Remembering Old Times

My  Pry school

Did you ever derive an immense pleasure, happiness and often become emotional just by a glance of photos that are posted in the social media which has some connection to you in some way or the other? The photos speak louder than words! It happens to me quite often. Recently Dasho Pelzang wangchuk, the MP of Jomotsangkha-Martshala Constituency (my constituency) has uploaded some pictures as an update of the ongoing construction of farm roads to my gewog center. Lauri gewog under samdrup jongkhar Dzongkhag is by far the remotest gewog in the country and perhaps the last one to be getting a farm road connection. The place which the photo was taken has special connection to my childhood days, firstly I have lived most of my teen years at there, secondly the river-Jomri (dasanrri river) is one which would never be forgotten by my family because we have a gray story connected with it. I lost my own brother to this very river.

The View from door-like  rock of the small town Jompa

Anyway looking at the pictures, it seems the place and surroundings still look same but with the feeder road coming up, we can expect a drastic change in time to come. The confluence of Jomri, and the Marphayri (Marphay is a small village above that river) as we call was the main swimming pool of us as kids. Every Saturday we would go there and swim only to get scolded and lashings by the teachers back in the school hostel. As a kid who realizes how much teachers care about once in the school as much as we are cared by the parents at home? We often misunderstand this with capital punishment but frankly I am indebted for instilling in me the sense of responsibility with canes at school right from the primary school.

The Confluence of Rivers

The confluence of has yet another very special connection with me. Every winter vacation, I would accompany my dad carrying log of wood for the construction of buildings we can see at presents that are the heart of the small town of Jompa today. It was during those days when new offices for gewog adminstrations and new BHUs were just coming up. And I with my dad and some other folks like me would struggle hunting for some cash for the  school expense the coming year. We would carry the log, cross the river, and then climb back to the mountain top along the marphayri up where the logs were being cut, then do second trip down the valley to the confluence. We would have ice-cold packed lunch on the rock by the side of river and then continue carrying those logs to the site. Life wasn’t easy and particularly for my dad, winter season was the hardest because there was no source of income for my schoolings other than those that involved physical strengths like construction works. If we were short of luck, there wouldn’t be any construction works in winter and that was the worst, because then we had to borrow from those who had and that wasn’t easy as well because being same people from the same community who expects one to have? But anyway, my parents managed somehow and when times for the new academic sessions begin, I would be given enough. Despite the education being free in Bhutan, thanks to the visionary kings, it would still be difficult for people like me to go the school during those days and perhaps that is why, I had never even once thought about quitting school.

But life is changing rapidly now. The living standards have drastically improved in the community. More and more people buy and take white rice from nearby Assam markets, more people knows the value of education and admits their kids at young age to the school nearby and it is good to see that from one village only there are more than one candidate aspiring to take part in local government elections. And with the farm road finally knocking their door steps, we can only expect better. Will it make the life better? Will it come at the cost? Well, let’s see after few years down the line.

Picture Courtesy: Facebook, uploaded by MP