Saturday, July 16, 2016

Lhamo Part 3, 4 & 5

Destiny has my endless encounter and acquaintances with the Lhamos. So, today I bring to you, Denkar Lhamo, Seldon Lhamo and Phub Zam Lhamo. Kidding. They don’t have the Lhamo Second& third names. But I would like to refer them as Lhamos for a Malaysian lady once told me how Bhutanese refer beauties as Lhamos. I being an aboriginal Bhutanese didn’t know this until a foreigner? Or did someone bluff her hard? Like someone did about Mebar Tsho once being Guru Rimpochoe’s swimming pool? Anyway if that be true, half the Western and Northern Bhutanese women be the beauties.
Second Year. Webcam Selfie :P

2008: There were 10 of us from Drukgyel HSS going to the College of Science and Technology (CST), 4 were girls. Denkar, Seldon, Sonam Deki Tshering and I. Pema Lhamo (read about her in Lhamo Part-1) suggested I be roommates with Seday. ‘Sonam Deki and you are sort of “has to do what one thinks” kinds so won’t make compatible roommates’, she said. And she didn’t know much about Denka to comment. But once we reached college, we realized all our roommates were already decided by the college. And they had made it alphabetically, so Seday and Sonam Deki were the assigned roommates.  Lucky them, we cheered! I was allocated a room with Wangmo and Denka with Yangchen Dema. I don’t know how “D” and "Y" would come in line in any order but it’s in an engineering college, so maybe their English can be excused?


Everything about the college was queer and unpleasant, many new faces but fewer smiles. No one to be blamed though. Everything and everyone was new and just adjusting. Family had left, a weeping mommy behind in the car flooding with advises and blessings, now I was on my very own, it was heart-wrenching, already depressing. 

We unpacked our belongings in our own rooms. When I went to see Denka in her room, Yangchen Dema was reading something, curled up on her bed, skinny as a stick, dressed in a red t-shirt and a half-kira, and looking already like an oldie. She murmured something to herself and left the room. Back to my room, my roommate said she is shifting to another room with her school friend. I wasn’t aware we could do that, but as she said that I already got excited (Maan mey ladoo phuta! LOL), I wanted to stay with Denka. First night at the new college, we had noodles with ezay for dinner in Seday and Sonam Deki’s room, then Denka and I returned to ours. But I didn’t go to my room, I slept with Denka that night, I still thought I would fall off the bed if I slept towards the edge, she let me sleep in the corner :)

Next day, we had some hard time negotiating with Yangchen Dema about changing roommates, but when she had agreed, my roommate had changed her mind, she was staying. Bummer! Yangchen wasn’t moving out of her room under any cost (although we didn’t offer her any :P), so Denka and Wangmo had to move out. Hence, Denka and I became roomies.  Later, when Yangchen and I became good friends (I shall write about you some day) I learned there was ceiling leakage in her room and water would drip inside when it rained. I called it karma. Haha.

Ever since, Denka and I spend all of our time together. She was actually my school classmate for many years but we had hardly talked to each other until college. She has always been that shy and simple girl everyone would feel comfortable with. So humble, she doesn’t have an opinion of her own, she goes yes with our yes and no with our no. She never raises her wants before ours. She would always underestimate herself and leave everything for her fate to take care. It would suffocate me to be her. But that is Denka, she finds happiness in other’s happiness and her sacrifices. She is warm, she is family :)
Denka is warm. She is family :)

During college, Denka would be on her study table almost 24x7, so people visiting our room and seeing her so would go, Gosh! How much is she studying?, sounding almost jealous. But she would see no foul play in that, she is naive like that. And the truth is she would be doing everything on her study table, eating, sleeping, talking, and even watching movies.

When other girls changed their roommates almost every semester, I believe Denka and I were the only ones who stuck with one roommate for all the four years. ‘I know it’s all because of you Denka, I won’t have survived college if not for you’.

Seday and Denka Yellow Heart Emoticon
Second semester, and Seday and Sonam Deki weren’t roommates anymore. Nothing had happened between them, some other girls wanted to switch rooms and I don’t know how but they were dragged in. Seday next shared her room with Pema Choki, and for the remaining years at college. Seday was one hell of a moody person then, this moment she would be white, the other moment she would go black and red and blue and violet and green and pink and yellow. But she is easy, or maybe we don’t give much damn to her opinions? :P She is someone we can play pranks on and force into doing things our way, but again, she wasn’t this easy all the time. When it was her heart-aching days at the college, period! We would literally drag her for the jam sessions and she still won’t go. She would be such a nag; she won’t go with us to the town, when it was too sunny or dusty. When is Phuentsholing not sunny or dusty? Now she works at PHPA, takes leave and travels all the dusty road and without complains, just to get here for our gatherings. People do change with maturity, she did so well :)

Seday doesn’t bad mouth about anyone, never did. She would either say the good about someone or mostly choose not to say anything at all. Also, she can be a Goblin working for the Gringotts bank when it comes to secret keeping. We can confide anything and everything in her and know it’s safe.

