest.
- An a-political friend of mine rented out a bicycle just to join in a cycle rally for Ujwal’s election campaign.
- On the first election, Ujwal had contested, an online news portal broke out faux news about Ujwal (and his panel). Youths who were in no way attached to his political campaign got together to DDoS and get the website down.
- A friend and his girlfriend, who are in no way affiliated with Ujwal or his political party, donated at the fund collected for Ujwal’s treatment. It became the biggest crowd-funded campaign in 24 hours in Nepal amassing 50 lakhs.
- His family handed over his funeral service and ritual to his friends (the other family he had made) that were all connected to him because Ujwal had a huge impact and influence in their lives, who were there for him throughout his final days managing everything for him and his family, despite the COVID19 pandemic and lockdown situation.
No, he wasn’t a very charismatic leader. Yet, somehow, yes!!! He was a very charismatic leader.
Ujwal was a person who was ALWAYS READY to challenge the social norms he deemed in-justice and encouraged everyone else to challenge them. Even if it meant awkward dinners in the family gatherings. And I idealized this trait of his. Somehow, he was charismatic.
Earlier today In a ClubHouse room “Tribute to Ujwal Thapa”, I heard someone say Ujwal Thapa was a personality of his own and if you want to know him, read his blog. His blog has documented him all. Even his blog’s name, Why Nepal. When an average person starts a blog, the domain is their name. Who names their blog Why Nepal, except Ujwal.
So if you want to know this man, he has documented himself well in and now lives through his blogs, his YouTube channel, his Twitter, his Instagram, his Facebook, and of course, every one of us that he has influenced.
And I write this article to reflect on it, whenever I am in need of inspiration from Ujwal Thapa — the phenomenal man I knew.
