15 inches Master Nau will probably set a new world record
Flashlights fall hard upon his old gray eyes. He squints every time the cameras click and he is surrounded by many of them, as he has become a celebrity. Master Nau, now 90, and who measures about 15 inches, has come to the capital city of Kathmandu for the first time. He recently flew to Kathmandu on Yeti Airlines, thus fulfilling his single long-cherished dream to fly on an aircraft.“Now will probably set a new world record. He must be the shortest man in the world,” commented a visitor at Hotel Maharaja during an informal gathering following his arrival in Kathmandu.
Nau, who looks like a Lilliputian of Jonathan Swift’s novel, “Gulliver’s Travels,” feels like he mistakenly landed into an “average-sized” world. All his life, he felt static, almost glued to the same position, immobile, as his legs don’t function well. All this was about to change when during a regular visit to a hospital in Bhairahawa, he was spotted by Prakhyat Banjade, an Executive Member of West Nepal Development Trust.
“Prakhyat then arranged this flight for me,” says no, gratitude evident in his tone.
Nau, who looks like a Lilliputian of Jonathan Swift’s novel, “Gulliver’s Travels,” feels like he mistakenly landed into an “average-sized” world. All his life, he felt static, almost glued to the same position, immobile, as his legs don’t function well. All this was about to change when during a regular visit to a hospital in Bhairahawa, he was spotted by Prakhyat Banjade, an Executive Member of West Nepal Development Trust.
“Prakhyat then arranged this flight for me,” says no, gratitude evident in his tone.
An inhabitant of a small village in Rupandehi District of Western Nepal, Master Nau was born with a physical disorder that kept his body from gaining the ‘average’ height. His exceptionally tiny stature starkly reflected the signs of disproportional dwarfism – a considerably large head, protruding jaw, shrunken feet, and a height of roughly 15 inches.
Nau’s tiny frame shivers ever so often. His feet are clubbed, and he has almost lost his hearing. However, his eyes are now bigger and brighter, resulting from the thrills and excitement of the airplane ride he recently experienced. In the air trip, he finds his dream fulfilled. The flight was the first he ever boarded. It was his single dream, long harbored.
“He always wanted to board a plane every time he saw one flying overhead. Now, he’s happy that he flew in the air, along the birds,” says Seema, his niece who attends to him.
Life has always been different and in ways difficult for Nau. Born as the eldest of seven sons to his parents, he could never try the vulnerable moves of initial walking days, nor could make out the thrill of sports that his brothers would regularly engage in.
“I’ve spent all my life in the exact position I’m in now,” he says, gesturing to his skinny legs, and thus implying his inability to move around. The disorder he was born with forced him to cope with the hurdles that come with such a condition.
“He has an abnormal morphology. According to the doctor, all his chest, lungs and liver are oddly placed and miniature in sizes,” adds Rocky, one of Nau’s grandsons who accompanied him during the trip to Kathmandu.
Of the many difficulties he faced, the ones that hit him hard the most were never being able to do what others his age could. Nau could never go to school or work in the fields with his family. As an adult, he was often carried to school by his friends who were teachers.
“But they would do so for the children’s amusement and not for my benefit,” he adds.
Nau also never married, nor did he let the thought come to his mind anytime, and if it did, he was quick to dismiss it.
“The idea was totally unfeasible, given my condition,” he explains, adding that he has always been dependent on his family. Even now, he lives with his brothers’ families. For mobility around his home, he uses a pushcart and still has to be escorted by Seema because his arms are too frail to be able to push himself.
But he loves to be around people and to be surrounded by them. His days back in the village are spent chatting with people who keep visiting him. He learns about various happenings in the village and the country alike from the visitors who have become his friends over time.
“People come to me to talk about all the problems in the village, like how rainfall was scarce or late this year, or how they harvested less amount of crop this year, unlike last year,” says Nau, adding that he lives vicariously through these conversations.
He is also watchful about the changes, both social and political, that have occurred over time.
“We used ‘suka’ (quarter) and ‘mohair’ (half a Rupee) when I was young,” he says, commenting on the price hikes of the present days while, at the same time, expressing his desire to cast a vote in the upcoming elections.
The fact that no holds a clear and solid political agenda in this age adds yet another insight to his character. “Vote those who make the country prosperous and punish those who wrong the citizens,” he says in a loud voice.
Though Nau finds it difficult to adjust to a world designed for people of larger statures than him, his enthusiasm for life, however, remains intact. From his hotel room, across the window, he wishes to see the Pashupatinath Temple. But he has to be assisted, and Prakhyat lifts him up to give let him peek out of the window.
After his stature caught the media’s attention, he was provided a new wheelchair. He rode on a bike and also boarded a Jeep. He is quite excited about his new wheelchair and wishes to show it off to all his friends in the village. Nau’s incessant optimism and unflinching hope are the life energies that drive him. He is satisfied with all that life has given him, and has no regrets whatsoever.
“Even this disorder has served me in disguise today. It has brought me to the capital, taken me over the clouds literally and made me famous,” he says, and the excitement to board a plane once again to return to his village shows in the twinkle in his eyes.
Source:-myrepublica.com
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