Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Rakshya Bandhan




Today is Rakshya Bandhan (Protection-Bond) day. Whole day whichever channel I switched to there were programs on the importance of this day. Indian TV-serials were continuously broadcasting about the celebration of festival by showing the affection between brothers and sisters. The festival that celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters…Every year, sister ties a kind of decorated thread on her brother’s hand to make sure that her brother is safe from every evil thing. This also gives responsibility to a brother to look after his sister, protect her from any danger that might come on her way. A day that is celebrated to mark the protecting relationship of siblings, is not of my Magar community so is not celebrated by us. I had not even heard of it till I had come to the capital of my country. But, we too have other festivals that celebrate the bond of siblings! Therefore, this day which is celebrated in the same theme of my culture’s festival “Maghe-Sankrati” brought back my memories with my brothers and I missed them!

I have always considered myself as a lucky person because I am blessed with three big brothers and they are the greatest brothers of the world! They have named me with their fevourite TV serials characters so I have more than five names. They baby-sat me and carried me on their back. Brushed my hair, even did my laundry. They were there to hold my hands when I was just learning to walk for the first time. They were there to teach me speak my first word then they were there to teach me how to write my first word. From the moment of my birth they have been there for me…holding my hands and giving their tremendous strength, encouragement and support for me to walk in my life with dignity, dream and direction!

Thank you brothers, for being there for me, always!






(P.S. Tholo da, Mahila da and Aju as you all are geographically far away from me right now I miss you all. It would have been great if we were all in one place and had verities of greatly cooked food by our angel bhauju with jokes and chit-chat that we used to have. Also on this day, I want to say how much I Love You and How lucky I feel to be born as your sister. I am proud of myself to be your sister. Thank you so much for being my brothers and loving me as you do!)

Mushroom hunters

foraging mushrooms with my dad in Jhumlawang It was a good day. Sun and cloud were playing hide and seek creating a  komorebi  (sunbeam)effe...