I rent a room in every district I visit. I make tea there. I carry it in a thermos and sell it door to door. It has been nine years since I started traveling to different cities of the country selling tea.
What you should know
My friends say that I have a thermos, a lemon, and a glass. After having all this, I go to the villages and sell tea. Now winter has started. Now I find many customers who drink tea. In the summer, it was difficult to sell tea. Now I sell 150 cups of tea a day. Apart from that, I have no other knowledge.
Selling tea from house to house sometimes earns 1500 and sometimes 3000 per day. The money from selling tea has been enough to educate my sons and buy salt and oil.
I am not a permanent resident of Gorkha. My home is Achham. I moved from Achham to Lamkichuwa Municipal Corporation-1 of Kailali 11 years ago. I am now 56 years old. When I was in the hills, I spent my days farming. I used to pass the time by cultivating maize, rice, and millet. I came down from the hills 11 years ago. After moving, I lost land. I thought I had to do something to earn. I have built a 6-room house in Kailali. I have two sons. I also had to educate them. That costs a lot. There is also a loan for building a house.
I earn 30 to 40 thousand a month from the remaining tea. With this income, I have educated my sons in Kathmandu. In 2072 BS, I started a hotel business near Chisapani Bridge in Karnali. Running a hotel would cost a lot of money to buy firewood, and I couldn't even raise the investment. I had to feed and educate my sons, so I came here to sell tea. The style of selling tea of others is a little different from mine. I rent a room in the district I reach. I make tea there. I carry it in a thermos and sell it door to door. It has been 9 years since I started traveling to different cities of the country selling tea. It must have been three and a half years since I started coming and going to Gorkha.
Tea also varies according to people's tastes. Some people like it sweet because it is not sweet, while others say it is milk tea. It is difficult to deliver tea carried in a thermos according to their wishes. But I still want people to taste the taste of organic tea. I charge 20 rupees per cup. In this way, I earn 30 to 40 thousand a month from the remaining tea. With this income, I have educated my sons in Kathmandu. I am also paying off the debt incurred while building a house with this income.
No matter how frugal I am, 40 thousand a month is still spent. I had to celebrate Dashain-Tihar. I had to buy clothes. Two sons are studying computer science. 40 thousand a month is not enough for the sons who are studying in Kathmandu, room rent, college expenses, salt, oil, and clothes.
The money from selling tea has covered all the household expenses. The eldest son has said that he will go abroad. It seems that after my son goes abroad, he will pay off the debt, earn something and find happiness. Happiness and sorrow are things that must be dealt with in life.
While traveling around different districts, small and big difficulties come up. I had to accept them as my own. I did not consider small problems as sorrows and became bored.
Presented by: Hariram Upreti
Published in the Household Expenses column Also read other materials
