Nowadays, my fingers are freezing due to the cold. It is difficult to move things around. Where can I live comfortably even if I don't have the energy to work in the winter? I have been working as hard as I can. As I get older, my energy also fades.

I am now 57 years old. I am slowly starting to get old. At this time, I should stop working and have fun with my family. But, where is the rest for poor people like us? We can satisfy our hunger with our hands and feet. Otherwise, we have to starve.

There is a small mud house in Gosai village, Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City-10. For me, that house is like a palace. No matter how tired I am after working all day, my life becomes lighter as soon as I reach home. It feels like heaven to be able to enjoy my family in a two-room house. We have no unfulfilled dreams. That is why it is easy to be happy. It is enough to be able to sit with my family and eat one meal. That is why I am suffering all day long.

Sometimes it is difficult to breathe while sitting near the fire. Even then, there is no option but to work. Every day at 9 am, I open my small shop at the busy intersection of Dhamboji Road. Then my afternoon work begins. I play with iron, fire and hammer till 6 pm and then return home. Our ancestral profession is to make tools by beating iron. My parents also did the same work. I am also doing it. That is why I learned this work from a young age. I did not even think about reading. 30 years ago, I worked with Jamil Guru for four years and learned the skill. Since then, this profession has become my world. Now I hear that machines have come to the market.

After working like this, I earn 5 to 700 rupees a day. I take 40 rupees for beating the iron. I sell it for 4 to 750 rupees depending on the size of the sickle. But customers do not always come. Sometimes I have to go home empty-handed after sitting in the shop all day. I don't even have money to buy iron in the shop. A tin of coal costs up to 150 rupees. I can use two-three tins a day.

I need a fan to blow air to burn coal. I feel breathless when I light a fire with my mouth. That fan costs 4 thousand. When will I be able to buy it with my earnings? The old bicycle I bought three years ago is my means of transportation. There are two sons and three daughters in the family. All three daughters are married. I had to take a loan of 1 lakh when my youngest daughter got married. Even after getting married, my daughter is still with her parents. In Madhesi society, marriage also includes the Gauna and Thauna rituals. The loan for Gauna has not been paid off yet. The eldest son is 30 years old.

Works at someone else's vegetable shop. He gets a monthly salary of 7,000 rupees. The youngest son is 17 years old. He also had to drop out of school in grade 6 due to lack of money. The daughters have studied up to grade 8, 9 and 10. We only eat meat once or twice a month when we have money. Most of the time, we spend our days on bread and vegetables. Life is not easy, but I have not given up yet. I will keep lifting the hammer as long as I can. My wish is that my work should at least feed my family. May my children have a better life than me.