A Sweet Narrative Talk with Elated Educated farmer

SonamChoden made a worthy choice to get out of school and attend her farm

When a parent enrolls their child in school, their first advice usually is, “child, I want you to go to school so that you can become big Dasho in future and live comfortably”. But with change in time and with almost over many thousands of children in school and little more than thousand graduates completing their schools every year, how many jobs can government give? What is wrong with going back home and this is what Sonam Choden says.

The concern of the hour is the unemployment. With no job of their choice, youths are resorting to drugs and other social nuisance. But given the time to stop and think, our farms back home are getting fallow, the villages discarded and yes there is acute shortage of farm employment.

Sonam is a happy, educated and successful farmer in Shegoen in Chukha and she is a school dropout. She leads comfortable life with not much of worries. She is a boss and the subordinate herself. She attends her farm on her own will not necessarily from 9:00AM in the morning till 5:00PM in the evening. The 3 acres of land she owns an inheritance though gives her all basic needs. She cultivates red carrots and potatoes in it and every harvest time, she is most elated farmer. She lives in comfortable 2 storied typical Bhutanese house and owns good number of livestock. Her favourite Jatsam in lactation period gives her good milk and the products, her pig in the sty is rapidly gaining weight, she picks almost couple dozen of eggs from layer house. She earns good amount of money, eats quality food and wear decent clothes. Hence, she has no complains or regrets whatsoever.

Like any other kids, she had the option of completing her studies and serving the nation. “Serving nation do not necessarily mean working in civil service”, pointed out Sonam. She added that refraining from being the social nuisance rather working gainfully in the farm is an undefeated way of serving nation. And she has a point here.

Four years ago she left her school, when her parents and most importantly herself realized that she is more important to be home with her aging parent than in the school, she is content in her own standard. She is the only child born to her parents and if she says if opted otherwise, the land her parents own would have turned fallow and the house ruined. Hence, one day she found herself quitting the school and coming home for best possible cause.  

With no exception, she was sent to school. She did fairly well in studies in the ChapchaMiddle Secondary School. In 2004, she was studying in class X and when she was bogged down preparing for her board exam, there was a call from her parent, the call that will never come again, the call she could not refuse, the call asking her to come home and the call that decided her destiny. After serious contemplation she opted going home and surely did she headed home.

Soon, Tashi Lham and many other friends followed the suit. They are now content working afterall all works are works. At the end of the day is living comfortably. The green field almost glaring in the clear summer sun, with all the fields filled with leafy potatoes is any indication that Sonam more wanted at home than in the metropolis city. If her precious ‘phazhing’ is saved from discarding, Sonam Choden is the cause of all and she alone deserves the credit.