30 July 2015

My Adopted Sister Nima Chunda

My childhood has been interesting. Everyone who knew me as a boy has unforgettable stories to share. From the outside, they must have found it adventurous. But I have been trying to forget everything because there weren’t many beautiful moments I could cherish. I don’t want to be hateful. I want to be different.

My childhood was kind of a dirty street where only a few kind people had walked by and I mean the real kind ones whose kindnesses were compassionate and unconditional. Since I had only a few such people in my life I am going to begin writing about them, one by one.

1997, Paro: I was in junior high school fighting for attention. I would be in trouble every other day. I wasn’t scared of any form of punishment. It seemed like I enjoyed being punished. I was avoided like an infected dog. As a dirty village troublemaker, it was easy for people to hate me.

1996, Paro
Life would have been different if I was cute. It could have been forgivable if I was rich, or at least talented. I was miserable in studies, sports, music and everything that could have made life easy in junior school. I was rather into fighting most of the time. I would be beaten often, and if I survived I would have it from the teachers.

But there was one girl who looked at me differently. She was quiet and gentle. She was perhaps a little older than me or a little more matured. She'd told people that I was her adopted bother. I went numb when I heard that as if I had waited all my life to hear that. It was a culture in the '90s to adopt brothers and sisters but like I said you had to be special to be chosen. People were shocked that a gentle girl had accepted the most mischievous boy in the school as her brother. I was equally shocked.

From that day I began to hide from her, and whenever I was going to do anything undesirable I would scan the whole place to make sure she wasn't around. Soon people knew about this spell that worked on me and started using her name as key to controlling me.

Perhaps she must be the first girl to whom I spoke softly; I called her Aue Nima. Her name was Nima Chunda. When she called me to seat with her and share her lunch, I would be the quietest boy with all the decency that I didn’t know I had. People passing by would stop to confirm if it was really me. 

That summer, I didn’t have money to go home and she had heard that. She took me to her family and gave me three best days of my childhood until she got enough money to buy me tickets home. I had good food, slept in a soft bed, visited her relatives and watched endless movies. She would take me to videocassette shops and make me choose movies. Imagine the joy of getting to watch movies of your choice in the ’90s.

She would often send me her lunchbox so that I could taste better home-cooked food. She would call me by the riverside during the weekends and help me do my laundry. She would send me gifts and goodies. I was new to all these acts of kindness; I only saw those happen to other boys in the hostel. She made me feel like anyone in the hostel; wanted and normal. I suddenly began to see the world differently.

To this day I wonder how a small girl of her age had such a compassionate heart to care for me, who didn’t even have a cute smile to return. She was the best thing to happen to me in my junior school.

My mother would often ask, “Where is your Aue Nima now, what’s she doing?” and the last time she asked me I told her, “Aue Nima has become a nurse. She is in Thimphu Hospital. We are in touch.” My wife and daughter heard Aue Nima's story from me more than once and we met several times.


Today, when I could help a random person somewhere I remember Aue Nima, because I know the DNA was passed down from my adopted sister. 

14 comments:

  1. Ohh..its so touching..so it seems like you too weren't born with a silver spoon in the mouth (myself included!) But it is beautiful...kind deeds and words make it so. I hope you keep the circle moving.😊

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  2. Learning through countless mistakes is never a doubt....great passu sir...

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  3. This is the most inspiring account of life I have heard in recent times... Though I am a nobody to say this, I am proud of the way you have shaped up, Passu!! I am sure it is such small gestures of heart-to-heart connects that can make the world a much better place to live in.

    Kudos to both of you - She, the Caretaker; You, the Tree!

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  4. I needed to hear this today. I've been thinking to much of all the misery, suffering and violence we visit on each other. This is us, as well. Her care of you is part of the human experience as well. I'm so glad she touched you so deeply.

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  5. Sir I am deeply touched by your story la

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  6. Wow! Passu...never been touched like before. beautifully woven! It send me back to 90s and think about myself too..Thank you! Recollection in Tranquility. Its Nostalgic!

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  7. I am really touched by this story. It is very extraordinary act from your adopted sister unto you. My respect to her. But I would be more happier if you had uploaded her picture here. I just want to see her, the person who had shaped Rowdy PaSsu into finest man.

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  8. Gratitude is not to be forgotten but paid in kind. I see Aue Nima in you as I read this.

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  9. Deep respects for Aue Nima. The world needs more Aue Nimas.
    Beautiful post Passu. 😍😍😍

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  10. Wow! Its so touching that it made me cry...this story gave me goose bump n its so inspiring.
    Kudos to both of you LA
    Amen: May all the hopeless ones meet some1 who saw seed of hope in their life

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  11. beautiful and touching! Life is in fact fair, when someone lacks something, there are still choices which we often find it difficult to see it.

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  12. Everyone had different childhood, but i think that we shoul appreciate it, because it made us whom we are now. When i was a kid i was very closed person and had only a few friends, but from that point i am really greatful to them for being in my life. I dont like to talk about that period of my life, even when i had to write an essay in high school i would rather use custom essay paper writing, then speak my real feelings.

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