May 17 was Buddha birthday. I had forgot about it but noticed one of my Nepali friends wrote “happy buddha jayenti” (Happy Buddha birthday) on Facebook. Just one year ago, I was in Goa, south west area in India. I often went to small restaurant on the beach at that time. One day, two Nepali friends said “Kaori, today is Buddha birthday.” when I visited there. They thought I had already noticed about it because I’m also Buddhist. I told them I had not known about the day and it made them surprise. They were religious and that was a moment that I felt I have to know about my religion even if it is not popular topic in Japan.
After sunset, I was moving to another place to have dinner where my another new friends was working. I still remember big full moon I saw on the way. The restaurant was running by two Nepali elder couple and Indian people from Darjeeling. So I said to them “Happy Buddha birthday”. However nobody noticed that days was the day. Some of they didn’t know which was the day of it.
I can remember each day of just one year ago recently. Time flies. India must have more and more strange and interesting things. I’m dreaming the day coming back there.