Nawang P Phuntsho

We could keep some of our promises made to ourselves and to our people in the beginning of the year that’s ending today. Some promises slipped off our hands as the year advanced. All these are fine and okay as long as we have done something in the right spirit.   As the year ends tonight, it is also time to ask ourselves and introspect how much life has taught us in the past one year and what lessons we have leant so that we have something to proudly carry over to the next year.  It is time to reflect on the mistakes committed and plan accordingly on how to avoid them.   And it is been two exciting years for this blog – I have been unfaithful mostly this year to my blog. I contributed 37 posts less compared to 2009. I posted 93 articles in 2009 while I managed only 56 this year. But the year has been a fruitful for Writers Association of Bhutan (WAB) and we are pleased that something is happening, even if it is in rudimentary form. Everyone should be proud of its prog...

It was half past five in the morning. The melodious sound of jaling from a nearby lhakhang heralded the dawn of Dragon Kingdom’s 103 rd National Day. It was on this very day, December 17, exactly a century and three years ago, our small landlocked nation wrote her future. And as Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck ascended the Golden Throne as the first hereditary King of Bhutan, our forefathers had decided literally to give birth to a unified country, spelling an end to the endless struggles. Thus, the significance of this day can never be overstated as it is etched in the hearts and minds of every Bhutanese citizen, young and old alike. It is not just a day to celebrate, reflect and revisit extraordinary deeds of our kings and forefathers who gifted us this nation with all its glory, but also it is a moment for us every Bhutanese to be grateful for everything that we are and that we rightfully have. More appropriately, it is a time to offer our commitment to the king, the country and the peo...

Schools across the country will remain closed starting December 14, 2010 with the completion of class 12 and 10 Board Examinations, which started on November 30. Others who were studying in the lower classes are already on a long and relaxing break. To students and teachers alike, it comes as a refreshing break at the end of a fruitful academic session. And to parents, based on where they are (urban or remotes areas), this break either spells extra responsibilities or adds a few more helping hands on the farm.  And the Ministry of Education’s decision to shorten the winter holidays from three to two months came as a relief to many parents in the urban centers, who realize their children would be better off at schools than being idle at home.  What does the break entail? Those days, when we were students, winter break was a time to get busy. Winter is a lean season people say, but that’s all in economics theories. Practically, there is no end to work in a farming comm...

His Excellency Lyonpo Nandalal Rai, the Minister for Information and Communications presided over the launching ceremony of MasterCard and VISA International credit and debit card acquiring by Bank of Bhutan on December 11, 2010. The function was held in Tashi Taj, Thimphu. With the official launch of the project, visitors will now have easy access to funds through withdrawal from BOB's wide ATM network and make payments for purchases directly through their credit or debit cards. The bank is expected to issue MasterCard and Visa ATM/debit cards by the first quarter of 2011 and will be soon introducing Indian Rupees denominated Pre-paid cards in partnership with Axis Bank. Persons availing this card can enjoy the convenience of withdrawing cash from any ATM of any bank in India. Additionally, the bank will be launching Western Union Money transfer.

There are many phenomena and concepts that I do not understand, even now I can only wonder.  When I was in a primary school, I would go home on weekends and then almost always, I would find my mother suffering from one illness or other – from knee ache to headache to toothache. My mother would undergo a serious pain and this constant pain would make us even more painful. We only wished if we could share some of her pains.  My grandmother would scoop out hot cinders from the hot hearth in a little tin container and then would start murmuring some mantras as the smoke from the burning maize flour rose in the air. “ Sur sur ” was all that I could hear her, her tightly closed lips. Inside we would see its immediate effect. Sometimes the grandma would be out to look for the bonpo (the shaman). Sitting beside the sick, the bonpo would chant some more mantras his hands constantly at his rosary beads. All through this I would be watching everything, disbelieving the power of the s...