The Miner's Diary

The young teenage boy gets enrolled himself in the school at the age of fourteen. He starts his school as early as 4 am in the morning and gets back home by dusk in late evening or sometimes at night. He does his best and completes fourth grade. He discontinues his studies despite being a bright student to help his aging parents at home. He then joins his eldest brother to earn some money as laborer in Agarwood business somewhere in Assam boarder and Nagaland in India. He promises some gift to his young bride on his return from the forest far away in foreign land. This is the brief story of my hardworking father. His Agarwood stories of experience in the filed as young man use to thrill me. It was like horror movie story telling when he shared that they once shifted their camp in fallen dried logs to find out later it was a giant anaconda sleeping for long time to capture its prey. As I recall now that I was not matured enough to understand the details of the Agarwood business they d

The family tree is the basic social institution we graduate from birth to death but only few of us honor it. We somehow kept the old cliché of family business to its superficial understanding rather than its actual business. The business of our bloodline. We have neglected the very tree that gave us life and merely know the first generation relatives. We became so busy in our own lives that family meetings or gathering happened mostly when any elderly family member passes away. The first meeting of the first cousins or relatives also coincidently happens in such unceremonious time. We often visit cities and market place for leisure and vacation but seldom visit our own home or relatives. Many of our children must have never seen their living grandparents. We know more strangers than our own family members. We became so divided that we unite only when we are dying.   We don’t get along even if we get life time opportunity to live together in a large family or separately after marriage

  My Dear Pranika! Happy Birthday To You Dear! I am so sorry that I am not able to reach home today on your 8 th Birthday. I tried my best and all are helping me to reach back home soon. The lockdown here is not yet over like there in Pugli. You are a good girl and I know you don’t want your papa to break the lockdown rules, right? Smart girl! I also may not be able to bring the gifts you asked me because I won’t be allowed to visit the markets on my way back. But I promise I will buy you all the gifts when situation gets normal. So, today you can celebrate your birthday with sister Buku, Mummy and Deepan dada, Ok? I will make a cake for you once I reach home and re-celebrate your birthday, Ok? Good girl! I wish you Happy Birthday with lots of love and blessings. I wish you good health and joyful life as you grow. I wish you to be Papa’s and Mummy’s caring daughter and loving sister to our Buku. I wish you to be a good human being. You have been our source of happiness and inspi

  The Bhutanese Poultry Farmers are not happy ever since the government decided to import the eggs from India to ‘Address Shortage and to Lower Costs’ (Kuensel-January 11, 2022). The Mongar Poultry Farmers’ petition dismissal by the Court (BBS-February 15, 2022) is another blow to the farmers across the country. Everyone knew the shortage was due to the contaminated Karma Feed affect and not from farmers’ end. They were not even fairly compensated and yet many innocent farmers kept silent. They digested their loss and still striving with their remaining lot at their farm house. While, our highly educated consumers and netizen were blunt and bold to blame the toiling illiterate farmers for overpriced tag. Some disguised politician in the fake face book page writes a humiliating and discouraging message to the farmers stating they will keep importing eggs till the price normalizes. It is not the farmers who sky rocketed the price of local eggs but the covetous vendors or middleman wh

  Thou art my lucky star, I was constantly gazing at you, From the crowd of buzzing lovers afar, And I finally found you there smiling in a queue!   Thy beauty in my eyes, Was an immortal image to behold, For thou became the love of my choice, And I shall cherish our bond of love truly bold!   Thy love sparkle in darkest, Throughout the journey of our brief life, Alas my love in the voyage drifted to the farthest, Leaving me all alone all over again myself to strive!   I need thy lost love, To embrace my solitary waiting soul, And bring back those intimate romance alive, For I need thy love for the rest of my life to be blissful!   Keep me in thy love green, Not just in special occasions once a year, But all day all night passionate that could have been, For I yearn for never fading love with my eyes filled in tears!   Talk to me my love, Walk with me under the moonlit night, Love me tonight to the merging soul I dissolve, For I n

