“Please...leave a message “was the first thing I heard after dialing her number. I tried few times more before finally giving up and hitting the sack. Lied down for a bit, reflecting on the activities of that day. Minutes turned into hour and then I realized, maybe her cell phone had run out of battery. I jumped into my old computer chair and punched the letters, with speed, on the keyboard, to desperately log in. There she was, ONLINE, with flowery screen name. If there was an Oscar for intuition, I should have gotten it. I waited for her to say something, even logged off and logged in to grab her attention. No success, so I said “Hello Mary". After few minutes she replied " sorry , could not take your call..mom sanga kura gardai thiye...suna na, I will have to go to Nepal, as soon as possible ...she wants me.". Now, how cool is that, how many Nepali folks do you see who have the opportunity to go back home during Xmas breaks. Quite refreshing I suggested myself because I hadn't been back in Nepal for almost 6 years and I had been craving for that sort of a chance. My wonder dream was interrupted when she told me she has to go offline to pack things up because her Uncle will drive her to the airport early tomorrow morning to see if there were any flights to Kathmandu via Frankfurt. I asked her to email me when she got there before she went offline. This time my bye was undelivered and looped back to me. Two weeks passed by and I received no email. Heck, I didn't even know if she flew to Nepal or not. I did not call her Uncle because I hardly knew the man, except that he was her relative and also it wouldn't be such a nice idea to inquire about a girl. What would he think? Maybe she was just busy with the family commitments and forgot to write. My roommate has lived out of the country for almost 7 years and still cares more than anybody about the things that happen in Nepal. He gets disgusted whenever he reads about political parties and netas and tells me he would like to do something for the country SOMEDAY. I have asked him numerous times when that SOMEDAY is going to arrive, he always assures me when he is going to get his Masters done. Very convincing, I would say to myself with truck load of sarcasm, especially with the money he owes to the government and the parents, which needs to be paid back, but still he cares about country unlike many of us. At least, he has not forgotten to proclaim that he is a true Nepali with chest thumping attitude and even though his assurance will realistically turn out to be hollow and unfulfilled. Just then my roomie alerts me with developing story from Nepal. "3 insurgents killed, 5 captured in Saat DoBato.”. I ignore it like any other bad news from Nepal. What am I going to get from this other than sadness and sense of insecurity? He begins to read out the names of people including one that sounds very familiar and ends with a phrase that I shall never forget. "19-20 barsa ko manche haru pani moawadi Nepal ma.". I turn around, uproot my roomie from the computer area and begin to read the news as fast as I can, which had a bold red heading. Before I knew, my eyes caught the name Mary Pradhan of Saat Dobato. I restlessly double check, scroll down, google the contents and still get the same news. Yes, it was the same girl I had met roughly 2 weeks ago who had been incarcerated by RNA during a raid. Shocking, diffusing and highly movie like series of events were taking place in this fraction of time. Intriguingly, I remember the times when she told me about her mother's political affiliation and her socialist views. I could never sense something like this happening nor did I get any revolutionary impression from her. She was distinctive but not stone hearted to carry guns and lay out traps. She was this sweet girl I cared, whom I thought I knew or maybe I did not. But that is also Nepal where terrorists rule, murderers are rewarded with reign of the kingdom and it is alright to kill in the name of revolution. Maybe she was in a wrong situation and how can you expect soldiers with minimum education and maximum ignorance to understand? How could you expect them to embrace her when their hands were too busy carrying guns? For the next few weeks, I relentlessly followed the news, even dropped her a line waiting for her to break the shell and tell me that it was not her and she is enjoying her visit.