~Jewel Thief~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~if only we could be child forever~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While growing up in boarding school in northern India I was very fortunate enough to get enrolled in Tibetan School that is now powered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama's government in exile. Being a second generation in exile, preserving our culture and linguistic was perhaps first priority of most Tibetan parents. Every parents would dream or die to put their children in any of Tibetan schools in India but sadly all the seats were reserved just for the Tibetans from Tibet who escape their mother land just to nestle under His Holiness the Dalai Lama with great devotion although they have not once met or seen him till they will successfully reach India. So, I was more than lucky to get admitted there. All thanks to my uncle who once served in government in exile. Not just that, I was also very lucky to have my dorm/hostel right next to my school as well. I know that many people had to travel miles and miles to reach school every day since their dorm was all the way up in the hills of Mussoorie library. Also, the warden of my hostel too was a well known folks of my family members, so they were always nice to me. We address them as Pala and Amala who's married to each other with four children. While growing up I used to adore Pala since he's got killer sense of humor and extremely well educated. He's excellent in Hindi, english, and tibetan literature. So prior to my exam he had always been our best last minute rescue. In my entire life in boarding school, Pala had never once scold us or had ever seen him angry. I had always seen him living life to the fullest. Although I had seen him getting drunk countless times but he would never lose himself in front of us. And he always had great stories to share about his college days, having an indian girlfriends, etc, etc. lol He used to be perfect entertainer to us girls. Every single time he has something funny to say; he can never be serious. All his speeches were delivered in a great sense of humor and we used to cover our mouth and giggle behind him 24/7. He even nick named every single girls in hostel. Whenever I go home for vacation, I share countless jokes about our pala to my family members since they know each other so well. My folks would just listen and would never reciprocate anything post my stories. But one fine day it all changed as I was growing up in USA. As I was reminiscing tales of our pala and amala to my mom with great admiration even after all these years in US and one day she shocked me with her reciprocate. I came to know about our pala and amala's roots and my mother had told me there's nothing special and likable about about such a people. I learned that in our society people look down on their family since the elder brother of our pala had killed and robbed people in past, on their way to exile in early 1950s. Pala's elder brother too was married to his wife as well. And I learned that his elder brother had smuggled many antique status from the temples in Tibet and sold it in Nepal. With such a reputation and virtue, right there and than, everything changed. All my respect and admiration to our Pala went in drain. Right now both Pala and Amala had been retired and living in a humble government home in Dehradun and have not seen their children for more then a decade. His eldest son is always drunk in New York and the last time when I visited them in India, Amala was in such a bad condition that none of her children seem to have time for her to even make decent denture. It was so sad to see her with edentulous mouth and couldn't even walk properly in an age where some people still manage to work and play golf. After seeing all these, I felt cheated in my childhood. I don't know if my mother should have ever spoke truth to me or if it was best to keep me in blindfolded forever and remain naive to the reality behind my temporary pleasure. I really don't know what could have been best besides my own judgement behind the truth. After all, who would still admire thief and criminals who had easily gotten away in their life???????????? Although, with KILLER sense of humor!