74-year-old Ram Maya Shahi arrived at the District Police Office on Monday morning. She had a bag on her shoulder. In front of a closed room at the police office, she hung the bag. She took off her slippers and sprinkled water, vermilion, rice, a coin, a lighted lamp, flowers, prasad (holy offering), a flag, incense, and a bell from inside the bag and placed them in front of the closed door.
To identify who she was, why she had come, and what she had brought, the police officers on duty did not face any difficulty. Because this was the eighth time she had come there in two weeks.
The police officers present at the financial section did not pay much attention, nor did they make it easier, but the authorized officer of the police, who had brought the materials for the ceremony, took more time to find the appropriate one, search for the right one, and complete the process, which took almost half an hour.
To perform her ancestral property worship, she had to spend half an hour as well and couldn’t hold back her tears. After the mourning of the lunar eclipse and the morning prayers, the elderly woman arrived at the said room to take the necessary materials. The authorized officer guarding the room came running to stop her.
She entered the room where the valuables were kept and quietly took out a candle from a table. Sometimes she would place her hands on her forehead, sometimes bow down to the ground, and engage in conversations.
Among the valuables, there was a white cloth covering a crying cloth. She removed the cloth while crying. Inside that, there was another letter wrapped in paper. She didn’t open that either. Inside that was a large semi-transparent glass quietly sitting. While crying, she looked at the sky sometimes and sometimes at the ground. “Oh Earth, how much I cared for you, how much love I had for you, how much I worshipped you. Oh Ram, my Ram, how did you come to this treacherous place,” she said, moving her trembling hands on the table, “I won’t forgive anyone. I will bring peace. Oh Earth,” she added.
Outside the room, the police officers who were on duty, silent and amazed, observed her worship and conversation. “Oh Earth, forgive me, don’t blame me for the suffering, don’t blame me for the pain, protect the entire Gurkha community, protect all Nepali people. You will come and live in my house again. Everyone calls you a stone. You are my God, wealth, and land. No one will suffer, no one will have pain, bring peace, oh Earth,” she said, blowing air from left to right, from bottom to top.
After performing the rituals and leaving the candle burning, she went back and looked at the stone one last time before turning around and leaving. With tears in her eyes, she said, “How much I have cherished and worshipped this stone, it has been in our house for generations. It’s not just an ordinary stone. Father used to tell the story of this stone from the old manuscript,” she heard from her grandmother.
Curiosity grew to its peak before that day. Suresh Shahi, her son, removed everything from the bag and took it to the office and got it evaluated. They made an offer of 20 million rupees. Then another team came and made an offer of 50 million rupees.
In the meantime, news spread like wildfire. The news reached the police office as well. When the team arrived at their house, the police searched the house and confiscated the stone. The police office estimated that this stone could be worth around 500 million rupees.
The crystal owner of the Shahi family demanded that it be kept in Gurkha. “This is our ancestral property. We worship it every year during Sithi Puja, Salyanveshi Jatra, Devighat Jatra, and the 15-day festival of Bada Dashain. Now we want to keep it in Gurkha,” said Ram Maya Shahi.
However, the police administration says that it requires efforts not only from the employees but also from the representative level to keep it in Gurkha.
Discussion about this post