Gasa the last Dzongkhag

Early November 2012 I had an official trip to Gasa. I was very excited because Gasa was the only Dzongkhag I had not been. Yes, I had traveled to all other 19 Dzongkhags. And my travel to Gasa made my travels complete for being in all the Dzongkhags of Bhutan.I had always heard of Gasa for its hot spring water and of course being the remotest dzongkhag. Earlier people had to walk but with development it now has assessable roads till the Dzong.

The whole Dzongkhag falls under the Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Park which is a habitat for many endangered spices of birds and animals. 

Gasa is also a significant place because Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel came to Bhutan through Gasa.

I took some pictures of Gasa with my mobile phone

Corruption or not?

A lot has been done against corruption. ACC has been established and  corrupt people have been punished. But in some way it is the system that corrupts people. The government encourages corruption  in the civil service by providing milages to everyone who owns a car. Almost 90 percent of civil servants make fake claims of milages, which is duly paid by the government to them. This does not only encourages people to be corrupt but also encourages people to buy cars.

The first thing a young civil servant will have in mind is to buy a car right after he joins the services. This is not his fault, it is the system which allows him to think like this. If he has a car, every time he goes on a tour he can claim milage weather or not he drives his car or takes a bus or hitches a ride. This is the only way he can pay for his hotel charges and food. The DSA is not enough for food and hotel so  he has to claim milage.

Most offices have pool vehicles but when people have to go on tour they prefer taking their own vehicles so that they can claim milage.

The only way to stop this kind of corruption is to increase and standardize the DSA for all level of civil servants and not give milage. Or we could either continue the same and say this form of claims is not corruption

Life long expectations...

                                                

                                              In life you expect happiness,
                                                        but sadness is a part too


                                               In life you expect love,
                                                             but hatred is a part too


                                               In life you expect friends,
                                                             but enemies are a part too


                                                In life you expect success,
                                                              but failure is a part too


                                                In life you expect smiles,
                                                           but tears are a part too


                                                In life you expect togetherness,
                                                           but loneliness is a part too

A small way of giving back to the society

GyG members

One day after work, a friend invited me for a cup of coffee, I accepted the offer and went to his office (which is nearby). It had been long since I met him, so we had lots of things to talk about. We walked to his office canteen and he asked me sit, while he ordered coffee.

There were other people sitting in the room and they smiled, I smiled back. After a while my friend came back with another friend (our common friend). I was happy to see him too.

We were sitting and suddenly one of the person there said, we should start our meeting now. he asked each of us to introduce ourselves. I was confused and said I had just come for tea. My friends insisted that I should introduce myself and I did.

Later I found out that they were discussing on forming an international youth group in Bhutan. Nothing could be resolved that day, so the meeting concluded with the decision to meet again.

I though, I could be of some help so I accepted to come again.

The next meeting, had more people come and attend, and during that it was confirmed that opening an international youth group in Bhutan would be difficult.

There was many follow up and some people stopped coming but there were others others who joined. Finally we came up the group Go Youth Go (GyG).

Today GyG is doing a lot of things, from engaging the youth, entertaining patients, social services and cleaning campaigns. I had always wanted to do something for the society and GyG gives me the right platform to do so.

GyG is not just a group, but we are more like a family.

Lessons from a little girl

There are times when we learn lessons from the younger generation and at times they give us the courage and strength to move on. After BBS had featured a story about this little girl (http://www.bbs.bt/news/?p=12208) who wrote with her feet, we went to visit her. 

Tshering with her best friend

Tshering Lhamo studying at Zangtherpo Community Primary School in Bumthang is just 10 but she is a lesson for most of us. She had a stroke when she was a baby and then she was not able to move her hands. That never stopped her, she taught herself how to write with her feet. 

She is one of the brightest students in her class.

Her best friend who sits near her helps her pick up pencils from her pencil box. If only we could have a physiotherapist who could help her, her live would have been so much more comfortable. Her speech is also not very clear but she always seems happy, never complaining about anything.

