A Way of Life!

It's okay to be going through rough times

It's okay when your life flickers with the dimmest glow.

It's okay to be broke sometimes

or have your luck running all time low

Life teaches when you have nothing

There's no charm without struggles..

would you fancy playing easy games

or a game riddled with puzzles?

27th of November, 2023

Lamaigoempa, Bumthang

Let's tell tree tale

 Around a little town's corner 

amid rain and breeze,

growing by the roadside

there's a tiny grove of trees

"I'm grown along the roadsides,

my leaves are nutritious and mellow.

People grow me for fodder

cattle loves me", smirks willow

"I might be deserted for being crooked

left to grow on a rock,

people shelter under my boughs

in the scorching sun and rain", prides oak

"Majestic and virile

I can't be felled to make a log,

creatures dwell in my hollow..

ecologically important I am", says hemlock

"My exudate's used as libation,

evils with my incense I repress,

associated with the Buddha

I am sacrosanct" cries cypress

"I can be sculpted on..

tender, soft and fine

sought after for furniture

I beat you all", remarks pine. 

People from the municipality comes along

when the bright sun shone

with maps and axes...

an hour later, all the trees are gone!

Karma Thukten

25th of May, 2022

Maokhola-Gelephu

Naturally Beautiful

O! Beautiful bodacious angel!

Dancing in the air,

Naturally graceful, naturally elegant,

Majestically Painted with flair.

She hasn’t done her eye lashes,

Bleached to accentuate feather colour

Or whitened her visage,

The beautiful European Roller.

She isn’t buxom,

She hasn’t worn a wig,

She dazzles with her radiance

Perched on a squishy twig.

She needs no fancy apparel

and put on some ultra high heels,

 Her beauty isn’t to coax

Cockerels to pay the bills.

You don’t expend resources

To look like a tart,

You were innately glowing

Right from the start.

You’re naturally beautiful

You don’t need no beauty parlour

And if of my words, you don’t buy

Remember her, the European Roller!

Karma Thukten

19th of September, 2021

Maokhola Outpost, Gelephu

Cloud formations- A marvel

Have you ever gazed up the sky,

Watched the cloud

And wondered what shapes

they're all about?

Sometimes you see a turtle,

Sometimes a palm tree,

And rarely army of ants

On some hunting spree.

On occasions, you see a cabbage

A carrot or a cauliflower,

The shapes keep on changing

Each passing hour.

At times there’s that hare

And the slothful sluggish snail

Racing Against the breeze

Leaving behind a teeny tiny trail.

Sometimes you see some eerie figures,

Sometimes you see some faces

Or some inconspicuous maps

Of ancient medieval places.

Some shapes are just strange

Of whose shape, you can’t relate,

Like a forlorn farmer in the field

Of oat and millet?

Sometimes you see God

Seated on a throne, our King,

For inquisitive minds in the sky

There’s always a thing.

When your days are hard,

Gaze up the skies

To see some crazy shapes

Unfolding before your eyes!!

Karma Thukten

16th of September, 2021

Maokhola Outpost, Gelephu

Place I call Home

I see no charm in the brimming river

or ecstatic tune in the thunderstorm,

nor melody in the skylark’s song,

I just miss my home.

I am exulted not by the sight of shiny gravels,

neither the winding brook with frothy foam

or the mirthful breeze that sweeps along

but the place I call home.

I don’t long for rainbows arching over the vales,

or moon poised in her silvery throne,

but a warm cuddle to my kids

Back at home.

I’d rather listen to the plates clatter

than the nightingale’s song,

deafening wail of my daughter

 is melodious than its tone.

But I have an important job to do,

Safeguarding my larger home, my country,

Few months away from my little home...

Until my Nation’s pandemic-free! 

Karma Thukten

2nd of August, 2021

Maokhola II Outpost

Gelephu, Sarpang.

A Leader in my Opinion

 A great leader is someone who neglects 99 of your follies and commends on 1 good work you've done. He'll never belittle subordinates, pass on condescending remarks, vilify dull minds and infact be the quintessence of inspiration, epitome of motivation and byword for success! At the end of everyday, he'll assess number of colleagues he helped make a difference! That's the Leader we need, that's the Leader a Nation needs, that's the Leader, You and I need!

Can Money Buy Happiness??

 

Can money buy happiness

Money has certainly made life convenient but we shouldn’t confuse convenience with happiness. Money might be able to buy predisposing factors to happiness but not happiness per se. Worth of a thing can be gauged by the placement of value by people. Money to a toddler won’t make him happy. Money can buy a candy that can make a kid happy but not the money itself. Now, candy can be presented to the kid from a plethora of ways like baking, stealing, borrowing, the kid finds pleasure in biting into the candy and not in finding the source of its appearance. Money doesn’t make him happy but the candy does. It’s like saying money can buy a house but not home.

Money is a recent development, imagine the era of prehistoric civilization where there was no monetary concept, were our forefathers grumpy and sad all the time without even an iota of happiness in them? Well, if you still argue that money can indeed buy happiness, let’s exhume a rotting carcass from a graveyard, cram a billion Ngultrums* in his coffin and place the corpse back. Let’s return the day after and see if the corpse’s smiling.

Happiness is not a product at a sales counter that money can buy.

 *Ngultrum is Bhutanese Currency calculated at par with Indian Rupee

Karma Thukten

2^nd of February, 2021

Lamaigoempa

Word of Wisdom

Don't belittle someone else for his/her sheer being. If someone else ain't upto your expectation, guide the person. A child wetting bed won't stop doing so by mere scolding but if you take the child to the loo in the middle of every night, he/she probably won't wet the bed. Guide a person and he will dazzle everyone with his fiery brilliance. Every person is a raw blemished diamond waiting to have their dusts wiped out and reveal its true being. No one will rise up under suppression/duress, give him space, love and ample motivation, he would probably surpass your potential


Karma Thukten
23rd of December, 2019

Remix of Well known Saying..

