Leaving the next day for the school, it had already terrified me. I was losing my nerves… there was no other option I had to return.
I was lucky that day… because even a spoonful would have instantly killed me… Now I recall, I was stupid, only to overcome my little ambition not going to school had almost cost my life.
This year few old friends left the school Amrit, Narendra Prakash thapa and others were the ones where as the new ones that joined us were Santosh shrestha, Rabindra, Roshan and Yogen. In all we were thirtythree.
In return there was nothing that I needed to give... only perhaps he expected from me perhaps was the help for the lessons. I wasn’t so good though, as there had been others that had been far better than me … but still I felt proud if I would get chances helping other with the studies…. The lessons seemed tougher and books we had more. Science it looked more difficult …mathematics... it was almost the same … and also we had history and geography instead of social studies. Others were almost the same to the last years.
A week later, the most senior brothers arrived in the school. Since the school had only upto the seventh standard, for the further studies the brothers were to be taken to the Central School closer to the capital. The next morning after the day they had arrived, there was the farewell program… the teachers sang a farewell song for them…
That evening after the dinner, we started the fire on the big fireplace was made on the ground closer to the pond which had been made that afternoon.
The sugarcane which were brought for the day were brought and deposited earlier near the fire place… lucky Som sir was there looking over it not to let anyone steal it… slowly I went closer to him… Just as I had wished he did favour to me … he gave two small pieces of cane… as soon as he gave me I took it and dissapeared. Just as others were doing, I too first burnt them in fire and made the ‘bang’. It didn’t sound so good… Next one… it also didn’t prove the different.
However, I always loved the summer rain… I was always delighted seeing their aggresion… I knew it was for some thing good… After long dry and grey and cold winter … it was always nice to have rains… that came vigorous blowing up the dusty ground… cleaned up everything before it reset the ground with the water that it brought from the miles of distance far away from the ocean. The rains always came in the late afternoon … it usually would be the time of our last classes… The black cloulds would come with it’s very stong paces that it was so soon the sky would be covered with only the black clouds… Then we would see the great wind… I loved to see the lightning… so fast and quick they flickered … and loved to hear the thunder that some seemed like they had torn apart the sky…. To clear everything to start up something new... to bring something new… to the groung … to the planet … to the earth.
My paces would be slow and steady… sometime I walked up to the backyard in the hostel… alone … close my eyes and feel the wind… feel the little droplets of rains… that often fell over my face… I had a different feeling, a different meaning that always told it is meant that it explains the truth and the realities of life.
With the rains… in about two weeks everything changed… the trees … they would already have the leaves… the grey grasses would no let new shoots to cover old the grey leaves and the trees like gulmohar would get the new leaves and bloom beautiful red little flowers. It showed the realities even the fierce wind and rain… hails and thunders they were not meant for their vigor and aggressiveness… but still they had their own reason for it more than their cruelty and severeness they changed or gave new life to many.
All the way till the end of our days at school, we were considered the most stupid stundents in the whole school. So, for the teachers they had marked us the worst class in all. Most of us… in general we were stupid… I would say… we would do … stealing different things from the kitchen doors… almost a fight every week … it was so crazy there never needed any serious reason for a fight. Most of the time it happened in hostel or in class during the selfstudy hour… It would be for anything … sometimes for a pencil… or even sometime for speaking rude. When the fight started, it wasn’t that everybody only stared at it or everybody ignored it… Most of the cases it happened that not all but many would walk out from their seats and then jump on those ones that fought … many ocassions, the ones that tried to stop it would get some punches or sometime take chances striking the ones who made the fights. Having fight was common so, almost usual but … it wasn’t meant to last so long. Most of the cases if anybody got the sign of the teacher near by then would rush and alert everyone “Sir” … then it would the reaction would be so quick it would immediately stop… it would give the end to the fight. And when the teacher came … he would in no way predict the changes. He would look at us …for some moments before he moved to the next room.
On the later days… almost the last three years of our high school we were so organised that the teachers were desperate with us. Though they never gave up considereing us the worst in all, but they could also never get anything that would go wrong within us. We always got ready to take the charges but non-of us would tell them about anything and at any cost. So, most of the cases they started ignoring us.
For other he didn’t procceed after it… Daksha sitting next to me was already punished but me I escaped. Though yogen did never tell me anything about it but later I realised I hadn’t done good deceiving my friends. It wasn’t my intension telling the teacher but I was oversensitive and overfear I couldn’t resist. This nature manytimes might had made my friends not have good feelings over me… Since then I never felt good of what I had done … Only the thing I could do was not to do it again… and it was since then I promised I would not make the same mistake again … no matter what I had to pay for it… For, my friends, I never did deceive them again.
It was about seven weeks before the first term… our class teacher Sharma Sir got married (Yet we weren’t offered sweeet though) After he was married he didn’t stay for longer. He left the school and it was later sometime before the first time we had a new science teacer … “Wagle Sir” we called him.
Day after day we were getting closer to exam… It was the same we did. There would be no PT in the morning. So, we always woke up early in the morning. Since this year, it was not only for myself whom I had been working for, for the exam… I too ahd to think about Daksha. I was determined … I would do the best to take along with me with the most I could. Because I knew he did always want me to do it and he did care for the way I wanted him to do.
For the first time in school we had the new desks… the olders ones with drawers for individuals were removed and were replaced by long desks and benches that was supposed to be for at least three of us. They had now drawers but still they had a long flat wood support to keep our books and copies … Well they did provide enough space for us as we had so many books with us.
It had only been my attempt for the participation for the school day though I didn’t do anything at all when the day came.
But after the school day… I was partly influenced … I too made a song copy… It was in one of those usual small copies that I made for the lessons. Most of the songs I had were from the Hindi movies and some were the Nepali songs too.
That day in the late afternoon … after the tea, Jipendra pierced both of the lower part of my ears with the thornes. The pain it was irressistible but he didn’t take it long so… it was okay.
Next day both of my ears were swollen… They had turned dark red heaved with blood… I didn’t do anything for the day …I wated for until the next day…
Since then… I had even a great feeling than ever. She did remain a person with a difference, some one I could never forget. So, good and so caring even in the midst of the strangers … It was a very sad thing she stay longer … and after she left the school I never saw her again.
With days … time was short and we had the second term exam. This time I worked hard and I made it all fair … no cheats, no copies for help… I had decided I would do it fare… even if I failed not to get of what I was… After the exams there was gain a next surprise for me … I was third in the class again… I couldn’t believe. I had got the return of my hard work and fairness… it was a return … the true return of my persistance.
It was after the second day I had packed all my things but till the sixth day, having no one to come to take me… it became a sort of frustration. I had no place to go … no thing to do and no friends to talk… the noise and busy halls now seemed like so silent and dead with people like the graveyard.
It wasn’t longer I had to go with all this because soon I was to go my school… It was only four days later I was back at school again.
I was surprised the new library was ready …also the opera hall. The library was opened during the lunck break. There were so many books in the library… especially the storybooks for us … Our cards had also been made … so we could also take the books to our hostel and read in leisure… The First Book I took in my name… was “Journey to the centre of the Earth”. However I couldn’t read all of it because the time didn’t prove to be enough as in a week we had to return it back. But in few weeks I read so many of the other books… “Around the world in Eighty days” “Robinson Crueso”, “Black Beauty” and few other classics.
