The New Year

With the New Year approaching, the countdown is soon going to commence. The time has come to bid farewell to the present year and welcome the New Year. While on this beautiful eve when I sit on my regular chair and open facebook to see the updates, I do not feel good, it feels wrong to be in room tonight, it gives me the bad feeling of being here. I see people updating their status in facebooks wishing prosperous year. I see them updating their plans for the New Year. I can picture how excited people are with their loved ones accompanying them, I am sure they are going to party this eve. 

In a glimpse of time, twenty thirteen has ended and as I look back, I see I have done nothing but then grown one year older. I can see myself became old but I have achieved very little to be happy of bidding farewell to this year. I promised so many things to myself when this year started, but the result I see is much less and unexpected. But, then I feel good in some ways because the year has gone very swiftly, I did not get sick and I was fine both mentally and physically. 

At this point of time when the New Year is just on the threshold, I promise to myself to be good and to do good. I have nothing much as a resolution for this New Year because I know I will not be able to achieve so, I wish I can be good to others and do well to others.

And yes, I miss my dear tonight. I, on the other hand, am sitting on my chair with a cup of hot water, reading the updates on the facebooks and twitter, and wishing I could be one of those lucky people who are going to the party this eve. How I wish I could be there with my beautiful girl tonight, holding her hand and asking her for the eve. I want to empty my pocket tonight. I want to take her to the party tonight and spend every penny I got in my pocket. Such occasions makes one miss ones beloved so much more than the other days.

I see her in pain

The child out of his stupidity and innocence grabbed the running car that resulted a minor injury to his leg. His elder sister who is few years older than him saw the incident and comes home rushing, only to bring the dreadful news to the mother. She exaggerates the facts and says that his leg fell under a running car whereby he got hurt seriously. Instantly the mother gets shocked, she gets alarmed, tears falls down her soft cheek as she roughly stands up to run to the spot. As she runs forward, she sees her son there smiling to her. Her boy is in pain she knows that but the boy still smiles because he is afraid of his stupidity and he fears that his mother may beat him. But then the mother still continues to cry, may be now the reason is different, different because now she drops her tears out of contentment that her son is not injured much like she thought.

                                                           hqstockphotos.com 

When she gets there, I do not know the reason behind but then she started to beat him, he is already injured a little and on addition, the mother starts beating him. I wonder what she was doing. As she beats her son, I can see her in pain but I wonder what kind of pain is she having? May be she was angry at his stupidity or maybe she was happy that he isn’t injured much and out of anxiety she is beating him. Interestingly, after she beats her son, she holds his hand takes him home, makes him seat near her and she cooks his favourite dish for him. The child eats the food and forgets all his pain and in a moment, you will find him smiling again and going back to the field to play. 

The answers are all hidden in her; mothers are very difficult to understand. Their way of thinking is completely different, it is difficult for us to understand them in times but we know there love and care for us. We know how much they worry for us, we know how much boundless is their love for us, we know how important are they for us. From the moment, we are conceived in their womb they started to take care of us. As a mother, they did not let us be burned by fire, they did not let us to be washed away by rivers, and they have always been watching us with intense love and care.

P.S

I love you so much mother.

We are Happy

It is a beautiful day today. The promising sun has already brightened my village before my wake and the clouds are disappearing with the each brightening rays falling over them. I can hardly see the moon. I can feel the gentle air blowing around me. It is a beautiful Wednesday morning, promising me the luck for a day and making me realize that I am one day older than the previous day.

How promising my village looks today? I wonder if there is any place more beautiful than this, I wonder if United States for that matter can be compared with my village. I feel proud to say that we are happy and we have everything that a man would need for survival.

With the grace of mighty god, due to the kindness of his majesty and owing to the luck of people, we have everything, everything that a man needs in life. We have homes to sleep, we have foods to eat, we have cloths to wear and all those necessary items that a man need, just like the people in United States would be having. Starting from medical facilities, educations, and communications, we get everything. In addition, the interesting fact is that unlike United States, here in Bhutan we get “free” education and medical facilities which makes Bhutan a better place to live in. What more do a man need?

