portfolio 73

There is no such thing as being self-made. I refuse to believe that human beings and anyone for that matter, have any natural capacity to be self-made. Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit — What’s Become of the Common Good, ”- is a hard read but had quite an impact on my deeply rooted opinions on, life, basically. The thought of wanting to solve all these misconceptions plagues me to a point where I don’t even put an effort to think. At the risk of sounding like I’ve figured it all out after one book, I put together 2 things I’d like to believe I learned. 1. The irony about self-made people: The concept of ‘self-made’ or self-sufficiency had the heaviest impact on me. What a life-changing experience it was to learn that the more one considers oneself self-made, the harder it is to instill gratitude and humility. And this matters because it is rare to care about the common good without these sentiments. Most of us enjoy the pride we take in the independence we set for ourselves. The ...

We’re in the midst of an angry whirlwind the pandemic has produced but I’d like to think that we’re nearing the end of it. Or the beginning. Of something else. I wouldn’t possibly know. I probably sat on this article for too long, desperately trying to write and miserably failing at every attempt. But what crazy two years it has been for all of us. 2022 didn’t start off quite well for me and while we’re already into the second half of the year now, I guess I’m still trying to find my way out of things I wish I hadn’t started. Robert Frost, a long long time ago said that the only way out is through, and perhaps it’s true. So sometimes it feels like my whole life’s purpose is hanging by a random figurative thread strung by a poet, who quite possibly, despised how the world functioned. But I have to say, the year has been transformative and it has brought out some good stories that can only be told over a drink someday, — Cautiously though, because not all stories I tell over a drink hav...

2020 has come to an end and yet, there is not a tat bit of relief in this sentence. What we’re bringing along in the new year is an unfinished battle, perhaps leading into a kind of war we’re yet to discover about. Excuse my blatant or rather, unprofessional reference to made-up analogies whenever I describe something. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, in all these years, is how life is composed of certain affairs that may not necessarily respect the schedules of a fiscal year or a five-year plan. The fact that we’re cautiously looking forward to 2021 as possibly a better year is something only determinable by our own actions. My point is, that our optimism is only justifiable by the might of our efforts. There’s luck too, but the ship of an evolved mankind relying on something as wavery as luck, I think, is lunacy. I believe that we’re much more capable in this far evolved era, to account for crises such as the pandemic in smart and measurable ways. We have probably spent 2020 c...

Disclaimer: This article is in no way to make any political stance, or conspiratorial grounds at this crucial time in the world history. This is purely a personal idea of an analogical reference of COVID-19 to war. Could I be under the influence of fictional stories of biological warfare? I could be. Should you be too? It is utterly up to you. (Cartoon Movement) We are at war. COVID-19 is hitting the world hard, if not just with pain, then definitely with enormous panic. Nations are scaling up their political commitment in response to the fright this virus has caused among the public. The public, is certainly under major pressure because after decades of being glued to all sorts of electronic screens, there is now a sudden urge to step out, travel and socialize, like never before! The transmission rate of CoV is dreadful and is without a doubt, a serious threat to the world. Over the months, we’ve witnessed major blows in the global economy especially through t...

Just a picture taken two months ago A few years ago, I wrote this article about how confused and how many questions I had before going to college. I was going to start a completely new adventure in my life, travelling more than five hundred kilometers from home, in a sub-tropical climate only to challenge my body that has endured extreme cold but not heat. I was then eighteen, curious and firing with excitement, ready to bring myself out to the world with the teenage motivation. I’d have imagined my college in ten thousand ways and often hoping it not to be less than stairs that opened with passwords and cozy common rooms for study, or a library with deep secrets. I must’ve idealized my college too much but I couldn’t blame because even after reaching the college and seeing what it exactly looked like, or worked, I would secretly hope for something fascinating to happen, at some point. It’s been four years now, and this is my fifth year. And if you ask me, I’m still trying ...

