बाह्र वर्षपछि भेटिएको मित्र, बीस वर्ष पुरानो बाइबल र बदलिएको समय

Sometimes meeting an old friend doesn't just reunite you with that friend — it reunites you with your own old life.

I recently met my old friend Prem Kumar Lamichhane again after about twelve years. Seeing him after such a long time brought both joy and excitement. But as we sat and talked, the meeting didn't stay limited to two old friends catching up. It made me turn back the pages of friendship, time, hard work, business, and my own life's journey.

A friendship that began at Clean VCD in Pulchowk

My friendship with Prem-ji began many years ago.

Back then he worked at Clean VCD. The shop was in Pulchowk — though not exactly at Pulchowk chowk itself, but in the part of Pulchowk closer to Jawalakhel.

He had good connections with the world of Nepali cinema, music, and artists. Through him, I got the chance to meet and become acquainted with several figures in the Nepali arts scene, including Ravi Dangol and Sudhanshu Joshi.

Thinking back to Prem-ji from that time, one thing still stands out clearly — he was an incredibly hard worker.

He put in long days and nights preparing VCDs — creating new content, organizing it, and getting it to market. He was devoted to the work.

There was plenty of hard work back then too, but the way people worked was different. According to him, even after putting in two or three solid hours a day, there was still time to meet friends, go out, and take care of other things. Later, as digital media and YouTube use grew, things ran fairly smoothly just by posting content there.

But time never stays the same.

Technology changed. The market changed. Business changed. And people's daily lives changed too.

Sampurna Mangal Traders today

Today Prem-ji runs Sampurna Mangal Traders, which sells various kinds of kitchenware and household goods.

The nature of the work has changed completely, but his habit of working hard hasn't.

In fact, the business demands even more of his time now.

He told me the shop now has to stay open from eight in the morning until eight at night. He has to be there at the shop all day. Otherwise, running the business becomes difficult.

I sat there listening to him.

He was hardworking before. He still is now.

But here's what's different — the hard work of before still left him some time for himself. Today's business seems to demand nearly his entire day.

Hearing that made me reflect on Nepal's business environment.

We see a businessperson's profit — how much do we see of their pain?

Perhaps because I'm involved in business myself, I pay a bit more attention to the pain and risk that people running businesses carry.

Something about how our society sometimes views traders and business owners bothers me.

People see that a trader is making money.

They see the shop.

They see the transactions.

But how many hours it takes to keep that shop's shutter open, how much investment is at risk, how much money is tied up in the market, how much debt and liability is being carried, and how much uncertainty there is about whether the business will even survive tomorrow — that story isn't usually visible.

Sometimes people even look at a businessperson with the easy assumption that they must be "cheating" someone.

But a person running a business puts at risk not just their capital, but their time, energy, and future as well.

Listening to Prem-ji's story, I shared some of my own business experiences with him too — the problems I've faced with land transactions and the experience of having money stuck in Laligurans Finance.

Our businesses were different. Our circumstances were different. But the language of uncertainty that a business owner goes through turned out to be strangely similar.

Profit is visible from the outside.

But when money gets stuck, when a deal falls apart, when an investment can't be recovered, and when the numbers keep spinning in your head even as you try to sleep at night — that story mostly stays inside the businessperson.

The time revealed through the children

Another moment during my visit with Prem-ji left me even more struck.

Around the time I left for America, one of his granddaughters was about four years old. Another had just been born, tiny and new.

In my memory, they were still those same small children.

Seeing them this time — they had grown up entirely!

One is now studying engineering at the bachelor's level, and the other is in grade 10.

Seeing them, one question came to mind—

Where did the time go so fast?

We see ourselves every day, so we may not fully feel our own change. But when you see someone you once knew as a small child now grown up years later, the time that has passed suddenly stands right in front of your eyes.

In that moment, twelve years stopped being just a number on a calendar.

In that time, the children grew up.

Business changed.

Technology changed.

All of our lives changed.

"NDG, do you remember this?"

As we talked about all this, Prem-ji suddenly took out an old Bible.

Showing it to me, he asked,

"NDG, do you remember this?"

I looked.

It was the Bible I had gifted him about twenty years ago.

I sat there for a moment, just looking at that Bible.

A book I had given him twenty years ago — and he had kept it safe all this time.

That wasn't an ordinary thing for me.

