Larjab Nye/Lhakhang

Larjab Nye/Gonpa/lhakhang at about 2642 masl is located at some 3.5 kms walk from the nearest road point; about 13 kms drive from the Mongar town along the East-West PNH. For an ardent hiker, it is an easy 2 hours hike (one way) through oak and bamboo forests. There is a single storeyed monastery built on a cliff which appears to have no end, and another small lhakhang like zangdopelri some 100 steep steps above and a cluster of hermitages some 100 meters before reaching the main temple. At this time of the year, with clear blue sky in forecast, one can enjoy the scenic beauty of beautiful village setting of Changshing gonpa, Lingkhar, Panglem and Anim gonpa towards south-east of the monastery.

Larjab Gonpa was founded by Drupthop Kuenzang Chophel from Thenmangbi village, a disciple of 9th Je Khenpo; His Holiness Gyalwa Shacha. His Eminence, Gyelthsen Tulku is the reincarnation of the Drupthob.

Oral history as narrated by the monk caretaker of the Lhakhang goes to say that; some 300 years ago, Drupthob was blessed with a cliff-like stone replica of present monastery site by his root Guru and was prophesied to construct a temple there. As prophesied by his root guru, he traversed in search of the site and reached the present monastery site, which had the exact resemblance to the replica. Upon locating the site, he entered into retreat for 6 years and said to have encountered many good omens and signs confirming his finding.

Oral history has to say that, a part of monastery was built by five dakinis, a part by lam in a day and rest by the local deity/tsen Sonam Jamtsho.

While there are many fascinating narrations about the place and the treasures discovered, I have refrained from sharing here as I deemed inappropriate to share without a proper validation.

Disclaimer: mistakes and omissions are all mine.

FAVORITISM: spell of prejudice

The tendency of liking other and disliking another, is nothing, but a way of life from time immemorial. Favoring a certain lot and discriminating another, has how generations’ passed and how it will pass. Least to blame the ethnicity, the color of one’s skin, the religion one practice and preach, the language one speak or the attire one adorn, everyone possess it, except for the difference of magnitude they exercise. It’s nothing sort of being born with, but how one grew up. The seed of prejudice was not something one inherited, but everything that conditioned our development. The world is cruel and so is the creatures.

It starts with liking someone over another, based on prejudice. Favoritism alone is like a honey bee, buzzing all over the field of flowers. The bee flies to the flower of its own like, sit, suck nectar and help the flower pollinate. Neither the bee will be blamed for engendering nor the flowers of infidelity. Favoritism can kindle happiness in one, so long as it is not accompanied by discrimination, it does not disturb an emotion of other.

Favoritism accompanied by discrimination is the worst to fear. It’s like a dog, trained to snarl and bark to one and wag to another. It has a tendency to cause misery to other and exude happiness to another.

It is inevitable considering the diversity. Diversity in individuals like, choice, preferences, thoughts, etc. Some will be liked for their intellectual capacity, athleticism, modesty, obedience, sincerity, etc. while some will be disliked for possessing those qualities. As diverse as human capabilities are, so are the preferences. Like “one man’s food can be another man’s poison”.

What does cause or instill favoritism in human beings? A primary cause without any denying can be prejudice.  And the secondary cause/s cannot be generalized, and better left to be defined with the tick of clock.  

Thus to survive and soar in an environment/surrounding or to be preferred by all, the essence of living shall be adaptation. The character of a person cannot be seasonal, however the need of hour calls for it. Since one cannot deny susceptibility to the forces of favoritism and discrimination, an adaptability should be an option best considered.

Malala : Girl of courage.

Malala Yousafzi  (source: Google)

A16 year old Pakistani girl; Malala Yousafzi, showed the world, at her tender age, that age isn’t the only ripeness factor but true conscience as well. It’s not the number of years or age that determines the maturity of human being but the positive virtue and integrity in oneself. The bullet of extremist hit her but missed her brain; they could not even penetrate the tender skull of the girl, for she was so strong in her belief. Heard that god never punishes good doer and never lets that doer leave the world with unfinished task, and to Malala; they proved. Now she is an International icon of courage and an advocate of education for girls.

She began as an anonymous blogger sharing her life to the outside world, about her life. Living in a hostile environment where gun shots were the only music, cries; the only emotions, injustice; the only justice, prayers; the only song, happiness; the most unattainable state, man; the only treasured live and woman; that other live least cared. Through her blog, she shared how the girl child’s were denied of education; the basic right of every being and how the girls’ schools were destroyed.  And that’s how she gained world’s attention along with extremist’s death threat which finally turned into action on 9^th October 2012.

