Snowfall after 64 years

Punakha Dzong, Picture from Kuensel

This morning at 7:30 I was woken up by a call from my father from Wangdue. He was a little alarmed that I was still sleeping. I could sense it in his voice. ‘Nani, you are still in bed?’ he asked, hearing my groggy voice. ‘Look outside, it has snowed like crazy here!’

‘Yes, I saw it on the news last night,’ I replied. ‘It is snowing in Punakha and Wangdue, which has never happened in the last 30 years we have been here.’ He said, sounding concerned. My parents have called Wangdue their second home and have decided to settle there, moving between Sarpang and Wangdue. We have a running joke in the family that Wangdue is their summer residence and Sarpang their winter residence.

The residents of Wangdue and Punakha were pleasantly surprised to wake up to a winter wonderland of 3 inches of snowfall coinciding with the auspicious occasion of HRH The Gyalsey’s 6th Birth Anniversary. The local newspaper reported that the last snowfall the valley experienced was almost 64 years ago.

64 years ago? That’s epic! That’s why this post as it needs to be documented. 

As a former New Englander who has been through 18-20 inches of snowfall and winter storm experience where it feels like blades slicing through your face as the wind blows on the face and who have had the experience of skating on frozen water ponds and rivers, I told him to let the snowfall settle for a while and then shovel the driveway. And I went back to sleep. After all, it's lockdown day 21 and the weekend! 

With the pandemic raging for the third year in a row, crazy snowstorms on the east coast of America, flooding, grounds giving away to parked cars, being swallowed underneath like a bottomless monster pit, buildings and bridges collapsing like in Final Destination movies, and tigers and elephants hoarding peoples’ backyard, I have become immune to such news and nothing surprises me anymore.

As a development enthusiast, I will say that it’s climate change. But I have come across highly intellectual friends who call climate change a hoax and they call it God’s wrath, that the humans have become sinners more than ever before, and that it’s God’s way of pouring wrath on us. It’s the end of times and we should repent, stop sinning and be righteous. It’s a different school of thought altogether which always leads to disgruntlement and frustrations to the brink of not standing in the sight of each other because everyone has their own valid thoughts and facts/data to justify and no one is wrong. I respect their opinion and see validation in it from the biblical point of view, however, one should know when to draw a thin line between the spiritual point and understand the reality. Why not acknowledge each other’s thoughts and come to an agreement?

Back in the day, I’m assuming that all these did not affect us as it does now although the alarm on climate change was sounded ever since I could remember. Maybe because there was not much research and studies on these topics back in the day and information sharing was not as fast and easy as it is now although it was a burning issue. I feel that access to too much information in this digital age is one of the reasons why people are unable to distinguish between conspiracies theories and facts of reality.

On another note, I hope all are doing well in this lockdown. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of easing this lockdown. What day of the week is it, again? :D Who else is getting sick of this pandemic now? Okay, too many questions to which I’ve no answers.

Hoping for this year to be better. A little positivity never hurts. Stay dry and safe this snowy day.

The insecurities of writing

I’ve always wanted to write a book. When I was in my mid-twenties I thought one needs to have gained enough life experiences to be confident enough to write, after all, it’s the years of experience, feelings, heartbreaks, and sorrows that need to be explicitly laid down for a good piece of writing. With this concoction in mind, I was convinced that one can become a successful writer only in the latter part of their life.

Then I came across writers like Carson McCullers who wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at the age of 22 in 1940 which is considered McCullers finest work. Then there is Mary Shelly who published one of the finest works in literature Frankenstein at age 22.  What has age to do with this? Well, I later realized that it’s one’s genius and the confidence to begin writing. Facing a blank page is a monstrous endeavor. It requires the confidence of a mammoth to sit down and face that blank page and begin writing.  

I nurtured the idea of becoming a writer at a very young age. All my life, I have always written, writing a journal at a very young age and then later writing/maintaining this blog for the past decade, writing has come naturally to me, I thought. Well, I like to put on record that I was wrong.

Writing is not easy! It needs a lot of consistency and discipline to write something substantive, like a book.  While working on my thesis for graduate school, academic writing was intensive and I assumed creative writing to be fun and not as grueling as academic writing. I also assumed that one can write freely in creative writing as compared to academic writing where one had to abide by certain rules and regulations. As simple as it sounds, both have their own perks and shortcomings.

