Nearly 20 years ago, a little boy ran away from his home. Far away in the rolling lush green valleys of Nepal lay his village, where everyone was poor. There was never enough food and trying to make a living from the land was just impossible. He left home because he could not bear the hunger any more. He could not study any more. Besides he wanted to learn English and he wanted to fly.He was barely 12 years old when he left home, wafer thin with huge saucer shaped eyes and a crown of hair that seemed to forever stand on end. He got on to a train, traveled in a quiet corner and escaped being caught. He had heard of Lucknow where he had a distant “uncle” and he knew of the Gurkha regiment of the Indian army. He found his uncle who kept him in his billet for a few days and then had to take him out from there because children were not permitted.He contacted Capt Ravee and his wife Vibha. They were fairly new to the regiment and had a small baby. Probably they could find some work for the boy. They did. He worked with them as a domestic and then they sent him to Delhi to Vibha’s mother.As luck would have it, he reached this warm loving home exactly a year to the day since their son had died at the tender age of 24. He started working for them as a domestic but very soon he graduated to being a child of the family. Vibha’s mother became a surrogate “mommy” to him and her father was “papa”. He learnt to cook and clean and kept house for the old couple. His parathas were a delight. And then a strange thing happened. Vibha’s mum had been asking Bendu to study and complete his class X exam and he would not buckle down to it.Around this time something happened that needs to be told. He told “mommy” that he was going to get tickets for a movie for the three of them. There were no tickets available for the next show, so he bought himself a ticket and sat down to watch the movie. Now when a couple of hours had passed by, his “mommy” began to panic. She was worried that someone had kidnapped the little fella. So “papa” informed the police.To this day, we have been trying to figure out what it was about that time or that moment when he decided to change. He went on to clear his class XII examinations, then his BA and then he got a BCom degree because he found himself very attracted to accounts. Meanwhile, Capt Ravee gave up the army and started his own business. One fine day, young Bendu joined his security agency as a junior accountant. Today he goes to the office with the boss. What was it that drew him to his destiny?
