A journey i will never forget!

I woke up to the sounds of  heavy torrents of rain splattering on the drain outside of my window.
It was somewhere in the early part of the summer of '99 and the monsoon had already started bringing in clouds laden with heavy down pour. I got up from the bed and to the sights of my packed belongings with which on that fateful day i was headed towards sherubste college.
I remember giving the tightest  possible hug to my mother and a  manly handshake to my late father who was already counting on how much pocket money i should be taking to college.We took our moments to bid each other farewell  following which i hopped onto the car in the torrential morning rain and headed towards the bus station. You see, its not uncommon at that time of year to be sorry ass drenched  like a sponge even with an umbrellas' help,and there i was before the start of the journey, head to toe, soaked to the bone.

As i was standing next to the ticket counter trying to wring the water out of my shirt, i meet an old friend of mine who was with another guy, he introduced me to him. He was a brown lanky, bispectacled nerdy looking boy with a little lisp(or more if i remembered well), "hi i am heruka zangpo". We exchanged some words, quickly became friends and found out we were headed towards the same college.

Finally the relentless downpour gave in and we got on to the bus  with our soggy stuff.

It was going to be a new start, a fresh start to a new life in a new place and, if i pushed the lady luck a little too hard, may be even a new girl friend to finish the list. Who knew what waited for me out there and that overwhelmed me with  joy i could not express.

Heruka and i shared the seat next to eachother. Almost a decade has passed, i still remember the bus trip to samdrup jongkhar that day so vividly like it was yesterday. Because thats where i saw singay and his chain smoking sister. Ofcourse i did smoked a stick or two but for that matter at that time i had never seen someone smoke sticks after sticks of cigarettes, it was such a disturbing sight to see for i was just a novice. Later a few months after i had been to the peak of learning, i found out it was not that hard and yes, people did find it a little perturbing to see you smoke like a chimney!.
As we reached samdrup jongkhar that afternoon, heruka offered  me to stay with him at his uncles' place for the night.I obliged.

The morning was doleful like any other monsoon day with sinister dark clouds hanging in the sky ever ready to pelter on us and it did. Heruka left on a bus to trashigang, i could not as all the tickets were already sold out. The only vehicle avialable was a beat out " PHAGPA GARI" charging us a ridiculous amount of money for a sit which didnt even exist!. Like all those poor souls i had no choice but to travel and travel i did, on that funny truck which i still despise today. It was the one of most grueling hours of my life.

Hungry and carsick, i endured the punishing journey until about half way through i could not take it anymore, thats were i befriended some army guys heading towards the same route at one of the stops.They let me hitch a ride on the back of a 7 ton army truck, with no rains falling on my head this time...  i disappeared into the  distance on the back of the truck, grinning at those poor souls stuck on that hedious phagpa gari.."so long suckers!"
Well my luck soon ran out when the truck that i took a ride,broke down, i thought to myself, "what a great day it was turning out to be, first the rain then the truck and now this!".
Just as when  hope seemed very bleak it was de javu all over again and this time i managed myself to get me an ambulance ,thus after seven plus punishing hours of travel and a change of three different vehicles, i finally started seeing the magnificient gate of sherubtse.The gate is one of the underrated iconic structure that defines the college and definately the first thing you notice when you arrive at kanglung.
The ambulance stopped, my heart raced as i stepped out of the vehicle to a whole new world.It was the dawn of a new chapter in my life, a beginning that still has a lasting impression in my heart to this day!

simpler times!

Things were pretty much simpler in the good old days when one plus one meant two. I grew up thinking all judges looked just like my late dad, that was then though. It just surpasses beyond all possible  rational reason as to why i had such a ridunculous notion popping up in the so little head of mine.

As a kid, i was fairly a naughty boy who ended up most of the time getting a good amount of spanking from my dad on saturday evenings.The beating usually occurred as a result of my unheeding nature to dads repeated warning to be home on time. Dad would tell me,' be home by ',and i would always end up reaching home at 7 or more and to the welcome of my dads'  "Brangpa". Call me weird but i miss those beatings, probably shaped me to be who i am right now. Not that i turned in some kind of sadistic introverted person who is mentally traumatised. I believe those every good lash i had on my bum had good intentions into shaping my future.The way i put it sounds very debatable  and corny but believe me  those were the simpler times.
The way i portray my father sure seemingly makes anyone into believing that he was a badman with bad temper. Ok, he was short tempered but not a badman.This i came to know during the later part of my growing up after he had retired, all he meant was to be good  and like all responsible fathers it was a way of protecting me from deviating towards bad life choices. The part where i became a close confidante and a friend  of my late father is a different story so lets skip that part for now .

All in all it makes you wonder why i particularly chose to write about how i got beat up most of my prepubertal and pubertal life and how that really sounded the "simpler times". Here is what i think, i woke up early in morning (courtesy to my dads' morning prayer recitals), food was on the table then went to classes ( usually consisted of the first two periods), bunked the rest of the day to the river side learning how to swim and fish at times, came totally exhausted for the last period and headed home.There was not a thing in the world that worried me  more than the thought of meeting my friends the next day. It still brings a smile on my face when i reminisce those good old days.