Hollywood <>+=-?<>Bollywood and then to Drukpawood

Bhutanese take pride in three names - religion, culture and traditional -- and these often come to the rescue of our identity and nationalism when any intellectual debate outside occur.

Being a proud and real Bhutanese, I wanted my youth to absorb as much of Bhutanese in them, but as luck would have it, none of the youth now show much interest in religion, culture, and tradition.

However, I myself being a subservient son of Bhutan have its own perils. When I was a thirteen-year-old kid, I watched GasaLamay SenGi with my friends. It was Bhutan’s first movie. To be or not, it was not about religion, culture or tradition, but human bonds- love triangle. There were little fights, dishoom-dishoom and some songs. The movie moved some of us to be like heroes and it entered inside our juvenile brains. It was no traditional-cultural film, I remember.

Today, when I look back at those days, a sense of nostalgia takes over. I can reflect the flicks of that movie. It was in fact, the emerging of movie-making in the country. I am not a Bhutanese movie buff. I watched GasaLamay SenGi as there was no TV at those times. Now, I am a type of ‘Wood;’ Hollywood and Bollywood. I have watched about seven Bhutanese movies so far. Therefore, I find Bhutanese movies a little un-Bhutanese, a little tactless, amateurish, sluggish, and predictable. All copycat. Bollywood from Hollywood, Hollywood from Bollywood, and others ‘woods’ and then to Drukpawood. Our Drukpawood is the mixture Masala of all Woods. And thinking it would become delicious Emadatshi. And thinking because of these testy Emadatshi, that our ‘Drukpawood’ could also match the international level, we copy. But otherwise, it’s the commonly tasted ones. Our Dzongkha is becoming Dzonglish. Anyway, let’s think over this; Fiji, a smaller country than Bhutan produces the world’s best movies.

Most of our Bhutanese movies do not depict the story of the rich history of our country- its rich historical background and traditions. We had so many Penlops, Deps, legends, myths, and folktales that could be made into very good films. For example, the legend of Ling Gesar Ghyap, Zhabdrung, and his Dzongs, etc could be made into beautiful movies. But nowadays, yes, nowadays, we live in the floating world, so we see in the movies some flashy cars, immaculate houses, decked up ladies in tatters, fancy mood lighting, all these flesh and bones, and difficult to understand what and why are they portrayed.

Some film directors look like rocky rock. See Tshering Wangyel’s girly hairs and the blackest spec. whatever he may be, people love his directions and his films.

Photo credit: Facebook (TW)

Bhutanese movies are very much threaded in misery and weepy kind of life with little sparkling moments of joy that brings a smile to the viewer's face. The scene in which Phurba Thinley tries to behave like a woman gives little guffaws or the westernized musical party where the kids gather, dance, and sing an Nga Chelu Ga, Che NgaLu Ga or ting-a-ling-ling-song. Otherwise, there is no striking moment in the movie. The scene in where Singlam and Galam go to see their old ruined house and breaks apart, or cruel mother-in-law, Aum Lamo crouches the head of a hero’s girlfriend and thrashes on the wall, or the scene of heroes running through sometimes in poverty and dejections (and it usually happens because of the lady he loves... gripping lives... and then, they understand each other-their heart, they become together and start a new life, which will be a success within a minute flicks). The films, most of the time tighten the knots showing brutal and faithless life, making audiences, especially Bhutanese women considering their life like film.

Films must excite, startle, thrill, and shake viewers. Its effects cannot be produced by a play that is lacking in conflict. The conflict in the movie may be between human beings pulling in different directions, between a character and the environment in which he finds himself or the society in which he is a member. Movies must generally represent human sufferings, which raises pity and fear among audiences and make audiences decide that the film is a great one in its tragic appeal. The misfortune of the film should be simple and straight- forward, but sublime and universal in its penetrative appeal.

The good film as per my judgment should represent human suffering, have fear and pity, embellished language, and have emotional/cathartic appeal, and of all, it should educate, entertain and inform. There are two views on the tragic vision of life. One is that man is the plaything of inscrutable power called fate and another is that character is responsible for the tragic end. In Greek tragedies, tragic fate for the heroes is predetermined. Oedipus and Antigone become obstinate and tyrannical. Their tragedy is due to their overconfidence in their respective attitudes.

Films though portrayed antinomies of our lives, a majority our viewers take it as reality. Because of this, the films should touch various themes and issues, and, not only love failures that dominate most of our Bhutanese films, the films must represent history, contemporary Bhutanese society, roles, changing relationship,s and educate about the morals of faith and believing.

The Wait

The two big WAITS have changed the course of my life. These waits have wet me in tears. The wait is the weight of my life. So, please don’t say, 'wait.'

The first wait was when I liked a girl. She knew I loved her and I even sent her a chit. I waited for her reply. And she always told me to wait… I don’t know why? I waited with hopes and expectations for two years, only to get married. I WAITED FOR HER TO GET MARRIED. Quite funny. Isn’t it? This wait incident changed the course of my life – to never trust girls!

The second wait was when i missed my interview. My friend and I were walking for an interview. On the way, he waited to smoke and puffed frequently, cutting down times. Every time, I had to wait for him. We reached seven minutes late, changing seven generations of my beloved profession. The funny part was, the friend was happy to reach late, for he knew he wouldn’t succeed in the interview. Just surreal! This second wait too changed the course of my life.

I soon made up my mind, and whenever I think of wait, it kills me. I walk alone. I least bother about the decorum or the institutions of this life called living communities. I still walk alone. It is sad, a pitiful life.

However, an antimony of life is another way round. And now, there are many things to wait; waiting for Bangalore exam result, waiting for the houses to vacate, waiting for holidays to come, wait…wait…things may come…but I wonder if it may turn out to be good or bad!