Also she proved wrong, the whole idea of hostile environment, bad company and societal trauma in the negative upbringing of children. Nothing is good or bad, being positive is what you reap positive though sometimes negativity may act detrimental in ruining your positive thoughts.  Going through her life, she didn’t had receptive environment, all she could see was anger, killing, societal disharmony and community disarray and yet beautiful rose from a thorny plant.  All kudos goes to her parents for the beautiful upbringing of a beautiful individual with positive and celestial thoughts for those less fortunate ones and being so supportive on her journey of selflessness. May all children see such love, affection and support from their family and may we be blessed with another Malala or many of her kind.

Recently, on her exclusive interview with Indian media house, NDTV; which claims to be first Indian media to interview her, she shared her life before and after 9^th October 2012 so vividly. The most touching was about the day she was shot. That morning, while on her school bus, two boys in twenties stopped the bus and as one talked with the driver, the other looked around for her, shouting who is Malala? She says, that guy shot her on head even before she could say, Yes, I am Malala. Listening to her stories, I wondered about my intellectual calibre at her age, which definitely won’t be fraction of hers. She is definitely the bravest girl of her age, and the Icon of courage.

Later, when she was asked, are you afraid of Taliban? With so much of composure and coolness, she said, I sometimes get scared of the ghost but not at all of Taliban and that very say raised Goose bumps all over my body. She continued saying, even if they come to kill her, she would tell them what they are doing is wrong and that education is our basic right. On the right to girls education and women , I remember her catchy quote “in our society we love shoes, but hate the people who make those shoes”.

A girl of her age can be seen eating Cadbury chocolates, playing with Barbie dolls, Singing rhymes and nagging her parents. But this wonder girl is seen fighting for the right of education for children of the world, and almost at the end of the show, she said one day she want to become Prime Minister of Pakistan and work on education for all and relation with India. With such charismatic capability and courage, I don’t see any reason why she can’t live her dream. I admire her courage, her composure and wish her all the luck.

How are cyclones named?

For past few days, cyclone Phailin has taken the center stage of NDTV news; my favorite news broadcast media. Report says, Cyclonic Storm ‘PHAILIN’ hit over Odisha/Orissa State on Saturday (5-10-2013) affecting communication lines, causing power disruptions and destroying properties, though no casualty reported so far due to accurate tracking and intensity prediction of the cyclone by the Indian metrological department and early evacuation of settlements from the red zones at the earliest.

As the news anchor took a short break from the breaking news bulletin with an assurance to see after a short while; I started comparing the Cyclone “Phailin” with year 2009’s cyclone “Aila”. And that thought motivated this post idea; why cyclones have different name? Who name’s it? How are cyclones named?

Until I took the pain of surfing net, thoughts remained around without a hint on what I myself asked a while ago. It was way too much for my blurred knowledge of Geography. Gust of ignorance perspired clouds of confusion.

Though nature doesn’t have its own categorization of names over its acts, they are not either spared without one. Like our religion spearheads’ who name newborns, our ancestral precedency of naming does not spare any creature that carries live, be it human, animal, land, tree, flower, etc. True and agreed. Imagine ourselves without a name; keep aside those funny and punk nicks. How do we call? How do we explain someone to other in his/her absence? If not with a name, world would be full of oye, you, me, choeth, choechoe and one identity less. It helps us in knowing, calling, remembering and indeed facilitates the world of documentation.

History says Cyclones were usually not named. But another source says names have been given to Atlantic storms for  past few hundreds of years. Initially, people living in the Caribbean Islands would name the storms after the saint of the day from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar for the day on which the hurricane/cyclone occurred. The tradition continued till World War II, when forecasters and meteorologists started using female names to identify the storms.  In 1953, the US weather service officially adopted the idea and created a new phonetic alphabet (international) of women's names from A to W, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and Z. Subsequent protests by women's liberation bodies in the 60s and 70s helped change the naming procedure for the storms to include male names in 1978. The year's first tropical storm was given the name beginning with the letter "A", the second with the letter "B" and so on through the alphabet. In even-numbered years, odd-numbered storms got men's names and in odd-numbered years, odd-numbered storms got women's names.

It started with hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, where storm with wind speed of 39 mph was named so. And names like hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones were given to the storm like a nick-naming tradition in humans. Like we were known to different persons with different names depending on frequency of nick naming, storms were called Hurricane in the Atlantic, Typhoon in the Pacific and Cyclone in the Indian Ocean.

Nowadays, the process of naming cyclones involves several countries in the region and is done under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization.

For the Indian Ocean region, deliberations for naming cyclones began in 2000 and a formula was agreed upon in 2004. Eight countries in the region - Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand - all contributed a set of names which are assigned sequentially whenever a cyclonic storm develops. The name Nilam was contributed by Pakistan, Murjan by Oman. The next in line are Mahasen by Sri Lanka. The list of names India has added to the database includes Agni, Akash, Bijli, Jal (cyclones which have all occurred since 2004). The Indian names in the queue are Leher, Megh, Sagar and Vayu, while those suggested by Pakistan include Nilofar, Titli and Bulbul.

