Friday, September 25

The Train

image source:rightmoney.com
Until my entry to College,i have never travelled by train and also i have never been towards south of India.Often i dream of setting a long journey with a drawing pad and a pencil laying out sketches of places as i go on or reading kind of fiction or just simply flipping through pages of star magazines.I call them time killer stuffs.It then magically came true.like in stories, for me, just heard of Majestic train Journeys but never experienced.You know that was the best and perfect description that any author would include in their masterpiece.Don't always expect southern dishes in southern railways.54 hours journey,from New Jalpaiguri to Salem,a place known for juicy mangoes,almost 2 days,2 nights would be enough to create the earth tilt and move around you after you set off from the train.This is one thing truth that any person who have travelled through Indian Railways would have given you.Don't worry,this time m going to take you through coramondal express,super fast express,sometimes 6-7 hours delay voyage.All you need is patience.
Well its always been beautiful memories of my days travelling South India.
The most difficult part for me is when you carry a huge bulk of luggages,especially at boarding and departure.Rest is ok somehow.It starts with a cup of coffee at railway station followed by mineral water one after one.What else, you easily pay few amount and sumptously enjoy plate of puri,bread omlette,cutlette so on.That would do for starters.A long horn would then signal of arriving queen.
she is dressed in Maroon blue and known for walking majestically.As we get inside within a stipulated time,all has to do so perfectly,arranging your brief cases and carry bags underneath the seats,while chaining them securely,for there might be any uninvited strangers freaking out peeping at late nights.Sleeper is my best choice,much cheaper,you get to encounter different sorts of people in different conditions,so empathetic that would make you drop few coins for their meals.Sometimes you cry for not having luxurious shoes to take you a ride while others cry for not having legs.life is miserable at times ,even positive attitude fails in some practicals.Its about reality,my friend.A matter of today's survival.Any ways there is another interesting thing,chhakas,guys with breast,handbags containing lipsticks,glossy sugarlicious lips finely dressed in sarees,they will call you sharukh and salman.Thats enough to force you take out another handsome amount from your pure leather wallet.You smile as if fallen in drowsy love.A sleeper world is full of entertainment.At times i feel like m in shakespere's world.That could be another reason for my special reservation in sleeper class.Its not always about money.Its a matter of experience,getting adjust and seeking your own comfort in a little shrew atmosphere.Another lemon chai will give you good appetite this time.But its upto you,can have tea too.Youthful guavas and slices of freshly garden cucumber mixed with indian spices would water your mouth.Samosas and chat--pattri are appetizer.Dont expect momos,suja and thukpa on the way,its away from home.You can have little desserts with flavour of vanillas.I always have habit of taking chugoes(dried cheese-my indian friends call it bone) packed in my carry bag.Its a token of handsome greeting for someone on the way.Meeting itself is destiny,but what if i have to give it to everyone in the train.No no,dont mistake me ,Its only to someone known,this is Bhutanese product,you smile with pride.you would wonder the night menu.Well we mostly take egg rice for 60,2 pieces of indian chilliesa pickle,white rice,2 solid eggs dipped and roasted in indian sauce.You can even have test of train chicken sometimes.I might have tested but i never knew.It might or might not be true.Its just a hearing from fellow mates.You take a gaze through rough metal framed window.Outside,its really beautiful,buffaloes taking shower in manual made ponds.A scene of bungalow clustered by coconut and banana trees is the most amazing view.But what a cashnut seller in the train corridor says,cash nut,cashnut.It would be Chettri,my friend,someone good looking,tall guy,who always looks for hairfalling treatment cream.A cashew man says,so you want Kaju(cashnut).Chettri said how much?.he smiles and says,just 120 a packed.Chettri says,strong nope.The cahsewman knew chettri would bargain like jaigaon.He walks few steps and back again.So you really want?,with strong sense of convince.chettri says nope.The cahsewman cant hold his selling temptation,how much would you give,Chettri says 20.Cashewman ran like anthing never returning to us again,with mind blowing statement,"have you taken cashew before?..hahah ha we all laugh enough to split the guts. The rest of our friends have their best moments in train,Some drunk throughout the journey,while others play cards with palm beating bet and sometimes,1-2 rupees as a fee.Sometimes we run out of rations which are brought from home such as Shakam Ezay,dried fish,beef,mula pickle,zaw,koka on the way itself.You walk so light back to college after a nice vacation.Taking bath in the train is another interesting experience,better carry jug next time,a guide line for sleeper class.In the scorching flame of heat,you are naturally steamed bathed,dirt would rollup into balls automatically.So its better you refresh yourself by some light standing up shower in train.You would go via kolkata,Orissa,Andhra and several major stations.In early morning watch the beautiful sunrise,in the eve a sun setting below horizon.If you are poet,m sure you get rich by the end of day itself.Well when it rains you would find droplets on window frame bars.But its the night that makes queen run more in speed,so i often say prayer for all the safety of my travelling companions.However its always been beautiful,because through out i have never got a seat in Ac.But i had wonderful memories of all those days in the majestic southern queen.I wish to travel again.For me even now,Its always been a moment of finding perfect happiness in little thing.I closed my chapter,promised to be back again.It was my perfect travelling happiness

Wednesday, September 23

Angay BOU- A Tale of Suja and Wisdom

Dear Bou,
It's been 7 years.How have you been?. I always confide myself that ,by now you must have reborn as a good human being somewhere,someplace.Well except for your baba  (She believes tobacco consumers would be punished in hell) and your little wild anger,I have no doubt your meritorious deeds would out law your little mischief.Your white stars must have given you wings to discover your own good path.It was one dull summer evening. I just got down in Thimphu after the completion of my degree from India.The Mahindra bolero  taxi had left a lasting smell of diesel on my carry bag.So much powerful that I had a complete fuzzy dizzy feeling throughout the journey.

