portfolio 73

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...

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...

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.  ...

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...

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...

Part II- Store Rooms, Windows and Cold Picture from Divya The first house we documented was about fifty years old and it still stood new on its thick enormous walls. The owner said that her house overcame earthquakes or any other disasters without a crack. Her amusing trust on her own house was undeniable as the house spoke for itself too. Its massive walls could stand hundreds of angry men punching on it hundreds of times though it was just mud and stone. It was three-storied and the wide ground floor where they used to keep cattle in olden days now were left empty. Although, some of the corners hosted families of mice and spiders.  The stone masonry walls plastered with mud extended up to the first floor where this house had three different store rooms. Only if modern buildings in Thimphu had this luxury, one wouldn’t have to pay five thousand ngultrum for just a bedroom and a kitchen.  A stair case of nine steps laddered up to the top most floor where s...

 Part I-Remembering Dawa the stray dog Picture Courtesy: Sonam Dorji A story of a stray dog in Bhutan by Kuenzang Choden narrates his journey to Bumthang, east from Thimphu, which is now twelve hours of bus ride accompanied by backache and dusty air due to the road extension work. In that story, Dawa, the dog travels to Bumthang upon hearing of a place where he can cure his mange. His gift of understanding human language directs him to his destination where he explores places on the way. Such was the experience of my travel to Bumthang last week. Travelling with eighteen other friends who were new to Bumthang made me feel new in the place I grew up. I realized there was so much I didn’t know, so much of amazing things I missed even though I lived there. So for one week, I was a tourist in my own home. It started right from our departure from the college. I could feel the air in the bus growing thicker with excitement as it accelerated up the gentle slope towards Sorc...

I don’t know if falling in love with a mountain more than with any person is weird. Two years ago I wrote about this beautiful mountain in Bumthang, Kitiphu. No evil seems to have kissed this magnificent giant and its grandeur stands as beautiful as ever. It still fills me with positive feelings and gives me all the reasons to fall in love with it. My visit this time promised bigger things. It was like meeting an old friend after long years of distance. It was like that friend had all the answers to my questions I was never able to get a way to. More prayer flags have been stringed and hoisted.  The older ones were faded and overlapped by the new ones with fresh prayers. The weight of the flags on the strings made it difficult to flutter lightly but it looked beautiful just the same. all the flags were somehow connected to eachother(It looked like all selfish prayers that were hung together) and it made me realise how we belonged to the same web even though our prayers sa...

 The Ruins of Drugyal Dzong before the reconstruction Picture from Google I have a deep affection for ruins. I love the stories that old and broken things have to tell and everything they remain for. The ruins of Drukgyal Dzong in Paro is something I have always admired, not just as a patriotic Bhutanese but also as a student of architecture. But as they say, “You raze the old to raise a new,” the reconstruction of a new structure has already begun and has even reached half way through. This initiation seems to be welcomed and even celebrated by many, but I can’t explain the sore feeling it gives me every time I think about it. The ruins were something that preserved glory and heroism of wars Bhutan had fought four hundred years ago. The thick walls of rammed earth held such strength that could not be demolished by any foreign attacks but rather stood high and bold to scare away enemies. The walls stretch along the hill looking as if it grew out of it and nothing cou...

What is a day without light? Just a day, without light? Whether it’s bright sunny or foggy outside, it still is a day. We all wake up to a morning lit up with electricity in our rooms and have a day under the fancy bulbs and tube lights glowing towards the end of the day, and throughout the night. We work, walk, eat and sleep under the enormous artificial lightings, that sometimes we barely know the difference between day and night. On one hand, we are blessed with science. It has created a world where nights are brighter, and human activities are carried out endlessly. However, researches show that in modern cities humans spend about 90% of their times indoors under unnatural lights. Which means the biological need of the body to be exposed to daily cycles of light and dark is not fulfilled. The cycle of light and dark regulates the circadian system of the body and enhances our energy. So think about some of us whose curtains remain drawn all the time. Some of us b...

I love exams. It’s when I can actually concentrate on things in a way it helps me manage my time, which often is based on procrastination and I am not proud about it. It’s when I want to clean my room thoroughly, do mounts of laundries and have everything organized. Exam times are also when a lot of exciting movies go around, and you steal few hours from your revisions aching to miss the fun if you don’t do so. It’s when you spend hours narrating your funny stories from school to friends and go all night ending with the silly sob stories. You start to think about so many things you haven’t thought about all this time. I even start making plans for the holidays, which gets exciting the more I talk about it and sometimes it is one thing I get my motivation from: To do my exams well so that I can have a good holiday without having to worry about the results. Exams can bring a lot of stress on people but it’s also when everything gets fun around. For me, it’s the only or one of...