And the present cyclone name “Phailin” was contributed by Thailand, meaning sapphire.

It's easier and less confusing to say "Cyclone Phailin" than remember the storm's number or its longitude and latitude. It's also easier when you have more than one storm to track.
Names of some storms that cause widespread damage and deaths are usually retired and are not brought back or reused later, at least for 10 years. These names are then replaced with new names. The names are retired as a mark of respect to the dead. However, there are a number of variations, for example, Hurricane Mark and Hurricane Marc. Once a name is officially retired, it is then replaced with a name of the same gender and beginning with the same letter. So far, since 1972, there have been 50 names that have been retired. And, since the names in the beginning of the alphabet get used more than those at the end, it's more likely that those will be retired names first.

And they do not run out of names. Like naming trend in us,  we add the first name from the spiritual leader, second and third may be from father and mother or either of them, or you get names of different spiritual leaders and later get mix. Also like a teacher who maintains the list of his/her students and adds an alphabet to distinguish those with identical names, World Meteorological Organization maintains the list. 

As we write the same name with different spellings or add those trendy or famous individuals name and neglect those odd, infamous, stigmatizing names, cyclones names which caused massive destruction's and famine were not repeated and reused in future in a way to pay respect to those dead.

Matka:poor men's water cooler

My Fridge !

Matka is an Indian synonym for earthen pot (= sa gee zam, Bhutanese); it’s used to store water and ideally keeps it cool. Temperature of water in it is neither too warm nor too chilled, indeed ideal water temperature felicitous to your tooth and throat, enabling frequent drinking in summer. A Matka with a capacity of approximately 20 litres cost just Rs. 90.00.  How cheap and affordable?

One thing we have to keep in mind while using it, never wash but rinse it. Scrubbing while washing may remove the inner coatings, thus weakening the adhesive and binding property of the material. If so, not only its productive life span will be shortened but also the taste and odour of water in it.

Its cooling mechanism is based on the phenomenon of evaporative cooling or sort of it. Matkas being made out of clay or some porous earthen material, have small miniature pores through which water in the pot continuously seeps out. This water as it seeps out evaporates taking the latent heat away from the pot and the water stored in it. Removal of this latent heat results in cooling of the water inside the pot.

Its summer time, it’s hot and my body demands more of cool water. And if I don’t get accustomed to drinking of water from Matka, either I have to go for bottled water or get de-hydrated. But when I am so much dependent on my family in the very first place, I cannot be complacent with my spending on water alone. Sometimes even necessity becomes secondary when money talks. And I have learnt nothing except spending money wisely next to my subject in course of my stay in India.

If you go by calculation, a bottle of water costs Rs. 20.00, and even if I limit my daily water intake to two bottles, it will total to Rs. 40.00 per day,  by the end of month, my spending on water alone will sum up to Rs.1200.00 and in a semester (six months) to Rs.72,00.00. This is way too much for a student according to my little knowledge in accountancy and economics. That’s how I became, an ardent fan of the Matka; poor men’s water cooler.

Somehow if you happen to try, your first experience will be not a memorable one. It differs in taste and odour from bottled water and completely in comparison to what nature serves us in Bhutan. But slowly, may be due to height of serious taste disorder or sheer obligation to thirst, you will start liking it. I did and hope you will, if ever, a need arise you to opt for it.

Happy week end to all !

Auto No.RJ.01.PA.0389

The man and the machine..

He sits his ten months old baby girl while his wife prepares his breakfast and packs his lunch for the day. After having filled his half projected belly with deliciously prepared break fast by his wife, he hurrys toward his three wheeled car; Auto rickshaw no. RJ.01.PA.0389. He ignites the engine and, as it warms, he stretches his long arm over the window shield and the yellow painted metallic sheets, giving them a rough and quick make-up of the day.   His wife holding the ten months baby with right hand, hands him his three storey tiffin filled with curd (Dhai) in the first, roti in the second and fried potato with rich spices in the third with other hand. She waves as she watch him drive through the sandy road linking their home to NH-89 (national highway).This is how 24 years old Mahamad Khalid and his wife Nasma khan start their day, atleast for six days a week, for sunday he takes day off to spent with his small family, also his passengers are off that day. Its been their usual routine since august 2010. 

Mahamad Khalid; 5'10" tall, weighing 73kg, with shyly  projected belly, though every care has been taken to have it within, beard and mustache that obviously disagrees with his so said age, cutely shaped butt in a tight pant,  is the man behind the three wheeled Auto no. RJ.01.PA.0389.

His meet with the Bhutanese dates back to August 2010, when first batch of Bhutanese students studying in Bhagwant University started availing his auto service to pick and drop them from college, since then he was never short of sawarey (passenger as they call here) and students never had to wait for a auto or cab to bypass. With increase in number of Bhutanese students every year, everyone around him can see him with a regular and secured lot of sawareys. 

to be continued....