8 Questions for an Aspiring Bhutanese Entrepreneur

When I was invited to talk to a group of young entrepreneurs at the “I’m an Entrepreneur” event last year in Thimphu, I had to stay up late into the night thinking of what to talk about because my regular subjects weren’t going to make any sense to the entrepreneurial audience. 

Bhutanese Entrepreneur with Lyonpo Loknath at RIM

So, I came up with a list of 8 questions a Bhutanese Entrepreneur must ask himself or herself, which is a compilation of bits and pieces of wisdom I have gathered from my encounters with successful entrepreneur friends, books, talks and from my own experience of founding and running Bhutan Toilet Org.

Despite several suggestions from the young entrepreneurs in the audience that day to rewrite my talk into an article, I didn’t get the right time or motivation to do it till today. The lockdown has given me a long and quiet time to catch up on the things I have missed, this being one. And I also thought if I shared this during the lockdown, chances of you reading it wholeheartedly and contemplating it is greater.

One of the organizers came to me after my talk and said, “Acho, I felt like you were talking about all the mistakes I have made.” I had to assure him that these were general theories that are often overlooked and that’s how we land up making the same mistakes;

Following are the 8 questions, in no particular order, an aspiring entrepreneur or a new entrepreneur must ask him/herself to ensure that they don’t have to make the same old mistakes people ahead of us made.

1.     Are you ready to start a business?

Breaking the Shoemaker's Curse

In 1920s Germany, there lived two young brothers, Adi Dassler and Rudi Dassler, whose father worked in a shoe factory and mother ran a small laundry business. The brothers went to the shoe factory with their father, and later began making their own shoes in their mother laundry room. They began 'Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory', which prospered.

Turning point was in 1936, then Adi drove all the way to Olympic village with a suitcase full of their shoes, and made an African American sprinter wear their shoes. The sprinter went on to win four gold medals and that made their shoes shined best in the sport world. Then World War II set in and the brothers were divided. They became rivals.
Rudi started his own firm and called it Ruda (Rudi Dassler), which was later re-branded as Puma, and Adi stared his own firm and named it Adidas (Adi Dassler). This is the story of two greatest shoes makers- Adidas and Puma.

My interest in the German brother began in 2011 when Dawa Drakpa started ShoeVival, a shoe laundry, the first of its kind dared by a Bhutanese. His parents had sent him to get a degree in BSc Nursing from Bangalore, but to their disappointment he returned from Mumbai with a shoe laundry franchise, and without the degree. Unimaginable, but that's the strangeness of destiny.

In a society that has chronic traditional hierarchical ego, where mending shoes was always associated with expat cobbler families, a young Bhutanese university student proudly establishing a brand was a history in itself. He broker the curse. Overnight he turned what was earlier perceived as 'dirty job' into a sexy profession. He made a strong statement, and most importantly he lived the example well.

Bhutan Dragon Motorcycle Club

How much adventure can one have in a shoe laundry business? Wait until Dawa Drakpa rode with Bhutan Dragon Motorcycle Club on their gorgeous Royal Enfield monsters to 'Help Shoe Bhutan'. His laundry collected, refurbish and loaded 5996 pairs of shoes on the back of a DCM truck that followed the bikers across the country. They distributed shoes and collected smiles from so many corners of the country, they reached some places where no shoe has reached and touched some feet that were never touched by shoes.

After 5996 shoes, perhaps it dawned on him that if he gave man a shoe, it ends with that shoe, but if he taught man how to mend his shoes then it will last across all the shoes the man and his neighbors will ever have in their lives. This was the beginning of another adventure for the shoe man.

Help Shoe Bhutan trip to Gasa

He is now on a long journey to saw his seeds across the country. As I write this story, he must be somewhere in Bumthang teaching school students his trade. He is now setting up Help Shoe Clubs in fifteen school across the country. The journey began in Dashidingkha MSS in Punakha where the club was set up and students were given thousands worth of tools and million worth of skill and inspiration. The man is travelling east and he is going to inspire many Dawa Drakpas on his way, and perhaps a few Dassler brothers.

