As you think, I an't!

My friendliness,
Misapprehend me not easily
That I am a flirty.

My aloofness,
Misconstrue me not patently
That I am downhearted.

My honesty,
Misconceive me not promptly
That I am mean spirited.

My shyness,
Misread me not simply
That I am voiceless.

Quit assuming me more,
Come to get together
And find-out the striking similarities.

Review : Kyetse by Chador Wangmo

Kyetse: Of superstitious, hurdles, destiny and realization
Certain novels arrive on the reader shelves as a breath of fresh air. Madam Chador Wangmo’s second novel Kyetse is one of them. It is the gripping tale of a girl born in a time rife with superstitious beliefs and her journey in quest of finding herself. The book takes on a broad theme of; karmic and destined life, courage and bravery, self-realization and exploitation in mask of fake identity. It begins at Tashigang, briefly during the advent of modernization in a country in late twentieth century. While economic developments initially remain in the backdrop, rural traditions and ways of living are presented up close and personal.As the novel begins, protagonist, Som Dema was born to Tashi Tshering and Sangay choden, who were Serga-mathang-and-kokhkin (Tsangla phrase), which literally mean golden cousin and pertains to consanguineous marriage, owining to be daughter and son of sister Tshoden and brother Dathang respectively.  Only Dathang and Tshoden survived of ten children born to Memey Tenzin and Abhi Sanjaymo who has been ill-fated after having petty dispute with the imperious neighbor by Memey Tenzin. Novel setting depicts a kind of complex tapestry of early village living, culture and traditions. 

Kyetse was written for Som Dema that tells the entire history and science that concern her by village 

astrologer after three days of her birth. As per the kyetse, she was destined to encounter unpleasant siuation at ten years of age and later again a disastrous adversity at eighteen. It was added that if she surpasses those adversities, then she would lived her life inclined towards the spiritual side. As novel unravels, Som Dema had her first adversity of life at ten years, after she was sent with Ani donned in maroon robes to take spiritual path as a remedy for her ailment. Ani brutally treated Som Dema and all her friends in the foreign land. She lost her best friend Pentang and Neten, unnoticeably and blindly. When turn came for her to perish like them, she could overcome her adversity of getting away from Ani clutches by fleeing back to village with a shopkeeper. Her another eighteen years obstacle was appearance of Kinga. She nearly lost her spiritual path in trap of her biological calling after she fell in love with Kinga. Again, her disastrous adversity was surpassed after she knew that Kinga was a married soul. This reveals the life we live as unfolding of pre-destined path.

The revelation of the fact on Ani that took Som Dema and friends after disguising her under the maroon robes, talk about the fraudulent mindsets of people and losing morality of mankind.

Faced the world all angles and evolved into a major life journey, Som Dema begins to find herself as she grew up from little girl to a dignified woman. She realized that all her life’s queries have been answered and a path towards spirituality has been cleared. This testifies her realization, courage and bravery of facing life hurdles.The novel is enormous storehouse for many declining significant Bhutanese superstitious beliefs that has come passing down many generations and an essential wisdom of paving our own path, whenever it dash against destined path.  Truly, book reflects how times and perspective of life have changed in the country over the years as setting of story bring every stage of country development. It is a book to reminiscence and ponders upon, something to go back to and smile.  

Challenge of Speaking Well in English

Hailing from the remotest region of the country, early childhoods and schooling was deprived from certain basic modern amenities like television, cinema and movie show, bookstores and library centers. Grew up with illiterate parents, siblings and local people in the small community, the only means of communication was local dialect. The hindrance is added by less competitive class students with very little class strength, that again assemble to interact only during daytime at school from very small far-flung isolated patches of villages. All this constraint provided less time for association with friends, sharing thoughts, playing, talking, speaking and reading together. Thus, speaking English fluently was then my only struggle as I ascend into higher grades and it still continued to be my hurdle today.
To make other convincing on things you deliver, the very basic and essential means is the way you speak. English in our country has just theoretically been sidelined as a second language after our national language but in real scenario the English weighs more than Dzongkha. Typical examples can be our very own school’s curriculum, that comprises maximum of its subjects in English and need to be delivered in English medium. Destiny might have placed me today in this college, but by interest I always aspired to be an educator and teacher. And today as a real hurdle of my life is my failure to make convincing presentation to others has resulted into very challenging part of my life and dream.

Of many shortcomings, I have listed my habit of including meaningless fillers, such as "um", "like", and "you know" in between phrases. I figure out reasons for use of such expressions is simply a bad habit and truly "verbal virus" that infect my spoken English.  My shortcoming in speaking apparent during general and casual conversation is of no problem, but if it occurs during a speech, presentation and teaching, it can detract from what is being said and cannot be convincing. For people who wish to join the profession of teacher, the spoken language needs fluency and fewer distractions of words to impart the convincing and understanding messages. 
Having discovered this shortfall I take steps to correct using such meaningless expressions. A way to stop using those fillers is to notice when others are constantly doing it. This will help me to notice when I use them and help eliminate the habit. Being cautious while speaking by recording, pausing whenever I catch myself saying a non-word will help to gather self thoughts while giving the listener time to reflect on what you have just said and the seeking constant reminder from friends will help me discard the habit fast.

(P.S : This was written in partial fulfillment of the assignment of one of my friend, who is pursuing Bachelor in Education. )

Being Different

What if everyone in the world was exactly alike? What if everyone talked the same, acted the same, loved the same, listened to the same music and watched the same TV programs and viewed same things? The world would be extremely dull and monotonous!

What they focus to view would be different

Through this same lens, what individual focus at would be different. Some may adjust to look at different creatures on lush grass, brook that runs between the valleys etc. Few still might simply opt to shut their eye and look nothing.

I believe it's important to accept people for who they are.

I personally feel that God created each of us unique, the way he wanted us to be. We each have a set destiny laid before us. Our lives are a mystery but are precious and should be cherished. Each of us is masterpieces of God’s creation. Through this, we must honor God by taking care of what he gave us. Each of were individually handcrafted who we are, so we should embrace the good in us!

Differences are important and they should be respected. For example, many important people throughout history were considered different, such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, Peter Tchaikovsky and Abraham Lincoln. They did great things, but some people thought they were weird because they had strong feelings about something.

We can’t stand out when you look like everyone else. We can’t inspire and challenge others when we are just as fearful as them to stand out and be noticed, criticized, disbelieved. To make a difference, you first must be different…

It’s our obsessive compulsions that yield greatness, not our penchant for compromise. We can draw inspiration from Thomas Edison trying one more time after the 983rd failed attempt to build a working light bulb; from Harland Sanders trying the 1,009th time to convince a restaurant to buy his famous chicken recipe and Oprah Winfrey sharing hope for the sexually abused in spite of her own scars.

Thus, being your same self or like anyone you know is no longer acceptable. It’s about being different.

Ooo ECS

Oftentimes, the moments that you're most proud of are the ones that go unnoticed and are short-lived. When we grow up every day and sees different realities of life, most of us lose memories from the past and eventually just forget about it. Me especially, my past is very shady. The little and major events in my life have vanished from my brain and I cannot remember them all. 

Today, while looking through the stacks of pictures I have saved in my gallery and catching the entire glimpse of past month and half, I feel delighted to reflects on all delightful moments and reminds me of how much we have progressed as classmates and worked together as a team. For a year, college has been part of almost everything I do and played pivotal role, and has shaped my future more than anything else. Not only did it taught me about my course on Environment and Climate Studies, but it also changed my outlook on life in ways I now realized aren’t immediately obvious, even to me. Unfolding through hundreds of photos gave me the flashback of immense joy  I felt being with vivacious ladies and ebullient guys in just within a very short span of time.

Both Girls & Boys Team In Basket Final Match

All photos appeared on my phone screen to give me glimpse of all cheerful and contended faces, and I could narrate the story on what all those beaming faces hold.   Moments associated with this beaming faces is our progress and success as a team that steered us to hold trophy of girls being champion of all women teams and boys that stood as well deserving runner-up during Departmental Basketball Contest. This has been clear testimony of our unity and strength as classmates in front of other hundreds college mates and faculties. The entire classmates’ sat together to cheer up the matches with uplifting and booming chorus “Ooo ECS” that tells lot to others on involvement of mutual  assistance in working towards common goal and the best way of  providing the intense moral support to the players.

Soccer Triumph

“Ooo ECS” echo didn’t diminished right in the Basketball Court. It continued to echo in soccer ground. Same echoes with heightened energy escalated the synergy of class. Yellow squad fared every match by triumphing over all otherwise strapping opponents. The combined chorus echoes until Yellow Squad successfully ventured to hold the trophy of Champion of Departmental Soccer Tournament, giving the sense of spirited exuberance. 

Another moment that dragged that the whole classes to take over and gloried their amalgamated efforts is by sitting together for Dinner from College Cafeteria for two times. A class gathering has given us the feelings of family hood and put us together to express together our solidarity and camaraderie. 

Dinner Fun

In fact, the photo is a snapshot of one instant, but the all stack of it has driven me to describe the progression and moments of our many days together.  Let’s all believe that cooperation is a higher moral principle than competition and beholds the mighty force of great mind working together in all forthcoming activities.  And we will promulgate our strength and voice “Ooo ECS”

Be Real

“Nobody wants to be lonely. Everybody wants to belong to a group. The crowd is essential for the false self to exist. The moment it is lonely you start freaking out. To be an individual is the greatest courage. It does not matter that the whole world is against me. What matters is that my experience is valid. Don’t die before realizing your authentic self.” ~Osho.

The greatest challenge here is that we first have to be real and true with ourselves. It is act of becoming unmasked and accepting our strengths and foibles without shame and avoiding the mask of falseness and pretentious that dims your realities. To be real also means to act in accordance with how you are, speak what you believe and stop being sorry for being real.

