Literature Festival in Agra

I am attending the SAARC Festival for Literature organized by Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) in Agra on a personal invitation. I am recommended and guided by Tshering C Dorji, the writer of 'Shadow Around the Lamp' and 'Living the Bhutanese Way'. His many years of experience at this festival across the south Asian nations has earned him great respect among the members and I am enjoying walking after him into the warm group of writers.
This is my first attendance at any literature festival and I didn't give a second thought in accepting it. Besides quenching my literary thirst of meeting writers from different nations I also wanted so much to meet the founder, Ajeet Cour, who has put together all her life in uniting and promoting young poets and writers of south Asian nations against many odds. The charismatic lady welcomed me in her arms and joked to the crowd about how we Bhutanese were scared of train. I will write about this in a later post.
The festival has brought together over 100 writers from the SAARC nations and we were just two from Bhutan. We have lots of writers in Bhutan and I am surprised that many of them had attended the earlier editions of this festival but they never returned though the doors were always open. Tshering C Dorji returned year after year with new members and has become a part of FOSWAL family.
The festival showcases hundreds of publications of SAARC Writers and works of Ajeetji herself and of her artist daughter Arpana Cour's.
Morning are for academic paper presentations and afternoon till late evening we get to listen to poetry from different nations and in various forms.
Four writers were awarded Young Poet Award for their works in poetry. And five new books were launched at the festival. Tshering C Dorji's Timeless Diary will be launched soon.
Today is our turn to recite our poems but I don't know when I last wrote one, I rather proposed to talk about blogging in Bhutan.
Tomorrow we are visiting Taj Mahal and traveling together in a couch back to Delhi from where we will fly back to our own countries.

Ajeet Cour, The Founding Lady of FOSWAL, and undying force behind it!

Young Poet Award Winners

Ajeet Cour taking Tshering C Dorji into her arms

Showcase of Publication by members

Literature Festival Venue- Grand Hotel, Agra

Elephant Problem, Bee Solution

I was watching a documentary on Aljazeera last evening that gave me a wonderful surprise- can you believe elephants are afraid of bees? Jim Carey is right, size doesn’t matter. Well this is one of nature’s many unusual phenomenons. After seeing how elephants panic and run away when they hear buzzing of bees my heart went out to the coward giant.

But the documentary was not intended at insulting elephants whatsoever, it was rather about how farmers in Kenya have used this weakness in elephant to defend their crop. Elephant is the last animal anyone wants to see in their fields because they are infamous for wiping off the entire harvest in a night. Kenya is home to a large population of elephants, which is good news for nature lovers but a very bad one for farmers whose only source of livelihood is their crop. They have been in continuous state of war for survival ever since the natural habitats of elephants were disturbed by the growing human population and developmental activities.

Killing elephants is the only option the farmers had but that was illegal, and other option was to die of hunger. They don’t have the luxury of using electric fence like Bhutan (They don’t even have the power to light their homes). But out of the blue an idea came that is going to change everything. Now farmers are encouraged to do bee farming along with their usual crops. The bee hives are hung strategically around the field interconnected by a string that runs around the field like a fence. When elephants encroach into the farm they will touch the string, which will shake the bee hives and excite the bees. And you know that happens when elephants hear the bees buzzing- right they run for their lives.

Bee Fence!

In southern Bhutan, our farmers are bothered by elephants too, and the best we have done so far was setting up electric fences around the fields. Due to heavy investment government could not provide electric fences to all the farmers. It will take another round of foreign grants from friendly countries to have our southern farms protected against elephants. But there are a few questions we have to ask:

1.       Is the investment worth the return?

2.       Is the method sustainable?

3.       Is it Eco-friendly?

4.       Is it safe for other wildlife?

5.       Is it safe from humans?

Bee fencing method will not only be the answer to all the questions but also give farmers sweet harvest of honey. It will defend them from elephants and also enhance their harvest with so many bees pollinating their crops. Solar electric fence might sound like a very green idea until you see the cost attached with it. After listening to Gunter Pauli, the founder ofBlue Economy, I admire what Kenyans have learned from nature. When will we do this? 

 

This Video explains Blue Economy!

