Shubhechha Subedi:

A house of walls and, a home of hearts; it was warm inside my home. I looked at the wall clock. Gosh! It was 10 am. That made it 11 hours of sleep, three hours shy of my last year’s record bout of 14 hours at a stretch! I laughed at myself. What a good cheery morning I had!

Obviously, there was no tea or coffee. But I desperately needed a glass of water. And to walk out of one’s room which is next to the kitchen and that too at this hour in the morning! Figure out yourself what that means in the backdrop of my parent’s scolding, my sibling’s giggles and my granny’s starry eyes.

I slightly raised my curtain and looked outside expecting a big bright sun silhouetted against a fog cover. No sun and no fog! Oh! What a day? In fact, a rainy day and that too in January again! Last year when it rained on January, I was out with a friend. I certainly wasn’t expecting the same now. “I’d better sleep throughout the day.”

Then I tiptoed to the kitchen, got a glass of water and then crawled back into my room again. Wait! There was nobody in the kitchen.

How about others in my family? Well, all aren’t lazy bones; people have work to do! They were out for their respective work places and school.

“Subu,” called my granny. “Hajur,” I said and rushed to her. “Go take the food.” “But it is time you learnt getting up early,” she said, cheerful as ever, and the twinkle in her eye never fading. All alone in the dining hall and that too forced to tackle ice-cold food. What a way to start a day? Mum must have thought I’d wake up a little early and didn’t use the hot case. I hope not to adopt this habit for long; else I’m sure to miss the morning classes. And, it’s humiliating to be late for college, to be called a slipshod. No college gibberish! I’m still on my vacation. “A cold rainy day, me with my granny watching movies and lots of popcorn, that would be perfect”, I said. I made some popcorn, slipped inside the electric blanket and called upon granny. But who’d care to go out and get a CD? Obviously, not my granny! Ok fine, we’ve a lot of TV channels to browse. I got caught up on the nasty smile of Jim Carrey so I thought I’d stick on to the movie.

Well the movie was for sure humorous, but granny wanted to know why I was laughing all the while. That meant drawing a double mirth from a single joke. But then again the day was not just about the movie, it was a day I spent conversing with the person who I knew loved me like no other. A nature’s gift.