To Be Young and In Love

I’m 22 years old now. Had I been in college pursuing any other degree, I probably would have finished my degree and might been a working man. That is, if I had been fortunate enough to escape the youth unemployment crisis that currently plagues my country. Instead, here I am dragging myself from 7 am until 4:30 pm, sometimes up to 10 pm everyday including some Sundays between the corridors of a hospital and the lectures of my professing teachers at University and everything in between – like the jam-packed public buses of Sri Lanka and the incessant tropical rains that are a daily part of life here in order to earn my medical degree.

But amidst this hectic schedule, there is one thing I always look forward to everyday – to see the smiling face of my beloved sweetheart on Skype! She is hundreds of miles away back home but not a day passes by when we don’t speak to each other, even for the briefest moments possible. Ours is a fairy tale, a modern day love story, a story that we continue to write with each passing day. We first met online having “befriended” each other on a “social” networking site – the holy site that sanctified the letter “F” after centuries of its infamy. The first time we saw each other was not in person but over a video call on Skype! And it wasn’t until nearly eight months into our relationship that we finally met each other in person. Just over two decades ago and this story of ours would have been on the shelves of science fiction or the subject of ridicule or marked as insanity. Today, however, it is just another story that doesn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.

We, of course, belong to a different generation altogether. Right up until our parents’ time, marriages were the domain of the wise and old only. Unless you had a few grey hair up on your scalp, you were deemed unfit to have any say in such matters. My parents first met only after their grandparents had met each other, consulted the holy astrologers and ensured that their horoscopes were “matched” with heavenly approval for their union. A whole procession of relatives led by the elders had to accompany my father to go and ask for the groom, my mother in marriage. If both of them liked each other then, I shall never know. “So how did you find Mom?” “Was Appa (father) handsome?” are questions I can only dream of asking my parents. For no matter how friendly we are with our parents, some things are never discussed in my culture. I sort of like it that way. I have imagined a thousand ways of how my parents must have first set eyes on each other, and each time I imagine a different picture of their first encounter. Of course, having seen them over the past several years, I know that they love each other endlessly and have tremendous respect for each other. Nevertheless, I sometimes wish to know how they express their love for each other. For me, they’ve been the greatest example of true, unconditional love. Yet I have never seen it laid out in words or in so-called romantic gestures. I have simply seen and felt the love, love of epic proportions that even the most beautifully scripted romantic movie would dwarf in comparison.

So, to say that times have changed would be an understatement. “Time has completely reversed” might be more appropriate if only my statement didn’t sound so paradoxical; suffice it to say that it is a different era now. Ours is an age of 4G internet, of smartphones and apps and an age of unprecedented change in the history of human civilization. Naturally, our relationships and the way we connect has transformed too. If one were to think of it, in many ways, it is truly magical what we are experiencing today. We are no longer bounded by the traditional limitations of space and time. Had it not been for technology, I may have never met the love of my life, or perhaps we would have never known of each other’s existence, let alone fall in love like this. Unlike our parents, we didn’t match our horoscopes or let our families meet first. Instead we went to our parents and told them of “someone we had met”. “When we were your age and our parents said it was time for us to get married soon, we would blush and hide in our rooms”, my father reminisced. Well, I also did blush to be honest but I had to let them know somehow.

Each time before I post one of my poems written for my sweetheart on Facebook or a photograph of us together, I think of my parents and their stern faces of disapproval at such public display of affection. I have never seen my parents snugly hug each other even at home in front of us kids, let alone publicly. So I do hesitate for a moment sometimes, but then my love-drunk mind takes over and says “Well, come on buddy, you are only saying what you feel, honestly and freely.” It’s not like I want to be a rebel or something, it’s just that I am young and in love. And one can be young only once! Being hundreds of miles away from my love compels me to find new ways of expressing my feelings for her.

So as we mark our 1^st year anniversary of togetherness today, I find myself pondering over the way modern romance is transforming with technology and changing times. As I do so, I want to thank my dearly beloved, the love of my life and my better half, Dolma for her unconditional love. I wish you a very HAPPY 1^st YEAR ANNIVERSARY dear and I dedicate this piece to you and to our love. And I want to wish all my fellow lovebirds out there the very best of luck in your journeys as well, and to all those who are still looking for their special someone, just keep looking and have faith, you’ll find your soul mate just like I did, sometimes in the most unexpected of ways!

TEACHERS’ DAY

The whole of human civilization pivots around continued passage of knowledge accumulated thus far and generation of new knowledge henceforth. This unique ability to share and pass on our experiences, knowledge and wisdom gained collectively as a species has been key to our survival and dominance as a species on this planet. It serves as the foundation of our civilization, culture, arts, sciences and every other human creation – physical or abstract. At the very heart of this massive exercise is education. Although education today may be formalized to the walls of schools, colleges and universities and the various courses they teach and the qualifications they award, it essentially is a temple of learning where tremendous amounts of knowledge is disseminated. But most important of all, these institutions are supposed to lay the foundation for life-long learning and continued education. No wonder then that it has now become customary for all young ones of the species Homo sapiens sapiens to attend several years of formal education at school, college and then university until their early years of adulthood in the hope that this mantle of knowledge may be passed on successfully to another generation and the future of mankind (and womankind alike) be safeguarded. At the very heart of this practice are the teachers who are the custodians of all of our sacred knowledge.

Teachers, therefore, hold a very special role and position in human society. Long exalted as the noble profession, teaching is undoubtedly one of the toughest jobs on the planet as it entrusts an individual with the responsibility and ability of a young mind. For me the most powerful men and women are not the ones holding political offices or managing large corporation and financial institutions or conducting ground breaking scientific research - the most powerful individuals on this planet are the TEACHERS! They educate and nurture all the young minds who have the potential to become prominent figures in society in the future. Teachers possess a unique insight in the workings of a young mind and have the moral obligation to correct them during their most formative years. Children are an impressionable lot and it has often been noted that they religiously listen to and follow what their teachers say and do. A math sum even if incorrectly done by a teacher at school would be fiercely defended by his/her student back at home when a parent with a doctorate tries correcting it. Countless successful individuals will often quote their teachers as one of the most inspiring figures in their life. So the power entrusted in a teacher is beyond words can ever express or the mind can possibly comprehend. A teacher himself/herself may never realize how much influence he/she has had on the shaping of countless young minds and as a consequence the whole of human society and history.

Teachers are the ones who are always supposed to be punctual allowing the ring of a bell dictate their daily schedule. They work day in day out trying to set the best of examples to their pupils while teaching them in classrooms and outside. Teachers try to learn as much about their subject as possible so that their students may never be left out. Teachers spend their valuable time at home, time meant for their families, correcting our work and trying hard to identify and correct our weaknesses – which we often mistake as them being mean to us when we see our essays scrawled in red ink. They try to teach us the ways of the world within the safe, protective gates of the school so that one day we may be ready to face the harsh world. They try and inculcate the correct values in us so that we may be respected by our peers and society. However, teachers are not flawless, they are just as human as any one of us. But teachers sure are as close to an angel as a human can possibly get.

I personally attribute whatever little I have achieved so far and whatever I may accomplish in the future to the hard work of countless teachers who touched my life and molded me into the person that I am today. My very first teachers of course are my parents although they may not be so by profession. So as we celebrate Teachers’ Day in Bhutan on the birth anniversary of our beloved Third Druk Gyalpo today, I wish all the teachers of Bhutan a very HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY!