Sarita and incidents of missing money

I was writing a post that began with dreams and how they represented evil omen if I were superstitious. Before I finished the post, mummy called me to tell that Sarita had stolen money once again. For last few days my parents were complaining about missing 5, 10 or 20 rupees bill from their purse and pockets. I always held their forgetfulness accountable. We also tend to forget small expenditures and there was no proof of someone stealing it though if someone was to steal it had to be non other than Sarita. Few months back mummy’s piggy bank was completely dry and upon interrogation Sarita admitted she had stolen the coins. We had her say sorry and promise not to steal again. There were no incidents for a long time and again there were complaints of being stolen.

I always gave her benefit of doubt. I couldn’t believe that she would start stealing when I got her everything she asked for. Regularly I used to give her some money and hardly denied whenever she asked for it. Even today she was asking for 2 rupees which I said I will give when I leave home. Then all of a sudden mummy had this complaint. I was irritated with her for not taking precautions after so many doubts of theft. I told her it was her fault and she said she had done this intentionally so that she would catch Sarita red-handed. I looked into her purse, poured everything into the floor but what I got was only twenty five rupees when it had to be thirty five. She gave me her calculation and they were right. I wouldn’t however be easily convinced thinking she might have forgotten spending the 10 rupees in something. After a bickering with mummy I went to sniff for missing 10 rupees into Sarita’s room. I searched her bag, bed and her suitcase but didn’t find the money. Thinking she might have hidden the money in her socks or shoes mummy went downstairs to check her shoes even she came clueless. When we were preparing table for meal, Sarita came to kitchen just like any other day. Mummy asked her to give her 10 rupees.
Sarita: what 10 rupees?
Mummy: the one you stole today.
(she won’t speak)
Mummy: Either you hand over the money or face the consequences. I will call the police and they will drag you all the way to jail.
Me: Did you steal the money?
Sarita (with a gloomy innocent face): No
I was deceived by her innocent face and now I was sixty percent sure she hadn’t stolen the money. Either mummy forgot something or she misplaced it. I asked her if she is certain that she had 35 Rs. In her purse. She was infuriated. She said, so you believe her and you distrust your mother. I said I was just inquiring and remained tight lipped. We had started having meal. Sarita was looking on the floor as she ate her share of meal.
Mummy: Believe me, this time you won’t get an excuse. Either you hand over the money or prepare to get arrested. I will inform your parents. We treated you like our own daughter and this is the way you return favor. What did we deny that you had to resort to stealing.
Some swearing and cursing followed. I felt sorry for everything and without a word I came to my room. I searched mummy’s bedroom, in the bed, drawers, behind the door, in the dressing table almost everywhere. There was no 10 Rs.
I was changing for office and there came mummy with Sarita. Sarita admitted she had seen the money. She said she had seen the money in the drawer. Then she tried to look for it under a photo frame where she didn’t get. I had seen it right here she said. Mummy said if it was there where can it go. Since mummy had asked me to do not intervene at all I was back to my room. Just then the phone rang and I heard mummy speaking with somebody in the phone. She hung up. Sarita said she had found the money. She said they were behind the door. I was convinced she had stolen the money because just 2 or 3 minutes back I had checked at the same place and had found nothing.
I felt terrible, in fact I had lumps in my throat. When somebody breaks your trust the pain is awful. I doubted my mother just because I had faith in Sarita. Mummy was chiding her. As I left home I said thank you to Sarita and left. When I was at the orchard I could hear mummy scolding the girl. I called mummy and asked her not to chide her. But yes I was myself heart broken. I went to office with one of our tenant and on 30 minutes journey I uttered no words. He said I looked sad. I only smiled back at him.
Understanding that her friends brought money at school and she might feel inferior before them, I keep giving her some coins almost everyday and seven rupees once a week. Not only me mummy, buwa and Santosh also give her money regularly but she still stole. She has one or other requirements every day, last evening she was asking me to get a Barbie. I had bought her a doll during dashain. She says she wants a bag and I had promised her to get one soon after I get the salary. She wanted a particular kind of kurta and mummy made it for her.
To blame her blatantly would be another blunder, I wish I knew why she had to steal money.

