Nawang P Phuntsho

“Please eat some more,” my wife insists. “I don’t feel like eating anymore.” Any parents would understand how difficult it is to convince their children to eat, especially while they’re sick. “Baby, please finish this,” I try my share of parental persuasion. “If you do that, you can watch as many The Frozen videos on Youtube as you want.”  “Are you sure, Apa?”  “Yes, very much, but_," I hate putting conditions. “If you don’t eat everything on your plate, I’ll delete all The Frozen videos from Youtube.”  The mere thought of all her favorite videos disappearing from the cyber-sphere disturbs my daughter quite a bit.  My daughter keeps her promise, but it will not be long before she finds that her father has made a fool of himself for her benefit.

We need to begin small; in fact, all big things must start small. But a beginning has to be made somewhere. And only then can we grow and grow big.  The Community of Bhutanese Bloggers (CBB) will be organizing the first ever Bhutanese Bloggers Conference on August 30, 2015. This is our small beginning and a maiden attempt to bring Bhutanese bloggers and those interested in reading and writing together.  The conference will be held at Namseling Boutique Hotel in Thimphu. As of Friday 28, 2015, 24 members have registered to attend the conference and the organizers are expecting more to join.   This is the first conference since the adoption of Community of Bhutanese Bloggers Constitution way back in July 19, 2015. The community plans to have at least one conference in two months and 2 Meets in a year.  The idea of the conference is to have bloggers and fellow members of CBB to volunteer to speak on the topic of their interests. The Bloggers...

Our road crossing culture is a big chaos. Most of the time! And in the absence of traffic lights it is difficult for the pedestrians to know when exactly to cross a road, be it in the town or at certain sections of our roads. Sadly, zebra crossing is a highly misunderstood and failed concept here.  First, the people behind the wheels do not give ways to people, who are waiting to cross the road. Sometimes, this leads to many problems. Some pedestrians wait for the coming cars to cross before they finally decide to cross a road. But again, it is dangerous when some people, who understand the rules of how a zebra crossing works, try to cross the road without waiting for the speeding cars. Once some drivers are on the road, they rule everything until they get off their cars.   The second thing is, our pedestrians are not adequately aware of what they have to do when they cross a road. Some of us, hate to walk a few hundred yards down or up where we can safely cross th...

Bhutan is known for many of rich and colorful festivals. Every Dzongkhag has its own Tshechu to celebrate and rejoice. And of course many tourists come to watch and experience many of these festivals. Today, in urban Bhutan, we perform mask dances to entertain tourists; I am not sure if that is culturally right thing to do. But I leave that to the experts to debate.  Love for Mushroom The good news is, we are now not restricting our definition of festivals to only those that celebrate the birth anniversaries of Guru Rimpoche. The term extends beyond its religious meaning and significance. We now have festivals for music, films, art, cattle, food, and nomad among many others.  Talking of Literary Festival, Mountain Echoes is right around the corner. It will be held in Thimphu from August 20-23, 2015. It is a celebration of literature, the art and music. Make yourself available for some of the sessions if you are in Thimphu. Interestingly, this month the ...

As I type these lines, I am watching a Bhutanese singing show:  Drinchen Amai Sungkoed , the voice of Bhutanese mothers. Unlike the earlier Bhutanese reality shows, the current show engages Bhutanese women and is specifically aimed at developing their voice and personality.   In Bhutan, the concept of women empowerment is fairly new and we have always maintained that we have no gender bias in the country and that both men and women enjoy similar support and opportunity. But today we also spend so much effort and resources to organize conferences that talk about women empowerment. Drinchen Amai Sungkoed is an appropriate platform for our women, who otherwise end up managing a household. And the program is expected to groom these women while they also demonstrate their talents to the nation. We need to think of it as an opportunity for our mothers to boost their confidence and learn public speaking. This is expected to bring our women national recognition and crea...

Preliminary Exam is the gateway to the most sought after career in the Civil Service in the country. And that's why many graduates are trying all that they can do to crack this examination. That way they come a step closer to realizing that dream.  Sadly, some graduates, however good they are, cannot pass this first hurdle. And consequently they cannot write the main exam. But I think we cannot judge an individual by just giving him/her to write one examination. And of course knowing this is the only option left, graduates seek solaces in preparatory classes. Because of the sheer number of graduates looking forward to crack Preliminary Exam, there are many individuals and private companies willing to help the graduates prepare for the exam. Of course this help comes with a pricetag. And going by the information doing the rounds on the streets of Thimphu, the tuition is expensive. I only hope these classes are useful.    These individuals and private comp...

I have had the pleasure of meeting this person of high repute and since then I have been closely following him with great admiration and respect. And one day I run into another person. We happened to casually chitchat when he suddenly mentioned this. I was told that because I wrote something against a cause that the famous personality is known to champion, the man decided to unfriend me on Facebook. I did not know that he did that. But I was really sure that he may not have done this. And it was only in the evening when I checked my Facebook profile I realized I lost one virtual friend. The famous person has really blocked me. That made me think a lot. I had great respect towards this man. In fact when a student wrote something controversial about him a few months ago, I requested the student not to post it anywhere because I knew that would dent his reputation. And on my request the student decided not to post it. That was that. But I was really shocked that he would ...