We are the Elite
I am grateful for the opportunity I received as
a result of the farsighted policies of free education. But a feeling of smirk
sinks in me when our farmers, our forefathers who have been farmers, and my
parents who have been farmers are called nothing. They might not have had
access to western education and formal schooling but in no way were they
uneducated. As I write this, I see the face of my father so vividly that if I
were an artist, I could draw even the wisdom in his eyes as he talks. True, he
never went to school. But for the farmer he was, he had every small skill that
his occupation needed. More than that, he was a leader – he had it in him to
draw people to him; to look up to him. And no doubt, he was my hero. He still
is, though he is no longer with us.
After this talk, I meet one of my distant
cousins who grew up in Thimphu. She shares that she recently went to our
village and it took her sometime to recognize my eldest brother who is in the
village (who sacrificed going to school for his younger siblings). And she
remarks, ‘he is the smartest and the most charming of all your siblings’. I
agree – I think he got all the aura and intelligence from our father (J). So it
is not just education (formal western education) that makes a person a fine
man. We can all be leaders no matter where we are. And we can all find out our
purpose no matter where we are. Do we have to be second generation educated
lot? I know if I were given a choice, I might not readily leave my job to be a
farmer, but that is not because I won’t love being a farmer; I think it is more
because I wouldn’t be the best farmer.
And a feeling of irony sinks into me as we are
called elite because I can see the difference of people who come from the two
different backgrounds – the second or third generation educated family, and the
farming background. But we should not be belittled because of the fortune we
missed in being the second generation educated lot. Because of the difference
in wealth, the upbringing and exposure differ. The way we talk, the way we see
the world differ quite a lot too (with few exceptions). And in my not-so-wise
thought, I can only think of well-established families, the few privileged ones
in the country who have had the means and liberty to study at their choice of
school abroad as elite. And I have the phobia of mixing with these people.
Honestly, I just can’t bring myself to converse with them naturally and
normally like I would do with the people like myself. I know that is my
problem. This might seem like I accept that they are superior, but I honestly
think that except for the bigger ‘soenam’ they accumulated in all their lives
past and present, we are all the same, and there should be no hierarchy in our
society.
But there are people like me who are so
sensitive to the difference – in the way they talk, to the way they interact.
Now people in Thimphu seem to be getting segregated into the groups of elites
and non-elites from the school their children go to. For example, an
acquaintance of mine sends her children to Sersang and she shared with me that
her daughter who is aged eight years is already particular about brands and how
her mother is dressed when she goes to her school. I am not sure if this is
growth. Anyway, while we all talk about equality, I am not sure if the gap is
closing. And probably the elitism is expanding. Because of the difference in
the proportion of earning and effort for farmers and the upper rung of people
in our society (like the last pay commission’s report), I only see this gap
widening.
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