Rejected Seats in Government Schools

Last year at this time I was going through a similar feeling and almost the same thought when I wrote "The Best School in Bhutan" where I was trying to differentiate my definition of best school and the definition people and even the authorities have put together. Nothing changed ever since but it brought personal gratification, having figured out the foolishness with which people hunger for reputation and glamour.
Education Ministry defines Class XI intake capacity every year, based on which the qualification mark is set but the recent trend of brilliant students choosing private schools over government school raises one important concern: has the government studied and considered the number of qualified students not take their privileges and therefore leaving seats in government school vacant, which could be otherwise given to students who ran short by a few points? I am of the opinion that we should keep at least over 100 students in standby, who could be considered in government schools after private school admissions are over.
There are students with brilliant marks who are welcomed into private schools and there are students with brilliant parents who can take their kids to private school for so many reasons despite having qualified but on the down side there are students who neither have brilliant marks nor have brilliant parents, for them it's the end of their schooling life. Giving away those seats rejected by the lucky students to those for whom the road has ended would be godly. No less than 100 seats are rejected every year, which could other wise change 100 lives forever.

There should be a system in place to find how many more students can each school take after the admissions are over to make full use of government resources, after all a class of 20 students takes as much resources as that of class with 40 students.
A simple example from my school might shed light on the wider picture: 66 students qualified for class XI, of which the top five students (with 85%- 92.8%) have opted to move to private school on special admissions and one has changed school. A few new students came in from other schools but the whole total could only make up for a section of Science and Commerce stream each. One student who want to take up Arts stream had to be moved to Punakha because we didn't have enough students to begin that stream. We have done the same for the last three years in row after we phased out boarding felicities. My school alone has provision for at least 30 Arts students who can put up on their own as day scholars, and I am sure there could be many schools who same capability.This happened not because of our ministry's miscalculation but by the outflow of qualified students to private schools- which of course is not tracked and considered.
How do we track the outflow? What provisions can be created to make maximum use of government schools and give higher education to as many children as possible?

Loop Hole in Bajothang Infrastructures Kills a Man

I am writing about every corner of Bajothang because I love this place and I am living the best part of my life here. The loop hole I am going to write about is not that of 3G network which is not working yet- I know it just a rough sail in new place.
It's with heavy heart I am breaking the news that was not covered in any news media yet: Yesterday morning a man fell from the third floor of the building he was living in in Bajothang town, and was declared dead upon reaching hospital.
Let me present to you a brief background of how buildings are in Bajothang: All structures have attic on the third floor, which has a controversial background of its own. Attics are restricted to certain height and are not allowed to have verandas. Now, you may wonder how the man fell at all. The restriction on veranda was well imposed but the house owners have created a platform across the third floor which can be accessed through either a door or a big window. All commercial apartments have similar features and I am sure authorities have seen it but since it didn't look like veranda no action was taken against it. Therefore you could see people drying clothes outside the windows of third floor without any safety railings.

look at the attic!

The accidents such as this were easily predictable, it was only by the grace of god that we saw only one so far. He was drying clothes when he stumbled and without anything to hold on he landed up losing his life. Unlike in the rest of the world here we blame on our fate and luck instead of blaming on the structural safety and holding people responsible. It doesn't take too much brain to analyze that if there was railing the man wouldn't have died by falling off the building, and if at all verandas are not allowed then access to outside of the third floor should be made illegal.
I wish to see some news media come and not just report the news but also make people answer a few questions on the safety of the attic dwellers.

YouTube to Blogger in One Click - The video

This video is directly shared from YouTube like we share to Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps you already knew about this option, but just in case you didn't know, the following picture will explain how I got this video posted here in one click.

Just a click on the Blogger icon does everything!

In this video we see the people behind the latest hit Tharringsa.

Two Big Surprises in Bajothang

Bajothang town is a beautiful dream gone wrong for a long time and I have seen the town on the headlines of many news medias on various unpleasant issues. It is plagued with every mismanaged urban problems and only strong fingers are pointed from different direction rather than strong hands of action.
But yesterday morning we woke up to two big and unexpected surprises: There was 3G network on my cell phone and later I was overwhelmed by the news of hi-tech water purification and pumping technology installed at our water source. It was complete surprise because we never had any clue about the planning and progress of the two great developmental works.

