Is the Bean & Chilly still on Ban?

Like on every weekend I was at the vegetable market picking some vegetables for the next one week and as always I was mostly getting my hands on some green ones. My attention was drawn by nicely packed green beans which I thought would not be growing anywhere in Bhutan in this peak winter and I know they have not been given the travel permit yet to show up in Bhutan.  I asked if these were from Bhutan. “Yes”, the seller said, “from Tsirang” with some confidence. ‘Beans grows in Tsirang at this time of the year?’ I asked.  With some crafty smile she added, “May be", "that is what they (meaning supplier) told us.” Getting a bit more bold now she added, “Some people also say it is from Dadhghari (Indian side of the border), but most importantly we are allowed to sell this.” ‘Of course yes, as long as no authority says anything, who am I, a small consumer, to question you’! I moved on to find that almost every counter had these green packages getting sold like hot cakes at a price that is three times of what it used to be two year ago.

                                                                                       Perhaps about 20 months now, the most sought after Indian soil grown green chillies had faced ban from our Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA), a relatively new wing of our governance that is also often feared by our small scale retailers, hotels and other vendors. The decision to ban the import of these foreign green chillies along with some of their milder brethren like beans and cauliflower has come into effect following a report on the pesticide residue that was found to be beyond the WHO-standard acceptable limits, tested in laboratories in Thailand and India. Very welcome and a fare decision indeed! Since then this body can only tell how many tons of these essential vegetable varieties got confiscated and buried on their way to Thimphu and other interior towns from the close by areas in North Bengal and Assam, India, causing huge financial loss to the agents and vendors doing brisk business trying to sell these ‘unhealthy stuff’.  Once again a well-deserved penalty on these lawbreakers for playing with the health of innocent Bhutanese consumers (expats working in Bhutan included).

What is something that I am unable to understand, however is, why are a number of brethren of the above products still making their presence on our dining table? For instance the soft and succulent tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, our favourite salad maker cucumber, cabbage and many more are awarded visa gratis till date? How is anyone to believe that the insecticide is only sprayed on chillies and beans and not on their counterparts when these are grown by same farmers and in same places? Above all is the BAFRA continuously checking the pesticide level in all the vegetable imported or was it just one time event? As consumers, is their some kind of right to information about something as important as our food?  What wonders me most is by increased abundance of this new found alternative, the red chilly in the market.  The local chilly production being seasonal and often inadequate to quench the chilly thirst of ‘we the Bhutanese’, tons of dried red Indian chillies have found their easy way to our vegetable markets. I am sure the farmers down below are now asked by the suppliers to keep them in the field till they mature and become red. In the process, this would not obviously be without pouring more pesticides, and also not to mention the hygiene of the places they lay to dry them.  Most importantly, what happens to that deadly poison that it had received throughout its prolonged life? It is all a mystery and perhaps must be a grave concern for everyone devouring this form of chillies in lieu of the scarce green ones. Personally I am not a great fan of chilly (thanks to my GERDy stomach), but just their conspicuous and somewhat dubious presence in doubled and tripled quantity in the dishes made for the Bhutanese appetite makes me very worried. By the way, adding to my doubt of their origin but to the delight of the chilly lovers, some small varieties of green chillies in small packages are seen in plenty most recently, also claiming to be Bhutan- grown!!

Having said that I hope that we could increase vegetable production (chillies included) in the country. In fact I had hoped that the ban had come as a blessing in disguise for triggering vegetable sufficiency in the country. I firmly believe that even as a small country we have favourable altitudinal and climatic variations for all kinds of vegetable cultivation throughout the year.

Talking about growing more vegetable, I remember never seeing onions and not even much potatoes when I was growing up back in my remote village in late 60s and early 70’s. The more recent immigrants such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli was not even heard of. However we grew enough of indigenous and endemic vegetables in our backyards such as pumpkin, large leafy green lettuce, radish, varieties of beans, squash and few more miscellaneous ones. We also relished the seasonal varieties of wild stuff such as fern shoots, bamboo shoots and mushrooms. Never felt any vegetable was scarce and of course no pesticide or organic fertilizer had to be ever used. In last 50 years our agriculture service managed to add few more exotic ones but most of these came with poor resistance to pests and therefore not very popular with the vegetable growers. But with the affordability and change in our food habits, we are yearning for varieties from across the boarders that are often kept alive by deadly pesticides. 