Academic writing is gruesome and one needs a lot of research before tackling that particular area of subject interest. A lot of critical analysis is required and it should be well structured. Similarly, creative writing is structured but one has room to play around unlike academic writing. In high school, we were taught Walt Whitman, J. Alfred Prufrock, Plath, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Shakespeare amongst others. I absolutely loved these works and I still do. These works were high level for a girl of my age to comprehend that time and in my mind, the level of poetry had to be something symbolic with a rhyme and a rhythm there like Wordsworth and Plath. That’s probably why I never took it upon myself to aim at writing poetry because I always felt utterly disqualified to write poetry forget about a haiku.

Like reading, writing is a lonely hobby. To write means one has to be lost in the ocean of imagination, has to live more of a hermit life often craving for a secluded writing space. I’ve often thought that writers are someone who loves to be away from the chaos and who enjoys solitude and their own company more. That’s what fuels their creativity. It’s also very painful sometimes to dig into the past memories, trying to remember everything and reliving it if the memories are painful especially if one is writing creative nonfiction. After all, memory can take you only so far. 

Most often, I’ve been advised to make time to write every day, no matter what. To make a ritual of writing. With a full-time 9-5 job, it’s hard to commit to writing. But I’ve learned that if I want to write, I must actively choose how I spend my time besides giving up a few unnecessary hobbies. Moreover, I’m always confronted with this awareness of not having adequate writer’s skills and that my work is premature and sucks, that people will find it boring to read something I’ve written. And that my work might remain “Still Just Writing.” I’m also aware that all these thoughts are very normal and no matter what I need to push myself to keep working on my draft. It’s a lot of patience, quietness, and hard work.  

Louise DeSalvo in her book “The Art of Slow Writing” suggests writers find their own rhythm. Beginning with only five minutes and moving on from there is the key. Learning how to sit at our desks without interruption is a necessary skill we can learn. That’s where my challenge lies. I get distracted too often and too easily. She suggests acquiring the practice of consistent writing, which is so essential to realize our dream of writing full-length work. Writing an hour every day aiming for two pages a day gives you ten pages of writing by the end of the week. And the most important is to keep faith in your writing during the most difficult times and trust that “somehow you’re going to work it out as you go.”

Talking to your writer friends, like-minded friends helps to boost your motivation and confidence. Another writer friend suggested that I should tell everyone I meet that I’m writing and not keep it a secret. That way I’m compelled to write and finish it. I think I might have taken his advice quite seriously since I find myself telling everyone I meet now that I’m writing a book. That way I can make myself accountable and keep my word. I quite like it!

The act of imagining the work, thinking about it, taking notes, and finally beginning the actual act of writing which is the different stages of the first writing process is daunting. I’m yet to embark on the second and the rest of the stages which will necessitate a different blog post for another time.

So, what is/are your writing process like? I’d like to hear your tips for me to improve.

Mid Year Reflection on Books

We are already into the second half of the year and it’s time for a reflection; a reflection on the reading list. Nothing excites me more than to talk about books. 

Well, what is a life without books? 

Reading is escapism to many, an escape from the harsh realities of life. It’s a coping mechanism, rather. It helps one to develop empathy which in my opinion is the most humbling trait one can have. If there’s one character I’m asked to hold unto, it would be empathy and nothing else. 

Reading has become an extension of my limbs. I cannot go to sleep without reading for 30 minutes at the minimum. When the lockdown began in Thimphu in December/January 2021, I started this ambitious goal of reading 50 books this year. By far this is the most ambitious goal I’ve set. However, there was this dilemma of the availability of real books to hold and to read. Even if I want to read, there aren’t books of my choice easily available in the local bookshops. I hope I will live to tell the future generation of Bhutan how hard it was to get books in Bhutan during our time not to mention the overpriced online shipping charges which take an indefinite time. 

These are the times I miss having access to free public libraries in America. I used to go bonkers whenever I entered the libraries there. I was like, “Can I borrow all these books to read for free?” 

I was a Nazi when it came to ebooks or reading books on kindle or online for that matter. However, graduate school exposed and accustomed me to online reading. Before, I could never understand how one can compare the pleasure of holding a physical book, turning its pages, and the smell of books to that of reading an e-book. But as always, humans can adapt to anything. And this human turned to read ebooks on the kindle and mostly on phone. I’m a convert now! 

