Thursday, March 4, 2021

 




OUT FROM THE COCOON
The last post was from 2017 and this is 2021. I was really in a cocoon. As always, thank you for reading. 

It was not just about not updating my blog but I did not even come back to view my writings in these years. Guilty? Well...no. But when I did come back few days ago, I had a hard time recognising myself through my writings. Those rantings, questioning and stuffs like that. But I did see myself seeking personal and professional growth which i believe will be part of me forever. 

I turned 28 this year. I live in Australia. I completed my postgrad. I worked in a cafe. I work as a communications person now. So much has changed but few things remain the same. 

I will keep this post short. I want to bounce back and write again. I do not mind if its personal writings or a creative one but I want to keep writing.



Friday, August 25, 2017


All the emotions from Denmark are raging at the moment. I am writing from my workplace right now contemplating on my trip and reading the former post I wrote before leaving. There are many reasons to visit the place again.
I am glad I fought the inner voice in me for this trip. It was an experience I will cherish forever. I wanted to write on everything. Hence the feed on IG flooded with free access to internet. Haha
As I was waiting in the airport for transit in India, I was asking myself if I was missing Denmark or excited to be home. I smiled like a fool with all the beautiful memories my eleven days in the country gave me while I pictured myself working like a donkey at home with projects to complete.
For today, I am introducing the whole new Danish experience.
The heat started from Moscow. I told my friend that I never felt that Asian before. I couldn’t spot anyone shorter than me. And also, the coffee was too strong for me.
I did see the old Scandinavian structures in pictures before but to see it with my own eyes was a feeling which can never be put into words. I knew then that I was falling in love with the place. While it was this beautiful, I also knew from the first that it was an expensive city too. Since I arrived early I booked a room with a friend. It was a hostel. And there were six others to share the room with us. Realizing that a bed cost me 54$ a night was surprising. Haha. And not to forget, the cold wind went through my bone. I had only one jacket. Denmark was hence a beautiful, expensive and a cold city. But there was more to it.
I don’t want to write long blogs. I know how boring it can be to read at times. So this is part one. And before I forget, I miss the food which has improved my skin (not the varieties of breads though), I miss all the beautiful souls I met at UNLEASH and yeah I kinda also miss the handsome and disciplined Danish guys.



Tuesday, August 1, 2017

What do I expect from Denmark?



Yay ! I am travelling to Europe. Denmark.

Ever since I heard about Denmark through a speech delivered by the former Prime Minister of Bhutan, I have always wanted to visit the Kingdom. I don’t know for what reasons but I clearly remember their taxation policy where the Prime Minister pointed out the trust the citizens had in their government.

I wasn’t very excited but now I feel the heat. When my friends asked me why I wasn’t excited, I told them I have a halt at Moscow and Putin scares me. Haha

I am going to Denmark to attend the first UNLEASH LAB wherein we will be discussing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)and we were made to choose a specific goal. I chose Education&ICT and further down to education for women and girls.
I hope I do justice in reaching the Bhutanese story on our education system.

I am looking forward to meeting passionate young people from all around the world and know of their inspiring initiatives. Building a wide range of network always helps and it truly makes you believe in the power of a global citizen.

The days at Aarhus is surely going to be exciting as they have announced Crown princess Mary to be present along with the Prime Minister of Denmark and Hollywood actor Aston Kutcher during the award night. I literally jumped to see Salman Khan in the guest list but it wasn’t THE SALMAN KHAN but the founder of Khan Academy.

Apart from the suggestions my friends who have been to Denmark gave me,  they said maybe I should hire a bicycle and join the Danish people, not miss the boat ride or even go watch the northern lights, I am thinking of learning more about the country.
The discussions have already started online and the more material I read of Denmark, the more similarities I find between Bhutan and Denmark.
1.  Both are Kingdoms
2.  Marriage laws are similar. If a Danish marry a foreigner then the consequences is that of a Bhutanese marrying a foreigner
3.  Both are considered happiest nations

These are some of the similarities I came across over and again. I want to know more about it. This piece will hence have a follow up after my trip.





