Of my Language

Let me tell you, there is no use of language if common men do not understand it properly. Honestly, i have always had the feeling that Dzongkha is more greek to me than Greek:). Now you can jolly well see the reasons why i didn't contest for the NA in the last election. Ironic huh? You need to see how some of our Representatives mutely warm up their chairs in the National Assembly since they are not fluent in Dzongkha. And you also must have heard that our Lyonpo X delivers formal speeches in Dzongkha that is literally written in English. But most of us must have done this too.
 I had a very good and a close friend who delivered her first Dzongkha speech in the morning assembly of summer of 2004, NIE, Samtse. She bluntly admitted that it was her first time delivering formal speeches in Dzongkha and she be excused if she made any mistakes. Understandable.  Some 500+ trainees made long faces and booed her as she stammered with her Dzongkha speech written in large english words!
The office of the then Director Thukten Gyatsho formally grounded her for one month for being so blasphemous with our national language.To hide it up, the office mentioned about her "skimpy dress" which was against the dress code and especially against the Teachers' code of conduct! She resigned few years after serving in MoE.
Infact, i have never come to terms with the beauty of Dzongkha. One thing for sure, one can not write or read Dzongkha as fluently as one intends to. I only wish to learn more about the mysterious epistemology of Dzongkha etymology! What is that now?:)
The other day, i debated with Lopen Sonam(a fine Dzongkha teacher and our Vice Principal) in my school. "Why is Dzongkha so difficult to understand?".
Sangay ghi sung Mutigpa tshu ghi ha me go! . Aww
Indeed, all tribes will have a language and if you ask them about the origin, they would proudly claim that it was god-sent language.
After lots of exchange, i challenge him for one practical session. "You take one page from any Dzongkha text while i take one page from any English page. We will read the contents and see who finishes first!?"
Ofcourse, we did not try that competition.
Well, i think, for most of the Bhutanese,written Dzongkha is difficult and the grammar is more ambiguous than any other languages but we have people who would make claims about the beauty of Dzongkha grammar. And that is why i dislike Dzongkha grammar as i said in the beginning of this post.
Back at home, we communicate in Dzongkha. But, Choden would be shocked if i tell her "lets us go May kom Ding!'. It is simple silly, just say "campfire". :)


I would like to substantiate more on this topic but for the brevity of time and research, i abstain from doing it.(Please do not mistake me for being inflammatory and derogatory about our national language. I swear i am a fine Drukpa.).
 Merci!:)

Things to see..

Few days back i tried to upload few photos, so i was going through my documents and found out this picture:)

Way to grow!(This carrot is  from Choden's garden. I did upload this in the FB and few of my close friends thought that this carrot was too bold!)

So,i said Choden was on casual leave for almost a week and that left me with so many things to try out. Not all of them turned out to be successful but some were worth trying.
Here are few of them:

Broccoli ready to be steamed

Steamed broccoli loses less nutrients than the boiled ones, according to the health sources. Dawa hates it while Sera thinks steamed broccoli are still raw ones!

One of the favorites of my kids. My kids say there is no curry without potato.:)

At a friend's get-together.

Gongdo shamu.

Infact, Bumthang can be the best place in Bhutan to the mushroom lovers. Here are few other types that i kidnapped from my Principal camera!:)

Copyright@SonamGyelstshen,Principal, ChumeyMSS

Copyright@SonamGyeltshen

Copyright@SG

Well, i wanted to write about few of these photos but i guess it is going to become quite lengthy.
Good day ahead:)

