On the RoadLa routeBefore when I was little — I was about 12 or 13 — my father took a contract on some orange groves.firstbefore1SGbe.small1SG.SO.PASUBhow.many1213yearsuffice.S21SG.SO.PAthenTOP1SGfathertangerinegardencontractPAHe worked as a contractor.contractorworkdo.S2PAHe and a friend did it.Then I really wanted to go — I wanted to go to Sikkim.I was only thirteen.I went — I ran away and went. My father didn't let me go.He had set out two or three days before.So I ran off after him and followed along.We carried oranges — they only gave us two rupees per hundred, for the Namphak ones.That was all they gave us for the Namphak ones.They gave us three rupees per hundred for the Mangjing ones.But from up there — how it was to get three rupees per hundred —First in the morning, when it was still a bit dark, one had to go and pick oranges all day and make basket-loads and bring them halfway back down and sleep there.Then in the morning you had to set out and go down to Singtam and dump them off.I couldn't carry a lot.I'd carry five hundred or so — sometimes 450, sometimes five hundred.Delivering them from there sometimes I'd get six or seven rupees.With that I'd buy rice — then rice was cheap — it was 1.25 a seer (900g)— I'd buy two seer.We bought it and we bought meat.We brought it up and stayed in our quarters.At night, the paddy-dancers paddy danced — a lot.The singers sang.Those who just sat around sat around.We had to stay until midnight.They paddy-danced.And they slept.Then in the morning, when it was still night they got up and went to pick oranges.They went up and picked and carried oranges, and again they stayed over halfway back.We worked like that.Then later my father came.I ran off and couldn't carry oranges any more.I went up, and up above Singtam someone called Meribung Maila from our village had taken a subcontract for digging a road.He'd taken the subcontract, and later I got into road-digging there.I stayed at it and later my father came back over here — back home.I stayed a year.We worked and worked, and finished digging the road.We finished, and when it was time to get paid — we'd worked and built retaining walls, and what that subcontractor had built — what we had built — it collapsed.It came down with a crash.So they immediately stopped the money.They stopped it and didn't give it to us.Then we laborers started beating up that subcontractor Meribunge Maila."Give us the money for our work!We won't work any more," we said.Then he told the contractor that there was shouting and screaming, and they gave us half of our pay.That was all they gave us, and we went back to work.Two months' salary was owed us.We did the work.The wall — over there they say "dewal" —here in our place — in Nepal — we say "lungdhakke" but in the language over there they say "dewal".They finished the wall — we finished building it.Then they paid us in full.They paid us and we went on further.We went to a place called ?Martam Road.We stayed at Martam Road.Over there there was a kami [blacksmith] contractor.We latched on to him and worked.We stayed all monsoon long.We stayed on, and later, with a clerk — there was a Rai clerk.We quarreled with that Rai.He told me, "You don't work properly.""How can you say I don't work properly!I'm working harder than the others.Why do you scold me? I'm working like this — why do you scold me?" I said. [break in recording]That clerk scolded us — he scolded me, even though we worked, he just kept scolding us.He just kept scolding us.So we talked it over, me and a friend."OK, let's beat that clerk up!Let's beat him up — we'll forget our salary, let's just forget about it and leave!Let's go work somewhere else instead!" we said, me and my friend.Then my friend said, "No, we'll put up with it for a day or two. Because if one gets angry one only eats shit later."So I bore with it.Then six or seven days afterwards we quarreled again with that clerk.Then I told him — I told my friend — [??]I was just an ordinary laborer, using a crowbar,but that friend of mine was a mason — in the language over there they say "mistri".Over here we say "karmi".But I was saying [??], what he did was —they were cutting stone with chisels, "thek-thek".They were cutting stone and he was doing that kind of work.It got to be noon, it was time for a snack.We were eating some snack and the others had finished eating.I hadn't finished eating.I was still eating.Then the clerk shouted. "OK, OK, get up, get up!" he shouted."No, I get to eat my snack, I haven't eaten," I said.He came down shouting violently.So without eating I got up immediately and went up.I went up and we went to work.Then later my friend and the master mason quarreled.I was cutting stone."You've been acting up for some time now. You might get a beating" he said.That's all he said.Then he quarreled with my friend.The clerk said "I'll beat you," and raised his cane.He raised it and my friend took the mason's rock-hammer and gave him a blow "bung!" like this [indicating a blow to the head].He hit him.I hit him too.Then I ran away.But when I was pulling myself up the slope one of that clerk's friends hit me with a stake.I lost my hold and fell down.My friend struck the other one too.Then the clerk hit him [i.e. the narrator's friend].He hit him and later he had a wound here [indicating his head].Blood came gushing out.They collected his blood in a bowl.They collected it."Now we'll tie you up and take you to the police station in Singtam," they told us.We didn't have much pay outstanding.There was one month's pay — about one hundred fifty or sixty.So we ran away right then.We went, even though it was night.We kissed goodbye to our pay.We came out down in Singtam and went by bus to Romphu.We stayed there three or four days.There was no work there.Then we went over to Darjeeling.When we reached Darjeeling we stayed a short while.We didn't have much money.We had four or five hundred.We toured around Darjeeling and did a little business and our money ran out.So we came up here.We came back up to Romphu — there was a place called "Five Mile".I don't remember its name properly.At that place called Five Mile we got into that same road-digging work.We worked for a month there.After we'd worked a month, the road was completed.After that we stayed up at a place called Phodomchin, next to the Chinese border.We stayed up there.They call it "Military Depot".We went to that Military Depot and stayed in Phodamchin.We stayed there three months.Up there it was lunch at noon —We ate lunch at noon. After about three months, at lunch time they set off explosives.Over there they say "blasting", here in our place they say "top" [cannon].When they set off the explosives I was eating my meal — at noon.How I was eating — now there one doesn't sleep on the ground — they make beds out of wood and they lie down on those.My friends had hidden in another place, in a cave, but I wasn't hidden.I was under the bed eating my meal.Then the explosives went off.It went off about a mile away, the explosive.When it went off, rocks this big came spinning over the tent — there were tents set up.It pierced the tent and landed on the bed and one of the slats came out and hit my back.It made a black and blue mark.Later they took me down to the hospital and the hospital treated me — they gave me some medicine.Later I got a bit better and I took a little care of the others who were seriously ill.While I was there like that, later my father came to look for me."Let's go!" he said.My father came to look for me and we came back.Then when we got over here to a place called Bijanbari, there's a maternal aunt of ours there.We stayed two days or so in Bijanbari.We came quickly away from there.After seven or eight days we reached home.