A Transitory Life

"Sometimes you are nobody in life, you have no money,

You are not successful, you are not pretty,

but you mean well and have a good heart.

People should pay more attention to people like that."  says Celine Dion.

Last time, On one of my trips, I had a feeling of the weird unnaturalness of this transitory world. There is nothing as ‘yesterdays’ or ‘tomorrows,’ as such, it’s fleeting. We live to see shifty things around. It’s difficult to pass round many kinds of lives, and to think about dying, parting, and leaving all these loving people and the world must become nothing.

Some images of life that ring us hard (All photographs are from my photo albums except two from Google).

 Live in either way, this fleeting thing.

Sleep, for maniacs infatuate this world 

Poor man, rich heart. "Wealth and riches are illusory; show not over-fondness for them." A Buddhist saying. (Photo courtesy: Google)



Running into the midnight. "It is better to travel well than to arrive."Buddha.(photo courtesy: Google)

The nature of flower and our life is same: to stand in the rains or shines and then decay. Life is transitory, like the morning dewdrops on the grass; Be not idle, nor give time to worthless works, O Guru

"All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow; acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisitions and storing-up, and building, and meeting; and, faithful to the commands of an eminent Guru, set about realizing the Truth. That alone is the best of religious observances."-Milarepa

Ever transient is this world of ours; all things change and pass away; For a distant journey even now prepare. So, know emptiness, and be compassionate.

Chick

(Readers' restriction: The humor below is only for the mature group as it contents some offensive terms, and the writing does not necessary blame any languages.).

Born and brought up in Eastern Bhutan, and the only language I knew was Sharchokpa, I always wanted to learn others' languages. And Lhotsampa being quite popular, I was quite excited to learn. In class IV, luck was on my side, Bishnu Kafley was my Lhotsampa friend(and we had been friends for many years, till we graduated class eight, and after that we lost each other…hope, we will meet one fine day, and now I will surprise him with his language). In those times, I didn’t know his language and nor did he know my language. So, we spoke headless-legless-English. ‘Come,’ ‘go,’ ‘eat,’ ‘play,’ with various body languages.

As the chick become cock, I graduated from the Samtse College of Education. By then, I could speak here and there Lhotsampakha. My first posting was in Tsirangtoe Lower Secondary School, Tsirang in 2005. It was both fortunate and unfortunate; fortunate; for I was there in the place where the majority of the population were Lhotsampas, and unfortunate; to live in the remote windy, damply place. Anyway, I was eager to learn their language if not, master some words and semantics orders. Great!

My students always knocked me out, and they do even in my sleep; with their beguiling faces, naughty-dirty faces, and rough-murky behaviors waken me up.

That was the class, probably my third class, and the third chapter. I jumped two chapters to start with the easiest one - that was the domestic animals. Being a geography teacher, I taught geography. We talked about domestic animals. I asked them to name some animals, and, which they did one by one. I wanted to go a little further; animals and their young ones (a teacher always adds something more on the topic, and that adds the teacher’s persona and his high erudition!).

‘Cow-calf, pig-piglet, horse-foal, chicken-chick, and others.’ I said.

The students gave a sudden laugh.

‘Chick,’ I told them sensing funny.

Their laughter continued.

‘Chick,’ I repeated playfully, but loudly.

By then, there was a little laughter and girls begin to bend their heads.

‘What is fun with the chick? You know chick?’ I seriously asked them.

‘We know sir,’ the faint voice shot up.

‘Sir, it’s a dirty word,’ a student said.

‘What is it? I want also to learn.’

‘Not in the class sir,’ the captain in the class said.

I asked the captain after the class.

‘It means sleeping together, and having sex together sir,’ he shyly, decently, and indirectly told me.

I never thought I would go to that extend. It literally meant f**k. I didn’t go to that class for three days. And chick was to be strictly checked, I promised them. My impatience to learn the Lhotsampa language certainly waned from the day.

The Trip

Yesterday, we (class +three professors) visited three legendary temples in Belur, Halebeedu, and Shravanabelagola and it is about 222kms from Bangalore. These places have very impressive historical temples. All arts and architecture were made of stones - very huge stones and the smallest stones showing the rich intricate details of thousands of different Indian inscriptions and motifs. There were wonderful monuments depicting religious history, mosaic, music, dance, and others. The stone crafts were perfectly finished. I guess no human mortal could have done this sculpturing, there is no doubt gods and goddesses could have. Another legend also says superpower kings had erected these structures. (I bought a travel guidebook for more details) The temples were built in about 11^th to 12^th century during the Indian Vedic periods. Every day thousands of people visit these temples both from inside and outside of the country.

