Jigme's Surprise Morning Speech

On the morning of 18 August it was Jigme's turn to give speech in the assembly and coincidentally I was the teacher on duty. I saw him excited about it for a few days. He told me that he was supposed to speak on a great personality, therefore he wanted to talk about Albert Einstein. I prepared a small note on Einstein to supplement his speech as any duty teacher would do. And as he spoke it took me by surprise:

Jigme loves football: Jersey No.17

"The great personality I am going to speak about today is someone who brings changes in everyone’s life, especially to my life. He is charming. He is tall and he is funny. He has not won any Oscars nor has he built any great structure but what he has done to my life far surpasses the legend of Albert Einstein or arts of Picasso. He didn’t invent the telephone, he wasn’t the man who landed on the moon, and he didn’t even act in any movie yet... He has simply touched hearts and made differences in lives. For me he has brought a light in my life and has given me the reason to be happy. His words are pure and simple and he is the best person I or you will ever encounter in life. He will walk into your life and walk you out of your sorrows forever.
He is my Google for he has answers to my entire questions; He is my Facebook for he connects me to the world. No one can fully understand the effect of this man than I who lives in his reliance.  He is the man I look up to as my role model, my icon and my idol. And he is none other than my dad, our teacher and your friend Mr. Passang Tshering." 

As he finished it was my turn to supplement his speech, and my note on Einstein won't work. I grabbed the mic and didn't really know how to begin for a long time. I could feel an emotional knot tightening somewhere inside my chest. With my voice lilting I began finally:

The great personality my son is speaking about is me. He told me he was going to speak about Albert Einstein and I am surprised that he chose me over Einstein. Many of you already know, and for those who don't know, Jigme is my step son (avoid the "step" when you say). But two of us share many things in common and thus we have build a relationship which stands the test of time.
There are many of us who perceive Divorce as something very negative but Jigme accepted it. Many blame their parents for breaking the family and try to take ruthless revenge but Jigme didn't do that. Ever since our time, children from broken families use their family problem as license to be naughty but one thing you must understand is that it wasn't easy for your parents to go separate ways either, but when things don't work well between the two there is hardly any option left. It isn't about a day or two, marriages are for life time and no one would want to waste this one life in an unhappy relationship. Jigme accepted the truth and accepted me into his life and it should be a message to everyone who share similar fate to respect your parents' decision and give them their rights to happiness. And because of our very special relation we make up a very happy family and I wish happiness to all of you.
And Jigme, thank you for speaking about me, I know how you feel about me even if you hadn't spoken.

I had so many thing I wanted to share about me and Jigme but I had to keep note of the time as well.

P:S: Jigme and I have always thought of each other as our own and I don't appreciate when people address me as his step father or him as my step son.  

Butterfly-4.0

The only thing I know about butterfly is that it comes from Caterpillar- I don't know their names, I don't know their family, I can't even say if it's a butterfly or a moth but I still love photographing them. I wish to learn about them.

The story of Monarch Butterfly on National Geographic amazed and inspired me to take a closer look at this beautiful insect.

This is my fourth post on Butterfly and interestingly my Butterfly-II fetched me huge number of hits from search engines. But I know it must have disappointed the readers since I didn't have anything worth in there. So each time I put up a new butterfly post I am thinking harder and defining what I want out of this modest interest in photographing Butterfly.

Here are links to my older Butterfly posts:

• Butterfly (6 June, 2010)
• Butterfly II (25 September, 2010)
• Butterfly III (9 October, 2010)

The Joker Becomes Druk Superstar 2011

Don't get me wrong by the title of the post, I mean literally the joker of the show won the title. My choice didn't win but Lakey was my second choice among the top five. Something striking about Lakey was the promise he repeatedly made that he won't just disappear after winning, he would continue to entertain people like he has been doing so far. That message goes out to the winners of earlier shows, who didn't consider it important to be accountable to the society after they needed votes no more.
Personally I love listening to Minzung, Karma Phuntsho and Dechen Zam when they sing and it is Lakey who captivates me once his singing is over- his wit and humor. Since it was a singing competition the result didn't really justify the cause of the show, but since it's all based on money what could the organizer do?

