Only a few close family members and friends know that the man who played a pivotal role in getting government recognition for Hindi language courses in Australia had been struggling health wise for a long time.
He bravely fought these challenging health issues for more than three decades of his life.
In spite of this, he was an inspiration to people close to him; he never complained about his sufferings. He never slowed down in doing the things he was passionate about.
His overall valuable work output was considerably more than the average weekly output of a normal person like me, in spite of the fact that three days in a week he spent on dialysis and had spent last 15 years recuperating from it.
All through the way, his wife and my Bhabhiji, Shrimati Pratima Srivastava stood behind him, providing him with the much-needed support in these challenging and demanding time.
I salute and admire her from the bottom of my heart. 
He was one of his kind in Melbourne who realised the importance of his mother-tongue Hindi be passed on to the next generation growing up in Australia.
Dr Dinesh Srivastva Source: Supplied
In this instance, “charity begins at home”, was the mission he started with.
When his son Piyush, and daughter Deepti were in school, he ensured the kids learned Hindi properly.
Being a teacher himself he enrolled them in a Hindi correspondence course from India and assisted them in learning and completing their assignments, in addition to their usual school homework.
He also took them to Canberra for the examinations associated with the registered school curriculum.
Today, his children are fluent in Hindi, be it reading, writing or comprehension.
I believe they were the only one in our community at that time to have acquired this capability.
They were the quiet achievers, as they never showed off this special capability.
The passion and dream of making Hindi popular in Australia grew in Dinesh Bhai and a new Hindi Niketan Association was formed with his initiative.
Pathshala Hindi School children receiving certificates from Minister for Multicultural affairs, Hon Mike Nahan. Source: Supplied
He served as the president of the association with the objectives of bringing Hindi speaking people closer and making Hindi more popular and accepted by the migrants.
His persistence paid off when Hindi was included as one of the Languages other than English (LOTE) as the VCE subjects offered to the students.
He also initiated Hindi classes in different suburbs of Melbourne with the assistance of volunteers who taught Hindi on weekends and after hours in schools.
Thousands of pupils have taken advantage of these facilities.
Dinesh bhai created an everlasting institution which has now grown out of infancy and has taken a very successful shape, which is now being admired by not only the Indian community but also many academics and other people interested in Hindi in particular and the Indian culture in general.
School kids at Hindi class at Rangebank Primary School, Melbourne Source: SBS
He laid a solid foundation for the growth of Hindi not only in Melbourne but also in Australia.
He initiated the publication of Hindi Pushp, a publication in Hindi in the South Asia Times monthly newspaper which encouraged the literary people all around the world to publish their articles, stories, poems, anecdotes in Hindi. 
He left us on June 12th, 2018.
Source: Facebook
It will be difficult to fill in the vacuum he has left behind.
He laid the solid foundation for Hindi language learning in Australia which is growing bigger under the leadership of the new generation of Hindi campaigners.
Today, we bid goodbye to this stalwart who will forever be remembered for his contribution to Hindi in Australia.
Rest in peace. Om Shanti!
- Arvind Srivastava, OAM
Patron, Sankat Mochan Samiti and Member, Victoria Police Multifaith Committee
