SMILES IN THE JUNGLES – GLORIFYING GNH

Scouring through the July 2012 photo records made me nostalgic. So many smiling faces amidst the harsh weather conditions and hard village life explains vividly what GNH, the term often used by our bureaucrats actually is. This reality forces one to think that bureaucrats are not wrong. Why should the Bhutanese leaders not be proud of the happiness of our people living next to wild animals? With every expression they make they look content, happy, and jovial and it is all smiles that greet you. One might wonder “why it is like that?” But I tell you below through my lens.

Lemi village, amidst the clouds July 4, 2012 (Photo: Author)

Midnight meeting: Foresters searching for problems in their community forest management (Lemi).

Full attention: No problem with meeting field officials at night. No complaints (Lemi). 

My colleague making his points. People were so attentive that we could not stop talking (Lemi).

As the meeting goes on the traditional way of offering Arra and Bangchang is on. What to do?

The fact that "they live next to wild animals" cannot be argued. No one can say we are wrong to state this since we are the ones who actually see it, saw it and it is still like that (Lemi).

This is a sad story of a road made into the village through a beautiful forest. But how long should they keep walking? (Lemi).

Lemi to Jeri (July 5, 2012). This is a story of a forester with a pot belly, an assistant whose forehead does not have many hairs, and a colorful ranger (kidding my colleagues). We saw all the people we met on the way smiling despite their very hard life (rain, leeches, paddy field work, shacks instead of homes, muddy footpaths, name any) and agreed that real GNH is here inside the jungles and not in the cities and towns. 

Look at the smiling ladies. They don't seem to give da amn to the environmentally unfriendly CGI sheets, cement walls, and non-biodegradable iron rods of the towns and cities. My colleagues and I agreed that if we are having fresh air today, we should be thankful to the eco-friendly citizens of this part of the world, who do nothing that will impact the environment negatively. 

Look at the forest that the community manages. Isn't the forest pristine? I and my colleagues are proud that we were part of the management. We were on tour to see if this forest is doing well or not. We were happy to see all smiles on the faces of the local forest managers (all the members of the community forest) and one cannot imagine how satisfied we were. 

It is paddy planting time. We cannot disturb them during the day. So, we agreed that we will conduct a meeting at night when everybody returns home as they cannot plant paddy at night. So, the meeting is at night. If anybody finds the workers above in thick soup, ask them, and they will say "we are enjoying, are you joining us to help us" with a wide smile and that is when we agreed once more that "real GNH" is found here in the jungles and not in the towns and cities. There were no complaints whatsoever (scorching sun, incessant rain, muddy footpaths, etc.).

Sons and daughters of GNH people; how can they not smile. Here, happiness knows no bounds. We loved this kid smiling!

Look at the traditional way of paddy planting. Many parts of the country have power tillers to do the job. But here, people seem to prefer the age-old tradition. Even the bulls seem happy to pull the plough. No diesel, no petrol, and no other fuels are involved. Environmentalists!

The young ladies cannot help smiling looking at the prospect of getting back to the work after lunch (Jeri village). It is drenching in the wetland but it is enjoyable for them.

Grandmother and her grandson had a hearty laugh when we told them that they should be singing and shouting in the paddy fields like many others. Grandma clarified that her turn was over while defending her grandson saying "he is too young to join the happy team in the fields." (Jeri village).

Yet another grandson with a big smile. He intends to become a civil servant in the future to take care of his grandma. But we thought it would be too late for him to care for her as she was already aging. (Jeri).

Look at these elderly guys. Can anyone deny the name GNH for Bhutan? They just finished their lunch as we enter their house. But you knew what will happen to them after half an hour. They will be soaked in the incessant rain despite their plastic pieces over their shoulders, planting paddies.

Look at the smile of this young lady. If it is not happiness, what would anyone call it? Happy! Happy!

It's a smile everywhere. We were jealous of their smiles and we tried to smile with them by drinking Arra. But their smiles and our smiles differed by leaps and bounds. (Jeri village).