Yes, I forgot, they are advanced, well developed and the standard of life is much higher than ours. They have made so much of inventions that Bhutan will take another century to make it up to them but then we are happy, that is all I would say. However, we have our own share of beauty, which we care a lot and feel proud to have it. That is the “PEACE” we have the natural environment we live in is so promising and fresh that our minds and hearts are always kept pleased and blissful.

With such a beauty that we hold, we get number of tourist visiting our country every year and upon asking the reason to visit our country they answer, they come here to see the beauty of our land. They visit to see what they have not seen and it is a matter of pride that we host them. I am proud to be Bhutanese and we are happy.

As I move North

As I gaze outside,
I see myself getting closer.
With winds blowing, so fast
I feel frightened.
so, to ease my flimsy mind
I try to get sleep which seems inconceivable
for I am excited to see home.

Journey seems traceless
but my mind is set for the target.

As I move north
I feel safe,
it keeps me reminding that I am on my way
As I move, further
I feel colder, signifying home,
Home that I have longed for days.

When the train stops on station
I see people with patient less faces
wanting all to hop in
Now and then, we see seller’s
with sweets, tea, fruits and cold drinks and so on,
shouting their possession to be passed on
as I grape one and swallow
it gives me the fervour to stay awake

With each passing second
I feel closer
my nerve gets the information
that I am not much far from home.

Thoughts are surrounded by parents,
my love escorts them
with my sisters awaiting together
I dream my family standing there,
and all I need is to be there, together.

My another Mother

I feel blessed to have you,
With all those love and care for me,
Heaven gifted me with another mother,
I feel safe, secured and protected.

I have seen our mother in you,
You have inherited everything of our mother,
You remind me of her,
I feel like having another mother,
Yes, I do have two mothers,
and I bow to you both and ask you for your eternal love and care.

From toe to head,
From heart to brain,
I see mother in you,
It is needless to admit that you resemble her,
For you are my second mother.

The looks, the manners and everything,
Just reminds me of our mother.
I love you my sister,
You have always been the best answer.

I thank you with all my heart,
I might have been rough in times,
But you made things much simple
You were my best friend, my best sister and my another mother,
I love you so much.

I hope everyone is doing well.

The number of people that one encounters in life is extraordinary outnumbered, we encounter so many people that it is impossible to count. However, only some becomes our friend, and some becomes more than just simple friends, close friend for that matter and the remaining are left as strangers for all our life though we have seen each other. From the day one of our life to the last day of our life we encounter with numerous people, some while walking through the street, some in schools, some in colleges, some in offices, some in playgrounds, some in parties and so on. There are so many ways that one meets another but then in a matter of seconds we get departed. We know them but our life goes on and we gets to know new people where we adjust ourselves with them.

For instance, my friends from high school and me are now no longer together, we are separated by distance and the medium to meet is very limited. Now they have met new people with whom they have adjusted themselves and me on the other hand has also met new friends with whom I have adjusted myself. Now we meet rarely but we miss each other. I hope you all are doing well.

We meet our old friends somehow in the busy street of life. As I see them, I wave my hands to greet them hello and I leave them waving them good stay and promising to meet again in future. I hope all my friends are doing well, I hope they are doing good and having successful lives. I wish them good fortunes, good health and good life. I have so many friends with whom I have met, somehow in life and there are thousands with whom I will become friend, so I convey my warm regards to all my friends. I love you all.

I hope, you all have not forgotten me yet. And I also hope you all are doing well with your lives all set. Please miss me for I miss you all. We meet in blue moons but I hope you all are doing good, having fun and are doing successful. It is a short life we say but I am sure we will all meet again in life, do speak when we meet and if you are busy, a smile will do for it conveys your message to me. Through this short piece of writing, I convey my warm regards to all my friends; I hope everyone is doing well. I am also doing well and I hope to see you all, somehow, someday in life.

Things I have heard...

Note: There are three different points elaborated below. Those are the points made in one of the Hindi movies that I have watched and I found it worthy to be shared.

The first point is that, the main purpose of humankind to visit temples is for the purpose of business. We see people visiting temples, monasteries etc. to pray only for themselves. We pray for dollar, health, power, status etc. all for our own personal need. We never say, ' how are you doing God or hope you are doing well God'. If the believe of God providing us with wealth, health, power etc. is not there then will there be a single person going forward and making offerings. It is some kind of business we are doing, we offer them butter lamps, incense, milks and in return we ask for our wishes to be granted, which are infinite and unlimited. Here, we can see how greedy we are indeed.

