Santoshi
Uttargaya Secondary English Boarding School, Betrawati, 2000

[text below from a postcard I wrote on Tuesday, October 24th 2000]

"A few days ago during lunch I poked my head into one of the school’s class rooms. There, in a dim empty room filled with only six bench/desks and the sounds of one hundred children playing outside, sat a small girl.

Her arms were folded on her desk, her little face resting upon them. She seemed neither outwardly happy nor sad, but more resigned as if this was where she would be most comfortable—a warm bath in a cold house.

“Wouldn’t you rather play outside?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“We could play…”.

Again, she shook her head.

“Okay” I said smiling at her. I leaned across the bench/desk separating us and shook her hand goofily."

[from a postcard two days later]

"Yesterday I stopped by the orphanage on the way back from Trishuli Bazaar and for the first time I heard Santoshi’s (san-toe-see) voice. Since the day I found her alone in that class room at lunch, I’ve made it a point to walk into her class, say hello and shake her hand. I walked up to her today at the orphanage, said

“Hello Santoshi!” and gave her a goofy handshake.

She smiled, then laughed, then asked (in English) “What is your name?”

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Santoshi running across the rock-strewn football field to class.