I have taken some (packs of) photos of these museums and temples. Below are a few of them (a picture speaks more):

The view from the Shravanabelagola' s temple

Looks like Roman architecture-outside of the Shravanabelagola's temple

There are similar structures around

People moving up to see the inner sanctum

Stone monolithic stands rain or shine

Rock crafted statuettes

Inside the structures...

Statues stand high watching

Belur star-shaped temple

Monkeys like sculptors casted out of huge stones

Where are we to go now?

Rows of magnificent works 

Intricate stone edifices

Roman Colosseum building like

Belur busy temple

Towering temple in Belur

In between, we sneak out to see a dam nearby

This is Halebeedu, a small part of the temple 

There are many Buddha-like statues in all temples

Showing different motifs

Furious Lord

Depicting wars

I am the most handsome of all. Ha...ha...ha!!!

Singing Lords

And dancing Lords

Uh...ah...come on to the last photo

A kaleidoscope of Halebeedu's temple

And the last one isPhew...turn ur computer to see the magnificent colossal statue of Gommateshwar, which stands 58ft 8 inches and considered to be the world's largest monolithic stone statue. There are many stories attributed to this monolithic. You may Google it the easiest i think.

The Temple of Belur, Halebeedu, and Shravanabelagola are difficult to pronounce but very promising places to go. There are so many things to learn from those devoted pilgrimages and tourists, but not for a couple dating, supposedly…haha.

The Long

(Readers' restriction: The humor below is only for the mature group as it contents some offensive terms, and the writing does not necessary propagates nor it’s propaganda or blames any language or so).



I was born in the society of ‘The’ and the ‘Long.’ Much as I am equipped with these phonetics, it’s still difficult to utter these sounds and at times I wonder why these two words having similar pronunciations have different meanings all over.

 ‘The’ and the ‘long’ words can contort faces and they can be the most reprehensive to a certain group of people in Bhutan especially Sharchokpas. Whenever I have to use these english words ‘The’ or the ‘Long,’ I use it with much care. A Peculiar American, ‘the’ accent is very close to our brother’s slang ‘the’ and we love distinct American articulation. Anyways, I just look around to throw out these English words -quickly. If it were rowdies, we would have a real long guff-talks-no matter the subject using these 'slangs'.

 I have some kind of uneasy neurotic hunches to use these two Bhutanese slangs with my students and most of all with my Sharchokpas students (But everyone knows these slangs, be it Ngalops or Lhotsampas or others in Bhutan). The worst part of this is that the hesitant words come out often unnoticed to the wrong people; but as an English-speaking class, I shouldn’t take any blame for it.

 In one of my classes, the students had got bored with series of classes, and they asked me my free time.

“We have a long class, sir. We want to enjoy long now.”
Were my students making fun of the word ‘long’ or was it just mockery to me as I use it often?
“To enjoy (the) long.” I flashed a small smile and continued, “Thus, we will have long break then.”
“Yes, thus, thus,” some naughty students weirdly twisted their mouth to pronounce the word thus as t(h)ues that made girls buried their heads for sometimes.

 No problem, I was forced out from the class after exchanging some quick laughter with boys - those mischievous boys.

 The ‘long’ and the ‘the’ are very derogative Sharchokpa’s terms for the male organ -penis, and as such ‘thus’ if mispronounced is a female organ.

I try to substitute the use of words ‘long’ with many others synonyms like lengthy, extensive, elongated, etc. However, for the small children in the school, the word ‘long’ has to be understood as long only and the ‘the’ likewise. These two words are also the most offensive words uttered when one is angry or in utter hopelessness.

And ‘the’ and ‘long’ are commonly used words in English.

And Take care and THE LONG Goodbye…and see you next time.

Who Cleans the Toilet in your School?

Besides teaching, the extent of a teacher’s work nowadays has reached to toilet cleaning. So often, I think about the real job of a teacher? To teach or to clean a toilet. And I question about wholesome education?  This wholesome education has made teachers hell. It has made teachers into bits and parts.

The dignity of labor is what many may call to clean the toilet. And model or epitome description have become quite cliché now with teachers. What students expect at the end are good passing marks. No big deal! The real imparter of wholesome education (jack of all trades -knowledge) themselves are unwholesome. “Everyone cannot be whole but be a part,” was the answer from a naughty student in my class that blackens my face in front of the class when I complained about his indiscipline in the class. And this is true and this is dangerous to our society; to be a jack of all trades and master of none. This is what our system teaches; to be of no specific skill but to have blunt poles that would never jab inside the soil. And teachers' stories are no different these days. Teachers not only should teach, but also take off clothes and kick the ball in the wide posts or hit on legs!  Teachers not only teach but also dance a monkey’s dances. Teachers should also sing to the loudest and demotivates pupils of singing in their future! Teachers should also dig the ground to sow the seeds of a fruit, which may not grow! Teachers not only should teach but also be a guide, a parent, a mentor, and teachers are the father of all, though they have fathered none.