These are the schools in the first phase list: Dashiding MSS, Sherubling HSS, Jakar HSS, Yadi HSS, Phayum HSS, Tashigang MSS, Rangjung HSS, Baylling HSS, Samdrupjongkar MSS, Sonamthang MSS, Damphu HSS, Sarpang HSS, Dagana HSS, Nangkhor HSS & Nanglam HSS.

Help Shoe Club in Trongsa Shrubling hereby certified!

One day there will be a time where every Dzongkhag will have a Bhutanese professional cobbler who is proud of his job, and one day the expat cobblers who lived in Bhutan for over three generations will close shop and say, "Saaaala, Now Bhutan has changed", and that day you know whom to remember.

Pride of my generation.

I am proud to be born in the crazy generation with people like Karma Yonten, Farmer Sangay and Dawa Drakpa. The thrash man, the Farmer, and the shoe man.

10 Businesses that flourished and perished in 90s Bhutan

Everyday I set up a new business in my head. To me it’s so real that I would have visualized that font on the signboard to the color on the wall. When it’s all set I travel in time to see how far it goes but as always I am too romantic even with business, which makes me a bad businessman even in my imagination.

I have thought about enough business ideas that would work in Bhutan to fill up a book, some very crazy and original, and many adapted from outside. The book will be published some day if I fail to translate the ideas into real businesses myself. Let them remain business secrets for now.

While considering certain ideas I couldn’t help travelling back in time to see the good and bad businesses of the past. And not surprisingly you don't have to go so much in the Bhutanese past to find out because there is nothing much beyond few decades.

Surprisingly, within the last fifteen years so much has changed. The hottest businesses in late 90s are now

no more. They flourished and perished without warnings.

Following are the 10 Flourishing Businesses of 90s that have perished now:

1. 
   Video Cassette Shops: Every town had several Video Cassette shops that would hire a movie for Nu.20 per day. These shops used to be full of posters and the countless shelves were filled with movies from across the world. I used to wonder where they got so many movies from, but now I wonder what they did with all the cassettes. Perhaps woven bags out of the reel.
   

   

   If you have seen this, you have lived it!

   
   
2. Video Halls: Those days if you had a Video Screen and a Deck you would be considered rich. Many owners found it very lucrative to turn their video set into a money making machine. Just put the video set in an empty room with any movie in it and people will rush in with Nu.10. There were video halls in every third building in any town.
3. Music Cassette Shops: These shops were very noisy, they will play the latest Bollywood song at top volume and the setting was quite like the video cassette shops but here we can’t hire music we have to buy.

   

   I feel nostalgic...

                                      
4. Music CD Writing Shops: In the last days of Music cassettes there came a new business, the business of writing music onto a CD disk. Back then one CD could only hold 8 songs and it would cost Nu.150. This business died even before people knew it existed.
5.  Telephone Booths: Telephone booths became rampant in every town. Tiny glass booths were squeezed into many shops, and hotels. Some had electronic billing system and other would charge us as they wished. There were terms like local calls and trunk calls. Making trunk calls, calling inter-Dzongkhag, were more expensive than calling SAARC countries today.
6. Wishing Card shops: Exam Wishing Cards, Love Cards, Valentines Cards, New Years Cards, Birthday Cards, Friendship cards,… so many different types of cards that could fill up a whole shop, and people would flood in during occasions like now you see at meat shops before the holy months.
7. Bollywood Post Cards: Before I watched any Bollywood movie I knew most of the actors through the post cards. Post cards were a stand alone business but it was like doma, every shop sells it and every child buys it. It cost Nu.1. At the back of the card there used to be a box for pasting stamp but we used it for writing “For Get Me Not”- each word on the four corners of the box.
8. Photo Studios: This was a big business. Photography was very expensive. A roll of film cost Nu.100. Developing the film into negative cost Nu.50 and each photo cost Nu.10. Interestingly the photo studios will give two copies of each photo, regardless of how the picture came out. We can have our photos taken in the studio too with amazing backgrounds- I bet everybody from my generation and older had such a picture taken.