I hope and wish that there is better monitoring on the vegetable import, quicker actions from the Ministry of Agriculture to grow vegetables in the country throughout the year and make very concrete moves towards vegetable sufficiency just as we seem to have achieved in poultry. The next government in the making may be fully convinced that there will be absolutely no resistance from any quarters for growing more varieties of vegetables and promoting self-sufficiency in this one genre of agricultural products.

My two most memorable instances with His Majesty the 4th Druk Gyelpo

The First Opportunity

It was a beautiful day in the Spring of 1974, when a large number of people from my village walked down to the town of Samtse. From among my siblings, my father picked me for this opportune trip, as he probably thought that at the age of little over eleven I was now reasonably ready to walk that distance bare feet! The first day was only about four hours and ended in a comfortable stay in the house of a distant relative in the next village across Amochhu. The second day was tedious but exciting as the journey mostly descended down the foothills with occasional view of strange yet a mesmerizing great Indian Plain. Crossing several mountains, gorges and streams, we negotiated the meandering Dhamdhum River at least two dozen times and finally landed at the bank of the same river for the night, just about an hour short of Samtse town. All the excitement of sighting a motor vehicle, electricity and the concrete houses and above all the eagerness of seeing the young King of Bhutan had to be given rest on the hard open ground.

Next morning, some of us younger lots were taken to the nearby stream by our guardians to rub the grease off our feet and hands. Others stayed back and cooked the meals. Before noon, we had our brunch and headed towards the town. I was excited, frightened and nervous all at the same time at the first spectacle of the modern amenities. The roaring trucks, colourful shops with goods hanging in the front, the ‘pan’ shop with loud music and above all so many people at one place was simply incredible.  I was given the first ‘modern’ haircut by a smart looking man (I knew some years later that he was a professional barber). After some acclimatization in the town environment, the night was spent in the nearby Shivalaya temple - thanks to the priest who happened to be our relative.

Following morning, I saw tens of vehicles driving uphill to the place where the young Crown Prince, actually the King-designate, would meet the people from the district. By 8.00 AM we were all asked to move to the wide field with so many people gathered and seated in long rows. Fortunately, all the people from a village were seated close to each other and of course, my father was next to me. Suddenly there was this very loud voice catching everyone’s attention and my father gently told me, pointing to a weird object, that the sound was from a ‘mike’. The sound that infiltrated the heart, at first I thought was the King’s voice. Soon I realized that it was actually the announcement about seating to be segregated into rich and poor! The village headman put me in the poor’s group and my father on the rich side! Now I think this was justified as my father had some kind of footwear on and I had none! Not knowing this why at that time, I was worried of getting lost in the crowd. But my father asked an adult from my village, another ‘poor’ to take care of me. 

Soon there was a silence followed by beautiful music of drum and something melodious (this now I realized was the Jaling, a musical instrument played by monks to mark the arrival of high dignitaries). As the sound drew closer, the crowd got more impatient and noisy. I heard they say that the King was arriving. I could not see anything, but my heart beat started to mount. After some silence, an extra-ordinary voice was heard through the loud speaker once again. ‘He is our new King’, my caretaker and neighbour said. People listened in complete silence. I did not understand a word but this extra-ordinary voice penetrated into my heart, increased my palpation and eventually generated a natural and deep feeling of reverence towards the benefactor and it brought much joy and contentment as the long speech ended.

