"Orderly"

Harke! Harke!!" Wife of the General calls Harka Bahadur From her room.
"Yes!" says Harka Bahadur from the Kitchen.
"Bring the hanged clothes  from veranda after cleaning those plates", she shouts from the room.
Harka Bahadur has no reply. Tears germinate in his eyes. A hatred breeds in him towards the General's wife. He is raged. He thinks of running away banging the dishes on the flood, but his compulsion doesn't let him do so. If I don't obey, the General may mind. If I do,  heart doesn't let me," he thinks with his heart crushed into pieces.
The words of his mother still pinch his heart for cleaning his own dishes. " Does a son  wash dishes? The age gets shorter," said my mother. "Even the dead ancestors curse if a son dies without serving his nation once in his life. A son has to earn his name joining in the soldier. He shouldn't live looking after the field in village."
"Harke! What are you still doing there?" It's going to rain. Collect the clothes soon." a piercing shout thunders in his ears. The pious drops of tears in the  remembrance of his mother fall on the dishes. He hurries to clean the dishes controlling his tears with much effort. He is distracted in mind. "What a great hope my mother might have to see me as one of the counted people for the country when I go back to my village. But if she knows my reality, the tears will roll down from her eyes. What I can do if this is my fate. Many friends might be enjoying and marching in the camp. The General had to appoint me too. No,.. I can't work. But what I can do. I can't survive without job.
He goes to collect the clothes, weaving his ideas in mind. Once more he happens to remember his village as he collects the clothes.
He remembers what had happened one day. Harka Bahadur's wife, lifting a big-eyed wicker basket up says, "Hari's father, I'm going to the next house to help brother in law in his farm. Please collect my sari from veranda. It seems it's going to rain"
"No! I can't stay caring your sari. What people will say if they hear this? They are backbiting without any reasons, they will back bite saying Harke is a mean as he washes & dries his wife's sari. You have to speak caring one's prestige," Harke scolds his wife with pride of being male.
"Why you throw an arrow of words instead of saying I can't. All the saris, except these two have already been out of use. The one I am wearing is also getting dirtier. I am telling you to bring that inside thinking it for tomorrow. How long I can live bring dirt of the eyes even of my own husband while being myself as busy as in the middle of Ashad," she says getting angry.  contd...

Translated: by Durganath Siwakoti