5 rupees

Walking down the main road of an old Newari town one early winter morning last week, an old woman wrapped up in pink shawls, with a healthy glow on her skin came up to me and said : '5 rupiya deu na'.

I had just climbed up and down a 1000 m hill and was wheezing pretty bad, the cold air had meddled my head. I thought she was an apparition come to impart wisdom that cold foggy morning, but she certainly didn't look like my long dead grandmother! I shook myself and stared again. She was still there in front of me, with that defiant look, her hands on her hips, and her brown chubby saggy wrinkled cheeks broken into age old dimples, showing the only remaining two yellowed front teeth.

Shocked into action I scrambled into my pockets. My numb hands had fumbled to grab whatever money I had. My hand landed on two five rupees notes. I gave her one. She took it, stared me down and said, kati lovi bhayeko, tyo arko 5 rupiya ni deu. Shamed into action, I handed over my other five rupee note. She muttered, ajkal ka ketaketi in Newari, and went off. My friend had the time of her life, laughing at me. My early morning ghost robbing me of my 10 rupees has made rounds of friday evening jokes since.

Ah life!

Chance Encounters!

One Sunday in summer of 2006, trying to navigate Manhattan's subway network, I chanced upon my friend from high school carrying a little girl's pink bicycle, with rainbow frills and all the work. I had not seen this friend since high school, I of course did not know that he was in NY then, and if I had not taken that exact train to meet some other friends for dinner at Jackson Height's now famous Himalayan Yak, I might have never met that friend ever again in my life. ( I mean it's been 5 years since, and I have not seen him again).

I did not realize how random that was, until I had to take a stats class in grad school (cause I had managed to avoid stats until then) and started thinking about probabilities. The universe would have to coincide a million coincidences to make that encounter happen. While, I remember back in 2006, my thoughts on that meeting was more like- Dude! you've got some seriously old friends - when my friend told me that the pink bicycle was for his friend's daughter.

In 2007, I was in another continent, for my grad school. Being the only Nepali in the whole school sucked big time sometimes, and imagine my surprise when searching for one of my professor's email address, I found a familiar Nepali surname listed in the school faculty list. Of course, I had to write to that person and find out if that person was Nepali. She turned out to be Nepali, and we arranged for a coffee meeting. So, one fine Friday afternoon, I walked in into the campus's coffee house to meet the only other Nepali in the whole university.

As chance has it, the only other Nepali turned out to be my biology teacher from high school. She was scary back in school. We could never get our practical sheets signed in her class if it was less than perfect. Every year before exams, there would be a long line before the Biology lab, of people waiting to get their bio-sheets signed. Seeing her seated in that coffee house brought back all those memories and more. I was cursing at my chances, really, the only other Nepali in University and it had to be the strictest teacher from my high school. Of course, I had never expected I would meet her anywhere, let alone in some University thousand of miles away from home. But, she was brilliant and she deserved every chances she got. Looking back I realise how juvenile I was in high school, and that she was only trying to enhance our excellence.

That chance encounter led me to discover a totally new side of my high teacher. She turned out to be a very caring and nice person, and helped me a lot while I was there. Even inviting me to daal bhat treats whenever I felt like some Nepali food. I realized our perspectives really changes through times.

In 2009, I was back home, and my friends had organized a walkathon to raise money for some good cause. I gave up my Saturday sleep, loudly cursed my friend and reached the venue. I had walked about halfway, when at a water stop I saw a familiar face, walking my way. We had not seen each other for almost five years. I guess both of us did not know what to say, with sheepish smile this person said: when did you come back? All I could think about was: wow, people keeping tabs on me! but loudly I said, 'been a few months, how've you been'. Awkward! but, it was done, words were said, further encounters made easy.

There must've been million chance encounters since then, or before these. But, these remain in my mind, and make me wonder, how many coincidences must the universe connive to make these encounters happen. Is there really someone up there secretly smiling planning these moments in our life? Or could a stats person correctly predict these chances based on some figures?

Nevertheless, every chance encounter, a lesson in life itself!

Missing my kitchen!

When I am away from home for long, I miss my kitchen very much! I am not much of a cook, I just want the comfort of eating what I want to when I want to. And after 10 days of eating local food, I want to just make some soup and stay in for the night and watch some crappy comedy show, and just relax. :D

Looking forward to tonight, and the great night out though!