Great Indian Plains to Mountains – Part II

Wai boss! Boss waii..!! wusho waii, wusho. Lunch rekpey waii! My friend woke me up. I hate people disturbing, especially when I am in a deep slumber, but we were just a half friend and that is the best part of being half if not I would have punched him already. We had our lunch together and resumed our journey.

Engine roar again, passenger mates were humming and my friends were laughing and finally we reached Phuntsholing. It took an hour to locate an inn, since many heads got different kind of choice and taste. We eventually decided to stay in Hotel Moonlit, where today it’s known as Puensum Hotel.

Phuntsoling was new to most of us especially my friends from east, since we had spent almost our entire lives in the midst of pine woods. While me and my friends were enthusiastically shopping and looking forward to our first college days, I was a little worried regarding the train we were to board the next day. I had never travelled by train before. In fact not to blame, I was young and journey away from home was little too risky for me. Without any information, and just relying on my guts I prepared for battle next day. 

On the early morning of 8^th September, 2010 we geared up to march our long journey to an unknown place. Yet destiny was set. Ahlipur Duar Junction was the station. Are bhai kedar janey ka?plaa..t fom lamber pata haii? Might be a question he asked me, he was an old man at the station. I was speechless, since I had no answer to what he asked as I didn’t know or understand Hindi very well. He passed and we paused with questioning eyes. Within an hour the train whistled loudly into the station, alarming us. Although we didn’t have any information we hurriedly boarded the train since we had only a few minutes to do so. 

Inside, the train’s condition was worse than ridding a farm tractor in my village. It was like people rushing in vegetable vendors, and the seats were already occupied too. Six of us stood with individual suitcases on the doorway, as if waiting for individuals turn like in archery match. After a while, we could settle ourselves but you know in India everything can happen in second. TT, black suit man, looking as if he is the king of the world raising his head very straight up came by asking tickets. We thought we had tickets since we paid hefty sum for six of us, but ticketing procedure in India is one thing I hate the most. Our tickets were in waiting list that means we can’t have seats, and have to bear penalty. Indians just need to get a chance, and then they smash things very badly. The TT asked us for one thousand rupees, and since we were scared we gave him the money without any question to rescue ourselves. When we finally reached our destination,  the auto waala tricked us by taking 500 rupees to reach us to our college, which otherwise actually cost us only Rs. 200. My welcoming note in India wasn’t that fun, but we all should experience this kind at least once, haha!

We were late by a month I think. We completed all admission process on the same day we reached our college and of course seniors were there too who helped us to complete all proceedings. It was hot late summer time, temperature was at average but humidity was very high. There was no electricity too, and the very first night itself, far away from Bhutan, I had my very first lesson on struggle for survival.  

Every morning I have a dream of doing something great, but every evening I used go back with regrets. Four years from 2010 to 2014, I was quite fortunate to pass without any big hindrance. College days weren’t so cool, unlike the colleges in Bhutan I have heard about. But facilities and exposure was enough that I got an opportunity to learn and explore. It takes couple of days to fix an Ethernet cable port in Bhutan, but in India you need to just give them some time. Indians are very cool and they taught me to control my patience too. To withdraw 200 bucks from ATM, we have to wait standing for couple of hours in long queue. Of course I have learnt a lot from India, and I am grateful to my friends and people of India.

It was the autumn of 2014 when we attended the National Graduates Orientation Programme. The number of graduate mates there overwhelmed me and got me thinking hard. When RCSC declared the result I had passed but I wasn’t selected and it gave me lot of pressure. However, I was lucky to get selected in MHPA, Trongsa.