The 6 p.m chore

On a Pedestrian day in July, I open my eyes to the blinding morning sun and realize the hangover of the terrible headache and sore throat from last night. I had gone to bed crying last night because of my chronic tonsil from the past. Few years back in a cold September night, this same monstrous tonsil had me admitted in the hospital. After that it had been dormant until yesterday. The terrible pain while swallowing anything is too dreadful. 

And today, Pedestrian Tuesday and I had the best excuse ever to stay at home. I had wanted to go to work but the unfriendly scorching sun was too discouraging, so to avoid falling sick again, I called in sick at office and took rest at home. On an average, there must be many cases like mine on Tuesdays which would mean more absenteeism at work. And the outcome? Calculate it for yourself: P. No wonder, numerous reports in the media says about the alarming poor attendance at school on Tuesdays. Somebody should find about the absenteeism at workplace on Tuesdays also, I thought to myself.   

It was unusually quiet right from the morning till 6 p.m in the evening. No honking of the cars. The place where I stay has unusually large number of cars, so there is always a parking crunch. You come after 8 p.m and you had to park your car on the road and stay alert the rest of the night in case you hear some vandalism by some nocturnal high spirited teenagers. Thimphu is no longer safe :(. And I never stay out late for this very reason.

Thus, my Tuesday was spent watching Olympic on Tv and reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. The Fountainhead, a modern classic tells the story of the desperate battle waged by architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite…of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy…of the frantic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. Its theme is one of the most challenging ideas ever presented in a work of fiction-that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

                                                                                                            - From The Fountainhead

I heard the screeching sound of the tyres and honks of the cars outside my window. I orderly folded the page of the book I was reading, set aside my cup of green tea and looked at the clock hanging desolately on the wall. It was exactly 6 p.m, it marked the end of another Tuesday in Bhutan. It was as if everybody has been waiting for the clock to strike 6 p.m, like that in Cinderella’s story save that the people were beginning their normal activities. And from my window I watched people going about their Tuesday chores. 

A view from my window, I love watching the activities from here :)

A view from a moving car, how clear the sky is yet the pelting of the rain on the glass of the car is harsh.

Pedestrian Tuesday

So how many of you enjoyed Bhutan’s first pedestrian Tuesday? It sure was a different Tuesday for most of us especially for those who have to commute to work. The road along the swimming pool complex was deserted except for a few taxis plying on the road. 

Honestly, I was a little excited to walk to office from Changzamtog where I live to Kawajangsa. This would be some burning of extra calories in me, I thought to myself. Energized with a good breakfast, I started my day towards an effort to reduce carbon footprint. I had this freaking thought that the streets would be filled up with people walking to and fro to work or to run some important errands just like you see in movies. 

Alas!

Just a handful of people were seen on the road. Am I too early or late? Does no one walk to the place where I work? It was a great disappointment! :(. Just then, I saw Dasho Neten Zangmo hurriedly walking to office, oh what an inspiration! Then I plodded on. 

    The greatest inspiration -His Majesty the King bicycling at the heart of the city.Pic courtesy: Kuensel, 5th June 2012

The once busy road with heavy traffic gave a deserted look. It had been so long that almost all of us walked to office. Thimphu must have been like this back in the 80’s with just a countable number of cars. The feeling was of being transported back to those times when I had the road to myself. I felt incredibly awesome. 

Then people came out of their houses on the way and I could see the number soaring. One look on the face of the passerby and I get this feeling, “Hey I have seen him/her somewhere.” And I get this hazy feeling of “where could it be?” until and unless my head don’t stop reeling. So foolish of me :P. 

Past 45 minutes and finally I reach the vicinity of my office. I meet my Secretary at the entrance who had also walked down to office, oh another inspirationJ. As soon as I reach my office, instantly I put on the fan and lie down, oh how exhausted I am early morning. 

I could not do anything for the next 15 minutes. This is because of the 1^st Tuesday, I console to myself. The sun had been mild yesterday fortunately; otherwise there would have been too many casualties at the hospital with heat strokes. 

Speaking of casualties, I had an aunt who was referred to JDWNRH for an immediate surgery from Punakha. Unfortunately they were here on the 1^st Pedestrian Tuesday and God knows how much time they took to reach the hospital.
They were diverted all the way by the traffic police towards Tashichhodzong, and from there again had to come through the outskirts of the town towards JDWNRH. Then parking their car, they had to walk to the hospital which my poor aunt could not do because she was suffering from hemorrhage. When in that condition, imagine her horror to walk. 
Finally they had to catch a cab to reach the hospital. What is to happen to our rural community who happens to visit the JDWNRH on some unfortunate Pedestrian Tuesday? I believe there won’t be an ambulance to ferry every sick person.

