10th July, 2013 Pt-2

You all must remember the last blog, right?? So, what is that special event that made all our friends to gather up at a certain place? You all must be thinking hard, right? But don’t worry. I am going to tell you about the event. It’s actually a very special day for our friend, Saugat Raj Shrestha. I will give you a hint; it was celebrated at a party palace. Any guesses??...... You all must be wandering it’s a birthday party. Well it’s not. In fact, it is a “Bratamanda” of our friend. Well, Bratamanda is a special occasion for many Nepalese people. It is a custom and tradition that the person (referred to male) has to get his hair cut and should have a bald head. It is believed that a person who hasn’t completed their Bratamandacannot marry, and if he has to marry then, there will be a Bratamandaheld first, and then the person can marry his bride. So, parents, to avoid this problem, get their children to complete their Bratamanda at a young age, or at a suitable age. And people celebrate this occasion by holding parties.

This was exactly the case for our friend. He had invited all of our school friends to join his party. This was the main reason for all our friends to gather up at a certain place. A big party was thrown for his Bratamanda. He had invited all the friends to a newly opened party palace called Gaurishankar Party Palacewhich was located at Jadibuti Chowk, Kathmandu. He invited all our friends there at 5:00 pm. That’s why we left the orientation programme so quickly. All our friends got gathered up at a certain place. There were so many of us that we had to divide our group into two and reach the destination by bus.To be exact, we were like 18 in total number.  And the problem was that it was evening time and the buses at that time would be so pack and full. So, we really had a problem reaching the destination. And, there was another problem coming up. There was a heavy traffic jam so we had to wait for almost half an hour in the crowded bus where we were all standing. On top of that, the temperature of the bus rose really high.

We were desperately waiting for our stop. At last, we reached there. We got off the bus and headed towards our destination. We reached there a little late. And to our surprise, the other group of friends had already reached the destination. When we reached there, we saw our friend, Saugat, just sitting there in a suit and tie dress up, and was receiving tika from his elders. We went towards him and gave him the presents we had bought for him. Then, we all grabbed a seat and start gossiping like we used to do in our school days. Then after a while we had our food there. After having the food, some of the friends whose residence was farer than others left the party. Then, there was some photo session. After a while, we all left the party palace bidding good-bye to our friend, Saugat and thanking him for a nice party.

When, we left for home, rain started pouring. We rushed to the bus stop where we got on a bus and after some time we reached our destination and we got off the bus and headed home. It was such a nice party and we had lots of fun. But the best part was meeting all our school friends after a long time. In fact, it was a nice day. My other friends called it the end of the day. But, it was not the end of the day for me. And I still had a last card left up my sleeves. So, what was that last card??? Or what was that last moment “thing” still left?? Don’t go anywhere, and read the last blog to find out what it was…..!!

-Tong Man (Kathmandu Teen's writer)