New Road Kathmandu. A road filled with crowds and hustle and bustle. In this crowd, there are many who make a living by carrying heavy loads. One of them is 43-year-old Palden Lama. Many know him as 'Palden Dai'.

It was very exciting to see people returning to their villages from the city carrying radios on their shoulders. Seeing this, I came to Kathmandu with the desire to earn money. However, I could not stay for more than 7 months. I returned to my village again because I had to study and started going to school. Palden, who has studied only up to the 5th grade, is seen by everyone as just an ordinary porter at first glance. However, his daily life is not limited to just carrying heavy loads. Along with carrying heavy loads for a living, he has been helping people who have faced problems during foreign employment by listening to their pain and complaints and, if necessary, by taking them to the relevant government agencies.

Palden, who was born in Doramba Sailung Rural Municipality of Ramechhapa, has been working as a porter on New Road since the age of 17. His first encounter with Kathmandu was even earlier. On the advice of an elder brother from the village, he had left school when he was in the 3rd grade and came to Kathmandu to weave carpets in the hope of earning a good income. ‘I was very excited to see people returning from the city to their villages carrying radios on their shoulders,’ Palden recalls, ‘Seeing this, I came to Kathmandu with the desire to earn money. But, I could not stay for more than 7 months. I returned to the village again because I had to study and started going to school.’

Palden has been living in his maternal uncle’s house since 7 days after his birth. After his father remarried, he started living with his mother at his maternal uncle’s house. ‘Maybe due to family tensions, I could not concentrate on my studies,’ he recalled his childhood, ‘After giving the first trimester exam of class 6, I took 140 rupees from my mother’s purse and came back to Kathmandu.’ Of that, 63 rupees were spent on renting a car. With the rest of the money, he went to New Road to live in a friend’s room and work. That friend was a porter in New Road. He said that his friend used to earn up to a thousand rupees a day by transporting goods that came in transport to wholesale shops. Seeing this, Paldel also started looking for work on New Road carrying a namlo. In 2064 BS, Palden went to Qatar for employment after taking a loan of 180 thousand rupees. Carrying iron rods in 45-degree heat was his daily routine. ‘I thought that suffering would be less abroad.’ But, it became even more difficult and the income also decreased,’ he said. After trying various tricks, Palden returned to Nepal in 3 months. And again, the same New Road, the same namlo, and the same old job. After returning to Nepal, he started carrying goods on a namlo as well. He returned to Nepal and paid the loan he had borrowed from abroad with interest. ‘While earning, my mother fell ill,’ said Lama, ‘during treatment, my mother died of uterine cancer. 4 lakh rupees were spent on treatment. My mother also passed away.’ The money he had saved to buy land. Although Palden, who believes in work, could not connect his land, he bought an engine car (Bolero) through Hategada.

Palden’s steps towards social work after the death of his son

Palden’s interest turned towards social work after the death of his 5-month-old son. After the death of his son in Bhadra 2074, he fell into deep distress. ‘This incident changed my perspective on life,’ said Lama, recalling the past, ‘I had always been interested in social work. After losing my son, I realized that death is a reality. And, if I make a resolution, I will try not only for myself and my family, but also to understand the problems of others, share their pain and support them as much as possible.’

After this incident, he started helping those who were suffering during foreign employment. He had opened a snack shop for his wife on New Road. One day, in his shop, he met a couple who were trying to bring their daughter who was in Kuwait to Nepal. He had met some police officers during his work. He took the couple to the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau. When he reached there, he also saw other people with similar problems. The couple's daughter later also went to Nepal. 'Initially, I didn't know anything. As I took the people with problems to the police, I came to know. Even government officials started giving advice and information,' he said. 'I also saw various institutions and organizations working in the field of foreign employment. I found that they did more propaganda than work.' Then I decided to coordinate as much as I could.'

In the past two years alone, he says that he has helped solve the problems of more than a hundred people who were stranded and unable to contact their families while traveling to countries like Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Cambodia.'

He now transports goods in his vehicle in the evenings. He drives the vehicle himself. He loads and unloads the goods in the vehicle. 'To earn a living, I unload goods from the vehicle and take them to shops and warehouses,' he says. 'I go there in the morning and evening to listen to the stories of people who have faced problems in foreign employment and take their complaints to the relevant government agencies, and become friends.'