Kathmandu:

Shivaratri holds a huge religious significance in our lives — the day when Shiva, Lord of destruction, is worshipped throughout the country. Besides the pujas and prayers, this is also a day that many look forward to with much enthusiasm as a day to take Lord Shiva’s parsadi. For boys, it also is a day when they can have various intoxicating substances without anyone stopping them.

Boys day out

Rakesh Shah, who is in his early 20’s, eagerly anticipates this day each year. “Tyo din extra ramailo hunchha (This day is extra fun), which cannot be explained. You have to experience it,” he says.

On Shivaratri, along with his friends Suraj Shah, Sangam Chettri and the whole gang, they get up, take a bath and reach Pashupatinath in the morning. Once there, they sit around the dhuni, take parsadi and thus passes the whole day. In the evenings they are usually back home, organising get-togethers, cooking delicacies and singing songs. Their favourite song for Shivaratri is Vajra hanya by Albatross.

Recalling one memorable experience, Rakesh shares, “Two years ago, we had mixed bhaang in parsadi and gave it to everyone from children to the elderly, and it was quite a sight.”

They haven’t had a chance to fool their friends in such a way as Suraj says, “You don’t have to fool friends, they come looking for bhaang.”

Girls wanna have fun, too

Though boys have the option of openly enjoying such things on this day, girls find their secret ways to get a taste of it as well. As Sangam says, “Usually elders bring it home, and our sisters steal it and have it hiding in their rooms.”

Once high and happy, proposing to girls is something that they love to do. Rakesh says, “We really don’t care if they say yes or no, we do it just for the fun of it.”

There have been instances when they’ve received positive replies, but if the girl says no, they yell at her like anything, he states with a smile.

However, for most of the girls Pashupati is a complete no-no as they believe it is a totally barricaded area for girls on that day. Young and beautiful Swcchhya Dangol says, “There are too many guys who are all intoxicated, so you never know what’s going to happen. I feel really afraid to go there.”

But she is fascinated by everything that is related to Pashupati and Shivaratri, and would like to go and see the babas there and maybe try a joint too.

Kids join in

Young kids have their own reasons to be happy on Shivaratri.

Upakar Jaiswal and Bibek Maharjan have already found ropes to stop vehicles on that day and even have a strategy so that no bike passes by from their lane.

“There are five of us — two each to hold the rope on either side of the lane and Mote in the middle will be collecting money from the bikes as they go by,” said Jaiswal.

On Shivaratri they earn from around Rs 150-200 each. With the money earned, they plan to have momos in the evening.

Those were the days

The Dil Chahata Hai group of Arzoon Shrestha, Shekhar Karna and Mukesh Garg, don’t have any such plans but might just have a momo party. They feel their days of teenage fun for Shivaratri are over. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, they’ve never let that interfere with celebrations or festivals of any kind, celebrating any festival with equal vigour.

Originally from Bhairawa, they still reminiscence about the days when Shivaratri was celebrated with much fanfare in their hometown.

“In Rupandehi, we have Basdilwa mela (fair), and it was a time when friends got together. We used to have fun drinking tandhi (an alcoholic beverage), playing games like throwing the ring or aiming at the beer and hitting bottles.”

Each game was played with much fervour as the prizes were mostly bottles of beer. Along with the fun, praying and going to the taal (pond) was another attraction for them.

They then gathered at a friend’s place and played cards or sang songs, where Dam Maro Dam topped the list.

Ghanashyam Shrestha lives near Makhan Pashupati. Like in most localities, on this day young boys and girls come to collect money from houses and shops which is used in the evening for cooking items like halwa, puri, tarkari which is distributed to all the locals who come to sit by the fire lit near the temple.

“When we were young, though it was fun to gather around the fire, people would be alert from the morning. Since wood was not readily available and costly, the wooden locks from doors used to be stolen too.”

He feels that the celebrations are not done as wholeheartedly as before. “It has become more of a formality these days. It should be continued by today’s generation too,” he added.