Repairing bicycles is a passion and a means of sustenance for this septuagenarian man. Meet Bhakta Bahadur Ghimire of Biratchok, Sundar Haraincha of Morang district. He has been earning a living by repairing bicycles for the last 37 years.
If you happen to be around Biratchok, Sundar Haraincha, there you can see a small old hut with the signboard ‘Bhakta Bicycle Store’ which is Ghimire’s shop. He is a pioneer bicycle repairman of this locality. As he says, his was the only such shop in this area when he started this business 37 years back.
However, the place is dotted with such bicycle repair shops these days. There are more than a dozen of these shops. “It is better to run income-generating enterprises in own country after learning some skills rather than going for foreign employment,” says Ghimire, referring to the hundreds of youth who are going for foreign employment from his locality.
According to him, a person without having any skill set is a burden to the society. He had migrated to the Madhes (Morang) from Solukhumbu four decades back.
“Haraincha was a small town back then. Biratchok was even smaller with sparse settlements. There were only small huts,” he recalls the situation of this locality in 2045 BS.
When he migrated to Haraincha, he was worried as to how to support his family. Born into a poor family, he had no education, no money and no skills to start any business. In the beginning, he just went about doing whatever daily-wage work he got.
After some months he met a mechanic by chance and started working with him. He learnt repairing bicycles and fell in love with this vocation and this has become his sole means of earning at present. He has been supporting his family of four persons with whatever earning he makes from his bicycle repair business.
Bhakta Bahadur says he earns Rs 15,000 a month on an average. He and his family lives in a bamboo house at Sukumbasitol. He says he is happy with his life and profession. “We should enjoy life. Nobody takes anything with him/her at the time of death. We should be content with whatever we have and should not cheat anyone. We should be sincere in our work,” Ghimire explained his life philosophy.
“I believe in simple living and high thinking,” said a smiling Ghimire with mustaches. He repairs the bicycle frames and punctured tyres and all sorts of repair and maintenance works related to bicycles. Ghimire also enjoys reading newspapers and magazines. One can see many newspapers and magazines at his shop.
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