“It was a hard life from childhood. The condition of my family was very bleak. We were 6 siblings. Fathers had no such income, just some animals and farming land. So no one saw school. I left for India at a very small age. I carried weights and would do menial work washing dishes and sleeping wherever I could. I returned home after 12 years. By then I had a family to support. So I went to Malaysia but I could not stay for more than one year. I had lost all hope and didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t even write my own name so finding a job was impossible. Somehow I opened a small shop and for the last 18 years I have been at it. The funny thing is nothing has changed, it is still the same kind of struggle everyday. I am still carrying weights from way below. You made me think. I had dreams, but I just did not get the opportunity to study. If only I had some skills, some education other than carrying weights then maybe things would have been different for me. I don’t want my children to go through what I have been through. I want them to study and go to cities and get proper jobs, make money and be happy. I can’t remember being happy. The sad thing is I don’t know how to guide them at home. They go to school and come back and they don’t study. And it hurts. The thought of their life become meaningless like mine is…I don’t know how to say it.” (Santa Bahadur Ghale, Barpak, Gorkha)