  

She was such an inspiration for me. Really made me feel so proud. Thank you Tshering for teaching me a lesson of being happy the way you are.

The crazy pedestrain day

Ever since the government has declared every Tuesdays as pedestrian day, I have not complained and walked as an obedient citizen.

I even shared my views with  a weekly paper stating that it is good to walk and that if government had built safer roads more pedestrians would be there.

I heard a lot of people complain about the day but I always though it was not so bad until today. I have an office guest who has to be dropped to Paro. The guest has been kept in a hotel in town so we had to get a permission from the police for movement of our vehicle on the P Day.

On Monday, I went to the SP's office of the traffic division but he was not in his office so I approached the OC with my application. The OC said they never give movements to vehicles for guest and that we should go to Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB). The TCB did not give us once since we are not a tour agent. We went from pillars to post but we did not give up.

Finally we got the movement letter, now I understand when people complain 

An expensive mistake

She was still awake although it was past midnight. Our daughter had fallen asleep leaning against her. The food was still on the table.  We always eat dinner together and then go to bed but that night I could not reach home at my usual time because I had an accident.

My head hurt and my face was covered with blood when I woke up, I don’t remember how long I have been lying on the side of the road on a pool of my own blood. I woke up and went near my bicycle. My bicycle was broken and I had to walk home. I should have gone to the hospital but something inside me told me to head home instead. 

I don’t remember for how long I walked but it felt like ages before I could see my house. Relieved, I knocked but there was no answer. After knocking continuously without answer, I decided to take a peak through the window.

I went back to the door and knocked again, I don’t know why she is not opening the door despite being awake. I got angry and was about to walk away when I heard her approaching the door. Thank God, I said to myself and became ready to go inside. She opened the door, looked straight through me and said, “Where are you? Please come home, you make me worry so much.” I smiled at her and said, “I am home baby.”

She did not respond to me but walked straight out and looked at the moon. I though she had gone crazy. I went inside and sat near our daughter, I felt bad for making them wait for me without eating. I could hear her tiny tummy growling. I wanted to wake her up and make her eat but I must first go and wash, my hands still had some bloodstains from my head.

I went to the bathroom and looked at the mirror. I kept staring for sometime and started crying. Why me? I am the only bread earner in my family and my wife is uneducated. Ours was a love marriage and it was love that kept us alive through difficult times. There were times we had to sleep empty stomach but holding each other and consoling that the next day would be better was what kept us going.

I tried looking for a job everyday and came home disappointed by my wife always gave me hope and never made me give up. I finally got a job, which did not pay well but enough for the two of us. A year had passed. One day I was home after work and my wife was waiting for me. She had a glow on her face and looked prettier. What is it baby? I asked. She just smiled and said we are pregnant.  It was the happiest day of my life.

The baby brought a lot of good luck. The next day I got a pay raise at work.   

Our daughter just started school this year and everything was perfect. We were living a happy life.

I tried to recollect what had actually happened and now I remember. I was coming home from work on my bicycle when a speeding vehicle hit me. The first thing that came to my mind was my family. I moaned in pain but the driver did not stop to see what he had done, instead he speeded.

The road was empty and no one at my rescue. I was in pain for five minutes before I became unconscious.

Note: There are a lot of hit and run cases, this is dedicated to those people who lost lives because the person who hit them did not have the courage to stay back and take them to the hospital. We are human and we make mistakes but we must try rectifying our mistakes and not running away from it.

Being humane…

Every time I visit the patient guesthouse at the hospital, I realize how lucky I have been and how unpredictable one’s life is. I always return with a fulfillment of being able to meet the patients there and learn lessons from their lives.

When one patient can finally return home, there are many waiting to be put up at the guesthouse.

The guesthouse consists of all kind of patients. It houses permanently some old abandoned people, paralyzed people and a few kidney patients.

Lately there are 28 patients, including the old, staying there.

