Reporting Forest Fire

As seen from PHSS

There is hardly any forest in Phuntsholing and the little they have was on fire this morning. During the tea break we saw a thick curl of smoke rising over the Toresa and right then we knew it was from across the river. I quickly took a snap in my iPad and reported it on Breaking the News- Bhutanese Social Media, the group I created on Facebook to tip off news media. 

We made a mistake of assuming that the police would have known by then since there were over 40,000 people on the home side of the river. But just to confirm we made a quick call to Police and I did the talking- to my surprise it was a breaking news for them. I had to show them the location of the fire.

Later today I realized two things: that the hundred things happening around here keeps the police too focused on the town to see anything in the forest, and that even over 12 hours later there was no respond on my Breaking News page. I hope the fire is contained by now, else the wind tonight is going to take it on a long ride.

Ngultrum Identity

Ngultrum (Nu) is almost losing its identity even before it had one. Forgive me if you find me ignorant but I can't help wondering why our currency is not acknowledged as it should be. I don't know why we have to pay over Nu.50 for a US$, I am just thankful it is as powerful as Indian Rupee. It's surprising to learn that there are many powerful country whose currency value is lower than ours, which gives us all the reason to be proud of.
However, going by the trend, a kid says, "Mummy, give me ten rupees", and an adult would say, "Do you have change for 500 rupees?" or if it is in Dzongkha, we say "Turu". Nowhere we use the term Ngultrum! On the fuel pumps you will see the rates of fuel reflected in Rs, and every commodity in the shops has price tag written in Rs, that can be forgiven as stuffs are imported. The recent announcement of domestic airfare by civil aviation was in US Dollar, and that was the biggest surprised.

Currency Symbol for Ngultrum for the  time being.

In written scripts we don't yet have a currency symbol, something that can be used to represent Ngultrum universally. The abbreviation Nu. might be mistaken for symbol but it's usable only in English. India realized it and they have come up with symbol for rupees recently. It's beautiful and now they can use the symbol in every language. In Dzongkha, we can't us Nu. therefore it's up to the writers either to write "turu", "ngultrum" or "ruub". Though it's none of my business, I spent many days thinking, designing, discussing, and redesigning a symbol for Ngultrum. I looked at all the currency symbols of the world to gain some insight into it but at the end  I agreed with the fact that it's none of my business after all. But that doesn't mean that Ngultrum can be left without a symbol. We need it now and here! If that can't be done soon, you might chose to use the one that comes to your head when you think of Ngultrum (see the picture).

Snake and Ladder in Bhutanese Public Service Delivery

Tshering Wangdi's report on "Revolutionizing Public Service Delivery" in Bhutan Times on 18th December brought me immense happiness after having gone through a long procedure of acquiring a trade license for my brother last week. My eleven page thick application form required signature from over ten individuals from different locations and needed over six legal stamps and numerous photocopying. If it weren't for my support and diligence my brother would have given up on the idea long ago and chose to remain a jobless youth rather. We are still waiting for the committee verification, and recommendation before going to Thimphu again.

G2C in Bhutan Times

Bhutan Times' report highlighted government's move to make services easily accessible by public through Government-2-Citizen (G2C) services. Once done it promises to make acquiring services simple and effective, inexpensive, time saving, and hassle-free, thus guaranteeing costumer satisfaction.

The picture illustration with the report didn't impress me much, because the current situation depicted alongside their vision didn't really tell the truth. The series of ladders in the picture shows that, though time consuming, there is progress in the way services are delivered today, which we all know is not true. Today if you are going to Thimphu for a work you must prepare yourself like your parents prepare for pilgrim to Bodgaya, for in there we are bound to be caught in Snake & Ladder game. I have invested good amount of my time in the following model, trying to depict the way public service is in our country today.

PaSsu's Model of Public Service in Bhutan

Preserving Paro Town

My visit to Paro last week gave me an opportunity to look at the town in a whole new perceptive. I have spent seventeen years of my life in Paro but it never felt that way until I spent these five years away. After having seen the changing faces of many Bhutanese towns the old street in Paro town is something that made me stop and wonder and then wish.

