Nepalese workers in India

I sometimes imagine – a master’s degree holder from Nepal goes to the United States and starts working at petrol pump. On his regular duty, he observes some young Nepalese comes to the pump to refill the petrol. He assumes that the staff is Nepali and speaks in Nepali. How would he feel?

Every time, I find Nepalese here in India not responding back to me properly, I imagine the similar situation. Nepalese are basically here in India, working at low level jobs – security guards, cooks, waiters and other similar position. We, bunch of Nepalese youngsters when happen to meet them coincidentally express our excitement, but sometimes they act as if they don’t know Nepali at all, sometimes appear in a rude manner and sometimes lie with some unbelievable stories.

Maybe, they feel themselves humiliated – which we no way mean to do. Else, a Nepalese hotel staff would not say us the high charge of the room than the normal on seeing us, maybe because he didn’t want us to stay there? We console ourselves with similar examples of the United States – which may or may not be relevant.

There is one separate bunch of Nepalese in India. Few came during Maoists insurgency, and few must be here undergoing some illegal acts in Nepal to stay safe, else I would not see this Nepali couple working at Andhra Pradesh with husband’s one finger away, or I would not see the other Nepali couple with husband’s forehead utterly damaged at Madhya Pradesh selling – ‘Nepal Famous Biryani’. I wonder where did we ever have this famous biryani, except the recent Naya Shakti’s opening.

Resturants in Kerela, where number of Nepalese workers work

Every time I am with them, I try to understand them, know them and talk to them even though if they are rude. What I could say from these mass is – they won’t mind if Nepal would be part of India now. Their identity lies within Nepal, but just because of being a citizen of another nation, they are not equipped with different facilities that others would gain. They have to pay high amount of cooking gas, and don’t receive any privilege either.

They are habituated to Indian life now, and don’t have any intention of returning back to Nepal. Although some send money to their family in Nepal regularly, they have their wives and kids here itself. Even if they don’t, they have plans to bring them to India soon.


It’s possible for them to dream a car here in India, because they can buy some small car in around 1.5 lakh easily here in India, while that seems way ahead in Nepal. They have options – if not Kerela, they can work at Tamilnadu. They have been from zero level here in India and are managing to stand up, they don’t want to begin with zero again – Totally Normal.

I then imagine myself in their position – some well-dressed Nepalese in bike comes to me while cleaning the table, and starts asking my personal stuffs. I certainly won’t want him to know how I slept in a railway station, or how I struggled and how I am struggling. Although, previously I used to hate Nepalese here in India, these days, I don’t dig up their life and allow them to share their feelings on their own and up to the level they feel comfortable.

But, every time, I ask the same question – Nepal nafarkine? all of them reply the same and I remain dumb – Farkera ke  garnu?



Published in Voices In Crisis dated June 28, 2016