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He says that being a driver and working at the garage are the same thing, so he borrowed an auto rickshaw from the garage for a little while and asked to be photographed with himself on the driver’s seat. |
Sanjay Goswami
Sanjay does not know the exact date of his birth but he looks to be about 15 years of age. He has been living with his present employers for about 7 months. There are six people in his employers’ family but most of the time there are only four family members at home: one has a senior post in a cement factory in eastern Nepal, and another does a lot of travelling. Sanjay does the cleaning, sweeping, mopping and washing of clothes. He also runs errands. He does not have to cook because there is a schoolgirl who does the cooking for them, and the family members help.
He is not the only domestic servant they have so his workload is comparatively low. He sleeps in the afternoon every day. His work habits are erratic, and he does the work only when he feels like it; so his employers are not too happy with his performance and are thinking of sending him back home. He does not want to go back because of problems at home, so each time he promises to work harder; only to forget his promise again in a few days time.
He was very eager to talk about himself, both because he loves to chat and because he likes to hear his voice on tape. He is of Terai origin and in the Nepali language, is called a Madhesi (in Nepali samma desh means "flat land", and madhesi means "man from the flat lands").
His Family
“I used to live with my paternal grandmother, aunt and uncle at
Maheshbari. My father lives with my step-mother at Udaipur (eastern Nepal). He is a labourer at the cement factory there. My own mother eloped to India when I was a child. I know nothing about her and haven’t met her for a very long time. My grandmother has grown very old, so she sent me to live with my father; but my father couldn’t support me so he sent me here. My employer is a senior officer at the cement factory.
“I stayed with my father for about two months. When I lived with my grandmother I used to attend school and have studied up to class seven.” When asked if he wanted to continue his studies his reply was: “I want to continue my studies but my employer says that my Nepali is not fluent enough, and I must improve my Nepali first before they can send me.”
He likes to talk about his life in his grandmother’s house. “When I was in Maheshbari I loved going to nearby Lahan (a town in eastern Nepal). I had to go and buy the stock for the grocery store. I have visited Indian cities like Patna, Jainagar and other border areas to buy things for the shop. I have travelled by train as well. Now I am confident that I can travel to anywhere. I remember my friends a lot. I used to hang around with them, play football, etc.” He loves his grandmother very much. “Last week my grandmother had telephoned and I cried on the telephone,” he says.
Life in the City
He likes it here in Kathmandu, although he found everything strange at first and very different from his hometown. “I like Kathmandu because there are so many things to see. At home we did not have a toilet and used to go in the fields. When I first came here seven months ago everything was new to me. My employers taught me how to use the toilet and to pour water each time after using it. The gas stove and computer were also very new to me. I liked the escalator at Bishal Bazar (New Road) so much that I climbed it three or four times and had great fun. I also went to the airport and saw the aeroplanes up close”.
He describes his daily work in this way. “I don’t have a lot of work to do, but I must take an afternoon nap and usually don’t realise how long I’ve slept for. When I’m sent on errands and I happen to get talking to a Madhesi fruit or vegetable seller then I forget that I have to return home. I want to stay here but I keep forgetting what I’m told to do. I make the tea and sweep the house every morning. I don’t have to mop the whole house every day; I only mop the kitchen daily. I wash the dishes and clothes of the family members. I don’t have to cook because the family and the girl cook the food”.
His Future
He has thought about what he wants to do in the future: “I want to work in a garage. I worked as an apprentice for two months at a garage in Lahan and learnt the basics. Three years ago I’d come to Kathmandu and stayed a month with someone from our village. I worked at a garage and was paid 1000R. After that I returned to my grandmother. I can dismantle and rearrange the parts of a bicycle and also know about motor-vehicles. I learned how to ride a motorcycle and scooter at the garage”.
His one arm is weak because he had an accident as an infant. “My hand doesn’t give me any problems. I only find it difficult to fetch things from high up. I will stay here for a few years because I have to have my arm operated on”. He is a movie and television buff and also likes to listen to songs.
His Photos
Sanjay is a very curious boy: he is interested in everything around him. He was pleased with all the photographs he took and couldn’t get enough of it. He took a few photographs with the camera of the other child who works in the house, a girl named Shovita.
He visited places just for the sake of taking photographs. In addition to the ones here, he had taken photographs of aeroplanes flying in the sky, both at night and during the day, and also of some other Gods; but they didn’t come out and he was quite disappointed. He seems to really like planes because they fly. Sanjay is very frank and has a reason why he took each photograph. He is very confident.
He went to Pulchowk and photographed a Large God’s idol because the water coming out of the God’s mouth aroused his curiosity.
Sanjay is curious about foreigners, and he calls all of them “Japani”. Since he hadn’t seen them in his village he wanted to photograph them.
He has photographed himself beside the welding machine because it is one of his interests.
He took this photograph of the tractor from the terrace because the engine was different.