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For the past 28 years, Fulmaya Podeni has devoted her life to sweeping the dusty streets of Kathmandu. 

Born and raised in Makwanpur, she came to Kathmandu at the age of 20 to make a living in the city. With some help from her new peers, she was able to land a sweeper’s job. 

Today, every morning, the 48-year-old travels from Swayambhu to Bhotahiti, where her work starts. She sweeps the main road leading from Bhotahiti to Bhadrakali. 

Becoming a cleaner was not what Podeni had envisioned for herself. But without any education or other skill, she had few other options. 

Even as a kid, she wanted to be educated but her family wouldn’t allow her to go to school. 

“I was a girl so I was given the household responsibility while the boys in the family were sent to school,” she says. 

Nevertheless, she was determined to one day make her own living. It was this determination, she says, that brought her to Kathmandu. 

But life in the city was not what she had imagined it to be. And the job she took on was not just difficult, people also considered it undignified.      

“They saw me as a filth rather than a working woman,” she says. Even her own friends and family looked down upon her for being a sweeper. 

Podeni was 22 when she got married to a fresh army recruit. She became a mother a year later. As her husband was mostly away for work, it was her responsibility to raise the baby, a girl. At the time, she lived with her brother-in-law and his family. 

“It was the most difficult time of my life,” she says.

With a newborn slung on her back, she used to walk to work every single day. “It was more a necessity than a choice,” she says with a tinge of sadness on her face. 

“I had to keep my daughter with me even if my work meant exposing her to dust and dirt. There were no one to look after her,” she says. 

Back in those days, she says, her work was much more demanding as there were so few sweepers. 

“Working hours were long and besides the sweeping duty, we also had to load collected garbage onto trucks,” Podeni says. 

What little she made during those days she had to hand it over to her brother-in-law in return for renting out his place. 

“Yes, I had to struggle at work. But more than that I regretted not being able to look after my first child well, to bring her up in a healthy environment,” she says. Comparably, her second and third child had much better childhoods. 

One thing Podeni is most proud of is sending all her three children to school. She takes joy in knowing that they will have a better life than hers. 

“I was not allowed to go to school, and it felt terrible. I was thus determined to educate all my children,” she says. 

Podeni has long moved out of her brother-in-law’s and rented her own place. She is at more peace today, she says. 

She likes to think that her days of struggle are finally over. 

Her husband has retired from the Nepal Army and works as a taxi driver. 

Podeni still goes to work every morning, but the workload is much lighter. After the Covid-19 pandemic, she only has one long day a week. 

“I finally get to spend some quality time with my family as I am no longer tired from working,” she says. 

Podeni has also learned to accept her work. She doesn’t care about what others think of her so long as her children look up to her—and they do. 

“Remembering the struggles I went through tears me up,” she says. “But then I look at my children and I cheer up instantly.” 

In the otherwise somber settings of Pashupati Aryaghat lies a healing center to look after the terminally ill. The patients who get there are often in the last stage of their life, seeking the comfort they could not find elsewhere.

The belief that taking one’s last breath in Bramhanal—a holy spot with holy water located right below the healing center—ensures a place in heaven prompts many people to live out the final days of their life at this healing center. And this is where Kalyani Bista, a medical nurse, has been volunteering for the past eight years.

Born and raised in Gokarna, Bista always dreamed of being a nurse. But she never pictured herself devoting her life to the patients who come looking for Ghate Baidhya (‘a crematorium doctor’). The 33-year-old first visited the healing center at the age of 16 and she was instantly engulfed by a deep sense of sadness. “I was barely able to process what was happening around me, leave alone think of working there,” she says.

After completing her education in 2013, she visited the place again. Something in her had changed by then, says Bista. She now felt completely at home there and was this time determined to serve the dying. Eight years later, she could not be more satisfied with what she does every single day.

“Most of the patients who come here are very old,” says Bista. For some, she is the sole source of comfort when their family leaves them in her hands.

Most patients she gets are ventilated or in a coma, but the ones who are conscious seek her presence all the time. She remembers quite a few who held her hand and asked her to stay by their side when the pain from their illness became unbearable.

“There is no break in this line of work, which is why I live at the healing center,” adds Bista. Many patients request her to take them to Bramhanal for their last breath. Because of which she always has to be on an alert for such requests. Besides that, she stays with her patients to ease their pain by providing them painkillers and keeping their surroundings clean. Although she finds her work fulfilling, it is mighty challenging too.

Bista has to deal with a lot of emotional trauma every day. “I have seen and heard things that could mortify anybody,” she says. Some families just abandon their elders, some elders have no families, while some pass away desperately wanting to see their children one last time. “I get attached to them emotionally, and seeing them in pain leaves me in tears,” adds Bista.

There is one particular incident that still keeps her up at night. This was when a newborn passed away in her arms. The child had multiple organ failure and there was no possibility of saving him. It was a lot of sleepless nights for her, and the pain of losing him still haunts Bista. “I took care of him like he was my own. When he passed away in my arms, I was devastated,” she says.

But such trauma has not stopped her from working. Bista believes that helping the ill is the responsibility that she took upon herself a long time ago. Although there are many emotionally draining moments, she believes she is meant for this work. “I have always had a deep attachment for the children and the eldery. Being able to take care of them when they need me is deeply satisfying,” she adds.

Some patients Bista treated have returned home and most of them passed away within a week or month of returning. But she remembers one particular patient from three years back who returned home and is still alive and kicking. “Among all the sad cases, that one case brings me great joy,” she says. “It is satisfying to see a patient of mine regain health and return to me with a smile on their face.”

But Bista wants to do more. “My wish is to someday open a care home for the elderly who have no one to look after them,” says Bista.

She wants to serve the elderly not just in the last stage of their life but right through their dotage. But for the past three months she has been volunteering as a nurse at Sadgamaya Briddha Kuti, an old age home in Boudha. “Serving the elderly and the sick is my life’s purpose,” says Bista, “and something I intend to continue doing so long as my health holds up.”