Thursday, September 22, 2022

Gender Equality

The one of the main issues confronting women and girls today is gender disparity. Gender disparity has come a long way and of course so much has been achieved in the recent years in reducing the gender gaps. Since it is ingrained in our culture and living with it for generations, it is difficult to change all at once. However, it is not something that cannot be changed and that is why great many initiatives are in place to remove the hurdles on the road to gender equality. The gender disparities in Bhutan are very much attributed to lack of gender knowledge and deep-rooted cultural practices. 

Of course, with the establishment of National Commission for Women and Children and other NGOS and CSOs, Bhutan has been continuously supporting the women and girls to create a gender equality society.  

The very first thing is the individual mindset. The societal mindset or the perceptions that men are better than women and women are weaker is one of main deterring factors suppressing women. As a result of this, even if the women come forward themselves, they lack societal support. In this way, many women who are competent and interested to rise up had to stay back home and run the family. Therefore, they become economically dependent on their husbands.

The other thing is lack of knowledge on gender equality amongst general public. This has led to general acceptability of gender biases including by women themselves especially in some remote communities. In some cases, women tend to be inferior in the family due to fear of broken marriages or families, fear of left out alone with nothing since she is dependent on her husband and fear of social stigma. This situation exacerbates the superior nature of husbands and become more dominant and sometimes inflicts violence. These women then become victims of all sorts of violence at home.    

Inadequacy of gender friendly infrastructures is another issue. All public places, public infrastructures and transport system must have adequate gender friendly infrastructures. Each and every workplace must have a system in place to prevent all sorts of violence against women and girls, especially the sexual harassment. There is a need to educate especially women and girls on all forms of violence especially on the violence associated with both physical and online dating relationships.   

Although there are many platforms for women to showcase their talents, it is not easily accessible to many. There has to be many women and girls dedicated platforms, accessible to all like Miss Bhutan pageant, body building, modeling and many more. These platforms not only help them build confidence and competencies, but they also inspire and help other women and girls in overcoming all issues highlighted above. Through such platforms, our women and girls will have the opportunities to participate even at the international level.  

A journey to gender equality society has begun and many of our women and girls have come forward and even proved that nothing is impossible. Although less in numbers, the women and girls have really shown their will and talents. And there shall be no turning back now until the road to gender equality society is paved well for all.

Friday, April 1, 2022

How to Stay Happy– My Personal Elixir

First of all we must know that it is a human phenomenon to be bothered by so many emotions and it’s not just us. We are not alone and that is why we should not try to solve it alone. We may be successful or we may not be but when we are not, that is when we break down completely. That is why it is important to know that everybody goes through these and one day it will be alright too.

Always surround yourself with positivity both inside and out. When I say inside and out, the inner part is our thinking and the outer part is our words and actions. When our life is filled with positivity, every action towards us will be positive. I still remember a lesson from school days that ‘it is always better to tame our inner enemy than trying to confront the outer enemies’. Here, the inner enemy is nothing but our negative thoughts. The moment we think or indulge in negativity, it will never leave us until we overcome such thoughts and actions through positivity. The negative energy will always drain us, it will make us exhausted and the feeling of guilt after that will haunt us. Why do we say sorry? That is to free ourselves of the guilt and be at peace.

When someone hurt us, we immediately try to react with a thought of vengeance, that is a negative energy and the feeling of avenging will not leave us at peace. It will lead to more and more negative thoughts and actions. That is why people say, ‘forgiving someone is to help ourselves to get rid of all the negative thoughts and actions’. Negative thoughts will bring forth negative actions and the positive will bring out positive actions. That’s why we are taught and we believe that ‘our body is the servant of mind’. So, always be positive in thought and action, there will just be a smile on our face always.

Listen and believe in your conscience. You might have noticed that when we are about to do or say something, our inner mind stops and let us give second thought. The involuntary reactions are irrational and sometimes does more harm than saving ourselves. But involuntary functions are very much essential for functioning of some of the vital processes like heartbeat, digestion, breathing, etc.… Sometimes depending on the situation, stop and let your inner mind, your conscience speak to you. When we consciously decide, it is a response and is logical. For example when someone hurts you or inflicts any negative action upon you, do not react, rather respond to it with you clear conscience.

