If survival tactics in Kathmandu were to be a workshop topic, Sharma would be the moderator. Over the years, he has trained himself as a specialist porter, carrying sand, gravel, furniture and what not. He currently serves at Shruti Stores as gas cylinder deliveryman. And he will do it the hard way. He will push himself and his limits one more day. To earn his daily wage, to support his daughter’s education and to send money back home, the man will do what he’s got to do. He is frail but he is determined. Retirement is nowhere near.
Business is abuzz at 10 am in Tebahal. Clusters of areas like Tebahal with their narrow lanes shape up the backbone of the New Road malls, the central business hub of Kathmandu where the goods delivery system is mad, if not chaotic enough. And people like Sharma who migrate to the capital for better opportunities have a special role to play amidst the cacophony. And at Shruti Stores that sells kitchenware, our man from Dhading has been on-the-dot for the past seven years.
“I’ve been doing this as long as I remember and I am quite used to it. I think I’ve been capable of doing it and have been faring well so far,” says Sharma who enjoys his life in little sips of tea.
There is no time to make conversation and business ticks as time. Sharma knows his job well – get the gas cylinder off the store and out on the main street, lug it up his shoulders and deliver it on the client’s doorstep. On an average, Sharma will deliver some 13 gas cylinders and he will push himself to even supply clients as far as Basantpur.
He has his daily life wrinkled up in his face, swollen and rough in his hands, knees that sink deeper and in a voice that is timid.
“You can’t survive without working. So as long as your body allows you to, one has to work. I don’t think much is going to change about the situation of downtrodden and poor people like us. So it’s better to just carry on working without thinking much.”
A fresh gas cylinder weighs some 30kgs. The delivery of this fossil fuel that assures Kathmandu’s kitchens up and running is no easy job, and more so for the 66-year-old. One can only imagine the wear and tear his back goes through each time he stoops, gathers his strength to lift and adjust the cylinder up on his back. And if that is not enough, he has to catwalk the back alleys of New Road as the human traffic dodges bikes, carts and occasional cars that dare cause nuisance with their arrival.
Each delivery grants Sharma a break as he reports back to the store. He will have to make every delivery count. Life has changed for Sharma. The calm and serenity of his village life has been replaced by a fast-pace metropolis. It is cut-throat competition now.
All this happened one day out of whim in 1992. Peer pressure and city life curiosity persuaded him to explore opportunities in a capital that was high on newfound democracy and free market. In his New Nepal, an uneducated Sharma’s only option was to be a bhariya (porter) on daily wage.
“Who wouldn’t want to stay close to his family? I was lured to move to the capital because that was the only choice I had to sustain my family. Growing rice on just the little piece of land I own wasn’t enough,” says Sharma who first started as a wage laborer on a construction site.
Living life on wage at his age and that too in the capital city is no joke. For Sharma, the recent shortage of gas cylinders in the market hit him direly. There was no business.
“I have to earn on a daily basis and I can’t afford to survive without working. Moreover, it’s tough as my work is unpredictable. I can’t just be reassured thinking that I’ll make this much per day.”
Working 10 to 7, delivering gas cylinders, and if he can pull it and if lucky to make some extra dough, he will even deliver kitchen appliances. On an average, the breadwinner of his family makes some Rs 250 to 300 a day.
“But that totally depends on the number of load that I get to carry. Sometimes, I make less than that,” sweats the inconspicuous member of the Tebahal business community who makes it a point to send Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 3,000 home every month.
But life is hard despite his 21-year-old son also contributing to the family. “Sunil gave up studies to be a street vendor, and from what he earns selling clothes, it’s not enough to sustain ourselves and there’s the rent and I have to also support my daughter’s education. She’s in high school.”
The constant struggle to support his family is what drives the man to do what he does and away from home. For the family man that he is, this is perhaps life’s biggest turnoff. Living together is just not economically viable, but the couple and their four children live strongly in kinship.
“I just got lost with the life here and settled here for good. I do miss my family but I have no other option,” laments Sharma who visits home at least once a year with two of his children who stay with him. In Dhading then, the family gets together. Siblings reconnect among themselves and with their parents who will meet again if Sharma can afford to, or if his life partner visits the capital for her eye checkups.
“Such is life. You have to do what you have to do, and you can’t escape, can you?” the man moves on, braving emotional turbulences and the closed chapters of his life.
This then is the working life of Mr. Mohan Sharma, originally a farmer from Dhading but presently the Tebahal Porter of Kathmandu – since 1992!
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