The world I know.....

“Quality of Education” has been the topic of intense debate among educationalists, policy makers, teachers and general public for years now. The debate occurred in the scared halls of national assembly, educational conferences, online forums and day-to-day gossips. The general consensus is that the “quality of education” has deteriorated in recent years. Fortunately for policy makers and unfortunately for teachers, every little blames is put on teachers. Firstly, we will have to agree on what “quality of education” really means. Is it how much materials have the students memorized? Is it how well the students can read, write and speak English or Dzongkha? Or is it about what percentage of students fails or passes the board examinations? Perhaps could it be the variety of talents that the student possesses? Or is it about how well prepared the students are in the job market? May be it’s a combination of all of the above qualities. We will have to come to a common consensus on what is “...

“The Hoch Scholarship program is a small private scholarship program which provides funding for up to two Bhutanese grantees, currently in the field of electrical and hydroelectric engineering at the undergraduate level, for a maximum of four years. Grantees are selected by the Royal Civil Service Commission of Bhutan. Grants are full grants and cover tuition, room and board, insurance, airfare and grantax services. It is funded by an individual philanthropist and his family”, says the Information on Institute of International Education (IIE)’s website. That is the only information on this scholarship program which educated a handful of Bhutanese students in the United States in engineering fields. I am sure all those students are contributing towards the nation building process. I have been lucky enough to receive this same scholarship and study here in the United States. I am sure that the extraordinary experiences (be it in academic or non-academic fields) I gain here will help me ...

I finished my assignments and submitted them. I had nothing to do, so i surfed the web for some documentaries on Bhutan. I found a documentary which is about a Canadian and an American unicyclist traveling in Bhutan using unicycle. They travelled from Paro to Ura, Bumthang in a bus and trekked the Rudungla Pass between Ura and Trashi Yangtse. On their journey, they gave some fascinating geographical, historical and cultural information in first person. This is one of the best documentary I have seen on Bhutan. It's simple, deep and very informative and educative. Even thought I am Bhutanese, I have never seen those passes myself, It's a time well spent. For those people who are interested in watching the documentary, I have embedded the video below:

Thanks to the technological developments! I hardly go to movie theater to watch movies now. We can just buy DVDs or even better, we just need to order them online through several movie renting sites like Netflix. It is much cheaper than going to theater. But sometimes, you feel that you are happy that you made the choice of doing something which is more difficult, more expensive, or more challenging. My friends asked me to go for movie with them. I resisted at first but finally submitted to their persuasion. We drove to the theater which is about five minutes drive from our apartment. I tried to persuade them to watch “Body of Lies” but they insisted on “The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas”. Finally we settled on voting and I lost the deal. “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” is a British-American drama film produced in 2008. It is based on a fictional book by John Boyne. It circles around the adventure of a eight years old German boy during World War II. Bruno, a son of a German Nazi command...

This photo of late His Majesty the 3rd Druk Gyalpo was taken by Frank and Lisina Hoch in 1955. This photo is in upstate New York.