Chopsticks

A Chopstick DAY out!!!!
3:00 Pm, Chittagong, Bangladesh:
After 5 hours effort of 10 girls for our class party, Each one of us here is sick of eating the same food provided in hostel canteen everyday and is looking forward for something different. So, today we are preparing one dish each from our home country to add variety to our taste buds. By the time we are done cooking, it’s already 3:30 pm. With the empty stomach growling for food, we set the table—Cambodian fish with lettuce and fish sauce, chowmein with shrimp, colorful egg from china, potato pickle( aalo ko acchar ) from Nepal, egg plant curry (baigan bhorta ) from Bangladesh and common food of all Asians—Cooked Rice.
I am starving as if I have been fasting for 5 long days. I hurry to the table, grab a bowl and put some aachar( Nepali dish) and look for a spoon to eat. But I can only see CHOPSTICKS on the table.
For a person like me who has eaten food with hand, 95% of her total lifetime (trust me nothing tastes better to me than eating with hand) eating with chopstick is out of equation. I cannot use hand to eat here, as eating with hand in a multicultural gathering is not considered good , I was at least expecting for spoon to eat the delicious food in the table, but not a single spoon is within my sight. And I admit it--I am too stubborn to ask for the spoon.
My eyes are getting wider and wider and my mouth is full of saliva—it is natural when you see people are enjoying good food and you are only the one who is watching people eating because you cannot use a DAMN chopstick!
I cannot tolerate any longer-- I decide to give chopstick a try. Trying to hold the chopstick between my fingers I try to grab some rice. And I end up with 3 small grains of rice sticking to my chopstick. After Couple of attempts I give up. Moreover my condition is getting worse as I am feeling more hungry.
Then I have an awakening-- I won’t back to Hostel Starving! I get up, go straight to laoshi (our Chinese teacher) and ask “ laoshi, can I get a spoon to eat”? She stares at me and said “why didn’t you ask me earlier?” I just smile because I am too stubborn to admit I was shy.
I return with the spoon and start eating. The food now tastes heavenly. This feast is giving me a nostalgic feeling which I have longed to feel in Bangladesh--the feeling of being in home. And suddenly, I realize, I am in home away from HOME!
P.s. I bought a chopstick on my way back to my university and now can eat with it.