Because that Bible didn't just remind me of my friendship with Prem-ji.

It reminded me of who I was twenty years ago.

Inside that Bible, I found my old self

There was a time when I loved giving people Bibles as gifts.

I gave them to my college professors.

I gave them to friends.

I gave them to acquaintances.

I had the enthusiasm to share the faith and message that mattered so much in my own life with others as well.

That day, when Prem-ji took out that old Bible and showed it to me, I remembered a chapter of my own life I had nearly forgotten.

Today life has become much broader. Work has increased. Responsibilities have increased. Education, schools, leadership, writing, business, and countless plans fill my life now.

We keep moving forward. We keep setting new goals. We keep running toward the next task, the next project, the next achievement.

But sometimes, in that same race, we can forget where we started from.

That twenty-year-old Bible in Prem-ji's hands reminded me of exactly that beginning.

Old friends are our living records

That day I also came to appreciate a beautiful side of old friendships.

Old friends turn out to be like living records of our lives.

The events we've forgotten, they remember.

The old version of ourselves that we've forgotten, they've seen.

Sometimes, in their homes or shops, some old memento of our life is still kept safe.

And when we meet years later, they take it out and place it in front of us.

After that, we don't just come to know our friend again — we come to know ourselves again too.

That day, one question came to my mind—

How much of the good enthusiasm that was inside me twenty years ago is still alive today?

Change in life isn't a bad thing. Moving forward is necessary. Taking on new responsibilities is necessary too.

But in the process of moving forward, it's also necessary to occasionally look back and ask whether some of the good things inside us have been left behind somewhere.

Five cups of tea and twelve years of conversation

After meeting again after such a long time, how could our conversation possibly end quickly!

As we talked, tea arrived.

Prem-ji had two cups of tea. I had three.

At first he ordered the tea himself. The conversation kept stretching, old memories kept opening up. And I felt like having tea again. I was the one who said, "I'll have another cup," and asked for one more.

Between the two of us, we ended up finishing five cups of tea in total!

But what we talked about was far more than those five cups of tea.

Talk of old days.

Talk of artists.

Talk of family.

Talk of business.

Talk of hardship and struggle.

Talk of how times have changed.

Talk of a twenty-year-old Bible.

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary scene — two old friends sitting in a shop, drinking tea.

But for me, many years of life sat around that tea table.

A friend reunited after twelve years.

A Bible given twenty years ago.

Granddaughters who had grown from small children into young adults.

A business journey that had traveled all the way from the age of VCDs to Sampurna Mangal Traders.

And two businesspeople sharing their own respective struggles.

Most importantly — somewhere in that room, the me from twenty years ago was there too.

Progress isn't only about looking forward

I mostly find myself thinking about the future — what should I do next? What should I learn? What should I build? What's the next goal?

But this meeting with Prem-ji reminded me of another kind of progress.

Progress doesn't always mean looking only forward. Sometimes looking back at where you started is also a part of progress.

Looking back shows us how far we've come.

It shows what we've gained, and what we've lost.

And along the journey, it becomes possible to pick up again some good thing that got left behind, and carry it forward with us.

This meeting with Prem-ji became exactly that kind of moment for me.

For Prem-ji

Dear Prem Kumar Lamichhane,

I was truly, deeply happy to meet you again after twelve years.

I've known your hardworking nature from the beginning. In the Prem-ji who worked day and night in the days of Clean VCD, and in the Prem-ji who works today from eight in the morning until eight at night at Sampurna Mangal Traders, I saw the same hardworking person.

Even after so many years have passed, being able to sit and talk like old friends again, to laugh, to trade stories of business joys and struggles, and to finish five cups of tea together — that itself became a beautiful memory.

And especially—

thank you so much for keeping the Bible I gave you about twenty years ago safe all this time.

Seeing that Bible brought back many old days of my own life. The enthusiasm of that time, my friends, my college professors, and the people I met while going around gifting Bibles — my old life came back before my eyes once again.

Now there's a small wish in my heart as well—

May you also come to know, personally, the Lord I came to know and believe in through that Bible. May you be able to experience His love, grace, and truth in your own life.

May your life be beautiful.

May your hard work bear good fruit.

May there be happiness and peace in your family.

And may this old friendship of ours keep adding beautiful memories for many more years to come.

Time changes so much, Prem-ji. But some friendships, and some memories, only become more precious as time passes.