Thala Nyi

The Distance

2019-06-20T00:37:00.002+06:00

The heart capsizes and sinks

in the sea of her absence.

Looming in its uncharted water,

an eerie air of unknown.

Through the upheaval of tides,

against the fainting glow of

raging rain-ripened clouds,

he hears the song of sirens.

Their melody, as ever enticing

yet poignantly retelling of

their out worldly ethereality.

The capsized heart, it spirals

in its bottomless grave

of listless, morbid water.

But for divine miracle of his faith,

in its dying undiscerning gasps,

amidst the rhythm of the tides,

it drifts ashore

to the longed-for land

where her love courses
an endless river.

Solemn Silence

2019-06-18T23:35:00.003+06:00

The serenity of solemn silence,

Untangled in vines of words

Uttered in hasted moment of lust

Or in uneasiness of its aftermath.

Unscoured in roughness of waves,

Fed by vehement longings for

Tomorrows to come, yet overlooked,

The very wreck nearing the horizon.

Upheld in the clarity of a spring

That glistens the untamed mountain,

And in soothe of the breeze

That shrouds the untouched pines.

In the dance of the two pairs,

In bowing and the sways,

At the heart of solemn silence,

Lies purity of unblemished emotions

Unworthy of taints of any human words.

The Curious Case of Bhutanese Millennial, Did They Kill the Zhung Dra?

2019-06-18T18:32:00.001+06:00

If you were born anytime between the early 1980's and mid-1990's, technically, you are a millennial. This means today, the oldest among this lot are approaching their 40's while the youngest are in their mid-20's. As per the Population and Housing Census of Bhutan 2017, people falling in this age group constitutes 27.5% of the total population. And for the purpose of this article, I will be referring to millennials, as those falling in the age group of 25-35 years. Let’s call them young millennials for simplifying the matter. For the folks in 35-40 years age group, bros, bros, bros, listen - you just have to know that your playlist of 80's Hindi songs is where we draw the line. And no, we don’t really understand your fascination for Wechat.

Today, we are branded as degenerates who missed out on being moulded by the good old tough way of life and spoilt by all comforts that came accompanying the modernization. We have become a heat sink for the old folks to pour out their frustrations and an easy target to point to, for all the things gone south. We have been accused of being emotionally incompetent, tarnishing the value of love and lacking the drive to do anything. We are the reasons for rise in divorce cases and decline of natality rate in the country. We killed the zhung dra and robbed tshechus off of their sacredness. Heck, I’m sure there are some old folks who blamed us for all of the natural calamities that have occurred in the country in recent years.

We were brought up by a generation who were inspired to change. Change, not in the sense of a complete break up from our values and traditions, but one which adopted the good things the modernization had to offer and abandoned the ailing practices that the old ways promoted. And as a consequence, the young millennial, when we grew up, we were not exactly the good old-fashioned young adults our parents had been, back in their times. And when they saw this, they found all the reasons to come up with the narrative of the degenerate generation.

However, if they could only practice a tiny bit of empathy that they so fervently use in their rhetoric, they could see how misunderstood a generation we really are. The late 80s and 90s was a time when Bhutan was completing the last stages of embracing modernization. Televisions and internet had finally touched people’s lives. New ideologies and concepts were seeping in. People saw that they were way behind and felt a need to pace up and adapt. They became aware of what formidable force education was, how rewarding investment, a good health proved to be and saw wonders of having a small family. They prioritized their careers more, focused on acquiring financial stability before starting a family. They wanted better lives for their children. The young millennials were brought up in this period, where their parents were going through a paradigm shift in their ways of thinking. And indeed, this had an impact.

The tear in the fabric of true sense of Bhutanese familyhood was inadvertently initiated during this period. People turned into careerists and family moved down the list of priorities. Kids were sent to schools at tender ages of 5. “Busy” became a part of our daily lexicon. Long gone were the old ways of eating together and conversing. We ate alone mostly and during the rare occasions of dining together, we did it in front of a lifeless box that did nothing but intensify and aggravate our self-consciousness.

