Tea

Tea

"I also play the Naumati - narsinga, sanai, dhalaki, temku and the damaa during festivals. The common people enjoy and dance near me. But I do not remember if I have ever danced in my life. When I...

Published19 February 2017

Reading Time 2 mins

Author Stories of Nepal

Location Nepal

"I also play the Naumati - narsinga, sanai, dhalaki, temku and the damaa during festivals. The common people enjoy and dance near me. But I do not remember if I have ever danced in my life. When I was little, every morning father would take his sewing machine and walk around the village looking for clothes to sew. He never entered any house. The clothes would be thrown at him from a distance and after he finished sewing, they would give him some rice which he would bring home for everyone to share. I followed him everywhere he went. He taught me how to sew. I remember clearly, one day, I had to run away to save myself from a beating because I had went near a wedding procession. 'You have touched our water, made everything impure now, come here you damai', this man had yelled as I fled. If I was caught they would put me in prison. That was the law of the society then. But I hear the man who chased me died recently. Everyone dies but that is not the point. After that very day I stopped going near people. In all honesty, I started entering hotels to have tea only very recently, maybe a year or two ago. They say things have changed, but I still have a lot of hesitation to go inside peoples houses and have tea with them." (Chandra Bahadur Shiva, Fungling, Taplejung)

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