And there's more to life

College Experience; Prologue

2012-02-06T20:00:00.001+06:00

It seems like 4 and half years passed just like a few weeks. You know hanging around with friends, gossiping on movies, women, architecture (sometimes) and lot more, and time has passed down the bridge like a river promising to never come back again. Lecture classes, night outs, design trips and sleeping on a college lawn during the day, I am more than little surprised with myself being at the verge of completing the five long years in a few months. Yes, I am now on my last ride, and wish me good luck so that your prayers would bless me a safe and of course interesting end to my college life.

http://www.transformationpoint.com/

We started off quite bizarrely; on the way to Kolkata (Don’t know why Scholarship Division sent us to Kolkata while we could have directly gone to Delhi) our bus met with an accident on the fateful night. Handy boy had jumped outside and driver was still lying on his seat unhurt when I woke up to the commotion around. Looking through the window, in the flood of lights, I saw a man running towards the bus with a slipper in hand. Behind him, a big huge truck was crashed into a big chunk of waste. And driver was lucky to have escaped. Police at midnight gathered in an unknown place. We were asked to take out our luggage as the bus will not be allowed to continue its journey. And I was less than enjoying the adventure. My first venture towards an unknown place and I end up getting deep into the unknown trouble which threatens the end of my journey even before I really start it.

After hassling and arguing with the handy boy, we waited for a bus to ply by and it already passed dinner time. Anywhere in India, something or the other always keeps on running on the road unlike our country where we hardly have any vehicles moving during the night. We boarded on another bus which was almost empty and in few minutes, it reached us near the dabaa. In an agony of sudden shock and being hungry, we rushed to a big restaurant. It was so funny, the owner never let anyone to leave his dabaa until one paid Rs.100 whether one has eaten more or less, no one knows including the owner. In a broad day light, next day our bus was playing right through the busy street of Kolkata. Over a night, the bus dropped us right in the heart of Kolkata city.

We were received (as in waited for) by a complete stranger who claimed to be a person responsible for getting our train tickets. He took us to a nice restaurant and later to a Howrah train Station. It was time to depart with other friends. Train experience was the first time in life and it was also first time in life that I got myself walking in a place crowded with thousands and thousands carrying luggage, shouting, begging, and walking. It was the busiest affair in Howrah.

New Delhi Stationhttp://bishnupriyamanipuri.files.wordpress.com/

Train was of course comfortable and cool for almost Rs. 2600 which could have been much lesser lest we have taken direct from NJP. And New Delhi station was even busier than the one in Kolkata. The trains honking, women shouting in a speaker, people running here and there, we got lost not knowing where to go now. Unlike the one in Kolkata, in Delhi there was no one who could take us to our college. In a wake of all the commotion and confusion, a decently dressed up man approached three of us asking where wants to go. We were expecting a person from a college who could take us to the college and help us in getting accommodated comfortably as we were briefed by Scholarship Division a few days before we were supposed to leave. And it turned out to be so untrue.

Take my advice my friends; in India if you know little bit of anything Indian, take it and claim it, it helps one in getting favors from a situation. We took ourselves at the mercy of situation and of course a pure sanctity of human reaction towards any helpless person and a new in other’s place that they would help us to get through out of it, but it was a mistake. Speaking in English even though I knew little bit of Hindi, it back fired completely. It made him easy to pounce upon us , every damn foreigner for him is a profit. For a reasonable price (as he claimed), we took a cab to our college which later on turned out so near for an amount of Rs. 300. However, for another extra Rs.200, we have to take our cab to the hostel as college campus is divided into a college classroom and hostel which are separated by about 10 kilometers. Luckily when we reached the hostel campus that too after lurking into so many corners, hostel warden called some Bhutanese students there.

First experience in India and already bouncing with much to share, I let the cheatings and accidents go for our college life was about to take its mark.

