A Day in the life of an ordinary person

" Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself."
                         -  William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents

The society we live in demands a person to think big, dream higher and above all to be extraordinary and that too at the cost of our true self.
But in the midst of everything there is always a struggle for an ordinary life: a life of our own, a life of love and relationships, a life where we live for our family, our friends and the world around us.

This is what I found out: a day in a life of an ordinary woman...

Pema Choki, a farmer in Pemagatshel lives with her husband and her son. Most of the time she is left alone with her son when her husband goes on pilgrimage.

As usual she begins the day by taking refuge in the almighty. All that she wishes is for a fruitful day ahead.

Then she attends to household chores.

Getting her only child ready for the school.

She then feeds her only milking cow 

Leading Darzom, her only milking-cow to the pasture land.

She came across this monkey when she went to collect firewood from the forest. From that day on she has been looking after it with love and care.

Dhendup, her beloved pet has a liking for potatoes.

In order to reduce her expenditure, she cultivates vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, chilli. In short, a little of everything. 

One thing that I appreciate about her is her technique of chasing birds: she has got a long rope tied to a poll near her house and the other end tied to a bunch of empty tins. All she need to do is pull the rope and then the birds would fly away due to the noise produced by the tins. 

Looking out for monkeys in order to save her crops from getting destroyed. If she finds one, she chases them until they vanish from her sight.

At the end of the day all she is left with is: the love of her only son, a never-ending support from her neighbors and atmosphere filled with happiness.

How I feel about it all.

I usually wonder, "Who am I?" Do I have any identity? Am i born to do something great or just to linger back among the crowd or to struggle between them to reach for the best.

This very thought strikes my mind whenever i see my parents working really hard for me and my siblings so that we could get the best food, clothing and education. However, they never show a sign of sacrifice and survive watching us happy. They have journeyed an uncountable miles, just to find themselves encircled with another domain of uncertainty and prospects and sacrifices.

My father always says that life is an admixture of joy and sadness, good news and bad news. And now I have got it imprinted in my mind. He also said that the sooner we accept this facts, the better will we be able to get along with the flow of our life. There was a time when those words meant nothing for me as I didn't know what he really wanted me to understand. But now, with the flow of time, I do. I now know that life has got no director as there is during film-making, who would find out things going wrong. We should do it ourselves, if not our world get mixed up.

It was my mother who always used to say, " to gain achievement in life all we need to do is face the difficulties and obstacles that appears on your way rather than running away from it. We should face our everyday life like a man with rolled up sleeves facing the tasks that you have got and always try and accept the impossible and bear the intolerable."

"Till now you have been known by our name, as our daughter but we wish to be known as your parents, by your name and that;s our only wish, dear," that was what my parents told me when I was busy packing my belongings in order to come to where I am now, the Sherubtse College. I found myself dumb-struck, not knowing what to say. For a moment everything went black. I wasn't able to answer them, all I could do was, nothing more than a nod.

Now, I am not sure about myself, when and how I would do that but one thing that I am sure of is that I will follow the path that you have shown me. I pray to the God to give my parents enough patience so that they could wait till I discover my identity.

Lesson from Seasons.

Each time a seed drive its way through the soil in order to germinate, each time a germinating seed exert force in order to burst open the seed coat, each time an embryo tries hard to break through the hard ground to begin its life, each time a sapling fight against harsh weather in order to survive, each time a plant bear flowers and fruits, each time a plant wilts away, nature teaches us some lesson. Lessons on life and its realities.

For us season literally mean the periods of different weather into which a year is divided.

Spring - Summer - Autumn - Winter 

These four simple words composed by the combination of six alphabet each, seems very plain. For us they simply mean nothing more than its literal meaning but it is not. When observed from a different angle, when analyzed deeply, it has got something more to tell us: something exceptionally valuable. 

SPRING: it refers to the idea of rebirth, rejuvenation and renewal. Plants which once shed all their leaves, begin to germinate giving out new buds and leaves and the flowers begin to bloom. Animals which once hibernated to save themselves from the harsh winters now comes out to begin their usual life. Birds start building their nests. The days get slightly warmer and the sunshine does not bother you on spring mornings. Rather it pampers you.

If we try to compare the context of the spring with our life, spring indicates the birth; a new life. It truly represents a man being born with all the abilities to lead a new life filled with new hopes and aspirations, wishes and dreams, determination and success. 

SUMMER: summer is something we usually all look forward to. The days become longer and warmer, the sun shines and every little aspect of nature around us is filled with greenery. It provide us with immense pleasure and happiness through its unlimited and adorable beauty. But sometimes the heavy rainfalls bring out floods, gives rise to landslides and many other natural disasters. Sometimes it is the scorching sun which lead global warming ultimately resulting to drought and famine. So summer is the time when the nature experience all the realities of its existence.