Our science teacher “Wagle sir” had left the school. In few days we had the new replacement and he was Puspa Thapa. More than a science teacher he was an artist … he would make great figures. He was taking the small room next door. Since the beginning he told he would teach us two subjects Science and Moral Science. He always told in science firgures were more important than the detail the reason he had was... they provided more information regarding the matter. It was astronising, during the moral science class, instead of teaching us about the lesson and content he asked us to make a picture of a horse from the book. We were surprised but we still did it what he had asked us to do.
During his classes he would told more about what he had done … he told he had proved the theory proving two different numeric digits equal… that meant the matematics would prove wrong … one day he took all the fourty five minutes proving the subject matter. We were satisfied but I didn’t think he had done it in the right place … because we weren’t so much concerened about it … but still it was good to know.
Winters were cold and foggy and something I hated the most in the season was PT every morning in winter. I did never like it all my life and this time I had really made some escapes…
To escape from PT sometime I would sneak out underneath the bed or sometime lock myself inside the toilet for about all the hour. I would better love it than running out in the cold winter morning.
One afternoon during after the lunch, as we were coming out in the field for the sun during the lunch break we say there had been the gathering in around the staff kitchen near the office. There had been a wooden cage and an wild pig had been grown up. It had already become really big… even big enough for the cage. So, the school had decided to kill it.
Since it was wild and it wasn’t easy even for the kill, the senior police officer of the school came with a gun. He slowly went closer to the cage and waited until he would target on the the poor little creature on it’s head… With the first shot he couldn’t make it … and the poor animal cried out in the great suffering… however the quick second shot was direct to it’s head that made with no more cry it fell down …dead.
That eveing meat was served to everyone. It was enough for almost four hundred people. A poor animal was made a gaint feast. Since it had been the time I had decided to give up the meat I was one of those not having it. With days it wasn’t easy I again had to start with it. It wouldn’t be easy to keep up when you become different to all your friends around. So, I had to becaome the same and I started taking meat.
Winter days weren’t also difficult to go through… the foggy morning …but almost sunshine everyday in the midday… We would some time be in the ground sleeping under the sun through out the lunch break and returned back to class after the bell rang… When we often would be in the sun … then finally the evening.
In about two months we had the final exams … even in the cold chill winters we would wake very early in the morning when the exams were closer. To make the very strict usage of time usually most of us came to our classes dressed in our school uniform. This would help us stay longer in classroom before the breakfast … sometime for convience, some of us… even slept in the uniforms so that we could immediately rush to classroom the next morning when we woke up.
With trees… barren terraces… grey hills and the river sides on a side of a road … it was an incredible scenario. Looking at it …and watching them… it gave an enormous pleasure seeing how the beautiful the creator had created the nature… All these a artistics mainland and hills … the great landscapes … the specular riversides…they had made the perfect picture. Moreover the greatly heaved feelings of overjoy and happiness of been aways from school had additionally made happier than ever… We were sininging … we were shouting and with the strange feelings of amusement and excitement we were forgetting everything.
Chitwan… it was a small city on the plains… about eighty miles from our school. It was well know for the national park…”Royal Chitwan Nation Park”. The greatest feature about the place was the rhinos…the only place in the world that had adequately hand numerous single horned rhinos.
About three hours later, our bus turned left from the main highway… the teachers decided to take us to the “Gorakali Tyre factory” the only one in the county those days. After sometime… they could manage it, In a line we walked into the buildings where we were shown different sections of how the tyres were manufactured.
In the late afternoon we came into the city… after we arrived, the teachers took us to a small local place for tea… We all had to have the same. The teachers payed them… it’s wasn’t their own money though… because our parents had to pay for everything at the end… even for every little expenses.
During the break teachers decided to take to show us inside some of the plants which were located around the cities. They tried for the CocaCola Manufaturing plants and the San Miguel Beer Factory. They couldn’t succeed in any because, for one … it wasn’t the appropriate day… and the next they wouldn’t permit for any visits..
We stayed there for some moments before we were told that it would take sometime for the dinner… So, we decided to go for a walk… It’s always a great and different if you are let free after when you have lived inside a different world that is totally isolated from the outside. The teachers had told us to guide all of us… for about an hour we freely walked through the streets… we walked into shops looked around if we could get something for us… More than we bought with money, we sneaked more into our pockets without letting the shop owner notice us… We all looked experts. Later when we were back into our room and we talked … we found … it had happened in almost every group that had gone for the walk. Some had tuned more fortunate then us… One had the bags of Sweets... and some others with belts and other accessories. For me I had sneaked a small blue bottle of glue.
That evening we had heavy meal…with chicken soup. The food had totally different taste so, easily we had more… We were tired of the day… we played cards for some time (though the teachers had restricted u)s … then just sometime later went to sleep.
It hadn’t been longer we had got out of bed … the teachers asked us to get ready for the leave. Soon we hurried for it … and soon we were in the busy…For some time we were around the city before it seemed we were in a way trying to come out of it… Then the bus stopped for the tea. We were asked not to go around… beforethe teachers talked to each other to decide for what to do dthe next.
Mean while, Kaji sir called all of us again. When we came around him… he asked us to stand and be in line… Then he called each of us individually to him and asked if we had money or not. For the ones they told yes… he didn’t give anything but for the ones who told no… he gave fifty rupee each. For me I thought telling no would be better… Because the additional money would help me buying something new. Just somtime before the finals father had come to visit me in school. I had told him we were going for the tour. Initally he had given he five rupee note asking me if that would be enough. With hesitation I didn’t take it so… he finally had given me twenty rupee note. But still there was some money my mother had given me… before I left home after the vacation…
As my turn came …kaji sir asked me the same question. I didn’t tell anything I just nodded “NO” so he handed me a fifty rupee note and wrote my name on his note book.. when it was over …he asked us to have tea… and brerakfast…. This time we could have anything we wanted.
After the tea we were again in the bus… we headed for the national park… First we took a route …later we found it wasn’t the right way…so we again had to take a different way. It was some time before noon when we came to a riverside … we dropped out of bus … from there we could see… just the bushes and tree… it was the national park.
Just next to the place where the bus had stopped, there was a small hut … there lived few people who worked as the guard and rescuers in the park. From them we leart that visiting the park was usually for the foreign tourists and it would cost us a lot if we tried for it.
For about an hour we stayed there before we desperately had to return back to the main city. We were hungry and exhausted coming back and the drive was tedious. But finally we did come … There was chicken soup again… we heavily dined for our hunger. About one in the day…We were again iin the bus on the way back to school. Everyone seemed silent cold and quite … there was no happiness again.
On the way back, for the tea, it stopped in the midway near the hydroelectric power station. It was the country largest plant to produce the maximum electricity …69KW. Mean while the teachers decided to take us inside it… We were then asked to be in group… about twelve in each.
I didn’t hurry for it… so, I decided to go in the last group.
After then we were again back to the top with the rest of the friends before we came out of the plant. In the late evening, we were back at the school again. Quitely we had rushed for the dinner. And soon for the sleep. Next day it was all over and ther normal day returned. Built still we had feelings of being aloof from the school which still cherish us …
In few days before we went home for the winter vacation, we had the result of the finals. I had become the fouth in theclass… But later was fifth because there were two who stood second in the class. For me … it was a great achivement ever.
