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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Children prepare for the great (Story by Kartikeya Ghimire, Translated by Mahesh Paudyal Prarambha)

“I won’t accept Tika from the hand of this mean sister. How bad she is! She always scolds me.”

Pondering over this matter, Sandeep goes straight towards the ground, where his friends await him for their game of Dandibiyo. No one had thought that Sandeep would take such a serious decision following a trivial disagreement on marbles. But when a minor feels harassed by a senior, reasoning of all kinds fail.

“Oh! Did you arrive, Sandeep? Come on. I was waiting for you,” says Shyam, warmly receiving his friend. Sandeep smiles gently and soon both of them get absorbed in Dandibiyo.

“Sandeep, catch strongly. I am going to hit hard.”

Shyam throws the biyo, the shorter of the two sticks, swiftly. Though Sandeep tries to escape from it, it hits one of his eyes. He shouts in pain and starts crying. Thin red blood starts flowing down his cheeks.

“What! How come I am in a hospital bed? And who is this person placing his head upon my chest?” he vacantly questions, as he comes round in his hospital bed, the next morning.

Sandeep gets up slowly and looks around. He sees his sister, the least expected of all, sitting by his side, displaying a very considerate and caring look in her eyes. Love was almost overflowing her eyelids.

Sandeep feels pity on his her. His eyes turn to hers, and after a real long interval of time, they observe one another with such closeness. A love, boiling each moment and suffocating for want of an outlet, metamorphoses into a gusty torrent when the hurdles transpire, and it gets its freedom of expression.

There, Sandeep can see spots of dry tears, vaguely scattered around all over her cheeks swollen eyes. He can easily make out; his sister cried for a long time since he was admitted to the hospital and waited for his sense to come back.

“Sandeep, you woke up?” a new voice asks. He looks around, and there is his mother, pale and worked up.

The affectionate words of his mother distract him. Nevertheless, he continues gazing at his sister. As all mothers do, Sandeep’s mother can read her son’s feelings in his looks.

“Look my son, how much does your sister love you? I told her to go home and take rest. But she ignores me. She passes her hours crying, and keeps us asking when you would return to you senses.”

Before his mother completes her words, tears pour down Sandeep's face. He runs to his mother, sits on her lap and says, “I don't hate my sister anymore. I love her very much, okay mom! Please mom! For my sake, buy for Bhai Tika, the goods of her choice.”

His sister, who pretends to be asleep, finds it hard to control her emotion, as she hears her ailing brother speak. She rushes with a sudden start, and hugs Sandeep. “Brother! She exclaims, “You are worth a million of brothers on earth. “

On the day of Bhai Tika, the two children look merry, as they have never been before. They look like eternal brother and sister, truly blessed by God. “Wish! All brothers and sister on earth live in love like these kids,” the mother contemplates, as she watches her children prepare for the great Bhai Tika.


* Bhai Tika - A great festival when sisters put red mark of love on their brothers' forehead.

* Dandibiyo - The national game of Nepal played with a long and a very short stick.

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