My Own Thoughts

Tring…..tring…the office phone buzzed. ‘Hello…this is Ugyen speaking’ I answered the phone. ‘Hi’, the first and short sweet accent on other side of the mouth piece allured me, which sounded like a melody in my ear ever heard. I haven’t been familiar with the accent but there certainly was the bond with the lady on other side of the wire. A couple of years ago, I leisurely roamed over the Bhutanese chat and the tempting nick among the chatters caught my attention. I tried my luck and after some minutes of chat succeeded in dragging her all the way to msn chat. Here, we shared our pics and survived upto that extent. We didn’t put in much effort to go further if not even didn’t wanted to also. The break was confronted for almost a year after which we again picked up the momentum and found ourselves indulging in the leisure chat. Day after day, we came closer until we gained an enough confidence sharing over the call numbers. And for no doubt, she has been always conservative. She chos...

‘If Community literally means all about the bond, cohesion and friendship among the people living in it, Lobneykha Community is undeniably an exemplary one. It is more than a conventional community, a community with so much social cohesion and closely knitted people. Lobneykha community under Chapcha Geog in Chukha Dzongkhag is very much renowned in the country for the strong union within the community members. The people in the community share a common believe that they belong to ‘Lobneykha set’ and they do anything but for the interest of the village. The clustered houses built attached to each other are the unspoken symbol of their attachment to each other. The village rests on the lap of a mountain facing the Wangchu River. The community composes of 81 households and grows mainly potatoes, Chillies and beans to sustain themselves. The community is fed by 4.7kms community road which connects to the Thimphu – Phuntsholing national highway. The incredible part that makes the com...

The spring would be the time to start the farm works. This is the busiest time of the year in farmer’s diary. The farmers will be all involved in cultivating their crops. The groups of farmers would be seen going to the field with a sickle in their hands and men with an axe. The smoke would be seen emanating from freshly prepared field so-called tseri cultivations. The terraces would be filled with mud and water and the sounds of men driving the oxen during the plough would be familiar voices around the villages. The shrubs will be soon cleared and big trees would be fallen down. The dry and hot sun don’t deter this spirited farmers working but for their stomach. The plants would soon bear beautiful flowers and the countryside would go wild green. Birds flock in to start their work too for breeding and making their nest. The delicate scent of these freshly budded flowers would soon fight the head turning bad smell. The last work for the season would be weeding the crops and wait until ...

Flocks living in the urban areas look back to their village as more of a mere exile. They think that the village life is a life of darkness. With no modern amenities such as access to road, electricity, Television, internet…etc, establishing oneself in the village would be the last option in the list of choices. People come to the metropolitan never to look back to their native. Yet, the facts remains here that almost everyone is originated from the rural areas only. But, the village in rural village has its own charm and delight to live in. Long before I moved to the urban areas after completion my schooling at my native village, I used to enjoy the life at my own village. Having not known and acquainted with the modern amenities, the lives in the villages were blessings for us. We had our own friends to play and own foes to fight with. The day in a village start with getting up early. Most of the farm work would be executed before the sun rise, way to escape the spell of heat of the...

It is no surprise when a dream woven so intricate can fail to achieve. Her dream failed her, moreso her parents and peers. It is also no more shocking when her appearance, the beauty of her proved the beast on her expedition to lead a more of happy life than the materialistic one. Her beauty earned her material happiness but not definitely the spiritual happiness. Now she is fighting over the conscience and the devil when she cannot herself define the life she is leading. Living in well furnished house, looking from the couch of the building down to the latest fads car, all her fiancée has gifted her; she is regretting the path in life she has chosen to tread. But now that she has chosen it, there is no denying rather than to continue the path not knowing where it is taking her. She has all that needs to be happy, all the money she require, well furnished house, the car that she need for locomotive purpose, a child to play and fiddle with. So, what is missing here? If people think ma...

Bhutan, the land of thunder dragon has witnessed itself undertake development at an incredible pace under the wise and dynamic leadership of His Majesty the fourth king, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuk, the monarch of his people. With the Ministry of Agriculture according the maximum thrust in mechanizing the farm, many sophisticated farm technologies has found its way to the Bhutan. The machines have now taken over the farm saddle from the animals. Today, instead of oxen pulling the plough, you will see that the power tillers have substituted them. Despite such dynamism taking roots in the country, there are some parts in Zhemgang where developmental activities have hardly touched them. In such parts of the country inhabit the people who have never heard of about the advent of such farm technologies. A 35 year old, Mr. Galang is a progressive businessman in Goshing. His commerce trip took him to other parts of the country. During one of his such trip, he encountered with the m...