Today, driven by self ego and the world of competition, many tend to hide reality by putting falseness in the photos they put up in popular social media sites and showing unrealistic kindness and politeness in front of the crowds that actually deserves to be called cruel bastard. This is because of the believe that when they do things to please their peers, such as drink when they shouldn't, wear things that aren’t comfortable and accept the things that that are not pleasing or behave and act in appropriate ways, they will be popular and liked. They go against their own common sense only to find themselves in trouble and not accomplishing what they set out to do.

If you know and love yourself you will find it effortless to be true to yourself. Just as you cannot love anyone else until you love yourself, you cannot be true to anyone else until you are true to yourself. Difficult it may seem at first to many who are used to being fake, to have the courage to accept yourself as you really are, not as someone else thinks you should be. Do not pretend to be someone else for the sake of gaining unrealistic acceptance. When you do things that are not genuine or a reflection of the real you, you will be happy at first but will surely end up confused later. Self-respect comes from being true to who you really are and from acting in accordance with your self-instinct.

When you respect yourself, others will respect you. They will sense that you are strong and capable of standing up for yourself and your thoughts. When you are true to yourself, you allow your individuality and differences to shine through. To be true to yourself takes courage as it requires you to be introspective, sincere, straightforward and fair. It does not mean that you are inconsiderate or disrespectful of others. It means that you will not let others define you or make choice for you that you should make for yourself. 

Only then can we begin to be real with others, because there will be nothing of us to hide. We will know when to say “no” and when to say “yes.” We will keep open our minds and take any precarious steps not because we overcome the all sense of fear, but because we know we can be scary and still do it anyways. If we can accept our full, awkward humanity, then we can learn how to extend ourselves openly into what aligns with us and feels right, our purpose .And we can meet conflict directly, without the misalignment that grow from avoidance, denial and gossip.

P.S (For those whom I said to be real and don't ever be fake)

My few idiocies and New Year Resolution

The way we begin our day determines the way we will live our day. On this very beginning of new day of New Year Twenty Sixteen, I unfold few idiocies among many in me and set my New Year resolution. The simple resolution that I made today is in hope of keeping me on track and in longing to have profound influence on the quality of every minute that follows. It is nothing as big goals targeting for bigger achievement and excellence. Although deep inside I thought of many but I put live in writing by pointing out my TEN Resolution.

1. Ape up my Reading Habit.

I am neither a keen and ardent reader nor never reader. But honestly I read book too seldom. I realized myself as a person who knows to read but failed to do so. Thus, in position exactly as a person who do not know to read at all and still wants to read. My first and foremost New Year resolution is to increase my time in reading. To be precise, I will read and complete minimum of two books in a month.

2. Keep writing and will update my Blog regularly.

Reading alone and without writing will not make what I learnt useful, pragmatic and practical. I may read something new today or learn new vocabulary, but if I don’t use this word it is very easy to forget. I will write all genre of literature ranging from short article and book summary to story. I will publish my work in my blog account and promise to write minimum of four pieces in a month. Besides writing only in blog I came up with idea of keeping my personal journal, if possible daily and if not weekly by any means. Personal journal includes my daily experiences and feelings with deeper realization.

3. Reduce using Social Apps.

Application like facebook, wechat, imo,instagram etc. are important for keeping connections with families, teachers, friends and acquaintances. Again more than that some applications like facebook are also reliable and vast source of information only if we know how to use it intelligently. Mostly, users turn out to be victim of it after they attain stage of addiction on it. And this applications turn into root cause for wastage of precious time when failing to use it shrewdly and sensibly. So frankly list includes my name. When I jot down this I don’t mean to quit chatting and keeping in touch with friends but I will not go so enticed and hooked with that activity  prolonging for long hours and late night, sometimes up to early morning.

4. Concentrate on my modules content and explore beyond.

Bygone semester days are day where certain transition from school life to college life made me felt its differences and allured me into pleasure, enjoyment and amusement without realization that individual must strive for excellence. I will pay concentration in class and explore the content back at hostel.

5. I will control my utterances of word with mood and be more humble and grow silently.

I believed my thoughts are always beyond my control and burst out with anger and crude words. Now I take up realization that we are creator of thoughts that flows in mind and thus given a fact, I can change my thought. So often I go on talking useless and nonsense. Hence I will speak precisely and communicate what needs to be said.

6. I will not be hard on myself.

I am a person who easily beats me lots for failures and mistakes. I blame myself for many causes and always stay with dashed hopes. Small thing tend to remain so long in my mind blocking my way forward. I will stop blaming so hard on myself and will accept them and move on.

7. Will use my little money judiciously.

8. Will call my parents at least once in a week.

9. Will be willing always for good reason and remain interactive with friends in a wiser way.

10. Punctual always. Will sleep and rise on time.

I fully hope that this Ten New Year resolution will keep  my days, weeks, months and year Twenty Sixteen On Track and worthwhile.

Happy New Year!

Thought for a year.

“The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live.”

                                                                                                            Norman Cousin.