The Rain in Chandni Sky

By Sumitra Pohkrel

"The Rain in Chandni Sky" is a mid-fictional mystery book based on a real-life story. It's a story of a girl named Chandni who grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal and later journeyed to the United States with her family. This book will take you on the emotional roller coaster that Chandni went through, filled with the many, bigger-than-life mysteries invoked upon her. It will give you a deeper understanding of her quest for self-discovery. It's the journey of a woman who did not belong in this world and her authentic reaction to her greatest question: Am I who I always thought I was?

Chandni lost her memories after she came to the United States with her single mother and three siblings from a small refugee camp in Nepal. Her life drastically changed again when her older sister got married, who was the only one working and taking care of the family. Soon, a family financial crisis strikes which takes them on an emotional roller coaster. Only sixteen years old, all family responsibilities fall to Chandni as she's trying to make sense of her life.

It's only through her habit of writing her life story in a diary that she can keep sight of her past life. This is a story about a girl who's on a journey to understand her reality and the hidden secrets of her life. It begs the question of: If she is truly who she thought she was? This is Chandni's journey of self-discovery and the fascinating story of someone who does not belong to this world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667818047

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The Rain in Chandni Sky

© 2021 Sumitra Pohkrel

All rights reserved. This book or any portion there of may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-66781-803-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66781-804-7

Table of Contents

About

Summary

Childhood

United States of America’s Journey

Chandni in Her High School

Chandni Is in a New School and Her Vision

After High School Graduation

Chandni vision about her sister Chetna

Back to Chandni and Gopal’s Story

Chandni’s Temple Visit—Her Mystery to Be Solved

Chandni’s Different Career Choice

Chandni’s London Journey

Mess Followed Her After the London Trip

Chandni Searching for the Right Mate

Chandni’s Superhero Chetana

About

The unfolded life that she found herself in had a different perspective; living the dreams of everyone’s fantasy was the reality of someone’s life. It was her dream to live in a fantasy world as well, but the end of finding out that fantasy was her reality, which turned out to be the scariest part of her life, where mostly the numbness of the world lied than the happiness her heart ached for.

Summary

It’s a story of a girl, Chandni, who lost her memories after she came to the United States with her single mother and three siblings from a small refugee camp in Nepal. Lost girl’s life had drastically changed even more when her older sister got married, who was the only one working and taking care of the family for a year. Her family financial crisis and emotional roller coaster came into play when she was just sixteen years old and all family responsibilities came to her lap while at the same time, she was also struggling to understand her weird life. Also, she had the habit of writing her life story in a diary, which helped her to get a better sight of her past life. Since a kid, her ability to see a dream that often came true kept her a private person. She tends to be lost in herself and not able to differentiate reality from dream. The story contains how she understands the reality and the hidden secret of her life. The question arises later in the story if she is the one who she thought she was. This is Chandni’s journey of self-discovery and the fascinating real-life story of someone who does not belong to this world. 

Childhood

It’s strange how stories unfold: destiny has its way of working no matter how we plan our future. In the end, we understand how everything that happened in the past was preparing us for our future. Since a kid, Chandni had the habit of writing a journal of her everyday activities. Now, she has lost her memory but still can easily understand her life. Isn’t this wonderful? Let me take you through her childhood. 

Living in the small refugee camp where houses were built with bamboo and mud, Chandni had three siblings: two sisters—one elder and one younger—and a brother who was the youngest of all. Chandni was known as the naughtiest of all kids. She was rebellious, fearless, righteous, and had a strong sense of justice, with an air of authority in her that attracted other kids to be with her. She had a huge group of friends in school and in the neighborhood. She was always a leader of these groups. Becoming a leader of her group, her team fought with other groups in school, where she strategized the games for any competition and always won. The good thing about her was she could not see anyone in pain and quickly reached out to help them. Her fairness in treatment to all friends made her appealing. If she saw anyone crying in school or in the neighborhood, she reached out to counsel and put them in a group, taught them to be strong; being able to strengthen her friends was her greatest asset. 

Chandni’s family was tired of her complaints from school and neighbors. She loved to fight for what she believed was right, often hanging out with other kids to play around, have fun. She was the favorite of all but irritated everyone at the same time with her unbearable questions because of her curiousness about everything. Her naughtiness often reached the height of the sky for people around. People (neighbors) loved her company, her funny nature, crazy sense of humor. When she was three years old, she ordered her neighbor auntie to breastfeed her but was refused and told to go back to her mother. She angrily replied to the neighbor auntie how she was selfish. Her mother recently had a new baby called Chetna, Chandni’s sister who drank all the milk from her mother (Gauri’s breast). Chandni’s words were, My mom got a baby now and she needs her milk, no more milk remains so I had come to you as you have that same thing as my mom does, which she was referring to her breast and she questioned her why she can’t drink her milk. Chandni slowly stepped toward where auntie was sitting, grabbed her breast, and started sucking it for milk. Everyone laughed around seeing her craziness and she was loved way too much to do anything by anyone, but of course complain to her mother. After a while, Gauri, came to yell at her for forcibly sucking auntie’s breast. But Chandni’s sense of righteousness in a three-year-old was remarkable and her answer to her mom was epic, This Kamala auntie is so selfish, she has a thing(breast) like you do where I can get milk from, neither she has a baby like you to feed and she still hesitated to feed me. Gauri tried hard to explain to her that she should only drink the milk of her mother, which was not a satisfying answer for her, but she accepted and stayed silent to be saved from her mother’s rage.

