𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙸𝙸: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛

The question was the most difficult question I have ever faced in my life. There were tougher questions in mathematics’ examinations.  Although they were tougher, none of them decided my life. They just decided a step, the next and closest grade. But, the question my mom asked me was to determine the twist and turns of life. My answer would be a mirror to shape my own life.

There were lot of options like those in ‘Choose the most correct answer’ on the question papers. I have seen maximum of four options but on that day, I had many. Indeed, thousands of them.

“If I choose one, would it be the most correct road to lead my life?” I asked myself.

“If I decide to marry, my journey to the education will come to an end. What will I say when my friends come as government officials? Would not I feel shy after giving up on my education because of the sickness? Can I afford education after resting for years at home?” Those were sets of questions that came to my mind like a package.

“What will happen to my mother if I deny her decision? Would not she be disappointed in a daughter like me? She had been suffering after we lost our father. She worked hard to let me climb till class nine. The worst thing she had to go through was, she had to worry for my frequent sickness”. Those were another set of questions that kept me haunting among thousands of other questions.

Honestly, at that very moment, I remembered the first time I fell sick in the school. During the lunch break, I was as usual, rushing to the girls’ hostel to pick up my plate and mug along with few of my friends. I was excited as all students were. Particularly, on Monday, we felt heavy attending classes after a weekend. Moreover, the long minutes of morning assembly would drive our energy down. There were morning speeches and announcements. When a teacher on duty of the day comes in front and tells us, “I have got couple of announcements to be made”, all the students would be like “Oops! Ah! Ugh!”

All those were not the words of surprise or excitement rather, we would be disappointed. The teacher on duty would go on speaking for half an hour summarizing all the activities of the past week. He would be followed by principal who would speak for another half an hour. By the end of national anthem, almost all the students would be sweating in the scorching sun.

My friends and I reached at the doorstep of our hostels. We had to climb few steps to reach our door. After climbing two steps, there was sudden headache followed by nausea. I didn’t know what caused me those pains. I remembered grabbing my head and shouting but I didn’t know what happened thereafter.

By the time I woke up, I was in the hospital. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the side of my bed. I saw my mother holding my hands and crying. Her eyes were swollen like onion bulb in the garden. 

“What really happened to me Ama?” I asked her in low tone voice.

There was long silence between my question and her answer.

Before she could speak an answer, she cried for minutes.

“Dear daughter Lhamo, I didn’t know what caught you suddenly. Your teachers called me and they told me that you were seriously sick. When I came to your room, you were already out of your consciousness. I looked at your head and it was bleeding. Thanks to your mates, you were well taken care”. She spoke hesitantly in her broken voices that entered in my ears like pieces of glass that was broken on the floor.

“What actually happened to me? I just remember climbing two steps and suddenly, I got a severe headache and I was feeling dizzy at the same time”. I described the beginning of the incident and let her to complete the rest.

Again, there was a long sigh before she answered.

“After you were caught by headache and nausea, you lost your consciousness. They, you tumbled down the steps. On the way, you bumped your head and you got your head injured”.

I decided to touch my head which was heavily bandaged. Definitely, I had bumped against something harder than those bones in my head. Luckily, I didn’t feel that huge pain and I didn’t die. I was still holding the hands of my mother.

“What does doctor tell you about my sickness? I want to know about it because I can at least take care whenever I get such kind of sickness”, I kept throwing her questions.

“Daughter, I cannot tell you about this. You should know that our father lost his life to this sickness. I am afraid that I might be the last one to live in the house”. My mother cried louder when she had to talk about the person who was no more with her.

“Lhamo, honestly, you are also suffering from epilepsy. Like daughter like father but promise me, you won’t leave me alone!” She was making me to promise me something that I could not guarantee.

The only thing I vividly remember about my father’s sickness was, he frequently fell down. Sometimes on rocks and sometimes on the floor. His eyes would rotate like globe in the classroom and turn white. 

His saliva would be foaming on the surface of his mouth along with considerable quantity of blood and he would be dead for several minutes. When he woke up, he would be having hard time chewing the spicy food because his tongue would be cut with his own teeth during the sickness.

The sickness took him away when he lost his consciousness on the high cliff. He fell down and all the bones in his body was broken while his brain was smashed against rocks like an egg.

Remembering all these horrible scenes of my father, finally, I decided to answer the most difficult question of my life.

“For the good of my mother and for myself, I will gracefully accept my mother’s decision”.

All the people clapped and Gomchen Tashi was smiling showing all his thirty-two teeth.

“Now, what do you say? The parents of our Gomchen Tashi?” The final question was to my future in-laws.

Will they accept a sick and weak girl like me as their son’s wife?