AMONG MILLION STORY -YOUTH OF BHUTAN.

We didn't have money to buy vegetables. So, we ate a grass we picked from the marsh. 

It was in 2012. Three of my friends (Ugyen Baros, Kezang Saggitarius, & Kunzang Dorji) and I lived in a wooden hut at Pamtsho in Thimphu. We were fresh graduates looking for jobs. None of us had well-to-do close relatives with whom we could have been comfortable living as a guest till we got jobs. 

KEZANG DORJI

So, we found a house for Nu 2,500 a month. In the beginning we were ecstatic. We paid the one month advance rent but as months passed things changed. 

Our support sources dried with time. We all came from lower class eastern Bhutan families with low or no incomes. So, we didn't expect our families to support us for long. From the start we could have asked our family members to request our relatives in Thimphu who we barely knew to keep us as guests in their homes. But we didn't. 

It was for good. At least we didn't have any experience like a friend who joined us after he walked into his relative hosts badly gossiping about him. 

We lived freely but living freely was costly. We tried some means of earning. We performed in shows and I also emceed events. Some paid. Many didn't. We couldn't pay taxi fares. We always walked. I remember often being splashed by speeding vehicles at the India house area road.

Once, our situation got too pathetic. Our rice bag was almost empty. We were out of vegetables. And we didn't have money. 

So, I told my friends about a grass (watercress) I saw in the marshes on the path to Dechencholing which was similar to the one Dantak laborers plucked from the marsh beside the IT building at Sherubtse College. The laborers took it as vegetables. I told them that we could have it for the time being. 

None of us had tried it before. But we had no choice. So, we collected it and had it. None looked happy eating it. In fact, one friend refused to eat it. I thought I had to do something about it. 

I always took pride in doing things on my own. Even as a kid I rarely asked for anything even from members of my family. I always wanted to be independent. On that day, I swallowed my pride and called my girlfriend Thinlay Zangmongmoo (wife now) and asked her if she could help me with a few hundred bucks. She told me she’ll ask her brother.

After I called her, I got a call from an unknown number. A guy spoke in soft Tshanglakha, ‘Daza told me you needed some money. Can you come to town?’ It was my girlfriend’s brother.

I thought she would ask money from brother saying it’s for herself and then she would give it to me. But she’s an honest girl. She told him the truth. Only god and I know how awkward it was to be taking money from my future brother in law on our first meeting. 

Few days after that incident, I was in Phuntsholing with some work. The RCSE results were out. All of us had passed but none of us made it in the top 36. To make it worse, later, on that same day, I got a call from my friend. “Kezang, you need to come up.” He said. “We had to vacate the house. We are at your Ana’s place.”

My sister lived in a construction camp at Hejo. We would have congested her makeshift house. So, I came back to Thimphu.

On my return we met with a college senior who ran a small company. He and his staff were constantly on tour. So, he let us live in his office at Changzamtog. Living in that office, each of us eventually found jobs. 

editor-KEZANG DORJI

45-day Yarney or Summer Retreat around this time of the year.

While we have to undergo occasional lockdown and compulsory 14-day quarantine ever since the pandemic, the monks in various Shedras (Monastic Institutions) have been observing what is known as the 45-day Yarney or Summer Retreat around this time of the year.

However this is neither in response to COVID-19 situation nor to the new Delta variant.

It is a tradition which was introduced by Buddha Shakyamuni more than 3000 years ago in response to a criticism levelled against the Sangha, who is said to have no regard for insects' life that are killed under their feet as the monks come out for alms in the villages.

As skillful as he is, Buddha took the criticism positively and called upon the monks to remain in retreat to avoid accidental killing of insects that increase in number especially during summer. Hence the name Yarney or Summer Retreat.

In this way, the insects are saved from accidental deaths and the critics are saved from bad karma that is generated from criticising the Sangha. By bringing the alms to Sangha, the patrons are able to generate good Karma as well.

In Bhutan, this tradition was first initiated at Cheri and now it is observed this time of the year at various Shedras in the country. The tradition was widely propagated by His Holiness Chabjey Thrizur the 68th Jey Khenpo.

During this period, the monks remain within the campus and observe three different categories of sacred vows. The merit thus generated is said to cleansed the demerits brought about through breaking of vows by the monks and the lay people. Sacred rituals and profound prayers are conducted by the monks whoes body, speech and mind remain in the purest state for the wellbeing of Tsa Wa Sum and the sentient beings.

May the spritual positivities thus generated swiftly wipe out the pandemic from the face of the world as well.

"Be kind to unkind people. They need it the most."