I can set a daily reminder for my reading time, and it congratulates me after having read for 30 mins. It shows my progress and I can read anywhere as long as I’ve my phone and the battery is functional. I don’t have to worry about lurking a huge book everywhere I go. Of course, nothing beats the charm of carrying and reading a book, but like I said adversity necessitates adaptation. 

At the beginning of this year, we had almost 40 days of lockdown which gave me ample reading time. Having kick-started then, I’m on my 24th book of the year, as listed below in no particular order, 6 books behind schedule though. 

1. Breasts and Eggs 

2. Too much and not the mood: Essays 

3.Verity 

4.Writers & Lovers 

5.Good Economics, Bad Economics

6.The Rosie Effect

7.Winter

8. Love, Loss, and What We Ate

9. Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle  

10. Chutzpah- Why Israel is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship  

11. Strange Weather in Tokyo 

12. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

13. The Year of Magical Thinking

14. On emotional Intelligence

15.Think Again

16.What to Read and Why 

17.Crying in H Mart

18. Beach Read

19.The Memory Police

20.The Great Influenza 

21.The Art of Slow Writing

22. Ten Lessons for Post-Pandemic World

23. The Little Book of Hygge 

24. Some Rain Must Fall 

I made a conscious effort to include 10 non-fictions in my list starting from The Great Influenza and The Lessons for Post-Pandemic World which gave insights into the beginning of influenza in history and the modern technology that was developed to combat influenza to what/how countries can do better in the post-pandemic world. It was an eye-opening read and brought new perspectives on the current pandemic. 

When things got a lot depressing and foggy, I switched to light or romantic read like Beach Read and Writers & Lovers, which basically portrays the young adults in love while juggling a writing career. Two books on Israel, Chutzpah, and Startup Nation further provided insights into how a small nation like Israel can be a top-notch technology empire in less than a century. Bhutan has derived some best practices from Israel in its upcoming projects. It’s not a wonder for Israel to excel in what they are doing, a topic of discussion for another time from a biblical point of view. 

Breasts and Eggs and Too Much and Not the Mood were some feminists work of literature which was fun to read and resonate to. After having loved The Rosie Project, I had to look further to what adventures Don Tillman and Rosie led in their lives in New York City, a very funny read though. Some books like The Memory Police and Verity were dark with a pinch of psychological thrillers thrown about which was hard to put down.

Crying in H Mart made me cry as it details a mother-daughter bond in an Asian-American household. Asians usually don’t say ‘I Love You’ or hug you but that form of love comes in the question of ‘Have you eaten?’ always which means that you’re cared for and loved. This book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for months' end and I also searched up her music and fell in love with her indie band. 

The Art of Slow writing was a brilliant read for aspiring writers. A Virginia Woolf Scholar, Louise really discusses at great length on her personal writing process with anecdotes from her favorite writers which are exquisitely done and very helpful. I will have to revisit this book sometime soon. Other memoirs like Love, Loss, and What we ate talk in detail the autobiography of the famous Master Chef Padma Lakshmi and her road to fame with lots of South Indian achar recipes. 

Finally, The Little Book of Hygge (the only book in hard copy which is borrowed from a friend) and Ikigai discusses why Danish people are ranked the highest in the Happiness index (Sorry Bhutan) and what is the secret of living a fulfilling long life in the world’s most aging nation. One thing I found common in both these books was the support from the community or having a good circle of friends and the little things in life like being present and not stressing about the future. 

Some Rain Must Fall is the second book in the series of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard that I’m enjoying at the moment. Honestly, his books are a bunch of crap about his daily life and how he got wasted but I tell you, it’s really interesting! That’s what I applaud in a writer – the magic of hooking the reader. 

26 more books to read in the remaining year, let’s see how far I can get. Like the Danish and the Japanese, I like to live in the present and not think about the future. A lot of the time, I also research the writer and their writing process. Life is too short to read books one doesn’t enjoy. 

I hope you enjoyed this succinct review of mine, let me know if you have read any of these books, we can do a virtual chat or meet over coffee to talk about it if you’re in Thimphu. Is there any book you would strongly recommend to me? Leave a comment below and I’ll make sure to include it in my list. 

