Nostalgia of the life down memory lane!

The nostalgia of the place which grew me up is so instrumental in making me metamorphose from a timid bud into a confident bloom [1]is the college I attended eight years back. Back then it was nomenclature-d as the National Institute of Education and the villagers called it the TTC.

Whatever it may be, this year I was sent to this place on some official purposes which lasted for three enjoyable days. In some snaps of the time I sneaked my evening time to pay a nostalgic visit to this institute of learning.

Some changes were obvious as I left this place in a cold December evening of 2006. There were some unfinished structural constructions then and now they have come to full bloom. The campus and the structures now look majestic and I am sure people now find this sight nostalgic in all sense of the word.

If you have read my book, I have a mention of this institution as ‘My seat of learning’. I owe my deepest gratitude to this learning institution for what I am today. My formative years in this institution made an imprint which lasts to this day in me. Besides academics, I mostly spent time on reading and trying to make sense of me in the world of journalism. Most of the inspirational ‘Lopens’ that groomed me are now elsewhere and the prominent ones which I still can remember are Mr. Jose KC, Mr. TS Powdyel, Dr. Jagar Dorji, Mr. Dorji Wangchuk, Mr. Kesang Tshering, Mr. Karma Wangchuk, Mrs. Tshering Wangmo, Mrs. Dechen, Mrs. Karma Peday, Mr. Kinley Gyeltshen, Mr. Rinchen Dorji, Mr. Kinley Dorji. ‘Kadrinchey’ to all of you for my thanks would fall short because I am treading a path which you all showed me. Mr. TS Powdyel went on to become the first democratically elected education Minister. Lopen Kinley became a Dzongrab. Dr. Jagar, the NC member from Trongsa. Mr. Kinley now holds a PhD. We keep in touch even now. Kadrinchey still!

Picture courtesy: Google

The Chorten that we help construct is prettified now. If I am not mistaken it was named the Namgyal Chorten (not very sure) and the benches that I sat in the evenings mostly by the river side are still in use. I could see a few benches occupied by trainee couples. Ahh…..I too did this… back then.  I don’t know if water is a problem in the new hostels. Back then during weekends, we wrapped our towels with some laundry and went merrily near the river singing “A-labey”.

I also saw many trainee teachers walking the alleys, cubicles and stairways with pits of smiles and bunch of papers-I know they are assignments. I also met some of my students who were undergoing the training there. We shared some words on the life they are having now. I was told most of the seniors now live on their own outside the campus and freshmen are given the opportunity for hostels. The Gompa right above the cliff from the girl’s hostel still looks majestic. Back then we carried CGI sheets for its renovation. The road leading to the Rinpung School is now black topped. The Library is now the academic block. The CAPSD, now DCRD has been relocated to Shari, I guess! Some of the curriculum officers have become chiefs in other departments, so is the case with some of my lecturers. I didn’t see any of the cooks. The mess operator back then has put up a small shop in Paro town. I met him too.

The pretty girls who were the shop owners where we used to buy our groceries have become family-ed with kids. Just on a funny note I mentioned to one, “Yalama, wai jarim yay yasinu mey” with she replying with a huge laugh.

What a feeling of sadness when you have realized now that I have grown old by the years.  I will use a line from the chapter that I mentioned. My words of thanks would fall short if I were to thank this seat of learning but thank you still. I wish I could go back in time to relive the nostalgia of the life down memory lane.

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[1] Lines from Mr. Jose KC

A being up in the heavens!

I have seen hundreds of movies (love stories) and read love story books even more. I have been a bystander for all the epic love stories that mankind has ever produced in writing. Helen of Troy, the legend of Mumtaz Mahal, the myth of Cupid, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,  Love letters of John Keats-the Romanticist, our very own Gasa Lamai Singye, etc… are some prominent imprints in my mind.

I too lived through times of love and I also loved one if not many-genuinely. Pardon me for the line! I am also a matter that constitutes this massive earth. I too have stories of love, despair and regrets. This is one shrewd thing I thought of writing after contemplating silence for several days. Now that I am married I don’t intend to offend anyone with this update.

