I am from Pilibhit district of India. I am currently living in Bagh Bazaar, Dadeldhura. I have spent 12 years here repairing cookers, gas stoves, ovens, heaters and other similar appliances. Initially, I thought I was only here for a few years, but Dadeldhura has now become like my second home.

Screwdrivers, sheets, tools and the smell of gas in my hands and the sunlight coming through the tin roof on my side. This is how my daily routine begins. I start work around seven or eight in the morning. I work until six or seven in the evening. It's like a 12-hour duty for me.

I have to do this much to make ends meet every evening and morning. Sometimes I change the rubber of the cooker, sometimes I change the gas pipe, and sometimes I fix the stove. Some days there are crowds of customers, some days the shop is deserted. I have learned to live with these ups and downs.

I first came to Dadeldhura 12 years ago, I opened a shop in Tufandanda. I worked there for eight years. Then I moved to Bagbazar. It's been 4 years since I came here. I am still doing the same job under a small tin roof. I don't earn much. Sometimes four hundred, sometimes five hundred, sometimes empty-handed. I earn 12-15 thousand a month, but I save about 5-7 thousand at the end of the month by paying for the room rent, pulses, vegetables, and salt and pepper.

I pay 2,500 a month for the room rent. Sometimes it is difficult to meet expenses when there is no work. Sometimes I have to ask friends for loans. But my friends here are good, trustworthy, and helpful. Later, when I earn, I repay the loan.

I usually go home every three to four months. Sometimes my wife and children also come here. I have a family of four. I am educating my children well. I am a person who has not even seen the school gate properly.

I am 36 years old now. I have had work experience since childhood. I started trading at the age of 12. I used to run a bicycle business with my father and brother in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur. I would open the shop in the morning and repair the customers' bicycles. Later, my father passed away. After that, the burden of responsibility fell on my shoulders.

I have been making a living by repairing cookers and stoves since I came to Dadeldhura. The behavior and support of the Nepali brothers here have given me a deep sense of intimacy. The initial days in Dadeldhura were difficult. I did not understand the language or the customs of the place. I still cannot speak Doteli well, but now I can both understand and speak Nepali. This learning has increased my confidence.

I feel sad when I do not have work. When I wake up in the morning, if there are no customers in the shop, the day feels deserted. But I don't give up. I think, if not today, then tomorrow will definitely be the day. This thought has kept me here for 12 years.

The daily routine inside the room is as normal as work. As soon as I wake up in the morning, I make tea on the gas stove. Sometimes there are two to four biscuits with tea, sometimes there is no one. I cook breakfast and dinner myself, most of the time it is dal and vegetables. But only sometimes do I buy fish or eggs. On days when I earn well, I go to the market and bring a hundred rupees worth of fish and eat it with rice.

Since I live alone in this room, one hundred rupees worth of fish is enough for one meal. But when there is no work, I spend the day cooking only dal with rice. Sometimes I run out of dal, then I cook potato vegetables with salt and oil. That is also the taste. I always want to be able to eat fish and meat for myself, but life is not that simple. I send 4/5 thousand of the money I earn home, for my children's education and my wife's expenses. The rest is for living here.