To Teach and Learn

Summer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeksSummer break starts today. For two weeks. Thank you for visiting La.

One of the volunteers said, "The feeling of helplessness was so frustrating that, tears automatically rolled down my cheeks, as I stood and could do nothing but watch the fire consume the Dzong".  Image Courtesy - www.shinkar.blogspot.com  When me and my colleagues from school went to serve refreshments to the volunteers the next day, the feeling that sat heavy on my heart was like that of visiting a beloved relative's funeral. There was this overwhelming feeling of loss and emptiness. I cannot recall any sadder disaster in my living memory.  Image Courtesy - GoogleImage  This fortress which stood tall and mighty since 1638 was an internal part of our history. Like its name suggest, Wangdue Phodrang , the Place of the Consolidator, it played many a vital role as the seat of bringing unity and consolidating power when Bhutan was once consumed by civil wars and power struggles. Image Courtesy - www.yesheydorji.blogspot.com And even now in its leaving...

Never did I think Corporal Punishment would become so much a part of my life. Today the words are etched on my mind to make me aware that I should not use it. Courtesy - Google Image As a student, I remember my Dzongkha teacher beating one of my friends when we were in class three. I remember the teacher but can’t recollect the student who forgot to write his homework. I also remember the yellow substance dripping down the boy’s thigh as the teacher sent him crying to the toilet. I never knew what happened after. When I was a boarding student at Paro Junior High School I remember   the principal’s famous elastic bamboo stick nearly dislocating my thumb. The swift bamboo swinging landed on my cold palm in the chilly winter morning. I cannot describe the pain, it was excruciating and I cried like a little girl. I could not even hold my spoon while eating my breakfast later that morning.   I was ten minutes late for my morning study. That same year, I heard ...

Just a few weeks ago there was a debate on the national TV, BBS (Bhutan Broad Casting Service)  ‘Is Teaching considered a Noble Profession in Bhutan?’. I followed the debate show and couldn’t help but feel sad for the teaching profession. This profession is by virtue of what it does, very noble. There is no doubt about it but what is amiss here is that though it is a noble profession very few people want to become teachers. By definition, Noble means ‘showing fine personal qualities or high moral principals or ideas’. It is exactly what should define a teacher, a synonym to a teacher. But do we have noble teachers? This question I feel is more important to debate than ‘Is the Teaching Profession considered Noble in Bhutan?’ As the final vote count at the end of the debate, teaching is considered noble but are the people who become teachers noble? Do we have noble teachers? or Is it enough to have Good teachers? If one looks into history, one will find that teachers...

The local taxi drivers know Tata Medical Centre as Tata Cancer. I had to explain to the drivers why they should call it Tata Medical Centre and not Tata Cancer. It is sad why patients should not be made aware or reminded of what is making them sick. The Bollywood movies have exhibited how the word cancer hits a person who is sick with it. The word cancer echoes and the viewers spin with the camera as it focuses on the character that receives the news from the doctor.  I felt moviemakers portrayed an exaggerated affect in a dramatic scene but now I think that is the closest anyone can get to if one is to show how one is affected when discovering they have cancer. New places bring new acquaintances and I have made few. Most patients are not well off  they are commoners. Tata Medical Centre was established for the lower classes and though the treatment is given at a subsidized rate, it still hits most of the patients hard. I met a schoolteacher from Jharkhand whose ten ...

I got acquainted with Bronte back in the year 2002. I read the book because I had to write a paper on it and did not have the mind or the heart to savor the richness of expressions that the words brought to me then. It was just a novel like any other and I did not take time to relish the words that drew feelings of intense emotional spontaneity that are now overwhelming me. Now, reading it again I see what I had missed. I am grateful that I hold Bronte once more, I am reading it in a completely new purpose, letting the words form enchanting images of abstract and the known. The feeling that swells within my chest is immense with admirations for the word play that Bronte has so intricately unfurled in writing this simple and humane novel. I am amazed with her mastery of disposing words at such ease and grace in describing the deep emotional touches of a child who faces the worst tyrannies of the world and grows up fighting. I was reading Socialism is Great by Lijia Zhang...

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 ...