Working together, blogging together

This is the fifth year of my career in this job. This career – this many years - has brought so many good people in my life. In fact, I’m so happy to say that most have turned into close friendship. Some quit working with us but I’m still in touch with them.

First photo together back in 2011 

So this post is all about my colleague but one in particular. Amrith Bdr Subba. He is my senior. A kind and supportive, he had guided me in all office-related works. I’m so blessed that I’ve met him as my colleague.

Well, this post is more than this. It’s about our common interests and appreciations. I was quite astonished, several months back, when I found out that Amrith too maintains a blog, that too so beautifully and with utmost commitment.

You can’t just imagine how much joy it gave me to know about it and simply go through his blog. It’s absolutely different feeling for me, a kind of blessing-of-kinship feeling. By the way, no other colleagues of mine do blog.

To tell you honestly, after that, for better, almost everything changed between us – our conversations, respect and our outlook toward our work and workplace.

In the past, though we worked under the same roof and building and our rooms apart a few yards only we could hardly meet and talk. We were always busy; for the record, we spend almost half of the day in the office. Even if we did, our talks were mostly about works, programmes and projects. 

However, today even amidst tedious office work, Amrith and I take out our small time together. Over cup of coffee or tea, we jump into the conversation of what we love – writing and blogging. Sometimes other staff join us.

Quite surprisingly, both of us often write about our daily life, family and friends, and love and aspirations which, indeed, are very very important aspects of our life. Chatting and discussing about what we love offers a good break from the daily work. Sometimes it helps the day go from hard to less hard, trust me. 

This is why I feel I’m blessed to have a colleague with same interests and who understands and appreciates what I do. He is not only my senior staff, but a colleague who likes my blog, who asks about my writing life, who tells me not to give up.

I’ve been very busy with my office work lately. And I tell you that I couldn’t write much these days.

It was yesterday when Amrith cheerfully reminded me, “Hey Riku, don’t you think it’s time to update your blog?”

I couldn’t say that I was busy because I know that it’s a lame excuse. So I nodded. So this is the update. This is the post. This is the story of us - two colleagues working together, blogging together.

More about Amrith Bdr Subba:

Amrith is visually impaired person. He lost his eyesight when he was nine. It is amazing to see that he does almost everything on his own - his own household chores, walks, cooking and office works. He has in his name Maters Degree in Counselling, Post Graduate Certificate in Management, and BA (Hons) in English.

One afternoon, he joked, “I am also a VIP.”

It shocked me. After a moment, he declared, “Visually Impaired Person - VIP.”

You would just wonder if you see him using computer. He has far superior knowledge about computer and social media than me. Quite wondrously, he created his blog on his own. Now I am learning from him how to refine my blog. More surprisingly, he administers two other websites Disabled Persons Association of Bhutan and Nazhoen Tewa.

Photograph

We live in a beautiful landscape. Clear sky, fresh air, beguiling clouds, green trees and aesthetic architectural designs clothed around us. These are the real staple of it, our proud country, which makes our life always enriching and ever contented. 

A wonderful weekend, dear readers!

You had me from hello

We set out on our journey to Paro Airport. It was still before dawn and all dark. That’s the thing when we’ve to catch early morning flight. Actually I was accompanying my friend Sonam till the airport as he was leaving for studies.

It was raining considerably in Thimphu. Sonam was driving and I sat in the front seat and was feeling pretty woozy. In fact, we were traveling in a stark silence. I tried talking to him but I’ve nothing to say, so I kept quiet.

But it was Sonam who broke the silence, “Hey Riku, get married. When I return from my studies after three years I want to see you complete. Settled down.”

I knew he was pushing on me, jokingly though. So I just smiled at him.

But he was quick to react on his own statement, “But you know what? Marriage is all we wanted in our life. That’s what everybody wanted out of you.”

He pulled down the window glass and the deep chill air gushed into the car. This is exactly what happened to me when people inquired me about marriage – a deep chill runs through my nerve.

“But you’re different, my friend. You are taking your own time. Marriage is not everything. If you think you don’t want it, stay single. That’s also life,” so he comforted me.