   

   Do you have one such picture?

9. Commercial Photographers: Anybody who had a camera was a businessman. The business was so lucrative that even a school boy does that. We would go requesting for certain number of reel and even the place and time. And wait for ages to get our picture, which has to come from Phuntsholing. Each picture cost Nu.10.
10. Torch Battery: This is not a business on its own but it was one commodity that sold like salt because it was used in torch, radio, and tape-recorded. Though pencil battery still exist the big brother of our time is gone forever.

    

    Where are you now?

Anybody from my generation could relate to these stories but if you are born in 90s perhaps this will be like a history note for you, because when you were born they were gone.

Fish on bBay

I am pleased to see my bBay appearing in Kuensel's List of "Site You Could Use". But more than that, Gyalsten K Dorji must be applauded for bringing bright new change to boring Kuensel pages, in fact Kuensel could build on this idea and make a list of their own like the famous Forbes List.

I created bBay two years ago and it enjoyed publicity from Business Bhutan and Thimphutech.com besides my own blog. Today it's one of the most active groups on Facebook where the following happens (from Kuensel)

"If you are looking to buy or sell something, the most active place to do this today is on Facebook. Named after ebay, the popular online auction and shopping website, a page named B-Bay currently has almost 14,000 members using the page to find buyers for their second hand items, or to find something they want. A wide range of items, like apartments, land, vehicles, electronics, jewellery, shops, and even doma can be found being marketed on the Facebook page. The page also provides for some entertaining exchanges between buyers and sellers. Since the page is hosted on Facebook, posts are free."

Page 13- Kuensel

I must thank my dear friend, idea box and brilliant businessman, Tshering Tenzin who helped grow bBay to the size it has today. Right from the beginning we made it clear to ourselves that bBay will help people from being bullied by brokers, which is why we have banned over hundred brokers till date. We, including my wife and brother, monitor bBay everyday to keep the wall free from spams, jokes, harassment, and brokers. We only earn a few Nu. from the Ads we post on cover and in pinned section, which is at times questioned.

What is the Fish on bBay?
However, recently I visited a big office where I met two smart guys who were upset with me. They confessed to me that they were among the brokers whom I have banned, but what they shared after that upset me. After they were banned they have fooled us by joining with new account and remained ideal to escape out censorship. But what they enjoyed was full access to what our members post and they were the active buyers. They buy from our members and sell offline. To shock me even more they say they have done two to five deals each week. Sometime they see their sold cars coming back on bBay, which happens because there are many more hidden brokers on bBay. They promised to give me a list of all the brokers they know on bBay so that I can make it a clean place I had hoped for. So my dear member on bBay, I must admit to you all that there are some fishes in the group, which is important for you to know, but as long as you are getting what you want for the price you agree they should be a problem.

Afternoon with Farmer Sangay

Another big thing this weekend is finally meeting Farmer Sangay in person. We have been friends on social media for a long time. The man and his initiatives need no introduction and I am among the many people who couldn't dare to be different like him but I have all the respect and appreciation for the difference he is making. He calls himself a Farmer, but I see him as a social scientist. For the record, he is the founder of Happy Green Cooperative- "the cooperative model of green ideas and solutions to pursue social innovations."

Showing off our daughters!!

Sangay brought along another amazing young man to make my Sunday more meaningful- the founder of Bhutan Kidney Foundation, Tashi Namgay. Sharing table with two of them and measuring their achievements against their age I saw a beautiful preview of future Bhutan. I on my part hoped and prayed that some day some of my students will turnout to be different like them.