I was sitting on my desk on a cold afternoon in Thimphu and everyone was expressing their joys and worries about the potential snowfall that day, -Joy, because it’s snow and nothing about these angelic white crystals is frowned upon by anybody, and worries, for the dangerous icy road that will freeze transportation like a corpse. But I like how it keeps us all stranded in our homes, close to the warmth from all sorts of sources ranging from the fancy electric heaters to our loved ones. The last snowfall was a couple of weeks ago, and it spread joy like it spread millions of pictures on the internet. It’s amazing to see how people celebrate snowfall in ways beyond the pictures they take. For instance, snowfall in our culture promises good harvests and fortunes for the whole year and an omen such as this is taken so seriously that if there was no snowfall, we begin to suspect our fortunes. Also, snow is an important element of the climate cycle that balances the earth’s temperature. ...

Frank Gehry’s works exceed the perspectives of any art form that it makes you believe that dreams can be woven with steel or concrete, or even titanium! However, not everyone will believe the same, or read Gehry as the kind of architect to be admired and worshipped. Some people think that his buildings are purely about spectacle than function, and that they are nothing more than just monumental sculptures. On the contrary, I am one of those millions, who have been genuised to death by the impeccable Guggenheim Museum. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Guggenheim rejuvenates the glory of Bilbao in Spain with its magical folds of titanium tiles reflecting the ripples of Nervion River and a prodigy such as this revolutionizes the face of architecture. Sometimes I sit down without my phone or laptop and close my eyes- to think. It troubles me for some time to delve into this world without endless memes and message pop-ups but I try. I try to remind myself that I am a fourth-year co...

Someone's picture of loneliness Some fifty years ago, the Beatles asked this question is their song, “Where do all the lonely people come from? Where do they belong?”   I wonder sometimes, if some of us are clearly a case of typical adolescents who won’t admit that we are starving for friendship, or love or simply an acquaintance. Today, we’re more digitally connected to our friends and family than in real. We have thousands of friends online and lesser in reality, and still some of us experience the epidemic of social isolation. There is a scientific edge to single people’s grumble, “I’m going to die alone,” which is in fact dying if you’re alone. They say that a lack of social connection inflames the brain which affects everything with our body, and life. So the internet trolls about loneliness being more dangerous than obesity is actually true. But what is so wrong in being alone that it destroys you even to an extent of killing you? Humans are social species-...

I love hearing war stories. But what’s even more inspiring and deep are the little stories which are often untold and hidden by the stories of heroic victories and defeats. My favourite ones include the story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician who invents a machine to crack Nazi codes and solves the impossible Enigma machine during the WWII, only to be classified and revealed decades after the war; the story of Leisel Meminger escaping her war-ridden life through the solace of books; and the story of Desmond Doss, who refuses to bear arms, but fights the war with compassion and saves almost a hundred men in the battlefield, and many more. Adding to this list, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See is a beautiful story I could read over and over again. It portrays two parallel lives of Marie Laurie and Werner, set in two different countries, France and Germany respectively, during the WWII.   Marie Laurie loses her vision at the age of six and the war leads ...

I tagged along with my cousin and a team of taxonomists, Life Science students, plant enthusiasts and basically people who knew about plants to Dochula last Sunday. And as you might have guessed already, I was the black sheep. My plant knowledge is as good as zero and if you ask, I can barely name ten plants. I didn’t study biology in High school because I wanted to concentrate on maths and also, I wanted free periods. I don’t regret about this decision but sometimes I just wish for a better connection with plants. Stuck a Taraxacum behind my ears My cousin Dechen, had told her friends that I am a “nature lover” in the idea of creating a bond with the team and when one of them asked me how I got my interest in plants, I quite humored myself. I told them that I came across various plants while studying Landscape Architecture which is in reality, just few shrubs and trees I’d gone through the internet. But I got them all nodding in agreement, so everyone was good. ...