The Beautiful Paro

Paro Tshongdue the forgotten names means the business place, where the Bhutanese and Tibetan businessmen met to barter their goods long before we knew India and Bangkok. This town has history and it has the structural design well preserved to be called the Iconic Town of Bhutan. Interestingly many of these houses are converted into Handicraft showrooms thereby promising to remain so for years. But the desire for bigger and better houses has slowly eaten away at least two houses and many might want to follow soon. 

Government could adopt the street and preserve it creatively, without hurting the sentiments of the landlords and without freezing their desire to move forward. 

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The Last Bhutanese Town, Paro

Towns bigger than Thimphu are bound to come with time but if we lose Paro history may never forgive us.

My Home Haa-ppiest

Why the study showed Haa as the happiest Dzongkhag? I know it's not a mistake, I grew up in Yangthang and despite all the shortcomings I have fond memories from my childhood. When I look back I wonder how it was possible for us to be happy. Today, I know all the factors that are necessary for social well-being and therefore happiness in the community but surprisingly Haa is deprived of many of these, and more surprising people are happy without them.

Yangthang- the village I grew up

Haa is harshly cold during the winter season, nothing can be grown during the winter months. Even during the summer months weather conditions allow only few low yielding crops to grow, which brings no commercial benefits. Everything has to be imported and despite Haa being very close to Phuntsholing and connected by road commodities are very expensive.
No industry or company ever showed interest in operating in Haa due to all the disadvantages. Tourism is only a recent thing in there. Only three bus services operate from Haa and none of them is a Coaster Bus. There are only few taxis and most of them done move at all. Though a solid Dongkhag, we don't have a full fledged hospital. Our Dzong is housed in a common house and court in even smaller house.
One half of the entire Dzongkhag was completed isolated until recently, and it took over four days to reach them. Food prices in these places are insanely high due to transportation problem.
AND despite all these shortcomings we are the happiest, how was it possible? The answer in hidden deep in the root of social lives. It lies in our strength not only to survive but also live and enjoy without some many thing in life.
Happy Lomba to the people who could locate happiness in hardship.

Invitation to Bhutan

My sister in-law is a Japanese, living and working in Taiwan. She visited my brother for the first time after their long Facebook relationship in September and spent over a week with my family. She enjoyed her times with us so much that she sacrificed her job and bonuses to meet us again in October. Fifteen day stay made her even more happy and wanted to come here again.

This time I thought I should invite her as our personal guest so that she won't have to pay so much as she did during her first two visits- she paid cost of a car already. However, I didn't know that the Immigration in my country won't acknowledge her relationship with us. My application for invitation was rejected. By the rule they have in their book, we should have met her outside Bhutan to qualify for invitation, which otherwise means that she can't be my sister in-law because she met us in Bhutan. What could be the possible logic behind recognizing acquaintance outside Bhutan? What I think should be important is the authenticity of the relationship. 

At Dochula, during her second visit.

Many people I contacted for information advised me to find a person who has been to Taiwan and prepare the application in their name, or to cook up a story of having met her in Singapore during my visit there but I defended knowing our true story was far better than those lies- after all they are humans at the other end! If I had known there are all robots interpreting the rules rigidly I would have listened and lied.

It's not all about money. I just wanted to show her the Bhutanese we are, our courtesy and hospitality to guest, and that's not possible after letting her pay thousands of dollars. She was supposed to visit us for the third time in February 2012 but she couldn't wait that long. And here my application was rejected. I couldn't tell her that she could will have to pay a huge price to meet us again but it turned out that she was more Bhutanese than the people who rejected my application. She consoled me saying, "Hey brother, don't worry, money can be made." 

And thus she came here for the third time as tourist and these days she is with us in Wangdue having a wonderful vacation with my family.

P:S: If you happen to be a wanna-be guest or a host and stumbled upon this post while Googling, please note that this article is not to encourage you to cheat your way out in this process, but I am not responsible if your application is rejected after telling the truth either!

US Dollar Across to the Eastern Bhutan

Many Bhutanese like me must have excitedly waited for the completion of airports in Bumthang and Tashigang and I personally wanted to make my first trip to Tashigang by one of the domestic aircraft.  The long wait finally ends at the announcement of domestic airfares; looks like it was never meant for us. The airfare is not only insanely high for most Bhutanese but also proudly converted in US dollar. What meaning can you draw from a Bhutanese airline announcing its airfare to Bhutanese people in Bhutan in terms of US dollar?

