Lumanti (Memory)

History of it All

Aaron grew up in a very a cultured part of town in Nepal with his grandparents, parents and his elder sister. At the age of 10, his parents along with his sister who was 15 at that time decided to move to Australia permanently and settle. His father's brother stayed with his grandparents to take care of them. Though they may have moved abroad, they valued their culture and tradition dearly. Therefore, since the young age he was instilled with the idea of being an ideal son and respecting his parents' wishes. His grandparents were concerned about his growth in foreign land, so they tried their best to enforce into his head that as only son, he would have to marry someone from the similar background, meaning she must at least be from Nepal and better even if she was Newar. He loved and missed his grandparents a lot and he used to talk with them every day and to make them happy, he always thought that he will fall in love with Nepali girl one day and marry her; it was until he met Lumanti, born and raised in quiet town of New South Wales, Australia to a Nepali mom and Australian Dad.

It is not like he never had any girlfriend before her. He had a crush as a child with a girl that lived next door. Her name was Reva and was same age as his. They used to play together and go to school together. Even when he left Nepal, he used to visit every year during Dashain until his late teenage years. She never got to be his girlfriend as distance didn't even help to flourish their friendship let alone love. He tried to visit her every time he went back to Nepal but she started to seem distant with each visit. Later his feeling for her slowly disappeared when she told him that she was dating her high school classmate. There was also a phase of him being rebellious teenager. He dated few girls in his high school but they were all just a fling for both parties involved. None of the relationship, he ever got into were serious one. He dated once a foreign exchange student named Claire from US during the first semester of his Uni, but the love was short lived as their differences and opinions on certain things become more evident. When things started falling apart, Claire when returning to her own country decided to break off the relationship and moving on. He thought he was very heartbroken then but in retrospect now, he had never been broken as he was for not being able to be with Lumanti.

After Claire, he kind of sworn off from women and decided only to get serious with a girl either from Nepal or someone his parents choose. And then one fine day, this girl came in front of him asking about bees. He could not identify exactly what was happening with his heart as he had never felt anything like it before. He was on second semester of his Bachelor's degree in Business when she started new semester at the same Uni but for Bachelors degree in Film. They didn't have much chance to meet in classroom scenario but as Aaron was involved in different clubs and already familiar with campus grounds, he volunteered to help her around and to invite her to different events just to see her. Slowly, she began to occupy his mind, more often than he liked to admit. His heartbeats would race, pupils dilate and always smile for no reason, whenever she was around him or even a mere thought of her crossed his mind.

They were similar in so many ways; both of them grew up differently but their take on life were similar. Her smart mouth, logic, understanding of things and everything about her would keep him mesmerized. Her love for cinema, desire of storytelling, and strong determination to get what she wants inspired him to dream big and work better on himself. She was making him better by heart and mind. Slowly he realized that he was falling for her before he had any control over it. From their first conversation to their first kiss, he knew that he could spend his life with her. Things were going great between Lumanti and Aaron, however they were also well aware of a looming threat of future hanging above them like a sword holding on to a light thread right above their head. The threat was of Aaron's family's expectations and how it is going to be tough for them to convince them. They tried not to think of repercussions of their strong feeling for each other at first.