The Talking Mountain

Out of blue, my 4-year old daughter asked me for finger chips early morning, signaling that she was hungry.  As I was frying the chips, unusual melancholy feelings ran down through my spine like a cold ice tea I had in  Busan . I had all the fresh memory of how my mother used to fry and sell the chips around the locality. For 10 small rings, she used to sell at Nu. 5. Since, besides cardamom there wasn't another source of family income. It used to be arduous for my family to end meets with many young and hungry mouths to feed on. With that little hard-earned money mostly through the sale of chips she spends the money very carefully on our education expenses.  We had our education, through the little money my mother had gathered out of such hard labor –by selling finger chips and few other grocery items like  Parle-G ,  chocolate , etc…carrying on her back going from village to village on any occasion. She is a woman who really cares about money and has the ...

"…entry to Bhutan was limited to around 3,000 well-off tourists, preferably in pre-organized groups, each year. The fees paid up front are set at $200 a day –for which someone could survive for a month in India or Nepal. But it is precisely to discourage mass tourism or low-spending backpackers that the Royal Bhutanese government has adopted this policy of controlled tourism.    The rationale of this highly controlled approach was explained to me later in the capital, Thimphu. Look at what’s happened in Nepal. We don’t want to sell out to tourism and ruin the country, as they have, without drawing any benefits.    A fair enough point; but this control syndrome…"   As I was reading a book by  Jonathan Gregson  on 'Kingdoms belong the clouds', I came across this very important piece of information laid by the author on the tourism sector of Bhutan. I was amazed but at the same time intrigued by the fact of one-sided tourism manning. With such an extraord...

One thing that has always bothered me is the "school hostel." During this lockdown, I finally had the chance to share my vision of an ideal hostel.  Everyone talks about the declining "quality of education," and I believe one contributing factor is our poorly equipped hostels. To me, the design and environment of a hostel are crucial in shaping young students' attitudes and behavior. Unfortunately, this issue is often ignored, and the blame is shifted to our curriculum and teachers. My experience with hostel rooms was terrible. I don't even want to recall the toilet conditions from my school days. Constant water shortages threatened our health, and we often went months without proper bathing. My school days were absolutely horrible, and I feel pain when I remember the cold winter months spent in hostels without proper doors and windows. I used to dread nightfall. Beyond quality issues, the well-being of young and fragile students was never considered. Learni...

Through the kindness of the  Bhutan Toilet Organization , I could happily upgrade one of the old unused toilet pots with a  SATO  pan on 113th National Day as a gift to the girls of Zhemgang Central School. The Aqua-privy toilet, which was severely damaged, was lying idly for the unknown period. It came to my notice for the last many years. I couldn't do anything but kept it secretly within myself looking for a right time. However, every time I go around to make sure that all the toilets are clean, it gives me some kind of intolerable pain and immediately fills my head with certain guilt for not being able to use my expertise and resources and school management for not being able to damn such pertaining issues.  It was until this special day, I could do nothing about this problem. I spent a long exhausting half-day working alone in an odd place –" girl's toilet ". To make it safe and to indicate my presence inside the toilet, I have played music from the sound c...

Regional Office, DoR Trongsa , on 14th December 2020 have happily updated on the completion of "Telegangchhu Bridge" (2 km from Trongsa town towards Zhemgang) that was undertaken by DNC (Dai Nippon Construction, Japan) and DoR (Department of roads, Bhutan).  This same stretch of road has troubled me like any other traveller and especially the drivers must have fond memories of the road being so erratic and sexy throughout the year. When nothing seems to work out, even our best engineering skills have failed; I've heard some Divine intervention was pursued. But, nothing has worked out, until the Japanese hand was pushed in to perform the miracle. They have impregnated the site with a handsome baby boy. After almost two years of their hardship, they had their baby boy for Bhutan to adopt legally –we are finally happy to receive this long-awaited beautiful baby boy. " Arigato gozaimasu"  –the people of Japan for the continued support. I have been following every wo...

