A day in �a� Life
There I was, happy and calm; in paradise; beauty all around me. Angels from the sky, beautiful mountains all around, full of nature, full of joy. Although the surrounding added to my joy, I was just happy to be me; just me all alone. Suddenly, I heard a noise from the horizon. �Wait a minute, I know this voice�, I said to myself. �No, No, not again!� suddenly, I panicked fearing the worst. The high pitched voice kept on howling, I couldn�t recognize the words, but I was certain it couldn�t have been pleasant. �Wake up, Wake�, said the voice when I finally recognized the words. That demonic voice with pitch so high that I could feel my eardrums shatter into pieces was not other than my dear mom�s. �It is seven already, get up soon�, she said putting my cup of tea besides my bed. I hated my mom with all my heart, every weekday at seven in the morning. After all, she woke me up to go to college, but what she did not know was that I had already quit.
At breakfast my head was feeling like a molten iron that was being smashed a thousand times to bring it to a required shape. �What time did you sleep?� suddenly asked my mom. �Err�Eleven�, I replied, I lied. �Why are your eyes so red then?� she asked again. �I don�t know!� I replied, rather rudely to prove her suspicion. �Why are you so easily irritated these days?� she continued asking, �Are you all right?� �I am fine, mom!� I replied trying desperately not to be rude. �Your brother already left for the bus stop�, she said, �What time does your college bus actually come?� she added. �Seven-Thirty�, I replied, to make sure that I was on time. �Well it�s already seven-twenty, you better hurry up�, she replied. Right at that moment, I realized that my father was staring at me like a Condor waiting to pounce on its prey, with his light blue eyes, that actually made him look like one. He looked irritated; I could tell he was not happy with me for some reason. Although normally a calm man, today he looked different. He looked like an angry and rugged nomadic tribesmen, perhaps, showing the reminiscent of our tribal ancestors, somewhere in Central Asia, a few thousand years ago. I was suspicious, real suspicious that he was up for something, perhaps planning a plot on me. It was unlike him, but he had done it before, which was making me think hard.
I was in a dilemma as I was walking out of the house, whether to go to the �college-bus� bus stop or the �local-bus� bus stop. I looked at my watch, it was seven twenty five; and because the �college-bus� bus stop was only a minutes� walk away, so I decided to there. I usually did this; and although I did not take the bus, I would spend a few minutes with my friends there before they took the bus and then head out to the �local-bus� bus stop after they were gone. As I was walking I felt something weird was going on behind me. My �sixth sense� was telling me that I was being followed. If my sixth sense was right it could be no other than my father following me. Fearing that he might catch me not catching the bus, I decided to check if he is there. I had no option, as he didn�t like it when I found him spying on me the last time; I decided to turn around and confront him or deem myself a �psycho� due to lack of sleep. I turned around one eighty degrees, in a whisker like a gazelle; and there he was just about realizing that I was turning back, I was too fast for him to hide. �I was going to the market to get some vegetables�, he said sarcastically. �Oh, the bus isn�t here yet�, I said going rather off topic. He looked towards the �college-bus� bus stop. There were student waiting for the bus, including my brother. This probably killed his suspicion. �See you in the evening�, he said as he walked towards the market. After I was completely sure that he was really gone, I waved goodbye to my brother and went towards a public �micro-van�, which would take me to the �local-bus� bus stop.
My brother knew all this, and so normally left without waiting for me; but today, I felt may be this was causing suspicion in my parents mind. I could have told them that I had already quit and kill all these troubles, but I was leaving for the USA to continue my studies in a month. They thought I transferred, but actually I was going to start as a freshman. After all, all this had been going on for a year, and it was months to go before I killed this cycle of lie, it was starting to cause me trouble and disappointment to them. �You are making a big mistake my friend. This could destroy your career.� These words, which one of my close friends said to me when I decided to college, started roaming in my mind. This also made me think about all those days that passed by after I quit the college, and how in the initial phase I slept all day at my friend�s apartment, while my parents thought I was in college. Then, I started thinking about how I fought out depression by travelling to different peaceful places, away from the hectic Kathmandu valley. Then during the hot summer days, when travelling became hard, how I rediscovered interest in Physics, History and many other academic fields by going to public libraries, where I initially went just to escape heat. All these led me to think about the decision itself. Although I admit that initially the decision was just a whim of a person under depression, I do not regret the decision at all. Sometimes you have to lose it all to win again; and sometimes you have to lose your mind to make it work again.
