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.
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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.
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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