Memory Lane: The Big Yellow Bus!

For kids of greater handigaon, every morning in Dhalku beared a festive hue. With our bright green uniform, handkerchiefs hooked to our shirts, colorful bags on our back and a inseparable pair of tiffin and tumlet, we all waited anxiously for the big yellow bus. The older boys were busy playing marble and "chungi" while the gals indulged in "ice cream shoulders" and skips. Unlike them, kids like me and my sister who had just started school in LKG and nursery, we held tight against our maami's sari. Though we had a older sibling going to the same school as well, we still needed mami every morning to bid us goodbye from dhalku.

In a few minutes, the big yellow bus made its way towards us with its characteristic horn. It was a magical bus from the fairytales. Besides its three characteristic horns, it also had an automatic door almost unheard of at the time. Thus, I wanted to be the conductor of the bus pushing the black button every now and then and seeing the marvel of machine at work. The driver slammed on the breaks infringing my thoughts.... Back we went with its loud, deafening "BHOOOP' horn buzzing every now and then through bhatbhateni, chinese embassy, past the rastra bank in baluwatar, up the hill, left at the police headquarters finally heading towards pani pokhari. Within no time we reached our school which looked like an old palace more than school.

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Classes began. Numbers, handwriting and reading. I was seated towards the back of the class. There was a guy named Prince behind me. Everyone envied him for not only he'd have the most delicious tiffin but he'd also have the most sophisticated toys and instruments he'd flaunt in class. While I had a rustic geometric box that held my crayons and a pencil and an eraser with a letter R inscribed in it, he had a sleek plastic box with five different tabs that would open five different compartments in the same box. I burned with jealousy. My dad had promised he'd buy me a double decker if i did well in the finals. but even with double decker, i'd never be able to compete with him

Suddenly there was a buzz at the left section of the class. Moti Miss shouted " K ho tyaha?" We were all scared of her. she had a big bamboo stick she'd beat us with. Anyways, not to anyone's surprise, someone had urinated in class again. The poor kid was crying aloud. and almost like a ritual, the kid was brought to front of the class and we began to sing in unison "shame shame puppy shame.........." I hesitantly sang for I could relate to the embarrassment, when I was made the clown a year ago and among the students singing enthusiastically was my very own sister.

The next class was Nepali. The story filled with numbers and cartoons of animals fascinated me. we read in chorus "badar aama, pairi jaama......hami bhayou dui hami bhayeu dui!!!!!!.........the part about lokharke maiya tickled me the most. Why would u refer lokharke as a maiya? My mouth watered as the flurry of animals gathered for the festival in the jungle having all sorts of sweets. The lunch bell rang much to my delight.
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We were too scared to play with other kids in the big two slides in the playground. Instead we resorted to the the small two red slides at the corner of the playground that had a makeshift round body of a water drum we used in houses, with slides at the end of the drum. To escape the direct sunlight, kids snuggled inside the drum and had their lunch. I found myself beside my sister munching on our tiffin. I took my "tumlet" twisted it..and out came the straw. at least this was fancy i thought, but still not as fancy as prince's box. oh well, i gulped down the lemon juice my maami had made for us in the morning.

On the rear side of the school, students hustled to buy special lollypops from outside vendors. We were too small to compete for that though we loved these lollipops that came with miniature toys. Among the frenzied group of students, i located my older sibling. She was a senior at the school though she was merely in forth grade.

Within a few minutes she approached our slide and handed me and my sister a lollipop each. I quickly teared down the cover and saw that i had got the black top. I was ecstatic I slid it in my pocket as the bell rang for the afternoon session


contd...

Jira, censorship ko dar lagyo ni, ahile ko belaa ma, Bhadragol wa Nakkhu chalaan garidiyo bhane bitaena? Taipani yeso aant garera lekehko. Anyway, dhilai bhae pani badhai cha hai timi lai :)

Oye, chiple! Nakkhuy chalan ko dar lageko? dhet, mula!

Achel nakkhu ma bheed lagera ramjham bhayeko hola...ke ko pir? Biraano thaam ma aeklai basna parepo bore hunchha...tanatan bheed ma ta...bihanai party, diunsai party, saanjh maiparty, raat bhari niparty bhai ra hola...jaam baru haami daju bhai ni party garna Nakhhu!

Poonte, kuro ta thikai ho, baru janay po kasari? Baato ma gadi bhanda dherai goli chalcha bhanchan, pheri tarkari ko abhav cha bhanchan khaldo ma.

Oys bro as usual bringin back da memories..handigoun ko kura garyo ki jatraa ko yaad aunchaa...neways sano sano hundaa ko life kya majja thiyo padhunaii pardainaa thiyo ahileii taa thuekka kasto bore...ps tyo tumlet ko "sarbat" :P kahilei pughenna malai taa..last maa jahileii dharako pani lei pyaas bujhaunu parneii :) ..aight good memories bro..do wtchu do.. aight im out..peace

I feel like going back to school again after reading Oys' story. Except for that AIYA NI AMA! ruler ko hanai.

Thanks for sharing the story.

ohh myannn!!!! poking other people was fun!!!!..

Thanx everyone!

Redstone, 5 52 samma re? ambo..increase your typing speed broda, u know who's too fast too furious :P. Bhanubhakta ni tyatai cha hai? i'd almost forgotten that. I went to guheswori then.

dananah, what else could distract you..besides????????????

Kalanki bru, nursery ma chai crush parena..eheh....i too used to take those 5 paisa jane chocs in my b'day...we used to call them "moonrocks" ..tyo pani duita bhanda dherai dina lov lagthyo :P. YOYO was the first choc i tried with jhol in it.

Wateva, I can imagine what kinda demon you must have been then. thanx for yor support.