Youth and youthful follies

2012-01-20T21:14:00.001+06:00

Remember the words of our beloved His Majesty the king that future of the country rests in the hands of our youth who would become the citizens of tomorrow? Well, one should as it has become nonetheless the most spoken of slogans in school speeches, Dashos’ addressing, principals’ advises, and of course a pet line for a blogger like me to even begin my post on youth and related subjects. And most ironically, we are today in an age where youth problems have not only become a common problem but also has threatened the safety of many other around. It’s no mystery or a joke for that matter if a fully grown up man is scared to walk alone in night around the street corners. Personally my parents would always caution me even when I am late by few hours at home in the evening. And they are not being strict parents but a concerned folks shaken up by the stories of youthful follies, crimes and incidents floating around frequently in papers and of course in talks around the neighborhood.

http://chetankejriwal.wordpress.com/

In a week, there are lots and lots of incidences where out of fight, a young man is stabbed or wounded, and it is just as frequent as any unwelcome guest. The society is threatened of its peace and even worse sometimes when a source that which threatens your neighbor is but your own son. Through my personal experience, I am sometimes haunted by the thoughts of an acquaintance who was stabbed in Lobesa and succumbed to death later on in Punakha hospital. Its unbelievable, my friends that yesterday you were talking, joking and having a fun with a person and today he is killed by certain young guy who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And such trend has now picked up at an alarming rate, and it’s something that which should worry everyone before like a cursed plague, it starts contaminating the whole civilization.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/

It’s becoming a trend as if it’s something that should spread to become a culture. Our lives are threatened not by the bombs of terrorist attacks but definitely much more alarming than it, the acts of our younger generations. The parenting and schooling is now called upon for extra responsibilities and not only them, even ourselves as a part of the society who have in some ways contributed in building such threatening youth nuisance is called upon to start thinking of making younger generations a crop of tomorrow’s citizen as envisioned by the King.

Youths of Bhutan are in stabbing spree, and we are still not wondering about the ones who let the dogs out? If we are threatened to roam around in the city, then its always wiser to groom the ones in our house to a better person so that he doesn’t go before you and you get scared to move around. If charity starts from house, then misfortune also begins from it.

Bhutanese Modern House

2012-01-15T10:38:00.001+06:00

Modern house design. 3 storied building design housing 8 flats of 2 BHK


Front elevation incorporating the traditional style in the facade.

Bird eye view. The roof is gabble roof without jamthog.

Perspective view

Perspective showing the rear elevation

Race to the 'End of the World in 2012'

2012-01-12T20:43:00.001+06:00

The end has already begun to appear near. It’s unimaginable that I am talking about here. Yes, my friends, end of blogging, end of reading, end of writing, end of life, end of everything-The End of the World 2012. If we are to believe that certain section of natives of South Mexico, Mayans notably or perhaps mysteriously understood to have predicted many major events in the world already, then world ends in 2012 as per their PREDICTION. It is largely based on the mysterious reason which is baffling to the world as to why they ended their calendar on 21^st December, 2012.

However, like many people, I don’t want to die, at least not before I give back the most to the ones who served me so far. Yes, I wouldn’t like to end my life with the end of world in 2012. And moresoever, I don’t believe this superstition driven hoax of some ancient faith. There are more scientific to many things around, let alone the world, in fact even manufacturing a single needle is much more than engineering. And we are battling an unimaginable event by virtue of which, it would led to the end of the world and that on the secrets unknown to the science.

http://www.timtim.com/public/images/drawings/large/002147_EndOfWorld.gif

However, just for fun, I have put up the timer (check out on the left column of my blog page), a race towards the end. Let’s just pray that I would be alive with all of you on 22^nd December 2012. We will celebrate of being alive...