Caste Discrimination

My obedient and ever punctual cell rang the alarm bell at 5:00AM while I wished it wasn't morning yet. I was so reluctant to wake up after being active in dreams throughout the sleep. There were so many of them meaningless and trivial. I saw I was preparing for a hair cut now that is a bad omen. But I can guess how it got into my dream did. Actually I had read an interesting blog on hair cut yesterday, I could visualize what could have happened to the author during the hair cut and so it sneaked into my sub conscious and I had it in my dream. Then I saw monkeys. I had visited to some ancient palace and in the orchard so many mischievous monkeys were playing, some children came and they picked up monkeys by ear and put them in a carton. They showed it to the visitors and asked them if they wanted to buy. I was so amazed with the ease with which they picked the monkeys. Now if I were to tell this to my granny she would say, I should go to Hanuman temple, offer his something to appease. She would interpret it as a lucky omen. Who knows may be mummy will ask to do the same things. I snoozed off the cell for a while but when I opened my eyes it was already 5:15, I was still in no mood to go out but I was soon in the road.
When I was returning the public tap had few people waiting for their turn. Fortunately since the rain has started people do not have many problems to get water and this can be ascertained with the presence of handful people in public tap. A woman had filled her bucket and small jug supposedly for Morning Prayer. She put the bucket aside and then filled her jug. Somebody touched her and with few curses she refilled the jug after cleaning it again. No doubt she didn’t want a tailor woman to touch her water. Caste system though is an offensive act under the constitution, it is in practice and it will take a long time to be socially abolished. Caste gives people a superiority which they inherit by birth. Though they might not have been worthy enough to be superior their caste gives them reason to be proud of their being.
Though not an avid believer in caste system, the discrimination exist in our home too. My parents are always against eating things offered by low caste people, they believe even if they come their access should be restrained to few rooms. However we do not have anyone close to our family who is from lower caste. In all these years hardly five to ten people from the so called low caste have come to our home. They are tailors, janitors etc. never a guest just worker. My parents are kind people and their belief does not depict hatred, it’s just that they have lived with it and they cannot do away with it. Earlier when I was in school and college we used to have lengthy discussion on caste issues and I and Santosh always protested caste issues. I used to go to an extent where I would tell my parents if they believe in caste even after being educated, their education has raised no status and they are still illiterate. Their annoyed responses would be ok we are old people with rotten beliefs and we do not want to be like you people, our ancestors didn’t introduce these customs without reasons. I would reply they were oppressor and feared the people who worked for them, below them will rise above them and they introduced caste system. The arguments were futile as none of us could convince each other. However mummy never discriminate when it comes to offering charities, food or just a helping hand to people and I like it.

When I was in my primary school, in class 1 or 2, I had this friend called Rajan Khadgi. Khadgi means from butcher caste and even his father was a butcher. I knew caste system existed even at that young stage because I had seen the discrimination in mummy’s parents’ home. I also knew if granny knew I had a friend from a butcher caste she would ask me not to get closer with him and just restrict to formal smile. She would have never wanted me to share my lunch with him. Probably fearing all these things I never told her that my friend was Khadgi. Once I brought few friends to my home among whom Rajan was one. There was no one in my home so I took them to my granny’s home as it is just five minutes walk to reach her home. Even she was not there but the kitchen was open. I had my friends comfortably seated in whatever was available in the kitchen and made noodles (probably first time I had cooked anything) and fed them. We talked and played. Finally they left and there was my granny asking me who my friends were. She asked their name. I took name of all my friends except for that of Rajan because I knew what her reactions would be.
Life progressed in its own pace with rare skirmishes with the Caste thing. Then it came back to me in a surprising way in Trishuli. In the small mobile hotel (cannot even call it a hotel) where I used to have lunch I used to see many customers washing the plate and the glass themselves after a tea or lunch. I always took it as a surprise then when I became familiar enough I asked the owner why do these people wash glasses and plates. She said they were cobblers, tailors, janitors etc. I was shell shocked. I asked her in this age do you people believe in caste and she replied after all we got it from our ancestors, this is our culture. She added she never asked them to wash the utensils, they do it themselves. I knew this caste thing was accepted by the so called low cast people as well and they feel they are inferior. While we were talking the mother of the lady joined us, they are low caste people and we are Kshetris(the warrior caste) and how can we wash their plates. There was a full stop to the argument.

