Pillai Days: Chukha HSS

This is yet another episode of my update which I put last year, http://lobzangn.blogspot.com/2014/08/home-hearth-and-heart.html but this time it’s Chukha Higher Secondary School. I was to go to Chukha Dzongkhag for invigilation duty to some schools..when I checked the listings, I was elated to see Chukha HSS in print and this update of mine is about Chukha HSS. Later, in the interest of my 7 month old and my wife, I chose to go to Wangchu MSS not because I wanted my duty to be lighter but because I will be nearer to my parents and I will have my baby well looked after. 

Well then, it was in the afternoon of November 27^th. I hurriedly got hold of my office order and went home to pack my things for a fourteen day visit to my former school. I started feeling nostalgic about my time in Chukha HSS as I spent my formative years in this school as a boarder student. I was the tiniest among my class mates and I still remember my huge grown up room mates calling me Chunku and helping me put on the Gho early in the morning. I just needed to put my two hands on my head and they would twist here and there and at last put me to shape, ready for morning study. I would unwillingly rub my eyes and go for the study. 

Mr. KR Pillai, was my economics teacher back then and he was a personality in himself. He was feared among all my mates and still believe he was one of the teachers that I got inspiration from. During lunches, he used to take me to his place to eat. One thing that still remains in my mind is he a man who loves the Bhutanese red rice. I never saw him favoring the white rice if the red was available. He used to teach in such a way that every doubtful soul in a classroom will have no difficulty in understanding his teaching. Thank you sir for I am now a teacher like you. That’s why I have titled my update as the Pillai days. 

The upper gate from where we carried rations to the school store is now barred and school has undergone a complete metamorphosis. The shops that greet all visitors in Tsimalakha town still remains the same, except for the speed breakers-bumpers. I couldn’t spot it and bumped my car so hard. I revisited this place after 16 years and you can imagine how I longed to go back  and be a student again. 

The weather remains the same-cold and chilling. All the teachers that taught me are all elsewhere. The Sherpa Hotel from where I used to eat on credit still caters to fast food and students make a majority of its customers. 

If I were to relive a moment, I would definitely go back to the Chukha days and particularly the Pillai days. Thank you sir. I know you are in your native Kerala and you keep us updated on facebook. At this point of time I have come to realize that life does have potentials of wonderful memories even if we are mountains and oceans apart.