At schools, we were taught to work hard and study well in order to succeed in life. We were taught to put our careers first and stand on our feet before getting into the worldly affairs. We did as we were told but there can be only so much the government can provide for us. Unemployment has been rampant for some years now and despite the government’s effort to tone it down in figures, we can see its consequence. There are thousands of millennials without jobs and even those supposedly “lucky ones” or “the creams” are not satisfied in the top tier jobs they have secured. Because as blatant as it may sound, the jobs just don’t pay well. That’s why we don’t want to settle down anytime soon. We just can’t afford to start families in such positions. So you see, every year, hundreds of millennials leave the country in search for jobs in foreign lands.

Maybe in the spirit of the old folks, we should blame their generation for where the economy stands today. For gifting us with this unemployment epidemic that has rendered us with all the symptoms, they incessantly condescend us for. But no, we are the Bhutanese millennials and beyond all critiques, we are a responsible generation who still upholds the Bhutanese values. We work hard as we were taught and we look at challenges, not as hurdles but as blessings in disguise for us to capitalize on. And we shall move ahead, no matter the pace. We will keep the Bhutanese essence well preserved and flourishing for all times to come.

P.S: And no! We did not kill zhung dra. Let's just say that the elders let their eardrums indulge a little too much to the tunes of the 80s Bollywood music when the cassette players became popular. Just as they saw their lives one step too backward in the modern scene, they felt the same about zhung dra and made some tweaks to the genre and allowed the proliferation of what is known today, as Rigsar (the new kind). All the more reason why the young millennials do not listen to the 80s Hindi music.

Dangers of being a Young Democracy

2019-06-13T17:32:00.000+06:00

Bhutan has been lauded worldwide for the miraculous transition it made from a monarchy to a democratic state in 2008. With the world used to savoring on the colossal turmoil and chaos preceding a radical change in a government, it was awestruck to witness the flair with which the great Fourth led Bhutan through the change. The Bhutanese should invariably remember this great achievement of the Fourth Druk Gyalpo among many of his other sacrifices for the country.

Since the transition, Bhutan has seen 3 different political parties head the government. Being new to the political structure, it was certain that the parties were not going to have the smoothest of sails in leading Bhutan through the treacherous phase of modernization. And indeed, the sea got rough and the government found itself, time and again, making decisions in the clarity of summer Gedu fogs. DPT nearly drove off road with its education city initiative. PDP blew out the tyres with its voracious appetite for regional tourists and now DNT wants teachers and doctors on the front seat as it takes control of the wheel.

The two-faced politicians have taken the trusts out of Bhutanese people and used them as stepping stones to build their great enclaves from where they scratch their heads in search for solutions to eradicate poverty, reduce unemployment and narrow the gap. And mind you, they have succeeded to accomplish this mistrust just within a decade of democracy. Unlike a butterfly, when they break out of their cocoon after the election win, they come out uglier and meaner, their pre-win persons completely shed off like the lifeless remains of a dead snake skin. They gaze up into the sky from their enclaves, and consult with foreign “experts” on solving the country’s problem, when the more viable solutions remain right under their noses.

Do we not have a competent group of people who wants to serve the country out of passion and not just for the financial perks that accompany the post? Why does every parliamentarian just want to increase their pay right after they get into their offices? Is it in the voting period, that we are going wrong? Maybe the problem lies much deeper within the Bhutanese community who doesn’t want to see anything beyond the short-term gains from the people they elect. Patience is one virtue, milked dry by every Bhutanese for their rhetoric deliveries but actually practiced by only a handful. Do we need to select a voting population, based not just on age but on a set of moral criteria? Should we frame similar criteria for those seeking to join the politics?