Most of the people while watching discovery channels, geography channels, etc. where it shows the scenes where tiger, leopard, etc. hunts their prey, for instance deer. We pray for the those prey to escape and hate the predator. If the prey is captured and killed we pity them, pray for their souls and if they escape then our hearts tend to be relax, we feel happy and then we close our televisions and we go for our lunch or dinner for that matter, but in those meals, we eat fish, chicken, beef, pork etc. Surprisingly we do not pity them at all. How can it be, we pity for that animal and now you are eating one. You hate that tiger but interestingly you too are a tiger for that matter for those fish, pig, cow etc.

We eat fish; hundreds of thousands of people are always seen catching fish every day, there are also thousands of people hunting animals. We kill them every day in hundreds and thousands. However, if there is an incident where a shark has ate human or were a snake has bitten a person then it will be subject to breaking news. We will see the news in newspapers, in television news etc. people will make it a big issue. But on the other, we kill them in thousands and we still don't consider anything, there is no value of their lives. If they kill one of us, it becomes national news, so we can see how crazy we are, how cunning we are, how selfish we are. 

These points are something that one should take note of and try to analyse it because it is something that we are morally bound to think about. As a person, we can think, talk and do so many things that animals can't do whereby with such abilities comes the responsibility, responsibility to change the world and make it a better place to live in. As for me, I can not promise much but then I will always try my best to change the world in my own small ways.

My Reasons for Schooling

Mother would hold my hand, drag me and then would even use sticks for that matter to send me school. I was innocent; I never understood the reason for me to go to school every single day. I would try to make excuse of falling sick, but she would never allow me stay home. With a cane on her hand, she would frighten me and would take me to school. I could do nothing than to cry in dismay. I never wanted to study when I was a kid but my mother wanted me to study, so I went to school with frustrations hoping every single moment for my mother to change her mind and let me stay home with her.

Then it continued and I grew little bigger, may be at around fourteen fifteen of age, I started to admire beautiful girls. I was so fond of girls by then. I would always loves to stare at those beautiful girls with such contentment that it inspired me to go to school every day. Now, I would never seek permission to stay back at home because by then I was so much engrossed to see beautiful women and school for that matter is one of the few places where you will encounter profusion of beautiful girls. So, I went to school just to satisfy my longing to see beautiful young charming girls.

As I continued schooling, I began to think of becoming someone in life. My teachers would always motivate us to have ambition in life. They would inspire us to become someone in life, they would make us imagine ourselves becoming Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, Pilot, etc. which were so fascinating and exciting to imagine of. As a result, I got inspired to become one, so, I went to school.

Now, I suppose I understand the real meaning of going to school. I guess I do understand the importance of “Education” in life. As we say in Bhutanese, ‘Education is like an eye to see the outside world’. Education is a very big topic and its importance cannot be explained in few lines. Therefore, I am here, pursuing my bachelor’s degree with the hope to learn new things, to learn more, to know world and to reform world.

Visit to Anand Buddha Vihar

A plan to visit Buddhist temple in a foreign land was made months ago but we were able to make it come true only on 8 September 2013. Since, we are far from our home and the very fact that we have never visited any temple outside our own country inspired us to explore Buddhist temples in India. With the help of our Indian colleagues, we did some basic research and found one Buddhist temple, which was not very far from our college. The temple is named as Anand Buddha Vihar, it was consecrated by His Holiness Dalai Lama on 6 April 2003.  

Two Indians and three Bhutanese, all Buddhist followers filled with excitement went to visit the temple. The journey was not very long as expected. We started at 11:30 by our school bus, which took us until the junction from where we took an auto and made our way to temple. Upon reaching temple, we found that the temple is locked and there was a notice pasted on the door where it was written the time of opening and closing of the temple. We realized we were in the wrong hour. The temple opens from 5 am to 8 am in the morning and 5 pm to 9 pm during the evening. With a hope that they may consider, we went to seek permission from the monk who was residing just below the temple but then he was a man with principles and asked us to visit during evening. We lost our hopes; it was so disheartening because we hardly get time to come out of the college for such trips due to our packed schedules. It was a time of mourning, so we sat in front of the closed temple doors wishing it to be opened with a sad face.

