Siraha, May 1

Nipaniya Jamantoki, a village in Siraha, was recently renamed Driver Gaun.

The breadwinners in the village’s 42 Newar families are all drivers who drive along the East-West Highway.

Locals of Driver Gaun said that more than 60 persons of the 42 households of the locality are drivers.

“In one family, there are as many as seven drivers,” said the locals. Durga Bahadur Shrestha, 59, who has the most experience driving on the highway in the village, has seven sons, six of who have also adopted the same profession. His youngest son is a school student.

Durga has been driving for 47 years now, and has operated almost all types of buses and trucks.

Twenty-two-year-old Pawan, the youngest driver in the area, said that he had followed the footsteps of his father and elder brother.