In Appreciation

                                                                         Poem# 2

Two things in the life never betrayed; God and the Parent- to whom the sky shines and for why it shines, the meaning of life is for them and what life meant is taught by them. When falling has a fall there remains dear parents. They formed the kingdom in a small realm of life.

Tell me, I ask myself,

What is on your mind?

What I have always had

Fixated for all time.

Nothing but my sacrificing father

Providing for me his dependent child

And my ever-supportive mother

For bringing me life, keeping me alive.

Our kind wise king and the royal family-

I speak from my heart frankly-

You have made our surroundings

A paradise on earth for me.

A Chiseling Life

                                                                            Poem# 1

Life is a block of wood; a carver models it into the best but at an old age-when one becomes perfectly experienced. Every drill and grill is a tick of torment to life. It gashes to a perfectly imperfect time of life. And we start over again in the next life.

A carver lost in chiseling the wood;

Modeling it into the finest,

He, himself carefully carves into.

As I look at him,

And my life rolls down:

The creaks of sculpting a block

While removing jarring angles

 Etch a torment.

Are those pains impass of life?

Life mills to live,

It’s a fume out of crumble and splinter.

Every bit a loss and gain!

This act recurs,

And flusters like the hollow wood resonant.

On a course;

There is no sojourn to emotive and bodily fidgets.

Often, the disquiet chronic writ large on the mark;

The happiness or silence-hung grim all around

They were free of beginnings or ends,

They unfold in myriad ways,

One likes to live a life, careless and free,

But the player lot is on the line;

Come to clutches with it, be a slave of it.

These forms to befit a good mortal

Like the crafter fits the pieces

Yet, this good human is qualified

When at old age is unqualified,

And ends very near like a child,

Then falls bodily asleep.

How many times do we hear creaks?

How many times do we crumble and splinter?

How many times are we milled?

To hope for?

We never are finest how many times?

As novice new voyages embark

And get down to chiseling all over again,

 To slice life in the life of a new beginning!

A Bad Side of a Good Relationship

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A visit by the prime minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi to China recently provokes fear- relations among South East Asia countries. There seems to have a kind of tug of war of giants in Asia. Other tiny countries like Bhutan are lesser and have to follow their trumpet. I write my layman observation of our relationships, and all deleterious one.

The irony of the Relationship between Bhutan and India

Bhutan-India relation is embedded so deep. It was implanted and cemented when Pandit Nehru visited Bhutan in the 1960s. The relation was state to state one. There were very good ties in terms of administrative level; country to country level, but masses or ordinary people have bitter episodes of (people to people) relationships.

Bhutan is stagnant, and is in limbo about the relationship. On the other hand, we have Chinese, who cordially welcomes to tie up and befriend with us. But we still want to cling to our old good neighbor-India. We are in an indeterminate state; to move on to a new world of change or to hold on to the old road of depravities and treacherousness. I say treachery, because do you think a good friend could loot, burgle, abduct, kidnap,and open fire to a friend? We still hang, not knowing what to do with such dreadful activities to our ordinary people. We resist the irresistible activities of hooligans. We writhe. And we tolerate. And this is an irony of Bhutan-India relationship. I have some proves to show some embittered states of our relationship. 

In the year 2000, Phuntsholing-Samdrupjongkha bound Bhutan bus was gunned down by unknown Assamese, murdering several innocent Bhutanese passengers. Bus services had to halt completely for more than a decade. Poor, disturbing Bhutanese passengers still use Indian transport via this route.

There are rampant kidnapping of Bhutanese in Gelephug from 2011-2014. Till now about ten cases of abducting have been reported. The victims’ families have to pay millions of ngultrum as ransom. Some were tortured and even brutally killed.

Many Bhutanese private cars are being robbed in 2014 in Alipouduar-Lamozingkha road by localities goondas. We hear many cars have been smashed up and destroyed in bordering areas. Many hooligans have beaten up many of our citizens.

Does a good friend do that?

A thought that would run to every Bhutanese for many more generations.

Would the Chinese do something similar to this?

As far as my knowledge, the Chinese have the best of rules to control any hooligans. I heard even with the slightest mistake or a small corrupt practices you do, you will be released or hanged. That looks like a good country. Peace would prevail there with no activity of such bad things.

Book Fair and Halving Budget

As an all-time avid reader and bibliophile, I am very thankful for organizing the book fair in Mongar and Punakha. To promote readers, to promote reading habits, to promote knowledge, and make a knowledge-based society; there is a need for exhibitions frequently in different places in the country. I feel books should be made available everywhere; in every small town, on the highways, hotels, home, and in the classroom. It should be made easily accessible. If Bhutan is to weigh against other countries, then the books are our weapons; the main windows in the walls. We must therefore read books and value books to understand, evaluate and foster knowledge and information. Our people must read and access changing ideas and expressions.

I feel this book fair is not only a good chance to make money by book enterprises but also provides different choices of a book to our readers at a concession rate. The government of Bhutan is kind enough to give a certain budget to purchase books for school libraries to all schools in the country. The books are bought from the book fair by the respective school. But this year, the budget has been slashed more than half in the case of Chukha Dzongkhag. This slashing of the budget is not a good decision. It’s good to save for the future, which Bhutan does, but things like saving for the books is not a good idea. This year the budget to buy books has been more than halved. For example, a school previously got nu.100, 000/, now got less than nu. 40,000/ or less. The reason why the Dzongkhag has chopped the budget is not very clear. It must be tax deduction or saving for the years to come.

In addition, this year being the reading year, the deduction of budget to buy more new books and read more new books are contradictory. I would be grateful, if, schools could spend as much as money to buy books than hoarding money in the closet.

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