"Zizi is Nepali"

Lunch, lunch, lunch

Remember how last time I left off with how I was at Ramsaran-ji’s house? Well a bunch of stuff that I definitely did not see coming happened from there on. After they woke up from their nap we ate mangos. This was followed by Gaiatri-ji showing me her collection of jewelry. And slowly but surely they started transforming me into a Nepali woman. It started of very casually, “take take” as they gave me a bunch of bangles (of course with my man hand wrists I broke two of them during the process of putting them on…). She went back to her jewelry stash and got me a really fancy big bangle with ‘diamonds’ on it for my other wrist. We had some more mango and then she went over to her hair accessories. She brought out a hair clip and ordered me to sit in front of her so she could do my hair. With a new hairdo and countless dhanyabaad’s (thank you’s) from me we carried on semi-talking.

Then Ramsaran-ji said something to her which I later found out meant something along the lines of “you forgot to give her a necklace” because before I knew it I was wearing one. They looked proudly at me and then had a moment of realization; I was missing a bindi. Gaiatri-ji went over to her enormous bindi stash, selected one of her finest and placed it on my forehead. “Rambro chaaaaa” followed from both of their mouth (Nepali for ‘good’) whilst their fingers wagged from side to side, which I first was confused about because thought it meant no, but now I realized that its different from the west and means ‘very good’.

Ramsaran brought me some tea, which I knew would be my last tea from their shop, so I savoured every last drop (and got a cute picture with it). Then it was time for Ramsaran to open his shop and Gaiatri-ji and I were left alone. I did her hair for a bit, she put bright red lipstick on me, painted my nails (leaving out the nails on the right hand because that hand is for eating) and then her face had the look of someone who had just come up with a genius evil plan. I didn’t know what was going on but within minutes I was fully aware of her plans; she brought out a traditional Nepali sari for me to wear. Closing the windows and undressing in front of her (this is Nepal) showing off my full white belly whilst she joked “I black tea, you milk tea”… too good.

I was wearing the skirt and the revealing top, hoping that there was another layer to come when yes she brought out a massively long, beaded piece of fabric. She wrapped it around me, folding, tucking and turning me around until finally it was on, another “rambro cha” and finger wag followed. She called out “RAMSARAN” but he was busy in the shop so she escorted me out of the house/room. I went into the shop and Ramsaran-ji’s face was a look of shock and awe (I think) and there were more “rambro cha”’s, followed by a cute photo shoot in front of the tea shop.

From the moment she put the bangles on my arm to when she showed me off to Ramsaran-ji, Gaiatri-ji had been saying “ama, chori” over and over… I now found out that it means “mother, daughter” in Nepali, so cute my heart could explode. I dressed back into my own clothes and was forced to stay back in the tea shop for another hour because the monsoon rains had started for the day. After the rain finally stopped I handed over my letter (their son will translate it for them when he’s visiting) and we had a long goodbye hug. I left the tea shop with Gaiatri-ji watching and waving. The first goodbye was officially over.

As I was walking through the village with my new jewelry, nail polish and bindi I was stopped multiple times by village women asking me “Marriage? Marriage?” It turns out that the necklace, bindi and bangles she gave me are ones worn only by married women, which is logical because she gave me her own. After a few more “marriage?” questions I arrived back to the monastery where I was greeted with excited screams “Zizi is Nepali!!!”

Charlotte x