Ganga Chitrakar, an elderly curio shop owner recalled her love story as she spoke to us on a sunny Friday afternoon. She remembered meeting her husband in Dharan, her hometown. He was a driver then and was required to travel a lot. Chitrakar blushed when she was taken back to her hay days.

With a shy smirk, she said, “We fell in love and got married. Then I came here with him.” She also talked about opting to work after marriage. “I started making masks and also painting them.” Further explaining her husband’s possessive nature, she added, “I was not allowed to go anywhere and I was not allowed to talk with some other men.” However, she instantly admitted that he loved her.  The couple has one son and four daughters together. One of their children is abnormal and 13 years have passed since her husband’s demise.

With a heavy heart, she consoles herself saying, “It’s not that sorrowful that he’s no longer with me because soon I will be joining him wherever he is.” The 70-year-old grandmom spends her days in her shop near Krishna Mandir, in Patan. She is delighted to see the friendship between two sexes at present, which was a huge stigma in the past. She added, “You could only have men as a husband, a brother, cousins, or a father.”