Daily Chores..

I woke up late today as it is a local Tshechu. Darling daughter and mommy dear were talking in a hushed voice. I pressed myself nearer to them and heard they were talking about thier respective dreams. "Ah,not again! Light the bukhari instead," i chided my wife. "Apa, nga dhi neylam na Dhree ghi zaw mey ba!",Cera said with added concern. Aww..Just then, i remembered the old monk wh...o came around our school selling different types of Sungki yesterday. I had bought one of them for my daughter that would ward off evil spirit. Afterall, Chumey is never free of disembodied spirits that roam freely without any license! Despite, in a culture such as ours, there are dozen many possibilities to fall sick - Dhree, Sondhree,Meeykha,Mamo,Shindey,Zandey..blah blah. A colleaque adjacent to my house had availed casual leave yesterday because their new born baby got terribly sick according to him. "What sickness?", i asked as if it never happened to my kids. "Mashey, diarrhoea immey. But he cried all night." "Sounds serious", i blurted out and my face crumpled like a old bedsheet on an imported dunlop! Later that evening,the only Ap Tsampa in chumey was doing his magic with his

cymbal-tangti- drilbu formula.
Cera and Dawa wanted to go to the Tshechu today while i and wife postponed it for tomorrow. I had already thought that today's visit would hamper tomorrow's spendings, that wud mean lesser nutritional inputs to both the kids,minus few bucks for my beer,minus two litres of fuel in my old car! This is a compromise that i wud hate to make in a crowd such as in our bhutanese tshechus where people indirectly flaunt their wealth. Teachers like i, have to be brutally thrifty,at times even like a Bihari miser, so as to make my spendings economically enjoyable.
I polished my shoes and kept it outside for the sun to do all the wonders of reflections, washed my sleeve-shirt that bore "Van Hussen"(it is my prized possesion that my tourist-guide inlaw gave me!), and checked which special Gho to wear tomorrow. "All is set," i thought and took pride at my own calculations!............folks, i got fire wood to chop! BRB....he he he.