So is a human life. After being born, we need to experience and learn how to get along with our life. In course of time, we experience all the harsh realities of our life, be it happiness or sadness, sorrow and joy. It is here that we try and create a better human out of ourselves or else have ourselves ruined. 

AUTUMN: it is a season filled with changes. Plants have their leaves turned to yellow and gradually letting it fall from its branches. Nature, which was once all filled with greenery now loses its charm and beauty. Flowers doesn't bloom any more, trees stop bearing fruits, animals starts searching for place to hibernate, lands become barren.

So is our life, after having lived half of our life nurturing ourselves, we finally lose our beauty and energy as a youth. We find ourselves growing old with time.

WINTER: the last stage of  the season. The days become shorter and often very cold. The snows began to falls leaving everything frozen. From yellow, the nature completely turns to white.Snowfall makes the lives of the people harder. It does not let any plant to grow properly, then the problems like food shortages both for human and animals arises. Above all winter marks the end of the current year.

When our life is compared with a winter, it represents the death. After having lived our life, we eventually leave every worldly pleasure in order to seek a nirvana state.

Try and learn that when a year passes by, we are nearing to our end.

My Apa- my inspiration.

I always love to say my Apa- my inspiration.

God combined all good qualities,

And made a masterpiece that is my Apa.

A man of very cool and sweet temperament is my Apa.

A smiling face to everyone he presents.

Under all difficulties he smiles and whistles.

Respectful, polite and courteous is he to all.

Another man's wrath, he turns away,

With a smile and a joke.

With his words, his actions are in keeping.

Upon his words, he never goes back.

With moral consideration, he is always guided by.

More than for his rights, for his duties he worries.

Full of wit and humor is my Apa.

In his footsteps, every effort I make to follow.

As my mentor and friend, as my philosopher and guide.

I look upon him-

as MY INSPIRATION.

Who Am I?

Whenever I try and answer this question, at some point, I see that anything I utter doesn't really answer the question and I am always left with the emptiness trying to engulf me in. now, how am I to answer it? Should I answer it with my name? With reference to my family? Or with regard to the status I have among my friends? The more I look into this question, the more strange I seem. Maybe this is the only question life always toss at us.

I have always heard people, especially my father, saying that there is nothing as such called as good human or bad human, neither the best nor the worst. It really doesn't matter in what ways you define it but what really does matter is the way you look into yourself, the thoughts and notions you have about yourself and the fact that you accept yourself (your own self).

Until now, I have learnt how to listen to that hidden, little voice of mine. It always lead me and I keep following it.

And as of now it has led me here, Sherubtse and I know it’s the place where I could be best nurtured and I am being nurtured in order to face the unfolded truth of my life ahead. As of now I am being trained to become one of the future journalist and I am doing all I could to strive for the best. I don’t know what life has planned for me ahead but I am preparing myself to become one of those journalist who makes things go their own way and bring changes.

With every passing day my experience and my knowledge about the world increases, and I learn keep learning more and more about myself. But I never worry that I still don’t know much about myself because as I get older, I am sure that I will figure it out, somehow.

Missing you...

Looking out from my room’s window,

I see the twilight sky.

Even though we are far away from each other,

I lie to myself and close my eyes,

Just to drown myself mind to pretend you are here.

I turn around with a smile on my face,

Only to see you smiling back at me.

The small gaps between our fingers,

Make me nervous.

And I know that we can move together.

I released my eyelids just to find you dissolving in my own eyes.

Slow and steady trickling tears roll down my cheeks.

Even with my tears clouding the sky,

I can still see the shiny sky far away.

A sign of you, the sign of my love.

I wrote a secret on a cloud,

With a hope that it will make its way through the sky.

And reach it to you someday.

I whispered my thoughts in the air,

With  trust of holding it for eternity.

Deep down in my soul,

I know I can always trust my heart.

For within resides you.

I won't be impatient.

I won't be selfish.

I won't give up.

Because the day I met you,

I found my dreams.

MISSING YOU...

Where Do I Start?

It’s almost been an hour thinking on what and how I should be writing so that I could at least have an article to see myself getting started with my blog.
 

Writing… for me… has never been an easy task and seems like it would never be. Never did I picture myself struggling hard, in fact so hard, just to have a page filled with words. And I m pretty sure why… from childhood days itself I really didn’t have any fondness for writing. Thumb down was the only image I would always visualize when my teachers yelled, “write about this, and write about that.” For which I am filled with repentance now.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t have any appreciation for others' writings. I do. In fact I find myself awestruck by the competence they show through a piece of literature. Just through that simple piece of literature they make amazing stuff to work out so easily, especially when the hidden emotions are effortlessly expressed. I too wish to do the same and here I am. Trying my best but nothing seems to come out from my useless brain.