Last but not the least is to live the moment. We know we can’t change the past and the future is uncertain. Thinking of the past and dreaming about the future, we forget to enjoy the moment. When we are not living the moment, all sort of thoughts come in with varying degree of worry and tension. Some will be resentful thoughts, some revengeful, worrying, distressful and many other forms of thinking which drains us both mentally and physically. These thoughts will not let us get a peaceful sleep and will wake up feeling exhausted. And that will hamper the following day. But it is very difficult to not to think. Focused thinking is good to making conscious decisions. The focus thinking is also living the moment.

While there are many ways by which we can live the moment, we have to choose which is easier to do and works for us. For some meditation may work, for some reading good books, listening to soothing music, saying prayers, conscious breathing and many other positive strategies. Different individual adopts different techniques or mix of two or three. For me I practice conscious breathing exercise at least before going to bed and right after I get up. Conscious breathing is easy to do and it can be done anytime and anywhere. I just focus my mind on breathing and to help me focus at least for 3 complete cycles.  Then before going to bed, I thank (whomever you want to) for the successful day. Just say ‘I have done my best and those which I could not accomplish, please erase from my mind, erase all negative energies so that tomorrow I can start afresh’. In the morning thank for being able to wake up and pray for positivity for the following day. I do read books (philosophical) and listen to online soothing music.

Happiness is giving. If you want happiness, make others happy first.          

***THE END***

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Whatsapp on Desktop!

If you are tired of typing and looking at the small screen of your phone, you can login via desktop/laptop or any device:

  1. Search for WhatsApp Web through any search engine (eg. Google)
  2. Click on the WhatsApp Web link
  3. You will be directed to a page showing few instructions and a scan code 
  4. Once you reach the page, go to your phone and open whatsapp
  5. Go to setting in the whatsapp and click "linked devices"
  6. Then click on "Link a Device" and you will have the option to scan 
  7. With that option to scan, scan the QR code shown in step 3 above
  8. You can now enjoy your whatsapp account from the device 


***THE END***

Friday, July 23, 2021

Ngamei Lay -From A Simple Village Life to A Complex Urban Life (Part 1)

“Stop drinking Karma, you are killing yourself” remarked Tashi which is a normal advice he gets almost every day. Karma is the most trusted and looked up to boy in his village and amongst friends. Hailing from a small village called Lhaling somewhere in the Eastern part of Bhutan. As the youngest in his family, he was the last one to serve his parents in the village carrying out all the seasonal activities helping in the village. The work in the village starts with collection of dried leaves from the forest which are used as the main source of manure in the field. Then it continues with the plantation of potatoes followed by carrying manure to the field to cultivate maize. Maize is the staple food for people especially in the East. These were the seasonal works besides other day to day activities from dawn to dusk.

By the time of maize cultivation in February- March of the year, Karma along with other village boys and girls would go to school for new academic sessions. People in the village would take up Sundays in turn wise which is the only day off from School activities for School going children to carry out the field works. This is because the school going children were the only labor force. Karma would be very happy on Sundays because it is a day off for him. “Karma, get up and have breakfast, you will have to go to Aum Dorji’s work today”, a usual dialogue of his mother early morning of every Sunday.

He has to go to work because his parents will need the laborers later to do the similar job at his house or the neighbors would have come for the work at his house earlier. He used to get ready for the day and waits for his friends who would join for the day’s duty. This would follow till March and by March it’s time for harvesting potatoes. After that, his usual time is to guard maize fields from wild animals day and night.  This was his usual day to day activities during School days until he completed 12th grade in 2007. Besides he was fully engaged in normal household chores and people would appreciate for his dutifulness.

He somehow managed to get through class 10 and took up science stream. Science stream then was like a big thing. Science stream requires lot of time and effort to get through. But he had to manage between usual household chores and studies. When in class 12, he used to burn the midnight oil and get up early to study. If a child fails in his or her studies, people directly used to say “khai go ma chhep”    and his parent’s usual thing was to compare him with other children. Despite these hardships he managed to qualify for college along with few other friends. He completed Bachelors in Science and also managed to get through civil service examinations in 2011. And after having undergone a year of Post Graduate Diploma course, he joined civil service in 2013 in Thimphu.

For the last nine years now, Karma has been drinking although not that heavy all the time but sometimes it used to be quite heavy that he even landed up with neuropathy, which is the feeling of numbness in the limbs. Countless number of times, his friends and loved ones would advise him not to drink but he couldn’t help it. Few of his friends did quit drinking as they were advised by the doctor and these friends have always wanted him to quit drinking. He is willing to quit but the bad part in him always drag him into the drinking habits. He sometimes feels that it is his past karmic deeds that is driving him crazy this time.