Toilet cleaning is a new trend happening in Darla MSS. Darla is the father of toilet cleaning if it's followed by other schools. And where the hell is Darla? Darla was previously named Tala, Tala is now a money grinding machine in Bhutan. Hydroelectricity checks the balance of trade in Bhutan, especially with India.

In 2010, out came the teachers' toilet cleaning routine and to everybody’s surprised, it was unexpected. Some laughed at the foolish idea, some made funs, some didn’t want to use the toilet and clean so. So many odds and ends came out. This pushed a day with a stressed mind.

Those thoughtless Chamchas groups just did whatever asked, and the other half questioned whether it was good or bad. It is an order from the head, many submitted it into silence, indicating one had to follow. Head is the progenitor of all. He is considered an omniscient-all knowing, type of charlatan.

The dignity of labor is very important and the basic of all is cleaning the toilet. The huge routine was displayed (two lady teachers and two gent teachers) every morning and evening. To make this matter worse, there were some hues and cries amongst students. In one of my morning SUPW duty, I heard clearly some students talking resentfully that it best suits teachers and especially that discipline Lopen (name withheld) to clean the shit.

The fact that we have to clean the toilet was there was no wet sweeper in the school and the Dzongkhag wasn’t willing to give one despite so many unemployed scamps around. And that dry sweeper loved only dry one but wet boys!

Nobody took it seriously for more than two or three months, and I guessed nobody bothered to clean the toilet except a few paranoids. Within this period the matter worsens, instead of cleaning the shit, the huge heap of shit was purposely messed near the door of the toilet and either side of the pots. It was intentional and this matter reached the mastermind. And soon, there was three hours meeting on about shit and it was the shit meeting--to vomit some hard, undisclosed, and hidden words. Disagreement, agreement…etc…and to come up with the big solution. One-evaluation criteria will be from cleaning the toilet was to be understood by all. People must be forced into this democratic country sometimes! “This school is really becoming shit.” Our Lopen, who keeps his senses only through high alcohol, ended the meeting. The end of the meeting is always welcome and many a time I wish of ending the meeting before it starts. And beware, not with this life’s ending!

The story of cleaning toilets became quite successful because of the fear of losing PCS marks. The day’s cleaner would wake up early, reach before anyone could, flush the toilet, sweep the passageways and deodorize. And when school closes, the same routine is followed. Many did and many didn’t and now I feel sorry why I malingered and absconded from this civilized work for some days. And I, half sort of promise, when I join back, I will be the first one to go inside the toilet and the first one to come out. Haha.

Relish with Dishes

Tawa, Bamya, Dolma, etc. What are these? If you have knowledge about multi-cuisines, you may know these are some of the names of Iraqi’s food, just like we Bhutanese have Ama Dhatse, KewaDhatse, Shakam, etc.

They have typical ways of preparing food. The rice is fried. It gets mixed with lots of oil and little water. Such as steam food is rarely cooked. And the curry strews up with tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes in Tawa and others like we Bhutanese use lots and lots of chilies in all curries. Hike of tomatoes price can’t do away with it, like we can’t do with chilies. The tomatoes were cut into the tiniest pieces and that too with others like cucumber, carrot, etc. The curry tastes sweety-salty but delectable. The overall cooking takes a very long time, almost four hours.

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it up.” My fried Hashim repeats Arnold Glasgow, an American humorist’s saying. True.

I told my friend Hashim about our kind of food, I even made him taste chilies, and his stomach went wild for the whole night and he damned me to be borned as chili. That is another story. Sometimes I would call him Tawa and as much as I’m Amadhatse’s guy!

I have fine-tuned with his food. What I may like to call, I am ‘use to.’ One reason for this is; I have less work to do when he cooks; most of the time I just help him to peel off some vegetables’ cover and wash it. The rest, he would do it all by himself. My job is to reach to a dining table whatever had been prepared and eat and take to the washing basin but most of these, he does.