Early to bed & Early to rise
Makes a person healthy, wealthy & wise.

Early to bed & late to rise
you miss out your breakfast of tea, omelette and rice.

Early to bed & late to rise
Is a shocking surprise.

Early to rise & late to bed
you need paracetamol to ease your head.

Late to rise & late to bed
Half the neighbours think you're dead.

Karma Thukten

December 12, 2014

12 miles to Kheybeythang

In a magical cauldron, in the heavens,

wizards conjured up miracle for days

adding in mysterious mix of potions,

whipped up this place.

A place with myriad wild flowers,

colloidal clouds drifting on tree tops,

where sparkling brooks meander

along verdant forest crops.

This is a place of immense serenity

interrupted only by faint chimes of cattle bell,

an ecstatic heaven born out of

invisible forces working its enchanting spell.

Rustling leaves play melodious tunes

as dancing breeze on them caress,

a perfect therapy for mortals

beset with societal distress.

Cross breathtaking Phobjikha vales,

away from hamlets far-flung,

greet lasses shying away with timid smile,

We welcome you, to Kheybeythang!

Karma Thukten

24th of July, 2018

Kheybeythang Nature Study Center.

Damn Life!

There are a million ways humans could die of: let's start with the four elements of life- 

1. Earth/soil: you could die being struck by a falling boulder, tremors, avalanche, being buried alive in a tunnel..
2. Water- inundation, tsunami, drowning, ...
3. Fire- torched by house caught in fire, molten metals, volcanic eruption, electrocution...
4. Wind- storm, cyclone, hurricane, being hit by CGI sheets air-borne

There are myriad of diseases-HIV, Rabies, Diabetes, NCDs, cancers...that claim human lives, unabated.
You could die of food choke, sudden cardiac arrest, slain by infuriated boyfriends, alcohol, nicotines, car accidents, commission of suicide, battery, massacre, carnage, suffocation during massive stampede of humans...

And of all those life taking predicaments you triumph over, you would certainly die of senile age-the ultimatum. By all angles, we, humans are bound to die...

It's us(humans) against fiery natural/artificial foes..we should stand united without killing eachother and devising alternatives to stay put and breathing, proliferating love while on Earth. Next time you plot against anyone, think twice of humanly struggles we are going through to remain alive..

.......Karma Thukten Rinpochhe comes with wild thoughts sometimes....

Who is the true employer? Drayang workers or the Drayang Owners?

I know, this could be little sensitive but I thought it should be brought to the limelight deeming every day struggles these so called "Drayang staff" have to go through to accomplish their journey, people call life. After weary hours of dancing and consistently being shoved off when asked for money, what ever the collectibles, they have to offer 50% to the owners at the end of the month. Owners don't pay salary to the dancers, all they do is provide the young dancers the platform to perform. Some may argue that the owners take 50% off the bounty collected in lieu of business tax, rental charges, electric bills and hordes of other bills..which business entity doesn't pay up bills? considering exorbitant and unregulated prices of boozes and stuffs charged, I feel it's only fair to rev up percentile of bucks collected to the dancers who painstakingly earned or have separate allowances for the dancers from the side of owners besides 50% of "requests" gathered by the dancers. If I ain't blatantly blundered, I heard there's incorporation of "PF system" for employees in that kinda sector, is it defunct? with all these points, I come to my question of who the true employer is, owner who plunders certain percentages of monies collected? or the dancers who offers certain share of their earnings?

Note: It is entirely my opinion empathizing our sisters working at the entertainment arena. I may not be cussed, please...:P

The way My Bhutan should be- Through my vision

Quite frankly, I don't follow much of Bhutanese news owing to the nature of duty I perform. You can say I am a Conservation Researcher in a way.

Recently, I have been thinking hard on how restrictive our Bhutanese laws are with public being continually imposed with tyrannical sorta rules. Can we ever be free to express our innermost desires, live the way we always wanted to?

Bhutan has been flaunting her pride on how well managed the country's laws are: Business entities including bars, discotheques and entertainment centres are made to close on time and it is ensured that the boycotted products are on constant scrutiny.

We love it the way public revere those regulations and the way government claims to prioritize public sector development amongst other developmental goals.

My topic of discussion is mostly centred on timing of business centre closure. More than often, I forget to buy certain stuff and the time when I actually remember I find the shops closed. Why don't we have shops that remain open till morning all through the night? In other countries, they have cities that never sleep.

Why does our government restrict shop owners from keeping their business up and running till late night? Is this private sector development priority? Well, leave it to shop owners if they want to sleep and relax.

Instead of juxtaposing upsurge of crime and business centers not closing on time, why don't we invest on better surveillance and beefing up of security services in the country?

I read through statements made by some important people on how the number of entertainment centers and meat shops have augmented in the holy town of Bumthang in the recent times, a plausible remark, indeed! but i am kinda wondering how this should affect the community?

Let's say Bumthang has a population of 500 and 4 entertainment centres. 300 men continually visit those night clubs. Then hypothetically it would be 75 men visiting each of those 5 night clubs.

Now say, a man establishes fifth night club. Then it would be the same 300 men visiting those facilities but with wider range of visiting options this time (60 men in each 5 night clubs). An additional night club won't draw visitors all the way from Thimphu or nearby towns but the same regular visitors. On the contrary, there would be more employment to destitute teenagers vying for means to support their family.

How would it look if there's a way we could go to a shop and get our stuff at any given time in case we forgot to enlist it in our shopping memo earlier??

It's time we rethink on those restrictive provisions.

Note: It's just my opinion and I love my Bhutan, no matter what.