Lhamo part-1

My childhood friendship circle has pretty much revolved around Lhamos, Pema Lhamo, Karma Lhamo, Tashi Lhamo, Yangchen Lhamo, Karma Pema Lhamo … Some would tease, why don’t you change to Wangmo Lhamo too and you guys could make the Lhamo team? Moreover, I have this tendency of calling people out with their full names mostly when the syllable is less than 3 (although people claim it makes the relation sound distant, and I personally feel people are mad at me when they use my full name, because I use full names to address them when I’m mad?; albeit only implicit to those whom I refer using their first names only otherwise). Amid others, Pema Lhamo, Karma Lhamo and I have stuck around amidst time, place, college, work, new friends, or life so to say. And today, these Lhamos are the ones I can call my own. First, Pema Lhamo.

First, Pema Lhamo, the ultimate Weirdo! 

It was in 2000 when mom and dad got transferred to Drukgyel Lower Secondary School from Dotey (Now Doteng) Primary School, both in Paro. So, Drukgyel is in Jitsephu, and long before, there were rumors of Tsentops (people hailing from areas near Drukgyel dzong) being outrageous and perilous. My parents had instilled fear into me with stories of how the Drukgyel students during examination would pull out a dragger, thrust it on their table before the invigilators and write/copy their answers. So, I was a timid new school girl when I met Pema Lhamo in Class V/A. And one day, I don’t exactly remember what I had actually done, but in one of the classes, Pema Lhamo’s then best friend Chimi Om slipped a note on to me. The two of them had asked to meet them after school to resolve on that something. Oh boy! I believe that was ragging at junior school level. And although, my parents were both teachers of that very school, I couldn’t ask for help. We have never involved parents in our kid-matters anyway. So I wrote back a note most probably apologizing and the matter was settled. That day after school while I was walking home swiftly, scared they would follow; I noticed Pema Lhamo was just another timid little girl following her friend’s directives.

So, Pema Lhamo had her own best friend then, I had my own, but after a few months, we hung around together playing “fridge-fridge”. We would bring from home ingredients to make ezay (chillies, onions, tomatoes and cottage cheese) and hid them under dry bushes (during winters) and among the “I Love You” flowers (during its season). We called our hide-outs “our fridge”, and ran there during intervals. Also when we fought and were enemies (that’s how we used to refer each other as when we were not talking ) we would go to that spot, and the talking-two would make the not-talking-two say out each other’s name at the count of 3, and we would be friends again. But Pema Lhamo and I weren’t best friends yet. 

It was after Junior High, we were promoted to Class IX and to the High School across the fence. While Pema Lhamo and I had opted for Computer Science, Pema Lhamo’s then best friend, Chimi Om and my then best friend, Sonam Dema were placed in the Commerce Stream. Thus, Pema Lhamo and I were classmates, table mates and later best mates. Class IX, was when we had new students coming from other junior schools. That’s when Karma Lhamo made her entry. She came from Lango Lower Secondary School and she had her own best friend from her last school. Let me talk about her in “Lhamo part-2”. 

Sarang ha yo chinguya ❤

Ever since, Pema Lhamo and I have been best buddies. During school we would exchange gifts, eat our lunches together, stare at our then crushes together :P, and have sleepovers at my place. She had long black hair then, she was girly and shy. I had short hair (mostly boy-cut and mushroom-cut), baggy clothes, almost Tom. These characters we have now swapped it seems

I won’t say she is necessarily a geek, but she does sniff books and likes it too. I don’t think I would be too wrong if I say she finished reading the entire Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys sequel. When I read Enid Blyton, she read Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steel. When I completed one book, it won’t be an exaggeration to say she would complete five. When the school librarian won’t allow her to take more than two books at a go, she would make almost the entire class to get books issued in our names for her.

But we were both Harry Potter hard cores. Oh how we would draw the bolt as Harry Potter’s on each other’s foreheads every day at school. And wear his badges, oh so religiously. I think we had more stickers of the Harry Potter series than all other stickers combined. Slam books, scrap books, song books, note books, text books, everything had Harry Potter stickers. We were so much into Harry Potter; we were freaks talking gibberish wizard languages, memorizing spells and using them on each other. Our entire high schooling days began and ended with him. But once college happened, her loyalty shook and now she is an EXO freak. ‘I should have known you were a traitor when you started liking that Malfoy boy over Harry. Traitor!’

