I am writing here about some of the free and other moments of my school life in Terhathum. Were those memories moments that I myself experienced in my life? When I look back on those distant village days, I am surrounded by surprises.

However, wherever you are, when you sit down to write a poem and remember the memories of being free from the disciplined conditions of school life and being free, it feels like sitting down to write a poem. 

In that era when you could not hear anything other than the radio on the air, and could not see anything other than what you read and saw in books, experiencing holidays was a big issue for us school children. In today's internet era, images, stories, characters, scenes, and tickle performances have captured children's time. It has become natural for them to spend a lot of time in them. However, for school youth who have grown up in every era, there are surprises and excitements in their own world, there are creative and great moments in their own environment, there is a sense of completeness. 

When I think back now, the holidays of us children of another era many decades ago were very creative and inventive. At that time, there were two types of vacations - one was very long or lasted for a month or so, which came once a year, the other was weekly and was given on special occasions and dates. The time given by these occasions determined my vacation. 

It was not customary to leave home and go far away on long vacations. Even if I went, I would go to my relatives or my village and stay for a few days. I would wander around the corners of the places I visited on such occasions. And every such place seemed to me like a moving force. I would be confused about what to do next. And once, when I was young, I went to Mawal Yangrup Shubang during a school vacation. I felt like 'let's do something' at that place. And since I was familiar with Dharmaraj Thapa's songs and used to sing them in a melodious voice, I thought it would be great to describe that place in such words! I had to try, so I sat down at a place I liked with a notebook and a pen, and wrote a song describing the place and the surrounding scenery. I sang, the audience was myself. The song was done, it was perfect. 

That day, I ran home to my mother and Mavli singing the description of the place I had written, singing it confidently. Everyone was surprised to hear the song in the child's beautiful voice. Mother was very happy. I must have had the effect of her singing the Ramayana in a melodious voice, the one I sang. My mother advised me, 'From now on, during such holidays, whenever I go somewhere, write and sing a song.' For me, who lost my father when I was young, my mother was an important teacher and protector. From that day on, the first thing I did to celebrate my holidays was to write and sing a song about that place whenever I went. 

I loved going to nature during holidays. Not only me, but all my friends had the same interest. What fruits grow in the forest in which season? We knew. Climbing trees when the kafal was ripe was the most fun. How many times did we fall from the trees and get injured? Scratching ourselves with the thorns of mulberry and other fruit trees until we bled, but not being touched by the excitement of it was another experience of my friends and I during the holidays. 

My school was in Tehrathum Myanglung Bazaar. It was easy to go to the forest of the fort from there. There were many wild fruit trees in that forest. When I think back now, during school holidays, we spent a lot of time in the forest where the fruit grew. Then we would go out to see the scenery of another village. It was a bit of a novelty for children to arrange their own time to go for a walk. Some of my friends from that time are no longer there. Some of their children have gone to America and Australia. Some have passed away. 

Are the friends who taught me the famous rice dance of the Limbus still there? Where are they? I don't know. Where is Nafeti, who inspired me to dance the rice field for the first time and made me dance with her? I don't know. I hope she is still alive somewhere. I used to go to the rice field every time I had a short vacation. The specialty of the rice field was the slow, rhythmic singing of songs by men, women, boys and girls. One or two of my friends from Limbu would listen to me and go to the dance. Since it was vacation time, we would go to the dance in a way that was a little less visible. No one at home knew that I had gone to the rice field. However, later someone told my mother. My mother laughed a little, but advised me not to go because they play 'Faudari' there. And during vacations, going to the open fields where the winter rice had been harvested and playing games was another thing I did. Playing Dandibiyo and Falani (which I later played in school under the name of Longjump) were other things I did during vacations. 

When I think back now, my school life seems to be very long. Some of my vacation moments were compositions created by growing age and taste. It was my habit to walk around singing songs during vacation days. My voice was good and melodious. I was very attracted to going to the market in Myanglung Bazaar and climbing on the stage of the parties (especially the ones made by the Communist Party of my brothers) and singing songs through a microphone with a 'battery'. Crowds of people used to listen to my songs. People used to call me a child poet. Communist leaders, brothers (Layprasad Subedi, Mitralal Subedi) and district leaders Bishnukumar Tumbahamphe, Tilbikram Limbu would give speeches to the crowd that gathered after I sang songs like that and put forward their own points. This happened a lot during elections. I used to be very busy during vacations. Mother did not like this much. However, mother was happy that people valued my songs and the songs I sang. My mother advised me to sing and participate in the program only during the holidays. 

Foreign magazines would arrive at the Manglung market. In Jayashwarman Shrestha's shop, some of those magazines were kept for sale, some for display and for people to sit and read their pictures. They were often propaganda publications sent by the embassies of Russia and other communist countries in Delhi for free. However, through those magazines, one could understand the feelings of the generational changes in the world. 

During the holidays, I would go with some friends to open branches of the international student organization 'Student Federation' in schools in Terhathum and Aathrai. I did not understand everything, but I felt like I could see the foundations of connecting with the world in that one act. So during the holidays, I would also be very active in those activities. During the holidays, I had the opportunity to visit schools in the district and make friends. It was literary. I would write songs and poems. I had developed a style of reciting and singing. During my vacations, I used to read poetry and hold small seminars. At that time, I was about to enter high school. 

However, another opportunity and method of utilizing my vacation time emerged. Two young men from Kerala arrived at the Shri Singhavahini High School in Myanglung Bazaar, where I studied. The medium of communication with them was English. They were Christian preachers. Our school gave the young man a teaching job after looking at his certificates to see if he could do that work in Limbuwan. I was the top student in my class. They made me close to them. That story is long. I met them around 6th/7th grade. I slowly and unconsciously started learning English from them. I started speaking, reading English novels and stories. I think that is where my relationship with the English language began. They were there almost until I passed my SLC. They would go out and travel. How much did they preach and who did they have a relationship with? I had no idea. 

Almost some time after they arrived in the village, a Tamil monk also arrived there and started teaching in the school. I was also a very close student of his. He also used to use only English. Later, when I was studying M.A. in English in Kirtipur, I met him at Pashupatinath and started meeting him regularly. He used to go to Kashmir pilgrimage and say that he would ‘pass away’. After some time, he disappeared. Later, I met one of his disciples at Pashupatinath. He said, ‘The Guru passed away in Kashmir. I was with him.’ My teachers were of many types – from the village, to Kathmandu and Britain. 

After going to read English books in this way, my vacation days became more diverse. I started reading English novels and stories that our library had given me and these two teachers. During vacation, my mother gave me a simple job of herding buffaloes. I used to carry books. I found a solution. It was easy to read books while sitting on the back of a buffalo. My vacation began to be spent happily sitting on the back of a buffalo and reading. I read many novels and stories. Among them, I remembered Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel 'The Brothers Karamazov'. That one memory of the vacation keeps coming to me. I stopped going to sing at my brothers' parties and gatherings, during the vacation. They used to pressure me a lot, but I didn't go. I didn't stop writing songs and singing. Later, I also started writing poetry.