I chose Tashi Cell over Bhutan Telecom (B-Cell) for its better connectivity in my work place. I have been enjoying their services for quite long time now and the customer service trust was growing until I tried their Student Chenpo Data Plan of Nu.697 for 32,493 MB. My wife who is also a Tashi Cell user wanted me to recharge her the best Data Plan through eTeeru app in my Cell. She also wanted to keep her promise to recharge her Cell through eTeeru for my CashBack Wallet of 4% in every recharge. So, I decided to impress her with Student Chenpo Plan only to discover that her talk time became nil while she browsed the net as usual after the recharge. She was furious instead of impressed with my offer. I dialed the Customer Care number and they confirmed that the recharge has been successful. I explained them that the data is not working as the talk time is being deducted while using the internet. They suggested to switch off the cell once and set the network in 4G option. The suggestio

  I was born out of it, Why should I run away from it now? I was clinging firmly on the strong walls of the uterus, Travelling through the fallopian tube after the great union of my parents’ love!   Why Should I discriminate it now? By chance of my own being in the process of another life, Am I not selfish to the women I owe much as a legitimate creator? It’s all about breaking down of unlucky potential life not a taboo blood stain!   No man experiences the pain, The woman goes through every cycle without any complain. Yet many ignore and distant them rather than giving them comfort. The society at large still believe that they are dirty to prepare food or enter temple!   Let us not fool ourselves, In the beliefs of unhygienic minds of the hyenic nature, That came out of uneducated dominating minds towards women, For we ought to teach our younger generation to respect woman for better future!   My dear girls and women, You all can cook as long yo

  Nganglam is a South-eastern region of the country sharing a border with Pathsala, India at Pelzomthang (Bijan Bari), Integrated Check-post (ICP). It's about 7 km drive from ICP to Nganglam Town. Nganglam is evolving at quick pace after the country's biggest Cement Plant came into existence since 2012. Ever since the project phase of Dungsam Cement Corporation Ltd. (DCCL) in 2008, the Nganglam Town simultaneously started its construction activities. The Nganglam Town The giant DCCL The Town has evolved since then with shopping centers to hotels to banking services. The Town stretches in Phatoongwong area within 1 km on both left and right Bank of Nganglam River. The area is quite congested to call it a Town and one can see only few buildings but there are about eleven hotels in the hidden town. The Nganglam River has given its space of both right and left bank for the town to come up and the DCCL cement factory in Tshenkeri. The Nganglam River  The Nganglam Town and the DCCL f

  My Dear Niblings, You all are the luckiest children among many deprived ones in this World. You all are the loved and cared children of your hard working parents. You all are the Z- Generation of this 21 st Century in modern era today. You all own a mobile phone for easy excess to digital world while your parents can’t still afford one. You are given choice to spend your winter or summer break as a holiday package while most of your Uncle and Aunts use to help the parents back at village or earn for next school season expanses through temporary job. A very few of you have just experienced the temporary jobs for a short period and even parents don’t want you all to toil like they did just to make you more educated in the hope of better life for you all and them. They have invested a lot in you all both in time and money so far. They have sacrificed many things in life since your childhood till this teenage age with the expectation of better son and daughter every day. You all will

  My birding journey started four years ago (2017) when my cousin (Mr. Sancha Rai~Teacher) introduced me to the Birds of Bhutan Face Book page group. Ever since I have never looked back in this beautiful journey of Bird Watching except some flashback of catapult business in the cowboy days. It was kind of hunter to hermit way of my journey for my personal growth and contribution to the society at large. My colleagues were surprised to see me take this hobby as a mining man but my avid birder friends were amazed to see me join them. Their company and guidance helped me identify many species and its habitat till date. My dream of adding at least one new species record to Bhutan’s Birds List was fulfilled when I photographed Black-headed Cuckooshrike ( Lalage melanoptera ) in Nyoenpaling (Pugli B), Phuntshopelri, Samtse on 19 th May, 2021. I have also added several new lists to the Birds of Samtse like Eurasian Sparrowhawk ( Accipiter nisus ) to the latest sighting of Dark-sided Th

  Our forefathers might have defended themselves from the wild animals in the caves. Slowly, they evolved to be superior and feared their own species instead of animals. They became more defensive and egoistic in the ever growing World. The boundaries in the brilliant minds resulted in different castes and different belief system in to religions. The awakened ones left their legacies and the rest are still confused in this momentary world. We were looking for a solution of open and better world for tomorrow but none of us were willing to change the mindset we probably  inherited from our forefathers. The fear of opening to outsiders and the outside world. Fortunately, our visionary Monarchs and forefathers opened up to be in this modern era of the 21st century. While many  of us still live in the past centuries with those mindset of hiding and defending. Our ancestors feared that any outsiders even if they are from the next village would put them to suspicious thought of theft or r