3G reaches Bajothang

And it was unexpected because so far nothing seemed to be moving forward in Bajothang. But this seems like a great beginning to a new year of prosperity. We already had the nation's first tunnel highway opened and now we have the nation's first hi-tech water source, which will end the perennial water shortage in Bhutanese towns across the country. So far Bhutan remained the only country with lots of fresh water rivers that suffered water shortage. And now Bajothang becomes the 4th town in Bhutan to be connected with 3G internet after Thimphu, Phuntsholing and Paro.
If Thimphu is the brain of the country, Wangdue now is becoming the heart! Thank you for the wonderful surprises!

Photo Gallery for Blog

Did you wish you could have a photo gallery for your blog? I mean the dynamic type? I spent good amount of time figuring out how to create one for my blog like the ones good websites have. It's not hard after all. It doesn't take an expert to work on it.
I experimented the discovery in the following two:

1. PaSsu Diary Photo Gallery
2. Bhutan Crown Adventure Blog

I love to share how I did it, in case you loved it and wish to have one for your blog; Go to QuickGallery. If you are good with internet you can already follow the 3 steps given on the website and carry on.

1. Create an account on Quick Gallery
2. Select your pictures (an album on Facebook,Google Picasa, Instagram or Flicker)
3. Choose the Gallery Design 
4. Copy the code generated and paste it as a post on your blog (in the HTML tab)

If you have further question, leave it in my comment box. I will answer it as quickly as possible!

A National Birthday

November 11 was the last of holidays before we wind up our school and sit for exam during our times as children. It used to be the holiday we would wait all year long. It was the time we finally become resolute about sitting down and getting serious about our exams. It was the national birthday we would celebrate with all our hearts.

Now comes February 21, which is the first of holidays in spring, before we turn the first page of our books in school. Perhaps early national birthday has a significance of its own, time has changed. The Changed time demands earlier realization, right in spring. The luxury of relaxing till November is gone with our times.

Image from Wisdom Quarterly

On this joyous occasion I would like to offer my deepest prayer and humble wishes to his majesty on his 33rd birthday and say my thank you for the great 33 years in the history of Bhutan.

How I Spent this Losar Day

Thanks for all the Losar Greetings you sent me. Losar Lolay to all of you as well, May the new year bring you greater joy, health and wisdom, may you find stronger purpose in living and live life bigger than ever. And most of all make you celebration reasonable, don't drink your health away, don't drive after your heavy losar drinks, don't go on long drives with your family if you intend to drink- make it a happily memorable day.
My family didn't have a plan of going anywhere away from home. I have the company of my brother in-law who just got married and brought his beautiful wife along to spend their losar with us. But later this morning our aunty gave us a call asking us to join her family to Kamichhu. Her husband didn't have holiday on losar, he was on duty somewhere 38km from here. He works as a security personnel and has handsome wage but when it comes to work timing I don't envy his salary.
There were 19 of us in three cars to give our sad uncle a huge losar surprise. The journey was rewarding- there were hundred new things to watch on the way, no one would expect so many people and activities along the narrow valley. There was nothing that didn't change- even the mountains were moved.
But the best experience was driving through the 1.5km highway tunnel, which is the first of it's kind in the country. It was scary and cold inside and it never seems to end. Visibility was low with flying dust, of course the speed limit was 20km. 

The First Highway Tunnel in Bhutan

I was obediently following the speed limit but one blue Bolaro camper taxi was enjoying maximum speed, I would have reported him to police but his blinding speed had the upper hand. Speed could be risky inside.

The Scary 1.5 km through mountain

Highway tunnel may be very expensive in building but this could be the answer to so many problems our highways face in the country. It could reduce distance, mitigate the seasonal landslide problems, reduce the risk of going off-road and can save lots of trees. This is the beginning of the change in how Bhutanese built roads through mountains.

Our surprise for uncle didn't last long because we couldn't locate his work place and we had to call him hundred times to ask the direction- there were many new roads and bridges along the highway and several time we had taken wrong ones. Finally we made it to where he was working. His morning must have been gloomy, thinking about all the fun he missed but three cars full of people coming just for him made his day. He took us down to an island below his site and we began the day. By then we were all hungry and it's fun eating when we are hungry...

How did you spend you losar?