We, Sherpas of New York,
Have started a brand new trend.
Please listen to this,
All of my friends.
Almost every Saturday,
With hundreds of people,
In big big party halls
We munch the meat balls
Beers and wines are seen everywhere.
'Birthday kid' is seen nowhere.
Same Dhaka Club
Or same Kasturi Hall
Same four hundred people, and
Same catering service,
With same DJ.
The only difference is,
The Birthday Boy.
Hour-long clown show is the most,
If the kids ever get.
Rest of the night is adult's own.
More than candies and cakes,
Flows beer and wine, down our necks.
My friends, I am not kidding.
Birthday parties seems,
More like a wedding.
Never in my life,
have I witnessed such celebration.
My real feeling is,
this is a cultural deformation.
McDonald, Chuck E Cheese,
Or Movie halls,
With just few selected
Boys and girls.
Celebrating a birthday,
Is not an option.
Where kids get everything,
And adults get nothing.
Our huge birthday parties at New York
Even the locals have started to think
It's Sherpa's own tradition.
'MIK-FILOK' * Sherpa's own tradition.
The real Sherpa tradition is the 'THOO'
'THOO'- is more like ours.
The "Name Giving Ceremony."
With Lamas coming in for cleansing,
And blessings for kids with new names.
Done once in a lifetime.
Not with disco, but with full of sacred chants.
Not with hundreds of people,
But with close relatives and friends at hand.
So I say, with no disrespect to you.
If you really don't know me,
Please exclude me.
Exclude me from this,
Imported, adopted
And later abused tradition,
Where guests don't know the host
And host doesn't know the guests.
* - MIK FILOK = Yeah right, or in your dreams (a popular satirical
expression in Sherpa dialect)
Dawa T. Khambache Sherpa
Migyul Magazine, Vol. 4, Winter 2004
