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.

Bidding a farewell to yet another batch of graduates..

WHAT I LEARNED THIS YEAR

As I step into my 50s, I have realized that I still have a lot to learn. And I could learn from my students, my colleagues, seniors and subordinates all alike. One thing that I have definitely learned is that the time is rapidly changing and unless you continuously learn, change, modify and adapt, the rest of the world will move ahead of you and you may be miserably left behind. While this is my dilemma, I can imagine what should be that of the young people.

The university graduates of today are smarter, ahead of time, IT savvy and well informed. Information flows all around them on their computer and mobile screens, Tabs and Televisions; social media, besides the conventional sources like classrooms and other media. They have not only the luxury of choosing but also have challenges of screening and making right choices. There are more graduates every year but there are also far more opportunities as well as far more youth related issues than what we had 25 years ago when I graduated. I could never think of becoming IT officer, or a graphic designer, media person, or an entrepreneur or even a freelancer!! My choice was easy – either become a teacher or a civil servant.

The challenges for today’s graduates are completely different. They need to have far more skills to become independent, to take risk, to be open and flexible. They must be willing to start small and not immediately run after money and fame. While the communication skills are at the center stage of their lives, global skills are requisite to come out of their comfort zone and venture out into more challenging but exciting international opportunities.

Here at RTC, we all are very consciously providing these life skills to the students through more interactive classes, OCL, LRC, advising, class projects, talk series and wide varieties of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. I am hopeful that every graduate coming out of RTC has internalized some of these unique skills which will find them aside in the crowd of university graduates.

I wish every one of them a great success and remind them again that the learning never stops.

A Fatter Pay Package awaits MPs, Kuensel, June 12, 2014

I wish this is not a breach of trust!

The PDP Government got voted in by making a strong pitch that the last government put the country’s economy in turmoil.  The economy is still sick and perhaps the government will need some more time to bring back the economy on track. In the same way we know that not much of other issues have changed such as the poverty is still high and below unacceptable level and the country continues to grow in its serious debt. Of course against all these adversaries the ruling party (as well as DPT) had promised some pay hike for civil servants but never had talked so much for themselves.

It has so turned out now that the civil servants, especially the ones at the lower ladder have been given some kind of eyewash and left desperately and jealously wishing more! The Government on the other hand has proposed such a frightfully high entitlements for themselves and their entire fellow MPs (doubtful if the ones now in opposition would have done differently) that the civil servants (the corporate and the private sector will soon follow suit) are completely left at their mercy. In spite of proposing a  lofty amount of Nu 75,160 as their basic salary,conveniently 10 other items are added that cover each and every foreseeable expenditure to meet their livelihoods. While a civil servant or any other employer has just one consolidated pay to meet all his/her expenses including the mighty house rent, to buy a car (or just dream for), fuel the car (if any), pay all the bills and also co-exist and survive along side of these dramatically allowanced elected members. How is that the MPs need separate allowances for every head of expenditure, most hilarious being the driver allowance (as if the MPs will hire one!). How about putting vegetable allowance, petticoat allowance for the wives (happier are those divorcees and bachelors), children uniform allowance, heater/fan allowance (may be both for summer and winter).

I hope some good sense prevails before approving these salary raise and due consideration will be given to people lower down the ladder. If not the common folk in their half empty stomach would only be expected to continue grinning and pose pictures for the GNH publicity page cover?