2.2 Khagendra wants to be a teacherKhagendra Bahadur Shahi is studying in Class 5 at SS School. From Darma village in Humla district, Khagendra wrote this diary describing the effects of the conflict on Nepal:
“Our country’s situation has put many Nepalese people in critical condition. People are in a dilemma over how to live their lives. People are wishing for peace. I am also wishing for peace; I want everyone to live their lives happily. I want all the children who are deprived of an education to be able to go to school.
I wish the Maoists had not made the poor people in the villages suffer. When I was in my village, Maoists used to take away people’s assets. If people resisted giving up their property, the Maoists used to burn it. They used to throw away students’ books and take the students with them. With their frequent strikes, they stopped people from buying and selling rice. This forced some people to starve to death.”
Khagendra also wanted to study in his village but because of the Maoists’ activities, his mother sent him to the city where he could live with a relative while studying. It was a very sad moment when he left his mother, sister and brother, but with the hope that he could soon be getting a good education, he started his journey. After walking six days from Humla to Surkhet, he took a bus to Nepalgunj, where Khagendra’s mother believed that he would be safe. Instead, the person who accompanied Khagendra from his village did not enroll him in school but had him do the housework for someone else.
Khagendra had to do all the chores, such as clean dishes, wash clothes and sweep. He missed his family very much, and cried often remembering his mother’s cozy lap and his friends. It was hard to adjust to Nepalgunj, which is much hotter than Humla. He missed the Karnali River, which flows near his village. He constantly prayed to God to send anyone from his home, and one day his elder brother Rajendra came to see him. Khagendra told his brother everything and soon his journey to Kathmandu began.
Rajendra had a friend in Kathmandu who knew about SSS, and with his help, Khagendra got a chance to study there. He is much happier there, although he says sometimes memories of his family and village are very painful. “My place is very poor. Sometimes we cannot buy salt in the market so we have to eat sisnu (stinging nettle) without salt. During the conflict, the villagers faced many problems from the Maoists but they never forgot their rituals and culture. They have faith in God and they prayed to God for peace. My villagers are very innocent.”
Khagendra’s father died when he was very small but he does not know why. His elder brother Rajendra left the village four to five years ago because he was frightened of the Maoists. He moved to the district headquarters, where he continued to study.
This is how Khagendra, who loves to write poems, expresses the suffering of the people of Humla, in his own words:
In spite of all the misery, I kept enduring the pain
I always protected my culture and heritage
No matter how many times I was beaten up, I endured it
No matter how much I suffered, I put aside my suffering
In spite of the pain, beating and suffering that the people of Humla have to bear with, as expressed in Khagendra’s poem, they have been protecting their culture and heritage.Khagendra is surprised and happy to be learning at a school that uses a practical teaching method. He says many children in his village who were affected by the conflict do not get the chance to go to school. “I want to be a good teacher and want to teach children in the village,” he adds.