My native place is Sangrampur, East Champaran Police Station, Bihar, India. Now I am 41 years old. It has been 28 years since I ran a salon in Birganj. I came to Nepal at the age of 13. At that time, father Dhuri Thakur had a salon at Powerhouse Chowk in Birganj. His father taught him to shave the beards and mustaches of others, not keeping his own mustache. Father returned to his birthplace 20 years ago.

Now my younger brother Krishna and I have run a salon in Tejarath village of Birgunj. We have camped in Birgunj. We pay 6,000 per month by renting the salon and the room. We are 4 brothers . Two brothers in Nepal and two brothers in India are living in the same profession. It is also our ancestral and ethnic profession . No other work was done and not known. Since he learned this job at a young age, it has also become an easy profession to make a living. 

In the ancestral house of India, all our brothers' families live. Even though all four brothers are on holiday, we live in the same house . However, everyone's ovens are different. All four brothers have been allotted two rooms each. Among the four brothers, parents can eat and live with whoever they want. We have not shared their responsibility . Even now, parents give us four brothers an equal share in the extra income from caste profession. 

I was able to study only up to 8th grade . Married at the age of 16. Has 2 sons . The elder Sushant is studying in class 12 and the younger Kunal is studying in class 11 in the village. The younger one is also preparing to join the Indian Army . 

The ration cost of two brothers in Birganj is 15/15 kilos of rice and some flour per month . It costs at least 2 thousand 400 rupees. An additional 3,000 is spent monthly on pulses, vegetables, maramsala etc. We eat chicken meat once a week. At least 6/7 thousand is spent monthly including house maintenance expenses and ration expenses. At home, both brothers must send six/seven thousand rupees per month to their respective families. 

To bear this responsibility, you must earn at least 13 to 15 thousand rupees per month . There is no certainty of earnings in this profession . A person usually earns 3/400 rupees a day. We earn 6/7 hundred rupees on Friday. In Terai, there is a special custom of shaving the beard, moustache, and cutting hair on Friday.

Two brothers share the house rent and ration expenses together, so some money is saved from the earnings . Otherwise, it would have been difficult to bear the expenses alone. There is a lot of competition in the salon profession now. There are two more salons around us. The salon should be opened for 365 days. Seeing that the salon is closed, if the customer goes elsewhere, they will not come back. 

Do not hesitate to serve the customers who come to the salon even when they have a fever and other common illnesses. Even though India was the birthplace, Nepal became the place of work. Nepal has run our livelihood. Now it's as if we have signed a lifelong bond with Nepal . The idea is to stay here and earn a living until the body moves. 

Balbacha is in India but his heart is here . When we go back to Birganj after going home. Made friends and society here. After the 2062/063 movement, many Indians easily took Nepali citizenship and settled here. But I didn't want to fake and take dual citizenship . 

While working regularly in Nepal for 28 years, there was no problem, but during the Corona period, we suffered in a way that we will never forget . 2 times 6 months of employment was completely stopped . There was panic among the common people. They stopped coming to the salon to get their hair and beard cut. There was a fear in many people's hearts that the corona virus would spread from the salon. Unemployment was a pain that was not found in life at that time. No other skill at hand . No alternative work could be done at that time .