And the tongue is healed? After knowing him for three years and knowing about him, even strangers ask him, 'Well, how is Herun now?' Sujan Bagh Shrestha just laughs in response. They try to quench the curiosity of the questioner with the expression of 'It's OK'. However, they never allow him to show his tongue.

This was my first question to him and I was curious - to see how his tongue is. 'You can't see it,' Suzan replied with the same innocent smile, 'The wound must have healed, it has stopped hurting for a long time.' "You don't want to look at yourself, or you'll get hurt, you don't have to show it to others!," Suzan said slowly in the wind blowing on the roof of a three-story house standing next to a dried-up pool in Bode Heights one evening recently, "When you brush your teeth, you try to show a little and even I don't look, so I had to accept it when told no." Three years ago, he could have looked at his tongue as many times as he wanted. However, even now, no one has come and said 'don't do that'. And also, "since it is a tradition," Sujan cannot ignore it as if it were nothing. 

On the second day of the new year, it is customary to go around the city in Bhaktapur-Bode, piercing the tongue and going around the city in the midst of thousands of people. This custom was preserved for 12 years by his Mayla ba Krishnachandra Bagh. Then his father Buddhakrishna stayed for 9 years. Now it's Sujan's turn, who has been carrying on the tradition for three years. 

How much will it hurt him to walk around the city for three hours after piercing his tongue with a two-foot needle? This is another question that acquaintances ask. Sujan's style of answering this is also different. "It hurts when bitten by the teeth, but doesn't it hurt when pierced by a needle?", Sujan answers with a laugh, making the questioner think. Sujan feels the joy of being watched by thousands of people who come to see him more than the pain of getting his tongue pierced. That one day, the pilgrims consider Sujan to be the incarnation of Neelbarahi himself, pretend to be the real God and wash his feet and drink the water. That one day he becomes a god from a man. And, the strange feeling of being worshiped as a deity will probably make the mind forget the pain of tongue piercing. This time also Sujan's tongue was pierced. Thousands of people gathered and watched with bated breath the moment he was pierced, and when he stood up and set out on the pilgrimage, the people followed him, marching in vermilion. At this time, there was an uncountable crowd of people who came to catch a glimpse of Sujan, to touch the feet and to sprinkle the water that flowed from the feet on their heads and mouth. This happiness did not disturb him with the needle stuck in his tongue for three hours. 

But, as the day falls, the Jatra ends and the city becomes quiet as people go home, Sujan becomes lonely. And, like the sore of the tongue and its pain, he also disappears from the memory of people. 

He has only a dream-like memory of having his tongue pierced by grief and anxiety and after that piercing, people pretended to be 'gods'. After the Jatra ends, people seem to stop recognizing him. No one calls him even if he meets him on the road. No one comes to ask 'how are you?', the sincere words of someone asking 'how is your day going' do not fall in his ears. That one day of intense pain and exhilarating joy is gone as if it were not the next day. And Sujan feels that people's neglect is more than ever. 

'The world is probably like this,' Sujan, who was feeling very lonely less than two weeks after the Jatra, said as if he had forgotten the fresh memory of being worshiped by countless Narnari as a 'god', 'One day the world worships me, the rest of the day it forgets, what a surprise!' Who pierced the tongue first? No one can say that. There are two legends about it, which tell two stories. Both stories are contradictory. However, what they have in common is that the event is ancient. A legend says that a Khayak or Pichas came and started causing a lot of trouble in Bode. He was arrested by the villagers wearing tantrik. And as a punishment, he was released on the condition that his tongue be pierced every year and he would go around the city. A few years later, the Tantrik was given darshan by Neelbarahi in a dream. And said Ray – Pichas is also a member of my gang, don't hurt him, from now on you will pierce your tongue yourself. There was already a belief among the Bode people that after obeying the command of Neelbarahi, the harvest season will come, crops will grow and disease will not be contracted. And, after he had ordered it right in his dream, every year the people of the city had their tongues pierced and held a pilgrimage. A legend says so. Susan does not believe in this story at all. 

Another story says that Neelbarahi himself appears as a human being and performs a jatra on the second day of Baisakh by piercing his tongue. It is believed that this was done to teach moderation in speech and the ability to bear pain in life. And, on that day, the one who pierces his tongue, the Neelbarahi will enter his body, so the story says that even a vision or a touch will bring happiness and prosperity in life. Because, this second story won Sujan's heart. And when he was 19 years old, he asked his father to get his tongue pierced. 'You are young, this does not happen at a young age' his father somehow convinced Sujan at that time, 'You will get pierced later.' After reaching the age of 27, his father gave his permission saying 'Lou Hoo'. Tongue piercers cannot eat anything except water for three days, nor can they sleep for three days, in order to 'purify the body where God resides'. There, a needle dipped in oil is kept in Kauka-ghar to pierce the tongue for three months. "During these three days, a woman cannot be touched, she cannot go anywhere, and even if someone in the family dies or is born, she does not have to be tied to the sutok," says Sujan, "From that day on, I belong to God and after my tongue is pierced, I am worshiped as God." Sujan was happy about becoming a 'god' on one side, but on the other, he was worried about how painful it would be to pierce him with a needle. Until then, Sujan was underweight, very lazy. Everyone from the family suspected that 'this Lure boy will pierce his tongue?' "But, I decided to pierce my tongue because my son was hungry," says Sujan about his first tongue piercing experience three years ago, "and I fasted, before and after I had to eat every now and then, but surprisingly, I didn't feel hungry at that time." And, after three days, he was taken to the stage to have his tongue pierced. Some time before that, there is a tradition of meeting people who have had their tongue pierced and blessing them saying 'no need to be afraid', which has been going on since then. His father, Mailaba and others who had pierced tongues had come to the temple and reminded him that morning and had given him the blessing that nothing would happen. After sitting on the platform, his father said one thing in his ear - "Don't be afraid, now a man will come with a needle, the needle is two feet long." But, it looks like 20 feet.' 

'Unfortunately, I saw someone coming with a needle of ya...man,' Sujan remembers, 'I was scared at that time, I was afraid that I would die with such a long needle.' The needle was two feet long. He was asked to stick out his tongue. It was pierced slightly to the right of the midpoint. Immediately all the people cheered. The vermilion procession was taken out, the trumpets sounded. And Sujan got up and led the pilgrims with a half-moon-shaped lighted lamp made of bamboo and nigala. In an accident some time ago, Sujan's right leg used to fall off on its own when some weight was applied. Throughout the journey, Sujan was very worried about the leaf falling. As the procession progressed, people washed his feet with cold water when he reached Par Nilbarahi. He drank the water that flowed from it and was overjoyed as if he had actually met Neelbarahi. 

"At that time, my mouth was as dry as a desert," Sujan says, "I felt a great craving for something for the first time in my life, it was that cold water, I wondered what it would be like to eat it." But, he was a god, who really could not speak because his tongue was pierced. Thirst stayed with him. Harsha and Jatra went on. The moment of intense mixture of pleasure and pain ended shortly after the needle was removed from her tongue. 

He was hungry for three days. His father and uncles did not eat for three days after the needle was removed, there was nothing they could eat. 

'It's not a custom to not eat, you don't eat if you can't eat,' Sujan says, 'but, I got really hungry after taking out the needle, and I ate a plateful of cloves.'

His mother was surprised to see this. Last year and this year too, he happily ate the needle after removing it. Six months ago, his girlfriend entered the house as a bride. This time, she watched with bated breath as Susan pierced her tongue. When the needle was inserted into the tongue of the dearest, there was a sharp pain in his heart as if something had entered. And his heart was filled with joy when people worshiped him as God.