Congratulations to Lakey, Druk Superstar 2011.
Congratulations to Kencho Wangdi, for making the show!

P:S: Something needs to be done with BBS TV Signal in Wangdue, we had to watch the whole show like it was played from an old scratched CD. I hope the problem is not from Thimphu.

I Nearly Failed as a Father

It takes huge guts to confess that I nearly failed my duty as a father. I don't blame my mother for my long nose, I rather thank her for keeping it intact on my face throughout my restless childhood. But damn I nearly lost my daughter beautiful nose two days ago. I woke up from my nap to my daughter's cry, then almost went back to sleep when I heard her cry again.
When I checked she wasn't in the kitchen with her mother. I ran out on to the balcony to meet my little girl running to me with her face covered in blood. My heart broke right away. I hated myself for having taken a nap, I blamed my wife for not having noticed her slipped away. I wasn't sure what happened to her and what to do.
Upon investigation we found that our baby fell of face-down from the veranda, thank go we live on the ground floor, just about a foot from the ground. I had left some carpentry work unfinished, among which there were several planks with nails on. Her face was scratched by one nail, from middle of her brows till right nostril. Then she had toppled down and hit her head on the cement ground. Despite the fall she has managed to climb back and came to us crying. During this whole process of falling, bleeding, crying, and climbing back, her father was sleeping and that gave me the greatest pain. It was the mercy of god that the nail didn't go into her eyes or her soft skull.
It was such a relieve when we discovered that the cut on her face was not deep and that it wouldn't leave any scar. Swelling on her temple soon subsided and she started playing with me again, and I swear I will never leave her alone. I want to urge all my friends who are parents to be extra careful with your babies because I have had friends in school and college whom god had created beautiful but their parents failed their duties when they were babies and thus they had to live with their parents' mistakes forever. God saved me this time!

Without Minzung Lham on Druk Superstar...

Forget about who will win Druk Superstar, at least it stopped mattering to me now. Just ask yourself when you are in an honest mood- Whose song do you have as your ringtone and caller tune? Whose melody stops your heartbeat? Whose songs do you hum subconsciously? If your answer is not Minzung Lham you are probably not being honest.

Minzung Lham, Kencho Wangdi and Dechen Zam. Picture Source: Bhutan Observer

Why is she eliminated from the competition? Is it because she doesn't a word on stage? May be not, her songs are thousand words stronger. Is it because we have fail her our votes? No, we voted but that wasn't enough. The hearts that beat from her are younger generations with lesser money to spare. The voting system is not about how many people love the singer, but about how much money! Honestly I don't have a better way of voting  to suggest since the show has to sustain. It is sustainability verses credibility- and nothing could be done about it across the world- from American Idol to Indian Idol.
But for a small country like ours nobody is going to make living out of the show, not even the winner but a voice that shall keep soothing you every moment of the day shall be Minzung Lham's and without her on the show there is no excitement. I don't know whether she lost the show or the show lost her.
The next singer to watch is Dechen Zam, but she is gone too. Now I am watching Karma Phuntsho and Ulap Lekey.
Thanks to Kencho Wangdi for entertaining us all on weekends.

Why should women have all the breast?

This week the focus is all on the breast and therefore men are out of focus. All these months I have had good nights because both the workable breasts are on my wife's chest. I feel sorry for all the babies whose mothers are working but my daughter enjoyed all the luck. Though a housewife, my wife had her own share of tiring days and sleepless nights, and I hope all her sacrifices will reflect in our little girl. I shall always remain so thankful to my wife for giving up almost everything for our baby.
My baby became a year and eight months on 29th July, and she is still enjoying full-time breastfeeding. But there are many babies born around here who had to be trained to survive without breast milk before their third month in the world because their mothers wouldn't have time to feed them once the maternity leave finishes.
There are lots of awareness campaigns on "6 months compulsory breastfeeding" and working women are given  only four months leave. The irony began right at the gates of heaven- why should God plant both breast on the mother?
When I see the lives of my lady colleagues, who have to sooth their babies on one end and please their boss on other end, I can't help wondering how different the world and the system be if one of the two breasts were on father's chest. I just wish if men could put a breast on their chest or just imagine it at least when they decide how long should the Maternity Leave for Mothers be!