It was totally a next side of us… we were young… she was even much younger but we were talking something real of life. She told the man … who had been with her mother was not her father. It was her boyfriend. She told … her father had not known about it. She told she never liked the relation of her mother with the man … so, it was her mother that would usually leave her alone like the way she had done that day.
That evening, the desperation was so high, something went over and over in my mind. What would stop me …what should I do…to make myself sick and become unable to go to school. Then something came in my mind… There was a little bottle of poisonous insecticide for the bugs… I decided to take few drops of it… I opened my mouth and made two or three little drops on my tongue… it went straight over the throat, that immediatelly forced me to a continuous cough. I hurriedly ran to shower and drank the water… everything that I had in the meal came out the very instant in the vomit. Everyone asked me what happened… I told it was nothing so serious. Soon my throat started choking and my body heated... my breath was also getting higher… But again I went to the shower and drank enough of water so that it would dilute the solution I had taken…
I was lucky that day… because even a spoonful would have instantly killed me… Now I recall, I was stupid, only to overcome my little ambition not going to school had almost cost my life.
Next morning everything was all right again and that afternoon I was back again to school. The class had already begun … I got the new set of books from the store … The next day I started with the classes.
This year few old friends left the school Amrit, Narendra Prakash thapa and others were the ones where as the new ones that joined us were Santosh shrestha, Rabindra, Roshan and Yogen. In all we were thirtythree.
For this year, we remained in the same class, I mean the room was same and it was same with the hostel too. Apart from this we also had the same class teacher Sharma sir, who took the first class and the same subject Science…
A friend Daksha, because of his faliure in the finals… couldn’t procceed his standard. So, he was with us… He was from my neighbourhood and he was some one I knew since my childhood. Those days when we were very young, we were both the day scholars though in different school… we did have the same place where the both of our school buses came to receive us. We did look at each other everyday but often didn’t talk. But during my last days… I had shown him the school in one of those police magazines. He had appreciated that.
A year later after I joined the police school, he too joined the place but was two standards senior to me… He couldn’t keep well with the studies… so, it was two years for each grades before he succeeded before he finally was with us. After he had joined the school, he was always good to me … we would some time share our things… like fruit biscuits and few other things like this… When his mom came for the visit she sometime … called me … even brought a letter from my mom and sometime … she even took me home… for the vacation.
I was only the one he knew so well, others were all new to him. I knew it would be easier for him if I stayed with him together. And also in retun there would be always a great help from him… which indeed was real… When Daksha became our mate, he became the class captain. Arun thapa was the next one. The teachers had made them.
In class I took the seat with Daksha, we took the first seat in the first row close to the door. I was at the coners …the wall on my right, he was on my left. Staying with him … there was lots of advantage as for he … he had so many of the things that he would ask me to use any time I needed. His pens, inks copies and other accessories… (This year became the first time we were allowed to use pen… in our exams… only that could be filled with ink… not the ball pens though). In the class there had never been such combinations ever … Even staying together for years one wouldn’t give so much of favours in respect to that he had given me… I still feel fortunate about it … and feel proud of having such a great friend.
In return there was nothing that I needed to give... only perhaps he expected from me perhaps was the help for the lessons. I wasn’t so good though, as there had been others that had been far better than me … but still I felt proud if I would get chances helping other with the studies…. The lessons seemed tougher and books we had more. Science it looked more difficult …mathematics... it was almost the same … and also we had history and geography instead of social studies. Others were almost the same to the last years.
A week later, the most senior brothers arrived in the school. Since the school had only upto the seventh standard, for the further studies the brothers were to be taken to the Central School closer to the capital. The next morning after the day they had arrived, there was the farewell program… the teachers sang a farewell song for them…
“Tadha Tadha Janu chha sati … ek fera hashi dau
Chu ti sake ko mayalai sathi ek phera gaasi dau……
….…………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
(we are depart and go away from from each others
let’s tie up our love for one more time again…)
Chu ti sake ko mayalai sathi ek phera gaasi dau……
….…………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………..
(we are depart and go away from from each others
let’s tie up our love for one more time again…)
Sometime later there were speeches from teachers and some of the brothers itself... After the show there was the party for them… After then, they all carried the bag packs and luggages on the school bus and soon they left for the capital.
In few days everything went smooth again. Days after days … weeks passed and then months. With time … slowly we were growing and with it he had learnt the way to cope things.
In few days everything went smooth again. Days after days … weeks passed and then months. With time … slowly we were growing and with it he had learnt the way to cope things.
About a month later, we had ‘Shivaratri’ a religious festival for Hindus in the name of god Shiva… Most of the friends had gone home for the holiday though many of us were still in the school.
Just as every year, we were to make a fire place that evening. That late afternoon they had brought a bundle of sugarcane in the school for the student in the school for that special night. When they had recently brought just wishing to look at it … many gathered and soon a big crowd gathered… there weren’t any teachers so where there was a big crowd one pulled a cane…and ran away. Then next did the same… in sometime time…the remaining those who were around did the same… I too couldn’t wait for it … I too grabbed one and ran away.
That evening after the dinner, we started the fire on the big fireplace was made on the ground closer to the pond which had been made that afternoon.
The fireplace was big as tall about one and half meters. There were dry small woods and also pieces of big logs about half a meter in diameter. Soon the woods blazed with big flames of fire. When the fire was big enough, teachers started pushing the end of the sugarcane into the fire… and let it burn for sometime… In some moments it was heated… so they took it our and with massive force they burst it over in the big stone …which gave a big sound “bang”.
The sugarcane which were brought for the day were brought and deposited earlier near the fire place… lucky Som sir was there looking over it not to let anyone steal it… slowly I went closer to him… Just as I had wished he did favour to me … he gave two small pieces of cane… as soon as he gave me I took it and dissapeared. Just as others were doing, I too first burnt them in fire and made the ‘bang’. It didn’t sound so good… Next one… it also didn’t prove the different.
Then there was still some job to do with the remainings of the bursted and burnt cane… We then tore the skin with teeth and chewed the remaining for the sweet hot juice. That evening we looked dirty and nasty with the black around our mouth and cheeks. When the cane were over… there was no reason to stay for longer… fire it kept burning all the night…and still the next day… we still saw smoke coming out of it the from the remaining little pieces of wood… But it didn’t last the next night before the ashes only remained.
It was the end of March on 28th we had the school day. It was a holiday. Though not formally organised …but we were asked to be in in the newly built opera hall. There was the poem competition. As most of the cases whenever there happened I wouldn’t miss the opportunity participating for the poem competitions. For the competition I decided to read my old and most loved poem about “The mother”. It was about two years back I had written it … I had lost the sheets and only few stanzas were in my memory …so I again remaked it for the occasion. It went as :
Ama hun dharti, ama hun akash
Ama hun Swarga, Ama hun devta..
Yeta uti garchin Pira dhukha bokdhai
Ankha bhari Snapana haru dhekdai……..
…………………………………………
………………………………………..
(Mother is land… mother is the sky… mother is the heaven … mother is god…. She walks around with lots of troubles and sufferings but still she posess a lot of dreams in her eyes…..)
Surprisingly I was awarded the consolation prize… (a small box covered by colourful papers)…it was full of a lot of sweets. It was ever the best achievement I made with the poems … later days I was never interested again and never did made any efforts writing poems again.
