Swargadwara.com, A Ray Of Light During Your Saddest Moments
Odisha is a land of many cultures. Cultures come with sets of beliefs, and beliefs come with rituals. These rituals outline a way of life for us, beginning from birth to death. While the birth is an important occasion in a person’s life, the last rites of the person are also believed to have immense significance in our historic culture. Unlike someone’s birth, death is a time when there is sadness all around, and it becomes difficult for the loved ones to follow everything according to the book. However, a group of young IT professionals has come up with a one-stop online solution, Swargadwara.com, to address the concerns of grieving relatives of the departed soul.
Formally known as Swargadwara Services Pvt. Ltd, the company was founded by Plaban Mohapatra in 2016. In conversation with My City Links about how it all started, he says, “The idea first struck me in 2015, when my younger brother’s father-in-law passed away. We were very young and had absolutely no idea as how to go about the various rituals. There was so much running around involved and it emerged to be a Herculean task to arrange for his last rites. This was when I realised that there are thousands like my brother, and there must be a solution to this problem.” He further added, “Currently, we provide ‘kriya karma’ services in Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Cuttack, but out hearse-van services can be accessed to any part of Odisha given that the origin is one of our present centres. Additionally, we provide our services to the rural regions surrounding Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Cuttack also, as 10-15% of the calls we receive are from these areas.”
The Swargadwara.com core team (Left to Right): Plaban Mohapatra (Founder & Chairman, USA), Smruti Prakash Patalsingh (Service Delivery Manager, Bhubaneswar), Bibhudutt Das (Chief Strategy Officer), and Sirsak Rout.
In its one year since inception, Swargadwara.com has successfully served well over 200 clients and has earned the ‘Startup Recognition’ title from the Government of India as well as the Government of Odisha. The organisation also receives a grant of Rs. 20,000 per month from the state government. Speaking about the functioning of the organisation, Mohapatra says, “We have set up hubs in different places consisting of vans and ritual logistics. We have also organised the different logistics under different categories such as men, women, married, widow(er) etc. With an initiative like ours, we need to be ready around the clock and the year. An organisation in this manner allows us to save time and cater to the needs of our clients as soon as possible.”
With plans of setting up centres all over Southern Odisha by 2018, Swargadwara.com has also initiated the planning for the start-up to function on a national level as well. Currently providing services for only Hindu rituals, the company plans on extending into rites and rituals from other religions as well. Attracting clients from across borders extending up to the United Kingdom and United States, the company is all set to become a gamechanger when it comes to Indian funeral services. The organisation also plans on tying-up with the government in the future to inculcate the yojanas related to last rites and offer better services to the client. Being extremely client-oriented, the company aims at making funerals less of a burden by saving time as well as energy at extremely reasonable prices.
The services provided by the organisation include AntimKriya, Dasaaha Karma, Ekaadas Karma, Shraadh, Asthi Visarjan (at Allahabad, Kashi, Gaya or Puri), Mobile Mortuary Freezer, Coffin, Air Repatriation, Abhada Mahaprasad, Obituary card printing, newspaper obituaries, Brahman bhojan, among many others. All details can be found on the organisation’s website www.swargadwara.com along with their helpline numbers. Rest assured, all the help is just a phone call away!