For the last eight years,  Zhemgang  has become my new home. The eight defining years have made me a more wholesome man altogether.    Honestly I do not have any plan beyond  Zhemgang CS . This just happened because of some unavoidable circumstances. I wouldn't have left this place for anything, but sometimes we've to make important choices that are more important than beautiful places. I never thought I'd spend eight long years in this place that others call it "least developed  dzongkhag ".     Indeed, eight years was a hell of time. I had eight fulfilling years in  Zhemgang . One can do many things. So many things have changed around the places and within me. My first batches of science students have already started earning and most of them would have become parents or started families or some have their kids ready for Kindergarten and few to abroad. People came and went. I'm among the few who came and stayed for eight years and start...

I was used to a stone top and a pit latrine to relieve myself, and I'm now used to high quality toilet pots. I've immensely surprised my butts who'd had the bad experiences of smelly open-air toilets.   However, being a teacher, I had the privilege to change things on the ground since I already had enough bad toilet memories from my primary school to university. Similarly, I was aware of how bad the toilets are in our communities. Back in my mind, I always want to change the toilet thing especially for young school children who would become the future leaders. I have shared my bad toilet experiences with them. I've also shared the benefits of "clean and safe" toilets in some open forums and during the Morning Assembly. Other than sharing my personal experiences, I couldn't do much to change the toilet thing, as it comes down to a question of money and expertise. However, BTO came as a blessing to me. Nothing was going right until 2015, when I got a chance ...

Category : Mountain and Water     One of the inseparable combinations of nature –clouds and the mountains making secret love giving birth to rainwater and snow, which ultimately transpires plants and animals living downstream. So let us save our Mountains to save our Mother Earth. This photograph takes me back there spiritually and emotionally and connects me so deeply with nature. Therefore, I promised to love and protect mountains forever.  #FollowBlogSpottitle: the talking mountains I grew up seeing different sizes of mountains. "In fact, I was born on the mountaintop" is what my mother narrates to me when she has a good mood.    In my high school, my geography teacher taught me about the importance of mountains –mountains are the crucial factors of water cycle. The warm water vapor goes up, condenses and drops in the mountains as snow and rainwater. From there most rivers of the world emerge. Therefore, it is believed mountains are the water towers of the wo...

"Gongsa Ugyen Wangchuck became the first hereditary King of Bhutan after a huge unprecedented internal struggle of power amongst the powerhouses of different regions. Despite huge challenges, he opened the first school in Haa in 1914. This marked the beginning of Modern Education in Bhutan".   Since then we came a long way, we passed  unprecedented times in the struggle to unify country for a good and common education system.   However, there is still much to do to improve our schools across the country. We'd be happy to see a common standard made for all schools that would ultimately benefit every section of people –rich and poor, bright and dull.    My dream school is something very simple in design with a good set of teachers around. The teacher not only grabs the students' attention but also keeps them inspired through a holistic learning approach and warm like a caring home. A school should have new and quality infrastructures designed to mee...

  Caption : Door is one of the most important parts of the house. It provides not only safety and maintains privacy to people living inside but also it gives light and ventilation to different rooms. However, with modernization the new roles of the doors have changed beyond the norms –it is used for hanging things like brooms, sack, dust collectors, etc. 

Q.   Have you ever conducted any lessons or projects on the SDGs or ESD within your school community?  a.     Classroom lessons or activities b.     Long-term projects in the classroom c.      School-wide campaigns As a classroom teacher, I have been educating students of various grades on some applicable SDGs goals through daily teaching or lessons. SDG goals like "no poverty, good health and well-being, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, life on land, life below land and climate action" all begin with individual action is what I always embed into teaching-learning activities.    To overcome the "clean water and sanitation" challenge, I have taken various initiatives within my organization and beyond. Through the "Rotary Club of Thimphu" I have installed  SkyHydrant  water filter, which has the capacity to filter around 12,000 liters of "safe and clean" drinking water for schoo...