My angie's story

My eight years old daughter would never run out of alibis to turn study time into something that she loves doing. At times I feel I'm a failure as a mother. Every evening, we have to quarrel over her study timing. "5-7 PM miss, you ain't budging an inch. STUDY!" I warn her. Meekly she turns away from me and takes her seat. I turn on my phone to see some updates, if any, in my facebook and she is there, smiling beside me, " mama can I show you something in your phone?" I bark out the timing again and she jumps back to her room.

It is so difficult making kids follow their study routine seriously. Sometimes she comes out after one hour with some crafts she has made using papers and other stuff. Other times she shows me beautiful cards that she has made for me. And I am so taken in by her arts and crafts that I forget that she has studying to do.

So, yesterday, I told her from the beginning itself that she cannot work on any art project during the study hours. "Mama, is writing a story studying?" she asks me. I give her a nasty look that sends her scurrying to her room. Fifteen minutes after that look, she returns with an impish grin plastered on her face and hands me this paper. "Mama, I just made up this story!"

I read and re-read her story. Amazed and happy. Of course, I see some spelling errors here and there but what captures my attention is the minute details of punctuation marks that she has taken care of in her story. I know they have still not learnt anything about the inverted commas and I see that she has used it so correctly. Then there is the moral of the story that catches my attention. "Angie what is gonna happen if you don't do good listening to mama?"

She has understood without me having to explain it. After all, she wrote the story in which the naughty chickens dies after failing to listen to their mother Hen's words, not me!

I'm singing

Today there is a song; playing on my lips. The tune that I thought I had forgotten returns. With the tune comes the melody which fills me with ecstasy. And I sing......yes! I sing! I sing of the clear blue sky in which I placed the clouds of my dreams.

I sing of the treacherous cliffs on which I left my rugged hopes hanging. The tune disappears for a while and I prance around; scared that this time I've lost it for good. But it's only a while and the spasms of tune returns, and I hum the forgotten tune back to life.

And hence I sing, of the vast green sea of love that I spread and the melody picks up. So, in a breaking shrill crescendo I sing of the Abundance of bounty that I shall soon harvest.

I sing of the white moon lying blindfolded in the embrace of the black night. There is an unspeakable beauty in the darkest of the night. When the dark curtain lifts its mighty presence; I sing of the freedom of the pretty birds that fly ceaselessly in the empty sky. And I continue singing.........

My handbag is a monster

My handbag is a monster 
It eats up all I can offer. 
My purse, a diary, the book I' m reading
In these goes; every morning. 

My pen, few markers and not to forget
Red inked pens; and a lot of it
All lay trapped in my bag. 

Used vouchers, bits of papers
Names of students
Those who were found shouting
And those who had done good;
All chomp! Chomp! Chomp!
Goes into the belly of my bag. 

A note scribbled here
A reminder scribbled there
Whoosh! It goes inside my bag. 

My blue umbrella and my
Purple phone
Are the only two things
That are vomited frequently
Out of this monster. 

My bag is a monster
And this monster goes
Wherever I go. 

My Class Football Team

" Since the lower classes are never getting the opportunity to participate in House football matches, this year we've decided to have inter-class football tournament for classes 4 & 5," as soon as this was announced in the assembly I saw an uproar in my class. "Madam, do we need to buy boots?" I cast a glance at some boys who may not be in a position to ask their parents for the same,and reply,"No, none of you are going to ask your parents to buy that for one silly match!"

"Owwww," snaps Kinley, who is son of a Contractor. Phuntsho and Khenrab run towards him and they go 'mumble, mumble, mumble.' Not wanting to hurt them I add," but if you already have it, you can wear it."

"YESSSS!" the trio yell in unison with their tiny ten year old's fist raised. Since that day a month ago they have been pelting on me questions about their so many football related issues. But the match had to be postponed owing to two weeks of Reading week followed by the Earthquake drill and other activities that required immediate action than their promised knock-out match.

Then finally, yesterday, the much awaited moment came! It was announced in the assembly by the Games teacher, "today we are going to start the match. The first match will be between 5A and 5B."

My 5A boys do not wait for me to take their attendance. As soon as I walk into the class, I am bombarded with thousand and one issues they have for the match they are going to have in the evening. "Madam, Jigme has to be our goalie but he doesn't want to play," is the first thing I hear before the usual "good morning madam."

I've only 15 boys and if Jigme says 'no' then I am left with only 3 extra players so I coax Jigme. Tears brimming in his eyes, he shakes his head whenever I ask him why he wouldn't want to play for his class. Somehow I find out that Jigme lost his boots just few days ago, owing to which his mom has promised that she would break his bones if he even think of football. I call up his mom and convince her to set Jigme free of this pledge.

Whew! I walk back into the class putting off my phone. "Jigme is playing but he doesn't want to be goalie madam," they report as soon as my head emerges into the class. I scan through the sea of faces and exclaim, "Arun, you be the goalie!"

"No madam! He is the main striker!" they shout in unison. "Khenrab?" I ask unsure (afterall what do I know of football?). "He has to play defence," they scream. There is total chaos now. Amid confusion, I see a tiny little hand go up. "Madam, I'll be the goalie," quips the tiniest boy in the class. "No, Sonam Chophel, class 5B boys are far more stronger for you," I discard his proposal before the others mock him.

"What about Chhoeing?" I hear some girls suggest. "He is wings," shouts Kinley. I almost see chubby Chhoeing flying with a pair of white wings.

I take a solemn look at everybody in the class and totally defeated, I go back to Jigme, fold my arms and order," Jigme, you are our goalie!"