Most of the people there just live with a hope that some day they will be fine like anyone of us and be able to go back to living the life they once lived.

Jigme is one of the new patients at the guesthouse. He was painting a building, when he and his friend fell off. His friend died but he survived.

Jigme is paralyzed from below his waist and he cannot sit straight. Just a few months after this incident, his wife abandoned him and left their two-year-old daughter with him. He had no option but to give his daughter to some distant relative.

He is constantly worried about the life of his daughter but cannot do anything because his life does not seem stable at the moment. The only activities he can currently do are pray and contemplate death every day.

Hearing Jigme’s story made me realize and rethink about the institution of marriage. The though of a mother leaving her child with the husband and leaving them makes me angry but the thought of a mother leaving a young baby behind with a paralyzed father made think a lot.

But again I though this was a good example for us. Especially because it made me realize the impermanence of may things in life.

Every patient at the guesthouse has a heart-breaking story to share. It is not necessary to do something for these people one can just go and sit with them for sometime and that brings a smile on their face…

The Bhutanese cup culture

A colleague and I were visiting an official in the government sector, and we were discussing a few things. He called his assistant and told her to bring us some tea. He asked us if we wanted tea or coffee. “Black coffee please with sugar,” I said. My colleague said tea would be fine for him.

We were still into discussion when his assistant came back with a tray in her hand with tea and coffee. The officer was offered first in a shining, expensive cup while my colleague and I were given in simple plain cups.

 The official felt uncomfortable because my colleague also held a position equal to him although we worked in a private firm. He offered his cup to my colleague but he politely declined.

I do not know where and when this cup culture started from but it exists everywhere, even in our homes. At home we understand that people like to have personal cups but in meeting and offices you are offered a cup depending on your position.

During meetings even when people are sitting on the same desk tea in the cups offered are different. If the other person is sitting on a higher chair the different cup offered is reasonable but when people sit on the same level tea offered in different cups create discomfort.

Going by the cup, the host is always in a higher position because the host either has a fancy cup or a bigger one compared to the guest…

Customer service

I am usually a patient and calm person. I also try to be assertive and not get over powered by others but this was the first time I lost my cool in Bank of Bhutan (BOB).

I try and avoid going to banks because of the crowd there but I had to go and get some work done. I entered the BOB and directly went to the customer care corner. Upon getting information on what I wanted to do, they directed me to a lady. I had a written application to change the signing authority of a joint account. I went to that lady and after hearing what I was there for she sent me to another lady. Before she directed me she read my application and told me to mention the account number on the printed application. The lady also heard about why I was there and finally directed me to an elderly man, she said he just needs to sign it and the application will come back to her.

When I approached the man, he just took my application and kept it aside. He did not even ask me why I was there. I tried to explain to him that this was urgent and that I need the approval today itself. He gave me a stern look and read through and pushed the letter in my direction. "This is not the way you write the application and why did you write the account number with a pen instead of typing it," he said. I told him that I was directed from one person to another and that one of his staff told me to do that but he was not ready to hear anything. He kept shaking his head and saying it can't be done.

Finally I lost my cool, I took hold of the application and told him that this is not the way you treat your customer.

BOB being one of the oldest banks should be approachable and know how to treat their customers. However, even with many banks coming up customer services in Bob is yet to improve

women's movement in Bhutan

The issue of night hunting has been raised time and again but nothing much done. Bhutan has for ages had lot of citizens without an official father because the custom to marriage was not really there. Many of the couples who have children did not have a marriage certificate until the child had to get admission in schools. It was only then that they processed for a marriage certificate when the child was six years old.

In Zhemgang there is a man who has agreed to be the father of 10 children born out of night hunting. He agreed to let the mothers use his name when the children were admitted to school. Similarly a woman recently in Kanglung found out that there were 178 children in Kangulang area who were without fathers.

She demanded that the government have a DNA bank of all men who have studied at Sherubtse College in the last 25 years so that fathers of illegitimate children in the east can be brought to justice. She had posted her written protest on the Facebook Pages of the PM and other ministers. She said they will be held responsible for a large number of illegitimate children in the east if the government failed to come up with an immediate solution.

