The world I know.....

Nauryz is a non-religious Kazakh folk celebration of the spring – I am wondering if it is the same festival as that of cherry blossom festival in japan. Nauryz is mostly celebrated in the west and central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. It is celebrated on spring equinox. The central theme of Nauryz is renewal, cleansing, the coming of spring, and the birth of new life. During the course of history Nauryz has become a symbolic New Year in many cultures. Nauryz is one of the most ancient, respected and favorite holidays in that part of the world. My university has about 70 Kazakh students and I got invited by few of my Kazakh friends to celebrate their celebration. It started at 5:00 pm but I could reach the spot only at 6:00 pm since we got lost. By the time we reached there, few girls – wearing their traditional attire – were dancing to a traditional music tune. A Turkish student performed Kanun – it looks like our Yangchen – and the small crow...

We had been planning to bring together as many people as possible from different countries and have a feast. Today is the day, yay! We will have fifteen people – all from different countries (well, consider Hong Kong and China as separate. I hope the Chinese government is not reading this LOL ) – meeting in our apartment today. Well! Basically the idea is that we will all cook some food which is native to our country and everyone will get to try different food. Everyone had been busy since morning – not me though. I woke up at 12:00 noon (Common, it's Saturday) and went to Wegmans to get my recipes. All my friends started working on their respective food from 2:00 PM. Some started chopping garlic without peeling the dry skin, some started burning eggs while trying to make omelet, and some started calling their mother back home. One of my friend brought the computer in the kitchen and loaded the page which has detailed instruction on how to prepare his food. Well, he was even follow...

“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.

Before I went to Cleveland, all I know about that city is the Cleveland Cavaliers. Although I am a fan of Boston Celtics, Lebron James never fails to amaze me. But Cleveland has lot more to offer than just Cavaliers. I was there during the Christmas break and I felt in love with it. Besides the normal skyscrapers, they have Cleveland Browns, Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland Indians, Lake Eric shores, and many other tourist attractions. But I never knew the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is located there. The museum and Hall of Fame is located on the shores of Lake Eric and it has six stories of exhibitions. The entry fee is about $20 but they have a discount for students. So we got in for $17 each. We could see the dresses and musical instruments of great artist, listen to songs which shaped the rock and roll culture, play around with touch screens and learn the history of rock and roll, and see some original lyrics of great songs handwritten by the original artist...

It's Thanksgiving break again! Time to rejoice, not because I celebrate it but because I get two week's break. I can do whatever I want and the world will not complain: no date lines, no late penalties, no surprise quizzes and test, no meetings, nothing! It's time to relax from the busy schedules of study and other club activities. So six of us decided to go on a road trip to Portland in Maine, the land of lobsters. Everything went so well as we planned till we reached Salisbury, Massachusetts when one of our car flipped over and went below the road. Thank God! Nothing happened to us. The process of calling the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the police to access the accident took us quite a while. The car has been destroyed quite badly but I am still wondering how two of my friends managed to stay without even a very minor injury. They pulled the car up and sent it off to a workshop in Boston and we continued our trip to Portland. It's already 1:00 am and we ...

Soe Jangothang, a small village near the foot of magnificent Mt. Jomolhari became the village for Chuni Dorji in 1922. Like most of his fellow citizens of his time, he never had the opportunity to enroll in formal school. He was everything but educated, yet he excelled in playing with words. He spent his whole life herding yaks, singing songs and dueling lozays. According to Kuensel (December 29, 2003), he became the singer and composer for His Late Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuk till His Majesty’s Death. Ap Chuni happened to compose one of the most beautiful songs from Bhutan: Yak Legbi Lhadhar. The combination of the melody and the emotional story it narrates has the capacity to bring tears to everyone who listens to it. The lyrics of the song is as follows: Soo yak legbi lhadhar zshel legsa Yak legbi lhadhar lhachu dhi Soo yak kayyul droyuel shedming go Yak kayyuel droyuel shed go na Soo thow gangri karpoi zshaylu lay Pang sersho khagyel thosa lu Soo ya metho baabchu legsa mo Yak rang...