Every time I say, “Thank you!” Karan’s amber eyes sparkle as he smiles and says, “You’re most welcome!” However, it took me almost two weeks to understand exactly what he was saying. This is because when Karan was in fourth grade, he was walking home through the fields one evening when he tripped on a pipe, fell down the mountainside, and hit his head. He remained unconscious for a month after that. By the time he recovered, it was as though someone had taken an eraser and wiped out everything he ever learned. Now, he speaks with a slight lisp, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to understand what he says. Even after he recovered, he never returned to school. Nonetheless, he recently began studying English online and was very happy when he was able to recognize the letters of the English alphabet within a day. When he was eighteen, he left his village in Nepal and came to India to find work. For the past five years he has been working in hotels in Rajasthan.
Karan is like a lot of people who live and work in Indian cities. They are known as migrant workers. This way of life has been practiced throughout India for hundreds of years. Karan lives and works in Jodhpur at the homestay-type of hotel where I am living. He mainly works in the housekeeping department and helps with cooking. At present, he is doing the cooking because the regular cook has gone home to Nepal for a couple of months.
