Rain in Chandni Sky (eBook)

Childhood 

It’s strange how stories unfold: destiny has its way of working no matter how we plan our future. In the end, we understand how everything that happened in the past was preparing us for our future. Since a kid, Chandni had the habit of writing a journal of her everyday activities. Now, she has lost her memory but still can easily understand her life. Isn’t this wonderful? Let me take you through her childhood. 

Living in the small refugee camp where houses were built with bamboo and mud, Chandni had three siblings: two sisters—one elder and one younger—and a brother who was the youngest of all. Chandni was known as the naughtiest of all kids. She was rebellious, fearless, righteous, and had a strong sense of justice, with an air of authority in her that attracted other kids to be with her. She had a huge group of friends in school and in the neighborhood. She was always a leader of these groups. Becoming a leader of her group, her team fought with other groups in school, where she strategized the games for any competition and always won. The good thing about her was she could not see anyone in pain and quickly reached out to help them. Her fairness in treatment to all friends made her appealing. If she saw anyone crying in school or in the neighborhood, she reached out to counsel and put them in a group, taught them to be strong; being able to strengthen her friends was her greatest asset. 

Chandni’s family was tired of her complaints from school and neighbors. She loved to fight for what she believed was right, often hanging out with other kids to play around, have fun. She was the favorite of all but irritated everyone at the same time with her unbearable questions because of her curiousness about everything. Her naughtiness often reached the height of the sky for people around. People (neighbors) loved her company, her funny nature, crazy sense of humor. When she was three years old, she ordered her neighbor auntie to breastfeed her but was refused and told to go back to her mother. She angrily replied to the neighbor auntie how she was selfish. Her mother recently had a new baby called Chetna, Chandni’s sister who drank all the milk from her mother (Gauri’s breast). Chandni’s words were, “My mom got a baby now and she needs her milk, no more milk remains so I had come to you as you have that same thing as my mom does,” which she was referring to her breast and she questioned her why she can’t drink her milk. Chandni slowly stepped toward where auntie was sitting, grabbed her breast, and started sucking it for milk. Everyone laughed around seeing her craziness and she was loved way too much to do anything by anyone, but of course complain to her mother. After a while, Gauri, came to yell at her for forcibly sucking auntie’s breast. But Chandni’s sense of righteousness in a three-year-old was remarkable and her answer to her mom was epic, “This Kamala auntie is so selfish, she has a thing(breast) like you do where I can get milk from, neither she has a baby like you to feed and she still hesitated to feed me.” Gauri tried hard to explain to her that she should only drink the milk of her mother, which was not a satisfying answer for her, but she accepted and stayed silent to be saved from her mother’s rage.

People (neighbors) do not call her a kid but the storm. She fights or argues with anyone for her sense of righteousness; it does not matter whether the person is older than her, but the funniest moment was when they all were defeated by her. She was so strong; once she fought with a twelve-year-old boy when she was just five, beat him up so badly where he ended up admitted to the hospital. He got a fever for straight three days that his family was so furious at her, but all other neighbors assumed what would have happened. Most people favored her and said that she is a girl who never does anything wrong to anyone, neither she fights unless you make her do so and believed the boy must have done something. However, as Chandni was way younger than him, most people laughed and dismissed the case. Some people complimented her by saying being a girl, she stood for herself and a weak one, fire and a strong sense of justice defined her, and some women wished that Chandni would be their daughter. In a place like India or Nepal, beating up a guy is a big deal which had rarely been done by anyone, but crazy kids like Chandni would not hesitate to do so, and she never was weaker than any male of her age. At the same time, she was never like a tomboy as she loved makeup, a fierce girly girl. 

How quickly time passes, she often asked her mother about her dad as she and her siblings were raised by her mother and mother’s family. While playing with her friends, the question often raised where her dad is, and she replied the same thing that her mother told her that he went to work and will be back someday with lots of beautiful toys for her. After many years of waiting for her dad to come, he finally came. Chandni’s family was so glad, excited, and danced with joy. The everlasting wait was finally over; Chandni’s prayers were finally answered. Her feet were not on the ground; happiness entered from her gaze to her belly and she started talking to her dad with excitement. We often do not realize that excitement and happiness could remain only for some time; happiness and sadness have their period in the life cycle. Now, Chandni’s mother Gauri, elder sister Bika, and Father George started fighting daily; it was a bad environment for any kid to live in. After some time, Chandni’s father finally left them again. Chandni had two younger siblings who were affected by witnessing the parents’ fight. Her younger sister, Chetna, somehow did not speak a word but used sign language till she was five years old. Mother took her for wish fulfillment temple to Pathivara Ma: Hindu goddess—Mother Durga temple—situated up in the Himalayas in Nepal, and Chetna had her first word spoken there at the temple. Ever since then, she can speak like a normal person. 

like in every story, there is a villain and so for this in this story as well. Me as a general person, neither I believe in heroes nor the villain. Everyone was part of that supreme power whether you called that a soul, nature, black hole, energy, or God. But I believe in people’s wrongdoing based on their aroused desire they cannot control whether that was wanting bad for others. Gauri’s sister-in-law, Chandrakala, played the role of villain and had a big hand in separating Gauri and her husband, according to people around. She secretly communicated with both, one-to-one, and provided a piece of wrong information about one another while adding misunderstanding between them. Chandni’s thought was ever clear: if her dad and mom cannot trust each other, they should not be with one another. She never believed anyone can break anyone’s relationship; a relationship certainly needs trust, love, understanding, communication, and compromising. No matter what people accused her auntie of, she never held her auntie responsible for her dad and mother’s separation. Her dad and mother were not a kid but children of four kids. Gauri believed her husband often left her because she had not had a boy child, only girls. She went to the wish-fulfilling Goddess Durga temple, called Pathivara temple, again to have a boy child. The ancient belief of this temple is whatever people wished for will be fulfilled and many stories around it came to be true. While the strongest weapon a human has is trust(belief), Gauri gave birth to a beautiful son. There is a saying in Hindu literature that God says, “If you desire it, I shall fulfill it for you.” It means, “If your karma is in purist form without the desire of fruit, I (God himself) will fulfill it for you.” Another meaning of this saying would be, if you want anything wholeheartedly with your karma, the whole world will help you to get your destiny.” Gauri’s husband again came back for the happiness of having a boy child, but that did not last long, and he again left. It was not, not having a boy child in the family that was the problem but the proof of their dead relationship and lack of sense of Chandni’s father’s responsibilities for his family that he always abandoned all his kids, nor provided child support for anyone. Similarly, right before Chandni father left again, he moved his whole family to a different location away from Gauri’s parents’ place. Chandni pleaded with him, holding his leg not to leave again, but he did leave a single mother of that little four-month-old child, Chandni’s brother, in her lap with three other kids. The cruelness of the man was unavoidable for Gauri. However, some good people are certainly present in this world as well as bad even if there are only some. One of the good neighbors was helping them. The little four-month-old boy, Gaurav, got sick all the time; these neighbors were always with them providing a warm blanket and staying in hospital day and night with Gauri while helping and taking care of that fatherless family whom they had known recently. It is not easy to find people like them in this fast-paced world. There is a Nepali saying, “If you have no one, you have God, so rest your struggles on him.” After some time, these people helped Gauri to move closer to her parents’ house where her life was easier by the child support given by her parents. Slowly, after some years, Gauri opened her own business despite her struggles, made friends, started her life all over again. Slowly, Gauri’s business made the growth and end of becoming a great businesswoman. Now, she could provide a better life for her family. Gauri’s first daughter, Bika, finished school and enrolled in...