Servicism

The Nation's Becoming Drivers

 Fully determined, the boys of Moshi primary school greeted me with loud Kuzu zangpo and then I reciprocated by smiling back as I was on my way to Phugayoe. "Uncle drop us to our place," uttered the youngest one. "Why do I need to lift you, boys?"  "Sorry uncle," replied the boy in a white gho as he began to pull his youngest friend aside.  "Get inside, I just wanted you guys to get home very late."  "Kadrinchoela."

With aura of their puerile innocence and inoffensiveness, my way of treating them differently didn't bother them at all. In the mid of our silent journey, one of the boys dared to ask me, " Ata where do you work?" I turned back and replied, "I am a driver."  "Wow! We too aspires to become a driver," shouted the boys from the back seat of a car. 
"Then why do you walk to the school every day if you aspire to become a driver?"  "I attend school every day to become an educated driver," replied the eldest boy.
 "Why do you boys prefer to become drivers to dashos then?"
"Do dashos drive trucks?" asked the eldest boy.
"No. That's not their job."
"What do they really do?"  I tried every second of our journey to convince and influence those little kids but it went all in vain. Before we finally depart, we stopped for a while and I intentionally reasked them, "What do you want to become?"
"I want to become a driver," replied the youngest boy.  "Because both dashos and drivers can drive the nation forward," responded the other two boys.
"Yeah you all are right. Like dashos, drivers too work for the nation, " I reaffirmed them as I bade goodbye to those determined boys.

(Reflecting upon their responses, am I not wrongly educated? But it's morally unsound to blame the system!  Singularizing my attitudinal outlook towards the stratification of jobs, I learnt that I am too parochial to segregate it based on the social structure. Delving into what is really unseen, almost all of us fail to see what and who really keeps us surviving!  Sans any interdependent relation, a lion can't become the head of the system simply by sidelining the works of the poor earthworms. Thus, for the nation to prosper both the lions and earthworms must play their roles and respect each other's job.)

Education

Educationism: of thoughts beyond the radius of limitless passion and job

Kencho Tenzin, a grade one boy of Zangtherpo primary school upon seeing me greeted with a smile and bowed, "Kuzuzangpola." I smiled back and told him, "I am a stranger to you. So why do you greet?" No wonder the boy smiled, "Uncle I always make a point to greet anyone whenever and wherever I meet them."
There's sustenance in his words. More than the gesture of veneration, kuzuzangpola is perhaps a prelude to closeness and friendship. It's true that etiquette begins at home as the boy told me the way his parents brought him up. His exhibition of decency and a behaviour like a well-seasoned citizen in his formative years can tell us how etiquette can mould every one of us. A proper parenting and befitting personal manner can create a successful home and a harmonious nation.
Walking all the way from Dawathang for the purpose of schooling, Kencho aspires to become a gentleman. And on asking him a question why he doesn't want to become someone in his life, he smiled again and said, "First I want to become a gentleman and then I may fit to work anywhere." If we have graduates with an attitude like the little boy, we needn't have to find any panacea for tackling different social ills. Kudos to little friend Kencho. Hoping to see him again.

Crastination: a prized time in between precrastination and procrastination.

It’s true that the early bird gets the shaft and fills his tummy.  Contrarily, what about the late mouse who is often escaped from getting into a trap?  Everyone wants to put things on track every time and one deliberately looks for understanding the difficult task at the very first hand.

        Measure twice, cut once? Ritualistically putting tasks off for a later time can be taxing and getting tasks done more quickly than what is required can make one repent later. Students burning the midnight oil to get their assignments submitted before the impending deadline and a potter making pots hastily without basking it in the sun can never yield a fruitful reward.

         Procrastinating work and reaping euphoric rush or precastinating work and reaping euphoric redo?  Crastination is about emotional stability not about the desired productivity. It is process-oriented as well as product-oriented! Crastination is doing the right thing at the right time and in the right place! It focuses on de-working and unworking unlike reworking in case of precrastination and procrastination. It’s about making the difficult tasks easier and suppressing of blame-game when failing to meet the desired result. It involves seeking priorities or preferences over ignorance or avoidance in producing a fruitful outcome. It focuses to overcome one’s perception of overestimating or underestimating how long certain activities will take to complete.  It requires one to work with high attention and self-motivation! Thus, it’s all about making a rational choice and being satisfied with your work!

        Crastination helps to overcome one’s social disease so-called underperformance. By crastinating time, one decides to avoid self-deception which requires one to have a false belief to perform better at last under intense pressure; or perhaps overcome ego of believing that one is relieved from stress if thing is done at first. There’s neither fear of failure nor pride for success if one crastinate his work!

Crastination is all about:

        i.         Feeling to do work

      ii.         Remembering to work

    iii.         Caring works to be get done

     iv.         Knowing what needs to be done

      v.         Knowing how to do something

     vi.         Igniting the initiative to get things started

   vii.         Being in the habit of doing the first thing first

 viii.         Undertaking task beforehand at the right time

     ix.         Prioritizing important tasks over the least important ones

      x.         Believing that you work better when things are done without pressure

     xi.         Knowing that you shouldn’t work hastily or keeping work to be done at last.