Monday, July 24, 2017

After two weeks

Pardon me; I have skipped two weeks to update my blog. It would be very unreasonable to say that I was too busy. Actually, I was stressed out for the past two weeks. The former week I slacked off for the entire week because my childhood friends were here. I was stressed because I wasn’t doing much productive works and the later week I stressed out because I kept thinking about how I shouldn’t have wasted my entire week.  LOL.

For those of you, who read my posts which didn’t give you any new information but rather you had to bear with my personal nonsense stuffs for this long, I would like to thank you once again. The mere fact that somebody out there is reading and my voice is being heard especially on my rough days helps me to keep going.

Anyway I am here with news. I have decided to incorporate any information that might be useful to you guys reading and so my posts will be personal yet quite informative.For today I am going to give out some information on violence against children in Bhutan as I am currently working on this project for which I have collaborated with UNICEF.

No, it isn’t a very complicated subject. Violence against children in Bhutan is discussed in three aspects, the emotional, sexual and physical violence. As I was reading the comprehensive research, I could read between the lines and could totally relate to what the children meant when they stated about little things. As I have been through that road personally, I think little things matter when you are growing up. So for this reason, I have decided to have a cinematic approach to this episode and hence I have looked for characters to portray the forms of violence stated above.

On the other end, I am not a huge fan of heavy metal and the suicide of Chester didn’t really affect me as it did to my friends. What bothered me was his interview when he so openly discuss about his internal battles and the fact that he tried so hard to describe the neighborhood in his head.

I felt like we could connect that way.

I mean it’s usually very hard to tell people how we feel about ourselves when we are not feeling so well and that ‘neighborhood’ is surely a dangerous place.  The two Chesters, one pushing down, confused and the fact that you have money and everything people consider as means of happiness don’t help and that’s exactly what Chester was shown saying. 

And it’s the same with me. 

Not that I am anywhere near him but still. Life is as I want it to be. I have a job I always dreamt about. I have been showered with my dreams to travel the world. I have people I love and basically my life is on track but sometimes I feel so bored. I don’t see any reason why I should strive for those things because at the end we all are going to leave this world.

Anyway like always, just a random thought and no I don’t need help. Haha. I am very busy these days to think about committing suicide and I don’t want to miss my Denmark trip.


But I still have a question. If speaking  out doesn’t help fight depression, what will? 

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Random weekly update

It's already Tuesday and I had committed to update my blog very Monday but this is me. Very forgetful.

Yesterday was a public holiday here in Bhutan. I went to hike up to Tandi Nye. I have also resorted to hike often and spend more time with nature and of course with good friends. My friend suggested we take a cab but we resorted to my decision to walk. I have also started to walk more. It helps me sleep well.

Today has been a long day. I am almost done with my project on the LGBT+ community in Bhutan. I am pretty nervous about how my audience will rate this program. I showed few of my friends while it was still in rough cuts and they seemed to like it. Thank you to Kim, an Australian film maker who is guiding me. He told me to look for elements that surprised me and it was obvious to keep my audience glued to the program. I am learning and growing everyday as a documentary maker.

On the other end, I am struggling to complete an essay a Korean magazine wanted from Bhutan. I am writing on Bomena, the night hunting culture in Bhutan. I will share on my blog once they publish it.

And on a lighter note, I am not forgetting to be content with my own company. I have started to focus more than ever to improve myself in every aspect.

And I am learning to forgive people who are gone and more than this, I am still learning to let go. I know I will be there someday.

Thank you for reading. It sure made me feel lighter.


Monday, June 26, 2017

Wavin' the White Flag

I am updating my blog after a long time. If you are on this page, I would sincerely like to thank you for taking time to go through it and I promise to write one piece a week.

Today is June 27th. Last year I was so happy on this particular day and I had also decided I would celebrate my birthday on this date henceforth but my friends had the celebration done on my actual birthday months before. One of the reasons I didn’t want to celebrate on my actual date was because I cried for three consecutive birthdays and decided that date wasn’t meant for me.

Anyway, I am not here to write about my birthdays and stuffs. As you can see, the title of this article is “Wavin’ the white Flag” so I am here to write something about it.

