A reflection of a loving father

A reflection of a loving father

My life has never been as tough as it should have been for I have been continuously under the supervision of caring parents—mum and dad. Well, I have seen many people undergoing a great struggle in their daily lives unlike me. I have seen many people with a broken dream moving on with life. Many people must not have known what comfort and good life are; they might not have known what it feels to have a supporting father and an inspiring mum; many people might not have experienced the feeling of being motivated and trusted caring dad and a loving mum.

I feel proud to write that my entire life has been ruled by pleasant thoughts—thoughts of being proud of having a great father. There was never a time I ever thought that I am going fail badly; that I am going to be prevented cherishing my dreams. As long as you have a shadow of your parents following you; their love and affection embracing you all the time and holding your hands and leading you, you will never be left hopeless and shattered. Your dreams will see the light of reality. Your life will be a wonderful gift to you. Your destiny will be a pleasant phenomenon.

For many lucky people, your father is a savior; a fulfiller of your dreams, and a guide of your life. My father has been such a notable figure in my life. If I don’t speak to you about him, I am not gonna forgive myself. I must write about him and remind you how great our father is.

When I performed well in studies, he was happier than me. I have seen him boasting and blowing the trumpet. Whenever and wherever he met people, the topic he used to discuss was about my performance. Although I   used to feel shy when he used to talk of my performance and remain away, I thought, one day I would make him prouder than what he was then. I wanted to see him making endless talk about me with others. I wanted work harder every day. I wanted to see him happy about his children.

My primary schooling was very wonderful time to cherish. My father used to give me money every day—sometimes Nu 5 and sometimes Nu 2.This would help me buy four cookies costing Nu 2, and a Miranda Pepsi packed in a small cylindrical plastic. Sometimes, I used to buy rice flakes and share with my friends. In the evening, when my class got over, my father would buy me Nimki(a salty mitghai) and I would go home eating it along the way. Sometimes, he used to buy me a packet of Thin biscuits. This practice of his made me earn a lot of friends because not everyone’s father did like mine. Many friends would walk home with, me eating with me. My father had even instructed many shopkeepers to lend me whatever I ordered, on credits. Such scheme of his however didn’t thrill me for I never wanted to get things on credits.

Soon after I graduated my primary schooling, class eight, I was to go far away to a boarding School. My father was excited, then. Although he didn’t have an original source of his own to earn money, he borrowed from a neighbor promising him to pay paddy as interest annually. He gave me Nu 5000/- to   buy necessities for schooling. It was more than I expected, more than I deserved. I had made a list of things amounting to Nu 3000/- and asked him the same. He gave me more than what I actually desired for. It was a huge sum, at least for me. Off to school went I.  My mum and dad struggled with paddy cultivation and at the end of the year, harvested enough to pay interest. However, sad thing to note, then, was that the money lenders demanded paddy that yielded delicious rice—khamti and masino were the only rice accepted. And, the worst thing was, is and will be that those varieties of rice yielded less in a huge land (Where an acre of land with OR yielded one metric tons, Khamti and Masino variety yield only around 200 -400 kg).

The very fact that we owned only around 60 Decimal wetland that yielded amount that is just enough to pay interest, made us paralyzed in ability. We had to cultivate other land as a sharecropper. Lender used to come with sacks and additional porters at the end of the year. This happened every year and each year the share for interest increased-- doubled, tripled and then quadrupled. However, as long as someone studies well, everyone’s parents will be happy to expand money on their children. My study was good; they felt encouraged to expend on me. My younger brother who got double promotion in class one also used to fare well in studies.

After I qualified for tertiary studies to CNR, he was further inspired and happy. He used to keep his spirit of giving more amount of money than I required, continued. He still was happy and afforded me.

Today where I stand is all his power to push me forward with inspiration and enough support. If what I can cherish as my life, today is what his unconditional love has afforded. His continued support, encouragement and guidance in conjunction with my loving mum pushed me to this platform.

A letter from a mom to her son

A letter from a mom to her son

 Dear son

As I write this to you, I can’t help shed tears that drain off my eyes. Deep down my heart, there seems an unusual pang of despair. Each day as you grow up to be an adult, you seem being fading from my proximity and the thought that you are near me. You have grown up to be someone who I now have to make an appointment to meet.

When you were small, I have cleaned your shit. You used to defecate on your pants but I never hesitated cleaning if off. You were a little baby so innocent that I dependent upon you to survive.  Once on a journey, when I asked the bus driver to stop for some time for you to vomit, he didn’t listen and I had to let you vomit on my cloth .Everyone near me closed their eyes and looked me with hatred but I attacked them back with my smile. When I didn’t get a seat on a bus, I carried you on my back so that you would be comfortable and I stood like many guys. Sometimes even when I got a seat and there were abundant I carried you on my lap and make you sleep by caressing your hair. You would sleep peacefully on my lap and I would remain awake for a long journey.

