The GPL thing

If you are an engineering student in one of the engineering colleges of India, you would probably know what I am going to write about. GPL is one of the most prominent activities you will notice in the engineering college (I am not sure if it also exists in other colleges).  If you have birth day or if something good has happened to you, or get job, then you aren't escaped! You are treated even worse than the animal for a moment with hard leather belts, with slippers or even with rod of sticks until you have zebra crossings on your back. You don’t know whether to cry or to laugh. That is the immediate price of happening something good.

A friend of mine after the placement.

 Nobody knows exactly as to how this GPL thing came into existence, but there isn't one who isn't aware of what happens in GPL. GPL stands for Gand Pe Laat. A friend of mine tells me that the concept of GPL originally started within a group of friends; when something good happens to one of the friend, others used to whip his ass (Gand) out of jealousy. But now it has become more than mere jealousy, it has become a custom, a trend in fact. For example a friend is being placed, instantly every other mate assembles like bee and he has the worst nightmares for a moment then. If you haven’t yet figured out the extreme drama during the GPL session, imagine yourself how you would lash that sluggish and careless old bull on your way. That is what I instantly remembered on my first witness.

I have never participated in this GPL thing, yet never missed to witness every episode on the lawns of the hostel and sometimes I just think if the person getting GPL isn't regretting at all after all for getting a decent job, or for happening something good for that matter.

But again the good thing about this GPL thing is there is nothing like taking it personally, no one gets hurt emotionally or takes to the their heart, no one get angry although some begs like a street beggar just to save his ass, it is just for that rigorous moment that is all matters and after that everything becomes normal. You just have to wait for your turn someday.

I write about this because it is very common in final year as lot of fellow friends get placement. This is how an Indian engineer makes his last memories just before he leaps into another environment!

The Three Deadliest Words in the world

The past week has kept me busy. When the friends and fellow Bhutanese were having good time celebrating the 33^rd birth day of our beloved king, the fifth Druk Gyalpo, I had my first unit exams. I had no good time even to wish my king, yet better late than never, I would like to wish my king a very happy birth day, may the blessings of Buddha Amitayus always be with you and may the eternal sun of happiness always shine in the land of thunder dragon under your kind guidance and dynamic leadership.

People say there are choices to everything; I don’t know how far this is true. There is a time when nothing works and you have nothing but to resort to certain things which isn't your choice. A lot of choices on the other hand seem to spoil the very sanctity of our good instinct, while no choice is but a curse that haunts and leave us dejected. Sometimes we end up making wrong choices that result a lot of regrets later. Does the god play dice too?

Some days back, I was randomly browsing the internet when I caught a sentence: “the three deadliest words in the world” Do you know what that is? The three deadliest words in the world is: “it’s a Girl” I wasn't shock to know this, but what really shocked me was by the fact that a woman in the southern India strangled eight of her own new born child just because they were all girls. In a TED talk by Evan Grae Davis, the director of the documentary ‘it’s a girl’(below) says that 200 millions of women are missing! That’s a hell lot to be imagined. The talk (video) say it all.

Well, Bhutan as such neither have one child policy or similar son preference culture like China nor do we have a system like dowry as India, which is but the biggest cause for  the lost of women, I think we do have increased rape cases, domestic violence and other harassment against women. There are shocking news  about such cases in the medias and this only means a question of how different are we from the rest of world. Of course the organizations like NCWC and RENEW are doing their best to protect and lift up the image of women in the country which is very much appreciated.

A Good Surprise!

"When we are desperate, deprived and in need of, even a penny is more worth than pound" This is a sentence which I ask myself too often to remind me whenever I reach some point along the journey of my life. I am sure every student, like me at one point of their time, had in their mind this very sentence, particularly when you are broke.(..:P)

The situation is different for others, for well-offs a even a pound is nothing, they care less, expects more and they are lavish, because they live in a world completely different than us although we are all on this planet earth.

