My Oldest Photograph

Last Sunday a cat has given birth to four kittens in my storeroom. Kezang wanted to feed the exhausted mother but my store is so cramped up that we could hardly get to the cat family. So with all the reluctance I had to invest my weekend in clearing the dusty room. I took out about a truck load of old stuffs until I reached the cats. One kitten was almost dead and I had to rescue it quickly but I needed the approval from the mother. O' She wasn't bad I could easily get the whole family into their new carton box home.

Thanks to this cat family that gave me the chance to dig into my storeroom. I couldn't believe how much priorities have changed in these few years alone. Opening the dusty carton boxes I discovered the things that were considered useless a few years ago are now very essential. There were also things we held on to fondly that are no more of any use. There were clothes and shoes damaged by rats and fungus. One box contained books once I bought with big dreams but over the years I didn't even remember they were there.

And among the old dusty stuff was one picture of mine that I had once considered as just another picture but when I saw it this time I realised that it's the oldest picture I have of myself with me. It was shot by a foreigner in 1997 and sent to me by airmail.

Me and My Friend Tashi Tobgay

It was story of those days when Bhutan had only a countable cameras and foreigners were fond of taking picture of funny things- I was one such thing. They would mail us a copy diligently. Many kids from our generation had one such photo. 

Look at the picture and you can already write a story about my childhood. If you think it was bad, perhaps you haven't known me before that. I didn't get any chance to be a good boy, I didn't see a reason to be one. I am only happy that I survived myself. 

I showed this picture to my friends and Jaggu in particular laughed endlessly. It's on his request I am blogging this picture. My daughter can amazingly identify me in the picture- "When Apa was achu". And just imagine what my wife would have said about this picture...