Between the Founders

Among the many innovative plans Sangay has, one of my favorites is his Cafe, which is also going to be the Innovation Lab for his Cooperative, where you and I can walk in with our ideas and give them shape and color over coffee. And you know him- He will make it happen!

Our Families 

We both brought along our families but it was a mistake, we should have left our wives alone with their Sunday because two of us had thousand things to talk about, much of which weren't of interest to our ladies. But it was additional pleasure to meet his actor wife, who stands strong behind him in his passion.

To interact with the two guys, Like their pages on Facebook:

• Happy Green Cooperative
• Bhutan Kidney Foundation 

Kinder Joy Brain

I don't think there is anybody who doesn't know about the egg shaped product that makes your kids crazy. And when our kids become crazy they make us crazy finally. There is not a day in a year my daughter doesn't ask for a Kinder Joy, there is not a night she does watch Kinder joy Ad on YouTube. I want to kill whoever was that first person who introduced her to this product.

The Magical Product

It costs a staggering Nu.35 in Wangdue, which is enough to buy myself a decent lunch. After paying so much it is interesting to observe she wouldn't eat the edible half, and I assume half the kids on the planet would do the same. They are after the other half which holds a surprise toy. I noticed that there is no surprise anymore as my girl keeps getting a monkey paying cricket- seemingly made in India!
Well I share a similarity with Kinder Joy, one half of me is a father who just calculated how much this stupid egg robbed off me so far but the other half of me was fully amazed by the brain behind the Kinder Joy concept. It emerged in one of thousand talks I had with my kindred spirit Tshering Tenzin at his headquarters. We looked at the product from all angles (it looked like an egg from all sides) and saw that it has very low investment, high price and targets the loose ends of our wallets- yes children. Amazingly it sells on its own, and one Kinder Joy sold becomes an advertisement for next hundred costumers... it works like magic spell. It's like Facebook on internet, which needn't be taught nor advertised.
There is so much to learn from this small product, though I hate it every time my daughter catches hold of one. While the world is after making big stuffs someone has put all his brain on creating a small thing for small children to make us scratch our head!

My Business Idea

Bhutan Innovation and Technology Center organized The Business Idea Competition of Bhutan 2012 from April to June 2012 and I walked out of my comfort zone to take part along side some 50 of them. Well it was one totally different and comfortable experience dealing with cooperate people. And on top of the experience my idea of Indoor Menchu Service made it to the top ten Business Idea "for its Excellence".

Thank you Thimphu Tech Park and Bhutan Innovation & Technology Centre for the recognition. I will come with crazier idea next year.

 

The Changing MRP

MRP is supposed to stand for Maximum Retail Price, but it's badly misunderstood in Bhutanese Market. People think it's the price shopkeepers paid to the sources, or shopkeepers convince people to think so. Therefore they think is reasonable to pay a little higher than MRP and if on some rare occasions they get a few things on MRP it makes them very happy.
But the truth everybody knows is that MRP printed on goods are way higher than its actual price so that it covers all transportation expenses and taxes and still leave good room for profit. But some shopkeepers who charge over the MRP share their sad stories of having paid so much themselves, which is either a big lie or they are foolish enough to deal with third-person suppliers. Whose ever fault it is, costumers like us are the ones who are paying the price on daily basis.
However our misery with MRP doesn't end with getting some things at MRP because it's on a constant change. Prices of goods are changing with every new stock and shopkeepers shrug innocently, indicating that they have no power over the Indian inflation. That's true we can't control the Indian market, and we can't survive without importing from India but what about Bhutan?
One Bhutanese good I buy regularly is Orange Fruit Squash, it's not only economical but also less harmful compared to fizzy drinks. Till last week I was buying one liter bottle @Nu.78 and today it's @Nu.115, a 47.4% increase in price. I checked the dates and found that the ones I bought earlier were from last year and the new stock was the one which came with new price tag. I am just wondering what happened so suddenly in Bhutan that this company had to increase the price insanely.

