Of late, I have very nearly stopped believing
in the basic goodness of human beings or have I? I blog about human goodness or
the milk of human kindness, while in practical life, I would be the first
person to retrace my steps, shun human company.
Of course it
was not always like this. There was a time when like it does to most of the teenagers of
today, my friends meant the world to me. During my student days, I was a
popular guy. I rarely quarrelled with anyone, was not all that shelfish as I am
now and most probably was fun to be around.
We spent a
lot of time together and life was pure bliss minus its share of tension and
turmoil. But then there came a time when the friends started getting busy with their true
purposes in life. And the only friend I found myself left with was turning out
to be too much of a bother. Luckily for me, the job offer from Bhutan came
along at around the same time off I went.
I had
friends aplenty in the early part of my career in Bhutan as well. Lop. Phub
Tshering, the Asst. Headmaster of Ura Pilot School in Bumthang at that time,
was my first Bhutanese friend in the true sense of the term ( I shouldn’t have
forgotten one Mr. Mukherjee with whom I spent the first 6 months of our stay in
that heavenly place. But he was an Indian after all)! I will remember forever
the three nights I spent at Phub Tshering’s in-laws’ place in Singkhar during
one tshechu time. It was a unique experience of whole day long eating, drinking
and making merry. Lop. Phub Tshering later on joined Gonichawa Primary School
in Paro as the Headmaster.
My next
friend was one Mr. Chandra Chhetri, who worked in Wangdichholing Hospital. He
was a very jolly fella and we had a nice time together during my stay there at
Ap. Gup Dole’s place. Chandra and I used to go to Am Tshering’s shop on the ground
floor of the only three-storied building in the market then ( the rest of the floor was taken by
the Bank of Bhutan) and watch lots of Hindi movies!
Besides
Chandra, two other persons also forced their entrance into my heart at the same
time. Both of them were teachers and very young. One was Lop. Karma Jigme,
whose brother at that time happened to be the DEO of Sarpang; the other, one
Mr. Karma Ghalek. Towards the fag end of my stay in Bumthang we chanced to run
into each other in the market and over a cup of tea, he told me that he had
read and enjoyed some of my stories (By then I had taken to writing seriously and some of
my storied found their way to Kuensel, the national weekly newspaper in Bhutan. Karma looked like a giant
of a man then and I was intimidated by his hypnotic persona. The other Karma,
on the other hand, was a jovial fellow. He taught me how to enjoy life and
cautioned me against marrying any girl in Bumthang. Surprisingly, he was the
one who fell for a local beauty and subsequently got married to her.
He would
often invite me to his house and treat me to some mouth-watering Bhutanese dishes.
Once we went to his in-laws place. A lonely house on a hilltop just behind the
Kurje lhakhang. It was one of the most enjoyable nights of my life. He kept on
joking with the ancient grandmother of his wife and helped her with the
preparation of the dinner.
I don’t
know, I am not very sure, if the fact that I was taken up to Jakar Higher
Secondary School had anything to do with it, but I can’t recollect anyone there
with whom I could strike up some sort of friendship. When I applied for transfer
and was consequently sent to Chapcha Middle Secondary School in Chhukha, it was
another Karma Dorji, who is working as a Science teacher somewhere in Thimphu these
days, who came to my rescue and I did not waste much time in building an enjoyable
companionship with him. On an auspicious day, having treated me to a sumptuous
lunch at his place, he came out with the plan to make the day truly memorable
by partying. No sooner had the thought of the party hit upon him than he wasted
little time in inviting some more friends. Finally we ended up dancing,
drinking and making merry at another friend’s (whose name I will desist from
mentioning for reasons of my own) place, who happened to be the matron at that
time and a very adorable lady.
Talking
about Karma Dorji, he was the one who helped me out of my misconceptions about lots of places and personalities, like a true friend should. Some 5/6 years back I
met him in the boys hostel in Punakha for evaluation, when we stayed in the
dorm in beds close to one another’s. One night after dinner, while we were
lying in bed, Karma tried to dispel my doubt about the expected tenure of us, Indian
teachers in Bhutan. His words still ring a bell somewhere:
“Sir, we,
Bhutanese don’t give the sack to serious, hard-working, dedicated teachers like
that,” he remarked to me at the end of our prolonged conversation,” So long as
one is committed, one will not be kicked out just like that and you can count on my words …”
The world
was young then and so were we. I have cherished and valued all this friendships.
They were all wonderful people and have had a role to play in yours truly being
where he finds himself today. All their actions and intensions were purely
guided by the craving of making an outsider like me, feel at home. And feel at
home I did when they were around. I remain eternally indebted to them. One more
name I would like to add to the list above, is that of one Mr. Karma Wangda, a
teacher of the nearby ( not so near either as Gedu is some 50 kms from Chhukha)
GHSS. But I’d like to write about this very nice gentleman in my next.
To be
concluded …
