Last week, i completed Chemistry in the class ten. Most of them gleamed with a sense of completion, while few of them stared at me as if they have been annihilated. All the same, they thought befitting to appalaud my job at having completed the syllabus before time. I bowed down like a nervous gymnast performing tricky flips and muttered "thank you students". We smiled at each other so widely. I s...aid i could eat a a solid banana sideways if i smiled that way! So we discussed our plans after that. Some wanted remedial classes, some revision, countable number of them suggested chapter-wise-test and few of them were as lost as they were when we first started chemistry in the beginning of the year. I tell you, there are students in my class who are total disaster in chemistry and have become costly liability to my teaching. Infact, they hate it. But that is natural i presume. I dont blame them.
Without doubt,i would complete class five science the following week. But i think i would roughly require 3 weeks to complete maths for class six students and that would be Herculean job since lots of holidays are tucked in between. I once announced to the class that we wont be able to complete the syallabus if we followed the present pace. Most of them had an answer,"leave some topics sir!". How stupid of me! "We must finish wat is there in the text book. Okay??", i growled at them.
Well, as the year draws to an end, i become more nostlagiac. There are times when i close myself in the room and enter into deep thoughts. What now? sigh.What do i have? sigh. What did i achieve? Sigh! I console myself thinking about my kids, my wife, my old car, portable sets of cheap china plates and mugs and a number of faded Ghos!! Aww..it is okay, sonam, i tell myself,"you got everything that is required for a sustainable life'. My nasty fingers digs into my nose(i can never overcome this habit!!) and there i get strips of pure white gold!!LOL.
Also, in the last week, we finally saw the formal installation of "Sertog" on our Mani Dungkhor and the miniature Lhakhang that will house our Jamyang statue. As a mark of respect, students and teacher gathered in the assembly ground while the local monks performed the auspicious installation. Steve Jobs passed away around same date, i guess. Though i havent been personally afftected by his death but it was overwhelming that such an icon should die an untimely death. A similar tragic story struck in Chumey and that was broadcast in the BBS too. Not a software ace, but a helper of a carpenter. An adept conversationist,he was. Quite a jack around Chumey. He would be mostly drunk but he was never aggeressive and often found lecturing to a group with his oratory skill. I once overheard his talks and that time it was a session on his life. He was in army according to him. A bout of TB had him into Gidakom hospital and after that he bunked from his organisation,never to return." Pheenaa(there),dato ya yoed nge ghi ming!", he boasted in a typical Maakmi accent. Marked "AWOL", i thought(Absent WithOut Leave). He continued to announce that he was disowned by his family members but hinted that his family roots grew from Babesa, Thimphu. Quite unassuming! As dark and as unkempt as a roadside labourer(the fairest description about him, honestly!), at first sight one would pass him for a typical Assamese. Only for his chaste Dzongkha and a typical Ngalungp accent,one wouldnt even bother looking at him. He died a mysterious death last week too! By the time his corpse was lifted out from Chumey Chu, he had parted with one of his eyes(Police chargesheeted the local crows for that assualt!) and his corpse could be folded backwards(the strong current of water did this!). When i heard this, it sent shivers deep into my body. A lively talkactive man one day, another day he is no more! I looked at my own body: masculine, moustaged, bloodvessels as vigorous, a pair of pink healthy balls(!),....I am still breathing!! :)

Good day ahead, Teachers!