“When I was 5, my father returned from India with his family and squatted in a piece of uncultivable land by the Tinahu river. But he left for India again. School was a far-fetched dream. I had to work. I remember I started at a very early age. My very first job was as a maid boy for this contractor running errands. I did that for four years. After that I found work as a laborer working on trucks, loading and unloading stones from the river. Though it paid a little extra the job was very strenuous. This labor lasted for 6 years. Then, the government had decided to extend the highways so I found work as a digger and worked for several years on the highways. I still wasn’t earning much. Life was very rough. But I was persistent and kept toiling. I also had no choice. I needed to feed my family. But I believed that my days of glory would also come. After working at the highways, I worked in farms harvesting crops for other people. By this time, rickshaws in Butwal were making good money and I was eyeing one. After four years of working in the farm I finally bought one. There was something about the rickshaw that attracted me to stick to the profession. After driving the rickshaw for 9 years I bought another and in the next six month I added another. With every penny saved, I would eventually add one. Now I have seventy in the fleet. I don’t drive now because I don’t have enough strength. I let all my rickshaw for hire. If you see one in Butwal that reads ‘Shrestha Rickshaw’ on the back, that’s mine and it has my mobile number too.”

– Roop Lal Shrestha, Nursing Tole 4, Butwal