Biggest Fire Disaster in Bhutan- Chamkhar Fire

Bhutanese architecture is known for its lavish woodwork. Until recently even nails were shaped from wood. It is the wood that gives beauty to country’s various infrastructures. The rich forest provides easy supply of cheap timber for construction. However this very material that we pride in is the greatest weakness of our architecture.

Ruins of Drukgyel Dzong. Destroyed by fire in 1950s

Ruins of Drukgyel Dzong in Paro and Singye Dzong in Mongar are chilling reminder of how vulnerable our structures are against fire. Thimphu Tashichodzong and Paro Rimpung Dzong had to be reconstructed after major fire disasters.

Every year several families are made homeless across country. In 2002 February my village lost twenty five houses to fire. I was then in Monger working in construction of Kurizampa. When I returned home, it was gone. Hundreds of years of family memories are smoked into the frozen sky. Those were the hard times in our life; sleeping in tents with icy ground underneath. My baby sister was only two days old and had to spend her tender days in the open winter air.

When I heard of the biggest fire disaster in Bumthang Chamkhar this morning it broke my heart, because I truly know the pain of being homeless at the face of approaching winter. It is sad to share that disaster has just begun for them, what follows after today will devastate many families. In building my village back we saw lots of deaths, which were the aftermath of the fire. It became impossible to get manpower and cost of material and labor shot record high. It took us over five years to get back into the warmth of our homes despite the generous help from the throne. And just when we had our home back my tired stepfather gave up on his life. Eight years on, we still have a few families hoping to get their house roofed.

Photo by Kesang Tshering, Kuensel.

With already high demand for construction labor across the country I can’t imagine how long it would take for the many victims to have their homes back. For now it is very inspiring to see how quickly government reacted in dealing with the disaster. In few years time they will have new homes but what they lost today would go on to change the course of their lives. I only wish them hope and courage to go on.

3 Idiots- The movie that taught me more than my schools

If you haven’t watched 3 idiots yet you are the idiot of the century. Surprisingly nobody minds being called idiot after that movie. Everybody wants to be the 4^th idiot. I am sure there won’t be anyone who didn’t watch it over three times.

3 idiots- the movie that touched my heart!

The movie must have made fortune enough to forgive me for downloading it from The Piratebay. I regret it but if I haven’t done that I would have to wait until it comes on TV. After having watched it over ten times now I feel like I have to pay for it. It has taught me more than I have ever learnt from school. I would like to say thank you to everybody who came together to make 3 idiots and enlighten the world.

I, being a student once and now a teacher, got the most out of the movie. Every character seems to have something to teach me in becoming a good learner and a better teacher.

Rancho comes to college to learn engineering for the love of doing it and not to get the certificate. He gives Millimeter money to buy a school uniform and join any school the kid likes. If he is caught ‘uniform change, school change’. Going to school is not about passing the exam, getting the certificate and going to next level and finally landing up in a job. It is about learning. Rancho himself gets kicked off from class often but he gets into another class. This is something I want my students to seriously reflect on.

My favourite scene in the movie is when Rancho was asked, “What is Machine?” Despite his excellent answer, he gets kicked out. This happens in most of our schools. But what doesn’t happen here is what Rancho does when he returns for his book. The message goes out to students who are fond of mugging up books and most of all to teachers who fail to understand the depth of students’ mind.

I cried when Farahan’s father finally asks him to return the laptop and to get himself a professional camera. Life is not about what people would say, as is in our society too, it’s about what makes you happy. Farahan says, “If I become a photographer I may earn lesser, but for the rest of my life, every day I wake up I will happy”.

Failing to understand this costs ViruS his own son. The son never appears in the movie but plays a major role in shaping the theme. He wanted to become a writer but his father forced his dream of engineering onto his son’s life and he has jumped from the train.