In fact, that’s got to be the nicest thing anybody’s said to me in recent time. Then he played on his stereo. Well, it was Bon Jovi and his track You had me from hello. It went on,

At the mirror you fix your hand and put your makeup on

You're insecure about what clothes to wear

An' I can't see nothin' wrong

To me you look so beautiful, when you can't make up your mind

Meanwhile Sonam began singing to the song. As he sang, he strummed his hands on the steering wheel and shook his head to the melody his eyes focused on the road. Now and then, for a brief moment, he glanced and smiled at me in an excited way.

The rain kept pouring down. I watched the nonstop drops of rain tapping on the windshield and how the wiper pushed them away. At the same time, Bon Jovi kept on singing from the stereo; but this time I too hummed it and together we sang it loud,

The first time I saw you, it felt like coming home

If I never told you, and just want you to know

You had me from hello.

We rode through the road on and on. Sometimes bumpy and muddy, other times foggy and dark, but most of the time it was a smooth ride. Our friendship too has been suffused with a bittersweet passage of time. We had highs and lows but often did it sail smoothly. 

When we reached Paro Airport the rain stopped and dark sky gradually opened up for a beautiful morning. After bidding Sonam farewell at the airport, I began my journey back home.

As I drove, I played on that song again. I rolled down the glass and the deep chill air gushed in the car, but this time it felt different – very pleasant and comfortable.

I spread my hand out the window and craned my head too - receiving the air full on my face. Oh, it felt simply amazing. That is it. I needed to open the closed window of my mind and break out to embrace change in my life.

Eventually, the morning sunlight gently flooded the entire valley. It’s a fresh morning and new day. For me it’s new take on life; hopefully marriage and having my own family. 

Photograph

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

                                            ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Far above the human mind

So as always, I change my clothes, freshen up and cook tea. This evening too I’ve come outside my house and sit in my veranda to relax and refresh my tired heart. This is what I do - love to do - in the evening, in my veranda, when it is just me and my home after a long and hard slog in the office.

Today’s evening is quiet and absolutely peaceful. People nearby have already retreated to their rooms; perhaps it has been raining lightly since this early afternoon. The usual monsoon rain though.

It’s a real treat to sit here and sip on my tea and at the same time, listen to the thin and glassy sound of rain thrumming against the roof and ground. I don’t see the rain but I can feel the freshly-rain-washed air on my skin. It’s chilling, breezy. To tell you, it helps me so much to release my stress baggage.  

I kept on sipping on my tea. Meanwhile, I start reading some blogs that I love on my phone – as always, it’s hugely inspiring. Then my next-door neighbor comes out in her veranda to hang out her clothes. She is a young woman, extremely gorgeous. When her eyes meet mine, as usual, she smiles at me with slightest curl of her lip. She goes back to her room. That’s all; we never talk.     

For the next stretch of evening time, I remain wordlessly looking at the green valley of Thimphu and then at the cloudy sky which is being slowly engulfed into nightfall. And one after another, streetlamps come into light illuminating the streets. The rain stops.

A little while later, the sky appears brilliant with the full moon. Featherlike clouds slowly float past it; and it seems to me that it’s the moon that walks so fast. As dark patches of clouds cover the moon, for a small moment all is dark. It’s magical and a little scary too.  

Suddenly, it reminds me about the fleeting time. That the time sweeps by like the clouds floating over the moon, and for those hurried people, it sweeps by even faster. Just hold on; ah, 2014 is flying by. Can you believe that we are already entering the second half of this year?

This year’s summer days are fleeting, and the monsoon rain will stop one day. People come into your life and leave. However, the moon is still there. Time definitely sweeps by - whether we want it or not - like the clouds that pass by the moon.

Many years back, when I was young, I used to ask myself why we can’t stop the hands of time. And many such questions. When I couldn’t find the answers, I grew helpless and disinterested in mystical aspects of life.

Even today that question is humming in my heart. But now I’m learning to put questions down and in return I’m becoming closer to myself and feeling more love. With time, I understand how time changes us and how our mind and faith takes on different shapes.

Rest, everything is far above my mind, the human mind. 

Books and summertime

“Come with me,' Mom says.