Yes, miracle happened! The caretaker of the temple who saw us while having conversation with the monk came with the keys and opened the temple for us. I suppose it was blessing from the heaven above who was watching us praying them to bless us today to see them through temple. With a big smiles on our faces we entered into the temple bowed down to the statue of Buddha and the sat inside for a while. Since, it was off-hour, we made it quick and upon coming out of the temple, we thanked him with a big big smile.

The feeling of real peace, security and happiness can be found only inside the temple. Your heart tend to beat slow, you automatically gets relax, calm and you feel so secure, you feel like praying all your wishes, your heart tend to complain much. For instance, you will complain about about your health, your studies, your financial stability and so on. However, at the end of the day, one will never find a peaceful place than being inside temple.

We are planning to visit the temple ones in every semester and next time we will make it on time.

Marriage for all the Relationships

I think relationship per se in Bhutan is a new concept, which probably made its way to Bhutan by late nineties with westernisation creeping in. When I say relationship, it is not that of mother-son, father-son, sister-brother or anything for that matter, by relationship I mean the relationship of a man and women who falls into so-called “love”, who wishes to get married and live their life together for rest of their times. Our society, which I quote in quote “primitive” only, knew about marriage and never came up with the idea of a relationship before marriage. People in our society in olden days were all subject to arranged married. For instance, the brides parent in “singay-gyalem” (one of the classic love story of Bhutan), did not accepted their love consequently resulting in the death of lovers which proofs the very fact that there did not exists the concept of love; parents were the sole person who would choose your spouse. Such traditional customs has its own pros and cons but then today I am here to talk about the new concept i.e. “love”.

Only if every relationship was given the title of marriage then there won't be any fake promises and so called ‘break-up’ shall decrease dramatically. The reasons for people getting involved into such relationships are solely of the fact that they are in love and have decided to live together. During the course of their relationship, they tend to make promises, vow to hold onto one another in times of good and bad and then they even tend to plan their future together. The person who is serious about their relation takes it as a reality and makes every possible means to keep the fire burning. However, promises fades, love fades, people are changed and hearts are broken. Consequently, those who were serious about their relationship gets into poorest situation, the pain they go through will be no less than the divorcee will. The only thing different is the title they get, one will be called “divorce” and the other is called “break-up” which in its meaning means the same.

There is no right for a person to ruin others happiness. If you are not ready to take the responsibility and commit yourself into relationship, you should not simply take the chance and fool around because at the end of the day there are people who are serious about their relationship and ultimately they are the one who gets hurt and suffers from so called ‘love sick’. One should not drag oneself if one is not serious. A relationship is a promise to love one another, to hold onto one another for lifetime; it is the same promise that is made during marriage where they promise to be more than just loyal and faithful, where they promises to love each other and promises to live their lives together for rest of the life. 

If it was just to know each other, or understand, one another for that matter then restrict to dating. You can go for dating if you really want to know or understand the other person rather than purporting to be in love and making fake promises. Marriage is indeed also a relationship but with a higher title. Only if all relationships are given the entitlement of Marriage…

I have my Mother

Picture Source: http://msluffa.wordpress.com/2011/06/

I was in my junior secondary school when I happen to have a fight with one of my colleague over a chocolate. During the course of fighting, I threw a stone size of a cricket ball on his head, which resulted in bleeding. He was instantaneously referred to hospital and then was further referred to Thimphu Referral Hospital. The issue became much more serious when principal called my parents asking them to visit him instantly. Since, dad was on tour, mummy made her way to school. The room was no better than hell, surrounded by dozens of people yelling at me incessantly, with bamboo sticks on their hands, I was there, holding my heart that was in the verge of blasting. There I saw my mother, knocking door and asking for permission to step in. she was the same women I have been since birth but then at that moment I saw her like a God, Saviour coming my way to rescue me from those evils. Mummy as always was in her traditional dress with Rachu(scarf wore by women in Bhutan), with her head lowered down to earth and she spoke in a very low tune as if like she was the one who created that havoc. Seeing my mother in that situation my heart melted in pain but poor was I for I could not do anything then to shed my tears. On the other hand, those evils were shouting at her as if it was all her fault. Nevertheless, mother was being calm and was trying her best to mediate with them but her voice went into the deaf ears. 

