Happiness is the Gift of Life

We celebrated International Happiness Day on 20^th March. To mark this, I have a very short story told by my mother. I have briefed it here: In one urban center, let's say, Thimphu, there lived two boys; one was from a rich family and the other from a poor family. One common thing they had was undying friendship, they were friends. Rich had everything, poor nothing, except his kind parents and two brothers. Likewise, the rich boy had parents and three brothers.

One day the poor boy visited the rich boy’s house, and he saw that the rich boy’s family was not very happy. Each member did their own work. Brother busied himself with computer- playing games. Mother was playing card games with a group of men and other children were fighting, and the father was quarreling with mother. The house was not clean. The poor boy was not even asked to sit. Although they had everything, they didn’t have happiness. The house was in mess. When the poor boy came back, he was heavy-hearted, he learned one thing, and although he had nothing in his home he had happiness. His family stayed happily. They shared everything together. The house was filled with care and love. It was a cleaned house. It was a happy family and a happy home. The poor boy understood one thing then, that happiness was the gift in life, given by god to them. And there was nothing better than happiness in life.

Songing Heart

The best music touches deep into our hearts. It keeps alive—and kicks—the sorrows and depressions of life. Sometimes it kicks a little too hard, but that's what friends and volume buttons are for.

I love blues music. Real blues songs. The kind that feels like a warm hug from a sad person. Sentimental and jazzy. Pure music—no hip-hop, no big-bang, no sharp pop that hurts my aging ears. I am a simple guy who came from an "Aamo Chi lay" backdrop. That's village talk for "I used to chase chickens for fun."But to be frank, some music didn't fascinate me. It sounded like two people talking over each other at a busy tea shop. Back in the 1990s, radio was the main source of music. I knew all the timings of radio shows—BBS, AIR, VOI, BBC, Shillong broadcast, and others. I had a mental schedule more accurate than a train timetable. Then, my brother gave me his tape recorder. That was life-changing. I started buying audio cassettes and listening until the batteries gave up—usually right in the middle of the best song. Elton John, Savage Garden, Ronan Keating,  

 I also love singing. I used to pick up my bass guitar and rock on the stage, most of the time unprepared. I vividly remember singing the song, “Tears in Heaven,” for my late brother, Sonam, “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” and others. But now, I sing in the toilet; nobody would listen to a husky old voice these days.

It's ME, singing "If Tomorrow Never Comes." Tomorrow comes if you believe...

So I have listened to most English songs worth listening to. The Beatles—"Let It Be" is one of my favorites. Eagles' "Love Will Keep Us Alive" (spoiler: it does, but tea helps too). George Michael's "Careless Whisper" (I still can't play the sax solo, but I try in my head). Bryan Adams, Police, Celine Dion (yes, I admit it), Spice Girls (tell me you didn't zig-a-zig-ah), Mariah Carey (I can't hit those notes, but neither can anyone else), Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (he called. I listened.), Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" (I feel raised, then immediately lowered when I try to sing along), Elton John, Savage Garden, Ronan Keating, Backstreet Boys—I could go on, but you get the idea. I was musically fed. I also love singing. I used to pick up my bass guitar and rock on stage—most of the time unprepared. That's called "confidence" or "poor planning." I vividly remember singing "Tears in Heaven" for my late brother, Sonam, and "If Tomorrow Never Comes" for... well, just in case. But now? Now I sing in the toilet. Nobody wants to hear a husky old voice these days. The walls don't complain. The mirror doesn't judge. The toilet tank even provides a little reverb. It's my concert hall now. Small, private, and well-ventilated. So yes, it's ME, singing "If Tomorrow Never Comes." Tomorrow comes if you believe. And if you don't, it comes anyway—just with more bills. I remember the first album I bought was of Modern Talking. And their songs still keep me high and alive today. This German duo is my favorite. Don't laugh. They were kings of synthpop before you were born. Songs like "You Can Win If You Want," "You're My Heart, You're My Soul," "Cheri Cheri Lady," "Brother Louie," and "Give Me Peace of Love" still keep me mesmerized and humming—sometimes in the shower, sometimes in traffic, sometimes during staff meetings (silently, of course).

They are the best songs I have ever had in my life. The song "You Can Win If You Want" keeps me moving forward. Whenever life pushes me down, I hear that synth intro in my head and suddenly feel like I can conquer the world—or at least finish my grading. I think this song is a story about our life. The journey we make where nobody knows the destination. Try listening to them. They are the best—though yes, a little bit synthpop, a little bit cheesy, a little bit 1980s haircut. But it's worthwhile and melodious. It teaches so many good things about life. Empathy, love, care—and quite heart-rendering songs, as I call them (they render my heart useless for hours). I often listen now and cry out, remembering my past days. The good ones. The bad ones. The ones where I had hair. Modern Talking still talks to me. And I answer—usually off-key, usually in the toilet, but always from the heart.