School Boy who pays his own fees

Last week we called all our students' parents to mid-term result day. And in the presence of the parents we announced how we mistakenly collected Nu.100 extra from junior classes as school fees and that we were going to give that back. In my class VII C, I have 24 students whose parents came in one after another to sign on mark sheet and to collect the money.
Suddenly there was one father who didn't take the money, and asked me to give it to the boy himself! I insisted him on taking the money, reasoning that the money must go to where it came from, or it may disappear between school and home. The father proudly said that the money belonged to the boy, he paid his own school fee and even helped parents in household shopping from his winter earnings.
I looked at lean Tej Prasad for a long time and admired the man in him. I made the class applaud for him and asked them to get inspired from him. Age should not be an excuse. For the first time I loved the boy who pays his own fees more than the Monk who sold his Ferrari!

So much I saw in Singapore

Another group of excited teachers took off from Paro today. For the past one week they were sleepless just as I was a year and a half ago and they will be sleepless for the next eight nights they are going to spent there. My excitement died two days after I reached there. The culture shock drove me crazy, then the training schedule dragged me from morning till the night and as if we were robots our project manager will eat our nights by her useless meetings. I traveled as far as Singapore only to see some tall buildings around my hotel. I was a zombie by the time I landed in Paro.
We Bhutanese are happy because of the way we are, and I request the world to acknowledge Bhutanese as we are a not force your robotic values into us- we don't do that, learn from us and you will be happy too.
I wish my excited friends enough time to see the wonderful city and time to have enough sleep, so that when they land in Paro there is something good to remember, something to pride upon. For us, that trip still haunts like a nightmare.

My footprints in Singapore:
In Straits Times (News paper)
In Singapore (Magazine)
By Ms Euleen Goh, Chairman of SIF (Speech)

Tour de Bhutan

268km from Bumthang to Thimphu is unimaginable even when you are in a car but Tour of Dragon is going to test your tolerance by putting you on a mountain bike across the distance, which is longer than any stage in Tour de France. In last year's event,  the first cross country race in Bhutan, 16 out of 30 racers made it to Thimphu- How was it possible? It made me realize how passion can make all the difference.
Mountain biking has become Bhutan's latest passion and in just over a year you can expect explosion in the number of participants and also the number of racers completing the race. September 17 is the day this year.
Following last year's big success, this year Tour of Dragon is going international.
And as it goes international, I think it's already eyeing big dollars and thereby ignoring the passionate home racers who won't be able to come up with Nu.25000 as race entrance fee. As far as I can see, no wife will let her husband cycle 268 km paying Nu.25000 for just Nu.100,000 prize. Prize is not worth the price racers will have to pay.
By keeping people's passion hostage I clearly don't see spirit in the sports. If the fee is not revised I can foresee only few elite Bhutanese bikers this season, thereby leaving hundreds of ordinary Bhutanese upset.

Google+ and Facebook

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated country with over 750 million active citizens, beating even the United States. It gives me pain to realize the fact that a man younger than me would be ruling that country, yes I am hinting at Mark Zuckerberg. One crazy idea made all the difference!

The King!

But I am not alone in the list of people who envy Zuckerberg. Some countries blocked Facebook, many companies followed, and so many offices tried. But it surprised me when I found even Google was jealous. But I never thought Google will add a “+” and join the war against Facebook. Google+, is nothing new- another surprise, but has acquired over 18 million users even before it opened to public. That is over 30 times the population of Bhutan.

If + could make a difference...

With Facebook blocked in so many places Google+ is going to have party. When I joined Google+ last Sunday I was very lonely, so I told Pema Gyamtsho, who invited me there, that Google+ is a brand new bar with different brands of wine and whisky, but all our friends are still drinking in the old bar called Facebook. It felt very lonely among 18 million people after having spent years with 750 million people.