A piece of advice for young drug users

Last Friday, I was on my way to Thimphu from Phuntsholing when suddenly the bus I was travelling in was flagged down by police at Tsimasham for a surprised highway checking. The two policemen swooped in and headed straight towards the rear section of the bus where a group of young boys were seated. One by one, they started to frisk them until two sticks of cigarettes emerged from one of the boys’ shoes. The real drama began to unfold as one of the policemen pulled out small packages of cannabis drugs from around his seat. The boy was immediately removed from the bus for further scanning and interrogation. We all watched in disbelief as he was finally taken away for detention at Tsimasham Police Station. We had to wait for more than an hour while the police completed the formalities.

The future is here - Reconnecting with former classmates

With the evolution of social media, the world we live in has become very small today. Just at the click of a mouse or the swiping of a finger, we can easily connect with friends and families. It’s really amazing how social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and WeChat have transformed our way of interacting with people around us. More importantly, social media has helped us reconnect with even the lost generation of friends and relatives who have been separated by time and space. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a WeChat group forum called “Jigsher 2000” which was created by some of my former classmates to reunite us at least on social media. For the first time in 17 years, I could hear the voices of my former classmates with whom I had studied together in the year 2000. It was very exciting for all of us to talk to each other and relive the memories we had created together 17 years ago in Khaling. Many of us had not met even once after we completed class 12 but thanks to social media, I feel we are together again.

The pain of having to say goodbye

Life is really a trail that runs zigzag across the wilderness of time. It often crosses into the lives of people who become special in our hearts. But no matter how much we try to hold on to the special moments we create and cherish together, we have to drop them off at one point of time as we continue our journey. This is a painful reality we often have to go through in our life. It’s true that time does not wait for us. It constantly keeps us on the move. As a result, it’s part of our life to meet and depart with people whom we love and appreciate. There is no time for us to stay forever with people who are special to us. People say that life is like a bicycle. We have to keep it moving in order to balance it. So there is no way we can stop it when we have met someone we love.

Signature vs. Thumb-impression: the only apparent yardstick used bybanks to measure literacy

Recently, a group of six visually impaired people in Thimphu had gone to the Bank of Bhutan to apply for ATM and M-BoB services. But the bank did not accept their request because they could not sign. This has ignited an interesting discussion within the visually impaired community in Bhutan. I think the banks believe that all those who cannot sign are illiterate and hence, they can be irresponsible and vulnerable to theft and robbery. But not all the visually impaired people are illiterate. Everybody who has studied at Muenselling Institute in Khaling knows how to read and write, at least electronically or in braille. The only problem with them is that many of them do not have signatures just because they cannot sign. As a result, they are denied access to the online banking facilities which otherwise would make their lives much easier.

Revitalization of Bhutanese values

During my school days, the kind of respect we had for our teachers never changed even when they lashed us mercilessly. We did not have value-education classes but we knew our boundaries well. We have been culturally groomed to believe that teachers are like our parents and that we must respect them as much as we respect our parents. We have been convinced that we would earn respect if we know how to show respect to our elders and treat them with love and dignity. But sadly, this trend seems to be taking a different turn today. Probably due to the excessive exposure to western cultures through social and mainstream media outlets that have emerged with the technological revolution of the modern era, the youth of Bhutan appear to be gradually drifting away from the unique social and cultural values of our country that define us as Bhutanese. This rapid decline of values among the Bhutanese youth has triggered important discussions in the government agencies in the recent times. Upon the Royal Command of His Majesty the King, the Ministry of Education has already started working with the Royal Education Council (REC) to explore effective ways of inculcating our own national values into the young generation. The first draft of the curriculum framework for teaching values developed by REC was presented during the special meeting convened on 19th June 2017.

What should I do if I ever get a chance to see the world for a week?

The people with eyesight seem to see so little that they often fail to recognize what is around them. Whenever I hear about people falling off the cliff or bumping into objects on the way, I just wonder why they have not been able to make full use of their eyes. My wife occasionally goes out to attend public functions and celebrations, but always comes back to say that she did not see anything. I have many friends who have been in the woods but have not seen anything special there.

The key points to remember on the day of exam: a simple advice for students

Exams are particularly stressful events. During the final hours leading up to the day of exam, you panic a lot and often get confused with the lessons you have studied. The notes you have written with your own hand in the class appear like a totally new book and you spend hours scratching your head just trying to figure out what you have written. The textbooks do not make much sense and whatever lesson that has been taught does not flash back to memory. You feel completely lost. You keep studying through the late night but nothing seems to get into your head. You feel sleepy but you can’t fall asleep. It’s such a painful situation. The next morning you wake up with swollen eyes due to the lack of sleep and after trying to memorize a few things from the book, you drowsily head to the exam hall. In the hall, you are not in a position to think actively and creatively. You feel tired and when the question-paper lands before you, everything goes blank. You know that you are now doomed.

The five creepiest experiences of my life that still lack logical explanations

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the fact is that it’s tough not to get freaked out when you experience something that cannot be explained. The shadowy figures and strange voices that go bump at night are still a great mystery to those who encounter them. But although ghosts cannot be proved to exist, the stories of ghosts and spirits have persisted throughout the human history. Even in Bhutan the history books talk so much about our great Buddhist masters like Guru Padma Sambhava and great Lamas sighting and subduing wrathful demons and evil spirits. So we are culturally brought up to believe that ghosts do not only exist in books and movies. Having personally been exposed to mysterious experiences a couple of times in my life, I am compelled to believe that there are at least some strange forces acting on us, if not ghosts. Consistent with the extensive research done by paranormal scientists around the world, it seems there are many people who believe in ghosts. For instance, the 2012 poll in the United States showed that 45 percent of Americans believed in paranormal phenomenon. This certainly shows that there are still many unsolved mysteries in the world. The following are some of the creepiest experiences I ever had in my life which baffle me even to this day. Honestly, I still don’t have any psychological or logical explanation for those mysterious encounters. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, these stories might force you to wonder with me what else they could have been if they were not paranormal activities.

How school textbooks can transform your life

Before I went to school, I think I was a spoiled child. Perhaps because I was the only surviving child from my late mother, my father loved me too much during my childhood. As a result, he hardly cared what I did. He used to smoke biri at the time and often there used to be biri-butts in the pockets of his trousers. Out of curiosity, I tried to smoke one of them one day. But the moment I started inhaling the dark smoke, it drove me crazy. I began to puke uncontrollably. That was the first and the last time I ever tried to smoke. I could never appreciate it.

Wearing glasses cannot be the only determinant of visual disability: asmall reflection from PHCB 2017

The Population and Housing Census of Bhutan (PHCB) is an important national exercise undertaken every after 10 years to determine the socio-economic status of the entire population. The last time we had this kind of survey was in 2005. The findings from this survey are expected to guide the future plans and policies of the government to boost socio-economic development of the country. Hence, it is not surprising to see the questionnaire covering different aspects of social, economic and public life of each individual when an enumerator walks into your house. The main intention behind having such a comprehensive set of questions is to get the exact socio-economic profile of a person. It is therefore very important for each of us to participate in the survey and get counted. After having patiently waited for one and half days, I finally got counted this evening.