The time … it was the fading of spring and the beginning of summers… It always did surprise me with how abrupty the climate and the weather changed these days. Days would slowly start getting hotter … and most of the trees that lost their leaves in winter would now start building delicate leaves with the sunlight and its warmth… However, the grasses that had turned totally grey because of no sufficient rainwater, it would still wait more rains to come …before they too gave the new leaves…
It was the end of March on 28th we had the school day. It was a holiday. Though not formally organised …but we were asked to be in in the newly built opera hall. There was the poem competition. As most of the cases whenever there happened I wouldn’t miss the opportunity participating for the poem competitions. For the competition I decided to read my old and most loved poem about “The mother”. It was about two years back I had written it … I had lost the sheets and only few stanzas were in my memory …so I again remaked it for the occasion. It went as :
Ama hun dharti, ama hun akash
Ama hun Swarga, Ama hun devta..
Yeta uti garchin Pira dhukha bokdhai
Ankha bhari Snapana haru dhekdai……..
…………………………………………
………………………………………..
(Mother is land… mother is the sky… mother is the heaven … mother is god…. She walks around with lots of troubles and sufferings but still she posess a lot of dreams in her eyes…..)
Surprisingly I was awarded the consolation prize… (a small box covered by colourful papers)…it was full of a lot of sweets. It was ever the best achievement I made with the poems … later days I was never interested again and never did made any efforts writing poems again.
The time … it was the fading of spring and the beginning of summers… It always did surprise me with how abrupty the climate and the weather changed these days. Days would slowly start getting hotter … and most of the trees that lost their leaves in winter would now start building delicate leaves with the sunlight and its warmth… However, the grasses that had turned totally grey because of no sufficient rainwater, it would still wait more rains to come …before they too gave the new leaves…
The air would be so dry …and the land itself … there were always the greatest possibilities of the fire stroms because of the dry grassland and other little dead plants. But the fading of spring and beginning of summer would still mean rain that would help the plants to grow their leaves and also for the grasses to shoot out their new stems and leaves… These days the rain and wind a great difference to the rain in the monsoon… in monsoon rain would be seldom… patience …not destructive … because it almost didn’t carry lightings, thunders and hailstones… Though, often the monsoon rain proved more vulnerable than the summer rain because the monsoon rain sometime when continued for several days, it always brought so many great lanslides and floods every year.
However, I always loved the summer rain… I was always delighted seeing their aggresion… I knew it was for some thing good… After long dry and grey and cold winter … it was always nice to have rains… that came vigorous blowing up the dusty ground… cleaned up everything before it reset the ground with the water that it brought from the miles of distance far away from the ocean. The rains always came in the late afternoon … it usually would be the time of our last classes… The black cloulds would come with it’s very stong paces that it was so soon the sky would be covered with only the black clouds… Then we would see the great wind… I loved to see the lightning… so fast and quick they flickered … and loved to hear the thunder that some seemed like they had torn apart the sky…. To clear everything to start up something new... to bring something new… to the groung … to the planet … to the earth.
Most of the time it happen when our classes ended …so many times it had happened… it would be ready to rain and on the way waking pass to the hostel… I had felt the wind very closely. I donot know why… perhaps they were so accociated to my feeling and life I had always was happened to love it … I would feel it… It made me feel like it was to bring a great changes… it was to bring new …new delights and wamth after all a new life in my feelings… just like the way it was bringing for the new plants.
My paces would be slow and steady… sometime I walked up to the backyard in the hostel… alone … close my eyes and feel the wind… feel the little droplets of rains… that often fell over my face… I had a different feeling, a different meaning that always told it is meant that it explains the truth and the realities of life.
With the rains… in about two weeks everything changed… the trees … they would already have the leaves… the grey grasses would no let new shoots to cover old the grey leaves and the trees like gulmohar would get the new leaves and bloom beautiful red little flowers. It showed the realities even the fierce wind and rain… hails and thunders they were not meant for their vigor and aggressiveness… but still they had their own reason for it more than their cruelty and severeness they changed or gave new life to many.
All the way till the end of our days at school, we were considered the most stupid stundents in the whole school. So, for the teachers they had marked us the worst class in all. Most of us… in general we were stupid… I would say… we would do … stealing different things from the kitchen doors… almost a fight every week … it was so crazy there never needed any serious reason for a fight. Most of the time it happened in hostel or in class during the selfstudy hour… It would be for anything … sometimes for a pencil… or even sometime for speaking rude. When the fight started, it wasn’t that everybody only stared at it or everybody ignored it… Most of the cases it happened that not all but many would walk out from their seats and then jump on those ones that fought … many ocassions, the ones that tried to stop it would get some punches or sometime take chances striking the ones who made the fights. Having fight was common so, almost usual but … it wasn’t meant to last so long. Most of the cases if anybody got the sign of the teacher near by then would rush and alert everyone “Sir” … then it would the reaction would be so quick it would immediately stop… it would give the end to the fight. And when the teacher came … he would in no way predict the changes. He would look at us …for some moments before he moved to the next room.
On the later days… almost the last three years of our high school we were so organised that the teachers were desperate with us. Though they never gave up considereing us the worst in all, but they could also never get anything that would go wrong within us. We always got ready to take the charges but non-of us would tell them about anything and at any cost. So, most of the cases they started ignoring us.
Once it happened, in the evening class. There was no teacher around … so there were only few that were taking their seats and doing their jobs… most of them were doing in and out fo the class and some were running even. I was with Dakshya we were busy our own way but were ignoring to others. Suddenly Kaji sir came … he told all of us to stand and then asked who was running in the class… the room was dead silent. Nobody spoke a word. Since no one spoke from the group… from the far corner he started asking individually who was making noise and running in the class… Everybody told “I don’t know sir.” Then he started slapping everyone on both side of the face for not letting him to know. Two rows out of three were punished When our turn came … I was already lost my nerves and was totally covered with fear, I could no more resist it… With fear … my eye lids were already covered with tears … through I hadn’t cried yet… in a moaning sound I told… I had seen Yogen Rai often walking around… Then he called him out and was punished…
For other he didn’t procceed after it… Daksha sitting next to me was already punished but me I escaped. Though yogen did never tell me anything about it but later I realised I hadn’t done good deceiving my friends. It wasn’t my intension telling the teacher but I was oversensitive and overfear I couldn’t resist. This nature manytimes might had made my friends not have good feelings over me… Since then I never felt good of what I had done … Only the thing I could do was not to do it again… and it was since then I promised I would not make the same mistake again … no matter what I had to pay for it… For, my friends, I never did deceive them again.
It was about seven weeks before the first term… our class teacher Sharma Sir got married (Yet we weren’t offered sweeet though) After he was married he didn’t stay for longer. He left the school and it was later sometime before the first time we had a new science teacer … “Wagle Sir” we called him.
Day after day we were getting closer to exam… It was the same we did. There would be no PT in the morning. So, we always woke up early in the morning. Since this year, it was not only for myself whom I had been working for, for the exam… I too ahd to think about Daksha. I was determined … I would do the best to take along with me with the most I could. Because I knew he did always want me to do it and he did care for the way I wanted him to do.