     

Crastination is not all about rushing to complete your assignment at the eleventh hour or hastily writing your assignment at the earliest and you are asked to redo your work!

Sarvamangalam

Homage to Ugyen Guru Rinpoche

Homage to the dual-free King;
The son of unborn Dharmadhatu,
Known as a lake born Vajra or Padmakara;
Revered as the son of rigpa Samantabhadra
You are the child of rigpa Samantabhadri;
Known for taming the Matarutah and Mara,
You are the dispeller of Dhukha and ignorance.
Venerated as a father of Shunyata and Ningjed,
You are a brother and savior of all beings!
Known for being a lover of sorrowful beings;
You are the healer of pain, misfortune and sins.
Prostrated as a blesser of prosperous beings
You equally guard both good and bad beings;
To the owner and lord of Nubchog Ngayabling
May you remove the plights of sentient beings 
And kindly take all of us to your blissful land!
Homage to the Awakened or Precious Master
May you kindly shower us with your Siddhis!
Om Ah Hung Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Hung!

Sarvamangalam

Organicism: beyond toxicity and exoticity

What's the charm of Kharang during the time of the outbreak of covid-19?

Is present not the key to our past? What can really renew, reconstruct and resonate our reality of being a real realm? What needs to be really revived and reglorified if a realm has to reaffirm and renew her residentship? Should we be reawakened?  Does the nation require to retain Kharang and reclaim it as our staple food?  Isn't it true that the agriculture-based economy will survive during the time of pandemic? Think of lockdown. Kudos to the maize growers!

What food besides Emadhatshi (curry) can we show to the world that represents us as a Bhutanese?  India has roti, Chinese have noodles and what food do we really have to claim it as ours? Ashom Kharang? 

Ashom or maize in the past was consumed in the form of food, porridge and cornflakes. What about our current dietary patterns? Sadly, the shift from subsistence to commercial farming has made town dwellers more dependent on imported rice than Kharang.  How many of our citizens have pride and charm in eating Kharang yomri (porridge) as breakfast, bokpi (flour) as lunch and mukang(cornflake) as their supper? Are we proud enough to see rice,  bread and noodles on our tables before meals? Today we acculturate to the food culture of the West and boast that we consume globalized bread and rice, forgetting our glocalized Kharang. 

Kharang connects us to our ancestral home and food.  It bonds us with our soil!  Besides guarding our identity, it shows who we are and makes us more native. Kharang is the root of our pride and history. 

Kharang  makes our economy more permacultured. With abundant home-grown maize,  we needn't have to battle for grains.  Besides greening our wealth, it makes us more healthy. 

Kharang is our destiny.  It is the life-line for reaffirming our sovereignty. It makes us more Bhutanese and self-reliant. Besides freeing us from adulterated and toxic goods, it makes us more organic and Drukpa-ed! 

Kharang is the symbol of peace, independence and wealth. It is our national treasure and asset! It is our power,  identity and future that would keep us prosperous, united and healthy for all times to come.

Do you like Kharang?  What if you hate it even as a Drukpa? Whether you hate or like it,  Kharang has come to stay with us.

Is it a question of saying YES to Kharang as your meal or saying NO to the tables filled with roti, noodles and dumplings?

Our Kharang,  our Nation!
Save Kharang, save Nation!
Value Kharang, value Nation!

De-pride-ism:of burying the mundane sashayism

AHO! Ten ching drelwar jungwa sho:

 Naked rigpa is unperturbed and unfixed-
Within rigpa though bad and good appear, 
There is no dualism of subject and object
 The samasara and nirvana are nameless
Whatever appears has no basis: uncreated!
The self-arisen rigpa is groundless and vivid
 Devoid of inner and outer content, it's naked
Nothing is established or obstructed:it's pure
 Thus, the self-arisen rigpa is naked and vivid!
Emaho! The rigpa is as vivid as Dharmakaya!

De-owning thoughts

Our reasons for anything are neither secure nor insecure; it just remain as it is- unbiasedly  naked. The moment we try to draw a picture of what is both told and untold we just begin to lens through the way we feel about it. It's kind of jiggery- pokery as nothing certain can be concluded on the reasons that are beyond one's imagination. Reason out, so that either you will be pushed out by the arguments or pushed in by your own proposition. Nothing can be impository when you raise your thoughts high and reason out that are  essentially fundamental to one's values.

Reasons can be baseless in the eyes of others yet it can never be the same as you brainstorm your thoughts that are deeply grounded in your mind. Reasoning as a matter of acceptability has its own place yet it become uncommon when rejection  has outstrip its stand. Truly, reasoning is a drive towards maturity only if one proposes it with what actually is needed to be reasoned out. Reason upon reasons, reason over reasons, reason for reasons can create an avenue for developing our reasoning skills.  Reason to reason out for reason has a reason to be reasoned.