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.