I am sure all folks must have gone through what I am trying to put this through. I was genuinely in love with a girl back then. I have a mention of her in my mind always and she was the inspiration of some of my scribbles and write ups. I cherished this bond with much awe. Due to some misunderstanding and due to my overemphasized ego of course, I made her like me which I am sure. Later, I was so lost in her that I forgot she had someone even before me. This thought stirred all sorts of anger and jealousy in me. It in fact stirred everything around me affecting me in multiplicity of other things that I am used to. Such is the law of attraction, some fatal of course.

May be she kept on smiling at me and this was enough to make my day. Having her around was the most valuable and cherished thing in my life. On a lazy day, her passionate thought would make me undertake even the most arduous of the chores. I knew this feeling only when I felt for her. I knew the sense of loss when she wasn’t around. I missed her with every ounce of my heart and knew what missing someone you care for really is. I learned what was to be polite when I was with her. Although, I had her around just for a brief moment, in those brief moments I was to completely undergo a metamorphosis. She was the raison d’être that ignited all positive thoughts and opinion about the world around me.

But I don’t know whether she liked me or not back then, but now she is no more. I am mentioning of my first genuine crush on someone who now has left this earth. She left for the heavenly abode leaving me devastated and the person whom she was in love with. May her soul rest in peace and in the heavens too, I wish her to inspire and be the subject of love just as she did on earth. I have no grandeur of monuments to immortalize you like the Taj Mahal or the wooden horse of the Greeks to win you back but I just have a simple prayer to say which I must say. This has been my prayer to you and will always be as long as life breathes in me.

Dear God,

I have a being up there,

She whispers me in your heavens and in your ears,

Keep her happy my humble earthly wish breathes,

Unwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark clothes,

Of might and light and the half light,

I would spread my clothes under your feet,

But I, being poor, have only my dreams:

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams…

-Thank you WB Yeats for these immortal lines (in italics)   

What is so extra about extra marital affairs?

The spark and it’s ignition to write this update came from a very close friend of mine, who is a divorcee now. He now spends his time with another who lost her spouse some years ago. I also did think of setting pen on paper after I wildly calculated the number of separated individuals that I am familiar with and are my acquaintances. 16 is a staggering figure for a little person like me. Here’s my thought!

I have had so many hours spent into thinking, what is so extra about extra marital affairs anyway. Here’s a hypothetical situation! What would you do if you found your spouse into it? Trust has become a thing of the past, not necessarily with everyone of course.

The only thing extra as I have found out is the brawls and the squabbles that ensue after the spouse has found out one’s secret contemplation…..LoL! The thing of the past that got a mention here is the sense of trust between spouses. I have my fingers crossed if ‘no-trust’ would mean unfaithful behavior in spouses and not getting laid would mean trust. Lately, there has been a wild rumor about these extra affairs. Someone’s wife calling the supposed mistress! Husbands calling on the supposed boyfriends! So on and so forth…

Everyone knows about these affairs and no one wants to let the other know about it. These, even the gossips have made into the limelight and those listeners will enjoy listening to the gossips, not the fact reiterating this modern writer at point blank, “Don’t waste your time with explanations, people only hear what they want to hear”- Paulo Coelho

It’s a universal fact that home is not necessarily made of love and dreams. Prove me wrong! Homes and the dwellers these days have made it into social networking sites to pour out their over emphasized egoistic frustrations. Believe me, I am a living testimony to this unusual fact. I pour out on social networks quite often but not on affairs and linkages with whosoever.

Well, getting into such thing already is a disaster in the making and those currently into it breed heterogeneous problems. The couples undergoing such ordeal may wish to separate in an instant to breathe a sigh of instant relief not realizing the instant regret that may ensue, when you are children-ed of course. I knew this as some of my known acquaintances shares this unusual grief.

My conclusion is there is nothing extra about extra marital affairs anyway except for some short lived delights when one is into it. These short lived delights are for my fellow readers and bloggers to think and these delights do not last long!

Happy Delighting if any…..LoL!