Flooded

This year, [2011] we saw more rain than usual, and not just more rain, monsoon started much much earlier than usual time. This much rain, is sure to pull me back to my memory lane.
It could have been early eighties time. Some adult around me kept mentioning it in following years, about the incessant rain. They talked, that year [2036] once it rained, non-stop for 36 hours.

Although, I am quite not sure about the exact time, but what I remember is around that time, when the angry flood swept some parts of villages in Nepal, Bal Mandir, was over flooded with children. Flooded in a sense that; there was not much space for all the children to provide bed, bed clothes and the plates and dinning hall. Probably there were 100 or more children, than it normal capacity of about 200 children at a time.

Some of the children, who arrived was shocked to find themselves inside an orphanage and even hard for them to hear the voice of irritated didis, who could not handle the sudden pressure, beyond their capacity. Some of the children were rich in their own locality. They were living, a lot different life just days before and was shocked to find themselves in an orphanage in a matter of days time. They have lost their parents. Some of them have seen their home swept away in a matter of seconds in front of their eyes and some have watched so helplessly; swept away their family members and loved ones.

What was even more shocking was the behaviour of the Bal Mandir children's. They were not ready to share their bed and blankets with the new comers and they were looking at them as if they were aliens. Perhaps it was due to the flood in their village most of them have not got any chance to take a bath for days so they looked dirty and in their eyes there was fear and loss and blankness.

Needless to mention, didis (room maids) were angry with our selfish behaviour and they were scolding us to share it with new comers, which went on our deaf ears. Huge extra stock of beds/blankets was also not enough to meet the extra demand for the night and they already had used, even quilts, winch is unusual during rainy seasons. Except for few exception, who were ready to share their bed with new comers; others were clinging to their blankets, so that the didis won't snatch it from them and give it to the dirty looking others. That was the week, when most of children were forced to sleep on the floors, for days.

It must have taken about a week or so, to the management team to resettle all the children in another orphanages, for that extra load of children. Bal Mandir has many small branches where they can accommodate many children, within the Kathmandu valley and almost across the country. Like one is in Shiphal and another is in Panchkhal to meet needs of those children of flood victims during the hours of such natural disasters.

Today, when I am full grown, I understand why those didis were so irritated with our selfish behaviour, and angry with us; the new comers were one of us and we were treating them as if they were aliens. Some realization in life comes just too late. I mean little bit too late.