What’s all this cribbing about? Home is where the heart is!

This is a rant, not a righteous note, read one. Keep it simple, stupid, screamed another. The last two issues of Bhutan Observer carried two thought raking columns written by equally two unorthodox writers of our times. At least so.

Were there too much of ranting? Or too much individual conscience bickering for some sort of social transformation? Change is here, but is the change any better? Everything is not going right, it seems. That is what I grasped from my reading. But nothing is worst either. And perhaps, this would be an understatement. Home is where the heart is.

So here are some more rants, a little simple and stupidly put.

For more than nine months I was away from home. Each new day I had longed to come back home. Each new morning how had I wished I would get up from my shabby bed to see the sun rise from the mountains. How I wished to feel the chilly morning breeze run down my nostrils. Everything home was beautiful. Instead, damp, polluted air went down my throats. The air is poison there, so is the water. Home is where the heart is. Very true.

For the last nine months, I had walked the awry, crowded, and almost obnoxious streets of Delhi. The traffic there is indeed a hotchpotch of cars, breaking rules here and now. Blaring horns, abuses flying from the windows-I had had enough of those ‘stuffs’. Home is where the heart is.

The rising mercury gnaws you to death. The frequent black outs only add to the displeasure. It is the same down there too, a little rain and Delhi goes down the drain. Politics is dirty. Murders are rampant. The roads are dangerous. The system is corrupt. It is not a safe place. Home is where the heart is.

So when I finally got the break away-I decided this summer break, I will travel the length and breath of my country. I would appreciate what I never did. I would go closer to what makes Bhutan a unique country. The two columns of BO was quite a contradiction. It was quite a disappointment that so much is going wrong.

I would not blame the snail-speed life here. I would not crib when water does not run in the tapes. I would not complain of the long, meandering queue at the hospital. I would not blame, of course, that everything is so horrible! Home is where the heart is!

This is a righteous note, not a rant.

Bhutan crashed out of the SAFF Cup. What a tragic crash?

Last 30 seconds remaining. A free kick for team India. A substitution for the Bhutanese goal keeper anticipating that Bhutan will survive the last few seconds to a penalty kick out. The Indian player makes the free kick, the ball lands around the penalty area and players of the two teams jostle for the ball-the Indian team attempting to wrap up the game in the last minute and the Bhutanese team desperately trying to clear the ball away. The clock is ticking. In a twist of events, an Indian player makes it to the post. It is a goal. And an end to the Bhutanese dream of reaching the finals.

It was a tragedy for the Bhutanese team and every one who has followed the match glued to their television sets. The least we had expected was to reach the penalty kick out and try our luck. Perhaps, we had a chance there.

Indeed it was a tragedy. The boys had sweated out through out the game displaying a brave show of skill and professionalism. The fifteen minute goal from left winger Kinley Dorji was brilliant. It definitely upped the morale of the Bhutanese team while it must have send jitters through the Indian players. After all they were playing with the weakest team and in their earlier matches with Bhutan; India had thrashed Bhutan on several occasions.

For the first time, the Indian team, the top-gun of the eight teams in the tournament, was cautiously creating their chances. Sunil Chhetri’s equalizer was a saving grace. But the Bhutanese players did not lose heart. They were fighting hard and at times, even got good chances of scoring a goal.

If winning and losing is part of a game. We have indeed lost in style. The commentator put it in a very right note, “the tiny country of Bhutan, once a laughing stock of football, is at its best today.”

The semi final match was indeed an act of redeeming our respect. The match not only brought out the best in our players but also showed to the world that we are not willing to stay at the bottom of the ranks. The semifinal match with India was a superb display of grit, determination and hard work by the players.

If this is the spirit, then Bhutanese football sure has a long way to go. Congratulations to Team Bhutan for their mind blowing performance in the SAFF semifinals with India. For me, personally, reaching the semifinals and taking the Indian footballers to the brink of desperation, was victory enough. The boys put on a great show.

Drinking, smoking, trying to be free

Drinking, smoking, trying to free my mind, goes a song. It rightly strikes a chord but for many drinkers and smokers. Like me. Drinking, smoking, I have blown my life away. Over a drink, over a cigarette, I have seen people change, from meek, hesitant first timers to habitual guzzlers. That’s how they begin their drinking careers.

Thereon life is never the same without the regular diet of alcohol and dose of nicotine. I have tried it all. Just for fun. Now I am hooked to it. Sadly. I start my day by lighting a fag. What a way?. But I have been doing that for years now unless when I am home with my parents. Period. I don’t know until when I will do so. Not very long perhaps.

I have often contemplated of giving up smoking. Many a time I tried. People say it depends on our determination and will power. Thousand and one times, I have tried to quit the cancer stick. At the most I could do was for two months. After that I was back again with my old, hard-to-die habits. That’s why somebody rightly said: “It is easy to quit smoking; I have tried it several times.” I did try several times, too.

It’s a lame excuse. I thought the banning of tobacco in Bhutan would do me some good. Not really. It just raised the price of being a smoker. One time in Bumthang a few years back, I paid one hundred and fifty bucks for a packet of cigarettes. It was the most expensive smoking of my life. To hell with the ban.

I enjoy the smoke and the liquor so much. Despite the killer it is. When I am alone, the smell, the fire, and the smoke gives me company. Although it is bad company. When I am depressed, the icy chill whiskey going down my throat offers an unnatural comfort. The high afterward is an added pleasure. The combination of the two as a close, great boozer friend of mine puts is the perfect combo.

”Drink wine and make merry. This is the moment with drunken friends. This moment is life.” (This is a little diluted version). I have plagiarized this lines from the movie, “Unfaithful”, where the notorious playboy uses this pickup line to seduce the gorgeous heroine-a married woman and a mother. I use it otherwise. I use this line time and time again just to have a reason to celebrate life.

There is a charm in being drunk. While some turn boisterous, others become violent. Some drink to forget pain. Some drink to rejoice. That is what makes a bar such a fun place to hang out in. You meet people with stories. The talks doing the rounds. The gossips. Who did who? And who did what? You name it, you have it all. And you have action (fights) too. There is drama, there is emotion, there is comedy, and there is tragedy. If this is life then there is too much of it out there.

Me-I drink because it is in my blood. My father drinks like hell even now. My father’s father and his father’s father drank. Mind you, they did not die of liver cirrhosis. Whenever I go to see my father, we drink together. It is a pleasure drinking with my dad and to listen to all his stories. Sometime later I would like to write down his stories as well. I have already thought about the title, how about, “The drunken days of my dad.”

So Drink and make merry! But if you are driving better make sure, your sober friend is the one who is at the wheels. In an ad which features Michael Schumacher was a line from this F1 champ: “When I go out drinking. I have got somebody to drive me.”
I completely agree.