The many dishes she would prepare for me 

After High School, we went to different colleges, we didn’t meet as often as before but we never stopped being best friends. I believe we got even closer after graduation and as we started staying over at each other’s place. ‘I feel like I have never known you better before. Were you always this weird? Because until you came up to live with me, you looked pretty normal to me :P’. So last year, when she took the 3 month Japanese Language classes, we lived together and I believe learned about each other like never before. Every day she would cook varieties of dishes for me, saying she is experimenting on me. More than the dishes, it was the sweet notes she packed with my lunch Tiffin that moved me. And when I got home from office, she would rattle on about Exo and K-pop and Super Junior and the list goes on. Every day she would force me to watch the Korean music videos and reality shows aspiring to make me one of her Exo-L fans, and every day she would miserably fail. But there is no giving up with this woman! I did learn a lot of their names and songs for her sake.

 After Karma Lhamo got back from Korea
and we decided to have a wine party.
Pema Lhamo can't handle drinks though 

One time when I had enough of Exo and Big Bang and GG and many many others, I was just throwing her a stale joke saying she must have dropped one of her brain’s screws. Later, she said she unconsciously began looking for it on the carpet. She admits she lives life upside down.  Talks in languages no one would get. ‘A freelancer of life’, she calls herself. But again, there is the charm, isn’t it? Living so carefree and innocently like a baby.

In between we frequently travelled in and out of Paro and Thimphu. One time when we were at her place, we decided for the hot stone bath. We were taking turns. And since the night hadn’t fallen yet, we let Amo and Jumo (granny in Parob kha) take the dip first. When it was our turn, I was walking up to the place with my changes, and Pema Lhamo was driving back Jumo home. The feeder road was a little uphill, and I don’t know how she did that (it needs more than mere talent), the next moment she had her apa’s car literally across the width of the road (like you see in some “How did the car get there?” facebook pictures). Literally! There was a panicking granny inside. And panicking amo and I outside. And Amo was half-naked, right out of the Waa (wooden tub). Haha. When uncle came for the rescue, he first shooed away Amo to get some clothes on. And gave Pema Lhamo the scolding she deserved. And so the kid won’t even talk to her dad for days.

And then we got totally wasted!

My Pema Lhamo is also an extremist. For many years, it was her passion to dye her hair literally every now and then. Until a few months ago when Amo dyed it black once and for all. Bravo Amo! Haha 

♩ ♪ My forever singing partners ♫ ♬
Behold! Im planning to get a Karaoke set this August,
if my budget permits.

While she left for Paro after those 3 months, she left me some 12 paged letter hidden below the pillow. I got that letter hours after she left, and when I did, my psychopath drama queen had me crying. In the letter, she had conveyed her gratefulness for coping up with her and confessions of how she loves me more than any Xiumin or Chanyoel or Suho (Exo guys). ‘Let me tell you, how much ever weird you are, I love every bit of you. There is no other like you. You are my “precious”, just as the Elven ring is to Gollum.’ 

‘And today I read your letter again and without knowing I was crying. I miss you.’

Having said that, she is real stern too. She scolds me. (I think we take turns in scolding each other :P) About wearing contact lens, and not eating well. She be like my granny, no matter how much I eat and how fat I get, she would always say I have become skinny and I need to eat well. She would dislike a person I dislike, with me, even when she has nothing to do with him/her. How she would curse all those douche bags that ever hurt me. ‘I feel blessed to be loved so much. But I am also really scared of you. Almost as sacred as I am of Ashim. But maybe that’s the respect I have for you (feel honored please!). So if I date, you will be the second last person to know about it. The last person being Ashim ’

When Dubsmash was a thing and Karma Lhamo was in Korea. We chose to wish her a happy birthday like this. We made a lot of other videos, only this one is okay to be publicized. LOL 

We don’t talk to each other every other day but when we do, we do for hours straight, until our jaws hurt of talking, hand hurt of holding the phone, and the line cuts off because our balance is over. And then she would call from her Amo’s phone. Time and again you have proved true to how we don’t need many friends, all we need is a few but true ones. 

Sarang hae yo, aeshitayru chinguya

P.S: The rumors about Tsentops or Parobs in general being perilous are so untrue. I have lived in Paro for the last two decades, and I have never been treated so well. They are rather the most friendly, reliable and supportive people I have ever come across. Paro is my second home, third home now since I live at Thimphu mostly.