For him, I always tried to help with the best I could… In during the self study hours in the evening and in the morning I would teach him … in the most easiest fashion…Told and tick marked the important ones … told him to make it by heart. Asked him to answers the questions… and therewere so many ways I implemented to help him Sometime it even proved harrashing which embarrashed to me when he failed to understand me. Sometime I was so annoyed in anger I would shout at him… and everybody in the class would look at me … even the teacher himself.
Sometimes… I was so distressed I would charge him with my hands … some even slapped. But he always excepted everything and for this I never gave up trying with the most I could.
So, every morning it was not only me … who would alone walk to classroom in the dark night. I always woke him up and took him… Sometime … when I felt hurried I woke him and asked him to come… many times he would but sometimes he didn’t. He would say… he had fallen to sleep so he could get up early.
So, every morning it was not only me … who would alone walk to classroom in the dark night. I always woke him up and took him… Sometime … when I felt hurried I woke him and asked him to come… many times he would but sometimes he didn’t. He would say… he had fallen to sleep so he could get up early.
As the exam grew closer I was helping him with learning and there were also others way I was sorting to help him. I had assued him to coem to the latrine, on the second bell (the two hours bell) I knew and I was sure for me, I would finish the exam even earlier then it… so, by the time… I would write everthing, (the short answers) in my question paper itself and give it to him and addition to it a day earlier, before the exam I made a special desk for him… We had drawers in ever desk… often during the exams … the teachers often searched into the drawers if they fell like the student is trying to cheat in exam. And many times they found the students with book and copies in the drawer.
So, Underneath the drawer I nailed the extra plywood sheet that had the little bit of opening from the under. So, easily he would sneak books or copies into it and see it in exams. Whlie getting through it if he felt the teachers coming (Most of the cases teachers always sat in a place … didn’t walk) then he would push it inside. Incase if the teachers came for a search and tried to see the drawer they wouldn’t ever find any thing unless if they would be very sure of that they had seen something.
Few days before exams … there were rumors … unlike to the other exams through all the years, they were to make some changes with the rules…(FIVE)
For the first two exams it became efficient. And it worked well with both the ways… but one morning… after the studies we were back in hostel to put on school uniform and then went for the break fast. When we returned classroom for study hours we learnt the desk that I had made for Daksha had been broken down by some of our classmates. I never knew who had done it … and how many were there… but I was told… Nawaraj … did it when we were away.
Few days before exams … there were rumors … unlike to the other exams through all the years, they were to make some changes with the rules…(FIVE)
For the first two exams it became efficient. And it worked well with both the ways… but one morning… after the studies we were back in hostel to put on school uniform and then went for the break fast. When we returned classroom for study hours we learnt the desk that I had made for Daksha had been broken down by some of our classmates. I never knew who had done it … and how many were there… but I was told… Nawaraj … did it when we were away.
It seemed, it had been rejected by the whole class so, I didn’t make any attempts repairing it or making new one… I thought there was still the second way… and I knew it would work well to the end and no one would come to interfere for it.
For the mathematics… we had a very different way of practising before exams… If the preceeding exam would be Mathematics … after the exam before it, we would form different groups in four or five the most though. Luckly, I would say… I too often proved to have my own group… though I wasn’t even good that time. Perhaps a reason for it could have been that I wasn’t with the good term with the first guy in the class.
It was not only forming a group of two or three… we even moved our desks and chairs in the classroom and made group. Prakash and Rabindra, we were often together though sometime Sagar, Prajol, and Yogen and few others accompained me. Narjan, the first of the class, he was totally surrounded and had the most than any other groups. For Daksha, he was always with me.
For me… losing position in the final, last year somehow had dissapointed me … So, for me too I thought and made the two ways… I studied as well I made the way to get the help the other way. I took the notes with me in the exams. I sneaked them into the side of the drawer and the drawer holder. It was the best place and teacher wouldn’t find it.
Since we all of the friends weren’t in the same room… there were different seat plans made by the teacher. It was good, Daksha was in our own classroom so, he easily could use the desk I made for him. As for me … I was in the class seven’s room. On the left of me was a big window.
Both the ways did seem helpful to me… but I was almost caught in one of the subject. Kumar sir, the History and Geography teacher almost got me in the maths exams. But it was okay… he didn’t come after me… and I was much aware for the day.
Both the ways did seem helpful to me… but I was almost caught in one of the subject. Kumar sir, the History and Geography teacher almost got me in the maths exams. But it was okay… he didn’t come after me… and I was much aware for the day.
Soon exam was over. I knew I done some good that was all I had expected. But after few days before we left for home … our result was published. One morning, I was with my friends closer to the school building just looking for some one to come and take me. The Nepali teacher, Guru came with the surprising news for me. I had achieved the third place in the first term exam.
I was over joyed. I knew I hadn’t really done a fair exam… but still it made so much of the difference not only for the day but also for the rest of my life. Since then I was always motivated to do some thing good in the right way and slowly it helped to get right to the edge of my destiny … to my dream.
I was over joyed. I knew I hadn’t really done a fair exam… but still it made so much of the difference not only for the day but also for the rest of my life. Since then I was always motivated to do some thing good in the right way and slowly it helped to get right to the edge of my destiny … to my dream.
It was a day later, father came to take me … he was surprised and very happy for the good result. I was overjoyed when he told the story to everyone in the family. After the vacation, again back to the school. Soon in few days I already got into it … I had learnt the classes wouldn’t start on the mentioned date…so, I always came after at least a day or two… So, most of the time I would be back the classes would already initiate, so it wouldn’t be hard to for get home when we would be busy in classes with our lessons.
For the first time in school we had the new desks… the olders ones with drawers for individuals were removed and were replaced by long desks and benches that was supposed to be for at least three of us. They had now drawers but still they had a long flat wood support to keep our books and copies … Well they did provide enough space for us as we had so many books with us.
The Classes had begun but it wasn’t regular… some of the treachers were busy for the school days programs… Kaji sir, he would go for the drammas, Kumar sir for songs and dances … so … we had to come to class and many teachers took their lessons only few didn’t take. Intially I too decided to sing a song for the school day. I told Kumar sir about it. I was happy he did sent me for practice … For few days I made practices but finally I realised, as just a boy’s shrilling voice couldn’t match to the hoarse sound of the man… I gave up… Though I gave up singing … once while I was watching a dance practice kumar sir asked me to join as the dancer… I didn’t want to … but he caught my hand and placed me on the back… We were four… for some time I did it … but later I was so deperate… I had to leave… Perhaps it was ever the last time I ever danced for others and for myself too.
It had only been my attempt for the participation for the school day though I didn’t do anything at all when the day came.
But after the school day… I was partly influenced … I too made a song copy… It was in one of those usual small copies that I made for the lessons. Most of the songs I had were from the Hindi movies and some were the Nepali songs too.
Earlier, when I was in class four … I was so impressed with the Ram kumar Ghimire, a senior brother, two grades senior to me … on one of those Fridays cultural shows. He had sang a song so beautifully… later same week I had made a song copy… I had copied all the Nepali songs from his notes… But it couldn’t be kept well so with time … it was lost…
Though I never had a voice to sing… but the reason I liked song and wanted to sing was because of the words, of the stories that the song had within them… I loved to hear as well as loved it to sing. In short time I was reguarded one of the three singers in the class. Two of the remainging were Rabindra and Deepak… they were definitely the better ones and had very good voice.
