In fact I want the story that you [ your father ] had more land than Bal Mandir covers. Bal Mandir is spread in an area of 57 ropanis of land all together but her father owned more than 130 ropanis of land. “Okay, but please don’t mention my name in your blog.” she responded.
Like so many other people, who knows my blog pulls readers from around the world; suddenly it made them feel more conscious about the way of their life. Even if, they are living an unknown life and not a single person on the net jungle knows who they are; except some of our own frines from Bal Mandir, who are in abroad and they already know their life story [ well, only in parts].
“Why, whats so big deal about mentioning your real name here ? I counter questioned her. "The people I worked with [which is more than 5 years ago] do not know any thing about me, and I don’t want them to know them I am from Bal Mandir.”
Is this a crime to tell the world that we are from Bal Mandir ? I again counter questioned her, “still....” she said, "why not you give a fake name." “will Rika work ?” I wanted to know, its the short form of Rita Kali. "Why not you mention Rima as my name," she requested, "its the short form of Rita Manandhar" she added, “that's also nice”, I remarked this time. “Radha didi, came up with this name for me”, She reminisced.
“Okay, tell me rich madam, how come you land up in Bal Mandir ?” I shoot my question. “My mother died at the time when she gave me birth”, she said. In fact her mother had died in her rice paddy, when a midwife made a serious mistake, while pulling her. It is said that by mistake she pulled more than a child. This happened in early 1970s. So, in fact midwife had left the mother and child to die, as she was scared of getting caught for her mistake. Was she new or very very careless ? What is not exactly clear here is; that it could have been over bleeding also at the time as her case was not in the hospital but in the rice paddy.
Rita has an older sister, who is about 8 years older than her she was there when all this happened. It is believed that Rita was admitted in Bal Mandir, when she was only three days old [ however Rita told me that she was 22 days old]. When she was around three month old her father also died due to diarrhea. Rita told me that when he was suffering from diarrhea, he was not allowed to drink water which ultimately killed him. They belonged to Bhaktapur, Balkot area.
However, what I remember is the housemother Kedar Shrestha telling us over and over again that I raised Rita Mandhar and Kalpana Maharjan. I had not slept many many nights just because of you two, and I remain awoke so that you two could sleep quietly. Kalpana Maharjan is from Thankot, whose father also had so much land that, he could go to roof and point all of the surrounding area saying, all that lands belongs to me. She had special feeling for these both girls and as she raised them specially because they were so young she could not trust solely on the nannies, besides it also must have gave her a sense of feelings like only a mother can have. Kind of pride women get after raising a child. The housemother, Kedar Shrestha was an unmarried and very strong women.
What I personally remember is, these both girls were somewhat slow on their IQ. Kalpana can be termed as a mildly mentally challenged. She never completed her normal education. But Rita did at least her SLC. Rita always misunderstood me all the time and it was not easy for me then to understand her behaviour. Because it ended up in unwanted argument, I plainly avoid[ed] talking her, even for very simple talk. Now, my friends runs a special school; who helps me to understand why some adult behave strangely. They do look normal like us; yet they are not fully normal as their primitive perception could not developed at the time when they were so young, long before they could form any perception. Lack of oxygen in the brain, sever sickness like high fever or jaundice may cause neuro problems and then the sign can be seen later in life, as they grow. When they start going to school.
Then it was not common to send any child for the specialist opinion whether they were normal or special child and they went to normal school like us. Its only that they could not make the normal standard of the education. there were many like these girls but I should cover their story differently and try to understand it one by one.
Rita’s father was an oil seller and all the money he earned he spent on aquiteing lands, that was his way of investment. A friend of mine, with whom Rita stayed for 9 years, used to help her go and recover her lands. She told me that a piece of land was here and a piece of land was there and a piece of land was other side of the river and a piece of land was in nearby his one relative. So it was big but that gave the opportunists to swallow the land so easily. Besides for some reason Rita’s father had lefe a huge chunk of his lands was left for in her name rather than her older daughter. Here another contradicting lines come in this story, he was just fade up of more and more asking from his son-in-law and therefore he had left more share in Rita’s name ? Was Rita’s sister married at the age of eight ? how old her husband could have been to trouble her when he died withing three months of Rita’s birth ?
“How many land of it you recovered ?” out of all those 130 ropanies, I asked and then added again “....do you have a Ropani of land now ?” “Not much and I sure don’t have a ropani of land. “Do you still have some thing to recover ?” “Oh, yes, just about two month ago my sister-in-law saw a 35 days notice on the paper and we are fighting for that.” she replied.
She recently built and its still on the process of building, her new house and the number of land it covers may shocked to her more than to my reader.
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