Punakha HSS, 2014 (Source: Sir Nobu Tshering) I think the greatest gift I got in life is to be able to learn, from simple alphabets to the wonders and mysteries the universe holds. What makes me anxious is how time travels so fast and that in two years, I’ll be graduating college. As much as it makes me happy that I’m completing a stage in life, it also makes me sad that it is one end to being a student. Tree House Design, 2016 Unrestricted Imaginations To have a job, earn and to be helpful would be great in life but for reasons I realized today more than ever, I want to be a student forever. I want to wake up in the morning with a purpose, go to the class and learn. I want to keep scribbling on my notebooks everyday with new things. I don’t want to step out of this student life- The feeling is quite like when you don’t want to get out of a favourite outfit even when you have to. So here are some good reasons why I would want to be a student forever. 1.  ...

November 15, 2017. CST How often is the library your soul-resting place where it’s only you and your book venturing through a whole new world completely controlled by you? How is it your bed room when there are others snoring beside you? Walls rise up higher than everyday and they run along every little space found however optimized they may be. Ornaments, are hung on buildings, women’s body and let’s speak for real, where money has found no place to settle. And every so often, less is more.  (All the metaphors are intended by the way). I think it’s real that two person can share one soul even over simple things like a book, a piece of cake or a common taste for movies. But can they be in love? May be. Soulmates are people who have found a similar version of themselves and approved its existence- it’s like looking in the mirror with the right outfit and liking how you look. Self-love. The most important thing for survival these days, because nobody will love you m...

Picture from Google Scientists, Mathematicians and especially Edmond Kirsch from Dan Brown’s latest book, “Origin” is addressing the possibility of a new kingdom in our taxonomical hierarchy. Technium : An Ecosystem of various technologies, a society of technological species that may operate even without human interference! I was unable to process my thoughts when I first learned about this- not just because of fear but realizing how there is a depth to this clichéd, otherwise overlooked statement: Technology will replace humanity.  This puts a danger sign on the various technologies serving various purposes in our lives today, that one day these might chip off our existence as a dominating race. Was the creation of technology a mistake? Should we curse the invention of wheels, should we forget the countless inventions that not only defined science but made human survival against all forces a possibility?  The word “Technology” was invented only in the year 182...

If you have, even the slightest bit of expectation that I am going to tell you about how hospitals are temples where illness is cured and priests walk around in white coats, then you may be reading the wrong article. Just kidding. You might already know more than me. But don’t worry. I have no intention to say anything demeaning about this great place billions of people depend on-to survive. I am only surprised how much I don’t know about hospitals even after having been visiting it since forever. My design project for this semester is design of a general hospital in Phuntsholing and the faculty thought we needed to do a project this huge for having stepped up into third year. It’s a really big challenge but I am strangely enjoying this stress and I tell you there is no hospital to cure this disease we get due to procrastination. So I’m trying to stay put, so is everyone in my class. A hospital needs the standpoints of various patients, their relatives and friends who c...

Another astonishing book by Dan Brown you shouldn’t miss reading is Inferno - Everything from history to future and science to religion, this book has taught me a lot of things. Here are three things I learned from this book: 1. Over Population The current world population has by far exceeded the capacity the earth is actually designed to host. So the impacts of overpopulation we are assuming that we might experience in future, are actually just on our doorstep. Overcrowding, poverty and shortage of resources are already prominent in some parts of the world and yet we are unsure of what measures to take. While there are numerous methods like family planning, use of contraceptives and education to control overpopulation, it is still impossible to bring the number to the actual earth’s capacity. May be it’s late. As much as this truth is hard to face, mathematics is indisputable and it says that we might not survive another century with this exponential growth of populat...

Part III- The story of cold soaked feet The cover of the Booklet The smile on everybody’s face when we saw the draft print of the Ura documentation was incredible. It was all the frowns and stresses that finally found a way to stretch into the long lost smile. It was the kind of smile that had many reasons. It was the smile of relief, the smile of completeness, the smile of satisfaction, the smile of pride, and the smile that our hardworks finally paid off and that we’re finally going to get some sleep. It was happiness. And when we finally saw the hundred and sixty-one pages booklet in a glossy cover picturing Ura Village, the smile multiplied even more. After documenting fourty-five houses of Ura, we spend the last day studying the general aspects of the village: Settlement pattern, connectivity, infrastructure, drainage, waste management and water supply (Which is included in the booklet). What made the study so unique was a heavy snowfall during the last t...