Seday soon grew closer to Phub Zam, her practical classes mate and introduced her to our group. We were now four. We secretly named ourselves ‘the F4’. I don’t remember if it was after the Korean Drama ‘Boys over flower’ or the ‘Fantastic Four’ film? Whichever, still cheesy :P 
F4 :P During our college trip to Kolkota

Phub Zam and her ex-pup
Phub Zam is mysterious, I can’t still tell anything about her for sure :P But she definitely is the shoulder we need to lean our sadness on. We can always be certain she would be there for us when we need a hand. She also is a very good console-r, she best knows what to say to make us feel better when we are down. I didn’t realize how much of a good person she is until we got really close, that’s when college was almost over. Many a times, I did give her my sharp tongues, but she always forgave me saying I’m just a kid. And no matter what, she always treated me well, she always stuck around. And today, I am grateful she did that. I know she has already forgiven me for I know how much of a big heart she has, (So big so as to give away her aquarium of gold fish and her Pomeranian puppy. ‘I really would have liked to pet them too, but you didn’t consider me. I will take these as your comeback for my being hard on you. We are equal now, okay?’). 

These are the people I shared the best days of my life with, the people with whom I experienced my so many first-times. I fought with a guy, well technically for Denka, because she should have been the one fighting, she was the one who threw water from our balcony and arose the guy’s anger :P. Seday now shares her office with him. Damn! LOL

2016, during our hike to Tango&Chari 
Some mornings, when Seday and Phub Zam would already start walking from the hostel to the class, Denka and I would be just waking up. But guess who would make it to the class earlier? Right! Denka and I :P Towards the evening, the four of us  would visit the Kharbandi Goenpa together, but the time the dainty two would take walking, Denka and I would run and come back and run and come back and still be ahead. Very slow and stylish walkers I should say :P.

The most dreaded time in college were the Semester-end Examination and the Class test times. Well whose wasn't? But while some classmates were super punctual and some didn’t care, we were the middlers. We, we don’t know what we did but as the class test dates approached and when others were ready to take them, we howled asking to postpone the tests, as if postponed tests meant cancelled tests. And one test we did postpone after requesting the lecturer who favouritised Phub Zam :P The test morning, because some mates created mountains out of mole hills, we had a class fight, which I would like to think my team won because the test got postponed anyway.

My room slip-ons, HA mistook for soft toys :P
One time, when Phub Zam got sick, we had a class test the next day. We were studying when she came to our room and went flat on the bed getting short of breathes. We rushed to get the College HA. When the HA entered, first thing he did was pick up my slip-ons and throw them on the bed, taking them for soft toys. He then examined the sick and referred her to the Phuentsholing General Hospital. Although she needed just one companion, Denka and I asked to go too, mostly because we didn’t want to take the class test the next day. It was the college rule that the sick and her companions would be excused from the test and would be allowed to sit for it at a later period. We smartly skipped the test :P We still laugh to this incident while Phub Zam swears on her brute friends.

One morning assembly, when the Semester-end Examination was nearing, our Dean for Academic Affairs, Om Kafley sir advised us to rather sleep during our free time for that would give our body and mind rest and we would be able to study better, and to stick “Do not Disturb” notes on our doors to avoid unwanted disturbances. I believe the whole college took that advice way too seriously, most of the time, even during day hours everyone in the hostel would be either sleeping or just waking up from their naps, rubbing their eyes to say how sincerely they are following Kafley sir’s advice. Also Denka and I pasted a note on our door, well I did but with Denka’s consent, especially to keep away the chatters of Seday and Phub Zam. Because both of them had different roommates, we didn’t go to their rooms much, they came to ours. Seday is a very fast studier (if there is a word like this :P), she would finish revising twice or thrice when Denka and I would be only half way through the subject, so she would only leave us panicked. Phub Zam didn’t have that pace but she is a morning person, she could get up early and study, and she won’t leave our room once she came :P So after that note, they didn’t muddle much, but inside the room, Denka and I didn’t study sincerely, we laughed for keeping them out, and most of the time, we would be obediently following Kafley sir’s advice. It would be during the examination times, our talks would get sweeter, 100 times the charm otherwise. So we would lie on our beds and talk late into night. We would talk about family and end up with choked voices and heavy hearts.
When we visited Seday at Bajo and left a hole in her sofa :P

With all our flaws, we still make the best group for our little kitty parties. They are the friends who make me laugh till I  tear up. They  are the friends who made the 4 years study seem shorter. They are the friends who gave me memories to cherish on even long after college got over. It is a blessing to be surrounded with so many good people. I will never me able to write how much you guys mean to me. 
O’ What would I do without you guys?

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