Kuenza's Diary

My family and I attended the first day of Thimphu Tshechu, which fell on the 10 th day of the eight month of Bhutanese Calendar – which gave me the reason to plan to go on the first day. I felt, it would be more significant (can’t explain how) to go to a Tshechu on that date, which in my understanding explains the meaning of Tschechu. We left home at 9 a.m. and it wasn’t as crowded as I expected when we reached Tendrel Thang. So I thought, we went at the right time, but I was told that it is usually not crowded on the first day. I think it is true. On the second and the last day, I could see on TV, what a big crowd it was. My reason to go to Tshechu was purely to let my daughter witness the masked dances, the different colors of Tshechu and the mood people swing in. It gives us a feeling of bountiful joy and it is that rare time when we can really have a family gathering and forget all other worries, such as our work pressure. I also believe that it is important ...

I must admit on the onset that despite my effort to be the best mother, I had had incidents where my daughter fell down from the bed, from the stairs and so on. Yesterday, she ran out of the bath and slipped on the floor – and hurt her head so badly. It scared me. It scared her daddy more because he blamed me that I had not taken any precaution, knowing that the floor was slippery. She has this habit. For sheer mischief, she runs away when she has finished her bath and knows that I am going to wrap her in a towel. I cuddled her and stroked her hair, soothing her, consoling her that it will be okay. She stopped after a while. Children soothe much faster than adults. They forget hurt way quicker as well. This relieved me. There was no swelling, and she didn’t seem to hurt when I touched the area that was hit. My husband’s repeated reminder to me is that it is very risky for children to hit their head. It could lead to any undesirable long-term effect. I am aware of that too. And ...

I was 20. I had not delved in the thought of marriage, despite being in love. When you fall in love, you don’t question many things: you don’t ask whether the person is a doctor or an engineer; you don’t ask whether the person is from Tashigang or Paro; you don’t ask how much his parents’ earnings are. Moreover, despite the common saying that the face is the window to the soul, face doesn’t carry more than 40% weightage. That is to say, when you fall in love, you do without much knowledge of the person . (But at least in my case, the command a person has over his written language gives me a very strong pull). Now, some would call that fate (Abi namshi gi kay thawa as Sharchops say). Some might have a different theory altogether – such as how one subconsciously makes all the judgments based on his/her experience. I prefer to go by the popular saying that ‘love is blind’. In fact, I don’t see why we would need so many reasons as to why we love someone.   Our heart knows best wha...

I would like to thank Rekha Monger and Penstar for initiating a way to let bloggers know each other better. It gives me a chance to introduce myself to those who don’t know me. 1.      Why did you start blogging in the first place? And what’s the story behind your blog title? ð I started blogging mainly to keep up my interest in writing. It gave me the space and opportunity. It sprung as a result of my interest in writing, and the habit of keeping a journal. I transferred almost all the writings I had maintained before in my journals/notebooks to my blog. The title of my blog speaks for itself. It is more like a diary – keeping note of what happens to me, what I observe and sometimes, I write fictional short stories. 2.      How long have you been blogging? Where are you based? ð I have been blogging since 2007. I think I actually started in 2006. I initially blogged in wordpress.com but later moved it to blogspot.com because of the...

Yesterday I bought a new B-mobile SIM Card. I had been using Tashicell since it came into market. When mobile was first introduced in Bhutan, I used B-mobile. We did not have a choice then. It was in 2005 and we had to pay Nu 600 for just the sim card. There was not a single chhetrum of talk time with that. Having seen the mobile services in India, especially AirCell that had been giving free text messages to all countries, I felt deceived. I mean, it was like Bhutan Telecom wanted to force it down your throat. This is a very good example of market monopoly, I am sure. I made the switch to Tashicell when it started giving free calls and text messages when it first started, and I stayed with them since then. Yesterday I decided to go back to B-mobile because all my family members use its service. Calls between Tashicell and B-mobile are more expensive than calls between the same service providers. This time, I had to pay just Nu 50. And it carried full talk time – ...