I eat and eat but slowly. I have learned this technique in my school days-to eat slowly! When I was in a boarding school, I used to eat slowly, let others take and go, while I would aim for another second share as I waited to finish others and go. Many times it works in the school, when the mess in charge called for the second share and a similar technique is what I used to eat with him, lol. “Take it, take it.” is all I hear now. This technique has become a habit to me and even in parties or some gatherings; I would be the last one to go and get the food.  Slow but lots and a lot of of food. But this is no good now as an adult; I feel at least. Last and more, and sometimes last and none. Even if it were none in school days, our mess would provide another special preparation for it.  Sometimes with butter, fried food, etc. Good that we waited. Did anyone have a technique like mine? To be last in eating and first in eating?

My Rickety-tricky Journey

Excitement comes in good times. Hope and excitement are two brothers. When there is hope, there is excitement. 

Last month, I had a break from my tough studies, and god, I have had never stayed that long separated with my beloved ones and my place. I had longed to go and go…and guess what time I woke up. The truth was, I never slept the whole night. I had a friend going to the airport from Bangalore. And it was he who needed to reach at 6am in the morning but my flight was at 9am. And sharing the cost of taxi would be just a matter of fact, I went.

My excitement fought the cool winter night in the airport. We waited for 10 or more hours. I received a message on my mobile that my schedule was changed to 7am flight instead of 9am. As luck may favor, or supposed if I had come late, I would have missed the flight. My friend was the god to me in this case and he talked about the god and human life in many instances. It was his lively discussion about the meaning of life, we had almost forgotten the people around. People looked at us with their big judging eyes when our noises reached them to some extent.

“Are we terrorists to get the beguiling looks,” I asked my friend.

But Abdul jumped to his good conclusion, “Life is like that, to look and learn.”

Our topics touched on many subjects like life, old age, meditation, development, India, Bhutan, and concluding with girls. One general fact came from him. He told me that girls were the real authors of all problems, and every problem occurred from them. Think. He gave me many examples and that I surely would agree with it. In between, we went to the toilet outside the hall two or three times. We thought that the toilet was better than many living rooms of some of our poor people.

By and by, it was 6am in morning. We went to the ticket counter, we followed the process, and the process was all in the procedure. I liked that, but I didn’t like the behavior of  a friskier police to frisked thoroughly in a tough manner. Soon we boarded our Jet flight. We were in a different seat. I felt bored without Abdul. We waved our hands time and again. The man next to me was an old man; he slept throughout his journey that forced me to sleep too.

It was in a blink of an eye the plane landed at Kolkata airport. Since I had to change my flight to Bagdora, I bade Abdul goodbye, who will soon fly to Guwahati. After 20 minutes or so, I boarded another Jet connect. I counted the time, as I was excited to reach my home. One minute, two, three… in almost one hour seven minutes the plane landed-too long. But when I reached there, as luck may not have a good turn on me. There was a strike and no vehicle plied towards Phuntsholing. There were some Bhutanese, they said it would be better if we could go and board the train from Siliguri. And that was how we went in a rickety risky Rickshaw for 250/- each from three of us. We booked the train ticket that would be only after 2 hours. I banged my head on my bag. Why this day?

At around 5pm, the local train came. And... I heard the train would be the fastest mode of service, and who said that. That train was running at a snail's speed. My heart was boiling, and my mind was all incensed when the train stopped every one or two kilometers. I bang on the train to move fast as I have to reach Tala; my beloved wife and son. I banged and banged and I cursed. And two Bhutanese friends had another awful news that we have to take another one or more hours journey from Hashimara in a rickety risky Rickshaw. “Maro, Jadha.” I shouted in the voidness of the running train.

At almost to 9pm, we reached Hashimara. The two friends had somebody in Phuntsholing and since they had called that somebody. Luckily, the man was waiting with the Tucson car and the car sped made me gape with small laughter. And within half an hour we reached Phuntsholing.

On the way, my wife called me saying that Phuntsholing cousin would be coming with the car. I asked him to wait at Tashi Commercial building. My Indian voucher balance reached minus and it stopped working. Such a glitch in the critical time! At Phuntsholing, I waited but he was not in the rendezvous place as said in Tashi commercial building. I waited for almost twenty minutes and I decided to take a taxi but the last quick turn I made, I saw his car coming from the Gold building. The Gold building is no gold, it’s a rusted and ramshackle building.
“What is this? Mis-communication.”

We went to get my car. I shivered to drive after a long time. Alone, I started the journey from Phuntsholing, in frenzy and happiness to meet my family, I drove the car and it reached within an hour that usually would take one and a half or more hours. And the rest…happy ending…

Below are some photographs of my journey.

Day in and day out Bangalore airport is busy

Sperms of light outside the building in the night

This is how Abdul and I waited talking about life and in-between flashing 

The tunnel of life

We need wings to fly

Aerial view of Kolkata city

Local train from Siliguri to…? chugging without passenger and running at a snail's speed