Domestic Airlines in Bhutan

Seemingly the two airports were built for tourist and tourist alone, the shameless airfares show that the airlines only had tourists on their minds and never for once thought about the state of our own people. If the airfares are not revised to a reasonable level then I can see no other way than to stone the aircraft down from Dochula- after all it's not going to make a difference to Bhutanese lives.

My Daughter Becomes Two

On 29th November 9:29PM my daughter became 2. They say the height of a two year old multiplied by two will give their adult height. So I measured her the very minute she became two and found she's 87 cm tall, which means she will be 174 cm tall by the time she becomes 20- She is going to be 2 cm taller than me.
The long fearful wait for her teeth is finally over. I didn't count but there are enough teeth in her mouth now. Sometimes I regret shaving her head, even after five months her hair is not back, forget having thicker hair. Only her girlish outfit identifies her as a girl, and on many other occasions I had to correct strangers that my babe is a girl.
On her birthday, it's time to reflect on her two years among us, it's strange to realize that someone from nowhere comes into our lives and suddenly takes ownership of everything we ever had and we gladly give in. There were times my wife and I sit and talk about "if's": if our babe could sit up, if our babe could walk on her own, if our babe could talk... but later we realized that everything happens when it's time and there is so much joy in appreciating what she could do at the moment than thinking of what she can't do yet! My cousin became mother recently and she wishes if her babe could run around and play like my daughter, but I told her to enjoy her babe when she is still there on her lap and smiling because that moment is never going to come back.

For Memory!

What I don't like about my daughter is her mad love for technology. It was our fault, we tried to amuse her with some interactive games on iPad and now we are having it! Her favorite game is Angry Bird and she doesn't understand that it's not our favorite game and that we have many other works to do- she lets us play with her for hours and if we deny at any point she turns into Angry Bird herself. I am thoroughly beaten by my daughter- her punches and slaps are something I don't want to mess with.

She knows Youtube is for videos and my broadband accounts exhausts within a week from her Angry Bird commercial movies- I didn't know Angry birds was so popular until she took me there. Now she is also contributing to its popularity of billion views! 

Something My daughter loves!

Her second birthday was attended by my friends Ugyen and family, Juggu and Family, and Lop Tshering Gyeltshen over a small cake and dinner.

Social Stigma- Can we afford one more?

Every once in a long while there comes a disease that changes the fate of millions and test the rest of mankind. The last such disease was leprosy that infected the human civilization for over 4000 years. This disease divided human race into two, human and leper. The leprosy stigma was so strong that lepers were forced segregated and quarantined, deprived of basic rights and warmth. In medieval times sufferers were worn leper bells, like cowbells, to signal their presence. Even in recent times, after the disease became treatable, lepers suffered equally strong stigma- termination from jobs, ban from public places, deprivation of healthcare and worse of all their families giving up on them.

Leper Bell! (Picture:: Wikipedia)

Bhutan has its own history of leprosy; stigma drove sufferers into isolation into the remote caves to wait for their ends. One such recorded history is that of Gelong Ma Pema's. Even today, after all the education, medical breakthrough, and understanding nobody wants to be associated with a leper; the stigma finds it hard to leave the society that has it rooted deep within its .
The bacterial disease is finally gone, or as good as gone but a virus has come and it's given a very technical name- HIV AIDS. Like I said, every once in a long while comes a disease that changes the fate of millions and test the rest of mankind- while leprosy surely changed the fate of millions but the rest of mankind failed the test. Now the time has come for another test, AIDS has changed the fate of millions but will the rest of us repeat the same mistake of depriving the sufferers of our love and compassion? Are we going to force segregate and isolate them in social caves? Are we going to wear them virtual cowbells?
Let us realize that the disease hasn't come for nothing, it's god's way of testing mankind of our virtues. If we are going to repeat what we have done to lepers with AIDS patients God may never forgive us. It's not about who sees the death first, many people die each day while infected people are living for years, but it's about the emotional support they need each moment of their lives fighting the disease and we owe them that much. Let's not wait for 4000 more years to realize that they are our family.

In two days we are going to see four HIV positives Bhutanese on National TV to share their experiences. We are all waiting with mixed feelings but one thing we must remember is they are sick of hiding and fighting alone. They are counting on us to help them fight the disease stronger and freely. 

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.