Who raised these monsters ?

In the mid ‘80s Bal Mandir was an apple of the royals. Of course, it was royals who was ruling the country so, Bal Mandir, was the brain child of royals. That was also the time Bal Mandir was getting huge donations from the westerns countries. It used to get truck loads of goods, nutritious foods, best animal fat and sugar from America and some food like can foods and then hot chocolate drinks called P.V.M [protein, vitamins and minerals] and more things got lost in my memory zone. Although, I was bit young to get all the information in my hands, but the way we were eating variety of foods, in our daily menu was purely, because of loads and loads of donations pouring in for Bal Mandir. Normally, we Nepali, eat plain rice with lentil and curry as staple food, so it was the same case with us too. Days snack is also not so fancy, but in those days it was, at least in Bal Mandir.

It was purely, because the donations just poured in to support the 200 children in Bal Mandir and many more of its small branches around the county. During that time, some very smart teenagers in the Bal Mandir, mostly in there mid teens, saw staffs of NCO taking the donations meant for us, in their homes. They took clothes, foods, or whatever they could have hands on. It is said that those donations used to get distributed among the staff according the position they held, not the equal distributions. It applied to that flour and fat which came from America, regularly even though other stuffs were put on hold; in due course of time [perhaps due to chronic corruption inside the NCO].

It was that time, when I remember one preacher was arranged to give us special sermons, every week [perhaps], as it seemed too long for me. I guess it was not easy for me to remember, the preachers name, as I am not so religious even today; forget about when I was in my early teens. But my brother, who is very religious and who became christian at the age of fourteen tries to get it, saying, “may be, he was Khem Raj Acharya, as he was very big name in those days.” Today, my brother preaches across the nation, about the Christianity. The preachers was not the small time preacher, instead he was very famous in in those days. Even in those days, he used to preaches in other western country also to spread ‘sanantan dharma’. He was fluent in English and Nepali.

Unlike many, I am not much interested in sermons, as it does not sooth my mind, for some strange reason, those sermons do not have, its good impact on me. Instead, it works just the opposite. All, I want to do is to run away from the places, where such sermons or preaching goes on. I rather prefer to read it; if I want to, not hear it, when I am not in a mood for those preachings. But those were not the days or ages also, I could do what I wanted to, so we were needed in a big lavish looking living room of Bal Mandir. This particular room was called ‘baithak kotha’, used to get open, only for royals, but for some reason the same room was arranged for those preachings.

Imagine, how we survived those preaching from world famous preacher. When my full concentration used to be on his uneven moustache or tweaked lip while he was delivering his sermons. I don’t remember much of those preachings, neither I do remember how it helped me or others in the Bal Mandir.Llistening sermons is something like participating to release all my yawns at one go.

When I look back, I am trying to understand, why those intense preaching for teenagers ? My guess is, the children [including me] must have become very uncontrollable and undisciplined. They must not have shown the due respect towards the staffs at NCO also, who stole goods and foods meant for the children. Their stealing such stuffs, worked as an agent to diminish the respect for the the authority figure. Then must have not obeyed them also for the things they were told to do or follow.

Instead of realising what seriously went wrong or trying to understand its true reason, they were choose preaching children, to be nice and good. It was the character issue in the authority team but; they were pointing towards at the children for all the problems associated with this. Some children must have, called names from back, when they were heading back home after office. Things could have gone beyond imaginable, so one of the staff must have come to this conclusion to call some body to preach us, so that we will regret and realized our mistakes and then go through the cleansing method at that age.

Today, it really makes me think hard, why do we have to go through the cleansing process, at that age [all teenagers], when it was the authority and staff members of NCO, who were on a looting binge and loosing respect, in the eyes of children inside the Bal Mandir ?

They are right, when they say, its easy to point out, rather than self search.