Monday, June 14, 2021

LET THE LIFE TAKE ITS OWN COURSE BECAUSE IF YOU CAN'T MANIPULATE, YOU CAN'T

A son of a humble farmer's life has not been quite simple and straightforward. Life is a complex phenomenon and no one can make it necessarily simple if it is not meant to be.

Figure 1. Author with people of Merak


As any kid wouldn't, I don't know where and how I was born. But I can pretty well imagine how I could have been treated by my mom and dad because I have seen those born in my village when I grew a bit older. I am sure they raised me in their arms and wrapped me with cloth pieces that weren’t designed for the job. I am also pretty sure they left me by the side of the farm where they did weeding, sowing, or tending crops. My mom would have remembered me when I cried and fed me milk.

 

But I can tell a few things about myself and how the phenomena called life have treated me. Like anyone in this samsara, I have had my share of happiness-es and sadness-es, successes and failures, difficulties and easiness, comforts, and discomforts, etcetera. 

 

My mom expired a year before I went to my kindergarten classes and I walked to schools with my fellow village kids barefoot, often empty stomach, and even what I got to eat at home or school did not taste that good. But to keep my life going, I gave my best to survive. I played baktang (cloth) balls, rushed for second shares, fought with my mates, and took a lot of beatings from my teachers. I slept on jute bags that came to my school with the wheat ration (bong kharang) and often used my only gho piece as my pillow. I don’t even remember if I had a quilt to put over me in my primary school where I stayed in the boarding facility since my second standard. My hostel had lots of bedbugs and the summers were terrible but I slept well. My head and shirts (that I hardly changed) had a lot of lice. My then headmaster, a living legend would spend hours killing all my louse on Saturday afternoons when other children would go home. It is the love of my teachers that I am doing something good today. I don’t know how to repay them personally but I am sure their wish would be that I am helping society.

 

I am sure many schoolchildren of my time had the same difficult school life that I had. I don't remember a day my school would suggest I drink boiled water until cholera and other waterborne disease break out and I don't remember being so sick of water-related diseases too. I don't remember any injection being monitored into my body, nor any serious medications. Despite the hard life, I survived. I am grateful to the almighty, the Kings, and the then-leaders.

 

So, I completed my eight years of schooling in my village school. It is eight years because before I landed in the first standard, I had to stay a year each in lower and upper Kindergarten classes as a rule. Teachers those days were tough, they could beat us black and blue if we made any mistakes. There were fewer parent-teacher meetings and fewer problems. Everyone did their part diligently. Good teachers were good, bad ones bad, and irrespective of their character and style, the authority they carry then would be like a nearby mountain. They used to fix our date of birth by looking at our faces or asking us the animal-based birth symbols (traditional system). 

 

After completing sixth standard (which used to be a board exam), I went to a then-called junior high school for taking up seventh and eighth standard classes. I was captain of the school in the eighth standard and I don’t know what I did because I remember only studying and nothing else. I did well and completed everything on time. Life was tough then too, but we had the world food program (WFP) feeding us all meals. So, there wasn't much issue although our then WFP In Charge a National Language Teacher always fed us meat only on paper which the headmaster strongly believed. Being a school captain, I had the privilege to verify the bill of meats, eggs, and nutritious vegetables that were never provided in the kitchen. Sometimes, we did not even have salt in the kitchen because of the very greedy In Charge who thought he should eat all our food. I couldn’t do much then because I did not like any issues with my teachers. It is when I started seeing problems with our teachers then.

 

I changed my school after the eighth standard and went to a high school to continue my ninth and tenth classes which I did diligently. A pair of shoes, one or two sets of who was what I just had and I completed my tenth standard with that. I remember putting on one of my friend’s shoes (many times) and he wouldn’t tell me not to put but look at me with disdain which I would laugh away. Being a hard-working student, I got to study pre-university studies with fees covered by the government and completed my twelfth standard with 75 other students in the same class after which I picked up Imperial Forest Rangers' Course in India. Without proper counseling, I thought it was a degree course but it turned out that the course was for professionals that could not be counted as an academic degree. People with master’s degrees also took the course. So, disappointing that it wasn’t an academic course. But the decision was made, so no looking back. I became a Ranger after two years and joined the civil service in Bhutan.

 

In my job, I tried to give my best. But I saw a lot of anthropocentric problems. I could choose which way to go but I thought it fair to give my best. I gave my best and I am happy. I did not plan to enhance my qualification, nor did I wish to take up positions shinier than the Rangers. I was good there, I am there. But in any system, things are dynamic. They change according to time, space, people who are involved, and the nature of the system itself. Thus, I had to change myself under compulsion. I obtained a lot of degrees, sat for competitive exams, and adapted myself to the system. Being successful, I changed my position from Ranger to Officer (under forced circumstances). So, I did not decide to be an Officer. It just came in.

 

I took up the post of District Forest Officer of Trashigang and gave everything I got for the job. I planned to retire from the District system but I was pushed out of the District system. So, I wandered for some time and joined the nearest Territorial Forest Division from where I was sent to a protected area in the extreme west. From here, I am giving up my job not looking for greener pastures but creating seats for those unemployed youths.

 

BLESS ME IF YOU WILL


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