Darla School Annual Concert

Darla school is gearing up for an upcoming Annual Concert show which will take place for two days on 28-29^th of August 2015.The school has been preparing almost for a month for the final show. Different in- charges and coordinators are given different items to be practiced. Students, teachers, and school have been busy after school. Everyone couldn’t think about hanging around and losing time like that. When days crawl near, students and teachers bump here and there looking for participants, but to see only their own participants in other programs. It is good that each student is allowed to take part in only three items for maximum participation, and it’s also not taken seriously by our students. During rehearsal, there were some students taking part in four or more items. So be it, I say. Good dancers should. Even monkeys can dance when the music is on.

Our teachers, students and councilors are busy selling tickets for the show. The cost of the ticket is nu. 80. And the last year it was nu.70. This is the much mauled and ranted in the school when it comes to any collection. Where does the money go? It is too much? Are some of our not- a –sweet- talk among our students. And this is something to be criticized that is sometimes true. Last year, the show made a huge money and now there was no talk about it. There was a presentation in one of the various meetings that were used for buying stage decoration clothes and related things like that. But the stage remained the same or it had become poorer than before. The back wall of the stage is scratched, smeared, and blotted with so many tints of colors. The floor planks have become shaking pendulums and risky for our participants. And there was no musical instrument, no lighting amenities, no good sound boxes, and NO. But YES when it comes to working??

Anyways, we hope everything will be better this year. And HOPE we must. And like last year, our Darla community will come and watch the show. The show is all about showing the talents and abilities of our and your students. This show is dedicated and honored to our fourth Druk Gyalpo and Je khenpo on their 60^th birth anniversary. The school is also building a Jangchub chorten for the well-being of all. Come, watch the differences!

All set to go with the ticket on circulation

Invitation cards send to every individual around the school

Payment is NOT Enough

The salary I get by the end of the month is finely calculated and split. There are times when a meager salary cannot make a day stay in the account. It’s good it doesn’t occupy a space in the bank. By the end of the month, the credit would amount to nu. 10000/- or more leaving still in debt. I hardly get nu. 13,0000/-. This is how my money splits in a month.

1.       House rent: nu. 2,500/-

2.       TV bill: nu. 300/-

3.       Electric bill: nu. 100/- plus

4.       Car petrol: nu. 1,500/- or more depending on the emergency

5.       School collection: nu. 500/- or sometimes it amounts to more than 1000/-

6.       A miscellaneous donation like religious purpose: nu. 300/-

7.       Visiting sick people: nu. 300/- or more

8.       Visiting relatives: nu.300 or more

9.       Veggies, rice; foodings: nu. 3000/-

10.   For a child: nu. 200/-

Total=10,000/-

The salary I get now is nu. 13,314/- after a heavy loan deduction. The meager salary is not really enough. The expenditure escalates more than what I receive sometimes. We don’t have any money left for holidaying or such extra income for any kind of family trip.

This is a little bill of a rough calculation incurred in this month and is prepared by my wife.

And this donation comes frequently.

I really feel that teachers and doctors/hospital staff have to be paid handsomely because services like teachers are ‘sitting penniless on a beach job’; no TA/DA, no training, no outside tour, no nothing. Only a dry and meager monthly salary. I hardly know how to fill up TA/DA. I sometimes fail to say what TA/DA stands for.

When Rains Come, it Come in Battalions

So many graves things are happening in our school these days. First of all, our school vice principal’s wife has been hospitalized for several months. The subject he was given in the school to teach was in shamble. For more than a month, the classes V A, B and C science have been bolted in the bags; students thirst for a teacher to teach this study of scientific knowledge. When there was no hope of his return, and when the exam came knocking, our science department took an initiative to teach those classes. You know but our science teachers in Bhutan are loaded; loaded not with money but loaded with periods, they somehow agreed to adjust and spare their already compressed time. When I asked my class V students now, I heard that one period is enough to cover a chapter. This is how sciences are taught when everyone shares teaching; because it’s like nobody’s cake. They try to munch all at once.

Secondly, the school had to remain for a month without our principal, and which too saddened every one of us. The principal’s sister has a severe kind of trauma and further, she had a birthing complications, which kept both of them in Thimphu hospital ICU for many weeks. Life is difficult, I heard him saying.

Thirdly, two of our students were now behind the bar. Their sentences were up to three years. I feel pity about these two students from class IX and X who are locked up in the dark, who will miss their education, and their lives are blackened now. What, if it happened to a rich or noble group of people?  It won’t be news to be shared. These two boys committed a fourth-degree felony, it could have had settle before it got everything punched. That’s the cruelties of law enforcers sometimes; they don’t study behind the offense and nature of the crime as they should. These two boys were said to have entered inside a shop in Rinchentse and burgled some food items and some money. I heard that they didn’t even break a door or anything; they simply went inside the already unlocked door to survive one of the boys. I heard that one of the boys was staying himself in the rent and he had some difficulties getting enough ration to eat. It’s a pitiful story to be told to anyone.  That boy was the one to take that class x boy with him to that shop. See, bad minds infect and change other’s minds. I heard that they have taken the worth of nu. 8000/- or something.  The question now is that will they think good about life once they are released from the dungeon?

Fourthly, Bhutan football team was hammered by the Hong Kong team. What a disgrace? Bhutan must now focus on some very necessary developments like road, drinking water, poverty, not just some routing playing. Don't do what we can't do. Do what we can do!

Anyway, I pray that this mid-term exam gets over before another misfortune strike here. There is a plan that our school is going to conduct a small ritual to drive these evils from here. The last review meeting was a fruitful one as everyone agreed to contribute nu. 1000/- for some months to lay the foundation of our school’s chorten. That meeting also decided that there is a need for ‘Threma’ rimdro in the school, to which the house unanimously agreed. Our national assembly will continue in the next session!