Remembering Khuruthang

Year 2005: I went to Ugyen Academy in Khuruthang, Punakha. With much pride I dare say that it was one of the best decisions of my life to go there. Not because I could qualify for college from there but because I met wonderful teachers and friends and I got so much to learn from them. 

Also many wonderful things happened to me that teenage year which fairly helped me shape to become a person I’m today. 

For whatever reasons people used to say Khuruthang is a dead town. But to me, Khuruthang is a quaint sleepy town. 

The Puna Tsang Chhu river meanders undisturbed in the middle of the town and there are clear blue skies with plenty of warm sunshine; Khuruthang is the ideal place to live in winter. 

It’s a perfect town to untie the lace of your shoes, undress and get into the running river water in the scorching summer heat or take a stroll on the banks of the river towards the balmy evening.

More so, it’s a happy place to visit the weekend vegetable market and bargain for larger than life red dried chillies and crunchy puffed rice (zaw) with the locals. 

It’s the place to eat iced Frooti in summer and not get sore throat. It’s the place to climb a hill, stand on the top and feel the air on the face. Khuruthang is a perfect place for a happy ending. 

Fast forward to 2014: After nine years, I was visiting Khuruthang, this happy ending place. Except that it was not a happy ending this time but rather a distressing one. 

This past weekend, I was visiting an ailing uncle with my parents, only to find on that clear, sunny and warm morning that he breathed his last on the wee hours of that morning. 

Grief-stricken, we prayed for the deceased and the family and returned home.May his soul rest in peace.

I wonder when I will get to visit Khuruthang next and what memories I will have then. Will the memories be as happy and as sad as it should be? 

Only time will tell, I hope.