Loving Forever

Gonpo offered his seat to an old man who boarded the bus on the way and remained standing for three hours since then. He pulled the collar of his gho slightly above his neck to keep himself warm from the frosty wind that lashed at the half open window pane. The bus was gently rising up the road, heaving slowly up into the chirpine mountain, puffing dark exhaust fumes. It was heading for Bumthang.
Tashi Pem tugged at Gonpo’s sleeve, waking him up from his standing nap. He turned and looked down at Pem, winking, “Take my seat…you have been standing for hours now?” Pem suggested.
“No it is alright, I am comfortable,” Gonpo denied politely. Pem insisted again but Gonpo ignored her. Pem securely girded the woolen muffler round her neck and sat back feeling pity at Gonpo. The muffler was a present Gonpo had given on her eighteenth birthday few months ago. Presently they were heading home on their winter holidays from Jigme Sherubling High School. Pem had completed her class nine final exams and Gonpo had written his class eleven Arts exam for the year. He hoped to continue his studies at Drugyel High School the following year to be closer to his parents.
Nine months earlier, in the early spring they had fallen in love and even vowed a lover’s vow to remain together till eternity. Gonpa was from Paro. His old father ran a small restaurant at Bonday. Gonpo was a school idol and a favorite of the teachers. Yet, he remained timid and isolated from his friends.
Tashi Pem grew up in Bumthang, Ura. She lived with her widowed mother who made her living running a small grocery shop. Pem loved to watch football games and that was how she treaded into Gonpa’s timed heart.
At the moment, she was building castles in the clouds. She saw herself married to Gonpo after his graduation, sitting in a candle-lit room teasing him, cajoling him; when she heard the horn, she looked outside. The hazy glow of the afternoon sun shone though the mist and fog. The trees were rushing backwards speedily. Almost all the passengers had dozed off after their lunch at Sengor. The bus driver looked into the rear view mirror and met her eyes. She forced a smile to say hello. She smiled back.
The next moment they were shooting down at an incredible speed. Pem felt her heart come up to her throat. The cliff face was rushing upward at an incredible speed. Pandemonium broke out for a couple of seconds before the ill-fated bus landed at the foot of cliff, with a tremendous crash, some hundred meters from the road.
When the police arrived, they could only see the carcass of the bus, like carcass of a bull attacked by a tiger. It was an unfortunate accident in the cold winter month.
Five days later, Gonpo regained consciousness in the Paro hospital. He had a fractured right leg and a deep cut on the head. Worse still, his right arm had been amputated. It was a nightmare for a talented boy like Gonpo. He stayed in a state of shock for almost a month. His friends visited him. He asked about Pem to everyone who came to see him. They told him, she was fine and recovering from a broken rib, at home in Bumthang. He wrote to her twice but did not receive any reply. He became sad and desolate. He was discharged after one and half months in the hospital. When he reached home he opened the diary and plucked out Pema’s photographs. On the opposite side was her address and phone number. He became so happy that he almost forgot his bodily pains. He walked around the room musing and recalling the last journey they’d traveled together. He looked outside. The spell of darkness was beginning to fall on to the Paro valley. It was time to take his normal evening walk down the street. He never came out of his house during daytime in embarrassment.
That evening, the phone rang at Tashi Pem’s grocery store. Pem‘s mother picked it up and answered, “La ga  suung mo?” Gonpo smiled and replied, “ Nga na Paro ley zhudo, la” his heartbeat was pounding  his chest, he continued, sighing, “ I am Pem’s friend…”  the voice on the other end stammered. “ Yes, may I help you la?”. Gonpa wiped his tears of joys and replied, “Can I talk to Pem for…?” Instantly he heard the heavy breathing break into a sob. A sinister feeling stuck him, “Hello!” he broke the silence.
Pem’s mother looked at the phone, tears dripping from her eyes and in almost a whisper said, “I am sorry, she‘s no more… the accident…”  Gonpo dropped the phone saying nothing and stood there in the room confused. He asked again for Pem. The answer was the most sorrowful tiding he ever heard. He broke down in desperation. He walked out of the house. His frozen body staggered towards the bridge under the crescent moon, ever so slowly.
When morning broke over the valley, people beheld a corpse floating under the bridge caught between the boulders. It had only one hand. On the bridge, they saw a girl’s photo frozen- in the winter’s ice!

Going Home Forever

Excerpts from my Life

July 18th 1999. It was late in the evening sometime around 7; my brother, who was two years younger than me, was returning home after his interview for the Electrical Engineering scholarship at Thimphu. He was then in dilemma whether to choose doctor’s training which was his childhood passion or the Electrical engineering which was his new interest brewed after the recent conversation with his friends. We had completed our ISC in March from Sherubtse College, Kanglung the same year. The two pre-university years at Sherubtse had been a sensational adventure in the beginning and as the year worn down it was a strenuous rivalry in an attempt to mince every line of the mammoth task of studies that would go long into the night and oftentimes to the early dawn.

Pema arrived at the Samdrup Jongkhar bus depot around 4.30PM from Phuentsholing. On his way to the market he met Ten Dorji, the driver of Khaling School for the disabled, who told him he was leaving for Khaling the same evening after a brief shopping. Pema was relieved and joyous. He was going to be home soon. He already felt a strong longing to meet mother and father who were unaware that he was on his way home.

It was about 5.00 PM when the five of them began their late journey from Samdrup Jongkhar. In the front was a teacher of school for the disabled; at the rear Pema sat on the left window side with two visually impaired students. The darkness came in soon after they crossed Deothang town and they began to doze off.

The old Land Cruiser seemed to snail lazily up the mountainous terrain. The carriage was loaded full at the rear. Two hours later they were negotiating the Melongbrak road in the fog and mist. The vehicle bumped against the culvert with a screeching noise. At that moment Ten Dorji yelled, ‘Sorry sir…’ And then they were falling down the cliff at an incredible speed. The car rolled over several times before halting against a thick foliage and climbers.

When Pema gained consciousness he was still in his seat. He called for the teacher and driver but there was no reply. One of the visually impaired boys who sat across him asked him, ‘Ata Pema, are you all right? Anything happened to you…’ Pema felt fine, he did not feel any pain, ‘I am alright, where is sir?’ The boy winced in pain as he tried to move his legs, ‘I think my leg is broken…and my friend is not moving…’ he said. Pema saw that the other student had become lifeless. At that moment he heard the teacher’s voice calling from somewhere above. Pema’s legs were stuck between the seats and were unable to move. He asked the boy to climb out of the window and help sir. The boy clambered out and crawled up the cliff. ‘Ata Pema! Wait here I will call for help.’ were the last words he heard. He sat there in the dark with a lifeless body of the other student.

He tried to push the seat forward but it wouldn’t budge. At that instant a sharp pain streaked through his neck. He was then unable to move his head. He remembered father and mother and longed to be home soon. He mumbled some prayer feeling lonely. He heard the teacher call him. ‘Pema…Pema…Are you alright?” Pema tried to yell back but felt dizzy. Minutes later he fell unconscious and never arose from there again.

The following morning the visually impaired boy reached the road which was some hundred meters from the fateful car. It was a total miracle that the boy who had his left leg fractured and visually impaired could climb the cliff through the thick jungle and soggy foliage. The teacher who had been thrown out of the car on the first impact suffered a fracture in the lower backbone. The driver was dead and slumped in his seat which crashed over him.

The fatal accident at Melongbrak left us bereaved of our charming brother, the one son whose dreams remain unwoven until today. We are sorrowful more because he died a painful slow death at an early age of twenty one. Life as it reveals is an unpredictable cosmic phenomenon.