New year and a dumpling party for one

The last time I made dumplings was two years ago while in graduate school. Contrary to popular belief, I like to believe that making dumpling which we usually do from scratch in this part of the world is a tedious task in itself with all those chopping to be done for the filling, kneading the dough, making the wrappers etc. As we are in the midst of second lockdown, how to pass each day is the biggest thing on everybody’s mind now. I haven’t been obsessing over the increasing cases of COVID-19, mainly to avoid losing my sanity and as far as possible I’ve tried to stay away from watching and reading the news save for occasional updates.

 

I had all the time in the world. What could be better than to make dumpling to pass the time? With my playlist on, I first began kneading the dough to give ample time for it to rest. Next, I started chopping the cabbage and red onions which left me crying for a couple of minutes. I chopped some pork and ginger and prepared the filling. Adding freshly grated ginger changes the whole flavor of the dumpling, a trick I learned. There’s this fresh invigorating taste which helps to subside the aftertaste of the onion.

 

To be honest, I was never a big fan of dumpling or momo as we call it here. Nor did I know how to make it. That was two years ago! BUT I’m a convert now. My love for momo started when I was in the US for my graduate school. Being away from home definitely does that to you. One is always homesick for that authentic home food. We were fortunate to have two Indian supermarkets (Patel Brothers and India Market) in our area where we basically got everything starting from Samosa, Jalebi and Dalle pickle and where we used to do most of our veggie shopping and speak to the guys at the counter in Hindi. That was the closest we could feel about home. 

 

Making dumpling became a tradition for us to celebrate the end of the year school party. I learned and hosted the dumpling session a couple of times for friends from school. There was so much diversity and we were celebrating the end of school by eating dumplings and drinking root beer. Some were vegetarian and wanted coconut filling, it felt weird at first but was so yummy. Some wanted to try shrimp besides the regular beef and pork. I introduced to them the cheese momo which was an instant hit. The different shapes and sizes had their own interpretation. With snow falling softly on the ground outside, the hot dumplings we ate by the Christmas tree warmed our hearts as we chatted about school, friends and winter break plans.

 

As I was wrapping the filling last night, a sense of nostalgia overcame me. I remembered that dumpling parties from two years ago, the fun and laughter we shared after a stressful week of finals at school. The things we talked about late into the night after we were super full from eating and drinking. I remember the light from that first Christmas tree of mine which my love and I hauled it up. I remember how I showed him to roll the small ball of dough on my kitchen table as he shared a traumatic story from his childhood. We both cried in each other’s arms. But once the dumplings were steamed and ready, he forgot all his pain as the exhilarating burst of the ezay and the beef dumpling was popped into his mouth and a large smile appeared on his face. ‘God, how much I love this man, I thought’ as I watched him help himself to more dumplings. I loved it with a tinge of jealousy when he said that he would choose dumplings over me given a choice.

 

I wonder how my friends are doing now? Although we are in touch through social media, things have changed a lot. I’m ever grateful for crossing paths with them for they made two years of grad school an amazing and unforgettable experience.

Dumpling definitely has been my comfort food and with it comes the warm and comforting memories of the time spent in Boston as I sat down in my apartment to a plate of freshly steamed dumplings for dinner, alone this New Year in Thimphu.

 

Happy New Year 2021! I hope you are doing well, stay safe. Like all things, this too shall pass :)

What's meant to be will always find its way. Always(?)

Like a spray of fresh paint, some looks always linger on the mind. Like the look on his face when they hugged and kissed their goodbyes at the airport that night. It’s a recurring memory every day.

 

She looked back at him time and again as she passed the security gate. With both hands in his front pocket of his jeans, he kept smiling at her until she lost sight of him.

 

Her throat felt lumpy, as if her heart was almost plopping out.  Teary eyes, her vision blinded. “Quick! I need to get to the washroom before the boarding,” she thought. In that blinded rush to the washroom, she mistakenly found herself in the men’s washroom. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled and ran to the women’s washroom.

 

It was a 11:45 PM flight out of Boston to Istanbul-Delhi-Paro. She found her seat next to the Emergency Exit on the left and a flight attendant was sitting opposite to her in preparation for the flight’s takeoff.

