Away from home on losar

Losar, and I am still away from home. On this day I miss my parents and siblings dreadfully. This is my fourth losar away from home. Had a hollow feeling since last night. And it saddens me to know that I will not be home for the next losar as well.

My folks must be all geared up for the losar celebration. Sister and in-law must be up by now, preparing thukpa and suja. Nephew must be up too, all excited and toddling around the house. Apa must be saying his prayers in the alter room. Brother must be glad that he can sleep a few extra hours, tucked warmly under those thick pile of blankets. Nieces must be happy that they have no school today and its losar. The weather must be cold still and they must be sticking to eachother in bed.

After a while, sister will force them out of their beds because on losar you should wake up early, only then will you be able wake up early on the other days of the year.

I always used to be so excited about losar and start to make plans for the day even if I knew that losar was in two weeks time. Other days used to be the hardest to get up but on  losar, I would rise as early as my mother and father. I used to love drawing and painting and losars used to be my favorite drawing and painting day. After breakfast, my siblings and I used to play games while our parents would prepare lunch and before lunch we would bask in the sun, the whole family together. Sigh! those were beautiful days. After lunch my parents would sit and drink together, just the two of them: years of marriage, 5 kids, a lot of troubles they faced but yet, when I used to see them together like that, I wished time would stop and we would be like that forever. I would sit beside them and draw, paint and do stuffs while my siblings would be playing outside. Those days are long gone now. All of us live in different places. Now celebrating losar together is just a dream and memories.

My mother always used to say, people should wear new clothes on losar, eat good food, be happy and not fight. Because losar is the first day of the year, it marks your year. If you fight on losar, you will fight for the whole year and same with the rest. So, on losars, everytime we were on the verge of quarreling, me and my siblings used to say, "if we quarrel today, we will quarrel the whole year" and then we would end up compromising. That was the charm of our mother's believe that worked on us, that kept us from quarreling.

Got a call from home! Sister says we will celebrate losar together in the future. Growing impatient waiting for that future. 

On this day I send my wishes to my family and the rest. May the day be good for all and may the year be filled with good health and happiness.
TASHI DELEK TO EVERYONE ON LOSAR!

My cycling journey

I have always fancied at how people can ride a bicycle. I wondered about how they could balance themselves on those two wheels, not even wider than two inches. When I was a kid there was this one time when I was forced onto a bicycle by my friends and I fell almost six meters below the road. Thankfully none of my bones broke though I had cuts all over my face, hands and legs. I had to hide behind the door, when my father returned from office, from the fear that he may scold me for trying something I wasn't good at and getting hurt. But now I don't remember if he scolded me or not but he sure nursed my wounds. Even till this day my brothers remembers that incident and laugh. They still recall how my face looked like.

Ever since, I have never even tried to learn how to ride a bicycle let alone ride one. And when I joined college, I saw that many people here were using a bicycle as their means of transportation and almost everyone in my college knew how to ride one and that's when I felt the urge to learn to ride a bicycle.The first time I started to learn how to ride a bicycle, I had bruises on my elbows and knees, I forgot to pedal sometimes and sometimes I forgot to turn the handle on the right direction because I was too nervous and scared. And each time I fell down I would get a new bruise.

After several days I learned to balance on it and did not forget to pedal nor turn the handle. I would ride it in the campus to make sure I can balance well. A few days later, I was cycling on the highway with my friends and the experience was thrilling. By the way, I almost gave a guy a lift on the front wheel on that day. Since then I have learned how to side away from the people walking on the road. The big trucks and buses had me trembling and every time one of those passed by, I stopped.

After a few days of cycling on the highway gave me confidence. So every time I got a chance, I went cycling with my friends. But I never learned to make a U-turn or cross a road, even to this day. I am too scared to turn around, so I get down and push the bicycle to it turn back.

It's now been almost two years since I last rode a bicycle. I have been planning on going for cycling since the starting of the semester but one or the other thing held me back. Finally yesterday I found a reason to go cycling. I wondered if I can balance on that thing again. 'Can I still balance on it?', I asked myself. 'Not confident, may be I can', I replied to myself. So I planned to not go out of the campus if I can't balance well.

When I rode it, I went in a zig zag for a few meters and almost hit a few of those people on the way but I was glad I could still ride on it. When I reached the main gate of my campus, my hands and legs were trembling. I was not so confident if I could ride it on the highway. I however made my attempt and cycled about six kilometers. When I went ahead of my friends I felt like I am going to lose balance and fall down and when I remained behind I felt like I am going to crash into them but thankfully, nothing of the sort happened.

I was sweating when I reached back in the campus. My legs and hands were still trembling. At the same time I was happy that I can still balance on a bicycle. Got to go cycling more frequently, so that I don't have to have those bruises all over again. :)