Last Year

Last year was different from other years of my so short yet seemingly long and incredible life (I guess many teens feel this way about their lives being long).

I was not a boy full of emotion, teen drama, love and a cupid struck heart. I grinned at everything, even at tragedy and convinced others to rise from it. I was not a person with interesting stories about life and it’s dramas but all of it changed when two significant events happened to me. This is the story of those two events and the story of how I found my most favorite place. The place I am referring to is a café not far from my home: a café at the heart of Kathmandu, my city.

The café is a small coffee shop compared to other cafes in the locale but we (my friends and I) preferred to call it a café. “Young Hearts’ café” translated into English as the name in Nepali is “Jawan Mutu Khaja Ghar”.  When I first stepped foot inside that place it was a Saturday evening in March, two months before my senior year finals exam. It was an outing to blow off steam not just regarding studies but some other things as well.

I know my first impression of the place was not positive. The café was just a small room partitioned from the dining area to the kitchen with just a wooden structure. The management of the tables and chairs was utterly incompetent. The mismanagement of the two staff and the owner/cook of the café made me wonder, how has this place been operating for the last two years? When I decided to sit in the chairs I saw the chowmein noodles strands over most of the chairs. This disgusted me.

Even as a person from Kathmandu who has seen many filthy of restaurants and cafes, this place topped the list.  I wanted to walk out of there at the instant I entered the place but I didn’t want to offend my friend Pradeep, who had brought me there to talk. I was never an impolite person and I was not beginning to become one, so I stayed there with 6 of my friends who were there already. We had a lot to talk about that day.

I had never been to that place before but as I learned later, they were regulars there. I was missing most of the “bro-time” with my friends because I was occupied by something else. I was occupied with something else; I was occupied by her. Yes, teenage love (or crush in grown up terms) was the reason I was spending little time with my friends and more with her. Her presence was enough to mask the presence of the whole world for me and I enjoyed every second of her presence.