I searched the room frantically, turning over the sleeping bags and the mats, praying to all the gods I knew. “No, it’s not here” I told my friends. “Dhanga maruni” they claimed, saying that I was careless. This was the second time I had lost my phone, the former being last night only. We were in a class camping trip, around 274 km away from Kathmandu, our home, in a small village of Baglung called Tityang. Small in case of population, for the nine wards of the village stretched up to two to three hills nearby from where we’d stayed.
Last night, as we came back to our rooms, I realized my phone wasn't with me. I retraced my step back to a farm few houses above from the school we were staying at. There, on the haystack, ten of us had jumped again and again from a low wall few hours earlier; laughing, pushing each other and taking pictures. Thinking that my phone had dropped on the hay stack I tried searching for it for a while using torch light. But I was wrong. When I finally gave up the search and returned to the room dreading what would happen when my family found out, I found my phone in my bag, preventing it from dropping off while I jumped from the wall.
And today morning, it seemed that I had lost it again. Suddenly, I remembered mom's warning about losing or damaging anything while being far away.We were already getting late for survey. Our supervisor was calling us out loud, his voice rising with each name. I decided to go for the survey and search for it after coming back. After all, I remember keeping it near me while going to sleep last night. It shouldn't have left the room. I completely forgot about the phone as I strolled through houses, talking to people who always seemed to be happy that we were there. They would present us with oranges and mohi, a local drink made up of milk. And then, one of my friends called another one who was with me. She told me that my mom wanted to talk to me getting worried as my phone was unreachable. I immediately called my mom, saying my phone got switched off, praying once again to the gods. Upon returning, I got back to my searching campaign but to no avail. But right when I finally accepted the fact that my phone was lost, a friend came to me with my phone. “It was in my bag”, she said apologetically. She was the first one I had gone to when I didn't find my phone with me in the morning. Apparently, I had kept it in her bag before I went to sleep last night, in order to avoid sleeping on it.
