I am so looking forward to this Dasain. It is that time of the year when I
visit my maiti (paternal home) and all my lost siblings are under the same roof
in the same house that we all grew up in. I usually start the process of
booking our tickets a month before and come to think of it only a month left
for Dasain holidays.
I am super excited to meet my brothers and sisters because we make sure we have lots of fun drinking and eating khasi ko masu which of course is the only thing we literally binge on. One of my brothers loves haryo kerau (fresh green peas) so he is always shopping for it. My older brother is an expert in choosing the best pieces of meat for barbeque. We sit around the table, some chopping meat, while others busy prepping the table and fixing our drinks. My sisters and sisters in laws serve making sure everyone gets the best of everything and suddenly one of my brother’s pass on a nice piece of meat that I like saying "give this to kanchi". You guessed it, I am the youngest and they still call me kanchi even though I try and pretend not to have heard them every time they call me kanchi in front of my friends.
I always thought that I had a crazy family but the more you grow old the more you realize that it actually isn’t so bad because everyone else’s could be worst. It isn’t so bad because I know genuinely we all love each other. There is no false pretense. We don’t remember any ones birthdays thanks to Facebook we do now. We don’t compete with each other to impress our parents. Our parents are simple, they don’t pit us against each other and never remark a gift’s benefactor in public. And we are lucky to have a mother who never sees’ her children’s weakness. We are lucky to have a sister who binds us like a super glue and reminds us every day of our support for each other if and when one is grumpy. We honestly want the best for all and I guess that is why my sisters never taunt me for my boarding school education. Although my parents regret the fact and not that they couldn’t afford to put them through boarding schools too ‘something just went amiss’ they often remark. My father and the Nepali law made sure all my brothers inherited their father’s property equally which has forever eliminated the possibility of bickering over property disputes in the future.
Back to the meat and the chilled wine. We take turns flipping the meat making sure it’s cooked properly and because all of us suffer from bad set of teeth we make sure the meat is well done. And while we are half way drunk voices grow louder and suddenly the one who is a bit sober will calm us down. We lose track of time. We lose track of how much meat and alcohol we have consumed. And we all know when one can’t take it well and that’s when the ‘big brother’ gets up and says "you, no more drinks for you". Or, sometimes, he just gets up drive away. While we take a minute to grasp what just happened in silence we waste no time in getting back to what we do best – drinking. Back inside the kitchen, rice full of cooker is still warming up and if everyone had sworn earlier they couldn’t eat a grain of rice, at 3AM in the morning everyone is seated sheepishly with plates full of bhaat, daal and khasi ko masu. Someone yells for chutney and that’s when things start to blur.
We wake up with a hangover all huddled together in the kitchen by 10AM. We are happy that we woke up early and the sun is still bearable. We have boiled eggs, omelets, bread, jam, butter, fresh yogurt (moms special) and lots of fruits and we eat like we were fasting the other day chatting and laughing about last night. The ‘big brother’ shows up with selroti fresh from his home and he won’t say a word. All’s forgotten again. Ahh there is so much food in our fridge. There is a saying ‘you can judge a love in the house by what’s inside the fridge’ and damn right ours is never empty. Of course it’s not always this perfect because well no family is perfect plus I have sugarcoated some. We have problems but we never hold grudges. We never try and act well in front of our parents while badmouthing the other siblings. We don’t play politics period. We have our differences but come Dasain and we forget and love again.
I am super excited to meet my brothers and sisters because we make sure we have lots of fun drinking and eating khasi ko masu which of course is the only thing we literally binge on. One of my brothers loves haryo kerau (fresh green peas) so he is always shopping for it. My older brother is an expert in choosing the best pieces of meat for barbeque. We sit around the table, some chopping meat, while others busy prepping the table and fixing our drinks. My sisters and sisters in laws serve making sure everyone gets the best of everything and suddenly one of my brother’s pass on a nice piece of meat that I like saying "give this to kanchi". You guessed it, I am the youngest and they still call me kanchi even though I try and pretend not to have heard them every time they call me kanchi in front of my friends.
I always thought that I had a crazy family but the more you grow old the more you realize that it actually isn’t so bad because everyone else’s could be worst. It isn’t so bad because I know genuinely we all love each other. There is no false pretense. We don’t remember any ones birthdays thanks to Facebook we do now. We don’t compete with each other to impress our parents. Our parents are simple, they don’t pit us against each other and never remark a gift’s benefactor in public. And we are lucky to have a mother who never sees’ her children’s weakness. We are lucky to have a sister who binds us like a super glue and reminds us every day of our support for each other if and when one is grumpy. We honestly want the best for all and I guess that is why my sisters never taunt me for my boarding school education. Although my parents regret the fact and not that they couldn’t afford to put them through boarding schools too ‘something just went amiss’ they often remark. My father and the Nepali law made sure all my brothers inherited their father’s property equally which has forever eliminated the possibility of bickering over property disputes in the future.
Back to the meat and the chilled wine. We take turns flipping the meat making sure it’s cooked properly and because all of us suffer from bad set of teeth we make sure the meat is well done. And while we are half way drunk voices grow louder and suddenly the one who is a bit sober will calm us down. We lose track of time. We lose track of how much meat and alcohol we have consumed. And we all know when one can’t take it well and that’s when the ‘big brother’ gets up and says "you, no more drinks for you". Or, sometimes, he just gets up drive away. While we take a minute to grasp what just happened in silence we waste no time in getting back to what we do best – drinking. Back inside the kitchen, rice full of cooker is still warming up and if everyone had sworn earlier they couldn’t eat a grain of rice, at 3AM in the morning everyone is seated sheepishly with plates full of bhaat, daal and khasi ko masu. Someone yells for chutney and that’s when things start to blur.
We wake up with a hangover all huddled together in the kitchen by 10AM. We are happy that we woke up early and the sun is still bearable. We have boiled eggs, omelets, bread, jam, butter, fresh yogurt (moms special) and lots of fruits and we eat like we were fasting the other day chatting and laughing about last night. The ‘big brother’ shows up with selroti fresh from his home and he won’t say a word. All’s forgotten again. Ahh there is so much food in our fridge. There is a saying ‘you can judge a love in the house by what’s inside the fridge’ and damn right ours is never empty. Of course it’s not always this perfect because well no family is perfect plus I have sugarcoated some. We have problems but we never hold grudges. We never try and act well in front of our parents while badmouthing the other siblings. We don’t play politics period. We have our differences but come Dasain and we forget and love again.
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