Before there is any more refusal, I open the book and start reading. Everybody shuffles towards their respective seats and with disinterest written well over their faces sit down to read "Mum, dad and me".

Classes over, I go down to find all of my boys in the football ground. All save Jigme. Jigme has run away! Sangay has randomly been pushed towards the goal post. The referee blows the whistle and my boys, all wearing new football jersey and boots( They have bought it after all!) are found running like a huge circular mass around the ball.

"Hah!" I laugh the loudest. Hadn't I heard them talk of Wings, centre and so many other terms? I catch my tummy, laughing as my boys come out of the field having been defeated 2-0 by the strong 5B boys.

Lonely? Try WeChat!

When I was a little girl,Losars used to be the much awaited time of my life 'cause it was the only time, the whole lot of my family members came under one roof. No matter in which part of the country we were in, all of us would try to make it to my grandparents' place for losar. It was the only time of the year when the Eight siblings of my dad's side would crash in with their mini families, which consisted of my well loved cousins. Songs and dances, games and laughter; tears and everything would ensue within those few days we stayed together.

But time ( who else can I blame?) has ensnared each of us, keeping us entangled in the gruesome grinding of daily life that the ritual of meeting at my grandparents' place has all but become mere memories. Now that I look back I feel sometimes some of my cousins had almost become non-existent as we lost touch.

It's kind of sad that in this grueling world, we get so entwined in living a life that drains out all of our energy but is actually devoid of all soul. Many a times, during the day, I stop for certain period of time and contemplate on the kind of robot that we all have become.

But these days, things have changed in my family. My apa ( wish I could type my parents instead of just apa! Sigh!), his whole bunch of brothers and sisters and their kids are actually in conversation daily. We sing songs, we tell each other about the daily mundane things of life and hey! we are not even in our grandparents house for losar! and no we aren't spending tonnes of money in calling up each other over phone.

And all these has been made possible, all thanks to the apps called WeChat and the group my aunty created in it. So, there is no room for loneliness in my life now. I start my day by listening to the talks of my other siblings who would have blabbered when I was wandering in the slumber world. And through out the day I try to catch in their conversation and join in till I decide to close my eyes, calling it a day. Now, even my kids can make out who is who in our large family for they hear these voices all the time. But most important of all, this apps have brought all of us under one roof and that too not just for Losar but everyday of our lives!

If you live away from your family and loneliness grips your heart like an old foe, get WeChat on your phone and go on listening to them even when they aren't actually talking to you. Make you day come alive!

(lemme stop here before I start sounding like I'm the official WeChat Brand officer,lol)

Bhutanese Bloggers e-Conference

Thank you Madam Rekha Monger for this initiative. Well, I read about this Bhutanese Bloggers' econference in Passu's blog this morning but I wasn't very sure about taking a dip in this thing. And especially the timing is not really favorable for me as I'm totally lost in the whirlpool of my school's Reading Week activities. But then, when I opened my fb just to let my tired mind find its respite in the silly nothings that my friends post, I found Ngawang sir had tagged me for the same. Much as I wanted to make tiredness an excuse to escape my fingers simply didn't comply with my reluctance. So, here I am answering the questions, as required.

1. Why did you start blogging in the first place? And what’s the story behind your blog title?

I may not qualify as an active Blogger and the things I put in my blog is some silly gibberish things that run through my mind at some silly hours of the day. However, since I do put up some words in my so called blog, I think I shall behave like a blogger and start my story (heheh).

way back in 2009, I came across Nopkin.com and once I registered myself there, I found some kind of a solace. Words seemed to have laid a firm grip on me and each day, all I wanted to do was write, write and write. But not having adequate knowledge on subjects that might qualify me for a thinker I started tinkering with the idea of 'love and romance.' As I took up the role of love seriously I found myself enveloped in a different world of mistrust and mis- judgement. So, then ( Due apologies to Nopkin admins) I removed all my posts from there. I know I was naive and even to some point innocently foolish!

Having chosen to come out of Nopkin made me feel empty. There were words scratching my heart, wounding me to the point that I needed another space to fill in. Luckily, I came across this blogspot.com and I immediately transferred all of my posts from Nopkin.

But having a blog of one's own and writing in that public arena were two different things. Here, I tightened my words ( and it suffocated my inspiration) and hence I found myself writing mostly about my kids and my feelings in general. So, then I decided to call it 'feelings and emotions." All I wanted my blog to hold was my true feelings and emotions felt at the moment I chose to sit down and type.

2. How long have you been blogging? Where are you based?
Like I said, it was way back in 2009. I was in Mongar then and currently I am posting from Bumthang.

3. How do you schedule your blog post? Daily or weekly? Or as and when inspiration strikes you?
I do not follow a regular schedule nor do I make an effort to update it on a regualr basis. There are days when almost forget that I've created something called a blog even and yet! there are days when so many feelings and emotions pour out of my heart that I just cannot do without putting it in words.So, I listen to my heart and pen it down (time allowing, for a full time mother of three and a full time teacher can seldom find time to even think of anything other than my kids and my students).
And few of the readers I've should be forewarned that there cannot be any thing sillier than my posts in this whole blogspere where people think and write. For me, I feel and I put it down and my feelings are nothing special!
4. Does your family and friends know about your blog?
Well, my husband does know about my blog but I don't think he is even remotely interested in the silly emotions I write in this space here. And my Best friends do know I have a blog but FB eats up all of their time so they DO NOT follow my blog. And sadly, I realized none of my family members know that I've a blog.


P.S. Ngawang sir, I took u tagging me seriously and here I am, all done!