To Teach and Learn

Before Passang Tshering became Passu the Pen Lord, and before he became a teacher and before he attracted millions of readers, he was a naughty boy. Believe me he was more than the average Denise the Menace; an outrageous wild energy ever ready to do anything, especially beat you up. He was neither a gang leader nor the school boss but within our own age group he was someone you didn’t want to mess with unless you had the protection of a bigger boy. My most vivid memory of his past is when he fought a girl when we were in class seven. After the fight he looked like a man who wrestled a wild cat. One of my friends fought him twice and both the times Passu gave him a good beating, the final fight sealing their deal as Passu being the tougher one with my friend’s nose bleeding. How I wished my friend would win, make him cry like a little girl. Passu was then Pasa Tsheri, the notorious. His cheeks were rosy on his fair face and it had naughty written all over it. To sum up he ...

Courtesy Google Image The traffic is wild, it is synonymous to chaos. It amazes me thinking about how the automobiles manage to go about without crashing into each other. I hear the city like a big monster, groaning and roaring with unrelenting hunger. It calls more lives with promises of livelihood but hardly do most know that this city is no different from a jungle and survival is a daunting challenge, yet many are drawn to its lights like the moths from the dark. Billboards hang huge as testimonies to the capitalist world that India today is very much symbolic of. One particular commercial caught my attention, a huge billboard about a paint brand, the commercial proudly displayed a house beautifully painted and protected from all elements of weather. The irony however was that the house below the billboard and most buildings around were dull and weather-beaten. Some people don’t hesitate to urinate in front of a shopping mall while many shoppers go in and out. I saw...

Picture courtesy : Google Image  Experiencing the cold now astounds me thinking about how hot Punakha gets during the summer. During peak summer the real challenge a teacher in Punakha has to stand up to and compete with is sleep, which is induced by the heat. When the temperature soars 35 ° , the fans simply fail to serve their purpose. During the summer a teacher has to also eat well so that he or she is very loud. We lose more energy in the form of voice when we compete with the noise of the fans swinging their never tiring arms. But if you think that a loud voice is all you need to keep your students alive and awake then you are wrong. So, I resort to few things to keep them awake. One very effective strategy is cracking jokes. I am good with nonvege jokes but they are not appropriate in the classroom, so, I improvise. I use what ever I can to make them laugh and keep them alive. One hot afternoon sleepiness was in the classroom when I entered. I could feel their exhau...

‘’Why do we sometimes write about ourselves and expect people to be interested? Because our stories are usually not about ourselves. It is about everything, and everyone, around us.’’ – Within the Realm of Happiness, Dasho Kinley Dorji. I first met Sonam Gyeltshen five years a go when I first came here to Punakha HSS as a teacher. We were new to the school only as teachers having been here as students before. He came on transfer from a middle secondary school but it was my first placement as a teacher. He got a transfer, I later found out, because he had some problem with the principal who according to him was not so nice. Sonam Gyeltshen AKA Jackal is one of a kind and like any nickname-story he has his story too. When studying at Zhemgang High School he danced to a Michael Jackson song, and he got the name Michael Jackson. Over time Michael Jackson became Michael Jackal and by the time I met him he was only Jackal. Jackal is an interesting man, someone you would call a...

Picture from Google Image. People say size matters and this line literally exhibits me or, you may say, is exhibited by me. I am short, skinny, and tiny and I am a teacher with students who are all bigger than me. But, I do find some use for my size/height.  I crack height-jokes in my after noon classes to shake off sleep in my students.   I talk a lot about my wife in my class and my students ask, ‘ ‘isn’t she taller than you sir?’’ I say she is, and she makes me feel like Tom Cruise. When I slow dance I rest my head on her soft bosom and that I have to be on my toes when I kiss her. They laugh and I continue my lesson with students who are more awake. There have been many instances where my size deceived people.  But my favorite is the one I share with most of my friends. It was sometime in 2010, beginning of the year when the class ten results were out. The previous year I taught in class ten so I wanted to know how my students did their exam. ...

The chill curls around my bare knees like a pussy cat. I shiver with the intense smooching it gives me and struggle with the correction that is before me. I think about going out in the sun but I am so used to working on my table that I can't make myself leave the familiar setting. So, I continue. The variety of the hand writings, the ideas, the errors and the presentations always overwhelms me. So, before I begin I make sure I am in a good mood because I want to be fair and mark what they(students) deserve. But I am only human, so sometimes I can't help but lose myself to anger. Anger is destructive   and it manifest in my restrain in not wanting to tear, crumple, abuse and destroy the answer script before me. This happens, and I feel ashamed of myself for losing my cool. One may say this is natural and it is only normal. But, I know they are wrong and so am I in becoming angry with the paper before me. English paper correction is the most challenging. I know most tea...

The Dzong during the Royal Wedding Like a Maiden the Dzong smiles.   See Her laughter swells and falls with the river’s song.      Hear The fresh breeze I gulp down,      Taste As the sweetness in the air plays upon my nose,     Smell Excitement beats like a drum within me,   Feel As I watch the glorious Dzong before me.  Do My imagination makes me happy,   Imagine Coloring my dreams and giving them life.       Dream A poem written during the creative writing workshop.