The Best Grandfather in the World - II

As I had stated earlier, this is the second part of the story why my grandfather was so special for me.  One of the very touching experiences with him was his devotion to educate me.  One day, only he and I were at our house back in Solukhumbu and he was trying hard to teach Nepali numbers 1-100.  We were trying to copy the letters printed on the pages of the book possibly someone earlier must have taught us that's the number from 1-100 in that particular page.  Suddenly a vendor selling cloths came to our courtyard where we were and my grandfather asked him to help us and in return he might buy the cloth.  He certainly taught us and he had long chat with my grandpa afterward. 

rare pictures of our village students in late 80s found at one of my relatives album; I'm 4th from right on the back row.

After I was admitted in to the school, he continuously supported me to go to school despite extreme financial problems.  Those days the schooling was not free, we had to buy books, pay yearly entry fees and my grandfather used to mange those expenses by borrowing or selling something he had in possession.  Luckily, there was no dress code in the school so we wouldn't have to buy any particular type of cloth. My grandfather sometimes used to buy very cheap kind of cloths for him and he would try to give better ones to me.  Every year we had to buy new books for new grade and he would manage that by buying secondhand books from senior students. Sometimes I used to end up borrowing exercise books with my friends.  

May be not as much as in Solukhumbu but in Kamalakhoj also many students would run away from school seeking jobs as child labor in rich people's homes.  Many would flee in India without notice to their parents.  Sometimes village boys as young as 12 years would flee from the village to unknown destinations. Many of them would end up in India where Nepalese servants are considered as honest and hard working.  Stories of those who returned from such venture would be thrilling to hear as how they were able to find a job, make some money and watch Bollywood movies, so and so.  So younger people with desperate family conditions or those who couldn't do well in school would be tempted to go away.  My grandfather was aware of such situation so he would always tell me not to run away like that. 

He used to tell inspiring stories especially of Hindu epics such as Mahabharata and Ramayana.  Because he had some Brahmin friends he used to listen in their recitations of those books and he used to tell me in Rhymes.  Besides that he used to tell many stories and folklores to me.  In return he used to ask me to read stories from my course books!  It was fun and sometimes very emotional to share stories back and forth but that was also one of the ways we learned each other and we became closer to each other not only as grandfather and grandson but as friends and as guru and student too. 

Because we couldn't buy land in prime location, our house and land were located in the outskirt of the village where poorer people used to live.  Our neighbours were ethnic group called Mushahar literally meaning mouse eaters.  Mushahars are considered as one of the unknown and much backward communities.  There were about 10 families of Mushahars who didn't have their own land so they used to live in public land where they used to have small hut for shelter.  My grandfather used to help them giving away extra foods or anything we might not use.  Also he used to tell them to send their children to school.   Actually, those who went school used to come learn with me. All Mushahar kids were my friends, I used to go play with them the moment grandfather was not paying attention! They were also considered as untouchable according to the Hindu tradition so kids from higher caste or richer family wouldn't go play with them. Thus they would be so happy when they had chance to spend time with me.  I used to speak their language fluently.  Seeing all these, sometimes my friends from the main village used to feel uncomfortable because they thought it's not good to play with those poor and untouchable kids. 

Mushahar girls in work, found on the internet.

Since it's hard to comprise all experiences with my grandfather in one post, I would like to end the part two of the story here. I will bring more of the wonderful memoirs with him in other posts in different topics.  Till then have a great reading and hope to read your comments on the facebook, e-mail or on the blog itself.