Cherring Tsangmo Tamang Gatlang, Rasuwa
“My husband is in Malaysia and this Falgun it is going to be 5 years. He calls me often. Nowadays, it has become very easy with this thing called mobile. Back then we had this thing called Telephone. Only one in the entire village, up in Godam. Every time someone called, we had to pay too. How strange is that? If only things were like now many poor people would have saved money. That telephone owner however did earn a lot of money. He was smart while all the villagers were innocent animals. But that was not what I was saying. I forget. What I was saying is my husband is working hard for us. And I am too. For our children. I took a small loan and have opened a shop. I sell daily food items for the villagers. I save some money and I use some money. In today’s time money is very important because I too want my children to go to good schools. I never could go to school. They say my father had to pay “gayal” to the Panchayat for failing to send me to school. When he came to his senses I was too old for the grade I was sent to. I was too big for all the little children in the classroom so after 15 days I left school. But in those 15 days, I did learn to write my name. That has helped me until today. But sometimes I do make mistakes while calculating what I have received and what I have to return. When I make an error, my daughter jumps in to help me. This is my life, uneventful but I am happy with what little I have gathered.”