Social Study class in 1997.

I was staring through the window and I could see the sun radiating from the cloudless sky and spreading warmth to all the sentient beings. The air was growing warm and my slumber is trying to over take me. To the far distant, I saw my seniors walking outside along with their teacher towards our school kitchen garden. I presumed they must be going for science experimental purpose.

As a child I got fully engrossed in what my seniors are doing but still I could hear the faint sound of my social studies teacher. I could hear the word “mountain” repeatedly and slowly the sound had started to grew louder and louder. This high amplitude noise had dragged my attention towards it and quickly I happened to turn my head towards the direction of the sound. The whole class broke into laughter before I could fully turn my neck. I quaked with fear in an embarrassment and I could feel the hotness of my face as it was blushed into red.

“Norbu Wangdi where is the mountain pig? My social study teacher berated at the top of his voice. “The pig is on the mountain” I stammered as I begin to quaver.  Just before I could complete my answer, my social study teacher raised his hand quickly with a meter wooden scale on his hand. Within a fraction of second the wooden scale had kissed my head as hardly as it can. My vision became almost blank for a moment but I could feel that my height was almost touching the ceiling of the classroom. My innocent classmates were giggling with low amplitude when I begin to sob.

“Sit down Norbu Wangdi” shouted my teacher at me with a scowling face. Then the bell for interval was heard. Those are the funny childhood memories that always evoke me to laugh and cry. Later during the interval break many of friends came near me to share their empathy and console me. Friends are the greatest source of solace when one is away from his or her own parents. They told me that they were discussing about different landscapes of Bhutan, like mountain range, mountaintop, steep slope, deep valleys and mountain peak. Actually my teacher was asking about mountain “peak” but my response was about an animal “pig”.

To be continued………………