It was a sunny afternoon and I was having breakfast with my friends. I was only 10 years old and had been studying in class two. At that time I was living with my elder sister and younger brother away from home for education. Since we had been living away from our parents, we used to talk to our parents on a weekly basis in phone. At that time cell phones were not easily accessible like today. And my father used to give us a call at our land owner’s telephone. It was the day of the call from home and the land owner called my sister to receive the phone and we were very excited to talk to our father. However, that day it was not my father who made the call but our relative was on the phone and our sister did the talking.
Immediately after that my sister told us to be ready and said we were going home right away. I asked her what was the matter and what did our relative said to her but instead of answering me she started to cry. As that moment our neighbors tried to console my sister as they were aware that that day we lost our beloved father.
Erosion of Common Memory in the 21st Century
We packed our things and went off to home and at about 3:00 pm we reached home. There was a crowd of people around my house and everyone present there looked at us. I heard someone’s cry inside my house, it was my mother. Beside her I saw my father’s lifeless body and I was shock and started to cry. Since, my brother was too young to understand what had happened he asked father to wake up and play with him. My mother held my brother and hugged him. Later on, our uncle told us to see our father’s face clearly for the last time and his last rites were performed till next morning.
In my childhood I had to suffer my father’s loss and I won’t forget my last day with my father. I have always felt his absence in my life. I like to thank my parents for giving me this life, and I am thankful to my mother who endured all this in her life and has always been there for us. And it is important to give respect and value to our parents and it is a fact that once you lose them you will never get them back again in your life.
Tamang is a Grade XII student at Prime International School, Khusibu, Kathmandu.
