The Thrue-baap (blessed Rainy day) according
to Bhutanese culture and tradition, it is a remarkable and very auspicious day
to cherish the bygone monsoon and welcome the beautiful autumn season.
According to the astrologers, “all water on the earth is believed to turn holy through
the blessings from Buddha Namparnangsay and if we take bath on this day, it is
believed that our negative karma with mind and body will be cleansed”.
Back in Bhutan, we the Bhutanese people mark
this day with many interesting programmes, starting with special Thukpa (porridge)
followed by special tea and lunch but some people go for picnic, some go to
monastery and most of the middle age men play archery and young ones play khuru
and deygor with dances in beautiful attires. It is also our tradition that
wives and other relatives come for cheer up the games with packed lunch and
drinks. It is interesting to note that towards the evening we hangout for gatherings
with our family, relatives and friends for dinners, drinks and dances.
Away from home, this is my first time
celebrating Thrue-baap with my friends in India, and I had many interesting memories
as well as some unforgettable memories. We all know that India provides many
Bhutanese students to study various courses and in Delhi itself there are more
than 100 students studying in various colleges. One week before, our friends
from Meerut invited us to celebrate the Thrue-baap at their place together. We accepted
their invitation and planned accordingly through phone calls, wechat, whatsapp
and other communication facilities.
On 20th September, my friends in
Delhi gathered in my place to make preparations and to move from Delhi to
Meerut together but in due course of time, we are able to start our journey bit
late by 5:30 PM. Our friends hired two cabs,
each carrying 6 passengers, which we believe it is not good number to travel
together. Anyhow, we started our journey with full of joy and smiling faces made
the journey interesting. We took the way through crowds, crossing numbers of junctions,
where full of traffic jams made the journey slow. Moreover, I’m pretty sure
that our driver made some blunders as I thought that he took some wrong ways.
Trust me, it is not an exaggeration, we were
landed in strange place where I feel both people and the place were totally
strange. It was hot, humid, dusty messy and noisy. To me the people I meet was like a
Yamraj (the king of death) that we portray during our Tshechu festivals. They were government officials and I knew they were performing their duty but at the same time they were intelligent in robbing through use of wrong
powers and wrong interpretations of laws. I felt immensely bitter when my two
friends were kept in middle of those cops and torturing with pushing, pulling and
harsh words. Our act must be unlawful, and I know the innocent of law has no
excuse, but every human being have their fundamental rights. I need not have to
mention the due process of law, fair trial and investigations of police because
these cops did not intent to be abide by the laws and I can proudly note that
they had clear intention to confiscate our drinks for their own consumptions. We
had no intention of violating the laws by carrying our drinks from Delhi to
Utter Pradesh but it was our personal consumption. At times, I found myself inconsolable
with those people and especially with our driver but I still gave a second
thought that we are in India. It was unfortunate to mention, may be by 8:30PM,
our taxi was suddenly stopped by some polices with their sticks in their hands and
took out our drinks that we were carrying for our celebration in Meerut. I was
surprised when only two of my friends were interrogated thoroughly and we were
not allowed to speak a word. However, after an hour or more of interrogations,
my friends were released but our drinks worth of Nu. 8000/- had been
confiscated by police.
However, we reached in Meerut by 11:00PM, and
our friends were so kind enough that they were passionately waiting for us with
sweet words of consoles and tea with biscuits followed by delicious welcome
dinner which I felt so warmth from my inner heart for their especial treatment as
they took us for walks around the premises for fresh air though my mind was
poisoned and polluted by those cops on the way.
It was on 21st September, he real
Thrue-baap begins from 6:00 AM with special Thukpa served at their best in one
of our friend’s house where we had an opportunity to meet with many new friends
and I recognized most of my friends from Delhi were curious to introduce each
other but still we began ourselves interacting among the new friends. We enjoyed
playing khuru, though we lost our match. Right after the lunch there was a
football tournament, which indeed is my best game made me sick for some times
as I was playing football after a yearlong break.
Above all, the most interesting part of the
event for me was the interaction session and cultural show performed by
beautiful young budding dancers and other singers. The group dances were one of
the most interesting part of the event because I felt as if we were in Bhutan celebrating
the Thrue-baap with our close relatives. I would like to conclude my short note
herewith my heartfelt gratitude and sincere thanks to President, Vice President
and all members of Bhutan Students Association in Meerut for organizing such
event and wonderful hospitality for my team from Delhi.
Tashi Delek!
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