Ram Jugut Mandal Dhanauji 2, Dhanusa
“I used to sell popsicles. I would carry the ice box in my shoulders and wander from village to village. I did not have a bicycle then. In exchange for the ice I sold I would get grains. Money came to picture many years later. To tell you the truth, it was at a suggestion of a friend that I started selling popsicles. He had seen me and my father sweat at the landlord’s rice fields. One day he had come home and had sternly said, “Why do you toil in someone else’s field when, at the days end, you do not even get enough grain to feed yourself and your ailing parents? You should come with me and sell popsicles. Be your own master.” That night I did not sleep. The next morning I went to him and he gave me an icebox. Walking in the heat from village to village with a box on one shoulders and a grain sack on another was no less easy, but I was free. I have no rules to obey and I could go where my feet took me. By the end of the day, I would sell all the popsicles and come back home tired but with enough grains. Those were good times. Times that taught me valuable lessons about life and struggle. A lot has happened after that. I have made bricks in kilns. I have left the country and spend 10 years in the heat of the middle east. I have sent my children to school and have taken care of family. My children are grown ups now and live their own lives. Although, I only have this little shop to show for, I am content in my heart. I am still my own master. “
