Twenty Seventeen

 With the year coming to an end and specifically at the very last day I felt like I owe a write-up which will act as a reminder for the years to come. In this write-up I will be highlighting some of the significant events of the year which brought life-changing alterations in the way I view people, things, and lead my life. In a most crude reflexive way I would associate the year, twenty seventeen, with the successful completion of my study and reading challenge. Both the accomplishments of the year, i.e., pursuing masters in Psychology and reading impressive number of books has been my childhood dreams and it took me more than two decades to achieve those goals. I have never been so proud of myself. I am sorry if I sound so arrogant and smug which I am right now as I type these very words in my laptop with loud music in my bedroom {you see, I need loud music when I write, so thousand unuttered apologies to my neighbors at this ungodly hours}

Twenty seventeen bought me back to my motherland, Land of Thunder Dragon, after two long years of staying alone amidst people from different countries and continents. My journey of everyday struggle to survive in the world where I was alone and nobody couldn’t earn the title of friends during my two years duration was persistently reflected in few of my blogs and social media accounts. At this point when I Look back, I survived by banking solely on my countable life-support systems; parents, siblings, relatives, and one and only ladylove of my life (Rekha Monger). Had they fail to entertain my midnight calls and scaring the shit out of them by emotionally breaking down over the calls, I would have lost it half-way through. They had been the constant variables in my ever-changing life dynamics. They are closest to my heart and will be till I grow into amnesiac sour old bitch. On the other side of the coin, I have lost so-called friends to arrogance, pride, long-distance and silly misunderstandings which would have been rectified with little bit of acceptance and forgiveness. [Nevertheless, if anyone of you are going through this article by chance or choice, I hope you are doing well and thank you for walking out of my life when I needed your support the most as it made me stronger. I hope I never get to see you ever again!] Two years of break from work was bound to make my professional life bit difficult but the love I have for teaching profession had me working harder to keep up my pace. My workplace has undergone major changes, of course in a positive way, drastically beyond imagination and at one point it compelled me to question; ‘is it the same institute that I worked for two years ago?’ I couldn’t stop appreciating the beauty of the physical world of my workplace and I am internally screaming, “baby! This is just a beginning! Now, work will be fun!” On personal ground, I had been dreading to return to Samtse. This place has turn me into a zombie and numerous incidents has happened which still gives me endless nightmares. If my work doesn’t tie me down this place, I would get the hell out of here. Unfortunately, Double-faced, fake, hypocrite, and nosy people, whose existence I never acknowledge not even once for a second, are still part of my life but fortunately I could witness some of them being taken care by Karma for their dirty bad deeds, no wonder twenty seventeen has been my year {still wearing smug smile on my face}. Living in Samtse still demands hell lots of efforts, okay now picture me living with an enemy in a tiny empty compartment without window and door, and this is exactly how I feel. But I wasn’t born to quit so I wake up every morning with positive thoughts and prayers not to give-up yet as it gives me utmost happiness to see people’s puzzled and shocked expressions on their faces which reads, ‘how can you go on happily even after going through the possibly worst things that I ever said and did to you?’ I won’t clarify their looks of confusion and dignify unseen future attempts to bring me down with an answer. My silence and indifference toward their very existence is the most they will get from me.

At the second last month of the year, November, work took me to the Eastern part of Bhutan. I had to make optimum use of that trip so I turned it into solo trip covering half of the country within a week by public transportation. Within a span of a week, I grew years ahead of my chronological age which brought me closer to my inner self. I became more independent, patient, forgiving, accepting of people’s varied changing attitude as conditions gets better with time, and getting several wow moments as I explored the remote areas which was sadly unexplored by many Bhutanese and tourists as well. Just because it isn’t explored, appreciated, and glamorized doesn’t mean that it isn’t beautiful. Bhutan is very beautiful country but if we want to see the real, raw, and rustic, unrefined beauty at its best, visit eastern part of Bhutan. Take my word, one would never regret the trip and it is worth the pain of long arduous bumpy ride of two days. The trip to Tashigang was an apt example of striking perfect balance between the work and pleasure aspects in life. All my professional life, I had been trying to strike a balance of work and pleasure which I failed miserably many time but twenty seventeen taught me to how to work hard, better yet how to make work fun.

I initiated the reading challenge of the year with the book titled, ‘Dirty Pretty Things’ by Michael Faudet and successfully completed the challenge with ‘Rich dad poor dad’ by Robert T. Kiyosaki. For the record, as per the reading challenge I read 60 books but off-the-record I read 62 books. As of now, I am yet to start reading ‘Mrs Funnybones’ by Twinkle Khanna but I am saving it for tomorrow as I want to have good beginning with the brand new book. And like everything else in my life, there is a reason for choosing this particular book as the first book for twenty eighteen, that is, as the title of the book I want the year to be filled with unlimited humors. The author firmly believes that nothing in life is sacred except laughter; likewise I want to live my life with her philosophy. While I was on the reading challenge, I never felt the pressure to finish the book for the sake of reading even for once as I was a bookworm ever since I was a kid. I can still remember how I used to skip doing household chores for the love of reading and I am extremely grateful to my mother [my life-long mentor] for encouraging me to read than to help her in kitchen [That’s the very reason why I can’t cook a proper meal as an adult.] My late brother used to get worried about my academic performance as I used to read even on my exam preparation leave. While other students would busy themselves with textbooks, guide books, and exchanging notes I would be busy with MB, Hardy boys, Nancy Drew, Sidney Sheldon, and Daniel Steel novels from school library as I have to return the borrowed books as I leave the school after examination. Surprisingly, I used to do fairly well in terms of academic aspects during my school days. For those curious people who had been bugging me with irritating question in a sarcastic tone, ‘did you really read all these books [as they browsed through my collections]?’ here is my answer for once and all, ‘I have never read any book to show it off to people. I read because I am passionate about books. And I don’t feel the need to literally convince you that I have read all the books I own.’ With this, hopefully people will stop getting on my nerves by being great pain in behind. In nutshell I have learned that no matter what we do, we live in a society where people will find a way to drag us down in a most pathetic ways. I wish if people could understand that they are barking at the wrong tree as nobody can divert me from fulfilling my childhood dream to have a huge personal library in my house. My boss [God bless his soul] has been gracious with me as he provided me one of the finest bookshelves to stack my books in my office. Twenty seventeen will be remembered as the year I got to have small personal library in my life.

Twenty seventeen also made me cross my path with people who could be worse than monsters. You know who you all are. So, if you are reading this I got a short message meant specially for each one of you who made my life worst than hell at the first and second week of September, twenty seventeen; ‘if you could face yourself in the mirror every morning and go to sleep with the peace of mind then just have patience, the worst is yet to come in your respective lives. God sees the truth but waits!’ With this message I shall end my write-up with the hope for fruitful, healthy, and happy twenty eighteen. Happy New Year!