Where to find peace?

If one happens to visit Dehradun, a place with extremities in weather condition and a capital of Uttarkhand state, it’s worth visiting the following place.

Stupa dedicated to descending day of lord Buddha 

Eight Rupees drive in a tri wheeled vikram, a local conveyance from the heart of Dehradun city lies a hamlet of Tibetan settlement.  Clement town or the Buddha temple is a name referred by the native inhabitants despite it is known by Mendroling for the Tibetans or the Buddhist disciples.    

Daily hundreds of people from different religious background visit the place seeking solace in either form. Buddhist come to pay homage to the monasteries and Buddha status unlike other who come for recreation since the compound of Mendroling is free from the suffocated city atmosphere.

Giant statue of Lord Buddha 

Goddess Yangchen -ma

A mighty Stupa of roughly 180ft tall is seen standing significantly in the middle of the lawn with lush green grass, dedicated to the descending day of Lord Buddha. Eight small stupas of different architect, four on both side and a statue of gorgeous Goddess Yangchen-ma playing a musical instrument in front of the stupa makes the charm of Mendroling. 

Several meter ahead of reaching to the stupa, a majestic standing statue of Buddha painted with golden in a blessing posture is another architect that drags the attention of the visitors aside of temperature shooting to boiling point during the summer season.

Mendroling goenpa (Monastry) and a Shedra (Buddhist College) are well known for the Nyingma doctrine and pretty good number of monks from Bhutan gets enrolled every year.

As a seldom visitor with the variety in cultural diversity it seems that the stupa with a peaceful surrounding is serving a purpose of recreational park for the youth besides of its prime objective to flourish the doctrine of Buddha dharma.

Provided a surplus time, visitor also enjoys shopping from the facilities offered by the Monastic welfare shopping complex harboured in semi circular building located near the stupa.

Shopping complex

                                                            

FATE OF KALIKHOLA ...

Miles dragged by meters, glittering heavenly eyes engulfed by heavy cotton at any moment ready to compromise its anger with outburst of intense tears banging mother earth without any empathy, was the scenario still vivid in my mind, which was two days before when I was voyaging towards khalikhola, an isolated patch of settlement in southern Bhutan.

“Khalikhola” (kali- black, khola-river) is what the inhabitants explain when if any one questions, what do …..? The word is originated from Lho-Sam Kha  (Nepali language) based on the seasonal river which deprives them from other facilities which they are bound to be getting … but some believe it’s attributed to Goddess kali, the guardian, leading to development of questions and curiosity, saying which? What? How? ... And so on…full of Kipling's servants.

History, the story of present deeds convinces that the hamlet was registered under Sarpang district, a place shouldering maximum  plain area in whole land locked country but presently governed by Dagana district since somewhere in 2007 and nationalized as LHAMOZHINGKHA (lhamo- goddess, zhingkha-still water body)… May be this is the answer for what I was wondering …. Place beautified with teak and sal plantation on either side of the partially deserted motor road, as hardly any vehicle ply on it aside of pitiful bicycle … but road must not be blamed because it’s the bridge and source less river that deprives the motor from being plied.

Nature a system which proudly follows Newton third law “every action has its equal and opposite reaction” consist of four different seasons. Autumn full of yellowish followed by dry warm winter giving its way to lush green with conspicuous flowering and heavily knocked by summer season with reckless monsoon. Generally every season has some draw backs but summer or the monsoon is the worst period of the year that ever experiences by khalikhola. Although rain is a boon for the farmers, I mention it as a necessary evil because with the advent of heavy heavenly tears, it regulates the heat and drench the field for agricultural works but river kali get surplus runoff feeding making it tough enough to feed its fury with causalities, enforcing inhabitants to limit their accessibility.

Hamlet is situated at the foothills of gigantic siblings of upcoming eastern Himalaya embraced by faithfully drained Sunkosh river adventuring all the way from north to south witnessing several good and bad. Presently with the advent of the plan to undergo Sunkosh power project, inhabitants  kneeling on their knees converting  their two  palms in to one with a pure heart pray “ OH GOD LET OUR PLACE BE FREE FROM ALL THE PROBLEMS OF INACCESSIBILITY, MAY OUR WISH BE FULFILLED BY UP COMING POWER PROJECT”

Turning over a new leaf….

Long time back the school was reputed for a good academic performance although it’s situated in one of the remotest and least developed district. Majestically structured, in mid hill facing snow capped Black mountain range stretching from central to southern foothill of Bhutan. Every year several hundred of students in woollen mathra attire gather from different region to acquire wisdom from Zhemgang Higher Secondary School. School was also known for accommodating one of the highest numbers of boarding student resulting in poor mess facilities.