Likewise, for people like me, forget others, just getting qualified after tenth standard to continue the studies in the government school (even with not so good branch) is very much a big thing. This is not only a comfort to myself, but to my parents too, who sweats day in and day out to sacrifice for me. It is not only my success, but their's’s too. Such simple things and small achievements not only bring smiles to our faces, it is also a very big relief.

Yes, I am happy today for my sister; my little sister who surprised us all (me in particular) with a pretty good results in the BCSE exam. It was surprising, because for the last eleven years she never reached even 60% in her exams and today when I checked her result, I was thinking if I had some problem with my eyes, but it wasn't.

When I saw the post in Face book by the BBS stating that the result for the class X was out and that the cut-off is 61.4%, I was rather numb, and I was hopeless for my sister. I felt pity on her. I was saddened. I even blamed god for being unfair to my sister for it was just 58.6% during my time. What she will do now? Where will she go? Who will bear expenses even if she wants to continue her studies?  There were only questions without answers. Without much hope, I opened the www.internet.in loaded with her index number and the time after that was when I thought if it’s is even right to judge before anything.

I immediately dialed dad’s mobile number to break the good news. They (sister was also with dad) were on their way to Minjiwoong, the road point in our place with horses, get potter for some civil servants in my place. She seemed nervous in the beginning, but I did not prolong her nervousness. The good news was indicative in the tone of my talking too and she seemed excited as I told her the marks she scored in each subjects. She even seemed unsatisfied with one of the subject’s marks.

I don't know how many students would be elated and excited right now for their good results and on the other hand how many more would be weeping for not being able to qualify, but ultimately this is life and I do hope and pray for the success in their life ahead.

For You My Dear

Every time I am sad and sorry

You cheer me and make me merry

Every time I fall and lose hope

You lift me with bundles of scope

Every time I get struck on the track

You find me and help me crack

You make my days lighter and healthier

You make me feel more and wealthier

You make me feel loved and cared

Which can never be measured or compared

You complete me and keep me alive

Yes! With you, life is easy to survive

You are what you are- the real you

And that is what I like most about you

Far and separated we maybe this valentine

Definitely we will next and together we will dine

Together we will feel the warmth of the day

Together we will sail this life and find way

The way that will make each day but valentine

For life is too short to brood over the rare shine

      HAPPY VALENTINE DAY!..

ལོ་གསར་ལེགས་སྨོན།(Losar Lek Moen)

འདས་པའི་ནམ་ལོ་ཆུ་ཕོ་འབྲུག་ལོ་འདི་།།

ད་འདས་ཨིན་རུང་ཕོ་མོ་རང་སོར་ལུ།།

ལེགས་དང་མ་ལེགས་འཁྲུལ་དང་མ་འཁྲུལ་ཚུ།།

སེམས་ལས་བརྗེད་པར་ཕང་པའི་ལོ་ཅིག་ཨིན།།

ཨིན་རུང་ལོ་གསར་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་ཤར་ཚེ་ལ།།

འདས་པའི་ལོ་ལྷག་དགའ་སྐྱིད་ཉི་མ་ཤར།།

ནད་ཡམ་མུ་གེ་འཁྲུགས་རྩོད་ལ་སོགས་པ།།

མ་འབྱུང་རེ་བའི་ལེགས་སྨོན་རང་གིས་ཞུ།

རང་ལུགས་ནམ་ལོ་ཆུ་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་འདི།།

འབྲུག་མི་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་ཁག་ཆེ་ལོ་ཡང་ཨིན།།

ཐེངས་གཉིས་ཚོགས་རྒྱན་སྐྱུར་བའི་མཐའ་མ་ལུ།།

ཕན་ཅོག་གྲུབ་པའི་འཐུས་མི་སྐྱུར་བར་ཤོག།

 ཕྲོས་རང་བསམ་པའི་དོན་དང་རེ་བ་ཡང་།

མཐར་ཕྱིན་ལེགས་པར་འགྲུབ་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཡོད།།

ཡར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་དང་ལྷ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་མ།།

གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་འགྲུབ་པར་བྱིན་གྱི་རློབས།།

                                        བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།

                                                 

 Happy Water Female Snake Year!..