Once I was wandering alone in the outskirts of Trishuli, the rural part. The strenuous walk in the glazing sun had made me thirsty and there were no human habitats nearby. Only few buses passed the lonely road and the monotonous sound of the Trishuli was the only companion. Luckily after measuring a little height, cutting the fields I landed into a small village. I stopped at the first house I could find and asked for water. The old man who was sitting outside asked where I had come from and then to which caste did I belong. With no clue my brisk reply was ‘Brahmin’ and he smiled in helplessness. He suggested I should find some other house. I asked don’t you have water? He said he had but they were cobblers and they will get into serious trouble if I was given water. He said being a Brahmin I should not drink water at cobbler’s house. Inside two young boys and a girl were busy making ‘madal’ (a traditional musical instrument). I told him we should never believe in caste. This is wrong, we are equal to god and he never discriminates. He said if I had not talked about god he would have thought I was a Maoist. He was still reluctant but one of the boy left his work and came out with a jug of water. I drank the water as if I had been thirsty for years. As I drank the water the old man was watching me as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen. I thanked the boy and returned. I was really disturbed and it annoyed me for two more days.
Unless stern actions are taken against the discriminators the society will not easily shed its conservative ideologies that teach man to discriminate his likes. This is a real blot in our society, in our culture of which we are so proud of.

Is title necessary all the time

The rain outside is complemented by the soothing music that is playing on my laptop. I can hear the drops of water playfully making sounds splashing the stream of water they have formed themselves. The fan is rotating monotonously from left to right and vice versa. The squirrel in my desktop is still looking downward without the blink of eyes. I downloaded it from national geographic site. I had downloaded it on the desktop but it looked so good that I had it as wallpaper in my cell and then in my laptop. In the background I am also downloading a song, I know downloading for free is illegal but the urge to listen that song is much more than consideration of legal issues.
Actually I have to do some research one for my own purpose and one for office. I want to learn how to make a site capable of feeding RSS and the other is to do a small work on SMPP. No pain, learning new things is always a great experience. It keeps one young. Learning can be a real pain when you have no interest on the subject you are supposed to learn. I have completed the first, RSS one, in just half an hour or even less and I have downloaded some stuffs for second one. Actually the second one is an SMS related protocol (Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol), which we need to implement when providing SMS services to our customers. We had meeting for the same thing early in the morning. No one has asked me to do any research so its all my thing.

There were Japanese students all over the road in green vests. They had a tagged which said volunteer in bold letters. They were carrying a box of mangos and I have no idea what will they do with it, so let me assume they will eat them, who knows they will play holi with it. When I was a kid I thought all Japanese and Chinese people looked same. They are too fair as if one doesn’t need a bulb when there is no light if you have Japanese people around. They are always smiling and I believed this is their normal look. Most of the time they looked like dolls stocked in toys’ shop and if one moves with key they will bend in courtesy, slowly they’ll rise and smile and back to previous posture. Nepalese people have great likings for Japanese possibly because the Japanese have funded many projects. In fact Nepalese like each and every foreigner unless they are black. When we were kid every foreigner was an American, w never bothered America was just a country among hundreds of others.
Japanese students frequently visit Nepal and sometime they collect funds to build school in Nepal. What a pity, a part of the Tiffin money a Japanese child can save in a year can build a school in our poor country. Most of them come, prepare their project and forget. I do the same thing, I do not remember most of the projects I have been involved in my college forget the school things. Why should we assume they think because they produce robots and because they are rich? Being rich is no crime and because they are rich we can’t hold them responsible for our poverty. Ok communist brought majority in the constituent assembly so what, it does not mean we should hate those who live in prosperity.
While ambling around Thamel, I have come across so many Japanese and other tourists. The street children who can smell foreigner even without seeing them (I think I can do that as well) gather around them appearing weak and begging alms. I have observed Japanese rarely offer alms. The same Japanese who have contributed so much to our country do not throw few rupees to the beggars. I respect them for that, they know the value of money and each of their pennies is hard earned. My cousin who is in Japan says how laborious Japanese are; she says they work more than machine. The secret of prosperity cannot be anything other than hard work.
While I seek fun and entertainment separate from work, probably they find it in what they do. They look so content and that could be the reason of their never fading smile.