Nawang P Phuntsho

This feels like ages since I last posted anything here. That shows how inactive I have become on my blog. It is such a pain to let it go empty, day after day. And I am sure that all bloggers share the same sentiments. I have attempted to blog about something for a long time now, only to find myself failing to do so. Maybe that is my laziness. But sometimes, there is nothing new or interesting to blog about. Topics are crucial. As far as my idea of blogging goes, a post cannot be a mere record of personal events - everyday affairs - although there can be blogs about such topics and interests. For example, the one I am writing now - has nothing about anything in particular,  besides citing some personal excuses. Bhutan is going through yet another interesting era in that we have just had our third parliamentary elections and the new government is in place. I take this opportunity to welcome the new government and a new set of cabinet members, the speaker of the...

Like all grandparents, my late grandma would call food ' tsampa rimpoche ' and any fuss made about it would invite everyone's sneer and scoldings. Food is always treated with respect and is never wasted. "If you waste food in any manner," she would admonish us. "One day food will discard you and you will go hungry."  What remained from the previous meal would be turned either into porridge or sometimes leftover rice would be dried in the sun. The dried rice would then be fried into puffed rice and consumed with cups of suja .  When there was so much food left, especially during big events, leftover rice or kharang would be mixed with a small amount of yeast and brewed into ara .   The only thing that I can vividly recollect from my primary school days is how we would be hungry most of the time. Food we were served was hardly enough to tickle our throats. We would be sent home only once a week on Saturdays and that was our ...

When we were growing up in a small village in the central Bhutan, we would gather around our grandparents every evening in a room that would be dimly lit with a kerosene lamp. Our grandparents or the elderly members of the family would then take turns to entertain us (siblings and cousins who lived under the same roof) with their stories. Such was the only form of entertainment we had had then.   Our grandparents would start their stories, which they probably would have heard them from their grandparents. A young poor boy becomes a successful farmer by a turn of luck, a man fights a bear, a poor boy accidentally marries a rich man's beautiful daughter, a lame monkey helps a boy find great wealth, a rooster regrets his action after he mistakenly accuses his wife and young men go on business trips to buy cattle, among many others. We grew up listening to many such stories. Sometimes, the storyteller would narrate the same story again and again, and yet every time it sounded ...

This Bhutanese month (May 16 - June 13) is observed as S aga-Dawa , a holy month in the country. It is popularly or infamousely known as the time when the sale of meat items is banned in Bhutan. And it's also an opportunity for us to put a light brake on our mighty meaty appetites. Consequently, restaurants are encouraged to serve their customers rich vegetarian meals during the period. Similar ban is also observed every first month of the Bhutanese calendar . But going by what's happening, the saga-dawa is a month long mandatory and government sanctioned holiday for the butchers and meat vendors. Being holy month does not really make a difference to the menus in the restaurants from rest of the  months in the year.  Meat is available in all the restaurants and even small eateries ensure that their customers are served their favorite dishes. They're only being wise and practical because if they don't serve meat their customers would move to the restaurant n...

Last few months have been a real test of patience and humility for many residents of Motithang in Thimphu as they struggled with limited or no water. Some tenants were seen carrying water in various jerrycans from the neighboring apartments. Our people are helpful that way. Some tenants had to keep their big buckets and cans outside to collect rainwater for all their bathroom needs. Most residents kept quiet and went about their normal businesses. Water supply is still is erratic and people wonder when life would be back to normal again.  Some house owners complained about the issue to the concerned authorities. They were made to understand the shortage is from the source. And to their surprise, officials were saying that the water source is gradually drying up and that supply would never be consistent, hereafter. That worried tenants. I am sure house owners panicked.  "We had no water problem for as long as we remember; it's only after some new in-charge to...

Reports show that about 58% of Bhutanese are involved in agriculture, but the sector contributes only about 14% to our Gross Domestic Product.  According to  Bhutan Trade Statistics , 2017, Bhutan imports vegetables worth Nu. 3,823,879,525 (US$ 58,828,916) and rice worth Nu. 1,979,747,923 (US$ 30,457,660). Isn't that a lot to chew? We are not even talking of other food items here.    That means people who are into agricultural activities are unable to feed the rest of us. That also goes to show how less we are growing on our farms and talks a lot about our fallow fields in rural areas.  Now, if the remaining 42% of Bhutanese, who grow nothing on our own, can consume food items worth that much, we certainly have big market here for our agricultural produces. Don't you think? How do we do that?  I think it's possible, at least to reduce our food imports. The key is to make farming sexier. Let's not leave it out to the rural farmers. In th...

Bhutanese people will once again go to the polls to choose their National Council (NC) candidates tomorrow (April 20, 2018). But  doesn't it seem just like yesterday that we elected the current batch of NC members? This is impermanence in action. An end of one thing is the beginning of another.   This year’s NC election is significant for two reasons.   First, compared to the previous two elections, this year we have as many as 127 candidates contesting for 20 seats in the Upper House. In the second NC elections, we had 67. In 2008, the number was only 52. Although more candidates would cost more to the state it is a healthy symptom. It means people are now confident and think of leaving their footprints in our democratic process. More is more. Our people are given more choices.  Secondly, Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) tried something new this year to allow more Bhutanese to vote. In the past, civil servants and armed forces had postal ballot facil...