Orange Squash 47.4 % inflated over a few months (look at the prices)

Prime Minister sure told us Bhutanese to take advantage of the Rupee Crunch but He mustn't have meant to do this and kill fellow Bhutanese. Orange Squash was a poor-man's drink, we could increase the amount by adding water but now they have even charged for the water we will add.
I am also wondering why the juice which is produced in Bhutan and also has "Bhutan Sale" written on it has it's price printed in RS.

Boating in the Punatshangchhu

This afternoon I heard the unusual sound from the river again and like the last two times I only sighted the thick white line left behind. From my experience I knew that it would return, so I ran with my camera and waited for it. I was joined by a few colleagues from different direction who saw it go down too.
It was a speed boat and there were four people in it. It's very rare to see boats in the rivers in Bhutan for whatever reason it may be, and when we do see we run and watch like we have never seen it before. I have always wondered why a deep wide river like Punatshangchhu is not used as motor ways, perhaps it was never necessary.

Speeding Upstream on April 9

I heard from my old uncle who used to be among the foremost soldiers trained in Tencholing that there were boats in Punatshangchhu once upon a time. Then, he recalled, the Wangdue bridge collapsed and there wasn't a way left for commuters. Just then a man (I forgot the name now) ran down to south and brought some boats, which he used to transport people and good across the river like taxi. He's said to have made fortunes before the bridge was reconstructed.

Bajo Town in the backdrop

Now the communication is not a problem, there are at least two bridges over the punatshangchhu and if boats are to be put into this water then it can be for entertainment like that of Ooty, an amusement park where Bhutanese families could spend their weekends and vacation, which otherwise is a very expensive affair having to travel abroad- therefore limiting to only the lucky few. We only focus on tourist when we think about amusement as if Bhutanese don't deserve fun. If we create for our own people, tourist will find it more entertaining- sharing space with the natives. For now the boating, rafting, and kayaking we see sometimes are just for tourist and Bhutanese are spectators.
If I weren't a teacher I would invest in such crazy ideas, no matter what it takes.

The Best School in Bhutan

After the declaration of Board Exam results, it's interesting to see and hear how people make bold judgement on schools. Which school is the best in 2011? There is yet no official research done on this though, but Bhutanese society must have already declare their result by now. And I am not even curious to know the result because I know the foolishness with which the result is drawn. Even the official declaration of "Top Ten Schools" last year amused me, because even they thought it wise to judge schools by their academic results.

Bajothang in Summer

My school is one among the few schools decorated with ill reputation by the public, and therefore they want to take away their good performing children to schools with good reputation. This is an annual trend and many of our academic toppers leave for "better" schools. They don't stop for a while to reflect on which school made them who they are, not even their parents. Their ticket to "better" schools are confirmed because they are going with outstanding marks, and therefore keeping up the reputation of that school.
But here we begin again with new set of students, and the best part of my school is that we don't look at their past- their character certificate and mark sheets. If we are so hungry about reputation we would just take in students with good marks and stainless character certificate but we are not.
Not every child is born with intelligence, not every child is born talented but if a school wants the intelligent and talented students where would the less gifted majority go? Children are young and innocent and aimless, therefore they can be naughty, aggressive, violent and mannerless but they have the right to education, they have the right to grow and correct themselves. If a school denies them admission, where would they get time to fine their way in life?
My school takes in just everybody because it's the school's moral responsibility to educate every child- not just every good child. It's not about building and keeping reputation of a school, it's about children's right to education. And in keeping with this national interest we land up having disciplinary problems, and sometimes poor academic result. And that's how we get our ill reputation by doing good. Should we mind?
School is just an open stage, students themselves are the magicians. And my school is a stage where all magicians are given equal space and time- often some magics are different but magic is a magic after all, god made it that way, and we have learnt to accept that.
Going by the result my school is not the best school in 2011, but going by what I know of my school it is the best school and I am proud.

