SON OF HIMALAYAS

I am the son of Himalaya and my home town is where Buddha was born. I was born and raised in Nepal in a Newari culture. As I wake up early in the morning, I get freshened myself and bow my forehead to the foot of my Father and Mother. For me my god and goddess were my father and mother who created me.

My father used to tell me the story of a bird, ‘woodpecker’’ most often when I feel low and if things didn’t go even I tried hard that used to boost me up every single time and he used to inspire me to do good and be a strong and a responsible human. He used to say like, as we all know woodpecker make their home on a tree. As the woodpecker hit more hard to the surface of hard tree, they often get hurt. Moral : The more hard you are hit or knocked down, the more strong you are raised and often the successful person went through hard times.

I got the opportunity to do my EVS (European Volunteering Service) at France for 3 months and that was good news for me. The time to make a move from my home country came. When I left my home country, ‘’Nepal’’ there were lots of things running on my head. As I landed, I met Mohmad from my hosting organization who dropped me up to the train station, helped me to buy my train ticket to my destination where I was supposed to spend 3 months of my life. Until I arrived France, I didn’t even know a single word except ‘’Bonjour’’ . The very next day, I thought to explore the place where I was supposed to live my 3 months of my life. It was a different experience, beyond my expectation. I said myself, what a different world. I was trying to talk to people even at the store and at the street, I felt myself wired and ridiculous that I couldn’t communicate with them.

The Nepali language was the one I used to speak often and with which I was raised, the language which I used to share my feelings with my loved ones and as I studied in English medium since my childhood my 4 years at London, UK was not hard. As France is the closest country with UK, I thought I can communicate easily as I had a good English but I was turned down. I was so wrong. I was living in a dilemma till now. I knew English as I thought it’s spoken everywhere and it won’t be any trouble for me anywhere in the world. A Nepali guy came a long way crossing oceans. The most close country to UK, people here they don’t speak English often. Coming here in France, I knew the importance of language. I also learnt that we need to feel proud and give importance to our own language as in France they speak French and in Nepal, we speak Nepali as there are very few countries in the world which have the language of their own, rest other they just have the name of country but they don’t have language of their own.

This was an amazing experience and adventure for me. I didn’t know French at all and people here, they don’t speak English often, what a strange combination. Even I loved it and I felt myself enjoying this atmosphere. As the several days went by, I came to meet some of the very good friends, now we are not stranger anymore, we feel like brothers and sister, a family. I would like to mention their names, they were Mathieu and Julie. They are very kind and generous person who helped me a lot till I was at France. We lived like a family, an international family. We used to visit different places together, sometimes I used to go to their place for a dinner and sometimes they came to my apartment for a dinner, there was like cultural exchange and bond of friendship. They created some beautiful memories for my lifetime and I feel that was really a good incident that happened in my life. Thank you for everything Mathieu and Julie.

There is another friend, I met her on a pub for the first time and we were friend then. She was French and she didn’t understand English at all and I guess you came to know how good I was at French. It was strange, I could understand what she mean to say and even she could understand what I was trying to say. Here I came to know one reality that it’s not just only the language that is must needed to communicate and we all are humans and if we put effort to understand and feel other human, we can understand each other in a good way. It was strange but even it was a really cool happening that happened in my life.

I’m taking lots of experiences, good memories, knowledge from a beautiful country France, Alsace region. It was a very pleasant stay. I feel like my second country, my second home and one more language is added in my life that’s French. I am going to miss this place and with my heavy heart on one part of my heart and excitement and happiness on the other part, the day to leave came. My life’s 3 month in France was great and I will miss a lot of things about this Alsace region, good friends and good people a lot. Hope in future we will meet again.

‘’ It’s your behavior that you show to other determines your life. If you give good, you will be getting good things and if you give bad, it’s even worst to expect good things from other.’’

With lot of love from a son of Himalaya.
Salute ! Namaste !