The light inside the aircraft was dimmed, she felt so grateful. The dim light shielded her sad and swollen eyes.

 

The cellphone chimed, “Have a safe flight, honey bear! I will miss you so much,” it read.  

 

Seven minutes into the takeoff and she was rubbing her eyes constantly. She tried to stop the tears from falling, but it simply wouldn’t stop. The girl sitting next to her had a blanket covered from head to toe and she was sleeping soundly, so were rest of the passengers. she felt grateful, again.

 

The flight attendant passed her a quizzical look couple of times. “I’m okay, don’t worry,” she gestured to her. She was left in peace.

 

"I will be right back before you even know it,” that was the deal she made with him. The deal that was made two weeks before that night’s flight, she has no idea what possessed her to do that.

 

When they last kissed their goodbyes who would have imagined a pandemic looming over in the next six months? Who’d have thought international borders would shut down and travels would be banned?

 

As the year comes to an end and as vaccines are out, a lot of things still remains uncertain. Uncertain when it will end, if there’s an end to it, ever?

 

Oftentimes, she wonders if she will ever be able to see her love again? Will they ever get together to buy a house, raise a baby girl, have their own kitchen garden, go kayaking down by the water in the summer evening to watch the sunset, and eat s’mores by the fire in the fall?

 

Will they ever be able to eat seafood and tacos and drink margaritas on her first night back?

Will they..?

“The Person You Become” - A Reflection

Summer in New York City (NYC) can be ghastly, with temperatures shooting up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat and the humidity can bear down on you, especially during midday. That June weekday afternoon was not any different. It was one hot day that I had long come to embrace. 

I had so much time on hands. With no specific agenda in mind, I stuffed my backpack with a water bottle, a couple of protein bars to combat hunger pangs, and my current read. I was reading ​Just Kids by Patti Smith, a perfect travel guide to NYC if you want to know more of the epochal days of music, art, and culture of the City in the late sixties and seventies. Central Park is mentioned a lot in the book, so as a concurrent book hangover cure, I made my visit to the park.

Taking the E train from Queens, I got off at 63 Street Station and walked for about nine minutes to the park. I occupied a less crowded spot and lay down on the grass. One of the best things about NYC is the subway; you can hop on one and it takes you to places conveniently, though it can become a nightmare during the weekends when services are delayed due to weekly maintenance. 

I knew nobody in the park, which was the best thing, it made me nobody too. The anonymity was strangely liberating! Often times, I’ve had jarring thoughts: ​What if I change my name and live as a new person where no one knows me​? When this thought evaded me again, I quickly fished out my earplugs and looked up the NPR TED Radio Hour podcast. Local radio stations and local libraries are two things that I never fail to explore wherever I am in any city in the world. These resources help you know more about and get acquainted with the city you are in. Especially as an international student, these tools have been very useful. NPR TED Radio Hour has been my favorite podcast for the past year. On lazy afternoons I enjoy listening to their hour of fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, and the way their programs make you think like the one that day.

That day, ​The Person You Become ​caught my attention and immediately I lay down on the grass on my back and closed my eyes for detailed attention. Guest speakers included aerobatic pilot and public speaker Janine Shepherd, writers Roxane Gay and Taiye Selasi, activists Jackson Bird, and fashion executive Kaustav Dey. They shared their personal experiences and ideas about the people we become over the course of our lives. Listening to it made me reflect on my own life, about myself, and the person I’ve become in the past year. 

Coming to Heller for graduate school and studying international development is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It gives me a deep perspective to understand all the major forces of change: social injustice, government policies, and market approaches, and how communities are impacted by our everyday decisions. All the senses are opened up like a volcano erupting. Every issue, no matter how big or small is important and it’s like you’ve been hit hard with reality and there is an urgent desire in you to work towards a solution or propose an alternative. All this is urgently important because the moment you waste thinking of it is another moment the community and the world is suffering. 

Those days I spent a lot of time thinking until the very act of thinking became an unbearable pain. It has me brimming with full of ideas and just the act of putting down on paper is overwhelming. A sense of purpose in life opens up and my identity as a successful driver of change is constantly challenged. You start to see the community and the world from different lens, from the lens of a development practitioner. The community at Heller, from the faculty to the diverse students and the staffs are extremely supportive and the environment perfectly conducive for learning. They are helpful not only to give birth to your ideas and knowledge but supportive in nurturing it.

