I am a scythe worker. I started doing this work from the time I was in school. I was 15 years old when I started working. It has been about 31 years since I started working in scythe. I am now 46 years old. My house is in Shivpuri Rural Municipality-5, Nuwakot. Currently, I have made a tin shutter in Panchetar, Tokha. I am earning a living by running a scythe there.

I have two sons. Both of them are abroad now. We live here with my wife, grandson, and daughter-in-law. I barely manage to meet my household expenses with the income from the threshing.

Earlier, people used to farm, and for that, they used to make hoes, spades, and axes in the villages to chop firewood. Many people used to come to the threshing to make those materials. Now everything comes from abroad. And the era has come when plows are not needed to plow the fields. Machines do everything in an instant. That is why there is not much business in the threshing.

It is probably because there is no income as mentioned - people have started going abroad. Of course, when it is difficult to meet household expenses, who cares? We had to find a way to make money. In the current high prices, we had to educate our children. How expensive is education these days. And when it comes to household expenses, it is not easy to choose. That is why the number of people going abroad has increased. Earlier, in the villages, arans were seen in every house. Now, you rarely see more than one or two.

Everyone started going abroad. Now, it seems that people will also decide who will do the work that their parents used to do. This aran work will be very difficult. It seems that after a few years, there will be no one to do aran. Since I was little, my father used to do the aran work in our house. I learned this work by watching my father do it. Now, I support my family with this work.

There is pain in every job. To make a living, you have to endure such pain. If a customer orders me, I can make anything made of iron. If I could make a hammer, a spade, a khukuri, it would be good, it would be an income. Right now, I don't get many orders. It costs about 1,000 to make a small axe. Iron is also equally expensive. Coal is not even worth it. A sack of coal costs 500, so where can I save? Coal and iron can be made. I have to pay 7,000 for this tin shutter and a room. The place where I live and work is also on the way to my village. Guests come. I have to give them something sweet. My brother lives in Nuwakot. He also does the same work in the village. We, both brothers, do the same work. I do it in Kathmandu. He does it in the village. That's the only difference. But both of us have been running our house mostly through this same profession. Both of us are working with satisfaction.

I have experience and ability, and once a customer comes here, he comes back to make other goods. That is what makes me happy. Difficulties happen in everyone's job. I can't sit and eat with my hands burned in the work I do. I have to endure it no matter how much it hurts. When I make big things, my hands get all sweaty. Even though I'm sweating in the scorching sun, I have to work. I have to work in the weather.

What can I do? Everyone has to work to eat two meals a day. My hands hurt, but I don't say I won't work. Just as my hands hurt, the head of a porter who carries heavy loads hurts. There is pain in all work. He said that he had to endure such hardships to survive, he worked. Now he has become accustomed to such things. He doesn't need to explain to his mind, he understands it himself. Why would the stove burn in our country without the work of ordinary people like us? There was a poem by Laxmi Prasad Devkota, my father used to tell me a lot.