My Rupee Worries

Even without any knowledge on commerce and economy I always saw this problem coming, I am not bluffing, and I am surprised some are only waking up now. I was in Phuntsholing last winter and had the misfortune of seeing how those four ATMs ran out of cash every hour. Our money was going to India as if Bhutanese economy was suffering from shooting diarrhea.
RMA's sudden measure to curb rupee crunch send panic waves across the country; Import business are threatened, constructions sectors are stunned, industries are shocked... and for once I thought out central bank is trying to cut off the neck that pains instead of healing it. Only today, after Dawa's show on BBS I saw the light, the light that should have been shown long ago. But now is not a bad time either.
However, this temporary measure, I fear, might cause permanent damage to our trade relation with people in Jaigoan. With Indian businessmen already shying away from Ngultrum I foresee sudden inflation in daily commodities in few days time. I have to gamble on weather I should already fill my kitchen with cartons of milk powder and cooking oil. I have already fueled my car -as if the problem would be solved before I run out of fuel again, and that sort of shortsightedness is prevalent among us Bhutanese. And even the central bank.
During the discussion, I didn't hear them talk anything about dollar. But some of us on twitter did a little talk of our own, where we mentioned why not use dollar to buy rupee. The problem is with rupee and we are supposed to have earned good amount of dollar through tourism, why can't we use it?
Without taking long term measures the economy diarrhea will never stop, and the current measure is just a radish corked in the bottom, only to build the pressure of outflow after it's been removed. We may have to look at agriculture seriously so that we don't land up importing what we could grow at home. We should revisit our tourism policy and bring some wise reforms. Our daily tariff of $250 scares many potential tourist from coming and spending in our country.
Of all the things we pride in so much, hydro power puts me to shame. We counted on it to rain rupee on us but the funny export agreements for 30 years with outrageously low tariff would making any difference to our economy during our time. By the time we have full ownership the walls of the dam may fall apart and new projects may have to begin again- followed by new agreements. Last winter's news of importing power from India shocked me 440 volts full.
The only two options we could play with are agriculture and tourism: Agriculture for controlling import and tourism for building economy.

J.Brands Clothing

Northface to Southface

One place you will get the best brands of clothing is the J.Brands, the brands everybody wears and nobody wants to admit. The J.Brands, or in short JB is the only place I know where second hand clothes are sold in mass. The clothes come from far as the USA and Japan. The very business is illegal if you dig its roots- it was donated for the poor Asian people but somehow it went on to become the hottest brand for the Bhutanese.

For all ages

Keeping aside our ego, if we are looking for true brands, JB is the only place you will find them despite having to invest lot of time making selection and even more time in bargaining.  I confess my fondness for the place since I visited Phuntsholing for the first time as a high schooler. Today I have enough money to invest in new clothes but I still can't help going there looking for something special- which you often find if you are lucky.
When I go there I don't wear face mask like many people do. More than the time I spend in choosing clothes and bargaining I spend watching the Indians seller, their patience and their ability to read Bhutanese minds. Amidst the drama I get to see lot of high class Bhutanese setting their high class foot on the low class market- because after you are out of JB nobody knows where your clothes come from! Some JB guys leaked to me that many overcoats in branded shops in Thimphu goes from here.

Pepe, Lee, Levis...(watch for defects)

If you are new in the JB, you may be shocked when the shopkeeper tells his price and you may want to run right away but wait for sometime, you get to tell your price as well. If they say Nu.1500, you close your eyes and say you will pay Nu.150. He will pretend to be angry but don't worry you increase by Nu.50 at a time and by the time you feel you have reached the price you actually wish to pay just walk away- I promise you he will call you back. In case he doesn't then go back and increase Nu.50 more. Always remember that those brands you get in Thimphu are nothing compared to ones you get in JB, except the newness- which is just a matter of days.
By this article don't assume that I am fully covered in J.brands clothing but at least know that the best clothes on my body are from there.