To the library. 

Books and summertime

go together.” 

This is what Lisa Schroeder, a novelist, has to say about the summer. Much loved it, that it resonates my absolute longing, my heart. 

And here, another author Jeannette Walls puts it all straight,

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”

Dear readers, enjoy your summertime! Your friends and family can really add more meaning to it. However, reading those books you love would do all the more the magic. Happy reading too!

Bloggers Meet

It was in July 2011 when we held the first Bloggers Meet of Bhutan in Thimphu. As ever, with thanks to Sogyel Tobgyel, the founder of Blogyul-Blogging Bhutan, who initiated the Meet, and Dorji Wangchuk, the then Director of Royal Media Office, who supported it.

More than 16 members were present in the Meet – mostly well acclaimed writers, filmmakers, journalists and bloggers. Often I had seen them on TV and read their stories in newspapers. Some I had followed on social media networking sites and also enjoyed their blogs. But never did I meet them in person, except few.

I was very new to blogging then; also I had just started my living in Thimphu. So I felt very awkward to be in the meet amongst those members, nervous too. To confess here, I hardly utter any words during the gathering.    

However, after attending the Meet, I realized that blogging is not only limited to activities of digital buttons and screens - but way beyond that. What a great idea to meet other people who also maintain social media journals! It is simply wonderful thing to spend a small time in person chatting with our virtual friends who you have read and who have read about you for several years.

I have kept friendship with some of the bloggers there – wonderful souls, with great character – we otherwise never would have met. Today, at times, we swapped stories and exchanged advice. And it’s always enriching experience for me to hear different viewpoints, see and learn things, and experience the world through their eyes.

Several Meets were conducted in Thimphu since then, and I’m amongst the two who has attended all. Other one is Sogyel. We have our second Meet at Chew Restaurant in August 2013, third Meet in my office’s cafeteria in September 2013.

In each Meet, we always came across new bloggers. Always, it’s such a great treat to meet them and discover their blogs and follow instantaneously. And then, we chat as if we’ve been friends forever. Quite wondrously, today, my blog friends are among my closest friends.

On July 2, once again we met at Sinchula Cuisine in Thimphu. In this Bloggers Meet, we were just six, all male bloggers. It’s pretty sad. We can blame it on the meet’s short notice. But I was so glad and as always took part in it. Because there are, at least, few who could initiate and organize bloggers meet for us when we remained busy.

This Meet seemed like catching up with old friends. And you know what? Like minds make for a great conversation. We spent hours gabbing about our writing, blog, family, career, love and aspiration. So much change happened in all of us, and it is wonderful thing to discover, together.  

Most importantly, this meet brought forth a concern related to those bloggers, mostly fresh and young, who hesitate to join us. For the good, all of us have agreed to work on towards involving them in the activities related to blogging in the future.

Hopefully, our paths cross soon!!!   

Photos: 1st and 2nd by Blogyul-Blogging Bhutan; 3rd by Nawang P; 4th by Kuenzang Thinley; 5th by Passang Tshering

Letter from Dordenma Buddha

Dear Thimphu people,

I’ve thought long on where to begin this chit. For this is the first time I’m ever doing so, that too for a painful reason. By the way, I’m pretty sure that you all know about me. I’m Buddha Dordenma of Kuensel Phodrang.

You know it better - very well - I was birthed here to commemorate the centennial of the Bhutanese monarchy and to bestow blessings, peace and happiness in the world. However, I daresay, you people have regrettably malformed Kuensel Phodrang or in your own term “Buddha Point” into a sinful place.   

So to begin, after the dusk enfolds Thimphu valley, the road below Buddha Point rises up eerily. Every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night, I see about 20 stalls emerging at roadside. These stalls, sparely lit, sell a lot of stuff - wine, whisky, beer, cigarette, tobacco, doma. Also, momo, thukpa and puri.

Surprisingly, the stall owners are very enterprising. Because the stalls have so many facilities like bonfire, chairs, disco lights and music blaring from car’s stereo. Moreover, it has got enough rituals to keep you up from midnight to early morning.         

