THE SONGS OF PRAYERS AND RIGID FAITH OF RELIGION

Disclaimer: Opinion is personal, journey is personal. Not intended to piss you or your forefathers. 

While we were hitting our puberty, it was in our syllabus the Buddhist philosophies from masters and stories of Azhi Nangsa and Kandru Drowa Zangmo. With time, it was my own personal journey to find answers and sort out my confusion. Being raised in border town of Phuentsholing, and that one-month vacation in Gomtu, whereby I was exposed to missionaries, I realized how strong faiths of people were. Moments ago, we were just bunch of three boys, who wanted to kill ducks and pigeons for the sake of testing our slingshot skills, and while we were up on the hills, we met a local priest. He then took three of us to the eldest boy’s home, there he started with his preaching and talks, I would not understand for ages. I was only nine perhaps, and within moment, a steel bowl was kept in front of the eldest boy. The priest said some prayers in Nepali language, pour water on his head which dropped on the bowl. He was happy, and later when his sisters and mother came, he announced happily that he too had given Wa-chan (promise I thought).

Social Network : Locking Down

Around 5:00 am in the morning, 11th of August, 2020, my best friend called me up, woke me up and said: Wai, there is lockdown lo. This was something that I couldn't wrap around my head and I told him, I hope not! He then told me that the PMO page had declared it. 

I logged into Facebook and realized that he was right, I was slightly angry with my wife then, because she had known about it but wasn't sure, and she didn't inform me about it. I had to hear it from my friend. I told her, "did you know that there was going to be lockdown?". She said, "I was not sure, just listen to what Prime Minister has to say. Everything I do is confidential."  

I didn't have vegetables and I thought the rice that I had stocked up was of no good, if I didn't have vegetables. I was busy with my works the previous days and I had thought, maybe, the next evening I would do my shopping. 

But there it was, slowly a little bit of hustling and noises of people around. I thought of going down stairs to buy some tomatoes, as I was running short of it. My wife made me realize that hoarding at the last moment is the worst form of being a citizen, so I should adjust without tomatoes. She was right, because in those rush hours, we couldn't take risks for being exposed to corona virus, if it was local transmission. So, I made few calls at our sites and asked our engineers to be careful. Our sites were already prepared prior a week. 

Bhutan's Construction Industry: Episode III : Manpower

Few years ago, when CDCL joined the race in construction industry, a lot of local contractors expressed their disgruntlement. What CDCL tried then was to deploy Bhutanese Manpower. They did bid upon few tenders and competed with us. Their overhead expenses seemed higher, hence they couldn’t quote as low as local contractors did. Someone had to start, for it was just a dream that we saw while we were awake, and we all knew it was but a dream which wasn't going to be possible. The journey for them must have been one of the most challenging ones, because you were not competing with any other competitor - you were competing with the cheapest and skillful labour force on the planet - the Indian Labourers. They have their own rich tradition, and they have their own stories for having their masterclass craftsmanship - not to forget few overpromising Jacks - sorry - overpromising Ram Dayals! 

Bhutan's Construction Industry : Episode II: Estimation

When we were in our final year, one of our Professors who had double Ph.D, told us one thing that stuck in my head for ages. He said, by the time you become a practicing engineer, you should give "thoda punch" to the Indian Standard Codes. 

A glimpse of an old photograph.

I remember getting my first pay check at the age of 13, and I remember not sleeping for days and painting many banners for many organisations. One of the most challenging banners was for our friend Tempa, who was a school captain in Lungtenzampa and he needed scouts flag. While painting its shape wasn't difficult, however mixing the brown colour was. With time, I got better with it, that I didn't have to use stencils nor would I buy expensive colours ~ I had improvised to use silver and gold dust with fevicol and hot water, which dried faster, making me able to finish off two to three banners over one night. With time, I would also experiment and use Times New Roman fonts, and they looked pretty. Too bad, I long to see those banners that I had painted in the past, perhaps, someday when I find them, I will post pictures on my blog.

My Take On Covid 19

Now I have been meaning to write about it, no. I have been meaning to rant about it? 

The day when the first case was declared, I got spooked, because it so happened that when the American Gentleman was having his picnic moment in the park, I was above the road waiting for some officials. No, that wasn't the day that my stars were unaligned and I didn't crave to go to park. 

Ever since the first case was dropped to us as atomic bomb, everybody panicked and it got so frustrating to see nitwits run around to stock rations for themselves. It took me more than an hour to drive 30 meters towards my home. 

The Battle of Architects and Civil Engineers - perspective after a decade

When I graduated from college, I always had this notion of engineers and architects not getting along. The rivalry existed I thought, because who could do whose job and who was more important for a project?