Encyclopedic of Bhutanese Hotels

I didn't know there were so many hotels in our country until I came across hotel.bt. Out of curiosity I checked a few hotels I know to see how good the site is, and I am thoroughly amazed at the collection of precise information backed up by beautiful pictures. It covers the hotels across the country and now I can already choose a hotel in any part of the country depending on my budget. And since it's online tourist from outside the country can make their choices too.

Click on the picture to visit the site.

The idea and the design re-inspired me to go back to my drawing board and work on my Question bank project which I dropped after MoE announced their project, which of course didn't materialize as well.

Wind-hole in Wangdue

Legend has it that the Wind in Wangdue comes from a hole in the elephant hill. And many still believe so, finding no geographical justification to why Wangdue should be so windy when places around it are calm. To add more gravity to the legend, the wind at the southern end of the Wangdue Dzong is man-blowing; if you haven’t been there you don’t really know how windy the windy Wangdue is.

Man-blowing wind.

The gigantic prayer flag on the hill waves ferociously with sound enough to surpass twenty scooters starting at once, every blade of grass points in the direction of the wind, trees seem to have lost much of their leaves to the wind… every inch of the hill spells out the power of the wind.

I went looking for the hole, from the head to the tip of the trunk of the elephant hill. I wanted to photograph the wind at its source, but the legend remained a legend- I couldn’t find the hole this time. But the wind blew me into wonder- is so much power going to go wasted everyday in blowing dust around? Or embarrassing and shy girl by blowing up her kira, or by blowing off a bald man’s hat? Can’t it be harnessed into useful energy- to pump water or generate electricity? Because even if there is no wind hole in the hill there is undeniable power of wind sweeping the hill at all times.

Bbay's week on Media

copied from ebay!

When I created Bbay I wasn't expecting magic, knowing there are lot other classifieds already online but soon I realized it could do magic since it was on a platform where everybody hangs out. For Bbay to be successful it must have hundreds of members and I had them soon. I waited for 500 members to kick start our business and it didn't take long before sale began. 
There were lots of things on sale and if wishes were horses I would have bought many of them. The iPad and SLR cameras made my heart beat the fastest. I have no intention and tech to track the sales but I am hopeful many deals must have been successful. 
Last week, Bbay enjoyed maximum Media coverage. Boaz Shmueli, co founder of Thimphutech.com mentioned "It is much harder to cheat on B-Bay..." and later Business Bhutan dedicated a full scale news article on Bbay. It has used the very motto of Bbay in the finishing line, " ... do some smart shopping."
I would like to thank everybody who believed in my crazy idea. I can only give you this platform for smart shopping. With Bbay, I hope nobody will land up receiving steel hammer. We will together educate people in reducing wastage of precious resources and still get what they want.
If you are not on Bbay yet, Join now!

Bhutanese Music

I didn't like Bhutanese music until recently, forgive me but there was nothing that could draw me- from lyrics to composition to the voice quality. Thanks to singers Namgay Jigs (forgive his name), Tshering Dorji, and Kheng Sonam Dorji, lyricist like Dirty and Composer like Tandin, who suddenly transformed the whole trend.

Now, Bhutanese children listen to great deal of local music and pride in being able to sing a few. Our generation, who grew insulting the half-hearted songs, is finally beginning to stop and listen, and even love some songs. It's unfortunate that the business is not good now a days with lot of piracy but the change in quality deserves all our respect.

I don't know what magic is there in Bhutanese songs, my daughter would run dancing to the TV as soon as she hears one playing. This has got me so curious, and I had to try playing different musics but god knows why it the Bhutanese music that has this magic. When I shared this story with my friends I knew I wasn't alone. This has been happening with many babies...

Business Idea: Why don't someone in web-designing business come up with a site from where we could download Bhutanese songs legally.