(Part 2/8) “There was no place to earn money. Father would give me a pair of jeans trousers once a year. It would tear in two days. I think it was made of tree bark. And then you would go and find some cloth and patch it everywhere. That is what you wore. That is what all the kids wore. We did not see slippers or shoes for a long time. We did not know there were such things. My feet would crack and bleed. The blood would dry out and then it would crack and bleed again. Thorns would stay inside for long and then drop out again. We would call it Bear Foot.
We did not have salt and we had to walk to Barhabise for 3 days to collect it. We would take wood, pans, flour, plates and everything with us. The forest was dangerous and then there were no tea shops like today. You parked your body next to the river, made a fire, cooked what little you had, ate and slept. Coming back with the weight of the salt would take us a few extra days. That is how we ate. It was only when the roads reached Mainapokhari, things started to change for us. After that, we were able to make some money. Life became more convenient when the roads reached Singati. Walking all the way to Barabise to fetch salt ended. Can you imagine if we still had to go to Barabise to get salt? In this age, we would all die in the forests one by one.”