Born to Indra Bahadur and Man Kumari Thapa in Dhankuta, Basanta Thapa even in his late fifties feels that there is so much more to do in his life, so much to live truly everyday and so much still to be accomplished. Like many, Thapa as a kid was also one of the naughty ones in the family but he says he got to play less pranks as a child because he was the eldest son amongst his six other siblings and had more responsibilities to his family.
He was fortunate to go to school because he remembers that even his grandfather was able to read and write. However, this does not means that Basanta Thapa was a brilliant student in school. He was an average one, often unnoticed to go by academic excellence.
With time, most of his childhood memories have already faded from his mind. However, he still loves to recollect those days as a kid when Thapa and his friends were fond of stealing litchis and mangoes from the farms in their neighborhood. He loved bunking classes and he still remembers being thrashed by his parents because he swam in a flooded river.
“During those days, there were no transportation means. I had shifted to Dharan from Dhankuta with mom, dad and brothers but my grandparents were still living in Dhankuta. I loved walking a whole day to visit them. All I needed while walking to Dhankuta was a few coins and some roasted grams,” Thapa recollected his decades-old memories.
He did not bully his friends much; in fact, it was him who often used to be bullied. He even hated his teachers. In his own words, “Teachers then weren’t teachers, they were terrors. They always needed an excuse to give corporal punishment. Man, our teachers were brutal. They used to beat us till we peed in our pants. I was weak in mathematics. And I never could improve myself because like I said my teachers never became true mentors to me. They were like evils from horror movies,” he smiled in reminiscences.
Basanta Thapa always loved the rainy months. First, because he loved the nostalgic feeling rains bring every year, and secondly, because his school often remained shut during the season.
“My classrooms had tin roofs. When it rained, we could hear nothing and we were sent home. No classes meant no homework and I simply loved the idea,” gushed Thapa and added, “Children are happy to skip their school and homework.”
When Thapa was in class six, for the first time in his life, he felt some goose bumps in his stomach when he saw a beautiful girl in the same grade of his school. He knew that he was attracted to her but never had the guts to go and tell her.
During the time when Thapa’s friends kept themselves busy bullying girls and eve teasing, he was the opposite. Fond of watching Hindi movies, he was heavily inspired by the characters of heroes and often put himself into them. That was why he used to sing songs for girls, loved grooming himself and often argued with his friends who were villains to them.
“I loved impressing girls and always tried to become the prince charming for ladies, just like heroes do in the movies,” he laughed. “I’ve to confess that I had affairs going on and off frequently. But my affairs were not of physical intimacies like the youngsters are involved in today. It used to be platonic relationships.”
His college days were an era when to join a college in itself was a great matter of pride. After joining Dharan Mahendra College, he gave more to fit into the real hero’s character. Because his father was a leftist, he was quite influenced by ideologies and joined the student union.
He also remembers how he had to struggle hard for survival during his teenage years. Because the financial conditions in his family were not sound, he had to start working early, which was after his middle school and right after he got his School Leaving Certificate (SLC).
From working as a cycle boy to distribute newspapers to writing in papers, giving tuitions and to working as a peon in municipality office, Thapa worked in different places. He needed money not just for himself but also to look after the needs of his younger brothers, for he was the eldest one. Every time he faced some problems in his life, he immediately related them with the new Hindi movies he watched and tackled them the way the heroes in the films did.
Thapa remembers how he hated subjects like Mathematics, Science and Economics. That is why he did post-graduation in Nepali Literature.
“To be honest, I wanted an easy way out. I knew I wasn’t born to do mathematics and statistics. So I shifted my faculty immediately after my graduation in Economics. I managed to get my graduation degree in third division,” he admitted.
There were no particular dreams to achieve in his life. The whole idea for him was to be able to survive with at least two proper meals a day.
One of the fondest memories that he still cherishes is when he and friends opened a children’s library in Dharan. “We weren’t that mature and it was a big deal for us. When I saw the official stamp pad of our library, happiness broke its boundaries,” he elaborated.
What about his biggest prank? He immediately answered, “Breaking all the streetlamp bulbs in Dharan at night with friends after boozing a lot. It was around 1996. Electricity was recently introduced and my friends and I didn’t spare a single street bulb. And luckily nobody found out that we were behind it.”
Though he was infatuated with many girls and had many affairs, he finally felt that magical touch in his heart when he met the beautiful Pramila Pradhan who lived in Kolkatta (then Calcutta). With her, he realized what a true love was, and since then, decided to have no more affairs. Now it’s been over three decades that Pramila Pradhan is Mr Thapa’s better half.
Having lived almost six decades of his life, writer, journalist and film promoter Basanta Thapa regrets two things in his life.
“While I was in the student union of my college in Dharan, my group literally thrashed and beat our Principal Sir. Though I didn’t even touch him, I was in the same group who initiated the idea and had threatened him. I regret that incident and I’m still ashamed. And the next regret is, perhaps I didn’t do as much as I should’ve done as the eldest son to my parents. I asked them a lot to come and stay with me in Kathmandu, but they were rather comfortable with my younger brothers who were not financially sound. They are no more alive today. I missed some of my responsibilities to them,” Thapa enunciated emotionally.
He concluded, “Well, all I have to say now is that I’m still young and energetic. It’s just that at times I miss my carefree days of college years.”
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