This blogpost was originally published on my Xanga site on November 16, 2008. Xanga was my first blogging experience. It was a wonderful site in which I had made so many friends and published quite a bit. Sadly, Xanga went under water and so went my precious memories along with it.
The other day, I was able to retrieve the following post with the help of Facebook as I had shared this particular link. This post is full of memories...and I am republishing it as it was without any edits. Yes, so much has changed since then....life is not the same anymore....never imagined that one day I would be re-posting this entry from Guwahati ...but the memories are precious...hope you enjoy it!
November 16, 2008
Our journey began from the domestic airport in Kathmandu. But the
boys were beginning to ask "when are we gonna reach?" even before boarding the plane.
After 40 minutes in the sky, this white bird left us at the border and our real journey to Northeast began in earnest. The overnight bus ride from Siliguri to Guwahati was a terrible nightmare.
As we arrived in Guwahati, we were excited to meet the third sister's family (my wife is the eldest of the four). The youngest also is married to a Nepali pastor. It has been a long time we had not seen each other.
The next day we were united with
the second sister's family. They could not bring any of their four
children. Second sister is in the yellow and her husband is right behind
her with a black jacket. Goulal is joined by his brother Alex and
behind me is the pastor from the local church (father-in-law began 25 years
ago).
Left to right: Mangcha (third sister's husband), Ivulo (second sister's husband), Hekim (second sister), Goulal (third sister's son), Nishan (youngest sister's son), Alex (third sister's elder son), Boisi (my wife), Pastor, and myself. My son and other two sisters are missing from the picture.
The wedding day; this was the gate of Guwahati Baptist Church that was shattered by the bomb blast
after two days of the wedding. If it had been two days earlier, many of us
would not be here and so would be the wedding. Sadly, many from the
church died and the pastor was also injured.
The Bride enters, but she is more worried
about her falling crown than her husband I guess!
Maid of honor decided to hide her face! It was
good wedding, about four hundred people came to bless the couple.
The four sisters. From left to right they are in order; the eldest (my wife) to youngest followed by Martin.
After the wedding, we headed to Manipur. This is my father-in-law's house. The mountain behind is hours away but looks so close.
It was good to see my wife laugh as they
used to when they were small...this is Hekim, the second sister. I
thought my wife is the only one with such a great laughter but Hekim won.
We made so much noise in that neighborhood.
She is a great mother! She has gone through so many ups and downs but the Lord has been with her in all of that. She saw her nest get emptied one by one and finally; husband suffered multiple strokes, leaving him completely immobile. 100% he needs her for survival. With all the storms of life, the smile and the laughter is still there at this age. My wife still wishes she was as tall as her mother!
Mother has to lift him up and put in this
chair, then she will push the chair to the front porch where father will watch
people passing by the road in front of the house. He was a great man, a great
husband, a great father and is still fighting for his life and has not lost the battle.
This was the first time Martin saw his grandpa after the stroke. The first night, he just could not stop
crying because when he was small, the grandparents were with us in Kathmandu and he was so
fond of his grandpa. He was hoping that he will make his grandpa proud
by all that he had to tell him. Sadly, grandpa cannot talk more than few
words at a time. But from the next day they were getting along well and
Martin had accepted the situation.
These two are wonderful men that I call
my brothers...actually I took my advantage of marrying the eldest one so that I
did not have to work in the kitchen as they!!!! Mangcha is a High School
teacher. He has two beautiful sons; one is already in the college.
He also is a deacon of a very large church in Motbung, Manipur. They are a wonderful family.
Ivulo is from Nagaland. He is a civil servant, serving in the Irrigation department of India as the senior
Engineer and officer. They have four wonderful children and the eldest is in the
Bible College, preparing for the ministry.
This is the front view of the house...father was on his bed in the porch as we
said tearful goodbye to him and mother. The boys could not hold their tears.
This is the church father-in-law
started. As the chieftain of the village, he provided the land and everything needed for the church.
Sadly, after his sickness, he is unable to develop it. There are more
than 250 members. I had the privilege of ministering three
times. The church atmosphere is so different than what we are used to in
Nepal. Everyone lives nearby and when they hear the bell ring, they all
come to the church. Church plays the central role in daily life of the community.
When we were there, this church celebrated the silver Jubilee.
Because father could not attend, as the founders, mother gave a short speech.
November 7 was Martin's Birthday, but our
journey did not allow us to celebrate it...so we had it after we arrived home in Kathmandu a few
days later. Sister Bimala and her daughter Esther and Krishna were with us.
Sorry, we could not take the pictures when
our boat capsized...luckily...the camera was with my wife and we are able to
have these pictures.
Thanks for being patient to see these...
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