The watch

It was lying on the road’s edge with its flashy dial upwards as if it had been waiting to be picked up when Sagar spotted it. “How come I did not see that thing?” said Chandan. “If you want to spend the rest of the day simply staring at it, then I am moving ahead.” said Kaustuv, noticing Sagar and Chandan gazing at the watch with child-like fixation.

Kaustuv ordered dal bhat and chicken for three at a roadside restaurant in Panauti while Sagar and Chandan join him a bit later. “What a fine day! Isn’t it, dai?” asked Sagar, trying to initiate a conversation with the shopkeeper, who was busy removing the feathers from the chicken. “It is indeed. Where are you boys heading?” asked the shopkeeper. “We’ll stay at Namobuddha tonight, and return to Kathmandu tomorrow,” answered Chandan.

As the three friends climb the hill to Namobuddha from Panauti, Sagar whimpers holding his stomach. “Why did you have eat like you hadn’t eaten in ages?” asks Chandan. “May be the shopkeeper cursed you for eating so much,” says Kaustuv with a giggle. Sagar, however, was in real pain and told his friends that he could walk no further. Kaustuv got his mobile and tried to make a call but the area had no coverage. Afraid of not reaching their destination on time and not knowing what to do, Chandan and Kaustuv lift their friend and carry him to the nearest lodge.

“Is there anybody in the house? Can you please come out?” Kaustuv called, standing on the doorway of Shanti Lodge. A dark, heavily built man came out. Kaustuv asks the man if they could get a room. They tell him that their friend is unwell and ask if medical help is available. The man says that he has a room but that it was difficult to get any medical help at this hour.

“The Health Assistant lives a couple

of hours away, and the road is slippery and passes through dense forest,” the man says.

As Chandan and Kaustuv carry Sagar into the lodge the man’s eyes fall on Sagar’s wrist. He couldn’t take his eyes off Sagar’s watch. “It’s not wise to wear expensive accessories when you are travelling. The times are not good,” the man says and goes inside.

Sagar could not sleep that night and got out of bed with the first light of morning. “You’re up early,” says the lodge-keeper and Sagar explains to him that he had not been able to sleep the entire night because of the stomach pain. He asked the owner if it was possible to call the Health Assistant immediately to the lodge. The man informed him that telephone lines had been dead since the previous day and that it was a two hours’ walk to the health post. “You youngsters may not believe in traditional forms of healing but a dhami lives close by. I can fetch him in no time if you want,” said the lodge owner.   

“Did something unusual happen on the way while you were coming here?” the dhami asked the three boys after the lodge owner had explained the situation. Sagar told him that they had eaten dal bhat with local chicken at Panauti and that nothing unusual had happened on the way. “Well, umm…he did find a watch on the way,” said Chandan. “I had guessed something of that sort. The watch he picked up on the way is cursed. It’s nice, isn’t it?” asked the dhami, pointing at Sagar’s watch. Sagar’s face had lost its colour and he was about to remove the watch when the dhami stopped him with his stick. “Stay still until I tell you to do otherwise,” he commanded Sagar, looking at his eyes as if he had committed a grave crime. The dhami called for his assistant. By the time he arrived, a crowd stood encircling the dhami and Sagar. Shanti Lodge’s courtyard was silent.

The dhami’s assistant painted a circle with red mud on the courtyard and the boys turned pale. The dhami then murmured some mantras and asked Sagar to drop the watch some six inches away from the floor into the circle. He took some six rounds around the watch, beating a drum. He then asked Sagar to keep some cash into the red circle. Sagar kept a fifty rupee note on top of which the dhami kept a jug full of water and sprayed some ash over it. He then beat the drum again and took another six rounds, this time moving anti-clockwise. Spraying the water over Sagar and his friends the dhami asked Sagar to drink as much water as he could and ordered the assistant to leave the money on a crossroad. “I have transferred the curse in the watch into the money. You may now wear it,” the dhami declared. Seeing Sagar’s reluctance, the dhami himself picked up the watch and gave it to him. Sagar refused to accept it. “Maybe you should keep it,” proposed Sagar, not wanting to wear the wretched watch again. He asked the dhami how much he had to pay. “I did not do this for money,” said the dhami as he pocketed the watch. He told Sagar that he would feel the need to go to the toilet in a while and that he would feel better after that. As declared by the dhami, Sagar indeed felt much better when he returned from the toilet. 

As Kaustuv is returning from the toilet he sees the dhami and his assistant talking in the backyard. He could not hear what they were talking about, except for a few words. “….Panauti.. raw meat..fine hairs..”

- Sanjeev Dahal