With the speech of the King concluded, there was the cheer of ‘Pelden Drukpa Gyelo’ and some familiar play of local music by the people from various villages around who had gathered to greet the King. Very soon the village heads, the policemen and others started reorganizing the lines, keeping everyone in order and in silence. The young King appeared at some distance away in his beautiful Gho and in knee- deep black boots. He slowly walked through every row greeting and smiling at people. People sat on the ground completely calm with their head bowed down in respect but at the same time eager to see him as soon as he passed them. I waited for quite some time till he arrived closer to the rows of ‘poor people’. My heart started beating again as the King and all the people around him entered the line that I was seated in. I saw some packets of gifts being given to the people by the King. When my turn came I laid out my two palms and received a beautiful piece of cloth from the hands of my King.

As I held the packet firmly, I also kept looking at the direction the King moved on as he continued giving away the gifts and finally disappeared into the crowd. After some time we were told that the King had left and we could also leave. By then my father was there near me to escort me to our host’s place. In the afternoon a bunch of us, the village folk, took a ride on the back of a huge truck, loaded with some boulders, for a trip to nearby Indian town of Chamurchi for some shopping. What a memorable first vehicle ride of my life that was!

I can’t clearly remember the return journey home. But I know I had a brand new shirt on me (the invaluable gift from the King), a brand new pair of footwear on my feet and a lot of exciting stories to tell my mother and the rest of my siblings and the school mates back home.

 The Second Fortune

Perhaps it was in the mid-summer of 1980, when I was a student of 9^th grade at the then Samchi Central School, a news was broken by my esteemed Principal Mr GB Kurup that five of us from the class were chosen to participate in a cultural tour of Thimphu under the auspices of the then National Council for Social and Cultural Promotion (NCSCP). We were quickly brought together and made to practice some dances with the famous dance teacher, Mr Tika Gurung. Just in about a week time we were escorted by Lopen Thiney Gyamtsho to Phuntsholing where we were welcomed by a young ‘Trainee Officer’ Mr Kinley Dorji of NCSCP. We also met other ten students from Sarpang and Gelephu schools. Next morning I had my maiden journey to the capital by the Bhutan Government Transport Service (BGTS) bus through the beautiful and often very precarious and narrow road. It took us nearly 10 hours to reach Motithang High School where the arrangements for our stay was made. The one week program was very tight with visits to important landmarks in Thimphu including Tashichho Dzong and the Memorial Chhorten, as well as several places in Paro including the National Museum and Rinpung Dzong. I remember having a shock of my life witnessing a ‘disco’ night at an entertainment club in Paro.

Amidst our very exciting visits, on the last but one day a news was broken by the Director of NCSCP, Dasho Meghraj Gurung that completely exhilarated all of us. His Majesty had granted an audience to the group.

It was mid-day and we were waiting outside Tashichho Dzong when someone from below a big stone wall came up and said a word to Dasho. He signaled at us to follow him. We found it hard catching up Dasho and only later our Lopen explained that a royal call necessitates such a retort. We were taken into a very humble resting place of His Majesty where he was already seated. He indicated us to sit around. We were tensed but His soft and kind words quickly eased the atmosphere. This time I could understand every word that His Majesty spoke. He spoke about the nation building, the role of youth, importance of Bhutanese identity, international relations, and many more things of importance to Bhutan and the Bhutanese. Irrespective of our young age, His Majesty chose to speak out His mind with great degree of seriousness. That unprecedented audience with His Majesty in the very humble cottage is vivid to me even to this day. When I think of that moment, I feel that the Fourth Druk Gyelpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck was such a great visionary and so very affectionate and concerned about His people and the nation.

With these two fond memories of my life at the backdrop, on the occasion of His Majesty’s Sixtieth Birth Anniversary today, 11^th November, I join the festive nation in commemoration.

Wishing the 4th graduating class a great success

With the growing success of our subsequent graduating classes over the last three years, the 4^th graduating cohort ought to reach even higher level of accomplishments. Inspired by the great success in the last civil service examinations, we have put in our best efforts in preparing you all for similar and even higher accomplishments. With every passing class we at RTC will eagerly wish and wait to hear for better attainments of our graduates in all sectors of employment including self employment and entrepreneurship. With positive attitude and the high confidence level that you have gained through your varied experiences at RTC, I am very hopeful that wherever and whenever you venture in your lives, you will make your marks and stand out as proud RTC alumni and do yourself, your parents and your alma mater proud.

