The Chaurasi is a curious event—not many Nepali-speaking Hindus in India, especially people of my generation, know much about it. This could be partly because few people live to see their 84th birthday. When I referred to texts, priests, and people in the know about why the 84th birthday was a landmark event—and not, say, the 83rd or the 85th one—I was frequently given answers in the form of one or some combination of the following: there being 8,400,000 species on Earth, the soul having 8,400,000 births, and the 8,400,000th birth taking the human form. Besides the numerical connection brought about by 84, these responses weren’t entirely convincing. Also, some sources dismissed the 8,400,000 link as hogwash. A somewhat satisfactory, if rarely cited, explanation lay in the significance of the lunar calendar and the numbers 108 and 1,008—especially auspicious in Hinduism. With 12 full moons a year, it takes 84 years for one to witness 1,008 full moons. The 84th birthday is, thus, celebrated as a day of gratitude to the moon. All four of my grandparents lived past 84. The grandfathers spent their Chaurasi their own ways—the one in Nepal participated in three-day-long celebrations, and the one in India had a simple puja for a few hours—while the grandmothers forewent theirs on account of sicknesses.
For some insight into the Nepalese words and phrases used in the book, please consult the glossary.