Dashain is no joy for some

Ramesh Prasad Bhushal

KATHMANDU: The two-week long festivities of Dashain, the greatest festival of the Hindus, began today. A lot of people are preparing to leave for home for a family reunion while planes are jampacked with those returning from foreign destinations.

Merrymaking, however, means nothing to the elderly women taking refuge in the Pashupatinath Temple. They have no kin to share the joyous festival with.

“I hear people talking about their plans for Dashain, but have nothing special for myself. I live with constant pain while happiness is a distant notion for me,” said Ganga Giri of Chaurkot, Kavre, who left home some four decades back. “I renounced all my property and relatives to join the community of women like me.”

Ganga takes a seat in front of

the temple every day, waiting

for a good Samaritan to dole out a few coins or eatables.

“Dashain brings joy to others, but during the festival I cry my sorrow out,” said Jayalaxmi Acharya of Guruchandan Nath VDC in Jumla.

“Three years ago, when I came to Kathmandu, I didn’t have money even to pay for my trip. God managed it for me,” she added, shedding tears. Her husband died 36 years ago of an unknown disease. She does not have a child.

“My life back in Jumla was more miserable. Here, I, at least, receive some alms from devotees who flock to the temple,” she added. “Dashain is nothing special for me.”

All the women in the group, however, are not without any offspring. Some women with more than children are also living a pitiable life. “None of the five sons and a daughter ever visit me.

Once grown up, the children that I brought up with such difficulty kicked me out of home.

I don’t want to see their faces anymore,” said 67-year-old Bedaka

Giri of Nuwakot. “Pashupatinath is everything to us. All we wish for now is to die in the lap of the lord,” they said.