I join the RTC family in wishing each and every one of you a great success.

KEEPING MY TREKKING INTEREST GOING

                                                   

 Foreign visitors to Bhutan keep reminding the Bhutanese that we are fortunate to be borne and be living in a beautiful country. This statement generally does not impress the Bhutanese. While we take our own country for granted, today most of us are dreaming Australia, Europe, Singapore or New York.                                                                                                                                        Recently I was attending a dinner with the exchange international students when one of the students asked me how much Bhutan I have seen. It took her by surprise when I said that I have been to all 20 districts of the country. She told me that most of the Bhutanese friends that she met in last few months have not been beyond one or two districts of their country, while she has already seen more Bhutan than her Bhutanese counterparts in her three months stay in the country. Most surprisingly the least traveled are the ones born and brought up in Thimphu. These categories of young Bhutanese are unaware that just 20 years ago their parents lived in far flung Bhutan and under extremely difficult conditions.

It is very normal for most visitors coming to Bhutan spend half of his/her time trekking in the country. My great friend, a Professor Emeritus from Princeton at 70 would have walked almost all the important high land trekking trails of western Bhutan in his one year stay in Bhutan. There is no proper account of how many foreign trekkers have published books, articles, photographs on Bhutan’s natural and cultural heritage. I wish more Bhutanese are able to do this and with greater authenticity.

Walking to and fro school from home for nearly 7 years I graduated from my primary education. To my great fortune, in my mid teens, I moved to a boarding school in the nearby town of Samchi to encounter motor vehicles and electricity for the first time. This also reduced my ‘compulsory’ trekking activities only to holidays and school vacations. I kept my walking zeal alive by organising treks across the foothills of Chengmari, Ghumanuney and Sibsoo with my friends at least once during those 5 years in the late 70s. The torturous walks across the notorious Dhamdhum river, negotiating its highly unpredictable course by crossing it over twenty times, or alternately across a thick leech infested jungle trail of Sarkitar during the monsoon to Dorokha continued for nearly another decade.
 
After my graduation in 1987, I was one of the 35 member team of young trainee officers to trek on one of the most prestigious and the longest Laya-Lingzhi-Gasa trail. This was an official 14 days trek sponsored by the Royal Institute of Management for the civil servant trainees. This unique opportunity took us through the marvelous spreads of meadows, forests of oaks, rhododendrons and conifers and treated with breath taking scenes of Jumolhari, Jitchu Drake, Lingzhi, Laya and Gasa. An extra day stay among the highlanders of Laya and another day rest in the hot springs of Gasa was an extra-ordinary treat. This hike, which originated from historical Drugyel Dzong in Paro and ended in another equally historical district of Punakha, is my most memorable trekking experience.
 

My love for trekking originates from my birth root. It was a compulsion to walk in my remote village of Myona in Dorokha Dungkhag, which was secluded from all the modern amenities like road and electricity. A two days walk away from the nearest road head, the whole district walked those days. Only about two years ago the feeder road has reached reducing the walking distance to half day to few hours, at least during the non-monsoon months. Walking in far flung and largely a steep mountainous terrain in many parts of Bhutan is a survival necessity even today and not a pleasure activity.

The frequency of treks got significantly reduced in 90’s to just about few days every year which included occasional ‘compulsory’ trek to my native village back in Dorokha. I kept my enthusiasm alive trekking on some of the nearby places such as to Bumdeling with students at least once a year. Bumdeling became my favorite destination in 2000-2002 when I selected two wetlands as a part of my limnological investigation which resulted into my PhD thesis. In May 2002, I also did a famous pilgrimage and ecological trip to Singye Dzong (4000 m) that gave me a very comfortable 6 days trip to this Nye (holy site) and back. The spectacular glacial lakes above the Singye dzong (approx 4300m) was a bonus treat besides the wonderful historical-religious caves of Singye dzong in that trip.