During weekends he and his friend Tashi along with two other friends would go to play khuru (dart game) and he would carry a bottle of whisky along with him. His friends would be taken aback the way he drinks. “Stop drinking Karma, you are killing yourself” remarked Tashi but these advices are usual things he gets every day. Even other friends joined in realizing Karma to quit drinking. But for Karma, it’s not the willingness to quit, he is willing to quit but he has become habituated and therefore he couldn’t do it for quite a long time. He thinks it’s his ngamei lay (fate). But he is very hopeful and optimist that one day he can totally leave the habit.

 To be continued…..

Thursday, April 30, 2020

འཛམ་གླིང་མི་རྟག་པའི་རང་བཞིན།།

འཛམ་གླིང་མི་རྟག་རང་བཞིན་ཨིན། མི་ཚོ་རྟག་པ་མེད་དོ་བཟུམ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལུ་ཡང་རྟག་པ་མེད། དགའ་བ་ངང་གིས་བསྒྱུར་དོ་བཟུམ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་དག་ལས་ཀྱི་བསྒྱུར། རང་ལུ་ཡོད་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བཟུམ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་མེན་མི་ག་ཡང་མེད། རང་གིས་བལྟན་རང་རྐྱངམ་ཅིག།མྱོང་དོ་བཟུམ་སྦེ་མཐོང་སྡོད་འོང་། རོག་ཕྱི་ལས་དགའ་ས་འཐོང་རུང་། ནང་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རང་མི་ཤེས།
ད་རེས་སྡུག་རུང་ནངས་པ་སྐྱིད།འཛམ་གླིང་བསྒྱུར་བའི་རང་བཞིན་ཨིན། སྡུག་བསྔལ་གོ་མི་ག་ཡང་མེད། ཨིན་རུང་འཁོར་བ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཧོད། སྔ་མའི་ལས་ཡང་ཨིམ་བ་བསམ། མི་ཚེ་ནམ་ཤིས་ནུམ་ཤིས་མེད། སྡོད་པའི་རིང་ལུ་དགའ་སྤྲོ་སྟོན། སྒྲུབ་དཀའི་རེ་བ་སྐྱེལ་མི་དགོ། གཞན་ལུ་ཕན་སེམས་བྱམ་རྩེ་སྐྱེལ། ཤ་ཚ་ཧིང་ཚའི་སྒོ་ལས་སྦེ།གཞུང་དང་ཕམ་ལུ་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཞུ།
མནོ་ཚེ་དོན་དག་སྒྲུབ་མི་ཚུགས། ལྷ་ཡིའི་པག་བསམ་ལྗོན་ཤིངན་མེན། སླབ་ཚེ་ཉེན་མི་ག་ཡང་མེད། ཉེན་ཚེ་ཧན་པའི་གཏམ་མི་འོང་།འདི་ཚུ་སྡུག་བསྔལའི་རྒྱུ་ཨིན་མས། རང་ལུ་རྐྱངམ་ཅིག་མྱོངམ་ཡང་མེན། འགྲོ་བ་གེ་ར་ལས་ཀྱི་མྱོང། རང་ལུ་དགའ་མི་གཅིག་འཐོན་ན། མ་ཕབ་རྐྱབ་མི་བརྒྱ་འཐོན་འོང་། མ་ཕབ་རྐྱབ་མི་གཅིག་ཡོད་ན།་དགའ་མི་བརྒྱ་ནང་སྟོང་འཐོན་འོང་། འདི་ཚུ་འཇིག་རྟེན་འགྲོ་ལུགས་ཨིན། སྣང་མེད་རང་གི་མི་ཚེ་སྐྱོང་།
མི་ཚེ་མི་རྟག་མྱུར་དུ་ཟད། སྡོད་རིང་དགའ་སྤྲོའི་ངང་ལུ་སྤྱོད། འདས་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འབག་མེད་དགོ། མ་འོང་བསམ་འཆར་བཀོད་མེད་དགོ། ད་ལྟོ་མི་ཚེ་སྤྲོ་མཉམ་ལེན། 
མནོ་བསམ་ག་མེད་གུ་མེད་བཏང་། རྟག་མེད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཤུགས་ཐད་འདི། བློ་སེམས་འཁྲུལ་འདི་སྡོད་མ་ད། རང་སྲོག་རང་གི་གཅད་མ་དག། ནད་པ་མ་རྟོག་ཕན་པ་མེད། རང་ལུ་བརྩེ་བའི་ཕ་མ་ཡོད། སྤུན་དང་ཆ་རོགས་སློབ་དཔོན་ཡོད། སྡུག་བསྔལ་མི་རྟག་བསམ་འདི་གི། མི་ཚེ་དགའ་སྐྱིད་ངང་ལུ་སྐྱོང་། སྡུག་བསྔལ་རང་གི་སེམས་ལས་འབྱུང་།་དེ་བཞིན་དགའ་བ་སེམས་ཀྱི་བཟོ།
བཀྲིན་ཆེ།

