2.7 City life has touched Mukul and Shivaraj
“My brother and I were studying in Class 3 in Kavre district. But the school was not good; because of the Maoists we could not get a good education. They used to come into our classroom and deliver their nonsense speeches. They even asked our teachers for donations.”

“One day, one of my teachers defied the Maoists; he was beaten very badly in front of us. I was very afraid at that time,” explained Mukul Sharma, now 12. Today, Mukul lives in Gaurighat in Kathmandu with his family in a dark, narrow room where there is not much space.

The situation was bad in the village, and Mukul’s father had already left for Kathmandu four months ago. His mother Shova said, “It was very difficult to stay in the village, so I packed my bags and took the children to their father in Kathmandu.”

The day they left their village there was a nationwide strike, called Nepal banda. She woke her children up at 4 am and they followed their mother. They walked until 8:30 at night when at last they reached Kathmandu. When Mukul got his first glimpse of the capital he felt very happy, like he was in a dream. But the boys were so tired from their long journey that they fell sick.

Mukul was very animated as he described their journey but his brother Shivaraj seemed lost somewhere in his imagination. Shivaraj has only one eye, so he is not so active.

Mukul continued, “Our house in the village was broken down so we stayed in one of our neighbor’s sheds, but after a few months it also broke down. Then we started to live in another neighbor’s shed. Soon after, my mother brought us here to Kathmandu. City life is better than the village, isn’t it brother?” Mukul asked Shivaraj, who just smiled.

The boys’ mother couldn’t help laughing when she heard her son’s speech. She added, “Maybe you don’t believe these children but it is true – we really don’t have our own home in the village. Mukul’s father had three brothers, and when we asked for property, my father-in-law said we had to clear a loan of Rs 75,000[i]. We decided to leave that house, and we worked very hard to save Rs 9,000. With that money we brought 3 ropanis[ii] of land and my uncle helped us to build a small house. Unfortunately, after 11 years the previous land owner took back the land. We had to beg people for shelter.”

Mukul’s father went to the Maoists for help in getting the land back from the cheating landlord. But instead of help, the Maoists forced him to join them. That is why the family had to leave that place to come to Kathmandu.

In Kathmandu, Mukul’s parents worked in the Pashupati Development Fund office as laborers. One day, Mukul’s mother met a teacher from SSS and shared her story with that teacher, who suggested she send her children to SS School. In that way, they got a chance to study at SSS.

Satan Bhandari became Mukul’s best friend at the school. Says Mukul, “When Satan remembered his family and began to cry, I also felt very sad and tears came into my eyes too. But I comforted him by saying that not all children are as lucky as we are; we have got a chance to study in a beautiful environment but many kids don’t even get the opportunity to study in an ordinary village school.”

In his own way, Mukul convinced his other heartbroken friends too. He is a very clever boy, but he still doesn’t know what he wants to be in the future.

Mukul often thinks about his village and his friends but he prefers life in Kathmandu to his village, because educational opportunities are better here and secondly he doesn’t have to fear the Maoists. “I don’t want to return to my village,” he says.

Mukul’s mother said, “What to do, Sir? When one doesn’t have their own house, it’s enough to simply have shelter. Now we are paying Rs 1,300 per month for this small room. We wouldn’t have to pay if we were in the village. But here I can earn Rs 100 per day, whereas in the village we rarely got work and when we did we earned only Rs 30. My villagers want to help us and they want us to go back. But now I don’t want to return. I will educate my children here by hook or by crook.”

Mukul asked his teacher Sabin Khadka, who had accompanied us to his room, “When is our school’s birthday, Sir?” It was very new for Mukul to see his friends celebrating their birthdays at school. In his village, no on celebrates their birthday.

Mukul’s mother insisted that we drink tea. Unfortunately, Mukul’s younger brother broke the glass. But his mother said, “It does not matter if one glass is broken; I only wish and pray to God that my children’s luck won’t be not broken.”

[i] Mukul's grandfather had taken a loan, which he divided among his three sons, and each son had been asked to bear Rs 75,000, one of them being Mukul's father.
[ii] Ropani as defined by http://www.sizes.com/units/ropani.htm: a unit of land area, = 5476 square feet or approximately 608.44 square yards, approximately 508.74 square meters. A square 74 feet on a side is 1 ropani, 1 hectare is about 19.65 ropani, and there are almost exactly 8 ropani to the acre.