Glimpses of Samdrup Jongkhar Tshechu 2010

Vacation

The vacation has started. My kids are busy with their plans to visit their grand parents, uncle and aunts and cousins. I too would like to visit my relatives but I cannot do so since I have to be at another place away from my family. This is the sixth year that I hadn’t been able to enjoy a relaxed vacation but this year will be the last year that I will be sacrificing my hard earned vacation in a dull place like Samtse away from my family and hopefully I do not wish to visit this place again in my near future.

Dinner

This happened a few days ago. I was in the market with my son when I got a call from my husband. I thought he might have called to ask for something to be bought from the market so I asked him what he wanted. He asked me to get home because he had invited someone for dinner. I asked who the guest was and when I learned I shouted “Are you crazy?” I could read the time on the wall clock in the shop. I just had 1 hour to get home and make the dinner ready. I asked him to take the guest to the restaurant but he insisted that the dinner be made at home.

My angle

I had been awake for more than two hours and it’s still dark outside. I do not have anything to do since it’s a holiday. I try to open the book that I had brought yesterday but my mind is not on it. My thought keeps wandering to the day I got a call. The call that destroyed everything I had.

If Only….

It was a cold winter evening, everyone wrapped in old blankets sat around the fire, consuming every single heat the wood could produce. It was Zangmo, her ailing mother and her two younger siblings. They were very poor and the harsh winter could not let Zangmo find something to feed her family. Though just 17, she had to shoulder the entire responsibility of her house, for now her mother had been bed ridden for three weeks. Not to mention about the medicines, her mother could not even get good diet and every single day she was failing. Every groan produced by her ailing mother brought tears in her eyes.