With love, From Ura: New Place, Cold Place

Dear Wify,
Greetings from Ura.

The term “chilled to the bones” is applicable to this place, because the wind literally chills deep into your bones. The mornings are frosty white, the evening’s chilly dark. Summers are almost non-existent, while winters are literally cold. The barren landscape is riddled with stones, while the smoke from the homesteads paints the skies above the valley. Somewhere at the base is the village of Ura, with the local school hugging its side.

My Place of Happiness

Nestling on the lap of a mountain, 
a small cottage with blue curtains, 
a bamboo fence around it, 
a small hinged gate that creaks 
every time I open it. 

Hope is a Thing with Feathers (or Blue Petals)..

Today I went for a walk around Sherubling school campus. The oncoming cold had chased all of summer's beauty away, and all that was left were the withered, dried blades of grass that tried their best to relive their summer days.

I walked on, my eyes taking in the brown barren gardens, and contemplating the futility of life because everything will have to die at some point.

Soccer Monks of Bumthang

These days there is a veteran’s football tournament organized by Jakar high school for those soccer enthusiasts of 30 years and above. Me and my colleagues from school have formed a team and under the banner of “Jakar FC” we are participating (the tournament is still going on).

And I was surprised to see a couple of monks playing in certain teams. I know that the monks of Kharchu Dratsang do play soccer, because on some weekends they come to my school to play on our ground. But I thought of them to be just novice players. I didn’t expect them to play so well (so stereotyping of me). But in these past matches I watched and played I saw three distinctive soccer monks.

Cello Gripper...

I have a notebook where I jot down ‘everything’, from my thoughts when I am lonely, to opinions that I don’t share with my colleagues, to reminders to myself, to official documentation regarding my job. Actually it is an old unused ‘diary’ which surfaced at the beginning of this year as I was cleaning out my closet, and as the quality seemed good, I decided to use it.

Inspiration Comes in Unintended Moments

During the Central and Southern Regional Camp for Scouts at Damphu HSS in December 2013, I had volunteered my services. I was put in Base 5 “Building Tower”of Patrol Race where I had to provide 50 small bamboo sticks and rubber bands to each patrol when they arrived at my base and they had to build a tower.