Questions we might ask our self

Bhutan is a peaceful country with no discrimination of any kind, but just for the sake of argument, if we look broadly in skeleton, we find that western part of the country is more developed in terms of any kind like infrastructure or living standard than the eastern. This is probably because of the so many reasons like the location of capital and most industries in the western region. Most part of the Eastern Bhutan are either only on the path towards so-called the development or some parts are yet to taste its flavor. This is just the fact.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the place where we come from is a hell lot to be imagined! Our Geog center is yet to be connected by the farm road and I am not ashamed to say it again here that even after about seven years, the road construction is just on midway to its destination, which otherwise in normal case would take at the maximum three or four years (my own estimation). And it will be still couple of years when people over there get the electricity. These are very  precursors to any kind of developments and we are still a long way to go.

Such scenarios instill in us so many questions as to why and what is wrong? The prime Minister of country made a gracious visit to the place recently (till the place connected by the road-Minjiwoong). It was perhaps his first visit after his government came into power and sadly he was unable to visit Lauri Geog, the remotest,  which isn't connected by road yet. When part of the places in Zhemgang, which are just like ours (or even worse!) were fortunate enough to have the privilege of making audience with his excellence in their own village, our people (of Lauri geog) weren't that fortunate. Instead, our people had to walk a day for that. My father called me that day at 5:00 AM to share the information that they were on the way to Minjiwoong.

With regards to developmental activities, the Prime Minister said that it was the most disappointing and poorest and asked the gewogs for good and convincing reasons for the slow progress. And that's unfortunate again. This raises another bunch of questions both to the people and government at large. Why such questions and sentiments at the very last moment, when the government is at the door of dissolution? Why not a little earlier before it was late or when it was amendable?

I think the glass is almost broken now and we need to go to the factory and re-process again right from the beginning.

With five political parties readying and preparing themselves in the next election, there is gonna be a huge tug of war. We also have more choices and at the same time extra responsibilities. Sometimes too much choices tends to destroy our very instinct and we become easy prey, but still with every guidance from the wise and educated and awareness, hope there is difference. Hope there shed some direct lights with better intensity.

Since its now water under the bridge what people need to think is ahead and forward. What we choose to do and exercise our own rights and prerogatives will determine our own future.

Few questions we might ask our selves and leap forward are:
1.What prominent changes do we foresee and expect ?
2. What do we aspire within our own prerogative?
3. How do we go for it?

What are your concerns and opinions?

Myth or fashion?

There is myth behind every small thing in Bhutanese culture. I think we Bhutanese are highly influenced by such myths and everything we do are in some way related to the lifelong myths. What we do or how we approach are rooted and connected to various myths and logically I think they are all a preventive measures; something that make us more cautious and careful. Or now a day’s these myths seems more of a fashion!

Behind every parts of our body, there seems to be myth. I heard that if we don’t crush the ear wax waste after it is taken out; it will frighten us after we die and that we should not cut our nails or hair after the sun is behind the horizon of a mountain, for some weird reasons. Or if we don’t make hole in our ears, after we die the lord of death - Choeki Gyalpo will pierce our ears with huge and hot metal pin and make us suffer. All these are funny, right?

 I asked my friend who is presently doing masters in Buddhist philosophy in Calcutta, if such myths comes in Buddhist texts which some does. I asked him particularly about the hole in our ear and I wasn’t surprised.  He said that from the Buddhist text called ‘Nenga Melong ma’ the making of hole in our ear is just for beautification, a fashion in modern world.

Well; this is up to individual though. Of course girls look good and add to their beauty with their best ear- rings. Any ways, last Monday evening, after the class I was into movie when a friend of mine Sangay inquired if I will accompany him to making hole in the ear. I suddenly remembered of the myth and replied; ‘OK, let’s go’. We went outside the campus to small jewelery shop. It was 50 bucks for a hole in one ear.