Modern Talking (google images)

Kidnapping is a Huge Business in Sarpang

No wonder, everything happens for money. One would sell one’s father, mother, brother, sister…etc for money. One would kill, murder, and transform one’s beliefs for money. Never wonder, one could do everything under the sun, just for money. Because of all these things, I have begun to lose trust and I am a tough guy to take into consideration. I seldom believe anybody easily-to let the cat out of the bag. And it’s very hard to count on people like that sometimes. Anyways, people have become evil now. There is an old Buddhist saying, it says that the world does not change, it’s the people who change. Time tells it so.

Sarpang kidnapped cases have become a little curious. Within a short span of time - three months, four kidnapped were executed. And it was executed very badly. It was like casual, easy kidnapped. A taxi driver was dragged from the broad road for more than three weeks. An old man like my father, 60 years or more was beaten and pulled out in the evening from his house for another three weeks. And very recently, a student in the bar was kidnapped in broad daylight in Sarpang town. The good thing was everyone saw the shot, but nobody even dared to fart. And police…everyone knows, police work is to chase the dogs, during this student kidnapped time, police may have been snoring with their unloaded guns pointed towards their two big eggs.

Not so much to worry about. The deals will be on very soon and you get the people back, though mentally tortured and sickness that would exhaust throughout the life. The ransom price tag for that taxi driver was a bit lower than that old man. And I think there will be a hike in price for that boy. There is no fixed price as such. Inflection and deflection keep on going. The last price for an old man was Nu. 5,00000/- Five lakhs is so much for a poor student now. I hope our government negotiates the price tag and brings the boy back safe home.

But seriously, border areas have become unsafe places to live in. Commodities may come cheap but one has to risk life to live. Sarpang, P/ling, Samtse, S/jongkhar, Ngalam, that fall bordering India have become dangerous places to live in. People have no mind of peace; nobody knows who the next victim is. Some media reports show how worried people are about their security. The last time, some officials from Assam visited Sarpang and have promised that such an incident wouldn’t be repeated. Despite this assurance, it goes on very violently. How ashamed is it? Can we believe people now? I bet you, don’t believe it so easily.

Now, stop playing blame games. Every one of us must be alert. Carry patang or knife inside your gho. Or learn taekwondo or martial arts. Be in groups of trusted people. Travel together with known people. Of all, our government must do something very quickly. That something could be a higher and tight security alert, secret agents in different places, and tight border security.

Our border with India is very porous that makes it easy to escape many goondas after creating enough problems inside. Even a single mosquito shouldn’t pass from the borders. But as per the police, the apprehended lists last time, some mosquitoes are already in our land. They have made a partnership kind of business with Indian counterparts. Business is business after all. The sons of the kingdom of Bhutan want to abduct their own people. There is a Dzongkha saying, “Zayang bangchung nang za, awa tang yang bangchung nang tang.” The rough adaptation could be, “Eat from the plate and defecate on the same plate.” So we are here, you don’t have to go far in search of the soul, the soul is very much in you. The deadliest enemy comes from the most knowest and friendliest people. Bhutan, it’s our own people, and it’s a real shame for all of us. We believe in good; our farmers are humble, happy, we believe each other. But what makes them turn their world, I think it’s money. Don’t crave too much. We are GNH country. No wonder.

Pronounce These Words and See How Good You Are

Read this poem by B. Shaw. And if you can correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English is better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to read six lines aloud. Try them yourself.

c'est la fin

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

- B. Shaw

When I am Falling Down

Of recent, I have had a bad time, and I realized it is partly because of it that there is nobody and nothing in this world other than to have hurt. I knocked on every door to see the open field of human kindness and goodness. But there isn’t anyone for sure. Will you, my dear, also close the door for me? I ask you.

When I am falling down

You are the only one

Who will lift me up?

When others hurt me

You are the only hope

Who will cheer me?

Don’t make me down

Just because others are doing so

Don’t hurt me

Discard me like a scrap

Don’t make me nothing

Don’t throw me like that

like a thing

When everyone mars me

You are the hope I live

You too

When I am down

There is nobody for me

Stand by my side

Consoling me

Don’t admonish me

Like that

I have a human heart

When I am in no use

Don’t say useless

Don’t say, “You are an unwanted”

When everyone ignores me

Don’t ignore me

I have nobody

Than you

It’s only you

And you will be

The one to care me

Who will?

You are the savior to me

If you fall

I will lift you

And take you to the safe place.