In the last six years, my longings for treks was kept suppressed and limited to few hours comfortable walks in very close locations. This was given a fantastic break this Sunday when I grudgingly joined a group of young enthusiasts to climb the arduous south slope facing Royal Thimphu College. The team of eight climbed the steep slopes, crossed hillocks and ridges and got above the tree line in about 4 hours finally landing in a temporary shelter of a yak herder.  We were treated with hot suja (butter-salt tea) and jou (a Bhutanese snack made from rice) followed by a hearty lunch, courtesy to Tshering Penjore, a senior employee of RTC and a well known face in this part of the meadows and highland trails. The biggest surprise came when the team disclosed at 12.00 noon that the plan was to walk along the top of the ridge for nearly four  hours (east) till we would descend for another 3-4 hours to Talakha (far east from RTC and above Semtokha). The thought of walking for another 7-8 hours at that altitude was nerve wrecking but it was a challenge that would test my trekking capacity now when I was not in my 40’s anymore!

                                                               

After a wonderful meal of rice, fish soup, mushroom datsi and suja we thanked the lady in the hut and moved forward. The breathtaking long stretch of Thimphu valley on the left and the wide span of Dagala and its surrounding mountains, meadows and greenery on the right was almost a rule of thumb throughout the walk on the ridge. The slow walks, short rests, ups, downs and straight appearing and disappearing trails characterized the trail on the ridge. We often walked brushing our bodies against the famous Bhutanese incense plants (Saang), Rhododendron bushes and hip hoped on the moraine rocks and finally crossing the highest peak on the ridge (approx. 4300m).

After the last cup of warm and sweet tea (courtesy the lady in the hut and Tshering Penjore, now our guide), the knee breaking downhill descend started at 4.30 PM. This most painful part of the trek soon lead to nightfall making the walk even more strenuous. Aided by a walking stick and with the mobile phone flashlight in hand, I desperately longed to end this part of the journey. We finally reached Talakha monastery at around 8.30PM. As soon as we landed on the peaceful compound of the monastery there was no looking back as we saw the college bus arriving on the approach road just below the temple. Of course I did not miss seeing two tents pitched by the tourists in the lawn.

I had never been as much exhausted in last several years but I was also most satisfied that I still had the courage and strength to do this perhaps many more times in next one decade at least!!

Common young Bhutanese! keep walking and stay healthy and stay connected to your roots!!

Disciplining the right way

Some years ago I had read a quote from Mahatma Gandhi in Hindi scribbled on the side of an old bus in neighboring Indian town Chamurchi (it is another subject of interest that this place used be in Bhutan several decades ago), which loosely translates into English as, 'Only the discipline will make a nation great". Thinking of Gandhi is unavoidable when we hear about angry teachers and more so the violent Head teachers. I had been a teacher whole life, of course not in a school,  but I tend to believe that the basics of teaching such as the philosophy of education, motivation and the mechanisms of inspiring the young minds is not very different for different age groups and for different educational levels. I hope I am not wrong in saying that more than the more matured adolescents, the younger minds deserve much better treatment than what the nation got to hear recently in a school in Drujegang (http://www.kuenselonline.com/alleged-corporal-punishment-victim-in-thimphu).  While I can understand the pressure this head teacher was in, if all that was  written was true, the arrogance and his very poor ability (rather complete inability) is evident in the language of his statement quoted in the newspaper. What a pity and a shame on all of us educators and so called education administrators. If not anything else,  a sense of remorse on the part of this headteacher was expected by the readers, on the contrary he exhibited a great deal of arrogance.

By any circumstance and in any situation an educator cannot harbour such terrible temper, give such irresponsible response to media and show complete lack of accountability to the noble job bestowed to him. In my opinion, disciplining and corporal punishment have no link to each other. A civilized society always deals with indiscipline in a civilized way. Most importantly the juveniles do not need to be and must never be physically abused to discipline. We do not deserve to be called educators and take oath of allegiance to serve and take care of the future citizens of the country, if we do not are morally right and incapable of handling such basic problems.

