My name is Dhamala Khariya, I am 12 years old. 

 

Now I am studying at Diwakar Buddhist School in Takdah, Darjeeling.

I am having a great and much better life than before where I used to belong.

I want to share, how my karma brought me here in this great school of Buddhism.

I am originally from the village called Daljimbara in India, very rare people know about our village because it is very small and far from town. People also call us tribe.

 

My family condition is very poor. I have two bothers and one sister, including me there are four children of my parents but because of their poor conditions, they couldn’t give us the life that they wished. They barely can feed us three times a day. Due to such condition my sister went to place called Kalimpong to work as dish washer and so on…at the age of 9 and my younger brother, he is also working at other’s home and go to school at the same time. My mother works at sandy plain on the side of river as laborer and my father is working at forest (cutting woods) but can’t even earn enough to get three times food from there. When I become 11 I was also sent to work at other’s house and I work there for 6 months, though the family where is used to work were so good but I had to work, life was never easy until I reached here.

My sister works at Kalimpong at one canteen called “Hiran canteen” (nearby Diwakar Buddhist Academy). The owner of canteen talked to some senior monk from there and that was my life changing opportunity. Now here I am at Takdah (Diwakar Buddhist School). I am very happy here and having much better life. I have so many friends here and all the teachers and friends treat us as family. There are so many more here, who have been through bad situations like me and this is the place, where we are treated as human, can feel compassionate and get love of teachers and friends.