22nd September: 1995

Ting, ting, ting… the bell was heard as usual. I picked up my plate and rushed towards the school kitchen along with hundreds of students. Quickly we lined up in front of the kitchen and waited for the breakfast to be served. There was a talk being spread like a wild fire among us saying that “The breakfast for the day is very special.” For the first time of the year we were served with fried rice and butter tea.( Suja). It was then Blessed Rainy Day of the year. Blessed Rainy Day is marked as one of the auspicious days in Bhutan and the day is declared as national holiday on 22nd of September every year.
Right after the special breakfast of the year, me and my close friend Tashi walked back to the hostel. I can’t exactly remember who had proposed the idea of playing rubber ball. As a child we were so fond of playing rubber ball which was as scarce as diamond. Among hundreds of us only one student owned the rubber ball. The owner is two years senior to us and he was in class four. 

Google.
Both of us welcomed the idea of playing rubber ball and went to Dorji’s( name changed)  room to request  the ball. Dorji accepted our request without much delay but with some mandatory obligations. He took out two number of unwashed gho( Bhutanese attire for gents: for those who don’t know only) from his wooden box and ordered us to wash it before the play. We merrily obeyed his order and completed the task within an hour.
Throughout the day Tashi and I never noticed the scorching heat of the sun. The weather of that day hadn’t hampered our interest in any way. We even forgot to attend the lunch.
Before the darkness completely engulfs our place, straight away we went to Dorji’s room to handover the ball. We were bit surprised to notice that he looked very solemn. My friend Tashi humbly handed over the ball to him. He carefully looked at the ball and showed us a dot of hole at the equatorial region of the ball. Actually the dot mark seems bit old and we knew that he was swindling us. We uttered no response to him as we were afraid of him. We just nodded our heads. Then he clamored to us saying that we must either arrange a new ball to him or pay a sum of Ngultrum six as a compensation for the damage. Resentfully we decided to opt for the second option. Finally Dorji granted a week’s time for us to clear his dues.
Currently Mr. Dorji is working as a cab driver at Thimphu after he discontinued his education from primary standard while my friend Tashi is working under MoE at Bumthang after his graduation from sherubtshe college, Kanglung.   


2 comments:

  1. A very interesting story. Yes, I can easily relate to it. Bullying by senior students like this one was common during those days. In my case, there was a boy senior to me by a few grades and he had a small toy car. While he was lying on his bed, I requested him to allow me to play his toy for a while and he agreed. I played the toy for sometime but when I took it back to him, he charged me for taking his toy without informing him and punished me. He never believed me when I said he granted me the permission.... As a helpless junior boy, I had to bear the punishment. Anyway, I think such things are part of school life. Yes, Blessed Rainy Day used to be a very special occasion especially for those of us who studied in boarding schools because we got delicious foods on that day. LoL!

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  2. Thanks for visiting my place. Your presence makes me feel humbled and inspired to write more.

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