THE

FALSE
FRESHMAN
The story of one Nepali girl who left for college in the most unusual way.

Writer: Danna Abrahim
Interpreter: Faiz Hasan

E

very fall on campus is marked by swaths of fresh

flickering in the background of the university hubbub. She

faces trumpeting into third-year classes with first-

is also kind and patient young woman, one who graciously

year syllabi.

helped two bumbling students cast a light on perhaps the

They amass at and maneuver through doorways like herds

most literal example of someone being so close, yet so far.

of lamb, wide-eyed and knobby kneed, side-by-side, jostling down hallways, bleating, CHEM 101? NAB 002?

****

First floor? Up the stairs? The bathroom?

W

e find an empty classroom to conduct our second

It's two weeks before anxious faces finally relax into caffeinated smiles. The new students weave in and out of

interview with Kanchan, who, wary after the first time,

their morning classes confidently for the first time since

watches bemusedly as I assemble a makeshift office out of

tumbling out of their hometown high-schools. Still, there's

school desks. She's slow to take a seat, unsure of which

more to discover. They've heard rumors of a Burger King

end of wooden panel should be lifted to get into the chair.

somewhere on campus. And then there's the question of

Once settled, we delve into the past.

the future, of life's true meaning– but that misery is

Kanchan was born on July 19, 1995 in a rural village in Abu

spared until junior year.

Khrani, an area housing roughly 20,000 located between

One newcomer remains silent in the din. Walking

dense thickets of green in Central Nepal. At home, she

alongside the crowd, a young face gazes out blankly from

and her four younger siblings live off rice and lentils

atop a small body. Its glossy red lips sealed shut; tired

farmed in their village and the