Sat, 20 Apr, 2024

A Page from My Diary: What and How I Saw?

By Asmita Subedi

Exactly one hour ago, I was happily returning home from my college with my friends talking about every little silly thing we know about, arguing with one another, pulling each other’s legs and teasing each other. We all have happy times together; friends are the best gifts we can ever have. Suddenly, we began to make plans for our holidays at one another’s houses though it was obvious that getting permission for that from our parents was clearly impossible. However, we granted ourselves permission, in our imagination that is! Haha..We ate fish at Shreha’s place in Chitwan, had a party at my place, Itahari, and roamed all over the beautiful places, eating panipuris and choailas. Our imagination had no boundaries; we almost did a whole trekking in our own imagination and laughed at all those quirky and silly thoughts. :) I just wish life could be as beautiful as in it is our imaginations. Wow! That’d be cool! Our conversation and our imagination was still alive when we saw a new hotel on our way and went inside to  eat mo:mos to mesmerize our taste buds with some new flavors. We were busy on our own world, gossiping and chatting, when we suddenly heard the sound glasses shattering. There, in front of us, was a little boy holding plates and watching clueless with fear towards the broken glasses. He probably was the age of my little brother and was working in the hotel for livelihood. I felt pity and sorry for the little kid! How miserable might life be for the little kid? He has to work there for his living at the age when a majority of people don’t even know what life means or actually is? Where do all the child rights disappear when a child works as a laborer in such hotels at the center of the capital city, Kathmandu? I could just imagine what consequences he faces daily, but for that boy, the consequences of which I could just imagine, happen for real! I’m afraid, he will certainly either be beaten or scolded for breaking the glasses or maybe he wouldn’t get paid for his work due to his mistake. It was really a sad situation, indeed! After making our tummies happy with the yummy mo:mos, we parted, hugging each other, towards our home. On the way, my eyes caught different sights. However, I can hardly remember them all. After a long wait, I finally got a micro and thank god, I was lucky to get a seat. :) Out from the window, I could see the shops decorated with jhilimilis for Tihar, some houses being renovated as well and some shops full of suits and kurthas. People were busy shopping and it seemed the festive season had already hit the city; it was only that I hadn’t noticed before. My ears were listening to Bollywood songs being played on the micro but my eyes were taking a flight from inside the micro to the outside world, accompanied with some gazes towards the sky. The beautiful scene on the sky was really eyes captivating. I just wish I could take the pictures of those clouds and mountains. Really, my country is blessed with natural beauty and is an incredible piece of heaven. Then inside the micro, there comes an adorable family of four; mom, dad and two little princess sisters. The sisters were too cute; especially the little one. They were so cute that I didn’t even realize myself smiling and passing a look at them until I saw the older one staring at me. I couldn’t understand why she gave me that look. Probably, she was looking at me considering me as a cute little child as I was smiling absurdly at her sister. These two sisters, they were heavenly gifts for each other, they might not have felt this now, but this reflected in the love and attachment they shared. The little one was troubling her mother for chocolates and the elder one was pacifying her saying a funny story in a terrible way and scaring her. Aww...that was really cute! If I had a chance, I wouldn’t have stopped myself to kiss them both but I just passed her a smile and winked at her. Then suddenly something terrible smelled and it was the heap of waste and garbage thrown at the side on the road. Mercy God! How can people be so insensitive and irresponsible? The smell nearly got me vomiting. Yuck…!!! Then suddenly, the imagination which I had, a few minutes ago, tailored about my country being heavenly with natural beauty, just faded away in a second. I began to imagine my country with all the dirt and garbage thrown around. I just cannot imagine that scene. My country is really beautiful but we people have been deteriorating its beauty with our mind full of dirt, selfishness and irresponsibility. It’s a really serious issue and it’s all on our hands to figure out how we represent our country in front of others. To add, what I saw next was something that I had never expected to see in my entire life. Even now, I can’t believe that I had seen a hungry man eating the left-overs from the pile of dirt and garbage thrown on the street. There was a bad and stinky smell coming from that waste food and he was eating it with all the satisfaction and greed filled eyes. Pity him. Oh God! We people in the street couldn’t even resist that bad smell, but he was glad to have gotten that food. He has to live such dreadful life and he was satisfied with what he had. However, just think for some time, are we, those who have comparatively happier life, are really content? Actually, I guess no. We have lost all our humanity and gone insane that we don’t hesitate to commit shameful deeds just to fulfill our greed. Shame on us! I couldn’t take that anymore and forced my eyes to stop seeing what I had been seeing and to not think about a lot, lots of glances that I had been getting. I realized that today, I had been too busy thinking about those intriguing stuff all my way that I almost forgot to get down at my stop. After flashing off my final bye-bye smile to the cute and lovely sisters, I left the micro. Then, as I was walking towards my home, all those thought provoking incidents were flashing one after another in front of my eyes. I then realized how happy I had been being with my friends and watching the cute family and how, at once, I was nearly broken seeing that little boy, who worked as a cleaner in that mo:mo hotel, and the hungry man. In the end, I reckon I must be philosophical and console myself saying “This is all called life, my buddy!” I am thankful to each incident and every person who came as an inspiration and made the memories for my day. :D