Sometimes when I was away from you, you would fall down and cry. I had to console you by letting you suckle my nipples. There would be many people around me but I never hesitated to expose my breast just to make you comfortable and happy. When at times, your father came home late with his carelessness and carefree life, I used to narrate you some cooked up fairytale to put you into slumber. After you slept, I would wait late night without taking a morsel of food. When I had to work but you would cry, I used to carry you on my back. I used to drag some reluctant and stubborn cattle with you on my back. Sometime, you used to sit on the heavy sack of rice I carried from mills and sing innocent songs.

Very often during dinner time when I would sit for a plate of rice, you would cry so bad that I had to console and comfort you to sleep with my unwashed hands. By then, appetite with which I would sit, would be gone. When you would vomit on my hand as I fed you some morsel of rice, I wouldn’t wash it. I would find no reason to feel bad for.

Gradually you grew into adult and from toddler to a man now I can see you travel alone. As you have become an independent man, I have experienced a feeling of missing you. I know you must be busy setting your life; sewing every bit of dreams to realize a beautiful reality and travelling paths that will lead you to a better destination. I also know whatever you must be doing, it will be good.

However, every night I lie on the bed, I feel somewhere I have started losing you: You don’t seem bothering about me and your father. Every day, I wait for your call. I want to hear you talk this and that; ask me about your father, grandma and our neighbor. Above all, I want to  see you call me and make me feel that you do remember me. I know it will be tough for you to call me every day, for you must be busy in your study and duty. I would be excited to receive your call sometimes—yes, steal a moment from your busy schedule. Call me. Call your dad. Call your grandma and relatives.

We always want you to be at our sight, but I know education and exposure is must. Therefore, we admitted you to school after a series of pleas to headmaster. After you went away to study, your dad and I remain alone at home. In the evening, by the oven with reddened ambers and yellow flames, we talk of you: We wish you had a beautiful life filled with dream-come true moments. We talk about you on what you must have been doing .We talk of how you used to be and we keep worrying about you, inspite of that fact that you have grown up.

Sometimes, perhaps, you are angry with you girlfriend or friends and you switch off your phone. We worry about you a lot. We worry as why your phone is switched off. Please, take care of your life. Don’t make your life miserable with small misunderstanding with you girl friend. Don’t drink to overcome despair and disappointment .Your father and I are always there for you, no matter what. When we have raised you to this age, never divert yourself and life towards a selfish and problematic girlfriend.We doesn’t want to lose you. Every bit of my organ wants you with me.

Sometimes, when you get time from your busy schedule, come home. Your father and I will be always waiting for you. If you just say, you are coming home; I will be sitting in wait on the corridor with my eyes staring at the road you would emerge from. I would be preparing you meals. for you might reach home hungry. You father always says to me that we won’t ask you to work for us. We would just love to have you at our sight the way I wanted you to be on lap when you were a kid. You don’t need to plough the field, you dad would do. You don’t need to tether the goat and cattle, I and your father would do. All we want is you and your presence. Your father and I will make sure you are protected under the scorching sun the way we have been doing. We will bear beneath the scorching sun and get tanned while you can be home, watch TV or sleep and develop your complexion. You must become smarter so that you would remain more busy in the school or college, dating. (LOL).Please son, come home at least during vacation, leaving your busy schedule. We want to see you for once.

With much love to you, my son

Thanking you

Your loving mother

A calf cries

A calf cries

Moo, moo, moos a little calf

Opening wide its snout;

Perhaps seeking its mother cow

That has been dragged in the field

Away to tether;

Perhaps begging us

To free it

For it might have desired to go

See his mother cow.

Moo, moo,it keeps mooing further.

Moo moo-it is unbearable!

Only a way to stop it

I thought, was to serve it water-

In a big aluminum bowl.

Poured from a big urn of water

I place it near

And there it comes

And gulp endlessly

To empty the bowl.

No moo now; no complaints

Perhaps, it was thirsty

Yet a moo confuses-

But one moo means

A complaint

Mourning

Happiness

Or inquiry.

Such is an animal

But owner should interpret the moo!

My nights

Sometimes at my domain

Through the loveliness of crescent moon

On the poorly lit night

With the lonely empty sky

I seem looking at you -

In thought

In imagination

And in wish.

Sometimes at the full moon

Through wholly lit night

Along the silhouette of   black trees

Against the pale sky

I seem waiting for you-

In thoughts

In imagination

And in wish!

