Gedu Karoke

You started early from Thimphu on your trip to Phuntsholing all alone in your cozy private car. You might have preferred a girl join you from Chuzom checkpoint, but unfortunate enough, there are none waving you, asking for the lift. Instead an old aged woman from Gedu has waited for whole morning but everyone denied the lift for her and you didn’t even care to look at her.

This is Bhutan and all wear such attitude. What luxury is, if not shared with people in dire need? I don’t know if she can make it to home at Gedu. She has already left her daughter at Paro and if darkness fall, she has no one to put up for the night or don’t have enough money if there is any lodge around.

You lit a cigarette as you board the car after entry in the checkpoint. Putting on rock English music, you rock all the way. Tsimakoti, no girl still waiting lift!

"Your legs on brake, clutch and accelerator pains"

By the time you are at Gedu specifically Jumja, you are already feeling the fatigue. Your legs on brake, clutch and accelerator pains. Backache, tiredness and weary of long journey, you feel like to stop for a sip of beer. (Drunk driving is prohibited! RSTA courtesy)

Here is Yeshey Telephone Booth, atleast the billboard read. If you step inside, it is a bar. You order a bottle of 11000 beer, new brand from Bhutanese production, you see a young lady sitting in the corner.

"Before, you ask, she pours out melody for you through her well painted Dramngyen, the perfect Changpa"

She is Kezang Wangmo, 27 of age. She is from Gedu itself. She has been in the shop, not as waitress but an entertainer. Before, you ask, she pours out melody for you through her well painted Dramngyen, the perfect changpa for a beer. No compliment for her sweet voice, she deserves much. I was thinking she is fit in RAPA not by her beauty but her voice. And BBS certainly deserve a number from her to broadcast. But there was little I could do to help her.

But before singing, she remembers that she is a member of the MSTF, Gedu for HIV/AID prevention. She lectures making sure you are aware of it, all ABC of it. She asks if you are bachelor, you must carry condom in the purse. She means it for the good cause.

"Not just the number, but the style in which she puts the songs, her soft and enticing voice"

As far as I have understood her, she is equal to Aum Thrinlem mostly sticking herself to traditional Boedra. Not just the number, but the style in which she puts the songs, her soft and enticing voice. Now, you are finished your beer, you think sun is going down; you have yet another 40 or so kilometers till your destination. As you wake up, if you are kind enough, leave back some soelra, I did for my part, if not she won’t mind.

I pen this with the intention that she may be reinstated and get recognized. We sometime fail to understand the hidden potential, converging ourselves within the boundary of those metropolitan. Her talents deserves more than Gedu audience.