This is Mann Badhu. He is one of the residents here at the elder care home in Pharping, Nepal. He lived and worked in India for 40 years, and was married to a Nepali woman whom he’d met in India. They had a son and a daughter.
When it was time to retire, Mann and his wife returned to his village in Nepal, only to discover his brothers had had him declared legally dead while he was in India so they could divide the family property amongst themselves. He asked the Ministry of Women, Children, and Senior Citizens for help in reversing the paperwork which declared him dead. The government of Nepal has said they won’t do it.
Because Mann is legally dead, he can’t collect his pension. When his wife realized this, she left him.
Now, he has no home, no family, no idea how to reach his kids, no money…nothing. He feared for his life in his village: There was nothing to stop any of his brothers from killing him.
Mann is gentle and quiet soul, who looks after another resident here, Padmal Singh. They sit together in the courtyard and have chats, go for walks together, and Mann always makes room for Padmal at the table for meals. His kindness gives Padmal’s wife, Sahrda, a bit of a break.
Mann helps by sweeping around the grounds, cleaning leaves from the planter encircling the tree on the property, and he helped Saani in the garden the other day. A couple of times a week, Mann sits in a chair near his room and shaves with a razor blade and a tiny makeup mirror.
At the end of our interview the other day, I told him I was happy he was here and that I love him as my own father. He asked me if I have my own father and mother. I told him no, they have died already.
I awoke yesterday morning to discover him wiping down my windows outside. Then he came in and cleaned the inside of the windows, and at last made himself comfy in my spare chair and had a good look around at my sparsely decorated room. 💕
