Memories

Fresh memories come back

of the path we sauntered,

It was the days of delight with you.

I cherish, and live in the memories,

And the rest, I leave to God.

The Worst Win

The second term MP election is about a few weeks from now,and people, by now, must have matured the politicking canniness, shrewdness, and tactfulness affairs. The voters should have some qualifications of the right person already in their minds. People had very good choices. They had four parties in their hand. And hope they selected the best two in their preliminary round.

With powerful and influential candidates, people’s minds were loaded and taken over by DPT in 2008. That was good. People’s choice was right. DPT ruled the country with much peace and happiness. They brought development to many rural sides.  On the other hand, DPT taught Bhutanese people the value of money, and this is good. Bhutanese by nature were spendthrift and didn’t care much about balance and saving. The financial crunch did. It was a blessing in disguise.

Now the two political parties’ promises look lofty and wonky sometimes. If their manifestos were to come true, every Bhutanese needn’t work. We will be spoon-fed. Government budget to each gewog, a health centre in every chiwog, community-based services, blacktopping farm roads, 100% job, etc and etc.   

But, if lessons were to be learned, there were scores of very bad examples of the elected members who have joined the politics for the love of power and money. A few of them turned out to be worse than statues, stealthily, filling up their stomachs. Some have even bought three or more bulldozers and excavators and are running a business in projects like Punatsagchu. A few of the elected members had used lip services and faked promises to garner votes. People knew. These types of malfunction especially by the ruling party will downsize our small nation.

Bhutan didn’t know much of these would happen in the 1^st election. Now people know; there are tensions lurking between the horse and the bird; there are blame games being played; there are differences, and trying to come to a common conclusion. There are talks in every small gathering and sorts like that about choosing a leader of good heart, responsible, capable, understanding, etc. The group, who needs to remain apolitical, civil servants, are by name only, they are the most politically active in the faction of the society. They influenced the voters the most. The majority of voters think that educated people's choice would be right, not going by grassroots need. And similar is the case with the religious body. In the name of religion, religious anti-political people become very much politic. For example, to conjecture to the people that if anyone votes for Mr.X, he/she will bring good luck, good power, good things, etc to the place.

Politicization is important. Therefore,voters shouldn’t be moved by any shaft of hope. People must, by now, also know that the individual mustn’t decide the candidate, but, rather it is the responsibility of people coming together and deciding on their representative. Democracy is sometimes described as communities of people coming together, and it imagines many voices pouring into a unified whole. Democracy should permeate the world beyond politics, making itself felt in the ways people think, speak, work, fight, and even make forte.  No nepotism, no relations, no bribery, nothing, but electing through the collective decision is the true principle in democracy. Because it’s for the greater goodness and well-being of the whole, not an individual.

Limericks

I wrote these limericks when I was feeling tired and bored. They don’t have metrical feet at times.

There once was a girl named Yangzom,
who was a good friend of Pangzom.
She was the ugliest

And the laziest

So Yangzom befriend with Pangzom.

When I dream, I dream in the sleep

The dreams unknowingly creep.

They have no fixedness

 To calmed the sadness

But go on til desires reap.

My eyes are burning bright on fire;
she’s the object of my desire.
She sat on the grass
and covered her ass
til somebody set on my desire.

A crafty Jigme made a speech
promised to stick like a leech.

Wagged to get support

Soon went to a port

And built his own house near the beach.

There was a boy with his toy once

The toy was called a big fat ounce

He tried to have frocks

And with that, he rocks

He removed its penis in flounce

There was an old man from nowhere

He kept pics of chicks everywhere

 And went to slumber

Counted the number,

 Of pics on the wall everywhere.

The fox search for a carni-vore

Soon the cruel fox had a war

“You rock,” a cock said

“You will soon be dead,

for I have declared a big war.”

Grandma and the Frog

The story was told by my mother when I was a child. I have roughly reproduced it here.

Grandma had a big house. Her house was covered by all types of trees on all sides. They were cypress, oak, fig, mango, walnut and other trees.

She liked the trees.

Inside her house, she had nothing. She had only some empty pots and pans. She had little rice in the rice bag. She was poor.

One day, grandma went out and looked at her trees. She saw a dry branch on the cypress tree. She was very sad and asked, “How did your branch dry?”

The tree replied, “The thunder hit me.”

Grandma was sad and said, “If your branches dry, let me also hit on my leg.”

So grandma hit very hard on her knee. The knee soon grew big. Grandma shouted with pain.

All-day and night, she stayed near the oven crying with pain.

 “It’s very painful,” she shouted at last. “Take back your pain.” She again hit on her knee very hard.

The skin opened and down came a frog. The frog landed on the oven. “Let me burn this frog in the fire.”

Grandma wanted to burn the frog, as she was angry. She put the frog in the fire. The frog burned like dry grasses.

The frog said quickly, “Take me to the third room.” Grandma went up and kept there. Many kinds of grains filled the room; rice, wheat, maize corns and millet.

 “Take me to the first floor before I get fully burnt,” the frog said again. Grandma ran down and kept there. Many kinds of farm animals filled the room. They were a cow and a calf, chicken and four chicks, a pig and two piglets, a horse and a foal.

“Take me to the garden,” said the frog.

Grandma ran outside and kept there in her garden. Many types of vegetables filled the garden. They were radishes, cabbages, potatoes, pumpkins, sags and turnips.

By then, the frog was already burned and it turned into ashes.

Grandma felt very sorry as well as happy to see lots of things in her home. She had now different grains and vegetables to eat. She had animals as her friend.

For a long time in her mind, she was not so happy because she missed her sick cypress tree for many days. She visited the tree. The tree had no dry branch then. Grandma smiled with happiness.

My Love is Not

My Love is Not

quantifiable

justifiable

describable

payable

buyable

demonstrable

measurable or

calculable.

So reasonable

My love is:

undie-able

viable

doable

loveable

appreciable and

forever