‘This is a puddle soaked by yesterday’s rain, it hasn’t dried yet,’ said Bhim Bahadur Chepang, sitting on a bed on the edge of a ruined squatter settlement in Thapathali, pointing with his finger. On Saturday, the government had used a bulldozer in the settlement. The landless people who had been living there for years had suddenly become homeless.

Some, bearing the pain of displacement, went to their relatives’ houses. Some to the holding center designated by the government for temporary housing. But 48-year-old Bhim Bahadur did not move. He sat on a bed in front of his own collapsed house. ‘Even when it rained, I didn’t go anywhere, I sat with that mat covering my face,’ said Bhim Bahadur.

Household goods are scattered around him. The beds are broken. ‘The bed I bought with my money is no longer useful for sleeping,’ said Bhim Bahadur. ‘Some others have settled in a shelter, some in a holding center. Why did you stay here?’ Before our question could fall to the ground, he called out loudly, ‘Punte, oh Punte….’ Two brown dogs came running from the other side. And they started barking at Bhim Bahadur. ‘This one’s name is Punte, the other’s name is Luti. Where should I take them, I couldn’t leave them,’ said Bhim Bahadur, expressing his love for them.

Bhim Bahadur was spending the night with Punte and Luti in front of the ruined house. Bhim Bahadur bought Punte five years ago for five hundred rupees, ‘But one day Luti followed Punte, and we started living together.’ Since bringing Punte, he has fallen ill several times. Bhim Bahadur also spent money on his treatment. ‘Even when we were at home, he used to sleep with me, and now where can I leave him,’ he said emotionally, ‘He is cuter than a human.’

Bhim Bahadur also had a cat named Punti. They say that dogs and cats don’t get along, but when they get along, others were shocked. But on Saturday, a bulldozer entered the settlement and destroyed it, and Punti ran away. ‘I searched around in the evening, but I couldn’t find her,’ Bhim Bahadur said sadly.

Bhim Bahadur had also gone to Dasharath Stadium and registered her name. Even though the government arranged temporary housing, he could not leave the dogs. ‘The police came in the evening and told me to go, but I did not go. Then I asked them to stay without making a noise. How can a lonely person make a noise,’ he said with a laugh. Now from Thursday, he says that he will remove them from there at any cost. ‘They will be in trouble. I have also told the municipality, but they did not care,’ he urged, adding that they should have been able to make arrangements for them.’

Bhim Bahadur came to this settlement two decades ago. He invested nearly 4 lakhs in building a house. He cried for the first time on the day his house collapsed. ‘Others asked me why I was crying. I could not control myself,’ he said emotionally.

He paints houses. Unfortunately, this time Bhim Bahadur is restless because his own house is deserted.

Born in Chitwan in 2037 BS, Bhim Bahadur's childhood was not easy. At the age of 8, his mother beat him and asked him, "Why are you going to school instead of grazing goats?" He ran away from home and entered Kathmandu. He made a living in the city by washing dishes and working in a carpet factory. Bhim Bahadur recently lived with his two sons. He and his wife were separated. "After the house is destroyed, fathers live with their mothers," says Bhim.