On a Pedestrian Tuesday, there would not be any absenteeism at workplace, however there would be less public frequenting the offices which is the case I saw yesterday. It was a huge sigh of relief to see the office car parking lot empty too. Otherwise we had to rush for parking space both at office and home. With crammed parking spaces, thanks to our planners, it has literarily been a race against time to catch a good and safe parking space for one’s car. Since I had guests at home, I had to miss the walk to home after office. 

The cabbie charged me frigging 80 bucks from BCCI hall. Wooh that was quite a loot the cabbie did. In case I am not well but emergencies at work make me to go to office, I would not be able to afford the extravagant taxi fare. 

As long as I do not have to tend to kids at home and drop them to school, I would be OK with Pedestrian Tuesday. And my heartfelt sympathy goes to those new parents who have to juggle between home and office frequently. 
God bless them and let the decision makers have some solution to it just like they do things on their whims and fancies like the one they did now. After all who are we? Just some experimental mice! where everything can be experimented on us. Or let the mother with newborns  have holidays on every Pedestrian Tuesday: P. 

Till then, I pray for no rain on Pedestrian Tuesday or scorching sun.

I pray not to fall sick on Pedestrian Tuesday.

And hope this pedestrian Tuesday will lead us far as a country.

Photo diary from Sri Lanka

Galle Face, Colombo

Isn't this intriguing?

Temple of the Buddha's Tooth, Kandy

Can you see the Buddha statue at the back?

Poor Elephant, chained so badly :(. It attracts the tourists though.

Yummy, guess what it is :P

It is not so often that we get to see the sea :)

A sight so lovely and breathetaking!

And finally my friend Dechen (Right) from my PG days, without whom all this fun would have been missed.

SNOWY

 

She is Snowy, barely 3 months old. Isn’t she cute? Definitely she is but very naughty too, full of life. As soon as the door is opened she sneaks outside. Whoosh! And she is down the stairs. We have to run fast to catch up with her before she escapes. 

And guess what she did to me. While on lunch I was playing with her on the lap. I was making a pout of my lips and grinning at her when all of a sudden she jumped up and locked her lips with mine. She made a small scratch on my lower lips and there was shed of a drop of blood or two.

I took it easy but my mom, the most unfriendly person with animals became frantic and forced me to go to the hospital for vaccine. However much I convinced her that the puppy did not bite me she was all deaf ears. 

The thought of syringe gave me goose bumps and I was trying to avoid that. But she was insisting on the vaccine and her stubborness?? I finally had to consent to take the vaccine. I thought just a vaccine and I will be done. Alas! That wasn’t it. I got two vaccines, on both arms:(. Not only that, I have to go for 4 more vaccines, Goodness gracious me! I tried to convince the doctor not to prescribe me vaccines but she was like 'to be on the safer side ' I  should be vaccinated with the rabies vaccines. I tried to make her understand that it was not a dog bite but just a scratch from the dog’s lips. But she would not agree.

The next morning I woke up to the terrible pains of syringes on both my arms. What an awful morning it was. I could not lift any of my arms and it got me bed ridden the whole day. Neither could I sleep on any side with my arms underneath:(. I had to call in sick at office.  Now I am just wondering if I should stop the vaccine because I cannot afford to go through another pain for a fortnight because I still got 4 more doses though with breaks in between. It is not a bite; I am telling you but just a locking of lips which bumped my lips and it bled. Again I am terrified that later on in life I would have complication. 

I am seriously thinking on stopping the vaccine. I need your suggestions, please help!

Happy Blog Anniversary

Image courtesy: Google

Gosh! It has been a year exactly since I started blogging. No no, not a year but two. A year in another blog by the name (reminiscence.blogspot.com) and a year in this blog (irelatetothat.blogspot.com). So two years altogether! I had to leave the earlier blog because I was not using the old email id attached to it and unfortunately I deleted the whole account. In that process I lost my blog and could not retrieve it. My bad! How technically poor I am:(. 

So when I started this new blog last year at this time of the month, I promised myself that I will remember every anniversary of my blogging journey. And gosh! I nearly forgot it since it is 12^th April today and my blogging anniversary is supposed to be on 7^th. Fortunately I remembered it while browsing through the old posts. So what if its not April 7^th? Its April, the month I started blogging last year and that’s how I am here today.

A year has gone in the wink of an eye. But so much has happened in this past year. I have come to terms with life. Starting from a new career, a place of my own where I can call home, to making new friends and new people-I got a new life in itself! In all these aspects of life I have matured a year independently. Oh how hard it is to start a life of your own. I have always thought that I have been independent all this life. But how wrong I was! Instead I have been too dependent on my parents morally and financially. 

Now earning my own bread and butter has been the toughest task so far. To have to pay your own rents, do the grocery shopping that should last you for weeks and a month, managing my finance: it’s a Herculean task for me. A couple of times I even googled on how to manage my finance soundly :P, stupid me! Because the end result was same. :(

And the bus and taxi rides to and fro to your office in Thimphu costs you a nightmare when you look in to your purse at the end of the week. Hopefully, I learned to drive which I have always wanted to and commuting to office has been a lot easier now. But crisis for your car refueling starts in every time I read a fuel hike in the papers. How difficult it is to be an adult, I wonder now. 