We must not forget the responsibility assigned to us by our great monarchs. They trusted us enough to relent their thrones and let the people have say in where the nation heads. We cannot afford to lose our focus and let those driven by wealth and greed head the sacred institutions responsible for making laws and policies that shape our country - the country which has been passed down by our forefathers who proudly fought and sacrificed their lives from every threat that came their way. As a young democracy today, we are faced with the danger of getting destabilized from within. We should think for the long run and never give in to the temptations that will inevitably come along our way. Greater good is what we should strive for, as has been done by the monarchs who built this country amidst all the turmoil.

DNT Divides the Civil Servants in Bhutan!!!

2019-06-07T21:29:00.003+06:00

DNT has done it. They have successfully divided the civil servants who had jointly carried them to victory during the election. They chose teachers and clinical staffs as their favorites and now the people are upset. And why shouldn’t they be? Firstly, let’s look at the left out civil servants who were not fortunate enough to come under DNT’s limelight. Instead they were thrown limes at and provided with no glasses whatsoever to at least, make some juice out of them.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s well known that there are problems in the health and education sectors. And the government are faced with the challenge to clear through the hassle and move ahead. But I don’t think relying on monetary incentives alone can solve this problem. Our quality of education has not declined per se, what it actually suffers from is that it has not been able to catch up with time and stay relevant.

Today a flagship smartphone hardly stays relevant for half a year after it is released. Mobile manufacturers are faced with the challenge to keep their products up to date with the cutting-edge technologies that seem to proliferate like weeds in summer after a hearty rainfall. And these technologies are not restricted to just the western world, it has flourished across the world and in fact, we might be at the brink of a great technological revolution. Unfortunately, Bhutan has not yet incorporated programming lessons, which is the basic building block for all the technological infrastructure, in its school curriculum.

So, the step that the government has taken doesn’t really appeal to the ideals of a rationalist. Massaging your back when it’s your neck that is stiff doesn’t make much sense. Some might still argue that such lucrative increments will help reduce the attrition in the teaching community or improve the education quality in general by attracting brighter students into the profession. When they say this, are they implying that the teachers so far, who if I’m not mistaken have successfully produced batches of doctors, engineers, pilots, architects, economists, etc., have been of inferior intellect. Do they mean that attrition is unamendable because we don’t have any B.Ed graduates struggling in the job market, in hunt for illusive jobs that so hard to get. Do they mean that Bhutan has 100% employment rate and there just can’t be any replacement for those choosing to leave their jobs?

Same is the case in the health community. It is understandable to recognize these professions as needing some incentives for the hard work they put in, but when you see the scale of the pay hikes, the DNT government didn’t really think through. In doing what they did, they undermined the efforts and sacrifices of the rest of the civil servants who work just as hard with dedication for the country. After the revision, an entry level teacher gets Nu. 10000 as an increment. An entry level doctor or a dentist gets a hefty 65% professional allowance which if you club with the pay hike amount to a whopping Nu. 15000 increment. What about the rest of the civil servant? They just get a mere Nu. 4000 increment. And this is just the scenario in the entry level fields. Think about the disparity that’s created in the senior level positions. Oh no DNT, what have you done. In trying to reduce the gap, you just created a new gapped area.

Then there are private works who were not even thought of in the whole discussion. And what about the rest of the people? Didn’t they vote as well? Is democracy only the civil society’s freak show? Its inevitable that the heinous businessmen, shopkeepers and restaurant owners will hike up the prices of their commodities and services and the seemingly beneficial increments will have been white washed out of existence. Only the teachers and doctors, and not to forget, the parliamentarians will enjoy the savory taste of the pay hike.

What is life?

2019-06-07T12:25:00.001+06:00

Life puzzles everyone. We grow up under an impression that all the different aspects that we get a glimpse of while growing up shall fit well into a big canvas and consolidate into some kind of a fairy tale that we get so used to during the age. It is a common story of a teenager when he says that he does not have a proper dream as to what he aspires to become. While the matter for why many of us fail to build passion for a profession may call for a separate long discussion, let’s stick with the absurdity of life right now. Space scientists may get overwhelmed to see the vastness of emptiness that is space. Yet the humans have been persistent enough to find a meaning, howsoever vague, in the nothingness of it all. It is admirable in some sense, as if a life has been breathed into the corpse of the civilization that has come to be, but as to how no one knows the answer to. The irony here is that the very concept of life which the humans have so well established is based on the lifeless, meaningless thing that we so yearn to give a sense to.

