When Childhood Ended

Published13 May 2019

Reading Time 2 mins

Author Stories of Nepal

Location Nepal

"When father died, mother had to give away the animals to the landlord because without father there was no way for her to repay the money that he had loaned to sent us to school. The milk that father sold was also the only source of grains for the hungry mouths of the family. With the empty shed, we became poorer. The farm went barren, the well dried out and I had to stop going to school after the 7th grade. A generous man who lived in the nearby village came to my house. He sat me by his side and said, “Look, boy, you are a grown-up man of the house now. The situation demands it that you take care of your family since your father is no more. Come looks after my animals, I will teach you how to fill up the containers after milking the cows. And I will give you money and grains for your family.” I think I was more happy to hear these words than mother was. Mother would have wanted her son to go to school and not go work in someone’s shed at such a young age. I was only skin and bones and had just learnt to read and write. But I felt it was something I needed to do to make sure that this thing called poverty did not swallow us all.”

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