BY UPENDRA POKHREL

TEHRATHUM, Dec 1 – Ruma Khawas of Whaku VDC of Tehrathum district has spent solitary life in two caves for five years and gave birth to a child who is now two years old.

A weak and lean figure, Ruma recently emerged with her two years old son from a cave near her house after Maoists abducted Sher Bahadur Ingnam, her lover who had been hiding her in the caves all these years.

“Since I once fell in the cave, my backbone is hurt. I wonder how am I to live the rest of my life if Sher does not return,” worried Ruma who came to her brother’s house. She is also concerned with the future of her son whose naming ceremony is yet to be performed.In her five years of living in the caves, she often went hungry for several days when Sher failed to visit her.

Ruma fell in love with Sher, a local youth, some 11 years ago. Though married to a man in Panchami VDC of Panchthar district at the age of 10, Ruma had been staying with her parents for a long period, as she could not stand the severe treatments of her drunkard husband.

Ruma and Sher met while working in the village. Though a married man with wife and children, Sher had intimate relations with Ruma. This lasted for six years.

In 1994, Sher asked Ruma to run away from the village. He took her to the nearby Chuchhe cave where she stayed for three years. While in the cave, Sher would visit her almost daily with food.

In 1997, cattle herders spotted Ruma in the jungle. Afterwards, she applied at the VDC requesting it to establish a valid marital relationship with Sher, explaining that he had hidden her in the caves for three years where he would visit her at night, as reported by Narayan Dangi, a local.

Since her application was detrimental to Sher who was then a ward chairman at the VDC, he took Ruma to one of her distant relatives in Ilam.

He often visited her there where she stayed for around four years. After being impregnated by him, Ruma asked Sher to take her home as his wife.

“We set for home. But he kept me in the cave near his house stating that it was just for a day. There I fell down and spent two years,” recounted Ruma. “When I demanded that he take me to his house, he refused by saying that Maoists would kill both of us if he did so.”

According to locals, Sher practised veterinary in the village. As for fees, he collected grains and fresh vegetables from the villagers. He would then prepare these as meals for Ruma in the cave.

Sher had devised a method to visit Ruma, according to a family source. “He slept in the outer room of the house and would go missing at nights. However, he could be seen snoring in the same bed in the morning,” said the source.