Joy Lobo has invented a helicopter with the camera (Now known as a drone) but ViruS declares it ‘unrealistic’ just because Lobo fails to submit the assignment on time and worse ViruS calls up Lobo’s father to tell that the boy will not graduate this year, which forces the bright boy to take his own life, leaving a message, ‘give me another chance’. That song is my favourite.  It calls for us teachers to be sensitive, tolerant, and appreciative of students’ creativity and not mere name-sake deadlines.

Telling ourselves “Aal is well” even when things are not so well does not solve the problem but worrying about it only makes it worse and gives us exaggerated pain. Raju is a victim of countless worries and therefore leaving himself with lesser energy to focus. After his suicide attempt he realizes Rancho’s ‘Aal is well’ wisdom. And his job interview shows us the magic of honesty and faith in one's self. When his two friends bring him the stolen paper, he throws it away and says, “I will pass if I can and fail if I must but do it honourably”.

“Go for excellence, success will follow you”, is the biggest message of the movie. Such abstract nouns are hard to explain, however, the movie has boldly personified the two; Rancho illustrates 'excellence' and Chature is 'success'. The movie goes on to illustrate success running after excellence at the end.

ViruS’s college is just like any school in Bhutan and the movie questions the way things are going. It questions the system, questions the teachers and parents and it even questions the students. It’s one movie all of us must watch and for those of us who have come to love the movie, it is an indication that we are heading in the right direction.

I sat for Chiphen Rigpel TOT selection test

Chiphen Rigpel is a big ICT project in Bhutan by NIIT. It has an ambitious goal of training five thousand teachers and setting up computer lab in every school across the country. Read more on this in MoE website. To kick start the project it needs to set up a core group of 50 members from among teachers. The announcement was floated on the website, which many missed- I nearly missed too if not for my brother in-law. On 12 October the list of applicants were shown on website and were called for selection exam today.

Surprisingly I was not there in the list. In fact no one is there from my school though we all filled up the form and sent. Upon inquiry we realized the our application went missing somewhere on the way. Nobody to blame. Thank god, MoE gave us (me and Mr. Kailash Shongben) the chance to sit for the test today.

Technical paper (1 hr) and Aptitude test (30 min)- it was fun doing exam on something you know quite well. Of course I don't mean the Aptitude test; it had simple questions that could fool a complex man. But I have done well.

Ask me if you wish to try out the Aptitude Test, I can publish the questions...I think it is set by NIIT.

A Show for Tourists

I watched Jampa Lhakhang Drup live on BBS this morning. It has something different to offer than Tshechus and I want to watch it once.
 However, as the camera turned around to show the spectators I was surprised to see more cameras than eyes and more pants than ghos and kiras. It almost looked like some press conference of mask dancers. Whole thing only looked like a show for the tourists.

Loving Jungle Book and Hating Tiger

Mowgli Riding on Bagheera (alexross.com)

Mowgli playing with Baloo (startedbyamouse.com)

Shere Khan- the hated tiger (bandofcats.com)

Tiger- almost disappearing from the wild!
(moversandsekhars.wordpress.com)

I first read Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (Ladybird edition) somewhere in early 90s, when I actually couldn't read well. I enjoyed the pictures. And recently I watched the animation movie of the book with my friend's son. It was amazing. I borrowed the DVD and watched to over and over. I want to get a copy for my daughter. I can already imagine how exciting it would be for her.

She would love Mowgli, and may fantasize herself riding on Baloo or Bagheera and sleeping in the curl of Kaa. She would hate Shere Khan, the tiger and wish if Akela, Baloo and Bagheera could come together and kill the cat. I hated the tiger back then. So must be the feeling among children across the world who read the book or watched the movie.

Could it be the cause of disappearance of tiger population? Everybody was a child once, and therefore must have love The Jungle Book and hated tiger. We grew up with the feeling that tiger is a bad animal. I have forgiven Shere Khan and started loving tigers, but will tigers forgive Rudyard Kipling and his The Jungle Book?

