What a culture shock I had! I had a strange feeling of having to readjust myself and 'fit-in' in my own country, among my own family, relatives and friends and try to regain my space where I had left about 12 years ago. I felt odd and out of place, like a stranger among my own people. I had left Nepal when I was a barely 20 and here I was returning a mature young woman. I felt unsure about everything.
One thing that I'll never forget is that the very first night I was in Nepal at my husband's house, my sister-in -law and her friends took me this spiritual ritual called 'jhankri' which I had heard about before but had never experienced. Well, a 'jhankri' is a psychic/medium who can supposedly conncect to the 'other side' and help people release them of their supernatural problems. For eg, that night among the three man that had come to seek his help, was a guy whose brother had committed suicide by hanging himself because of his failed love life. So this younger brother wanted a closure and also wanted to ask his dead brother's spirit not to trouble the living family by killing their their cattles, making people sick etc. There we were, a bunch of girls among the old village men all huddled against the red clay walls in a smoky little dark room with a small fire in between. We eagerly waited to see if the dead brother's spirit would really possess this man's body. While the 'jhankri' kept shouting questions at him, every once in a while the man trembled unhumanly fast and blurted out a few words at a time, half of which we understood. Thus the dead spoke through his brother's body! This ritual would go on for days until everyone was sure that it was the right spirit and once confirmed, they'd ask him(the spirit) how they could make him happy so he wouldn't trouble the living. I didn't go there the other nights so I don't know what the outcome was.
Such was the very first day and I had 3 more months to spend!
After a few exciting weeks with my husband's side of his family, I finally got to see my side of the family and what a rush it was. The most immediate ones were the ones that I lurked at to touch their feet as a sign of respect and then there were others who came with huge smiles across their faces that somehow looked unsure. All I could hear was "when did u come?" and "how long are you staying?" Then there were my parents both elated with the joy of having their daughter back after so many years. I kept finding a little bit of myself in the people I knew.
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