Deep bru,
khabarai nagari, pugi sakya nepal pheri? kati basne karyakram cha? ali long term bhaye ta sangai dhalku janu hunthyo ni :). yeso bijulipatra pathaunus hai. ani bange lai ni bhet bhayo ta? yaha dada giri lai tapain ko bhanda bange ko fikri cha :P

Thanx greengal, howbizarre and dada_giri for your comments..yes, guheswori it was.

Chiple bru, nice to see you around after ages. My mom too wanted to give me that tiffin with that hook, but i could never close it :). yah..mero khaja ni jyam n pauroti nai hunthyo usually..but those bread then used to be so delicious.

Thank you sitara jyu, jira bru, pade no 1, dallipokchi and goodkillaz.

ani poonte dai.......dhan ko bhat. ani poonte dai ko sahar naghumya katti bho bhanera, ma ta sahar aauna lagya pheri. chutti ma kasto schedule cha dai ko? let me know hai ta...

loo everyone..have a good snowy evening..malai ta weather le challenge gari sakyo :)

Malai ta tetti purano kura haaru kehi yaad chhaina...aali aali k ho kho yaad chha but not that vividly...khoi bachha bela dherai skol change garera pani hola...but ur story made me smile man...nice one..Kepp it going...it really is great to see such a good narration...give it a continuation...

hi oys
nice one as always.
I remember poking this guy's eye with a pencil as a revenge.
hope to read more of it in future.

Oys, I also went to Guheswori till class 5 before moving on to Xaviers. You brought back the memories bro, thanks a lot.

Oys
Yo paali ta Memory lane ta sarai para po pugyo. Thanx for the reminisces. Sorry, but just read it..knew I had seen ur work in sajha..so, had to search.

Thanx Nirman....malai ni bachama khub school change garna man lagthyo..tara k garnu!

Aliciaa..i really can't picture u poking a guy with a pencil. I too wasn't the most disciplined kid :P

SaveEarth, I went to guheswori for nursery n lkg. it is actually amazing that i have met so many ppl here in US from that school. Pretty small place eh? ani xavier's kun batch ho?

Hey DWI BRO....i read your spine chilling narration in the guild. But I had liked yor red dress wali the best so far. memory lane para ko lagyo re..man..I really had to stretch on this one myself but juni is still vivid in my family. Actually, i could go two years further back :P. What about the collaboration we'd planned? i got an idea buzzin.......

Oys Chill, 96 Xaviers bro...and where did you go to after Guheswori?

i went to guuheshwori tooo. Kindergaten...............

Every morning i hid under my bed..my dad pulled me out and dragged me to the bus..only to get sharp ruler beatings on my fingers for not learning the mutiliplications uptil 12 in LKG..jesus...i had big wounds on my knees from playing in the slay...and fighting with the boys..that li'l miss muffet and hum-pity dum-pity nursery rhymes....dancing in as a rose forgetting the shows over.in the concert....circling in the middle...putting our heads down for almost half running from the school to buy titauras near the bhanubhakta schooll...and getting caught....

that was quite a school....................................

hummm....interesting things from all!!! Nice to read

Oys ba,you reminded of my own school days. The tiffin carrier, the schools bus, the sticks and the unimaginable humiliation when I dared to eat my 10 am khaja while a teaher was teaching. The principal was a very short man with a very big stick and spoke in his badly mangled English. The schoold is a defunct school now. Amar Adarsha. I must have been in JKG. What the hell do you study in Jkg ayways?

Oys bro,
Dhalku ta janu hunthyo sangai tara Oys bro harip denjar chha rey taruniko mamla ma bhanne sunda sundai tyasto byapak competition liyera dhalku kasari janu ta prabho? usai ta hath launa kasto garho chha... ma ta barbad bhai halchhu ni....

"What the hell do you study in Jkg ayways? "
NK didi, hamro Nandi tira ta yo kwesan (question) das kilas tira sodh.the ? "what the hell do you study in tenth grade anyway?" well, the kwesan nepali ma hunthyo tara...

"khai ke padne ke napadne kehi aaudaina---aba uhi gultine ta hola ni yeselsi ma...baru yasai chiplini usai chiplini---hin jay nepal tira" bhanthe devi sathiharu..! (aba didi lai ta ke prabho bhanai bho ra?"....tyai bhe ra devi bhaneko)

Oysa,
aba k barnan garnu... ekdam ramro cha. Sadhai jasto.. Don't give up bringing your new memory lanes in future... Keep writing.

Oysa ! How could I have missed this thread. Dang....told ya am gettin budhi.Kasto dashain ko gham lageko jasto ramilo lagyo padhera .*Smiles*

........ nursery ma huda, as soon as we got off the bus, me and my friends used to COMPARE our "hankies", that were pinned onto our shirts wiht colourful safety pins ! I used to love my "Blue grapes" bhayeko pin.

And I had this weird habit of messing w/my socks in grade1/2 tira, till I could find a loose thread and keep on pulling/tugging till half the socks vanished ! Khai kina garthe tha chaina...

...... iskool ko sarhai asal ,ghanti bajauney ani gate ma basney pale dai, Som Bahadur dai, class 1 dekhi class 10 samma...last summer KTM jada he was STILL there with his toothy grin.

" ice cream shoulders, sugar on the top" ??!! :p

Sab jana badmash raicha, poking wiht pencils ! ma kasto gyani thiye sano ma, khai aile po ke bhayeko hola....!! *Giggles*

Oh , that reminds me, I did a ritual of sharpening ALL my pencils, and arranging them size-wise in the pencilbox every morning !!! Kasto kasto bani hola....:0

It is definitely worth walking down the memory lane once in a while...