Sometime during our evening classes when the power went off… the junior would straight away go to the dining for the meal… Not to make it busy… the teachers wouldn’t let us free… Instead they would take us to the ground and we circled around the teachers… Most of the time we asked teachers for the story… We would say “Ghost Story” everyone in a voice … some time the teacher would… some time he would ask one of us to tell if we had any… and suprisingly …boys would call my name. Since we were kids I was the only on story teller of the class… who often had told stories to the boys and teachers in evening classes and also often in the leisure when we were together.
Sometime during our evening classes when the power went off… the junior would straight away go to the dining for the meal… Not to make it busy… the teachers wouldn’t let us free… Instead they would take us to the ground and we circled around the teachers… Most of the time we asked teachers for the story… We would say “Ghost Story” everyone in a voice … some time the teacher would… some time he would ask one of us to tell if we had any… and suprisingly …boys would call my name. Since we were kids I was the only on story teller of the class… who often had told stories to the boys and teachers in evening classes and also often in the leisure when we were together.
But some time teacher would instead ask us in any body liked to sing a song… So, three of us … were the ones who sang songs for the others. Everybody loved it … The only great feeling I still have about those days, in many cases I was hateful for the boys and it was also some with me … but also in many occasions they brought me forward… which I always felt great about them… Perhaps this could have been reason why I have always been so affliated and stick onto the songs, singing writing and telling stories ever since then.
When we have same attitude and a same destination then the time comes out of sudden that our route changes and we become friends, good friends. Perhaps because more than for poems I became more interested to songs. So, it was the reason I became closer to Rabindra and me, we became very good friends.
One late afternoon I was on the roof of our school building. I was alone there… there wasn’t any reason I had been there for. I had just been hanging around before I I had happened to reach the place.
When we have same attitude and a same destination then the time comes out of sudden that our route changes and we become friends, good friends. Perhaps because more than for poems I became more interested to songs. So, it was the reason I became closer to Rabindra and me, we became very good friends.
One late afternoon I was on the roof of our school building. I was alone there… there wasn’t any reason I had been there for. I had just been hanging around before I I had happened to reach the place.
Since sometime I had very clearly noticed the power cables… that came from the main switch from the hostel. The cable was wounded to the top of the little piller on the little wall of the roof. There was a joint …which was tapped with a black insulating tape…
I never had liked the evening class… so, that day, I could around as I saw no body… I pulled out the tape and broke the connection. That evening there was no evening class… which was a sort of joy to me… because of my success. But after all they did manage to find what was wrong… but when they had done it, it was already late for the classes. I never told any body about it.
About a month before our second term… during the monthly holiday, many had been to the home. With many of my friends from the distant I was with them. The school decided to take us to a near by temple that was closer by the side day along the highway to the Pokhara Valley.
The place was only a small village and the temple, it was on the top of a very small hill by the road side but with great many trees all around. While coming back, Jipendra showed me some thrones... he told they could be used to pierce the ears… The plant was small and had big leaves covered with long thornes. I picked out few leaves back to school.
About a month before our second term… during the monthly holiday, many had been to the home. With many of my friends from the distant I was with them. The school decided to take us to a near by temple that was closer by the side day along the highway to the Pokhara Valley.
The place was only a small village and the temple, it was on the top of a very small hill by the road side but with great many trees all around. While coming back, Jipendra showed me some thrones... he told they could be used to pierce the ears… The plant was small and had big leaves covered with long thornes. I picked out few leaves back to school.
That day in the late afternoon … after the tea, Jipendra pierced both of the lower part of my ears with the thornes. The pain it was irressistible but he didn’t take it long so… it was okay.
Next day both of my ears were swollen… They had turned dark red heaved with blood… I didn’t do anything for the day …I wated for until the next day…
Next day it even got worse… and all through the night the pain in my ears hadn’t let me sleep … so that after noon I decided to see the doctor. I went to look for the man in the hostel clinic… I knew he wouldn’t do much.. .. as he hadn’t so much … but he would squeeze it and clean it … I had hoped it would still be a way that would perhaps give me a relief.
But the door of his room was close on the way back… I meet “Nirmala Auntie”… She was a very nice lady, working in the junior hostel for the small kid… She had been the sister lady for me … Through all my stay in the hostel … she was only the one, in all the aunts and all the women who had ever been so close to me. Most of the others… they wouldn’t notice me … and I too never proceeded to go and talk to them.
That day as I was trying to return to our room…. Talking to her… I told I had the severe pain in my ears… She told me that wasn’t the right way to pierce. But some how I was reliefed when she told it was often that after piercing the ear, it would swell. Instead she sugggested to use oil and other a mixture of other few substances and asked me to put it before the sleep.
That evening after the meal I tried to meet her in the kitchen… usually everyone in the hostel worked in the kitchen to help student get the food. To my surprise she had already made the oily mixture. I was so delighted and overwhelmed with happiness… The moments of overjoy I couldn’t show it … but I greatly felt it inside me. It was something I had never expected, because it is not always that anyone would do a favour without a reason.
Since then… I had even a great feeling than ever. She did remain a person with a difference, some one I could never forget. So, good and so caring even in the midst of the strangers … It was a very sad thing she stay longer … and after she left the school I never saw her again.
With days … time was short and we had the second term exam. This time I worked hard and I made it all fair … no cheats, no copies for help… I had decided I would do it fare… even if I failed not to get of what I was… After the exams there was gain a next surprise for me … I was third in the class again… I couldn’t believe. I had got the return of my hard work and fairness… it was a return … the true return of my persistance.
Few things like this some was a sort of great inspiration to me … which always made me feel like …be good, do good to others and do your work fair… you will be rewarded. And finally I was persuaded to make myself work on it more and more. I was happy about the result but something didn’t turn so good. In about four days all of my friends had gone home and I only remained the single person in my class. The movie shows couldn’t keep me up with my time…
I was so upset and desperate, I could no more keep looking at the way over each buses that passed the way for that somebody would drop out from it and take me home.
I was so upset and desperate, I could no more keep looking at the way over each buses that passed the way for that somebody would drop out from it and take me home.
It was after the second day I had packed all my things but till the sixth day, having no one to come to take me… it became a sort of frustration. I had no place to go … no thing to do and no friends to talk… the noise and busy halls now seemed like so silent and dead with people like the graveyard.
Those moments became too tough to me… it was different getting through every minute… and the feelings in me… they were so heaved with distress… many times… The paces I walked alone and the places I rested… I burst into cry in the midst of silence…. In the middle of the field… alone in the hostel room… where ever I walked, the feelings became untolorable… unless the on the 6th morning father came to take me home for the vacation. That morning as I walked to him… I sprang and burst into screaming cry… he seemed sorry about it… but he didn’t tell anything.
Coming back home it was nice. I had already recovered with the sad days that I had spent in the hostel.I was happy now because I was away from school… and more than this there were two festivals… and we would be getting new present from the mother… the new pair of cloths just as usual. Two festivals, as for the kids what would I want more than that. It was indeed great.
Coming back home it was nice. I had already recovered with the sad days that I had spent in the hostel.I was happy now because I was away from school… and more than this there were two festivals… and we would be getting new present from the mother… the new pair of cloths just as usual. Two festivals, as for the kids what would I want more than that. It was indeed great.
It was just right after festival… my second sister left home. She had been in love with a guy who was already married. She was too young for it, but it became the complete shock for the family.