As I stand 169 feet tall, high up here, I’ve a clear view of all the activities down there. One after another, cars, both big and small, jerk to abrupt stop at this illegal market of Buddha Point. Almost instantly, hundreds of drunken post-party hoppers flock here. Indeed, I am quite surprised as I had expected the Buddhist devotees to come and pray here, not drunkards at odd hours. I meant no disrespect here.

Most visitors are dispirited youth, aimless and adrift. Adorned with give-no-damn receive-no-damn attitude, you have no faith in me, even in yourself too. Your prayer beads are those cigarette tucked in your fingers and your mantras those wine-instigated non-veg words. This makes me feel like crying for humanity.

Amidst the crowd, every time, I see a handful of old men, seemingly rich, fondling around with a dozen of strikingly attractive young girls, as young as 15, in sleazy dresses. As usual, you start flinging from one embrace to another, and brush your cheeks one another’s. It’s in English that everything happens here.

But for me, to tell you rather honestly and frustratingly, you are a bunch of pathetic people, pseudo modern Bhutanese who are lost in transition. Sorry though for I used crude terms.

It shocked me when I find there isn’t a single security personnel. This market is of its own, on its own – no laws, no authority, and no regulations. You do anything here. You talk dirty, foul, and fart loud shamelessly. You trade tobacco and drugs. At the same time, you have to smoke grass, inhale liquids and fill your tummy with countless bottles of alcohol.

You are so much cruel to me. Because of you, my mind doesn’t quiet, but grow restless. That’s why I don’t get enough time for meditation to pray for all the sentient beings and bestow peace and happiness around the world. 

A group of angry and grudge-filled young men picks up fights and starts exchanging punches and then breaking one another’s cars. And there, those victims heave with sobs and howl and scream seeking justice from me. Actually I have given you everything needed to build a beautiful life, if you choose wisely. Remember, dear sentient beings, you have got only one life, you ought to do what’s right.

Then, up and down the road, couples make desperate love - your bodies mud-stained, bushes crushed, and condoms litter everywhere. Oh, I have to stay here blushing. Sometimes, it is too much that I’ve to bring down the lightning and rain rumbling low to chase you away.    

I prophecy so much grave incidents are going to happen at this place sooner. However, these misfortunes can be prevented if all the relevant agencies of Thimphu take up immediate measures. Thus, I decree all the concerned agencies (BAFRA, MoEA, RBP, and MoHCA) to react to this issue immediately.

There is still more to say, but so little time. For I need to take a month-long meditation and to look after the welfare other sentient beings around the world.  

(Dordenma Buddha)

Kuensel Phodrang, Thimphu

Some pictures of the stalls at Buddha Point below:

Have a wonderful day!

Thimphu has just opened for clear sky after a rainy week. It’s a beautiful day here! I hope you all are enjoying the bright monsoon day as much as I am here. So, to treat you, I bring to you, once again, pictures of a handful of flowers that I took recently from my office garden. Have a wonderful day!   

The photography lesson

I don’t know exactly since when I’ve nurtured this passion. Photography. To tell you, I just love taking pictures of almost everything. One clarification here though; I’m not a certified photographer. But hey, should one be certified to take pictures?   

I don’t know.

Initially, I began taking pictures of nature. Snow-capped mountain, cerulean skies, the sunset, rain, prayer flags, leaves, trees, and flowers - so much more. Perhaps all the beginners do start shooting nature. It could be, at least in my case.

I found divinity and beauty in nature, and felt feelings, warmth and hope. So I intended to capture and relive these things on my lens as briefly as possible.

Sometimes I would look at my own pictures and like anyone of you, I marvel at it. And to my own amazement, I stand in disbelief. Because some of my pictures seem unreal to me; it’s as though I had made it up.

However, photography and writing really complement each other. The digital lens does write stories, photographs do tell stories – sometimes better than my handful of words. So incapable of writing forward, for my blog, I look at my pictures and do I derive inspiration, get stories.

Quite wondrously, it is through my digital lens that I started to see the world around me differently. And ultimately I became a nature lover. Most importantly, it helped me to learn to find beauty and pleasure in the simple things. It changed my life’s outlook, for better.