The mid summer rain beat down the tender branches of trees along the road side and my heart ached.The journey had been  a rough ride ,unexpected surprises and I knew something was wrong.

Tears roll down my youthful cheek and I silently cried with a heavy blow.I arrived there just one week after her final rituals.
In this picture,my niece Shelkar spending a quality moment with Bou
Time flew by. We shared,we cherished and lived the moments. Your immortal words remained inscribed in me and I found in myself, a beautiful me.Her goiter is her signature and I lovingly call her angay Bou.

Bou is energetic,Bou is a confident woman.Bestowed me with her thoughts of old time stories,struggles of life ,poetry,folk songs and jokes apart.I always see in her,high level of tolerance and acceptance.life has not always been a perfect ride.I am often a keen listener opening my mind's eye to those intuitive wisdom, bountiful insights and life's thrilling challenges and experience.

Bou proudly lived up to 86,devoting herself into evening and morning prayers.She  prostrates in the altar every evening, thanking god for letting her feel the presence and overflowing blessings.The Triple Gem in giving her strength in facing trials .She prays for the welfare of all the sentient beings.Her meal time had prayers with humble bow to the food she eats, as she lifts her daem (wooden bowl/plate) on forehead.I don't really question whether somebody above us do really watch our actions.But ultimately her good thoughts and humble submission derives her positive energy keeping her healthy and happy.Suja had been her favorite tea.As long as hot steaming butter tea fills her cup,she will not let even barley flour spill out of the cup's edge.The genuine smile on her wrinkled face resembles just like the bright glows of the moon at dark.

My journey into life has always been inspired through others' story of courage ,values and daring attitude.On my vacation and back to college ,she has the habit to wrap up a scarf for me. With ngultrum hundred in her hand and tears in her time-faded eyes,

 "Tashi,my only note for you is, avoid riding on bike in India".Be good and do good.Simple ,profound and precise wisdom indeed.The colorless hair and her body ache reminds me of her crippling age and withering strength.

It was until in my final year.That one day I had a phone call from home.It was my mother."Tashi,angay wants to speak to you",she said.

Angay bou's voice was at the brink of her death and she struggled in her last moments.She just uttered ,"My dear,you don't need not worry bout me mey",she said."I am confident that you will walk with good foot steps in life and please don't ride on bakbaa (bike/scooter)".Those were her last words.

There was never a sleep in my eyes and rest to my eyeballs .All the exams were finally done.It was time to go home.The bolero's diesel reminded me of that journey back home.

On auspicious occasions,I recall her smile by lighting butter lamps in the name of all sentient beings.

The living moments are always recaptured and recalled even today after 7 long years.

It is always good to remember:-

“A river never passes the same place twice,” says a philosopher. Our life's beautiful moment are indeed like a river.





Tuesday, September 22

Her Fury on Monday's Miss Call...

It was perhaps an unexpected moment.But sometimes its right that what can't be cured must be endured.I studied science,Geography and i also have trust in it.But m serious when coming to beliefs too,perhaps because may be i was brought up in my little mythical world,of gods and goddess,of trust and faith,of truth and karmic justice.At the end i always love my bhutanese perspective of viewing things.I linger in my mind all the time,exploring inside like a NASA space research.At the end its the inner peace ,the discovery i make.
As usual i was working in the office,when suddenly i felt my arm chair trembling.just wondering ,out of shock,"am i suffering some kind of driziness"?.i Just peeped outside through my small glass pane.A driver was wiping off dust from his troika without any feelings.I realized,it was perhaps just my psycho notion that doze me off.It lasted about 2-3 minutes.Then i realized,it was Earth shaking off her hips."Why of sudden she got pissed off?",i asked my self.We Bhutanese are so devoted and we love all the companions around us,we respect care and love her,may be somewhere something might have gone wrong.Is this a kind of mass punishment?,or can i call it perhaps a miss call of pseudo world that we bhutanese are slowly heading towards,the degrading values,moral ethics,an artificial smile on faces without an inner happiness.We might have in a little way wronged her.We dont deserve this,i cried.But gently this time we got to accept,we might have crossed our limits perhaps.This self realization had alarmed me several times and i thought to just put up in some corner to wake my fellow friends from the path of pseudo world that just lie untrodden.In the Evening was the news from different parts,killings,injuries,all of destruction and damages.I just stood silent and my inner mind wondered with many clouded thoughts,only i can do to the victims and injured was to cry within,the hardest thing,no tears but a feeling of sympathy and a shattered dreams of my bhutanese mates who have been this tragic victim.

At the end the best help i could do is to lit a butter lamp and say a humble prayer
for all those who have been affected.

May we show no envy and not fury her again by repeating the same mistake what other humans around the globe had done for the sake of materialism.
we create our own atmosphere and surrounding and lets not blame anyone for it.If anything goes wrong,its the impact of our own creatiion and cause.Lets be aware of this MOnday Miss CALL for it might happen someday again if we dont react .