Dassain---an occasion to remember family and parents

Dassain^__an occasion to remember family and parents

The annual festival which the Hindu celebrates all over the world with grand celebration has an important significance. Dassain, not only is a time of celebration but also a time of family reunion— siblings who have been far away from each other; sons and daughters who are  hills apart  from their parents; grandsons and grand daughters who have not met with their grandma and grandpa^__ this is the time, distance is nullified!

Dassain is an auspicious occasion, when the crack in family relationship is joined; it is the time when distance of time and space is once again made to disappear. Dassain is the time when you know how lucky you are to have family and parents. “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, and call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one”, writes Jane Howard.

Often times, we forget that we owe a lot to our family, being lost in some other materialistic world. There happens to be no time we want to think we belong to a beautiful family where our childhood is rooted. Desmond Tutu says, “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them”. We don’t have time for the members of family we have been grown up with. Other times, we are so busy treading our own journey; we are so focused in sewing our own dreams and seeking our own livelihood, yet Dassain is a time we keep aside these selfish motives. Albert Einstein says, “Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!” Our life is a land where the seed of happiness is already existent and unless we dedicate ourselves in nurturing it, we can never have it sprout. Dassain is the time we can rejoice with family.

In the work of Paul Pearshell, it says, “Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted. Therefore, Dassain is the time we get to know that, after all we need our family. “Having a place to go — is a home. Having someone to love — is a family. Having both — is a blessing, supplements Donna Hedges.

For those of us who are away from a native land, Dassain is the time we get to step once again on it and feel blessed. Our home and family are not just something we must have possessed; they are the ones our entire life moves with. What Thomas Jefferson states substantiate further by saying. “The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family”. Gail Lumet Buckley also says “Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. Dassain remind us about the reality of life.

For those of us who been away from parents, Dassain is the time we understand again how great parents have been in our lives. “My heroes are and were my parents. I can’t see having anyone else as my heroes” says Michael Jordan. Yes, the people who keep saving us from unseen, unheard and unprecedented disasters are parents. Chuck Palahniuk writes “First your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life”.   

                                                                                   They keep sacrificing for us, yet we 

don’t always want to know it. Most of the time, we tend to ignore the fact that our father who, sometimes in life, carried us on his shoulder; who held our hands and taught us to walk and taught us even if we fall, he would stretch his hands to help us get up. Our mother who gave us a confidence that, no matter who hated our looks, she would always love us unconditionally--  a fact that we often forget with hustle and bustle of our lives. Despite her tiredness after a heavy toil in the scorching sun (for many of us whose back ground is rural life), she never failed to comfort us. Therefore, Dassain is such occasion we shall revive the dead feeling and realize that our parents have given entire life to us. What we are now as a man and woman, it is our parents who sacrificed their entirety in having us so.

May this Dassain, open up the eyes of many people who have been blind towards their family and parents presence. May a sentimental blossom bloom at the heart of those broken families. May the broken thread of relationship tie reuniting knots of love and forgiveness. HAPPY DASSAIN TO ALL!

Acknowledgement:Both images are extracted from internet.

Ode to Thimphu

Ode to Thimphu

Now that I am going, my dear

I may come or may not;

For I have decided to leave you

And your presence;

On your lap have my part of life been nourished

And suckling the breasts of your love

In the form of adjustment and times,

I have attended the toddler-hood of feelings—

I can walk now without fear!

Now that I am leaving you

I am leaving you my trails on your body;

The times I stepped on u,

Were the most wonderful ones—

I stumbled

Fell down

Yet learned to rise again.

I am leaving you my moments back!

Now that I am going

I am leaving you my hopes

And if your love beckons me

With better moments,

I shall be back in your life

Not as a toddler,

But as a matured happy man!

Hinduism and the environment (Green faith)—a concept of sustainable development

Hinduism and the environment (Green faith)—a concept of sustainable development

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed—Mahatma Gandhi.

When I was a small boy, my grandma would caution me not to pee or defecate in the river—doing so would invite illness and our parts responsible for peeing and defecating would be infected. Today, as I graduate in Sustainable Development, I realize that our forefathers always have taken the concept of sustainable development seriously—though in a superstition form. In environmental science, peeing and defecating in the river would pollute the water and people downstream would be affected—a public health issue, too, indeed.

We had a spring nearby home where we depended for water for entire year. My grandma would never allow us even to wash our face in it, forget dumping wastes. She would say, “Don’t throw rice or any dirty things into the water, NAAG (Lug will get angry). This was also a strategy for conserving water.

There was a tree at the source of water where she said local deity of water lived there. If we cut and disturbed it, deity would get angry and bring harm on us. Therefore, that tree still remains near the water source to this day. I could understand such belief has played a role in conserving trees which support our life and sequesters carbon.