Only yesterday, you(name withheld) say the same thing to me, 'wait.' I decided all my waits will be one big WAIT now, and I hope this third and the last wait will be the coming. I will wait, and hope for the best, if not, I may have to wait my life here permanently!

On Her Majesty’s Birthday(May You Be Blessed)

The Queen of Bhutan

We are lucky to be born in the country called the ‘Shangri-la,’ and luckier to be headed by handsome and beautiful mind, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The King’s marriage with Jetsun Pema is adorned to the country. It is indeed an adornment and momentous amalgamation of true harmony and time destined. The King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pema married on 13 October 2011, at Punakha Dzong. 

Jetsun Pema was born in Thimphu on 4 June 1990, Thimphu. Bhutanese multitude adored a simple and calm manner Jetsun. She listens to common people’s sufferings, problems, and supports them. She is an ideal queen, a mother of Bhutan, an advisor, and a guide. With her great love and affection, she guides Bhutan to the realms of modernity without sacrificing our great tradition. She thinks and acts of life, life in a society-a simple society. The queen visits with His Majesty to many parts of Bhutan mingling with her subjects and thais shows her graces and caring attitudes to our citizens. This love and care for every individual Bhutanese make us feel safe, happy, and comfortable.

It was a great day when you were born, and as we celebrate your birthday, we also celebrate the anniversary of you arriving in the world and making it a better, happier place for us. The Fourth of July is a great day to keep alive. Let the golden rays of the sun and moon reach you with wishes of success, happiness, and prosperity. Happy Birthday.

And thank you for having a birthday and giving us a reason to thank you. Thank you for being a wonderful person and inspiration all along and all time.

Their Majesties met the Earthquake victims in Eastern Bhutan and Ha, the fire victims in Bumthang and the windstorms in Trashigang and Pemagatshel the problems of yesteryears. People were given what they need in life, and brought back to everything to normal. Thank you for these.

Long may our land be bright. Long may we have a celebration in prosperity and jubilation leading towards common destination: Gross National Happiness? We stand up strong and stable without any hesitation because we live under a king and queen, who are very friendly and helpful; with the jewels of our country. Thank You for these.

The sincere, constructive, and assiduous perseverance king and queen with their good personality is going to play a role with his vigor equivalent elected prime minister, and we hope to see Bhutan reaching heroically unimaginably, as one of the best countries in the world.

And these are the hopes of people and the royal couple.

Thanking You.

May You Be Blessed.

The Mistaken Identity

Look around you. There is nothing without some Chinese stuff. Chinese is everywhere; They have reached every nook and cranny of the world. The Chinese food, the Chinese cuisine, the Chinese gadgets, the Chinese blankets, the commodities, the goods, everything. It has reached the place where Chinese people have not reached. It has dominated the market and the packet of the world.

Here in Bangalore, and particularly where I am living, Chinese people are rare despite the world’s largest population. There may be some political reasons--China and India. They are not seen like their goods, and they are so rare that many people ask me, many a time, “Are you from China?” I wanted to answer them by saying, “Only Chinese can be everywhere.” But I blurted out in quiet and unheard to them, “Do you think am I a dominator?” because the Chinese have dominated the world. I have Chinese like phallus but ways and manners are somewhat diverse. As I don jeans and shirts, maybe they think me a little un-Bhutanese.

Only yesterday, a group of my new friends asked me the same question. I laughed at them, not to know about our countries and it even reached to my Adam’s apple, but it melted there with this, “Are you from Mars?” At times, people behave as if they are completely alien.

The name they write makes me weird, ‘Butan,’ very shortcut indeed. Our Dolly-jolly madam, Chitra Das Gupta also calls me that I am from Butanic, a very unusual name madam! Anyway, I always have a good time explaining about my country, Bhutan. Its history, cultures, traditions, attitudes, manners, thinking, etc, and how it differs especially from China and others blah…blah…

For many strangers who have little or no knowledge of my country, I have become a real representative of my country. Ah…ha representative of the country! I describe the country like the next to heaven and everything perfect. Sometimes, I sound too chauvinist and patriotic when they see some Bhutanese hanging around with wines in Bangalore.  “This is your country?” they say. I have no choice but to counteract Indians. “They have been influenced by where they are living.” Not a good excuse I guess. And this answer would really make them crazy.

 I usually conclude by saying that we are in the same boat (to balance the weight of nationalism (of course)).

The Crush

Think not and say,

Who are we before?

Assuming life with many pretensions

This loneliness and longing kill slowly

Going along, this assumed decorum

And of will and self-willed

Got fed up of these restraints of life

Let’s do away

Live and like.

The other day, friends told

a the same, same story;

To be what you are not

As faltering, is this life?

They falter not to the small restraints

And walk a triumphant walks

Live and have

And have and live.

I told them, I’ve a crush on someone

And as a natural tendency

Shower the unnatural feelings.

They told me, think not and act more

Was the help not in their hands?

Yes. I think more and act less

And that’s how I’ve a mundane life

All is false in love

For there is nothing wrong with loving

This freak makes me weak

And I’m afraid I’ll crash my life myself

The quick and deep.

Oh! Come on dear,

For the life is the same series

 Act away from the trivial-trifles matter

And keep us going

With sparks.

Everyone will have a crush on someone, and it’s certain to human feelings; to love and appreciate someone. The poem asks the lover to get away with the decorum or institutions of what is called identity, live unbounded from the societies, and do whatever a mind says. Sounds like Andrew Marvell’s poem, "To His Coy Mistress," to "seize the day" - to make the most of today and not put off action until tomorrow.

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.