Someone rightly stated about the photography and our life,

The greatest of inspiration, isn’t it? 

I can add here a few lines, but my own lines. You can, in life, fork out your problems like the way you crop out the unwanted parts of images. And if you want to make your life more attractive, learn to apply effects to images of your life.  Whew, it’s that simple!

As I’m still learning to take good pictures, so do I still learning to understand the life’s essence. 

Note: Second picture downloaded from google

Thimphu all set for Modi’s visit

I went around Thimphu City this evening for a casual walk. And wow, I am hugely impressed with the new looks of the City. The Street and Town look strikingly beautiful and dazzling.

Thimphu sets all ready welcoming Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, who will be arriving in Bhutan tomorrow. The highway and the Street all dressed in the flags and posters of both the prime ministers flaring on the poles and buildings.

Everything - in and around the City - looks perfectly organized and clean. Flowers well watered, and all blooming. All waste and trash disappeared. One feels as if you were in the City of Tokyo and Singapore.

The security personnel are everywhere. I hope the Indian PM’s visit would be a successful one and the Indo-Bhutan would last forever, ever stronger.  

The shopping mecca

Whenever I travel here in Bangkok, I do this again and again. Shopping. Quite a lot. Actually, I’m not a shopaholic, maniac. But once I’m here, in the shopping malls of Bangkok, I become a different person. As I shop like crazy.

Quite surprisingly, this capital city has quite a huge number of popular shopping malls, centres and complexes with over thousands stores. Very convenient and attractive, they provide all kinds of shopping opportunities, plenty of entertainments and artwork.  

The amazing thing about the malls here is that they have almost everything you could possibly want. From fashionable garments to footwear, home decorations to foods, jewelries to electronics, craft items to entertainment (cinemas, karaoke, 4D, games, bowling alley).

Like you or any visitors, I also spend most of my free time running from one shopping centre to another, exploring new items, trying on different schemes and of course buying. Only once you are in here, ah, how you wish that you were a rich man.

Interestingly, here, you can bargain like hell on almost everything and you would be just shell-shocked at the rock bottom prices they offer you.

Moreover, the city provides very convenient transportation services and delicious street foods. I just love travelling by the skytrain and tok tok, always new experience for me.

 First picture courtesy: googlesearch

Meet up with a fellow-blogger in Thailand

Yesterday evening, I met up with blogger Dumcho Dorji here in Salaya, Thailand. As you all know, he currently studies at Mohidol University and blogs about his life’s experience in Thailand and Bhutan. We knew each other through our blogs; in fact, very well. But we never met before in person.

However despite his busy schedule, Dumcho found a time for me. He took me around his beautiful college campus for a walk. And he did treat me with dinner - some juice and foods - on the street. 

It's quite surprising and nice to have met a Bhutanese blogger in a foreign soil. More so happy that one could get to sit together over the dinner and talk about our life, love and aspirations, as bloggers and writers. 

I am ever so thankful to Dumcho; it is one moment that I can always cherish in my life.        

Thai situation is improving

When I landed here in Thailand last Saturday, the authority of the capital was cleaning and clearing the litters of the protests at the downtown Bangkok. I was quite nervous of the political unrest in the country. I was even afraid to wear my red shirt. Moreover, the Thailand Stock Exchange has been falling everyday. The whole situation of the country was worrying.

However, as I stay here longer, I slowly understand the situation, more clearly. And I am happy, enjoying my stay here, trust me. Though the curfew begins from 10 pm to 5 am, everything runs as normal - businesses, public services, transportation and airlines. The movement in the country is not restricted as portrayed in the media.

The situation has become alright now. The locals and foreign travelers enjoy all freedom to walk around, do shopping and sightseeing. I observed that protests were well organized; it engaged only the protest groups and their members in the designated places.

As the Thai military junta Chief received royal endorsement as Chief of the National Council for Peace and Order, most Thai people are hopeful that the unrest could be solved. Moreover, they are showing support to military deployed to enforce martial law and maintain peace.

All the community leaders agreed to comply with order of the Chief to remove all signs of red shirts from public places. The leaders and members of different protest groups have been summoned and put under trials.  

