Friday, August 8, 2014

Students are our Best Teachers

Darla School Assembly
Class in Progress
My Cohort of class IV B























We spend more than 9 months with students. They teach more than we have taught to them; how to go about modern gadgets, how to live fashionably, how to take a step, etc… I have my class IV students, who literally check my patient. They are so passionate. They grumble a lot and do not listen at times. 48 is a huge number to manage and teach. I regret at the end of the day that I couldn’t give them enough attention to every one of them. When I give them group work, it becomes a fish market. Each one of them makes an animal’s sounds or some screeching sounds. Sometimes it is really irritating and hectic to teach them. They make lots of noises. But on the other hand, they listen when I tell them seriously, and listen to whatever I teach them.

And there is another group of students, my class X students, who like to remain introverted and hardly open up. They are tails if I whisk my head, and they would. They listen a lot. And they work a lot, I guess. I wish them I have a student like them, who never goes against any point I make especially when I am sometimes wrong! Anyways, I wished them a good life ahead. I told them to be good, do good and good things will come back to them. They nod.
 I have my past students who have become teachers like me. Some are pursuing professions outside, where I had not heard of the places. Many are in jobs. Many students are students now. I was lucky to have good, sincere, and diligent students like the good teacher myself! I enjoy the fruit of teaching.
Many Facebook friends are my students and many blogs followers are my students. I think about them as much as they think about me.










Monday, August 4, 2014

Something to Think Over



Here are my hilarious thoughts which strike me time and again, and I feel it’s bad to think over these, sometimes.

1. DPT was Druk Prohibition Tshogpa, not Druk Phunsum Tshogpa. Because of its banning policy, it suffered landslide-like thrashing defeat. And now, PDP, People’s Darling Party, has become people’s dead party, where everyone talks about all colors lie; mostly black lie. Feeding ocean of wealth themselves first, and giving a lean drop to others.

2. Parliamentary democracy in essence has become PDP’s democracy. Not people’s democracy. The power of PDP’s bureaucracy has greatly extended; media interferences, salary issues, taxes issues, fuel, etc.

3. I like this from Kamala Das, “An Introduction.” It goes: “I don’t know politics but I know the names/ Of those in power and can repeat them like/Days of the week, or names of months, beginning with….”
So I know that power has faces and these faces have names; it does not matter what policy they stand for, but it is useful to know their names, as it is useful to be able to name the days and months.

4. A recent graduate first wants to try a good government job, if not, then, try for some self entrepreneurship, and if he failed in all these, he’d go for teacher, his last/unwanted choice. See the condition of teachers!

5. In the corrupt society, if you’re an anti-corrupt practice, you’re lost. You must be in the system of corrupt practice. You get what you want. This is where you belong.

6. All war movies are made based on wars in the Middle East, esp. Afghanistan, Gaza, Siberia and Iraq. Why?

7. Bhutan is the last heaven on the earth, say many. Every country is a heaven of its own. Chauvinistic??

8. The rich heart is rich; a poor heart is poor, no matter what you are, or what you have.

9. Kindness for the act of God is not kindness; being self–aware- kindness/compassion; no god, no coercion, but natural kindness is what I believe is to be a kind of kindness.

10. Negative thoughts are unwarranted self-imposed mental trashes?

11. By name, civil servants are anti-politic, or apolitical, but they influenced the voters the most. They are the most politically active in the faction. The crust of politics is the educated mass. How can they be apolitical?

12. Politicians are inclined to the helms of services. They are servants to our people, not in any case, their lip services; not non-performers.

13. I learned: a good politician (Who earns votes) has a sugary mouth, looks busy, but do nothing; makes false promises and loots for his/her own services.

14. Substitution, replacement, changing candidates (DPT/PDP) is dirty politics. A loser cannot become a winner.

15. Curriculum relevant to our lifestyles, cultures, mindsets, etc. is good.  Microcosm -  if we work on knowing ourselves, improving ourselves, it will bring global effect. “Act locally, think globally.” So, far-reaching change begins from Bhutan or Bhutanized curriculum, not American syllabuses, etc. If not we will be torn between two worlds, we alienate from our own culture, history, language, people, etc. We live, physically, but we see ourselves through the eyes of others. We can relate our curriculum to the outside world. I think.

16. A test never fails or passes a candidate. It’s just a process of evaluation to improve your level.

17. Sometimes, it’s another way round, a system fails and a teacher leads.

18. How could a student fail after a year of rigorous teaching? This is a thing to think over. I agree, there would be some minor failures here and there on the way. But, we are determined to succeed. The day we stop thinking of students’ success is the day we should stop teaching.

19. A teacher doesn’t really teach, the students teach him (if a teacher knows). A guide, an advisor, a supporter, a director...etc.  Looking for new ways (creative) to teach/learn what students have already incorporated into their lives.

20. The basic education is forming/developing knowledge, mind, character, skills, being responsible, caring, being good, doing good, at least, a complete human.
21. Did you fall and break your heart? Did you cry and hate your life? Did you live a painful life and get hurt? Did you think of taking revenge? Did you have a memory sickness?

But never forget there is love, and you must prove it through your tears. Always remember there is hope, and always remember it is good in love. 

22. There is a common-ity in love, feeling, and human emotion. We are strangers but united by human concerns. We are bound by the bond of love, affection, understanding, and empathy. There is no unfeeling for the feeling of love. There is no boundary, no wall, no stranger, and no religion, nothing in love. It’s just a beautiful feeling, a beautiful and heavenly feeling. The universal fact, the love binds, and hates separate is small but too big to handle.
Love is money. The British person loves and vows to marry a Bhutanese girl. He crosses oceans and mountains to be with love, and he comes, and love is not money, I guess, love is love cannot be define, but…acho...we are related but separated by death.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Mad In States

Mad in States


Live the life you love, not love the life you live. Many of us dream of going to or living in American and Australia; some people have a chance. A Bhutanese in States has become an American. He has forgotten his country’s traditions and cultures, even language and his own country. The poem asks if everyone does like this, one day everyone in Bhutan will become American, losing real Bhutanese, or who is a Bhutanese?

To be an American
Is an easy to be;
It was a decade ago, he settled
In the land called a ‘flowery life.’
A dream of every Bhutanese,
But a few fulfilled and some more than it.

He was born to a Ngalop’s family
Brought up, educated and survived
Up to fifty seven years,
A man has a wish at this age!
His instinct and roots were Bhutanese
And all his ways
One day, but, somehow he got a chance,
He flew.

After decades in America
He adapted Americans
He was an American.
Parents, relatives, all forgotten;
People, land
Mother’s tongue, religions,
All ways, forgotten.

‘New age,’ where he lives
He floats there
Lingering in-between two ways
He is more incline to a later one.
Bhutan does not exist in his mind’s map,
This is how a person change his life
Who am I?
Root doesnt change.

On the tip of Americans’ mouth
He remains a different,
not a ‘real’ one;
Mongoliod, Dravidian, or Arabian?
Variant cultures in America
And the buoyant life floated with riches.
One does care,
And who cares of life-
The root?
To have rushing hour is okay.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Strength to Live



The strength of a man isn't how many buddies he has.
It is how good a buddy he is with his kids.

The strength of a man isn't in how respected he is at work.
It is in how respected he is at home.

The strength of a man isn't in how hard he hits.
It is in how tender he touches.

The strength of a man isn't how many women he's Loved by.
It is in can he be true to one woman.

The strength of a man isn't in the weight he can lift.
It is in the burdens he can understand and overcome.