We consider elephants as god and even pray for them. Whenever elephants raided our paddy, my grandma and parents could be seen chanting prayers and murmuring the name of Ganesh. They would say, “hey bhagwan, koon bato aiyeu tei bato jau” (take the same way you came from). They would never have any intention to harm them. Similarly, tigers and the family of wild cats are considered goddess.

Besides this, everyone back in the village, people grow banana not for consumption but as food for cattle. This practice has also played a big role in sequestering carbon. Pipal tree(Ficus Religiosa) is planted which is considered scared.Even,i have seen people back at my village marrying pipal with another  called Ficus Benghalnensis which is also considered sacred tree.Such are the environment conservation practice in Hinduism.

Perhaps, some says, Hinduism is the oldest surviving religion in the world. However, the first record of practiced religion comes from Egypt as far as 4000BCE (Mark, 2009).Hinduism like Buddhism has many things common in view of protecting environment.

Following are the teachings of Hinduism adopted from Pankaj Jain’s work.

 
The following are teachings of Hinduism on environment:

 Pancha Mahabhutas (The five great elements): The interconnectedness of these elements forms a web between cosmos and human body. Hinduism teaches that the five great elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth) that constitute the environment are all derived from prakriti, the primal energy. Each of these elements has its own life and form; Hinduism recognizes that the human body is composed of and related to these five elements, and connects each of the elements to one of the five senses. The human nose is related to earth, tongue to water, eyes to fire, skin to air, and ears to space. This bond between our senses and the elements is the foundation of our human relationship with the natural world. For Hinduism, nature and the environment are not outside us, not alien or hostile to us. They are an inseparable part of our existence, and they constitute our very bodies.

Protecting the environment is part of Dharma. Dharma, one of the most important Hindu concepts, has been translated into English as duty, virtue, cosmic order, and religion. In Hinduism, protecting the environment is an important expression of dharma. In past centuries, Indian communities – like other traditional communities – did not have an understanding of “the environment” as separate from the other spheres of activity in their lives. These communities carry out these conservation-oriented practices not as“environmental” acts but rather as expressions of dharma.” These traditional Indian groups do not see religion, ecology, and ethics as separate arenas of life. Instead, they understand it to be part of their dharma to treat creation with respect.

Ishavasyam – Divinity is omnipresent and takes infinite forms. Hindu texts such as the

Bhagavad Gita (7.19, 13.13) and the Bhagavad Purana (2.2.41, 2.2.45), contain many references to the omnipresence of the Supreme divinity – including its presence throughout and within nature. Hindus worship and accept the presence of God in nature.

Global Village -- Vasudhaiva Kutumbatam... “If you view everything and everyone as an aspect of Divinity, viewing the entire globe as a village easily follows”. A paraphrase from the Artharva Veda: "Mother Earth supports us with Her abundant endowments and riches; it is She who nourishes us; it is She who provides us with a sustainable environment; and it is She who, when angered by the misdeeds of Her children, punishes them with disasters

Our environmental actions affect our Karma. Karma - a central Hindu teaching - holds that

Each of our actions creates consequences – good and bad – which constitute our karma and determine our future fate, including the place we will assume when we are reincarnated in our next life.

The earth – Devi – is a goddess and our mother and deserves our devotion and protection.

Many Hindu rituals recognize that human beings benefit from the earth, and offer gratitude and Protection in response. Many Hindus touch the floor before getting out of bed every morning and ask Devi to forgive them for trampling on her body.

Hinduism’s tantric and yogic traditions affirm the sacredness of material reality and contain teachings and practices to unite people with divine energy. Hinduism’s Tantric tradition teaches that the entire universe is the manifestation of divine energy. Yoga – derived from the Sanskrit word meaning “to yoke” or “to unite” - refers to a series of mental and physical practices designed to connect the individual with this divine energy.

Hindu teachers have used these teachings to demonstrate the wrongness of the exploitation of the environment, women, and indigenous peoples

Belief in reincarnation supports a sense of interconnectedness of all creation. Hindus believe

in the cycle of rebirth, wherein every being travels through millions of cycles of birth and rebirth in different forms, depending on their karma from previous lives. So, a person may be reincarnated as a person, animal, bird, or another part of the wider community of life.

Through belief in reincarnation, Hinduism teaches that all species and all parts of the earth are part of an extended network of relationships connected over the millennia, with each part of this network deserving respect and reverence.

Sanyasa (Asceticism) represents a path to liberation and is good for the earth. Hinduism teaches that asceticism – restraint in consumption and simplicity in living – represents a pathway towards moksha (liberation) which treats the earth with respect. A well-known Hindu teaching -Tain tyakten bhunjitha – has been translated, “Take what you need for your sustenance without a sense of entitlement or ownership.”

(Acknowledgement: The above paragraphs have been adopted from the work of Pankaj Jain, PhD; Green faith)