The people of Thailand are wishing sincerely that the political unrest be settled soon. If so happened then the national election is going to happen very soon, possibly within next four months.       

Photograph

These are the pictures of Taksang, the majestic monastery of Bhutan, that I took during my last visit to the place. I hope I’ve done enough justice to this splendid monastery by clicking it in my lens. Have a good time, fella bloggers!

Mystery of my favourite poem

When I was in my high school, I came across this famous and magical poem for the first time. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot”. And ever since, it had become my favourite poem, indefinitely. Ever so gracefully, it remained on my mind, too gracefully though.

Still I do remember those days, of my classroom where I used to sit on my desk, so attentive, in excited and radiant smile, reciting the poem. If I’m not wrong, this is the first time I fell in love with English literature and of course started liking my English teacher.

This is one poem that I held dear, and its lines, I knew by heart. Again and again I would read the poem. To put it precisely, it’s crafted in perfect words and emulates overpoweringly breathtaking images that one would never forget in life.

And the way Tennyson starts out the poem is simply splendid. I can’t help myself from pulling out those starting lines and putting down here,

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And thro' the field the road runs by

To many-tower'd Camelot;

The poet portrays the scenes so magically. And it made my heart lurch, all the more. This is the only poem that I read not for the exams, but out of the pleasure of words. In fact, that’s the time I realized the power of words, what the black and white letters can be.

Above all, it’s the protagonist of the poem that had absolutely hypnotized me. The Lady of Shalott. She is described as an absolute angel, “lovely face”, “fairy”, pure, and beauty who “weaves by night and day/A magic web with colours gay” in a four-towered castle. She is like…ah as if I had met the love of my life, my soul mate. The more I read it, the deeper I fell in love.

Moreover, I felt hugely heartened when I had the opportunity to learn the poem once more when I joined Sherubtse College in 2005. We read the nineteen century literature and we analyzed this poem too. However, the analysis shocked me; left me shaken.

The poem suddenly turned dark. The Lady of Shalott is restricted and imprisoned in the tower under a terrible curse. Subjugated and lonely, she is considered as an invisible object, ghostly. Second half of the poem becomes bloody and mournful. The Lady is doomed for going against the norm. She cries. She dies.

I couldn’t believe that the love of my heart, the Lady’s life is one long unspoken sadness and accursed. It’s unthinkable; it penetrated me deeply. I couldn’t take it. It aroused such sorrow and grief of the loss of the Lady that I almost burst into tears in the classroom. I was angry at the poet, I started hating my lecturer, and I grew disinterested in learning literature.

After almost a decade, today, I read the poem once more. To tell you…it was a decade of my life filled with difficult obstacles and decisions, unthinkable loss and fear, and countless tears and anxiety. But it was also a decade of humbling realizations and experiences – of love, of joy, of emotional growth, of mental maturity, of understanding the true essence of life.

As I am already halfway to this bumpy ride of life; and today, as I read the poem, I have come to understand it. Its true essence, its beauty, its purpose and the love and grace in the poem. This world, this human life is all temporary. Vulnerability figures large all time, and that falling apart happens continually. Accept it or not, all is not fair or perfect in this world, similarly this favourite poem of mine.

I am excited here that I may understand the poem further as I grow older, in my old age. Learning never ends, and this poem never stops giving me new lessons. “The Lady of Shalott” is a poem for lifetime.

Photo courtesy: google

Photograph

You are the apple of my eye!!!

And of course litchi to my mouth!

He-he...spotted this little boy on my way to Takshang on the last Zhabdrung Kuchoe. Have a wonderful day, dear readers! 

The joy of planting a tree

The tree above? 

Believe it or not, this is the tree that I had planted as a student of Norbuling Primary School in Gelephu. It was June 2 in 1995. I was very happy to see my plant growing so strong and tall during my visit to the school last February. It made me dizzy with excessive pride.

You know what? I felt so excited that I spent my entire afternoon, beneath it, under its shade. I hugged it, ran around it, climbed on it, held its branches, and felt and smelt its leaves. More excitingly, I remembered my childhood days, a part of my life, in this school.