Dochula visit during the snowfall

2012-01-11T21:35:00.002+06:00

chilling out in cold

Standing beautifully

Nothing excites architect more than angles

covered in white

Kheta posing with snowman

Dochula

Happy new year 2012

2012-01-01T12:23:00.000+06:00

I am in Bhutan

2011-12-11T15:42:00.002+06:00

One the best things that describes Bhutan. Courtesy; http://www.bhutan.com/

I am in Bhutan for my vacation. Its my first time in five years that i have come to Bhutan during winter vacation. For certain period, i may not be able to share things as often as i do.And i won't be able to read your blog posts as well, so i hope you forgive me for it. Till then, keep writing, keep blogging, and happy blogging...:)

Urban Design of Aerocity; Architecture project for final year

2011-12-07T16:19:00.002+06:00

We completed a final year urban design project. It took nearly half years to complete the project. The Project is our proposal of Aerocity, New Delhi.

From the left; myself, Chimi, Akshay and jamyang

model view

watching over the city grow


Model view


Chimi explaining the design to the jury.

Center plaza detail model

Explaining the design to the jury

Drawing

Malik explaining the design

3-D view of Center Plaza

3-D views of center plaza

Drawing

Bhutan's famous win over Afghanistan in 2009 SAFF appears futuristic with 5-0 loss to India in 2011

2011-12-06T22:34:00.005+06:00

It’s been 30 minutes and the score board read Bhutan 0- India 0. This is football, bhaiya! Not the kind of game you guys are crazy of- cricket, of which India is the reigning world champions. And in football, we would definitely show you how to kick it, my mind was going crazy with overwhelmed pride, I was proud of Bhutanese footballers playing against India. India can concede more than a half dozen to other countries, of course not the ones who are playing in SAFF competition, but with Bhutan of whose football team, let alone the world, even our counterpart Indian friends doubt of having one to play against is now giving a tough time. Every dog has its own day. And it seemed like we are going to have a decent match although we don’t have hope that we will win it until we ended up conceding 5.

Bhutan's Goal keeper closing the goal for Sunil Chhetri

The stadium which boasts of being second largest in the world has few hundred spectators gathered. If it was cricket, scene would have been definitely different. Five of us sat amongst many other Indian friends to cheer for the match. Amidst the noises and chants of ‘India’ ‘India’, five of us were as dead as our football team. Let alone the pressure from Bhutanese side, they hardly touched the ball. And we could cheer only when Bhutanese players touched the ball, and it didn’t last more than few seconds. The first goal was lucky for Indians as it came out in set piece, corner kick, but second goal, third and fourth and fifth, the tale was building up beautifully for our Indian friends who do not get much to feel delighted about their team and they have now one to feel cheerful even though most of them know only one players name- Chhetri, I doubt whether they knew who Chhetri was for it was certainly not Dhoni or Tendulkar as they shouted only Chhetri for any forward players. And amidst all these heavy heart wrenching experiences building in front of us, I looked around searching familiar faces. Of course I couldn’t guess the person but definitely gloomy and dumb faces certainly looked Bhutanese. And with game almost death, I couldn’t keep my eyes away from scoreboard and thinking that I have to sit down for few more minutes.

On the day of Bhutan’s first match against Sri Lanka, I was quite disheartened with the channel Ten Action for not broadcasting the live match. It seemed insulting to show a match from I-league which was not live match also. If Ten Action sponsored to telecast the SAFF cup live on TV, then they must show all the matches. Watching live match, I didn’t mind them not showing it live though it would have been nice at least to watch Bhutan play live in TV for my own first time experience.

Bhutanese players looked like a bunch of young kids asked to look for the ball and when found the ball, they were not told what to do with it. In the stylish hairstyles, our young amateurs (as often the commentator describes) lacked everything. If one was not playing the game plan, then I expected some physical play, which our young friends couldn’t do as they were too weak in front of Indian counterparts. The coach was the first person from Bhutan team to leave the field, and looking at him, I wondered whether he mistook the SAFF cup to be young kids’ championship. The goal keeper, my friend who is four years junior to me says was his two years junior in school. Of course goalie deserve every applaud. If it was not for him, we would have had enough goals for whole Bhutanese team assuming that five goals were one each for five of us. Bhutan’s famous victory over Afghanistan in 2009 SAFF looked so futuristic suddenly.