It may not be possible to change the character in The Jungle Book but someone could write a nice book on tigers for children and let Save the Tigers publish it, and let Disney make a cartoon. If we have to start something it should be with children.

B Mobile vs Tashi Cell as Dual SIM Mobile Comes in...

I was thankful to B Mobile when it first came in the market. I didn't mind paying Nu.600 for the sim card and loading Nu.300 voucher even when I didn't have enough money to buy my shoe. I even found Nu.5 per minute cheap, though I didn't appreciate it being deducted even when the line gets disconnected a few seconds later.

But it all changed when Tashi Cell came to break the B Mobile monopoly. Three months of free talk time, Sim card free and rate as low as Nu.3 per minute, which is again divided into three units. That's when I realized how cheap it could be. I instantly used Tashi Cell but problem was all my contacts used the senior service and it was not fair for them as B Mobile charged higher on calls to Tashi Cell.

The two cellular services lived along in the market for last few years and Tashi Cell couldn't gain as many users as B Mobile had since people already have a sim. Over the years both tired different strategies to market their product. And by any count Tashi Cell was generous, may be it still had to multiply its subscribers three folds to catch up with the senior rival. 

My Dual SIM Mobile using both B&T

Now with the dual sim mobile everybody is going for two sims, one of B Mobile and other Tashi Cell. And it won't take much before Tashi Cell gets equal number of subscribers as B Mobile and that's when occasional smartness could mean huge turnover.

I used Tashi Cell more when they offered Losar bonuses and these days when B Mobile's Power Voucher came in I am using B Mobile more... We have a choice now, smarter choice!

Dear Students- IV : More you study Luckier you get

How was the first paper this morning?

I was on invigilation duty this morning and the three hours of silence really put me to test. Three hundred thoughts ran across my mind and three hundred bones ached in my body- how many bones are there in our body actually? Doesn’t matter, because every bone ached.

Luckily my chair had cushion on it and I had the freedom to move around and out. I was given tea and biscuit. But I was worried about you. If you have undergone the physical training I prescribed earlier, it would have helped. Did it?

Many of you had running nose; not that I saw your nose running over the table but I heard and felt your utter discomfort as you rubbed your nose between the words. It is not because of cold as you might assume, rather because of the unusual physical and mental stress. You can call it exam-flu. If your body is used to such stress on regular basis the problem would disappear itself. This is where your physical preparation comes handy. I bet you won’t have the nose problem by the time you do your last two papers, and that’s because your body gets tuned finally.

One girl grew restless in my hall and I was worried she might be up to something. Halfway through she handed me her finished paper. By rule nobody can leave until the last half an hour of the exam time. She was however desperately in need of toilet. It is a big funny problem. Everybody laughed. Lucky for her that it happened during the trial exam otherwise it could compromise the quality of all her answers. It can happen to anybody and taking care of your body especially during the exam should be considered important. Keep yourself warm, do not eat unusual food, don’t overeat, don’t under-eat even, and do your businesses with toilet before you enter the hall.

I have my best wishes for you and want to wish you all the luck in the world. But as far as I have known exam it always occurred to me that the more I studies luckier I got.  If you didn’t study anything at all even luck will be helpless. Same is the case with visiting lhakhang and offering butter lamp before your exam, no matter how many kgs of dalda you offered finally what matters is how much you studied. You can’t bribe god it write exam for you.

Your trial is a scale that measures your readiness for the final exam and I hope you will put in your best to get the correct reading, which will motivate your additional preparation for the board exam.

Business Bhutan?

My friend Ngwang (link to his Business Bhutan profile) writes often for Business Bhutan and he would ask me if I read his stories. But the sad story is that I could never get the paper in Wangdue. I was looking for it since last year when I heard that they have published my article "Freestyle Dance and Bhutanese kids". They didn't ask for permission and I didn't mind even but I wanted to read that paper, especially Ngwang's stories.