She warned the government that, if it failed to say or decide on anything about this by March 5, the activists would come out on the street, beginning with stoning of Sherubtse College gate and protest on the Royal Thimphu College campus on March 8.


I do not think this is the way forward but I think there is a lot the government can do. I know the Government cannot fulfill the DNA bank but they can work on rules to avoid such things. 


This isn't a great start but it is a start of the women's movement in Bhutan


Women United will never get Defeated!

ATHANG PHOTO EXHIBITION

I sent in ten of my pictures for Tathang Charity Photo Exhibition and they selected three of my pictures to be exhibited. This was the first time I was taking part in such an event and I was nervous. Unexpected to get anything out of it, it was a great surprise for me when i found out that one of my picture got the second prize at the exhibition. Thank you the organizers for giving us such opportunities. I am not a professional photographer and these pictures I took were just random. The whether, light and the nature just favored me. It is such an inspiration to take more pictures.

My award winning picture. This Picture was taken on my way to Lingzhi in 2010



These are the other two entries 

- A magical view of Dzong in the mist. This was also taken in 2010

-Students of Lingzhi Community Primary School during tea break

Subways

There was only one faithful person who used the subway near the swimming pool. Otherwise the subway is used for other purposes other than crossing over to the other side of the road.

I tried using it once or twice but gave up because didn't want to spoil the start of the day with the foul smell. In the evenings it is so dark and dangerous to use it.

Government has pent a good amount on building this and its all going in waste. RSTA should have a rule not only for vehicle drivers but also for pedestrians stating that it is compulsory to use the crossroads and the subways. This would be safe for the pedestrians and with more people using the subway it will be much safer and cleaner.

My resignation

After working in the media for so long I finally decided to resign.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
 12/1/12

 I write to apprise you of my intention to resign from my position as reporter, effective February 12, 2012. As I must, I am offering one month’s notice to give management an opportunity to find a suitable replacement for the void that will ensue with my going.

 I joined Bhutan Observer in November 2006 as a reporter. I have grown in this profession along with this company. I have had the opportunity to upgrade my qualification and get a diploma course in development journalism in India. I have also undergone many training inside as well as outside Bhutan. Recently I attended a month long gender training workshop in Nepal. These trainings have helped me broaden my knowledge and be a responsible reporter.

Although challenging and stressful I have loved my job and never thought I would take this decision to resign. The private media scenario is not hidden from anyone. Media in Bhutan is going through a unique market situation where it is hugely dependent on the government for advertisement revenues because the advertising culture in the private sector does not exist. The content, quality and reach do not matter to the government because the advertisements are given on rotation basis. Private media tries to survive within a small market. Some media companies have shutdown while others shrunk. Daily’s have gone biweekly and biweekly to weekly. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the media business but Bhutan Observer has always been consistent.

 However, lately Bhutan Observer also had to downsize and relieve some staff. The editorial contents had to be compromised and expenses cut down. I do not see a good future of the independent media because they are dying a slow death. I had pursued journalism with a different objective which cannot be met in such situations.

 With every media licence issued the share of the pie is getting smaller. The media market is already saturated but many media companies still waiting to operate.

 My decision to resign was finalised after long and careful consideration of all these factors. It was indeed a hard decision to make. But then, one must always consider moving on in life, where the prospects are better. I would like to express my sincere appreciation at having been given the opportunity to work at Bhutan Observer. It has been a pleasurable learning experience working as part of Bhutan Observer team with talented and highly seasoned colleagues.

 I will remember fondly the good times I shared with everyone at Bhutan Observer for the last five years. Most of all, I shall always cherish the good values of honesty, hard work, sincerity and dedication I learnt here at Bhutan Observer. I wish you and Bhutan Observer great success in future. Please accept my prayers.
 Sincerely,
Tandin Pem