OTHER SIDE OF ME: February 2015

It was one chilly January in 2014 when I was doing temporary job in National Housing Development corporation limited (NHDCL) along with my other classmates from CST. We use to do housing survey in the morning and compile data and make building plan in the afternoon. The office hour ends at 5 pm in the evening. Since it becomes darker earlier than the summer time, I have to walk fast to the city bus parking to catch the bus. I usually don’t take taxi because it is expensive, need to pay double the fare of the bus and I have to walk about half an hour after it drops me to the nearest stop. If I have to take taxi till home, I need to pay extra fare. I didn’t want to pay extra and I also didn’t want to walk in darkness as it creeps me out. While on the other hand, the bus drops me near my home.

There will be lots of people waiting for the bus when I reach there. Sometime I don’t get place to sit but if I am lucky enough I get on other days. May be that day was quite lucky for me since I got a seat just two seats away from the door. As usual I was tired but I could not help listening to the two girls’ conversation. One of them was my junior when I was in Middle Secondary school but she didn’t recognize me. They were perfectly dressed just like any other office goers. I wondered what they might be doing at such a tender age.

The junior girl said that she does not feel like going home since her brother in law tries to molest her. When she complains to her sister, she scolds her back.She could not go back to her parents since they were in village. And her only hope is to find a job and get away from her sister and the brother in law.There was not tears in her eyes. May be tears are not only an indication of sadness. But the rueful face, did tell the untold. The other girl looked at her empathically. She did say something but I could not hear properly as the bus stopped and few passengers rushed to get out. Maybe they must have seen me staring at them because they stopped talking. I felt so sorry for my junior and I was awestruck after hearing her conversation.

She got off few stops before me and I wondered what will be waiting for her at home. After hearing her conversation, I could not stop thinking about all those people who get molested just because they are under privileged. I have heard such stories mostly from the third person but to hear from the victim did send a chill down my spine. Question started popping up in mind. How many people are there in Thimphu city who comes to stay with their relatives, brothers and sisters? How many are there who are going through such things? How many are there who has to put pretentious face every day to escape from such harsh reality? Thimphu is not a big city but it does have its own sad and bitter face. The place where I have spent more than two decade didn’t seem friendly and clean anymore.

I was sitting near my study table with my laptop in front of me but I was hardly looking at it. My exam was over in the afternoon and I was looking forward for the trip me and my friends have been planning since November. I have to leave next day for our first destination but there was a battle going on in my mind. Due to recent terror incident in Paris and Brussels and some suspect caught in Berlin, my first, second and fourth destination I was quite scared. My friends and family back home told me to cancel the trip but I tried to convince them that there is nothing to worry about as the security has tightened everywhere. I told them that it is safer now then it has been before the attack. But deep down I was frightened. Lots of scary Images started to pop in my mind but cancelling the trip was never an option. The only thought I had in my mind when I left for my first destination was if I die then that’s it the end of my story.

As expected when we reached Paris the security has tightened but it was not scary like the images I had in my mind. Everything was normal and I felt happy for not cancelling the trip. I always imagined Eiffel tower to be a mega structure but when I saw it, it failed to meet my expectation but it is beautiful. We could not go to the top floor of the tower since it was under maintenance but the view from the second floor was also truly breath taking. We could see the whole city from the tower and my word will fail to describe how beautiful it was. After that we went to visit museum, several churches, did ice skating for the first time, visited lovers bridge where you see thousands of lock and looking at those locks I thought that somehow in the midst of so many people who have stopped believing in the true essence of love , there are still some who does believe. It is a beautiful city truly meant for couple and romance.

After staying there for three days we went to Brussels in Belgium for our next destination. We went to see Manneken pis, Atomium, Royal palace and other places which I barely remember now. We had our lunch in one of Indian restaurant as I always look for something spicy. My mouth becomes watery now also when I think about that lunch. We only stayed in Brussels for one and half day. Due to time constraint we could not visit some of the places like aquarium and mini Europe. But we did see the view of the mini Europe from the Atomium. In Brussels we get delicious waffle.

Our next destination was Amsterdam in Netherland. It is completely different from the countries I have visited so far. I admired the building structure near rivers. You can see beautiful scene. But the city is so open. There are some places which really surprised me. We visited Anne frank’s house and they have some of her stuff from her diary. Sadly we were not allowed to take any pictures. Tears welled in my eyes when I read some of her words from her diary. Death will be better for me than to live a life under the fear of terror. We also visited heineken museum which shows how the heineken beer has emerged and how it became popular. Funny but so far I have not known about this beer so seems like it has failed to reach some people like me. They offered us beer and we were demonstrated how to drink beer. I never drank before but it seemed rude not to drink when they have asked us to drink all together. I at least took two sip and It was not bad.

The next stop was in berlin and it is filled with war history. We visited the institution of terror where we can see how people were punished during Hiter’s time. I went through some article and believe me I didn’t want to know more. It was terrifying for me. Berlin is meant for those people who like history. I donot hate history but I donot want to learn history where violence is involved. When I studied about world war one and two in my eighth grade I use to love world history about Hitler and Mussoloni the dictator of germany and Italy. But seeing how people were treated I felt very sad that they had to be born during such times. Berlin is cheaper than the other three cities I visited and we get very good asian spicy food. Sadly not with ema datsi and red rice though.

And our final stop was in Bremen Germany where we met three of our friends who studies in Bremen as a research assistant and after travelling for 12 days I got back to Riga safe and sound. It was a wonderful trip but tiring as we had so many places to visit but so little time.

p.s few pictures from trip.:)