Rather than anything else, father started the trouble with the case… Everynight he would get drunk and then he would come after us… there wasn’t other way then to run away from the place. He greatly blamed for the poor mother, who was indeed innocent.
Rather than anything else, father started the trouble with the case… Everynight he would get drunk and then he would come after us… there wasn’t other way then to run away from the place. He greatly blamed for the poor mother, who was indeed innocent.
It wasn’t longer I had to go with all this because soon I was to go my school… It was only four days later I was back at school again.
I was surprised the new library was ready …also the opera hall. The library was opened during the lunck break. There were so many books in the library… especially the storybooks for us … Our cards had also been made … so we could also take the books to our hostel and read in leisure… The First Book I took in my name… was “Journey to the centre of the Earth”. However I couldn’t read all of it because the time didn’t prove to be enough as in a week we had to return it back. But in few weeks I read so many of the other books… “Around the world in Eighty days” “Robinson Crueso”, “Black Beauty” and few other classics.
Our science teacher “Wagle sir” had left the school. In few days we had the new replacement and he was Puspa Thapa. More than a science teacher he was an artist … he would make great figures. He was taking the small room next door. Since the beginning he told he would teach us two subjects Science and Moral Science. He always told in science firgures were more important than the detail the reason he had was... they provided more information regarding the matter. It was astronising, during the moral science class, instead of teaching us about the lesson and content he asked us to make a picture of a horse from the book. We were surprised but we still did it what he had asked us to do.
During his classes he would told more about what he had done … he told he had proved the theory proving two different numeric digits equal… that meant the matematics would prove wrong … one day he took all the fourty five minutes proving the subject matter. We were satisfied but I didn’t think he had done it in the right place … because we weren’t so much concerened about it … but still it was good to know.
Winters were cold and foggy and something I hated the most in the season was PT every morning in winter. I did never like it all my life and this time I had really made some escapes…
To escape from PT sometime I would sneak out underneath the bed or sometime lock myself inside the toilet for about all the hour. I would better love it than running out in the cold winter morning.
Once morning once when I was hiding underneath the hostel bed…surround by the metal boxes. Junior Guru, the hostel teacher came into to see if anyone had been left. I was silent and quite as he walked across… However he didn’t look underneath the bed… else he would have easily caught us…
However I wasn’t only alone … Trishna, a classmate was also there just some meters away from me hiding the same way as I had done. We were happy for the day… we could make it. Some days we made the escape some days there wasn’t the way we had to go.
One afternoon during after the lunch, as we were coming out in the field for the sun during the lunch break we say there had been the gathering in around the staff kitchen near the office. There had been a wooden cage and an wild pig had been grown up. It had already become really big… even big enough for the cage. So, the school had decided to kill it.
Since it was wild and it wasn’t easy even for the kill, the senior police officer of the school came with a gun. He slowly went closer to the cage and waited until he would target on the the poor little creature on it’s head… With the first shot he couldn’t make it … and the poor animal cried out in the great suffering… however the quick second shot was direct to it’s head that made with no more cry it fell down …dead.
That eveing meat was served to everyone. It was enough for almost four hundred people. A poor animal was made a gaint feast. Since it had been the time I had decided to give up the meat I was one of those not having it. With days it wasn’t easy I again had to start with it. It wouldn’t be easy to keep up when you become different to all your friends around. So, I had to becaome the same and I started taking meat.
Winter days weren’t also difficult to go through… the foggy morning …but almost sunshine everyday in the midday… We would some time be in the ground sleeping under the sun through out the lunch break and returned back to class after the bell rang… When we often would be in the sun … then finally the evening.
In about two months we had the final exams … even in the cold chill winters we would wake very early in the morning when the exams were closer. To make the very strict usage of time usually most of us came to our classes dressed in our school uniform. This would help us stay longer in classroom before the breakfast … sometime for convience, some of us… even slept in the uniforms so that we could immediately rush to classroom the next morning when we woke up.
The foggy morning in winter always looked very dark… and frightening… the water it would be terrible cold … but it was never the thing that ever mattered to us. Though we were young and little but we always felt enough of confidence and strength in us… and in our job.
I know, when I think of any individual of our days… no one would have ever thought of waking up at two or three in the morning in the cold winter. This would be unusal. The only reason …of our strengh was the great team we had… and the great competition we felt in between us … that drove us to madness that we even woke up in those early freezing mornings.
Final began… I worked with my best and with the fairest I could. I didn’t give away any possibilities to let my self down. In the next side I took worked for my friend Daksha, We had the same routine as usual… I had to finish all the questions before the first to hours before I came with the answers in my question paper in the second hour’s bell. This time again. My work was fine. It was good some of the others friends had also helped him in the class during the exam.
Few days later when our final was over… there had been the rumour about the tour… the school was to take us to Chitwan for a night. Next day we would return. It was one of those foggy-day sometime before noon after the heavy lunch. Soon after the lunch we gathered outside of our school building where the bus was brought. It was one of those day-bus that was for the highways. When everybody came, there was the counting …Yes, we were all there. Then we got inside… the teachers came… Som sir, Kumar sir and Kaji Sir. With joy excitement and for the adventure we came across the school gate… In few moments …the school vanished from our sight.
Final began… I worked with my best and with the fairest I could. I didn’t give away any possibilities to let my self down. In the next side I took worked for my friend Daksha, We had the same routine as usual… I had to finish all the questions before the first to hours before I came with the answers in my question paper in the second hour’s bell. This time again. My work was fine. It was good some of the others friends had also helped him in the class during the exam.
Few days later when our final was over… there had been the rumour about the tour… the school was to take us to Chitwan for a night. Next day we would return. It was one of those foggy-day sometime before noon after the heavy lunch. Soon after the lunch we gathered outside of our school building where the bus was brought. It was one of those day-bus that was for the highways. When everybody came, there was the counting …Yes, we were all there. Then we got inside… the teachers came… Som sir, Kumar sir and Kaji Sir. With joy excitement and for the adventure we came across the school gate… In few moments …the school vanished from our sight.
With trees… barren terraces… grey hills and the river sides on a side of a road … it was an incredible scenario. Looking at it …and watching them… it gave an enormous pleasure seeing how the beautiful the creator had created the nature… All these a artistics mainland and hills … the great landscapes … the specular riversides…they had made the perfect picture. Moreover the greatly heaved feelings of overjoy and happiness of been aways from school had additionally made happier than ever… We were sininging … we were shouting and with the strange feelings of amusement and excitement we were forgetting everything.
Chitwan… it was a small city on the plains… about eighty miles from our school. It was well know for the national park…”Royal Chitwan Nation Park”. The greatest feature about the place was the rhinos…the only place in the world that had adequately hand numerous single horned rhinos.
About three hours later, our bus turned left from the main highway… the teachers decided to take us to the “Gorakali Tyre factory” the only one in the county those days. After sometime… they could manage it, In a line we walked into the buildings where we were shown different sections of how the tyres were manufactured.
In the late afternoon we came into the city… after we arrived, the teachers took us to a small local place for tea… We all had to have the same. The teachers payed them… it’s wasn’t their own money though… because our parents had to pay for everything at the end… even for every little expenses.
During the break teachers decided to take to show us inside some of the plants which were located around the cities. They tried for the CocaCola Manufaturing plants and the San Miguel Beer Factory. They couldn’t succeed in any because, for one … it wasn’t the appropriate day… and the next they wouldn’t permit for any visits..
By this time it was starting to get dark. Now teachers were anxiousIsorting out a place for us to stay…. Finally they did… found places in two different lodges. Kaji sir, who had been with us …gave us a room… it was a small room… with three bed which really looked a lot for that pretty little place. Then the teacher told it was for eight of us... In the room, we were Narjan, Sagar, Prakash Shrestha, Rabindra Prajol and few others. There was no other way, we had to join the beds…
We stayed there for some moments before we were told that it would take sometime for the dinner… So, we decided to go for a walk… It’s always a great and different if you are let free after when you have lived inside a different world that is totally isolated from the outside. The teachers had told us to guide all of us… for about an hour we freely walked through the streets… we walked into shops looked around if we could get something for us… More than we bought with money, we sneaked more into our pockets without letting the shop owner notice us… We all looked experts. Later when we were back into our room and we talked … we found … it had happened in almost every group that had gone for the walk. Some had tuned more fortunate then us… One had the bags of Sweets... and some others with belts and other accessories. For me I had sneaked a small blue bottle of glue.
That evening we had heavy meal…with chicken soup. The food had totally different taste so, easily we had more… We were tired of the day… we played cards for some time (though the teachers had restricted u)s … then just sometime later went to sleep.
Next morning… when we woke up… there was already some light. Though it was misty... the sunlight and it’s wamth it proved stronger to fight the dense fog and it’s darkness and cold. As we came out from the room … the morning sun and it’s wamth was the greatest charm in the morning. It was not only trying to bring a fine day but also… was fighting against the cold for us…
It hadn’t been longer we had got out of bed … the teachers asked us to get ready for the leave. Soon we hurried for it … and soon we were in the busy…For some time we were around the city before it seemed we were in a way trying to come out of it… Then the bus stopped for the tea. We were asked not to go around… beforethe teachers talked to each other to decide for what to do dthe next.
Mean while, Kaji sir called all of us again. When we came around him… he asked us to stand and be in line… Then he called each of us individually to him and asked if we had money or not. For the ones they told yes… he didn’t give anything but for the ones who told no… he gave fifty rupee each. For me I thought telling no would be better… Because the additional money would help me buying something new. Just somtime before the finals father had come to visit me in school. I had told him we were going for the tour. Initally he had given he five rupee note asking me if that would be enough. With hesitation I didn’t take it so… he finally had given me twenty rupee note. But still there was some money my mother had given me… before I left home after the vacation…
As my turn came …kaji sir asked me the same question. I didn’t tell anything I just nodded “NO” so he handed me a fifty rupee note and wrote my name on his note book.. when it was over …he asked us to have tea… and brerakfast…. This time we could have anything we wanted.
After the tea we were again in the bus… we headed for the national park… First we took a route …later we found it wasn’t the right way…so we again had to take a different way. It was some time before noon when we came to a riverside … we dropped out of bus … from there we could see… just the bushes and tree… it was the national park.
Just next to the place where the bus had stopped, there was a small hut … there lived few people who worked as the guard and rescuers in the park. From them we leart that visiting the park was usually for the foreign tourists and it would cost us a lot if we tried for it.
For about an hour we stayed there before we desperately had to return back to the main city. We were hungry and exhausted coming back and the drive was tedious. But finally we did come … There was chicken soup again… we heavily dined for our hunger. About one in the day…We were again iin the bus on the way back to school. Everyone seemed silent cold and quite … there was no happiness again.
On the way back, for the tea, it stopped in the midway near the hydroelectric power station. It was the country largest plant to produce the maximum electricity …69KW. Mean while the teachers decided to take us inside it… We were then asked to be in group… about twelve in each.
I didn’t hurry for it… so, I decided to go in the last group.
As we entered the main entrance… right behind the door there was a fine model of the plant… it was an extraordinary model that I had ever seen. And walking the inside door, it even surprised me. The plant had been extremly larger than that I had supposed. It was so much deeper into the ground level, there were a couple of lifts for it.
We were lucky enough the guy who had guided us …decided to take us to the ground floor… Getting down to the bottom inside the lift… it was ever the first experience for me. As we came out of the lift… we saw three huge turbines running uniformly. The noise it was so loud … we would almost not hearing each other. Then he took us again to a small room… there he showed large long metal pipes running pallell to each other that carried cold water to cool the generators.
While getting back… we saw rest of the friend …were still wondering from the top… looking at the spinning dynamos… we waved our hands to them… they did the same.
While getting back… we saw rest of the friend …were still wondering from the top… looking at the spinning dynamos… we waved our hands to them… they did the same.
After then we were again back to the top with the rest of the friends before we came out of the plant. In the late evening, we were back at the school again. Quitely we had rushed for the dinner. And soon for the sleep. Next day it was all over and ther normal day returned. Built still we had feelings of being aloof from the school which still cherish us …
In few days before we went home for the winter vacation, we had the result of the finals. I had become the fouth in theclass… But later was fifth because there were two who stood second in the class. For me … it was a great achivement ever.
Soon, just few days later, I was again back home for the winter vacation. Back at home … it was only two days later an Australian couple came to take two rooms… One was for them and the next was for their daughter, Dehlia, a beautiful girl, blond hair, almost of my height but very much younger than me.
Soon, we became friends… It was many times her parents left her in her room and when she was alone … she came to me and my brother and we spend time together. It was fun … being to her… in the intial days she sometime acted strangly… sometime when she was busy studying and if we went closer to her she would throw away everything and then came to fight with us. Then she would shout and scream. There was no other way… we had to run. But soon everything changed. One late afternoon her parent had left her alone… When she saw us … she was so delighted she came running to us. For some moments we just ran across but sometime later, she sat at a place and we too stayed beside her. And it was the place where she told her stories.
It was totally a next side of us… we were young… she was even much younger but we were talking something real of life. She told the man … who had been with her mother was not her father. It was her boyfriend. She told … her father had not known about it. She told she never liked the relation of her mother with the man … so, it was her mother that would usually leave her alone like the way she had done that day.
When she talked about her stories… I was so crushed when the teardrops ran down her cheeks that had heaved over both of her eyes. I brought my hand and wept her tears with my little fingers. There was pain… there was passion… I could understand it… I could feel it … but what could I do? The only thing that I could do was I was always ready to hear … to feel her and to understand her whenever she wanted.
Within even more than a week she was so close and intimate to us… one evening she even offered herself to me… In addition she even lured promising to provide me a drink for it. I had already felt her so close, there was nothing any sort of desire I had over her. And there was nothing I wanted to take from her instead of the closeness we had in between us. I tenderly kissed her on her delicate cheeks. That was all.
Astronisingly, I was still offered the drink.
Two weeks vacation wasn’t long enough before the day I had to leave for school, I asked her about her address so that I could write her on the later days. She told she wasn’t sure of where they would be going after then nor she knew where they would be leaving. There was no other way out of it … so, it only remained as a short and beautiful memory.
***
Two weeks vacation wasn’t long enough before the day I had to leave for school, I asked her about her address so that I could write her on the later days. She told she wasn’t sure of where they would be going after then nor she knew where they would be leaving. There was no other way out of it … so, it only remained as a short and beautiful memory.
***