Nganpa Gu Zom (Meeting of the nine evils)

23^rd December, 2009, Wednesday: Today was Nganpa Gu Zom, the meeting of the nine evils. Last evening, I had to work late at the office. The other night, Ama told me of her plan on the meeting of the nine evils day. She told me that she was to meet her friends at 10 a.m. at the Chorten. They were to meet with a beer bottle each and packed lunch. So inwardly made plan of preparing something special for her lunch. While I thought this inside myself, I thought I shared this plan with my husband.

While I was coming home in the evening, my cousin who is here these days from Tashiyangtse called me. He wanted to know if I was doing any shopping for that day. Then it suddenly struck me that I had not bought whatever was required for my plan. Having worked for hours without rest, I had already become too irritated. I swear, I could have hit my husband if he was near me (right, I had no right to. He had done no wrong. But we don’t need a reason sometime. I could just hit someone and I would have felt all relieved). I was hungry as well. I called up Karma to find that he was at his friend’s place. This irritated me further but he seemed to have sensed no irritation in my voice. As cool as ever, he walked into the house. So I had to practice whatever anger management I had learnt so far. I’m glad it did vanish and I could say a very peaceful prayer. He and my cousin went for the shopping at 8:45 p.m.

And this morning, he woke up 5:30 and prepared thukpa and all different variety of curries. And all right, there my love swelled beyond the walls of my heart and I could have made him sleep on my lap if I had to (it is funny how our emotions change). And so, the meeting of the nine evils was celebrated. Today, Ama and my nephew Dendre also prepared ‘khura’, a bun prepared from rice flour.

My plan did fall into place. It felt nice to work in the kitchen, pack lunch for my mother and send her to Chorten like sending a five year old kid to school.

Note: It is believed that on this day (7^th day of the 11^th month in the Bhutanese lunar calendar), the brother and sister committed incest unknowingly when they met after long years of separation. This day used to be a government holiday before.