 Why did I make hole in my ear? Was I afraid of the myth? Who cares afterlife after all? Frankly, the word fashion did not come to my mind until another friend of mine reminded us that these are just for fashion. But at least I am out of the league of being punished by the lord of death... :P

The First Date

The mid summer sun was almost into the horizon of the mountain. From the opened window, Dorji could feel the warm and a gentle evening  wind. He nervously got himself dressed-A black jeans and red shirt. He looked at the mirror and said himself: "You can do it; come on! you are matured now". Just at that moment, the Nokia tune of his mobile phone rang. It was his love- Karma inquiring whereabouts him. He replied in attentive voice; 'I am on my way'
'Where are you going Kota (brother) in the evening?' Asked his sister from the other room, where she is weaving kira. Dorji pretended to be normal and causal. 'A high school friend is calling me; I will be back by dusk Ana (sister), it has been for sometime since we met.' Lied Dorji confidently.
With some kind of excitement mixed with nervousness, he walked hurriedly towards the Memorial chorten; the meeting point discussed before in the call. It was first time Dorji is going to meet karma after he expressed how he felt and what she meant to him some six months ago.That was why Dorji was nervous; it was his first date! He doesn't wanted to screw it.

Before college, Dorji and Karma were good friends. They would joke and make fun each other, which neither of them mind. But secretly for Dorji, she was more than just a good friend; he wanted to tell her that, yet he never had the guts, for it was his first experience. Despite the same kinda course after XII standard, they were placed into different college, but Dorji never gave up and, a glass of Vodka one day helped him.
He walked through the pedestrian path, passed kelki high school and reached the chorten. There she was,at the gate of chorten. She looked stunning in her best attire; navy blue jeans with black flats, grayish shirt with a thin blue scarf around the neck. Her hair was tied to the back.
'Hi karma, I am sorry, I made you wait'
'It's OK, I just reached a while ago'
'So, where shall we? Buddha Point?'
'That's fine'
Then a gap of silence followed. Dorji was out of words! His brain seemed empty.That was it! He scanned for words but was useless. Smiling each other and hiding-ly seeing one's face, they passed JDWNRH towards the Dr. Tobgay's school.
'Where do you exactly stay in Thimphu?' asked karma breaking the long silence.
'I stay in RICB colony above the youth center. You stay in Changzamtok right?'
'Yeah, I live with my sister'
This helped Dorji to bring some stuffs to talk like their college days and their experiences, but still he was short of words and most of the time, it was just the silence and smile that accompanied them.
It was Dorji's first visit to Buddha point. He had just seen that magnificent Statue only from the distant place or from the bus while travelling. He began to feel guilty on the way to sacred place, although it was only a plain evening walk like any normal people. But soon he was rather surprised, in fact very much by the scenes along the way. They were both blushed. Every young couples seemed to stare at them. The aged on their evening walk seemed to execrate their walk.
Dorji realized that Kuensel Phodrang (Buddha Point), rather than a sacred place where people pay obeisance and prayers under the very presence of huge statue, it is a popular dating site for lovers. He felt sorry for himself.
After not reaching even the mid way, it was getting dark, Dorji and karma turned back, he reached karma till the Hospital to her house and himself back home uneasy with guilt. He kept asking why did he choose Buddha point after all for his first date?
"Did you meet your friend?"asked his sister, still weaving the kira as Dorji entered the door.
"Yeah, it was a refreshing moment" replied Dorji heavy heartily realizing himself the number of lies he told that evening.

College Life- Golden Life

Not everyone in life invariably succeeds to get to the college. Some fail along the way, while for others, even if succeeded, there are reasons to blame and the twist of karmic connection sways them away. The weather isn't always fair and fine for everybody.

Well, for me fortunately or unfortunately I was able to get to College. I was one amongst 140 students who availed the government Scholarship in the year 2009 to study abroad. Since then I have frequently wondered as to why everybody says college life is a golden life.