Spring

2019-06-07T12:22:00.002+06:00

The long wait has come to an end. Time, once again has done its magic. From what seemed like an eternal cage of the four walls of my room, I have set out like a free bird, letting my wings enjoy the luxury of the gentle, spring breeze. I was lost, so much so that the little, simple things which were indeed the most beautiful ones, were never given the attention they truly deserved. Now I see the meadows; the slender of the greens dancing with the wind and the elderly trees mindlessly swaying their mighty branches in the faint tune of the same. Green has once again taken over, and this time with such elegance and artistry that every bit of the view smoothly jigsaws with one another, offering what might easily be the masterpiece for the eyes to feast upon. Orchestrating the whole exhibit is the weak sun, recovering from its harsh winter ordeal – teaming up with white flutters, putting up a marvelous show in the vastness of the blue. The lifeless rustles long gone – the tune is once again the melodious bird chirps and the divinely prayer flag flutters. Spring has come and indeed at her best.

Plain White Cotton Cloth

2019-06-07T12:03:00.000+06:00

Thunderous applause gave way to a soothing

melody of a singing bird.

Just like the muffled sounds,

one can hear in the softness of the

plain white cotton cloth.

The muffled sounds of the bygone days

where everything sang

in the calming choir of unity.

It flaps and flutters in the unforgiving twirls,

that bellow in the ruin

of a young man’s dream.

In sand storms, it struggles

robbed off of every bit of hope

that dared linger in that hopeless place.

One can see in the fleeting pristine of

the plain white cotton cloth,

the memories of the long-gone clarity -

lost in chaos of the unaccomplished desires.

Stained, impure and torn now,

as it twists and tumbles within the ruin,

limping to the long melancholy sighs,

pursuant of the glorious purity

where dreams were painted and hopes created.

Travelling Zhemgang Blues

2019-06-06T22:17:00.000+06:00

Travelling always save my soul from drenching in the sea of remorse whose depth invariably grows with the sense of nothingness that the days in the office foster. Likewise was the tour to Samdrup Jongkhar in the fall of 2018. After travelling many a roads, some a smooth sail in the carpet of asphalt while others – a rickety ordeal for my prematurely aging back muscles. We started the journey at 7 am when Pangbang was still shrouded in the chill of the night and the heat, felt on afternoon the previous day seemed like an inconceivable concept. The road was smooth and I enjoyed every bit of the exhibit that the nature had to offer.

After reaching Tingtibi, we refused the offer of lunch because 11:30 am was too “early” an hour for lunch according to the senior with whom I was travelling. Of course, this was to be proved wrong later when the drive to Tamala (towards Gelephu) and journey back spanned more than 3 hours and there were no hotels in between.

Due to road block at Ossey, this particular road was completely empty and the misty air of the terrain added to the haunting outlook that the absence of vehicles offered. I wasn’t enjoying the journey. The terrain really wasn’t gilded in the gold of autumn as you would have expected. It was rather a transition from the lush green of the summer to a dull green with a hint of grey whose effect was enhanced in the misty mountain air. This place was at a higher altitude than Pangbang and perhaps the air foreshadowed the arrival of the cold winter in the North.

So I let my eyes run through the dullness of the trees, bored and unimpressed from what I was seeing. To add to the ordeal, my brain cells began to signal the plight of my stomach which protested that it had to be filled. Just as I was beginning to feel that this was the worst journey of the tour, my eyes ran across what was going to be the saving grace of the drive and whose memories, the highlight of the whole tour.

