“Even at 6 months, he wouldn’t sit still. I used to look at him, amazed at his energy and think, ‘When he grows up, he is going to be really active’. He used to walk and almost run at such small age. He was a miracle and we were blessed to have him as an addition to our family. Our youngest son. When he was one, he was able to pronouce the first few alphabets. Every morning I left for work he would tail me to the door and every evening I arrived he came running to hug me. I had to feed him or else he wouldn’t eat. I don’t know why we were chosen to be cursed. That day, my wife came running and screaming to the factory with my son in her arms. I remember his hands were suspended in the air and his head was covered in blood. He had been shot in the head. Helpless, she had run three kilometres to the factory. With my dying son in the motorbike, we sped to the hospital. They were shooting indiscriminately. I could still hear the firing in the near distance and we drove between bullets. When we finally reached the hospital the doctor declared him dead. We are all mourning our loss but she has taken this sorrow to her soul, and won’t talk to us so much. Yesterday, these two came to her and said, ‘Ama, we are here for you’. And we all cried.” (Awdhesh Prasad Kurmi & Anita Devi Kurmi, Bankatawa, Parsa)

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