Monday, April 13, 2020

Simple Ways to Stay away from COVID-19

1.  Wash your hands with soap at least for 20 seconds covering whole of your hands (wrist till finger nails). 

2.  If there are no hand washing facilities, use hand-sanitizers (as advised by health personnel) every after touching unknown people or things.  

3.  Avoid travelling to affected areas or in other words stay at home. 

4.  Avoiding crowd or maintaining 1 to 1.5 meter distance while in crowd. 

5.  If you get some symptoms like fever, cough, headache, stomach disorder, stuffy nose, shortness of breath, throat pain, etc. then use your mask and visit your Doctor. 

6.  Avoid contact with your older parents, younger children and others if you feel the above symptoms. 

7.  Do not panic and practice good personal hygiene and social distancing

8.Keep hydrated and stay informed with authentic information. Avoid rumors or spreading it. 

9.  STAY SAFE-TAKE CARE

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Know about Bhutan - The Himalayan Kingdom

Geography

Bhutan is a not so big Himalayan Kingdom which lies between China to the North and India to the South. It is a mountainous country with clean fast flowing rivers and pristine natural environment. More than 60% of Bhutan is under forest cover. The fast-flowing rivers are used for generating electricity which is one of the major sources of revenue. It has a total area of about 38,394 square kilometers with a population of just 0.7 Million distributed across 20 districts.  

System of Government

Bhutan has been under the rule of benevolent Kings since 1907 and His Majesty the current King is the 5th King of Bhutan. Before 1907, Bhutan had various petty rulers and was divided into various regions ruled by different rulers. It was the Father of His Majesty the 1st King and the 1st King himself who brought the unity among the people under one rule. The focus then was on uniting the people of Bhutan besides improving the livelihoods of people. Since then, Bhutan had Absolute Monarchy form of a government; however, during the reign of His Majesty the late 3rd Druk Gyalpo, decentralization of power to the people has been initiated. Also, Bhutan opened to the outside world during the reign of His Majesty the 3rd Druk Gyalpo. 

Bhutan in 2008 has moved from absolute Monarchy to Democratic Constitutional Monarchy during the reign of His Majesty the great 4th King of Bhutan. His Majesty voluntarily enforced the constitution to his people which was unprecedented. His Majesty also abdicated the throne entrusting the full trust and responsibility to his son, the Crown Prince of Bhutan then and who is now the 5th King of Bhutan.
Bhutan today is in 3rd phase (2018-2023) of democratic form of government since its inception in the year 2008. His Majesty is the Head of the State and His Holiness is the Head of the religious affairs of Bhutan. And His Excellency the Honorable Prime Minister is the Head of the Government of the day. There are 20 districts each headed by a District Administrator (Dzongdag) appointed by His Majesty the King. The Districts are further divided into smaller sub-divisions headed by elected local leaders.

Culture

Bhutan is rich in culture and each region of Bhutan has different culture. Dzongkha is the National Language and the Gho and Kira are the National dresses for men and women respectively. The people respect elders and follow certain etiquette which is passed down from generations to generation. There are many festivals celebrated in Bhutan and there are region wise festivals. Each District has their own annual festivals which are the main occasions for tourist attractions, both local and international.  

National Identities

Dzongkha as mentioned earlier is the National Language and Gho for men and Kira for women are the National dresses. A vajra on top of lotus enclosed from left and right by Dragons in circular shape is the National Emblem. The National Flag is rectangular with two sets of color, upper yellow and lower orange divided diagonally. Along the seam of upper yellow and lower orange runs a white dragon with snarling mouth facing outward and upward. Takin and Blue poppy are the National animal and flower of Bhutan respectively. Raven is the National bird of Bhutan and 17th December every year is celebrated as the National Day of Bhutan. A stanza consisting of six lines which describes Bhutan and offers prayer for the long life of our majesty and Bhutan’s sovereignty is the National Anthem of Bhutan.

***THE END***