Whatsoever, all this has made me a year wiser now and I hope to remain so. Memories; sad, happy, good and bad have been a kaleidoscope now. Sometimes it had really obstructed me from moving forward in life. However, ‘everything should move on’ and “things are to be let loose if it isn’t your’s” thoughts have pushed me this far in life. So this is to my year of blogging, Happy blog Anniversary! Hope to celebrate my journey of writing with more years to come. :)

On Bhutanese reading habits

“The greatest gift one can give a child is the passion for reading.” I read this in a local newspaper. So true! How many of our Bhutanese parents gifted (gifts) this greatest gift to our child?

Generally speaking, reading habits in Bhutanese is so poor. Be it in schools or home, we hardly read. Children along with parents are seen glued to the television screen most of the time at home or either they would be glued to their cell phones with ear piece plugged in. There is no activity such as reading. Apart from television and internet, the introduction of mobile phones has made the Bhutanese lot busier than ever. Walk into an office and try asking for the way around to someone on the mobile phone, he/she will hardly bother to look up from the screen and answer you.  

Picture Courtesy: Bhutan Observer

Who is to be blamed here? Our culture where reading habits never existed? Or the parents who have no time to read bed time stories to their children? The former one seems the appropriate answer. As a child, my parents never read bed time stories to me because it was not in our culture. I discovered myself the passion for reading from an early age and since then I have never looked back. Reading always entices me. It broadens my horizon of imagination and creativity. It takes me to the undiscovered world of enchantment and liberates me from the daily agonies of human quandary. Reading is a freedom in itself. 

Recently at the Junction bookstore, a couple with their baby, I presumed, was browsing some good books to purchase. The father holding the baby in his left arm was browsing through and reading some anecdotes from some books to the baby. The baby boy listened and made small wails as if in agreement to what his dad was reading to him. 

Oh how sweet a sight that was! I could not help but admire. The couple then was bestowing the greatest gift to their child. 

The mother on the other hand selected few books and showed it to her hubby. I was so envious of the baby boy. How fortunate is he to be born to parents who share the same love-the passion for reading. And the passion they are gifting to the child is the greatest gift. No wonder, birds of the same feather flock together, I thought to myself. 

Introducing reading habits into the young minds at a tender age like this would encourage reading habits. 

The school I taught at for a year had this; the first period of every day was designated as reading period. Complete silence was maintained and every student had to have something to read in front of them. It was a good initiative from the school’s part. 

Small initiative in our education system like this encourages reading habits into the young minds. 

While waiting in the hospital or airport you can always grab a copy of the newspaper and read. Book among others is an important component in my hand bag. I carry it wherever I go and especially if I have to wait in a queue it always becomes my companion and makes it easier for me to pass the long waiting hours. These are the small things that have always helped me encourage my reading habits; you may have interesting reading habits too. What’s yours?

Fooled twice by TENGMAA

TENGMAA is a classic Bhutanese snack, that’s what the pack says. Actually TENGMAA is wholesome beaten maize and it is available in crispy form fried in oil manufactured by the Bhutan Food Products in Thimphu. When not fried its hard and pretty tough for the teeth and jaw. It becomes quite an exercise to the jaw, but when it’s fried it becomes crispy and just awesome for your perfect cup of evening tea. But it comes in less content in a pack for Nu. 15 that a few pops in your mouth and it’s already over and out. 

I had become quite a fan of TENGMAA and whenever I am out for grocery shopping, TENGMAA is the list that tops my grocery. Recently, not to forget my top snack for my evening tea, I bought another pack only to be in for a surprise. To my utter amazement and disappointment, the contents inside was not the yummy TENGMAA I have always relished but some puffed corns which looks alike TENGMAA. 

To worsen things, it was salted as well as sugary. The instant thought was, ‘you have been cheated!’ Well, you can imagine how my mind whirled at the thought of being cheated by our own home Food Products. 

The pack clearly screams out in black bold letters ‘wholesome beaten maize’ in its ingredients list with the ever happy go lucky Aptsara’s picture and inside all you find is salted sugary corn puffs.:(

This is the second time I have been fooled by the Bhutan Food Products. The first time I found corn puffs inside the TENGMAA pack I most assuredly forgave the manufacturer thinking that it happens sometimes after having come across some just air-filled chewing gum pack without the gum inside. However, the second time I discovered the same mistake, I don’t think this is another mistake from the TENGMAA manufacturer. It’s pure negligence! It’s disgusting to have been cheated in broad daylight by your home manufacturers. 

If this is the impression of a small TENGMAA manufacturer on the consumer, what about the other Bhutanese manufacturing industry? Is it worthy to trust their products as a consumer? The thoughts are nauseating.