”I am making a living by selling fruits door-to-door”

A story of the struggle and loss of profit of a family living by camping in Gorkha and selling fruit.

भाद्र ९, २०८२

कुमार नेपाली

”I am making a living by selling fruits door-to-door”

What you should know

From the moment you wake up in the morning, you start wondering how much you will earn today. My job is to carry the seasonal fruits on my doko and deliver them home/home. Now is the banana season. It has been eight years since they started selling seasonal fruits like this.

I bring 20/25 ghari bananas from Chitwan . Small and large raw bowls cost 6 rupees each. Selling a dozen bananas brings a profit of Rs 15/20 . Ripe bananas go to waste if they are not delivered home. Sometimes, even if you spend the whole day, you have to sell a single banana. Every fruit is sold according to the season. 

It was the mango season of Astita, I went to the Gorkha market and put it in my mouth. Now the season of oranges is coming, the season of apples is coming.

The wife also sits at BPchowk in Gorkha and sells fruits . After we heard that we are not allowed to live on the sidewalk, we paid 8,000 per month and rented shutters. It was difficult to pay the rent . It was easy to harvest and store the fruits brought from Chitwan after staying in Sutter for three months. 8,000 a month without profit, it became a problem to pay the rent . After leaving the shutters again, I would deliver door to door, my wife would sit on the pavement and start selling .

The profit from selling fruit is used to buy food, pay rent for living room, and educate children. Home delivery of fruits reduces the price . They try to reduce the price of a banana worth 100 rupees by saying 80, 70, 60. After delivering to home, they don't want to increase two-four paise, they look for cheaper. By selling these fruits, an old man earns 6/700 rupees a day. Therefore, salt, oil, children's paper, pens will be bought . The big expenses are food, room rent and children's education. Renting costs more money. We have not been able to save. If you don't earn

, you won't wake up in the morning and evening. Bhimsen Thapa Rural Municipality-5 is Lamachaur house of Bagua. I am now 42 years old. He always used to walk in the village with fairs. We started camping in Gorkha market 12 years ago, thinking that by going to the market, we can get a job and send our children to a good school. Has wife, son and daughter . 5,000 per month for the rent of two living rooms. I used to work on days when I didn't have to sell fruits. If you can earn up to 30,000 in a month, it is okay for a family of four to live and eat in the market place. To earn this, you have to sacrifice your skin.

market place must buy everything . Children had to be taught. Son is in 8th standard, daughter has completed 12th . I have sent my daughter to Kathmandu to study management. I have sent that if you are in Kathmandu, you can get a job and study. It is for these children who have suffered so much. If they had studied well, they wouldn't have suffered like us. 

There is not much land in the village. 4 Halls are the fairgrounds of the fair. Parents have planted corn and millet. No farm . When parents come to the market, they bring the vegetables from the same garden from time to time. Parents have been able to eat by raising old-age allowance, farming, goats and chickens in the village . I will rent a car when the market comes. During the Dasain Tihar festival, we had to go according to what we had. It's okay to eat, there's no point in spending it as a festival by pretending to others. 15,000 per month will be spent even if you covet it . Spending day by day has not calculated how much will be achieved . What was lacking had to be bought . We have sweated day and night, we have not had to pay the rent, we have not been able to eat.

Both of us old people have no disease . No need to spend on treatment except cough and seasonal fever . I used to go to India to earn a little better. Father used to work in Gujarat, India. I also stayed in Gujarat to work for 16 years . There are more brokers. Very sad. 

I haven't read much . I have studied only 3rd class . Even if I paid 400, 500 rupees, I used to work. After returning to the year of the earthquake (2072), he did not go to Calcutta . When the old lady started renting a room in Gorkha Bazar to teach her children, sometimes I started selling jammy work, sometimes carrying this fruit in my bag. Five months ago, after being told that there was a good job in the hotel, he went to Hyderabad, India.

I stayed in Hyderabad for a month. The said job was not found in the hotel . There was a garden, after living in a place like a base, he used to come to look for people to work there for days. Three hundred, five hundred used to work from morning to evening. I used to come to sleep in the same garden again at night . I slept and sat on the street for a month. A mobile phone and a bag were also lost. It used to cost 15/20 thousand to return to Gorkha from Hyderabad. The work was not good, I thought of going back to Gorkha after sleeping and sitting.

Even the fare to the house was not in the pocket . From there I went to Calcutta . There were sons of elder father . After meeting them, I found out that the old lady had been reported missing everywhere . Reaching there, I was able to talk to the old lady on the phone. I asked them for 2-4 money and came to Nepal with that money. Remembering the suffering there for a month, it is also a joy to come here and sell this fruit. Even though the earnings are small, they have been able to live with their families .

presentation: Hariram Upreti

कुमार नेपाली

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