Bikalpa- an Alternative in support with Sahaj, organized an entrepreneurship talk show program called “Udhyamika Kura” on 28 July 2022 at Hotel Shreekrishna Biratnagar. The program’s objective was to share positive and real stories of entrepreneurs to inspire a young generation with an entrepreneurship vision. The event’s guest speaker was Mr. Balaram Acharya, the pioneer of the Gorkha Department Store. The program was moderated by Mr. Basanta Adhikari.
Mr. Acharya began his session by sharing his personal entrepreneurial journey. He was born in Dorpa VDC of Khotang district, now Diktel Guwakot Majuvagadi Municipality Ward No. 8. Born as the youngest son in a large family of 15 brothers and sisters, Mr.Acharya prefers to introduce himself as a businessman as well as a farmer. He has reminisced many important events since he was 3 years old. He was taught at home by his elder brother and the retired army. During his early childhood, kerosene had just come into vogue in the mountains. He used to study by burning corn husks in the barn. Sometime later, the school that teaches up to 5th grade was opened, where he got admitted in the second grade. After completing his studies there, he was admitted to another school which was 3 hours away and had to be passed through the forest and river. Since there was no way to study near home, 12 years old Acharya was compelled to walk a long distance to reach school.
He remembered getting nearly attacked by a tiger on his way to school through a forest road. He said that he didn’t share the incident at home because of the fear of getting deprived of going to school. After completing his studies up to class 8, he completed his studies up to B.Com from Nagaland. He used to be involved in the agriculture profession by taking land on lease in Nagaland before doing business. He took 1400 bighas of land on lease and started sugarcane cultivation on 173 bighas of land; the rest of the land was leased to others, and a Nepali settlement was established, which is known as Balram Basti today.
He shared that while other people used to rest and play ludo-cards due to the extreme heat in Nagaland, he used to walk 4-5 kilometers and volunteered to learn to work at the Marwadi shop for a year without any payment. He had no plans to come to Nepal as everything was settled in Nagaland. But when his mother and brother came to Nagaland, his mother’s question, “Is money superior to you or your parents?” made him speechless. He decided to return back to Nepal and live with his parents.
He had to do some profession to earn a living after migrating to Morang’s Jahada VDC with his parents. Within a month of arriving at Jahada, he opened a grocery store. “ I was very happy to earn 21 rupees on the first day of my business, and later, the earning went 80 thousand to 1 lakhs rupees”, Acharya recalled.
He had a close relationship with Lakshman Tapadia, the director of Khukuri Mustard Oil, and together with his son Jitu Tapadia, Acharya thought of opening a department store. After all the planning and preparations, while consulting with Laxman Tapadia, he expressed that although the idea was sound, opening a departmental store was 20 years ahead of time. Acharya returned from Biratnagar to Itahari, worried about how to open a store alone after Jeetu denied doing it. On the way back, while he was tired, he took some rest at Rakesh Hardware located in Itahari the proprietor Rakesh, felt that Acharya was depressed and asked the reason. After explaining everything, Balram Acharya offered Rakesh a partnership. After he accepted the proposal, a departmental store was opened in Itahari.
He expressed that he endured lots of criticisms during the initial days of opening the store. People who knew him told that he had lost his mind. But due to the realization that the department store’s time has come, and if it is not run according to the right time, it will never be able to move forward,till today Gorkha department has not looked back, added Acharya.
Mr. Acharya also shared that 3-4 years ago, while Gorkha branches were opening in different places when the economic situation was a bit difficult, they had to bear the brunt of Covid. At that time, Gorkha Departmental Store had to bear a loss of around 95 crores. No one thought that Gorkha would come back again. But after selling one of the five stores located at Dharan, the Gorkha Departmental Store, which is now in 4 places, has come to a state of smooth operation. That’s why director Acharya thinks one should not hesitate to make quick decisions in difficult situations.
Acharya currently runs various businesses such as department stores at Itahari, Pathri, Biratchowk, and Damak, Gorkha Hotel with 42 rooms in Itahari, Gorkha bakery, cow farm, milk production, goat rearing, vegetable farming, egg production, etc., which directly employs 14-1500 people. He opined, “If there is no competition, there will be no progress; even if you run alone and be the first, it is meaningless. A single store is not a market, it is necessary to have many stores to become a market.” He summarized his session by saying that business is not about money alone. People who want to do business need to have knowledge and skills about the business they are going to do and study and research about it.
Mr. Acharya had a very engaging and thought-provoking story session, after which the floor was open to the audience for a question-answer session. The program ended with the vote of thanks delivered by Basanta Adhikari. The Media partner, Our Biratnagar and Makalu Television, covered the whole session.
