With the fading
of autumn winds, so punctually, the chill of winter breeze has once again come
and at this time of the year, Thimphu is getting colder day by day. A month
ago, when I left Thimphu for my village having completed the BSCE 2012
requirements, the air was more temperate and environment was filled with bountiful
colours. Reaching home, I was no
different from my village folks as there were remnant of works in the field,
the harvesting of barley, uprooting of radish and turnips, and soon the frost
acted harsher on the leafy vegetables, thus they demanded a roofing.
 |
| so fleeting are the rays of morning sun, so are the inscriptions on prayer flags. |
Soon, the fields
revealed its emptiness in parchedness, and the frost became thicker. In the
gardens, the flowers revealed a temperament of impermanence with many petals
dying an early death and the living cells in few green foliar ruptured by merciless
winter frosts. With the coming of winter days, no more we could wash our hands
in running tap water in the morning. what we aspire is to have a sensation of
warmth everywhere. Yet, in the village, the peasants don’t rest in chillness
but keep themselves busy to maintain their body warm. Before the spring dried
to its minimum quantity, the villager decided to build individual taps for each
household and this called for equal day labour to built tanks at the source,
dig dungeons to bury the water pipes into soil, and for soft skin like mine, a
little slogging caused blisters to burst in my palm.
.
In the rural
areas, it is the superstitious mind that brings more ailments. More saddened
when my peers predicted the curse of evil spirit called “Tsen” causing enormous
swell to the minute blisters on my palm. The believe that evil spirits reside
everywhere seems true, as no sooner an elder villager recited some rituals and
offered bread made from wheat flour to the so called “Tsen” helped me relieve
the pain. The day before, it was a joyous occasion warming by the hearth, but
the next day, swelling in palm caused pain in my nerves So, I was back at home
without any update on my blog but facing the challenges of villager’s life in
harsh winter.
Today, the sky
is overcast with clouds and it is chilly to move outside in the town and one
day from today, many students across the country will be writing their board
exams with tensed mind to clear the minor hurdles but for many graduates, the
BCSE 2012 result will make their day either merry or gloomy, but its again a
temperament that we have to overcome be it good or bad.
Meanwhile, I am glad that to have 100
followers on by blog.
