The pursuit of more and more of the less and less we have…

Doing nothing on the Sunday evening, scrolling YouTube and watching the subscriptions that I have, I stumbled upon the following and watching it made me realize, how emerging are we in our thoughts about our country. In the name of progress, we are being forced by forces unseen to dam the mighty Drangme Chu. All the other major river systems are dammed or beginning to be dammed. I am neither a hydro power specialist nor a development economist but my little brain and logic tells me, it is wrong to dam the Drangme chu and a bad idea to listen to others about damming it.

Image Courtesy: Google

The pursuit of gaining more and more from the little that we have is capitalism on steroids. The unending greed of yearly policies that is being push forward is shrinking the little environment and ecosystems that we boast of. We cannot proudly declare 70 percent of the land under forest cover is mandated by the constitution and forget about the river systems that are interlinked and symbiotic in their existence. Without one the other cannot survive.  

You and I witnessed how troublesome were the years due to the Covid-19 pandemic which was an imported issue. People panicked, many lost their jobs, the economic hub of country came to an eerie standstill and many more, you name it. If the government go ahead with damming the mighty river of the east, the temporary relief may come in the form of revenues for some years. We have been told time and again, glaciers are melting ‘sey’. If they are, what will our lakes and glaciers hold during our children’s time.

Imagine the sustainability of such project when climate change sells like hot cakes in every international conferences at the UN. The power hungry neighbor of ours will only facilitate such projects if they benefit from the export of our electricity at the rate decided by them.

Ten years into the future from now, I would like to tell my kids that, the Golden Mahseer, the chocolate mahseer and the Snow trout are native to the Drangme Chu instead, before the dam came up, all these were there. I don’t know who coined the term climate change or what will it do to our lives and whether or not if climate change is a hoax, but what I know is we have to live through climate whether changing or not. The damming of the Drangme Chu will be a move towards our own haste towards climate change in Bhutan.

I am neither trying to make any political influence of any sort nor trying to petition against the damming of the only free flowing river of our country, I am just trying to put through a humble opinion about the issues concerning every nation in the Himalayas...

You are advised to draw your own conclusion after watching the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjw0zfDAvSE

And thank you for dropping by…! 

A visit down memory lane…

My official chore took me to Phuentsholing after 4 years. I spent a part of my childhood in Phuentsholing and reminiscing the good old days only made me miss the fun and the excitement back then. One commendable thing that has really happened is the cleanliness that the small city has maintained. It is clean indeed.

In other ways, the oldest city in our country has lost its charm due to the entry and exit formalities. The IC (Indian Currency) hiccups. The famous Gol Buidling is now the Pedestrian Terminal. During weekends, I saw long snaking lines of people trying to enter Jaigaon. The Indian vehicles no longer
clog our roads although people from across the border still come to refuel their cars. There used to be a different kind of fun and excitement when the two peoples mix in the southern heat, but mind you it's not even warm these days-fog, smog, pollution...you name it!

The orange depot area where oranges used to be put in huge-sheds for exports are no longer visible, instead huge containers (I don’t know of what) align the roads connecting the famous Toorsa picnic spot. The roads there have maintained its infamous reputation-still super dusty and dry.

The famous cinema halls of Norgay and Mig have dwarfed and Norgay is nowhere to be seen. This was the cinema hall where I watched the block buster ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ paying Nu:15/- in the year 1999.

I remember a building where we used to play cricket and I am not sure if she was the owner or a tenant in the Pelkhil House, a plumpy Indian lady used to chase us away with a long hard broom. I strolled around Pelkhil House as well, faintly smiling as I remembered the shouts of the lady, ages ago.

The good old Ashok Hotel is still there, Blue Dragon, Peljorling the famous Deki Line, the nearby Rum Gaddi, and yes the lower market area which has undergone a complete metamorphosis and some Indian vendors are still with grocery stores. The oldest tailor in town I know, a muslim uncle near the famous Tobden Gully isn’t there, my childhood friend Chunku has put up a grocery store in the same alley.

The official chore hasn’t given me time to visit the place across the border and when I do that, there will be another update on it and for some reasons if there is no update on it, you can assume that I didn’t get the time to visit. Until then, thanks for dropping by.

Kadrinchey la and happy new year!