“My father longed for a son. When my brother died, they say my uncles started eyeing his property. He wanted an heir and daughters at the time were considered as the property of the husband and the husband’s family. So he married again. But my second mother succumbed to fever and didn’t bear him any children. I would watch him smoke cigarettes and race around the porch and curse his destiny for not having a son. After I got married and had three children, two sons and a daughter, he married again. Now his third wife is way too younger than me and they have 8 children together. And this was all for a son. The most uncomfortable thing for me in all this is having to call someone your daughter’s age, ‘mother’.” (Menuka Poudel, Bhalam, Kaski)

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