By this time, I was already in a local bus ready to go to Melamchi. I had just recently started to travel again, as it was very close to autumn, and very pleasant to travel. I was feeling really stressed today. After all, within a past few months I was having trouble to fall asleep at time, and I always got bugged to get up at seven in the morning. Add that to travelling around hilly terrain, old buses, bad road, security check up after every yard in a civil war torn country then you have the perfect recipe for a stressed person. I was considering going to libraries again instead of traveling to reduce the stress factor on me. As I reached Melamchi, all the stress was gone for a while. It was a nice place on the mountain river base near the Marsyangdi River, and so it was considerably warmer than Kathmandu Valley. The market around was full of delicious fishes, and the river itself was freezing cold and refreshing. All the stress endured in the five hour drive seemed to be gone when I washed my face with the crystal clear river water; once again it was me, all alone in the earthly paradise. Suddenly, rather like my dream, my �sixth sense� was telling me something unpleasant was about to follow. I looked at the watch it was already two thirty, I looked at the Melamchi bus stop and saw no bus. I was starting to get worried, because it was a five hour bus ride, and there was no sign of any bus that was going back. I felt I traveled once too many, firstly; I did not care about a consequence of a 10 hour ride. I thought I would stay there for half an hour and head off, so that I would reach home at time; but half an hour more had already passed. �What time does the bus going to Kathmandu arrives?� I asked politely to a happy looking local. �It will arrive here at four and leave at four-thirty.� He said smilingly. Even that pleasant smile was not able to make me smile, for I was going to be more than four hours late, and with my parents suspecting that I was up to some fishy, I was stuck in front of Melamchi�s fishes, thought to be so delicious that I saw them like monsters hanging down.
When I was finally in the bus, hoping for it to leave desperately, my veins were booming to burst out by pounding my skin so hard that my own blood hurt me. All the stress endured, became demons in front of me. One said, �Ha-ha, see our power now?� �I want to eat you, I want to eat you�, said the other. Suddenly in a matter of seconds there were thousands of such demons, some pouncing and some ready to pounce on me. When I suddenly woke up and realize that it was all dream, I saw a person coming near me, �Could you please hurry and walk out, there is a security check outside�, he said. �Not again!� I said to myself, this was the last thing I wanted. I had to walk through a long line and show them my bag pack, which I had already done a zillion times today. After getting back in the bus, I looked at my watch and it was six thirty, and the distance, well, just about half gone. I went back to sleep, to play with my demonic friends, which probably was a good thing because I was killing some of them.
When I finally reached Kathmandu, ten trillion thought started ringing my head. I was wondering what excuse would my brother make for me being late, and how should I react if I came across them before my brother. My parents were not control freaks, but they weren�t liberal, they wanted us to tell them if we got late, or were going somewhere, and that day I really got home late, I guess nine thirty does not sound that late, but with the security situation around it was much late that what it sounded like. �Where were you?� asked my mom angrily, she was right at the door. �At a friend�s place�, I answered nervously, not only because I feared I might contradict with my brother, but also because I wasn�t ready to confront her right at the door. �Which one of your friends?� she asked to cross-checked. �Err� Prabhash�, I answered realizing I had no option. I looked at my mom�s happy, happy face, to find out that my brother had indeed said that I had gone to my friend, dead right I was happy. Dead wrong I was not, my mom�s sarcastic smile fooled me, my brother did say that I had gone to a friend�s house, but he said I had gone to Lakpa, and I said Prabhash. This made me remember my stat class, flipping a coin twice to get two heads is a lot harder than flipping a coin once to get one heads. Talking about stats, there had been a lot of drama that year, some good drama, and some bad ones, well, one was about to follow.
I guess I had rather rugged look on me that day, and with less sleep, stress my eyes were probably much red than I expected. This, combined with my suspicious acts was good enough to start this drama. �You are on drugs aren�t you?� she burst up with tears. I was speechless, this was probably the last thing I was expecting, and I was just shocked. Not that I would not try if I had the chance to, I would certainly not try it and go in front of parents. I was so stressed, shacked and name it all, that I did not even deny it. I looked at my father, hoping for some sympathy, but he was staring at me like a fox, convinced that I really was on drugs. I just sat there looking at my parents, and started thinking about what had happened, and what will happen. After all, the only reason that that I started this drama, was not to disappoint my parents, not to let them know that their son was a looser for a while, but it�s about the end of the drama and somehow I managed to disappoint them. Things come back in one way or another I guess. While going to the bed that day, I felt that the only worry was what the days to follow would hold for me.
Forgive my errors as I am too lazy to prewrite, write and rewrite
-the so called author
-comments welcome
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