Walked from Lemi to Jeri early the next day (July 5, 2012). "Paddy planting time, no disturbance please" was what the Tshogpa was thinking about when we declared our intent to visit them three days before through a phone call. But we know what to do and we did not take their time. In just a short lunch break we made sure to tell what we had to. They did not have much time. So, we noted the progress of forest management in just about 45 minutes and I think it was better than the work done in one day. In the process, I asked how could they manage to smile when they have to work a long day and one of the guys retorted "having to toil in the field does not deter us from smiling" and we smiled with them with satisfaction. (Jeri).

This elderly man is the Chairman of Jeri Dorjiling Community Forest Management Group (CFMG) and he has every reason to smile. Because his CFMG has been one of the most successful CFMGs that started as early as 2005. Smiles to him too. We felt wonderful about their satisfaction. (Jeri).

Look at Liza; this quintessential village is beautiful but hidden deep inside the jungles. Visit these serene villages. You will enjoy it. We moved from Jeri to Liza on the same day (July 5, 2012). The Chairman of our CFMG wanted us to halt at Jeri that night but we saw no reason to stay back since they were too busy and we know people in Liza do not do paddy works. We went to the village crossing the nearby river at 1200hrs but had to put up in the village for the night as we could not cross the river back to our intended place (where we kept our paraphernalia). Initially, our forced host, a bachelor not younger than me, was reluctant to keep us at his shack. But thanks to my senior colleague who knew everyone in the village. He and other community elders (saying nan rang dag pey ai) eventually could convince him to keep us for the night. Later at night, we were feasted on by fleas, leeches, and flies (mind you, Liza then had no power line). I could not manage to sleep the whole night and wondered "how is it possible for them to do it whole their life". But we managed without any bad feelings. How can we not resist one day and night when they can do it their whole life with big smiles.

The smiling heroes of Liza. The man on the right has a wife whose age is less than half his. We could not help appreciating him for managing such a young wife in such a remote place at such a ripe age. Wonderful! Age is just a number for the guy. His son an Agriculture Officer is my friend. I hope he does not mind his father's story on my blog. Hope he reads the story though (haha). If you enter Liza village and cannot move the same day to other places, the reason surely is the stream that flows below the village. Well, the stream does not announce when it is getting swollen. Three cheers to the Heroes of Liza. Long Live Liza.

Women of Liza are young and, beautiful with lots of smiles on their faces. Their simplicity blends with the beauty of nature. Except for their aging husbands, they said they are not worried about anything. But my forester-ly and wildlife-ly instincts told me that they had a high chance of being attacked by King Cobras, Leopards, Himalayan Bears, Wild Pigs, and a host of harmful flies (bees, wasps, hornets, etc.), leeches, nettles around their footpaths and many more. 

Everyone smiles here without exceptions!. Even the trees look like they are smiling. So happy.

See the last smiling lady from Liza that we photographed when we left the place. She could not resist laughing when we suggested that she was beautiful and that she could move with us to Trashigang. She told us that she could not leave her old man behind and explained to us that she was doing well in Liza. Happy the way she lived. GNH. Hearing her response, we felt ashamed since our offer was politely turned down, but we knew we were joking and trying to probe how happy she was being at Liza. 

If what is penned here is not happiness, then the readers should find out what is happiness from somewhere else. Well, I could not get from anywhere other than from them the people of Lemi, Jeri, and Liza - the actual meaning of happiness. 

THEY SAY HAPPINESS AND SMILES CANNOT BE BOUGHT WITH MONEY. WE THINK THAT IT IS TRUE. HAPPINESS SHOULD COME FROM WITHIN. WE REALIZED THAT THEY WERE HAPPIER THAN US WHO STAYED IN THE TOWNS.

FINAL BOOTIES OF THE TRIP!

An Agapetes species with beautiful flowers hanging majestically.

A Schizothorax species fish, the only one caught in about two hours oof fficial netting.

And an unknown orchid (probably) species. Tiny but really beautiful.

Disclaimer

This is my personal thought and anything written here is not intended to harm or promote people or things mentioned here. No one is authorized to use the content of this blog for either personal or private purposes. People mentioned here are fictitious characters and any resemblance to anyone with some characters or more is merely a coincidence.