‘Every single moment you craft a fake promise to entice an innocent girl, do you ever comprehend the brunt an illegitimate child has to bear for having no legitimate father. Folks, he/she is taunted. Imagine the heartbreak and shame mother has to go through when she is nagged into revealing the father. The following story is a touching episode One day the eight years old son of Lhazom returned back from school with tears in his eyes. The cause of his tears was the taunt he had undergone in school. His friends call him ’bastards’. Imagine the psychological shock the child has to bear when he is bullied just because he has no one to be called father. Imagine the plight of the child when is asked to pencil in the portrayal of his father and cannot phantom a picture. That day he nagged his mother to name his father. He narrated about the incidence of his friends mocking at him for being fatherless. To console and reassure her demoralized son, the mother was forced to unravel the story ...

In the word of Shakespeare, “Life is a stage where everyone plays a role,” and for the Gedu zombie man, life definitely is a stage because his life is nothing more than staging a play. He lives in the mercy of his audience, who if convinced enough having witnessed his performance would spare some cash or something to eat. He sings, cracks a joke, dance to the tune of the audience and react to the beats of audience drums. This he does singly to earn something to fill his hungry stomach. Every morning, he wakes up with the thinking of where he would find the lending ears and even if he found them, will they feed him? Nothing matter him, not those rude crowds sometime, who won’t think twice before throwing him bad remarks, but filling up his stomach through all means. Yet, he has survived thirty five years practicing the same trade of life – eating by entertaining. In the corner of the wall, one sees a congregation and for no ones doubt it is the Gedu Zombie entertaining the crowd. H...

“Root of the education is bitter but the fruit is sweet” some wise man said it. The fatigue of having to toddle to the school, fever of exams, the torture of having to burn the midnight oil, dozing in the classes and the stern rigors are hard to endure, few even give up on the way (where does that land?) but many endure it with utmost determination and commitment, because deep inside everyone knows it pays later. Kado in the tender age of 12 is negotiating the steep mountain with his school bag, full of books. He is on his way to the primary school in his village, almost 5 kilometers away. He has to make sure he is in the school to attend the morning social works; otherwise he is penalized for the absence. Unlike the students who reside nearby, he has no time to play on the way or throw stones on the birds. He is almost late and has hardly Pic Fortunately, the time he reaches the school, students have just congregated for the routine school surrounding cleaning work and he is just ...

All Animals are singly born to serve greediest of the species - one who tries to claim all of others – we the human being. Gallons of milks the cow produces are consumed by us letting the calf go hungry, the mighty numbers of eggs a hen lays in her life finds themselves on the frying pan rather than hatching into chicken, the cat helps keep away the mice - that most naughty creature who spoils the clothes and grains, dogs bark whole night to earn a morsel in the morning – All of them in the dedicated and committed service of superior species. BUT, never are we satisfied of their services. When we even go to the extent of claiming what last they are left to offer us (their carcass at least of those palatable) agree with me to consider this as most heinous crime ever. Dawala (an old ox) in Getena grew up to be the strongest and healthiest of the herd, given the lush green pasture available in the village, far away from the ill-effects of developments. The nutritious milk from his moth...

A boy on his educational expedition bid adieu to the village which remained stricken by the extreme poverty, away from all developmental facilities. Going back to the same village after ten years, he remains flabbergasted of the transformational path the village has trodden towards His Majesty’s noble vision of Gross National Happiness. Sangay completed his primary schooling in early 80’s at his own village, Goshing, the name of a hamlet that has never stretched out its skirt. The hamlet remained as an isolated and secluded community with its people existing in harmony with nature. They survived with what a nature has to proffer them in terms of varied wild foods, fodder, fiber, firewood and many others. On his journey from hamlet for his higher education at metropolitan, he turned to make a final stare from a vantage point that offers a sweeping view of his village. He could see how much developments it lacked. With no road network, electricity, cable and cars, it looked more like...

As the religion mentions, being even born as human is like the blind tortoise hitting the bull-eye in the yoke that keeps floating on the surface of the ocean. But, when the human life itself is not as blessing as it is referred to as, there is someone who wishes that it was better if they are not even born. Here one cannot blame them for condemning the human life, since the experience of the harder truth of the life compel them to think so. Gruesome past of which the wounds refused to heal Here is the unfolding of the past, the bygone days Tshering wishes to unfurl because she had had enough emotional torture having kept it buried deep inside her heart, known to none but herself. She thought that is how best she can fight the gruesome past yet when the wounds refused to heal; she is making another angle to fight the problem. Her psychiatrist says, the healing would be faster if she can speak out what she thought is much better kept deep inside. How many of us are ready to believe tha...

All sentient beings born in this world has one common exit, ending up in same way. The door that allows the exit is common to all of us. Irrespective of cast, creed and colour, one can only know that they are going to leave behind this beautiful world one or other day. This can be better put as ‘all born must die’. "Nothing is permanent and with every passing day, the forward march towards an end is made" Many leave after they have spent all their memorable days here in this materialistic world except those few unprovidential one, who sympathetically breaks up right at the peak of the life. When this happens, one is merely left to stand and accept with no option the harshness and the cruelty of life often referred to as most beautiful and sweet one. From this we can all make but simple statement that nothing is permanent and with every passing day, the forward march towards an end is made. And this is the law of being born which cannot be defied at any cost. "She was...