By the time we joined the school in year 2006, we were surprise to find that the reputation of the school has transformed to one of the highly ragging prevalent school. It made us develop fear in our mind as a young boy. First night of our stay in hostel was sleepless as seniors frequented visiting our rooms with various forms of briefing under influence of alcohol. But with time and acquaintance everything got stabilised to normal. 

School days passed on resorting on eating mixture of kharang (grained maize or golden rice) cum rice with daily potato curry and seldom supplemented with canned fish from mess for survival. During the summer vegetable growing season, most of the student supplemented their diet with the stolen fresh vegetable stuffs from the locality. Stealing from the field of farmer was a part of daily night activities to those of us who were staying in hostel, although everyone were aware that stealing the product of others laborious hard work is sinful.

Everything was changing with a time, but I never stopped to give a second thought to what was going around me and its possible impact in future.  Two years of stay at ZHSS passed away without much input in my life despite I should have been sensible enough to understand the impact of my deeds.

Somewhere in the month of January 2008, BHSCE result was declared and I wasn’t surprise to see that my performance was average among several hundred of us who appeared for exam. Despite short listing, I wasn’t selected in any of the further studies.

Since, I couldn’t qualify for any of the further studies either of in-country or outside. I was solely decided to join the diploma courses which were being provided by Royal Government of Bhutan as a part of higher education for the unqualified students or let’s say average performers in class 12 examination.

But to my surprise, elder siblings have decided to send me outside country to pursue higher studies and they were really initiative with full support and encouragement.

On August month of 2008, I started my journey towards my college which was total stranger place to me, a country boy who have never gone beyond border town.

That particular moment of my life, my thoughts were very joyful as I was provided with a second chance to turn myself over a new leaf. The dark night was dragged by morning sunshine of twenty second day of eighth month of year 2008 and it was a time for me to depart leaving mother land behind and taking up the stranger place known as India to built my career.

I was happy to depart as I was going for higher studies but on other hand felt really sad and heavy hearted when I saw my dear mom waving her hands with rolling crystal clear teardrops from her unforgettable face but I was left with no other choice than to wave good bye to her and other siblings.

With nonstop 36 hours, continuous and tedious journey by Raj-dhani train and buses, under guidance of Choki Gyeltsen and Karma Tenzin, a senior student  who were studying at Dehradun. I finally arrived to my destination, which was totally contradictory from what I have anticipated.

Famously known as Dheradun, the state capital of Uttarkhand and a new state developed from Uttar Pradesh state. The place is well known for some of the reputed institutes of India like IMA, IFS and IAS etc. 

As I was like a small fish in a big pond, with lack of counselling on career opportunities of the particular course, I had a hard time to decide whether to pursue B.Pharma, a field of medicine or B.Sc. Forestry, which seems to have a narrow scope in current job market.  But fate landed me to forestry course as I was little late for the admission to B.Pharma.

At the advent of college session only two of us were the white crows in the crowd of sixteen black crows, as all of them were native to India except me and my course mate Karma Yangden, a lady from Wangduphodrang.  It made me feel like I was a handicapped boy left inside a narrow deep valley as most of the time Indian fellow use to neglect us.  To my astonishment I could find that they were such a people who hardly wish to mingle with other race similar to that of dog and cats does.

This time it must have been due to a karmic deeds or a fate, after few isolated college days again two more Bhutanese in-service candidates joined our class, bringing hope of happiness in me. Dawa Tshering and Rinchen Wangchuk, who has been actively serving RNR-RDC and Park for more than past eight years respectively, were the two in-service.  

From that particular day (1^st sept, 2008), onwards I was always attached with them like a magnet not only during college hours but throughout the days since we were house mate too. 

Although my friends were several years older than me, we use to have a good time staying and studying together  and two of them frequently advising  and guiding me towards the right path of do and don’ts  in life out of their experience, despite the quote, “old and youth can hardly stay together”.  I would like to sincerely thank them for sharing their vast experience as an elder to bring me to a right track.

With the passage of time I could develop a genuine interest in the field of forestry, a course which make us aware of our daily environment.

Taking an advantages of my second chance, for past four years despite a huge room for enjoyment, I refrained myself from wasting of unnecessary time and always grabbed an opportunity to engulf and engrain myself with every possible wisdom.   

After successful completion of four year course from Dolphin (P.G) Institute of Bio-medical and Natural Sciences, I sat for RCSC exam 2012 and was lucky enough to clear the exam (7th rank among 24). Being, selected in to a prestigious seat of Bhutan civil service, I sincerely feel hard work is always rewarded.