Drizzling Morning

23 September 2018

Sunday

It must have been very early in the morning when Nawle 'ma was shaking me and telling me that I was half-naked and the fan was on and if I would want her to turn off the fan. I remember nodding and grabbing the brown sheet which was by my side and covering myself with it. I have no idea after how long did Kancha thul dad come calling my name to wake me up. And I remember asking just five minutes of more sleep.

He woke me up anyhow and told me to go to Jhalari to pick up my brother, Babu dai.  I got control of my dismantled consciousness and woke up. I realized that I had let lights on in my room, which seemed rummy to me because I don’t have a distant memory of keeping my lights on when I slept. I looked outside, it was dawn, a little darker than that. I got my clothed-on, started the bike, set myself to Jhalari.

Jhalari is about 7 KM away from Pitamber, add or subtract one or two kilometers. The road to Jhalari isn’t bad or good. It has classic-Nepali-Road—a pit here and there, graveled, one or two stone bigger than your head in every 10 meters or so, slippery when it rains, but good enough to ride your bike if you are a good rider and proceed with caution. You might be thinking, does the road of Kathmandu fall in this category? I doubt it. Kathmandu is unique in every way, it is crime to compare the valley with any other place.

There was I with Splendor in hand. I think I was still half alive when I started because I was doing everything without any feel. The bike was reluctant to start in the beginning but as time passed, it got smoother. On the halfway, I saw an old woman, I was still riding then. She looked at me, I must have been about 5-10 meters away from her. I don’t know what I thought, I stopped and asked if she wanted a lift. She was very glad to get an offer like that.

The old woman had a son who was marching ahead of her and was carrying a heavy bag. She asked him for the bag. As soon as I let her in my bike, it started raining heavily, heavily enough that if you carried an umbrella, below half would be drenched, but there was I all drenched like a street dog with no shelter.

We started off; she talked little. But she kept wishing for me which I found admirable. But her wish was quite bizarre to me. She was wishing me for hundred and hundred of sons for me! I don’t want to be Kalyug’s Dhirtarast! However, she kept murmuring about her ill-fated and so. I asked her for what reason had she been leaving to Baitadi. She didn’t speak clearly enough. I only could get that she was sick and she wanted to go home. She didn’t disclose much and I didn’t force her too.

It was raining heavily. I love rain with all my heart. I was getting that awesome-feeling that I usually get in the rain, I can’t describe it but I can tell it is a feeling I want to be addicted too. I dropped her to Pratikshyalaya and saw Babu dai on the other side of the road. We thought of waiting for the rain to stop. Our patience gave up and we decided to come to Pitamber anyways. It was a good ride home though, I liked it!  

Babu dai is the kind of person who is frivolous and childish. However, he is a married man with two sons, one of my age. Now my age might get tricky! If I ask people what might be my age, I usually get an answer from 25 to 30! My physique is running way older than me. I don’t like to correct people. I don’t mind if somebody calls me older than what I am.

I have this vivid memory about my age and how it tricked a Girl. I was in Prabin dai’s wedding and I was flirting with a girl studying nursing. She asked me in which level I studied. Instead of replying to her, I asked her back what she thought. She said that she presumed me to be studying in Bachelor. I added to her remarks that I was studying in BSc third year. We shared our numbers and we used to call at nights, and things were picking up its pace. But not after. On NEW YEAR’s eve, I called her to wish when she said: “Tapaile kina bhnnau bhayena ki tapai sevenma padnu huncha bhnera?”  I hung up and never called her after. I didn’t even accept her Friend-request in Facebook, not even of her sister’s.

Babu dai is also an avid food-lover like me. In the evening, he brought Chicken. I know what you may be thinking. I have a grand-mother in her death bed and we are having meat. Well, that actually is the reason. In a way, it has to do with our culture, not that our culture tells us to have meat when a person is on her death-bed but because our family isn’t supposed to have meat for a year if somebody dies! Brahmins know all the loop-holes in the religion to get away from the worst possible situation. No doubts they are the aristocrats when it comes to religion.  

If I am not wrong, unmarried people don’t fall upon in this category. There you go, one more benefit of remaining Bachelor. In fact, we had meat yesterday too. Pranjal and Nimisha (Nimmu) were here. Pranjal is my brother and Nimmu is my niece. They left today in the morning before I woke up. W dai took them home because they had school.

Thule’ma’s(Grand-mother) health is getting worse. It is unlikely if she may survive two-three days. She keeps moving her left leg. She often opens her eyes, I think it happens involuntarily, and she isn’t doing it. Many visit her and go. It looks as if everyone is waiting for her death, I know this is rude but she has become very old and weak! She is 94 and she is weak, suffering, and unconscious. They say: Her time has come and she should go too.   

Every journey has to come to an end. If it never has an end, you don’t call it a journey at all. We start it with nothing and leave with something, good or bad is a choice we make during the period. And maybe, Thule 'ma's journey is about to end.