It was on 29th August 2009 when I actually knew my Placement- NIT Allahabad. I was pleased and excited to explore the place, away from home. I can never forget my first train journey (in third tier AC) to the college from Hashimara (West Bengal) to Allahabad Junction. "Where are you from?" said the Ticket Taker (TT) of the train. 'We are from Bhutan, going to college ' said my friend. 'Enjoy the journey' 'they are our guests, so treat them well' said the Ticket Taker to a person who was readying to provide us with sheets and blankets. The other people in the compartment were also cordial and nice. Among them was a man who was an army by profession, whom we talked to throughout our journey. He even provided us his mobile phone to contact our seniors at the college. That was when I realized how much hospitable and responsible persons are the Indians in general.

Most experts say that first Impression is the last Impression and I think it is not wrong. On 7th September morning at 10 AM we reached the college and the moment I entered magnificent Ganga Gate, a sense of excitement and pleasure ran down my nerves. I knew, at the instant that the place would be great, not only as a learning center, but wholly. Since then the first impression has never tarnished and a sense of smile always comes to my face, the moment I go back to that time. Albeit the differences in culture and the language specifically, which was an alien to me, I felt good and comfortable. The stranger friends were friendly; our three seniors made us feel like home. The warden and caretaker were very cordial and helpful; three of us were provided room number 73, Raman hostel.

September 7 2009 was my first day of the college life. I attended the class with so much vigor and enthusiasm until the evening when I realized that we were late by full two months and that we were in the middle of nowhere! Also most of the lectures were taught in Hindi, to which I was still an alien. But there was always hope; 'Everything is going to be fine' I used to console myself. And frankly, everything wasn't that easy! One side there was this academic thing which required so many efforts and there was another thing- a kind of freedom, nothing like that during the school days, where we are made to abide by so many disciplines and rules. A free internet connection in the room dragged all my attention, at times I even used to sacrifice my sleeps and get my eyes strained. And as such it was hard to define a clear boundary between the two. Of course the latter was always dominant.

Today when I flash back three years; from the moment I stepped into this environment; I can still feel the awkwardness, the hardships and moments of embarrassments. I can still feel how a foreign student feels in the foreign land. Memories of copying the practical and tutorial files at the very last moment, obtaining single digit number marks in the examinations, depriving sleeps due to late midnight chats with strangers on Face book and next day drooping in the class probably at the last bench are so vivid. But with every line above, I always had my time to redeem myself; something has always pulled me from going beyond the limitations.

I did not excel in studies, but neither do I regret nor am I saddened by that, I also don't feel bad either because at the end of day, I think learning isn’t only the good academic results we obtain, it is just one component. More than the high percentage, learning is how we become a better person, a better human being. I might have had very embarrassing moments either in the class because of failure to do home assignments or because I did not prepare in advance, yet these had only made me a better person. It has taught me what a real failure means or what it feels to be embarrassed. Not excelling in just the studies isn't failure. Trying hard yourself and still getting failed isn't failure as well.

Now I am beginning to realize why everybody says college life is a golden life. It is neither solely because we are able to bring very colorful results at the end nor because we get dozens of beautiful girlfriends or boyfriends. It is also not because we get to become best friends with so many people of diverse origin and culture, but because of how we choose to become one and fit into it. College life is that one period in our life where one gets to experience wide range of experiments, both good and bad, both easy and tough, both thick and thin. There are exciting and thrilling moments as there are sad and frustrating moments.

Perhaps the college life is the only time where everything gets messed up and you aren't aware of what you are messed up with, how everything got messed up or why you are messed up but by the time you are out of that mess, you realize it all and a timid and an innocent girl or a boy goes on to becoming the gentlemen and laudable ladies,(Hope this will happen to me!...)This sums it all in nut shell.

With excitement and lot of hopes, pride and dreams, I have stepped this Place and with a sense of satisfaction and smile I am going to bid farewell. I would really miss this place and time- the golden period of my Life.