Flashback to '95
It was a foggy morning when I woke up from my bed rubbing my eyes. The ladder that descends down to the backyard of my house was made up of half stone and the remaining half of wood. I’ve o
bserved the wooden part washed up by downpour every monsoon been gradually changing its color to grayish with black spots. The stone paved backyard was like some greenish skiing court due to all those algae grown in the monsoon. I almost did back somersault while entering kitchen through our little skiing court.
I was drinking tea directly from the kettle when mom entered kitchen with a Gaauri full of water in her waist. My disgusting behavior was enough for her to start her long lecture.
“You stupid” she put down Gaauri and shows her frustration by putting her hands in her forehead.
“Hare Shiva, when will you be grow up” she lit the Bio-gas and placed the kettle in the fire. “Go and wash your face first, have shame on yourself you donkey” she pushed me out of the kitchen. I was in the Tap by the side of front yard before mom finishes her lecture.
“Oie Ramesh” there was a call from the road. “See there are Chayngra and sheep coming from the Fera, let’s go” I was just splashing water in my face when Upen called me. 
Mom heard him in the kitchen and came out scolding “Don’t you have any work, when you have time you roam here and there like a street dog and when school resume cry like a pig ”
I hide myself by the Marigold’s tree and slowly reached the road by kneeling down. I dried my face with the help of my shirts sleeves. Shit my bad luck. Mom saw me.
“You donkey don’t you want a tea, wait I’ll tell dad” and she entered inside.
We ran away that means I borrowed the loan from dad; loan of scolding. Dad had never beaten us so I was ready to sacrifice my tea for first heard of Sheep of a Dashain. Our house was by the old foot trail that was regular route of sheep transport from Mustang, Tibet and Dolpa to Pokhara. We ascend the hill to reach Fera; it was a around 6:30am, in the east the sky above Sarangkot was red while in the south-east the fog had completely engulfed Pokhara valley so there was not a glimpse of Fewa lake. But in the North last night’s snowfall in Machhapuchre had converted the black and white fishtail mountain into a white one.
We were overjoyed to see flock of sheep and chyangra after one year. We watched them from the stone wall by the side of the road. Time and again we tried to touch the long and curley horn of Chyangra.
“What is the cost for the best one Ista?” Upen asked. People used to call Sherpa’s; the owner of the flock Ista.
“What you want to buy Sheep or Chyangra?” Ista asked. “It’s 27 hundred for sheep and 32 hundred for a Chyangra”. We were proud that Ista thought that we were there to buy Chyangra.
”It’s too expensive Ista for a Dolpali Chyangra, yesterday my father bought Mustange chyangra in two thousand” Upen tried to be smart.
“Oh I see”, Ista pointed his finger to the roof of a house by the road. “You see there, in the roof, I think that is the Chyangra your father bought in two thousand” he was pointing to red pumpkins arranged in the line on the roof of house. I laughed at Upen, he felt awkward so didn’t utter a word. We started to chase Chyangra. “Osshh osshh osshh osshh”.
My whole morning was gone chasing black, white and gray Chyangra. I was home at 10am. Dad was in the front porch talking with our neighbor and mom was cleaning pots and pans.
“Did you finish the vacation homework?” Dad asked as I reached our front yard. “Yes, I finished 10 subjects and now just 3 more to go”. I told a lie, I had just finished 3 subjects and had 10 more to go. That was the only way to get a clean cheat from dad.
“I’d checked his copy, he had just finished 3 of them” My brother shouted from the veranda.
The color of my chicks changed to red and my ear started ringing. Dad glared at me, the wrinkle appeared in his forehead and his eyes grew bigger. The cold chill went through my back and his look made me about to pee in my shorts.
“You donkey, don’t you need to read” he grumbled. “You can’t leave the house until you finish your homework”. I stayed there nodding in front of dad.
“Why are you nodding here like a cock eating a salt? Go and do your homework”. I was about to climb the ladder when mom called me for the lunch. Thanks mom for your kindness coz my belly was really in need of milk and rice.
I waited all day hoping dad to leave the house so that I can go and chase chyangra, but dad never left the house. I never saw dad whole day at the house before but that day everything were happening for the first time. I opened my books during a daytime for the first time and pretended doing homework but my ears were in road listening to “osshh osshh osshh” of Ista’s and eyes were in front porch looking for dad’s image to vanish which never happened.
After 15 years:
A vibration on my cell phone waked me up. I grabbed my mobile and checked my inbox. The message reads like this “No Archie’s card 2 give, no sweet flowers to send, no cute graphics to parcel. Just a good wish saying ‘happy vijaya dashami 067’”. It was around half past six and I was having a silent sleep after finishing 2 months long and tiring exam the day before. This beep in my cell certainly did disturb me but the warm wish on the very morning on the first day of Vijaya Dashami was something to cherish. I got up from my bed and turned on my computer, played mangal dhun in my PC and signed in facebook. 15 notification, 3 dashain gift and 5 message all about welcoming Dashain and wishing happy Dashain. My morning went in front of PC and later that day I called my friend and we went for a shopping. I bought a ticket to travel back home and a new shirt. Next morning I was out of Kathmandu on my way home. After 9hrs of long and tiring journey I was at home. Mom was preparing for growing Jamara. People used to cultivate jamara seeing the moom of second day of NauDurga.
“Yea!!! You’re home!!!” Mom got surprised seeing me. “At what time did you start your journey? Why didn’t you call us? Was there Jam in the road?.......”. Long list of questionnaire were thrown on me as I was silently searching for flocks of Chyangra up above on Fera.