Bhutanese supporters enjoying the match

Well, watching it losing without having a proper attack on opponent’s goalie who made fun by jogging along the goal line during the match as he was left without having to do anything, I wondered how long Bhutan will take to give a good competitive match. How long it will take for Bhutan to have players who can amaze us and make us feel proud? And in all those pondering, I found out that we can never be at the level to offer the competitive challenge. In the past, India might have not agreed to participate in world cup for whatever reasons unknown, we are interestingly the first country to even disagree on playing a world cup qualifying match now. We are way behind in terms of sporting education and achievements. In other parts of world, sport events brings whole broken nation together, adds country’s major part of economy through sport’s revenue, and celebrates it as a entertainment festival, we have our few Bhutanese people having a rather good time playing in a field, not even a football ground. Well, it’s a matter of time, when country’s economy grows, we could perhaps expect these facilities to also grow. As of now, let’s pass on the joke that 5-0 against India who has such sporting facilities and academies could score only five against our young team.

After the match was over, players heading to dressing room

After the match was over, it was a nice feeling though when Indian fans cheered for Bhutanese footballers as they walked out of the field. They shouted, ‘Bhutan’ ‘Bhutan’.

“My team may play bad, but I am Bhutanese and I am here for them,”’ Chimi my friend echoed as he kept on wearing a headband which was painted with Bhutanese flag.

Calling Ap Rada

2011-12-05T02:38:00.003+06:00

http://mainthings.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/1

Jury time, much like an examination, in architecture course, we do by submitting our design which will be reviewed by our faculties and of course the architects from outside in external jury. So to add to our hardwork, i need some blessings from Ap Rada as well. Architecture is so much subjective, even a choice of colour in your design makes different differences to different architects. Ap Rada's blessings might just add some glimmering sparkle even to the mood of the jury.

SAFF tournament live on Ten Action+, time to cheer Bhutan on Live TV

2011-11-27T13:29:00.002+06:00

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/10-ways to pursue happiness

So far the avid football viewers have only watched big European teams in premier leagues, la-liga and Champions league in television. Gluing ourselves in front of a TV during the weekends cheering the teams which don’t have anything with our damn life, our enthusiasm of supporting a team in Europe goes even to an extent by going to Lhakhangs to pray for the team’s success, we undeniably announces our strong madness for football. And this madness is not just within the group who enjoys playing football but amongst the ones who do not know how to kick around the ball as well.

And there are few people in empty stands of Changlimithang sitting idly and watching our Bhutanese league. One doesn’t even know the team let alone the players. All that people cheer when someone scores is by the kit number. Such is our lifestyle, we know people around the world but we have rejected the people around ourselves, somehow we have lost the interest to know them.

Well, I think events which are somehow available at a very cheap cost of perhaps events broadcasted in mediums which are accessible could perhaps bring the people together. It might bring the neighbours together and discuss about our own players, our own team. This goes beyond football.

This time, SAFFtournament which is going to be held in India shall be broadcasted live in Ten Action+. Yes, South Asian Football Federation cup in which Bhutan in 2008 famously reached semi-final and nearly beat India that the match has to go to extra time. The tournament will start from 2^nd December and end on 11^th December. Bhutan is the least ranked team amongst the eight nations competing in the tournament. Bhutan is grouped with India, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. Don’t forget to check in your TV on 3^rd December at 6.30 BST, Bhutan will play Sri Lanka. And on 5^th, at same time, Bhutan will play the host India and last group match on 7^th against Afghanistan at 3.30 BST. For sure, this time round one might be cheering for Dorjis, Kinleys, Wangchuks, Sonams, for the first time in TV for most of us. Good luck Team Bhutan.

If we could learn from the nature

2011-11-25T13:55:00.004+06:00