2.3 Satan - Humla to Kathmandu
Sanu Bhandari could not sleep the entire night after the Maoists abducted her 18-year-old son. Satan Bhandari, who was just 7, could not control himself and began to cry when he saw tears in his mother’s eyes.

Satan’s father died when he was very young. As a widow it was very difficult for Sanu to look after her two sons and her household, but whenever she gazed at the boys she felt relief and forgot all her pains and sorrows. So when the Maoists kidnapped her elder son, she could do nothing except cry day and night.

Fortunately, after two days Madan escaped from the Maoists and returned home. Sanu was very happy to see her son return safely. Madan told her the Maoists were also taking young children and that he worried about his younger brother Satan. The two of them decided to send Satan to Kathmandu with a man who often came to their village from the capital.

Satan was still very young and liked to play in his mother’s cozy lap. It melted her heart to send him miles away, but conditions in the village were so critical she convinced herself that it would be better to send him to a peaceful and secure place.

When Satan left home there were tears in the eyes of all his family and friends. The boy also cried a lot.

Satan was born into an average farm family. His mother worked the whole day on the farm, helped by his brother Madan. His sister studied in a government school in Humla. Satan’s eight-day trip to Kathmandu was his first long journey. When he arrived in the capital he felt that he was in a big new world, everywhere full of lights. The person who brought him from Humla knew about SSS and had Satan admitted in Class 2.

Satan does not know the address of his village, otherwise he could send a letter to his mother. He has already prepared the letter and photo to send to her and is waiting for the man who brought him to Kathmandu to come again so he can give him the letter. Satan knows only that the man’s name is Nandalal Bahadur Shahi. But he doesn’t know where he stays or what his occupation is.

Satan has visited many places in Kathmandu during class picnics, like Sankhu, Godawari, Thankot, Sundarijal and Bhaktapur. Now he lives in the SSS boarding house. His accommodation, food, clothes and all his school materials are provided free of cost by the school. His face bears a bright smile and he is friendly. But sometimes, he seems quite upset. “His seriousness also makes us feel sad,” says his teacher Rabina.

Satan says, “I want to be a doctor, because in my village there are very few health posts and doctors, so most people use herbal medicine and believe in jhankri (traditional healing). I want to become a doctor so I can serve the poor and sick people of my village.”

Satan is grateful for the help he receives from the SSS family. It is one reason why he has so much empathy for poor and sick people. He thinks often of his village and friends, how if conflict had not affected his village he might still be there in his mother’s cozy lap.