When I was in 7th standard, Dido and her song White Flag was my favorite. Since we didn’t have technologies like today, I remember me and my friends had written down the lyrics and memorized for months until we were close to perfect. Our teachers always recommended books or songs to improve our vocabulary back then and this song did good to me. I knew thereafter what white flag meant.

The phrase ‘Wavin’ the white flag’ and I have a very serious relationship. It’s very intense. I just hope I never have to encounter this. Never.

How would you feel if the other person use some fancy phrase and tells you to Google for its meaning? Or worst what if the other person is someone very close to you?. It occurred to me.

It’s been months after this incident but I still feel a sharp pain in my stomach whenever I think about it. Not because I felt insulted but because he was supposed to be the very person who had known me as a person who questioned a lot if I was in doubt and didn’t think for a second that he would make me feel very very low.

My journey in letting go started from there, I guess. When I take alone time to think about why I shouldn’t be that pathetic faithful girlfriend, my mind synchronize all the bad memories and this particular memory stands first.




Thursday, October 20, 2016

NOT AN ACTOR ON HOLIDAY




 AAALL IS WELL. A personality we thought was impossible to see in person made his maiden visit to our country. This is not the first time an international actor has visited our beautiful land. However, there is something different this time. He came not with the brand of an actor on holiday but as UNICEF South Asia’s goodwill Ambassador.

While he came with a cause, countless Bhutanese fans eagerly waited for an opportunity to meet him. For an actor rarely making his appearance in the public, expecting his presence among us at large seemed a vague possibility.

As you may call it a luck, Aamir was scheduled for an hour long conversation with young people belonging to various youth group at the Department of Youth and Sports (DYS) which happened to be his first session in the country and because the setting was cozy, it added to our (fan) advantage to see him up-close. I had never seen a crowd in Bhutan before as such. For me to be able to picturesque in writing, I had only seen such in Korean dramas where fans go crazy, literally.
I can't really put in writing the atmosphere in the hall when Aamir entered except that we were told to maintain silence but the crowd roared. After few protocols, he started the session and the entire hour consisted of Q&A.  No, the topic did not range to child stunting and the importance of breast feeding as I had expected. It was rather our chance to know him personally. It was nice.

It began with a question from a girl in the audience on the emergence of Bollywood in terms of portraying women where he talked about his latest film  Dangal. The film he said is based on true story about a man who remains unsuccessful in his dream to win gold in wrestling. Hoping to achieve it through his son, he ends up bearing four daughters and it is then he starts training his girls for his dream.

I have always thought there's got to be one thing among many aspects in a film that he looks into before committing to it. Aamir also touched on this while he encouraged us to do things we love and said chances are we will be good at it as in Success ke peeche mat bhago. Kabil bano kabil. Kambyabi sali jhak maar ke peeche ayegi. He shared with the crowed that he never does a film in the hope for it to be a blockbuster. Instead he said he should be able to connect to the character he is to play. He should feel him.

When a teacher touched on education talking about whether we were doing enough with textbooks limited teaching and learning relating to Taare Zameen Par,  Aamir said living in the digital age, answer to every question is just a click away. He said as a child he was never interested in studies and he completed only plus 12. It was only after he dropped that he was interested to learn and so he read, on many subjects. While he talked on it, he said it in manner where I felt I was watching a LIVE scene from Taree Zamin Par as he said we all have different learning abilities and those who are faster should not force those who aren't to catch their speed.

Did you know he was a state champion in tennis as a young boy?  With this Aamir also talked about his mother from whom he learned empathy. He shared incidences where he would come home winning matches and his mother would bring him tea and talk to him and ask about his game. His response would mostly be positive but his mother would worry about the little boy (his opponent) someone she would not even know the name. Aamir tells us it was such a thing for his mother to be able to feel for another unknown person and how this trait is important as a human being.

There were many other discussions being done touching on his life and more to his films which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed. There were more to be asked but the hour flew by in no time and came to an end. While everyone wanted to take a picture with him, he suggested he would make rounds in the crowd and do it. He requested the crowd to cooperate or else his men in black would take him away. He randomly joined the groups and took pictures until all were included. Before leaving, he told us that this was the first successful group pictures ever taken with countless others being an epic fail wherever he suggested the idea.