Now I have always been troubled with the concept of god and his existence. As much as I want to believe in his existence, the literature that I have pursued till the date of this writing has always said otherwise. Science has indeed explained many a phenomenon and continues to explore many more but there can only be so much it can explain. While it may uncover the mysteries in many years to come, for the limitations that it holds today, the god might as well be the thing we stick to.

So I believe that it was the god who felt the ordeal, my soul was going through with the unpleasing terrain and an upset stomach, and unveiled before me the pink blossoms on the wild trees which sprang from the rock surfaces. These blossoms were a thing of the spring season and to see them amidst the dull grey of the drying foliage and dead trees was something out of a book of divine anecdotes. These trees were scattered and did not grow in groups like the others did. They radiated in the brightness of the hue which pierced the grey of the terrain and silver of the mist. With the slight moment of happiness which was as fleeting as any other moments of happiness, it instilled a sense of hope and independence.

The rest of the journey was not so miserable from that moment on. Of course, the hunger persisted and the view went back to dull green after that short stretch. And few days later, as we headed towards Trongsa, on our way to Thimphu, you could see many such trees covered in pink blossoms. They didn’t seem as rare a sighting as I had assumed in the beginning. Nonetheless, that particular moment when they helped me see through the despairing dullness in the middle of nowhere, they were nothing short of the divine intervention.

Is Mangdechu Hydropower Project's Revenue Just For A Handful?

2019-06-06T11:59:00.000+06:00

The Parliament deliberated and delivered. Today on 5^th of June 2019, after almost half a year since they were elected, the DNT government delivered what they had promised in the din of slimy pledges, viscous commentaries and not so logical rebuttals during the election period. While the intention invariably remains the best, which firstly, no one can judge and certainly no one should use as the criteria for assessment, not all of the people (the people who offered their quinquennial rights) seem satisfied. Especially when the financial resources used for justifying the pay hike for a group which represents a little more than 5% of the total population comes from the total earnings off of one of the most awaited hydropower projects in the country.

In what sense of the word “fair”, does the decision of the government provide a logical rationale. While the project commissions and starts turning its wheels, after years of nuisance to the otherwise virgin landscape of historically-rich Trongsa valley, the locals, from their dusty homes, watch the civil servants gobble up the wealth created at the heavy expense of their beautiful land. When the very people whose lands and subsequently whose lives were affected by the construction of the dam are being ignored as the cake is baked and ready to be cut, it would be a wild goose chase to imagine the poor rural communities in rest of the country benefitting from it, let alone talk about it.

And this is the government who played the pipers tune under the banner of narrowing the gap. Maybe the gap they talked of was just confined within the civil service which of course represents a huge 5% of the total population. Yes sarcasm. It’s not all bad though. This decision does help the whole population in one way - it helps in explaining as to why Bhutan has a worse wealth disparity index (Gini coefficient) than India (the country where the richest owns a 27 storied residence and the poor cling on to the legs of extravagant Bhutanese in Jaigaon).

But the irony here is, even the civil servants are not satisfied. The parliamentarians of course took quite a share for themselves by increasing their discretionary allowance along with driver and fuel allowances. The fact that discretionary allowance even exists is quite mind baffling. When the money involved is of the state, why leave any area discreet.

Then they went holy and decided to redeem the noble teachers from the ever-growing societal stigma and give a generous teaching allowance. They even went an extra step to rebrand the allowance under the new name, professional allowance. The parliamentarians were not done and became holier when they saved the noble medical professions by granting a hefty 65% “professional” allowance. Lack of professionalism eh? There you go, problem solved.

And what about the rest of the civil servants. While the doctors, dentists, teachers and parliamentarians enjoy a hefty increase in their monthly pay checks, the rest of the lot receive, with their long faces, a mere Nu. 3000 increment. Where is the equality? Where is the fairness? Where are the shares for the rest of the people? Where is the motivational boost for rest of the civil servants? What are the private employees going to do? As this rather short-sighted decision materializes and start creeping into our lives, one can only hope that the shopkeepers and restauranteurs do not shoot up their prices in retaliation.