Gurung, 43 years old: “Cooking became my passion when I was six. Any time I cook, the scents, aromas and flavours still remind me of my mom bustling in her kitchen, using so many different spices.

We were a farming family in a tiny village in the mountains of Western Nepal. My parents and five siblings were out on the fields working hard from sunrise until sunset. I was the only one who attended school. All my family members were illiterate. I remember how hard it was to walk an hour to school every morning during the heavy monsoon rain in the jungle. In the afternoons I rushed back home to cook. It always made me happy to see my family eat peacefully at the end of a long gruelling day. When the whole family sat down together and enjoyed the hot tasty meal, it was so wonderful.

There was no electricity so I used to cook in a mud pot over the fire, mixing the spices with my own hands, using ingredients from our garden. I loved the fresh red and green chillies picked straight off the bush. I’ve been missing that lovely chilli for 12 years.

Later, at the university in Kathmandu, I made a living cooking because my parents could not support me. It was my dream to have my own business and make people happy with good food. I have never been jobless even throughout the years when I was a refugee. Probably I inherited the stubbornness and perseverance that only a mountain farmer’s child can boast.”

Gurung is a history and geography teacher. He fled civil war in his native Nepal 12 years ago. He says teachers were caught between the state and rebel factions and he saw many of his colleagues murdered.

He was not able to bring his daughter and wife with him to Hungary, and has not seen them since. The first communication they had was six years ago on Facebook. “I miss them so much,” he says. A bit of good news was that his extended family came through the recent devastating earthquakes in Nepal unscathed. Still he dreams of making his restaurant so profitable that he can bring his wife and daughter here: “Hungary is my home now. This country gave me a chance to restart my life.”

Refugees. Ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Share their stories.