Ngwang was in Thimphu a few days ago and visited Business Bhutan office. Though it was his first meeting with the people there he was very happy about their impression about him through his contributions. He took my frustration of not getting the paper to their notice, to which he was told that there is an outlet in Wangdue.

I knew it was the shop which sold the other papers and went straight there. The shop had all the papers except the one I wanted. I bought a copy each of Kuensel, Bhutan Observer, Bhutan Today and Bhutan Times and dared to ask the harsh lady if she sells Business Bhutan. Without even looking at me she announced,
"Business Bhutan?? There is no such paper". As if don't know!
Then I asked, "Is there any other shop that sells papers?"
A costumer quickly answered for her, "this is the only shop that sells all the papers."
Then the shop lady added, "Did you mean 'Business'? I think you are talking about that yellow headed paper, it's not 'Business Bhutan', it is Business".
Then I knew she never saw the small "bhutan" under the big "business". Well whatever, "do you sell that 'business' ?"
She said, "you will never get one because I get only 10 copies and they are all subscribed."

The small 'bhutan' under big 'business'

Today I went to the same shop to buy BMobile's power voucher; unfortunate though but she happens to be the seller for that too and even magazines. She didn't have that but to my surprise I found a Business Bhutan paper on the shelf. I quickly took one. My god, it is the 56th issue and so far this is my first buy. I don't know how it is available today! After I paid her off I couldn't help pointing at the small 'bhutan' to her. She didn't seem happy about that though I enlightened her...

P:S: I couldn't find The Journalist in Wangdue either.

A Casual shot that served a purpose

I drove my wife and mother to Sunday Market, and unlike other Sundays I didn't have to accompany my wife through the crowd since she had my mother, so after I found a parking space I went out with camera to shoot Wangdue in morning sun. A group of western tourists soon joined me with their cameras, only one of them had a little better than mine. It was a great location to catch the Dzong and the bridge towards south and upon facing north we get clear view of the Bajo town and my school.



Western tourists. Look at the man on the left, he has the Camera I envied!



It was a long wait. I already finished shooting in all four directions.By then the tourists left. Then I sat there and took close-ups of anything that came into my view. I shot two varieties of flowering plants, they didn't come out well. I shot the maddening crowd in the market with full zoom and previewed it to see if I can recognize anybody- yes I knew most of them. I enjoyed shooting behind the bush scenes, every now and then a persons runs behind the bush and hurries their clothes off to give way to nature's call. Only then I realized there is no toilet constructed anywhere around the vegetable market.



I got back in the car and started deleting the pictures which weren't good, and which were just taken for nothing, like those behind-the-bush scenes. I don't know how I missed out deleting the flowering plants, my friend Ugyen Tshering upon see them later in the evening exclaimed,

 "Where did you click this pictures?"
"Why? it's above the vegetable market"
"Good, good, good, let's get it. This is the plant class XII are going to do Biology practical exam on."



The Flower that was needed- I don't know the name even!



For last three years I joined him in his specimen collection and I still remain his savior. It could have taken him days to locate the plant. He was grateful and I was happy too.



When Kids are made to Fight

I was supposed to photograph the fight actions but I rather found the expressions more charming. I was laughing most of the time and missed many good expressions. To save space I have photoshopped the four pictures into one:

Amused, Anxious, Hurt and Shy- all too honest!

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Memories from Drukgyel

It reminded me of my silver medal in Drukgyel High School back in 2002. I was then 72 kg heavy, which put me up with a tall red belt guy Karma Tenzin. I requested him early on not to knock me out and not to hit me hard. I wasn't even white belt. During my trainings I was put far behind because I wasn't so pleasing to the master, whose sharchopka I didn't understand. Thanks to Jakie Chan, I had picked up some kicks from his movies.

During those longest two minutes of my life I was running around the ring. Karma was kind enough to spare my head until I used one of Jakie Chan's kicks to push him down. I quickly regretted it but by then he was upset and I had to pick my helmet from the ground. I lost the match to win the silver medal because there were just two of us in our weight category.