At 52, many years of struggle to support his family are etched on Chitra Bahadur Gurung's face. Every monsoon, he is in his highland village in Helambu collecting yak wool and spinning it to make traditional radi carpets with his family. The rest of the year, he carries his heavy rugs on his back and walks the streets of Kathmandu to sell them. Just like his father, and grandfather did before him.

Chitra Bahadur has to support his wife, two sons and two daughters. They all help make the rugs, which are not spun like carpets but beaten into a coarse fabric. After buying the wool from yak herders, it takes each family member four days to make a large rug, and Chitra Bahadur only makes about Rs 500 profit on each one he sells in Kathmandu. He has been peddling rugs in Kathmandu and Patan for 20 years now and finds Pulchowk with all the foreigners who work there the place where he makes the most sales.

Chitra Bahadur's work is hard, his expenses are high, and yet he has time for a quick smile. "If I sell them to a store, they will take all the profit and I'll get nothing," he says "It's much more worthwhile selling it on the streets. Besides, I get some exercise."

He brings about two dozen rugs on each trip and usually sells the whole lot in ten days. The Gurungs are subsistence farmers, so whatever they earn from selling rugs go to pay for festivals, weddings and other household necessities. "No, the Maoists don't bother me," says Chitra Bahadur. "Maybe if I was rich they would." (Aarti Basnyat)