The talk went on until the moment when principal said, “I am going to expel your son. I cannot take this anymore; he has always been a problem. You can take her home and need not have to send him to school from tomorrow”. When she heard this, she came near me instantly, started slapping me, and was yelling on me. My Saviour became my predator and turned to a tigress. She was shouting at me on top of her voice. I closed my eyes for I was feeling ashamed of my action but suddenly the principal and teachers came for my rescue and saved me from further beating. I was stunned at that moment. Principal asked me to wait outside and my mummy was there with them in the room talking. After around couple of minutes mummy comes out of the office, holds my hand and takes me home. I could see her tears still flowing, I could hear her pain in her voice, I could see the intensity of pain in her heart but I was afraid to speak anything for I knew it was all because of me. She didn't told me anything but I knew the depth of pain she was going through then, so I promised to myself with all my heart, no matter whatsoever happens in my life, I will never make her shed tears for me again, even if I was to die I will make her smile and then I will leave.

Ever since then, I have always tried to make her proud of me, I have made all my attempts to keep her smiling, and I promise I will die in making her happy. I love you so much mummy.

Incident

Note: The incident that I am going to narrate below took place in one of the Higher Secondary school in Bhutan. I heard it from one of my best friend and I found it worth sharing.

Before going to the actual incident, I would like to give a small background of schools in my country. Schools in Bhutan, especially in remote areas are boarding schools. Since, the villages are scattered all over the place and the very fact that Bhutan is a developing country we do not have higher secondary schools for every village. As a result, students will have to go to boarding schools for their higher studies. Upon reaching school, there are some rules and regulations in the school like any other schools in the world, which you are entitled to follow strictly. In general, boarding schools in Bhutan have rules that are almost similar to one another. Some of the rules will include restriction of the students to go out of school premises without permission from the school authorities then consumption of alcohols, cigarettes, tobacco are strictly banned. Every student have to always be in uniform in the school campus and above more everyone is to practise drig-lam-nam-zha(discipline) which indeed is the top most priority. Those students who breach the rules and regulations of the school will be subject to serious disciplinary actions, which include thrashing, detention, suspension and sometimes-even termination of the student from the school.

Here I begin with the incident. It was during the one of the busy school days where some of the girls were caught drinking some kind of alcohol by the school authorities, which was a serious issue. The girls went out of school premises without any permission and came back drunk. Since, it was a serious issue; parents of the students were called upon. However, the parents of the students who were involved in drinking were a person who holds key position in the district. Nevertheless, owing to the seriousness of the act done, it made the school authorities to call the parents of those students. Meanwhile, in order to maintain the pride and fame of the school, the authorities made all the students to work, so that when those parents come to school they can see our school clean and well organised. They made the students to cut the grasses, paper picking, sweeping of the corridors, roads, drains and the students were also made to clean the hostel rooms and surroundings. The very purpose of those parents coming to school was because of their children indulging in bad activities but then to the contrary their action made all students to work. 

It is funny in some ways because the parents coming to school was not because their children has achieved something of appreciable thing but then they were called upon so that they are aware of their children’s indulgent in bad activities, so that they can give them necessary advice and to take an undertaking on behalf of their child. Nevertheless, they were welcomed like as if their children has won something great and that they are there to witness their children’s achievement. Above more, the very fact that it made other students to work for their welcome was ridiculous indeed in my own opinion.

Last Letter

Dear Tshering,

I am sure you will recognize my handwriting and need not have to go to the end of the letter to see who I am, because I know you have engraved my writings in your heart. However, my love today I write this letter to you to tell you that this letter will mark the last of my letters, from now on you need not have to wear your spects to read my letters because this letter is going to be the last. With my heart filled with happiness, I am writing this letter to inform you that this letter will be last of my letters because of our decision made last week. I love you so much my love and I promise to love you for the rest of my times.