The Last Match

I couldn't post anything during the last sunday as i was busy with domestic chores. Despite, Choden had gone to some place as a part of her vacation package that i usually earmark every passing month. Who said house-wives dont go on leave??:)
So we had our last game of soccer yesterday. I had desperately wanted to score but i never could. Honestly, there was only one player in our team who actually had played soccer earlier, the rest and i, were all same: had never played professional football earlier. Now you can imagine why we lost every single match in the League-Round and got relegated before we could enter into Knock-Out round. I hung up my boots and the no.11 Barcelona jersey after the match. I intend to play next year too:). At one time, Choden had told me to be careful while playing. Football can be dangerous, she had warned me. Indeed, it is but i can as you can see always extra-careful. MOreover, i play only half match so that i dont get cramps in the night!
Hmm, the Olympics ended right? I have been closely following Indians trying hard to win medals. I was also glad that USA could beat China in their medal tally.( remember the chinese got more gold medals than the americans in 2008?).
I was thrilled by Phelps bagging medals(22?) in the Olympics and i surely believe his record wouldn't be broken for 100 years or so. Good that he bid adieu before losing his fame. On the other side,  the stylish Bolt is still the fastest human on earth as of now.
Back in India, the winners got heroic welcome or else they would make coy claims that they weren't treated nicely. One even threatened to resign from army if he wasn't promoted after his silver medal haul in London. Cool. I would have asked for Ministerial berth if i won medal in the Olympics but that is a dream. Lyonpo Thakur would have hated the ambitious teacher in me!(Fingers crossed that he wudn't hold that post in the next election. He he)
We have now Zero Tolerance back to our scheme. I am still not convinced if we can ever win from this policy but time will tell, i believe. Some Educationists around the globe have felt that we are moving backwards with this policy while we still welcome the idea. I do not want to debate on this but well i do threaten my students now:)
We can create rooms to expel naughty students from the school. We are defeating the very purpose of  the Schools, the seat of education.
Heck, it is already 8.05am. Assembly time. Catch you later. Good day friends.:)

Pictures

A match in progress.

Sonam Kuenphen HSS, the defending champion of the Trophy.

Dzongkhag Team (Spot Dasho Dzongrab and Dasho Drangpon. NA, the Goalie once played for the Bhutan National Team)

The 11 Spartans

I would try to update the matches in the next post.

The Monsoon Tournament

The celebrated Monsoon Football Tournament started in my school few days ago. There are a record of 17 teams vying for the Rolling Trophy this year. Unlike last year, i got offers this year:).
Few teams did ask if i would be "available" for their banners. I had to kindly reject most of them before signing the contract with the "11 Spartans". Names have it. In this team, we have all types of players who would play football of free genres!
I have devoted more than a decade of my life watching others play football. If it ain't this time, it is never. This is the right time for me to shine before welcoming my mid-life crisis and fall into traumatic depression. Despite, my bones have been idle for  more than a year without any hard work. This session of football would test them and if need be, trigger them to be productive bones.
So I borrowed the football boots from a neighbour who wouldn't be playing. Come this Tuesday, i would be playing my first professional match with jersey # 11. In all likelihood, we are sure that we would win inspite of shortage of seeded players in our team. I have always forcefully included myself into that category in whatever discipline of games and sports except mercy, chess.  These days it is tough to become famous if you don't celebrate yourself. Lol.
Well, talking of chess, i told you since last year, chess is a lazy game for intelligent brains. I would prefer intelligent game with lazy brain. In chess, one would take hours to call it check-mate. But, i tell you, i cor-ordinate the chess players in my school since we have Dzongkhag Sports Meet a week later. Now you can imagine how coolly i can play a game of chess. Infact i have administered Chess competition at Dzongkhag level for 3 consecutive years! And again, no hard and fast rules. Afterall, moves come freely. So i let the participants play without any norms. He he. A year ago, one of the participating students from Jakar HSS had earnestly asked me if i could "brief" them  about the rules in chess. I have told them that all rules were like last years'. No new rules!
Few enthusiasts from my School wanted to learn tricks to play better game of chess. There are no shortcuts, i have wailed at them. Practice maketh a man perfect! I let them play freely till they are exhausted.
Coming back to football, it is quite easy. Our team manager(Principal sir) had repeatedly asked us to come for the practice while we have tried to shirk from it. At one time, i have chided with him that i need no practice at this age. I might need to practice parenting but not football. He he.
To tell you frankly, we are 11 teacher colleagues and most of us are off-age for youthful football. And most of us were veteran bench-warmers!
(I would try to give you pictures of the team in the next post.) This is all i have for today:)