I don’t have a vision of my future at the moment, but I know one thing--the future holds good things in store for me. Or maybe it’s too much psychoanalysis from a graduate student on an endless summer break who has nothing important to do, or maybe it was too much literature and drunken philosophy and Ms. Smith’s reading.

P.S - This was written in summer 2018, a contribution to the Student Newsletter during graduate school. 

Nationwide lockdown and key takeaways: things we can learn as we step into the new normal

When I opened my eyes suddenly it was raining outside the window. I don’t remember how long I had fallen asleep on the couch, I must have fallen asleep reading as the book was lying face down on my chest and my neck was sore. The clock showed 5:30 in the afternoon. 

My immediate wish was to go back to my nap listening to the sound of the rainfall. Ah! Who doesn’t love sleeping to the sound of rainfall? Instead, I shrugged the idea, quickly got up, and fixed myself a cup of coffee. With coffee in hand, I sat by the balcony to watch the rainfall because that’s the farthest hangout zone for now.

I don’t exactly remember the last time I sat outside like today to watch the summer rainfall. When was that? Was that when I was a freshman in college? Because that’s the only vivid memory I have of sitting by the window on rainy summer evenings with coffee, reflecting and writing my journal or reading a book. 

That was some 15 years ago. Wow! Where did the years go in between? 

It took 15 long years for me to sit down for a self-reflection. Had the nationwide lockdown not happened on August 11 with the first community transmission detected outside the quarantine facility, I wonder how long it would take…

Although the sudden lockdown of 21 days caused great inconvenience to everyone, I’m sure everyone has had the time to reflect on the new reality and has emerged a little more skilled at everything; be it at baking, culinary skills, gardening, reading more, and exercising and bonding with family which one may have never gotten. 

Personally, it came at the right time - I could get some much-needed respite from office work, ample time for self-reflection, and endless sleeping and reading time. I could finish books from 9 months ago and got enough rest and exercise. Just like how our body needs rest to heal and rejuvenate, mother earth needs the same thing. It was a call for us to pause and heal; mentally, spiritually, and physically and come out with a renewed sense of purpose to make the world a better place.

 

The first week was a whirlpool of emotion and it was overwhelming for me to process the gravity of the situation when every essential good was flying off the shelf of grocery stores. It was mayhem everywhere and I’m sure patience was our middle name. However, the most natural and good thing is humans learn to adjust and adapt quickly and we tried to adjust accordingly. By the end of week 2 of lockdown, I’m sure everyone was settled in comfortably.

 

We are living in such a strange and unprecedented time in history. If you had told me last year how 2020 is going to be, I would have laughed it off. With so much progress in human history over the last couple of centuries, humankind has never expected such a tumultuous time in history where hugging, hand-shakes, and any contact that is less than 6 feet distance is a threat.

Doesn’t it seem like a scene out of a dystopian novel/film for that matter? In a span of six months, everything changed. Social/physical distancing, quarantine, lockdown, mitigation, shelter in place are the new buzzword that reigns our lives now. Welcome to the new normal!

 

The geopolitical situation of Bhutan

Waking up every morning to the increasing case of COVID-19 cases is the new normal. Community transmission was inevitable given the porous border we share with India, with one of the highest COVID-19 cases and deaths and the hotbed of the pandemic besides the US and Brazil. Not to forget the border we share with China in the north. 

It’s kudos to the exemplary leadership of His Majesty the King and the relentless efforts on the government’s part that Bhutan did not see community transmission for the first six months given our strategic location between the two Asian giants and how globalized we have become in the 21^st century. I feel extremely blessed to be a Bhutanese where His Majesty’s visionary leadership has guided us thus far as he has been at the forefront like a warrior in every response of this pandemic. Thankfully, at this point, Bhutan has not had a single death.

 

With almost all the countries under lockdown and healthcare facilities overburdened, anxiety, fear, and panic looming over, times are scary and hard. Never in human history, people must have consumed so much news and become confused and anxious. When should the country ease down on the lockdown and open its international borders? The pandemic is not just a health issue, it’s a profound shock to our societies and economies that unravels untold human sufferings. 