I am so happy to say that it is our sixth year in relationship and with each passing moment my love for you increases, I love you so much baby. We were complete strangers seven years back then, but our fate brought us together and we became friends. Moreover with our daily conversations that extended late nights brought us closer to one another and the day was not so far when our conversations became top most priority of our day. No matter whatsoever we may be doing in our daily chores, at the end of the day we will always find ourselves in a chat or in a call. "Sometimes heart does not agree simply to be friends", our heart tends to act differently when seeing that particular person. And our hearts finally accepted the fact that we have gone too far from just a simple friendship. Approximately, after one year from the day we became friends I propose you. This is what I wrote to you;

“Dear Tshering,

I do not know if it is too early to say but then I feel like I need to confess you about my love for you. Tshering, I love you. There is not even a single moment of my day where I will not be missing you; you are in my heart, in my brain, in my soul and in me all the time. I love you so much that I believe I will rather choose to die if someday I find myself without you……

Please do not get offended when I say I love you, I do not intend to hurt you. I love you so much and no matter whatever your answer will be, we will always be best friends”.

I still cannot describe the feeling of contentment and relief I got from your reply where you admitted your love for me. The day was like winning an Oscar for me. I love you so much my love. I promise in keeping Ken-Cho-Sum in between us that I will love you for rest of my life and will do every possible means to keep you happy. I love you, I adore you and ever since I first laid my eyes on you, I was very much certain that my eyes would never again see someone more beautiful than you. 

This letter will be the last of my letters and I am so happy that we finally decided our future. I love you so much.


P.S
We are getting married soon…: D

A Written Plan

With all my heart filled with excitements, I shall get a cab and move towards CST (College of Science and Technology) to see my dear love for the first time on the second day of my arrival to Bhutan. I can feel the gentle air awaiting for my arrival, I can see those birds who have already started singing for my welcome, I can already see my love out there at the gate waiting for me with so much of love hidden in her heart. It should not take more than fifteen minutes to reach the gate, but I am damn sure those fifteen minutes will be equivalent to thousands of years.

Yet, then what should I be doing upon reaching there? What should my actions be on seeing her? Should I shake hands or should I hug her first? On the other hand, should I just say ‘hello’ without any touch? I should rather talk to her and ask her preferences before doing anything because no matter what I do, at the end of the day all I desire is to see her happy. Okay so now, the greeting ceremony is left for her to decide, I should rather plan for the next scene. Going further I should take her on a walk, upward should be the better option because downward it is the main town with so many people and all I wish is privacy. Then we shall be walking, I shall act little bold and hold her hands while we walk and talk. I will try to make her feel comfortable with cracking jokes in between our conversations because I know my love is a timid person and the very fact that we are meeting for the first time, it is likely to see her turning red like an apple. I would really love to tease her when she turns red but then I should rather try my best to comfort her and bring her to normal.

Then we should be sitting because she might get exhausted if we kept on walking. We should sit somewhere at the top of the hill because I want to make our date the most memorable one and a place to sit on the top of the hill will make it perfect. Yes, it should be at the top of hill for we can see everything from the top and I like to feel winds, which means like a love because we can feel both but can never see. Next, it will be continued by talks on our lives, on our future, on our feelings, on our togetherness and so on. But one thing that hunts me down is the idea of we being surrounded by silence, what if our conversations gets occupied by silence, what if we get out of words and what if our first date gets filled with emptiness? 

I want to make our first date a day to be remembered for rest of our lives, I won’t let such emptiness ruin our day, I will rather prepare some notes so that at the end of the day when I close my eyes for sleep I can say to myself with a satisfaction, ‘yes we did it’. It should approximately take less than two hours and then finally, we should be back on our way to gate. Upon reaching gate, I shall accompany her to her hostel and make my way back to hotel. I can feel the mixture of feelings in me. I will be happy and glad for we are meeting for the first time and the very fact that we have finally met will make my day a day to celebrate but then on the other hand, it will be very gloomy moment to leave her. Overall, I will be happy for I have now met my Wangmo.

Like any other couples I will also go for my first date with my love, like them we will also hold our hands, like them we will also get ourselves lost in the world of romance with laughter, smiles and enjoyment accompanying us. I have read in books, seen in movies and I have seen in person so called lovebirds or lovers for that matter going for their first date. I have seen them dating, sitting side-by-side, laughing with immense love, watching each other for hours and never getting bored. How lovely do they appear, oh God! I want the same thing with mine. I too have the yearning for those moments, I have waited for this moment since immemorial time, I have waited for this for I am sure god have planned this moment for me sooner or later but it is destined. Now that my plan is ready, yes my love I shall see you soon. I AM COMING MY LOVE.