"हुन त
मिलनको सानिध्यबाट
म बाटै झर्यो ऊ
हृदयको धड्कन
म बाटै लिन्छ ऊ
स्नेहको अमृतले
म बाटै संगालियो ऊ ।
नदीझैँ घुमाउरो
सृष्टिको घुम्तीहरुमा
कुनै बेला खस्कने
वात्सल्यको कमजोर सुता समातेर
कर्तव्यको घेरा
साघुरिरहेको तर्कले सेपेर
भन्ने गर्छ छोरो –
“हजुरआमा जस्तो तपाई हुनुुहुन्न !”"
When I was a child, my mother's saree caught fire from a Kerosine stove while preparing 'lito' for me. I don't remember the incident but they say that my sister pulled me away from my mother's lap while she screamed in pain. If I had a choice, and the consciousness of a man I am now, I would have never let her know that I was hungry, I would have never let the stove do its bid. I almost lost her. Her recovery appeared to have taken time and that is why my mother's mom, my granny, took me in until she recovered. That is also when the confusion started, I couldn't tell who is 'mommy' and who is 'aama'. My mom finally recovered and took me back, I would always rant in dissatisfaction, owing to the sudden change in life, screaming, "You are my mom, not my aama." My mom is a writer and she hasn't forgotten that. She still wonders to what depth I meant what I say. I don't know what I meant back then, but my mother always jokes, "You didn't even know how to read or write, and you were already a poet." I am Aayush Ghimire, and to my father's utmost disdain, I grew up to be a writer. But my mother, now 'aama', always supported me. And someday I will make my father proud too.
She wrote the poem above and you can read if full here: Do you know how hard it was to type in Nepali few years ago? You probably do not know to the extent I do because my mother, who still has a cute phobia of computers, and who didn't know how to type in computers, used to have her poem typed in Nepali by a professional in the word document and had him send it to my email address. I took up the most complicated task of converting her poems into Unicode so that she could post her poems on social media. We did that for almost a year and Hamro Keyboard launched. My mother who has a strange fear of computers was very comfortable using smartphones but I could see that she wanted more because now she wanted to thank and reply to people who commented on her poems individually. Prior to the launch of Hamro Keyboard, I would even Unicode type 'Dhanyabad' and 'Padhi dinu bhayo khusi laagyo," I used to sound rude even when I wanted to write anything polite in Nepali. To be honest, I never scored more than 50 in Nepali in my entire school life but there I was typing my mother's poem in Nepali for her.
She emotionally blackmailed both of us brothers to pose like this for her Cover Photo.
The 'Hamro Keyboard', then, entered our lives. The polar opposite writers finally found a mutual bridge. Like I taught my mom how to unlock a smartphone, I taught her how to use Hamro Keyboard, it didn't even take me much time. Now, she even types her poems in Nepali and posts it online. Hamro Keyboard has been one of the greatest gifts I have given my mom. As a writer, I know how suffocating it is to not find the words to express what is in your heart. Hamro Keyboard gave her the words and her poems have now come to life which could have been lost if she hadn't had a Hamro keyboard in her phone.
You know what? I even started writing poems in Nepali too, to, of course, impress my mom. It's clumsy but my mom compared it to Mr. Devkota's poem for the first time in my life. I know it must be the mother in her talking, but it still fills me with pride. Here is a poem I wrote with 'Hamro Keyboard' but before I put it here, please know that Hamro Keyboard has helped so many parents communicate and reap the benefits of the internet and social media which otherwise would have been impossible. Take my mother, for example, she has built a good social media presence because she can now post her thoughts instantly without worrying if her son would be around or not to convert her thoughts into Unicode. This one time she even had to unfriend me because she exceeded the 5,000 friends threshold in Facebook and she wanted to add more people. She says it was an accident. I do understand her but I am in no way going to believe that it was an accident.
मैले स्कुल मा के सिखे?
खै के सिखे?
कहिले काहिँ आमा संग झगडा गरेर थाह पाए
मन कसैको दुखाउनु हुदैन भनेर
बिचारी जत्ति झगडा गर्दा पनि
छोरा भनेर पुल्पुलाएर बोलाउछिन
स्कुलमा " मोरल साइन्स"
नामको मात्र बिषय थियो
पान पसल मा गुटका च्याप्ने गुरु ले
धुम्रपान गर्नु हुदैन भन्दै सिकाउथे
बाबा को काँध मा चढेर उडदा
खेल के हो भनेर सिखेको मैले
स्कुलमा "फिजिकल ट्रेनिङ्ग"
नामको मात्र बिषय थियो
परीक्षामा फुटबल को चित्र गोलो भएन भनेर फेल गर्ने ले
खेलकुद के सिकाउनु?
गणितबाट धेरै सिके
तर नचाहिने कुरा बढी थियो
हिसाब त दशैं मा दक्षिणा गन्दा गन्दै सिकियो
बिजिनेस गर्ने सपना भएको ले पनि
घाम को छाया बाँस मा पर्यो भने
बाँस कति किलो थियो भन्दै नाप्नु पर्थ्यो?
गणित त बिषय हैन बाहाना मात्र थियो
फेल गराउने साधन थियो
विद्यार्थी को सपना को हिसाब राखन नसक्ने ले
गणित के सिकाउथे होला र?
जिन्दगि भाइ हुर्केको देखेर सिके
मेरो उटपटाङ्ग कथा
ध्यान दिएर सुन्ने ति आँखा टल्किएको देख्दा
कविता लेख्न सीखे
"साहित्य" त बिषय मात्र थियो
मैले कति काब्य पढेको छु भनेर मेरो रचनात्मकता जाच्ने ले
के 'सिर्जना' गर्न सिकाउने होला?
छिमेकी घर को झगडा देखेर
समाज मा कस्तो छबि बन्छ भनेर सिके
मातिने बाउ को छोरा साथी थियो मेरो
उसको दुख देखेर
समाज र परिवार सिखे
"सामाजिक शिक्षा" त बिषय मात्र थियो
समाज मा आवाज राख्न नसक्ने ले
के समाज मा जिउन सिकाउथे?
म शिक्षित हैन
ज्ञानी बन्न चाहन्छु
स्कुल गएर आधा जिन्दगि नास भयो
शिक्षा मेरो ज्ञानको अडचन बन्यो
म ज्ञानी बन्न सक्थे होला
तर बीच मा स्कुल जानु पर्यो
ज्ञान त खुला आकास मुनिको
जीवन जिएर पो पाइन्छ जस्तो लाग्यो
त्यो पैसा माङ्ग्ने
तर दिए जति कहिले नासिकाउने बिद्यालयले
के ज्ञानी बनाउथ्यो होला र?
Please forgive me for any grammatical mistakes.
I dedicate this article to the team that brought Hamro Keyboard to every parent's mobile phone. The distances between the family have shortened because every parent now has the power to communicate in their own language.
---
Aayush Ghimire
Writer/Filmmaker
The Phony Confessor
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