 

 

Lessons learned and the key takeaways

As offices and more businesses open from tomorrow and more cars are allowed on the road in an effort to step into the new normal, we have a lot of takeaways from the 21 days of lockdown, it’s a lesson on the functioning of society and the governance. Just as the war exposes the weaknesses of a defeated nation, pandemic exposes the weaknesses of their system. One of the key takeaways was food insecurity.

 

Despite 70 percent of the Bhutanese population dependent on the agricultural sector, 8.1 percent of the households experience food insufficiency (National Statistics Bureau, 2017). According to the World Bank (2017), nearly one out of three Bhutanese suffer from food insecurity despite importing 34% of the country’s cereal needs. With the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, I’m sure these figures have escalated indefinitely. In the United States alone, nearly one in eight households doesn’t have enough to eat in this pandemic economy. A food insecure life means a life lived in fear of hunger, and the psychological toll that it takes. Like many hardships, this burden feels disproportionately hard on the vulnerably poor and those living on daily wages.

 

With no fresh vegetables and fruits in the market following the days of lockdown and prices of essential goods escalating like nobody’s business, we all have experienced the taste of Ema Datshi (Chilly and Cheese) without onions and Alu Dam (Potato gravy) without tomatoes. Unlike in the west, freezing of food is a non-existent concept in this part of the world. In fact, Bhutanese always insists on freshly prepared food, and freezing of food is most often discouraged which is good in a way as our Emergency Department at the hospital doesn’t report many cases of stomach bug and food poisoning nor we hear such reports on the news on a daily basis. Partly, this discouragement must have come from the absent culture of freezing of food in a cold storage facility in most Bhutanese homes. I was pleasantly surprised to see my friends in America freezing/storing away the extra fish we caught for consumption for winter.

 

While much emphasis has been given towards agricultural production in the past, it’s high time for the government to shift its attention towards the postharvest loss (PHL) system. This system comprises interconnectedness activities from the time of harvest through crop processing, marketing, and food preparation, to the final decision by the consumer to eat or discard the food. 

Interventions in PHL reduction are seen as an important component of the efforts of many agencies around the world to reduce food insecurity. There is a whole lot of research on PHL and merits a different science and technology in itself which this post wouldn’t suffice at all.

 

The 35^th FAO regional conference held this week called for agricultural digitization. While this way forward is an investment in smart agriculture, I hope our policymakers are reminded that the majority of our rural communities are illiterate and as the targeted beneficiaries customized innovative policy interventions will be in place for improved livelihoods and sustainable agriculture practices.

 

Development of e-commerce platforms and postal addresses

 

As a developing country, e-commerce is still in its infancy in Bhutan. A typical experience is how it took 5 days for my essential goods to arrive during the lockdown despite repeated follow up. While I understand that it was an overwhelming situation for the store but generally speaking, e-commerce really needs to step up their game now. For e-commerce to venture into this pandemic situation, accurate postal addresses are a must requisite. A copious amount of time is lost in searching for the location and it’s a headache and waste of time for both the customer and the delivery guy to discuss the location of the delivery address. I’m sure we all have been there.

 

The development of house postal addresses is one of the criticisms we have always heard about that requires a lot of serious rethinking. It is old wine in a new bottle analogy. While it’s understandable that the country has other important priorities to look into but it doesn’t hurt to start somewhere or pick up from where we have last left. As we all know, compelling beautiful plans are already there in place, it’s time that we take ownership of the implementation and accountability that Bhutanese are way capable of. It need not be some hired consultant from outside who will initiate the plan for us.  I sincerely hope this happens during my lifetime.

 

This Coronavirus pandemic is a reminder that nothing is certain, it’s transitory as life itself and the most important thing is to be mindful of our actions. Six months of Coronavirus, which is almost half a year of pandemic and it still feels unsettling to write because much remains unknown and mysterious as to the world during and post CoVID-19. Is there going to be a post-COVID-19 world? So far scientists say that we will have to live with it for a long time, in fact, the virus may become another endemic virus and it may never go away although news from China confirmed that the country is back to normal with no social distancing and mask protocols in place. Just one thing is certain; the future of the world is never going to be the same.

 

 

Disclaimer: Thoughts expressed here are the author’s own and don’t represent any institution or organization.