A strong message needs to go to all such ill-prepared/ ill-trained teachers and school administrators to enable them rethink about their profession and perhaps even change jobs if they do not have adequate patience, endurance, perseverance and compassion to deal with varied and unexpected situations in the schools and academic institutions where there are so many young and innocent children experimenting with their lives and wanting to grow to their full potentials.

I am not even sure if there are other suitable jobs for these category of impatient people!! 

Thinking Outside of the Box

When I joined RTC about four years ago, I wanted to leave behind my seasoned frame of mind so that I could think fresh and generate new ideas to implement in this first private college in Bhutan. Running academic programs in any college is a challenging job and more so in a private one and that is located too close to a city. Today youth are generally said to be not seriously engaged in academia as they are subjected to too many digressions. Oddly, even many self financing students are found not very different in terms of the self motivation. However, at RTC we believed that it would be possible to churn out excellence out of what we have. Of course, this required more intense thinking, deliberations, innovations and understanding among all of us involved in this noble cause. We did that altogether in the management committee, in the academic committee and in all other meetings and deliberations. The journey began with conformity to do many things differently in RTC:

1.      Orientation to College Learning (OCL)

Recognizing the difficulty that most of the Bhutanese students face in terms of communicating effectively, becoming independent learners, becoming responsible and managing themselves in a community life, we have a semester long module offered to all the first semester students.  It encompasses improving competence in written and spoken English, with an emphasis on developing an independent frame of mind and the students’ own voices as writers. In addition, the course also encompasses readings and discussions that helps the students to settle down in the residence halls, manage time, prepare well for the following semesters and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

2.      Mentoring/Advising:

We appoint faculty advisers for all the students. Each adviser has a maximum of 20 students. There are regular meetings between the advisers and the students where students can discuss their difficulties. The feedback is passed on to the relevant person(s) and is addressed promptly.

3.      Counseling:

We have a counselor for students to meet and discuss their problems. Students could be referred or they could make appointment with the counselor through phone or email.

4.      Mid-term Exams

RTC has a compulsory mid-term test scheduled in the middle of each semester across all the programs. This gives a fair idea of how students are performing and interventions can be made before it is too late.

5.      Wednesday Talks:

 A common hour on Wednesdays are largely for eminent speakers and occasionally used for the student assemblies. Dozens of personalities ranging from the politicians to lawyers, professors, religious personalities, musicians and many others have addressed the RTC community over the last three years.

6.      Career Development:

Realizing that most students would seek employment, Career Development Office is established with large and varied activities that are immensely helping students to make employment applications, face interviews and prepare for the competitive examinations.

Challenges are many but the opportunities are even more. As we celebrate the graduation of the first batch this July, it is also time to reflect and contemplate at the RTC. On the other hand these graduates are the torch bearers and the brand ambassadors for the college.

I would like to felicitate and congratulate the class of 2012 for this unique success and wish all the best to all of them. 

I wrote this and published in the Year book on the occasion of RTC's First Graduation in July 2012 

Balancing your dealings

I am surprised how much biases we at times have about other people. We believe so much in ourselves that we do not even consider if other peoples' opinion matter or even count when a decision is to be made. Even in an organisations the leader/ supervisor thinks that his/her opinion and beliefs  are supreme and relevant and another idea from a subordinate is absurd. Often times people's minds are so full with their own opinions about everything that they simply refuse to listen to a second opinion.

Often I am reminded by colleagues that I am too lenient and flexible. I have reflected about this and I have also compared myself with some other people who are more dictatorial than me. Some of them are more successful than me while there are also others like me who are equally or more successful. To me the most important thing is TRUST and I would like to believe that all professionals are trustworthy.

I am convinced that I will not change my opinion about people that I work with or for that matter about those I interact with. I do not wish to prejudge anyone or even wish to judge in a rush. Essentially every person, including a criminal,  has a great deal of merit hidden within. And we can work on to bring out the best in every individual.  This, of course, does not mean that defaulters or criminals should go unpunished.