People (neighbors) do not call her a kid but the storm. She fights or argues with anyone for her sense of righteousness; it does not matter whether the person is older than her, but the funniest moment was when they all were defeated by her. She was so strong; once she fought with a twelve-year-old boy when she was just five, beat him up so badly where he ended up admitted to the hospital. He got a fever for straight three days that his family was so furious at her, but all other neighbors assumed what would have happened. Most people favored her and said that she is a girl who never does anything wrong to anyone, neither she fights unless you make her do so and believed the boy must have done something. However, as Chandni was way younger than him, most people laughed and dismissed the case. Some people complimented her by saying being a girl, she stood for herself and a weak one, fire and a strong sense of justice defined her, and some women wished that Chandni would be their daughter. In a place like India or Nepal, beating up a guy is a big deal which had rarely been done by anyone, but crazy kids like Chandni would not hesitate to do so, and she never was weaker than any male of her age. At the same time, she was never like a tomboy as she loved makeup, a fierce girly girl. 

How quickly time passes, she often asked her mother about her dad as she and her siblings were raised by her mother and mother’s family. While playing with her friends, the question often raised where her dad is, and she replied the same thing that her mother told her that he went to work and will be back someday with lots of beautiful toys for her. After many years of waiting for her dad to come, he finally came. Chandni’s family was so glad, excited, and danced with joy. The everlasting wait was finally over; Chandni’s prayers were finally answered. Her feet were not on the ground; happiness entered from her gaze to her belly and she started talking to her dad with excitement. We often do not realize that excitement and happiness could remain only for some time; happiness and sadness have their period in the life cycle. Now, Chandni’s mother Gauri, elder sister Bika, and Father George started fighting daily; it was a bad environment for any kid to live in. After some time, Chandni’s father finally left them again. Chandni had two younger siblings who were affected by witnessing the parents’ fight. Her younger sister, Chetna, somehow did not speak a word but used sign language till she was five years old. Mother took her for wish fulfillment temple to Pathivara Ma: Hindu goddess—Mother Durga temple—situated up in the Himalayas in Nepal, and Chetna had her first word spoken there at the temple. Ever since then, she can speak like a normal person. 

like in every story, there is a villain and so for this in this story as well. Me as a general person, neither I believe in heroes nor the villain. Everyone was part of that supreme power whether you called that a soul, nature, black hole, energy, or God. But I believe in people’s wrongdoing based on their aroused desire they cannot control whether that was wanting bad for others. Gauri’s sister-in-law, Chandrakala, played the role of villain and had a big hand in separating Gauri and her husband, according to people around. She secretly communicated with both, one-to-one, and provided a piece of wrong information about one another while adding misunderstanding between them. Chandni’s thought was ever clear: if her dad and mom cannot trust each other, they should not be with one another. She never believed anyone can break anyone’s relationship; a relationship certainly needs trust, love, understanding, communication, and compromising. No matter what people accused her auntie of, she never held her auntie responsible for her dad and mother’s separation. Her dad and mother were not a kid but children of four kids. Gauri believed her husband often left her because she had not had a boy child, only girls. She went to the wish-fulfilling Goddess Durga temple, called Pathivara temple, again to have a boy child. The ancient belief of this temple is whatever people wished for will be fulfilled and many stories around it came to be true. While the strongest weapon a human has is trust(belief), Gauri gave birth to a beautiful son. There is a saying in Hindu literature that God says, If you desire it, I shall fulfill it for you. It means, If your karma is in purist form without the desire of fruit, I (God himself) will fulfill it for you. Another meaning of this saying would be, if you want anything wholeheartedly with your karma, the whole world will help you to get your destiny. Gauri’s husband again came back for the happiness of having a boy child, but that did not last long, and he again left. It was not, not having a boy child in the family that was the problem but the proof of their dead relationship and lack of sense of Chandni’s father’s responsibilities for his family that he always abandoned all his kids, nor provided child support for anyone. Similarly, right before Chandni father left again, he moved his whole family to a different location away from Gauri’s parents’ place. Chandni pleaded with him, holding his leg not to leave again, but he did leave a single mother of that little four-month-old child, Chandni’s brother, in her lap with three other kids. The cruelness of the man was unavoidable for Gauri. However, some good people are certainly present in this world as well as bad even if there are only some. One of the good neighbors was helping them. The little four-month-old boy, Gaurav, got sick all the time; these neighbors were always with them providing a warm blanket and staying in hospital day and night with Gauri while helping and taking care of that fatherless family whom they had known recently. It is not easy to find people like them in this fast-paced world. There is a Nepali saying, If you have no one, you have God, so rest your struggles on him." After some time, these people helped Gauri to move closer to her parents’ house where her life was easier by the child support given by her parents. Slowly, after some years, Gauri opened her own business despite her struggles, made friends, started her life all over again. Slowly, Gauri’s business made the growth and end of becoming a great businesswoman. Now, she could provide a better life for her family. Gauri’s first daughter, Bika, finished school and enrolled in college, also she was teaching little kids as a part-time job. Chandni was the talented one in the family: she always used to win prizes, multitalented in everything. She stood first in studies, her rank was always higher than any other student’s, she drew good pictures, wrote poems, stories, was great at acting and modeling since her young age. She had participated in many dramas, modeling, essay writing, and always brought the first prize making her mother proud. Two siblings of Chandni’s who were younger than her, Chetana and Gaurav, were also doing well in school. Everybody in their society started complimenting them, came for asking help for studies from Chandni and Bika. As well, people came to Gauri to borrow loans from her as she was quite popular and rich. Her husband came back to Gauri as soon as he knew of her good situation. Gauri forgave and gave him a place in her house, but the kids were not so happy about it as they all grew up and were able to understand their dad’s treatment toward them and their mom’s situation. Her kids stayed silent for their mother’s sake as she loved him so much nevertheless of what he had done to her. Gauri feared the patriarchal society that thought men are always right, always high, and women seemed to be