A Day

A rented top floor room – sounds good! Believe me, not so much. A small cemented room in the right corner of the house, a single-bed standing almost a metre from the ground. The bedcover looks prominently colourful – girly, bought it just because it cost a mere 200 rupees. Look under the bed, a few plastic bags and some dirt lying all over. On the opposite side of the ‘sleeping-side’ lies a ‘kitchen-side’. Lucky that there are a tap and a sink to wash dishes, but hardly a drop of water running through the tap. Then a funny hope arises: when Melamchi Project finishes in a few years’ time, we will all have enough water. Again, I realise – But how many years more?

The cheap carpet embroidered with square and hexagon shaped designs always sleeps on the ‘always cold and damp’ floor. A sack of rice, roughly a half kilo mixed dal, few onions and tomatoes and a packed Gundruk from Big mart – all stuffed by the pillar. By the window, a gas oven is half on. Half a glass of rice is in the pressure cooker on the oven. Suddenly, the cooker starts blowing out. The sound scares me. I say to myself – I want to buy an electric rice cooker. I turn my hopeful eyes towards the plugs on the wall. Oh! No. The red light is out. I should have got my laptop charged earlier.

I am on my sleeveless T-shirt and a pair of shorts. It’s 32 degrees outside. No fan in the room, Man! It feels damn hot. I always have a towel beside me to wipe my face, at least 2 times in 10 minutes. Actually, it’s better for me. I tell you why. Yesterday, it was raining – not just pots and pans but also cows and elephants! I had water all over my room. It wasn’t fun sleeping over a wet floor with that stinky carpet’s smell in my nose. Anyway, I have already figured out the solution – put some clothes on the doorstep to block water from coming in; if it doesn’t work then, have patience until monsoon fades. The landlady doesn’t seem to be concerned unless it’s time to pay the rent.

Around 7 in the evening, if it doesn’t rain, I go out on the terrace and look up to the sky. I see numerous species of birds flying from the north side of the valley to the south. The interesting thing is that those birds again fly to the north at 5 in the morning. I have a curiosity for the exact reason, but I do not try to find it out. This way it always keeps me amazed, lets me make up my own reason every day and wander around it. Then down to the earth: Kathmandu valley looks beautiful in the dark. All those lights make it exquisite. Probably, that’s the best part of the day.

Now, I realise cooking isn’t fun if you have to do it every day. Also, sleep isn’t so lovely if you have to hear those mosquitoes buzzing all night long. The bed doesn’t feel comfortable if you have to change your side again and again because it feels too hot to keep on one side. However, the desperate mind to wake up in the morning and see those birds flying again makes me forget everything. Perhaps, that’s the only thing that makes me wake up early in the morning. Of course, my annoying alarm too.