Intersectionsatlife

  In May 1997, I became a banker in the true sense. I was working with the big ledgers, and tallying up figures manually. Pure grunt work.   My salary was all of Nu 6380, a very handsome amount then. (Before this, I had worked for a year in a private company, which paid Nu 4000 monthly). After completing my one-year probationary period, my salary jumped to 8500 per month, and my immediate thought was: I have a stable job with a great salary, and I need a car! So, I started putting away whatever I could after surviving on the least-costing food; my aim was to be able to buy a car within the next three years, with my own savings. I envisioned myself driving a sleek, new vehicle, enjoying the freedom and convenience it would bring. So, with determination, I embarked on my three-year journey of saving. Needless to say, the journey did not unfold quite as I had imagined. The Struggle  Saving for a car seemed like a straightforward plan. I set aside a portion of my salary, cutt...

  COVID-19 arrived in Bhutan in 2020, when an American citizen tested positive for the virus on 5th March 2020. The man came to Bhutan as a tourist and arrived at the Paro International Airport on 2nd March 2020. Ever since then, COVID has imposed its effects on the Bhutanese populace in myriad ways. First came the lockdown V1: imposed from 10th August 2020, for 21 days. Another lockdown started on 23rd December 2020. And it went on. Around the same time,  Monetary Measures (MM)  started coming into effect, with the SOP for MM1 coming out on 14th April 2020, which  deferred  all loans as of February 2020 by three months, and waived off the interest for the performing ones for three months (April – June 2020) meaning the interest burden was taken over by the government and banks in a 50:50 ratio. Along with deferring loans, other steps were taken as well, some of which are: deferred payment of sales tax and customs duty on essential items (March to June 2020), an...

Culmination- 2013 It is with bitter-sweet feelings that I have to call Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)’s 120 th graduation ceremony a culmination of many things. Bitter, because this is the day when we will see many of our friends for probably the last time. Many of them, I am sure, will cross my part of the world one day, but then, there are so many I may not even manage to keep in touch. Sweet, because, like everyone else here, we will be together with families and loved ones once more. It was nice to see the insides of a classroom after about a decade or so; it was a nice break from the daily grind of a regular job, but it was not easy to be away from the loves of your life. Sweet, because the ceremony also falls on the 106 th national day of my country. Well, it’s over for now. As they say, till death, education continues. I am sure some of us may meet at a different part of the world, still in the quest of further knowledge. See you there! What did I learn? Tha...

From Bhutan to AIT, Bangkok! Yes, I come from Bhutan. That small nation that is ensconced between India and China, and the very one that introduced the concept of Gross national Happiness to the world. In Bhutan, we calculate GNH as a measure of the country’s development, and not GDP. Surprised? I do look like I am from India, or Bangladesh or Nepal. Depends on how you look at it. We are called the “Lhotshampas” in Bhutan, rather fondly, I would say, and loosely translates to “one from the southern fringes of the country”. Well, once upon a time my ancestors came from somewhere and settled in Bhutan.  But me and my family (and my grandfather before that) are firmly Bhutanese, although we also celebrate Hindu festivals like the Dasain, along with all the Buddhist ones. You see, in Bhutan, Hinduism and Buddhism are the two state religions, and English and Dzongkha are the popular two languages, apart from other vernaculars. Yes, English, because the education in Bhutan is all c...

Human Life........ Fear of failure is a natural human tendency and limits us psychologically, but fear of success is also a major limiting factor. With success comes many unintended consequences, i.e. more money, less privacy, lovers, haters, changes in the id and ego and cognitive perception. I think that, as far as we know, since this is our one shot at the human experience, we need to make sure that it is carried through with meaning. While that might mean a fabulous career or a healthy family or being in love or helping others realize their dreams or simply watching all this with wonder, it is certainly an individual choice. to be continued................

I wanted to catch it ……… I saw a vision, Beautiful shape… pretty hued It beckoned at me, Wanted me to hold it close. I moved towards it, Wanted to catch and draw it near… I touched it and it felt cool And then, I woke up.