Friday, May 31, 2013

Potato People

Despite incessant rain, I accompanied my sexagenarian mother to the polling station to cast our votes. Choden had wished all the best for us as if we were going for operation flush out!. "Whom to vote?", my mother finally asked. "Hmm, mashey", i replied her. I didn't want to distort her vote by trying to explain about my vote. She continued with her prayer beads while i continued driving carefully on those bumpy roads.
Coincidentally, the Maukhola bridge was washed away on the eve of elections. I almost celebrated that the last legacy of the bamboo bridge over infamous Prem-khola had to be washed away correctly at that time but only boomerang yet again. DPT won the gelephu constituency with more than 1000 votes against their compatriot PDP.
But that was good. I have seen how adamantly that temporary bride across Maukhola had stretched. If it had lasted for few more weeks, one or two people, without doubt, must have fallen off the bride,due to imbalance. It was like walking over a tightrope! People had no choice but to tread on that bamboo bride that out government so handsomely calls it a bridge. Come general election, i am sure the vying candidates will promise the farmers that he/she would consecrate another bamboo bridge across it. Farmers are too soft and forgiving. They melt rather too quickly but have high ignition temperature to burn out of frustrations. DPT banks on that Achilles's heel which works, ofcourse. No doubt.
I once heard from a colleague who said that farmers are potato-people! "Kindly elaborate it", i demanded him. He gave me a wry smile. According to him, potatoes go well with anything. Almost anything. It makes such a fine dish with beef, pork, saag, bitter goud etc. It has no specialty of its own but others can manipulate or modify it in such a way that it is always palatable.
"Aludum?", i chipped in to argue against his theory. "That should go well only with puri", he replied. Ofcourse. I thought of Puri-fied aludum!
He talked about how life is so unfair. Some people have to shout throughout the month to get the monthly salary. He was referring to the FCB in Gelephu town where the salesgirl always shouts at her top voice so that it can get through the glassed counter across her where her bosses in that AC glassroom just make the list of items and the total cost. "If only she knew how harmful is shouting to her larnyx or her pharynx", he said. He went on to relate about a Paan shop who toiled all her life and still runs that shop and another man, a security-guard dropout, who went to with illegal Dzi business. He now runs Hotel Keralafornia(name changed).
Finally,"You must be having Dzi?", he asked me. That took me off balance. Yes i do, i cheered him up. "One eyed Dzi", i confessed to him. "And truly coherant shape!". We broke off to our respective classes:)



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