Growing Up In The Village

I was born and brought up as a typical sharchokpa kota in this large village in eastern Bhutan. My parents, like the generations before them, were illiterate farmers. I grew up eating maize kharang and finding great pleasures in simple things of life in the rustic environment, but very much in cohabitation with nature.

As village children, we took great pride in being covered with mud and dirt because, water was dreaded and taking a bath was something alien and not even forced upon us by our parents! Independence was what we enjoyed since our elders had no time for us due to the farming routine and so we were generally left alone to do whatever we wanted. I grew up in a free environment and with the thought ingrained in me that freedom, which was not denied to me by my parents, was my birthright! It was the zeitgeist of those day's age of innocence.

I went back to my village after a long, long time to re-connect myself with my roots. I thought it would probably be disorienting because my expectations to find the village of my childhood days as imprinted in my mind were high. But even though time has withered away much of the authenticity of my village eversince I left to fend for myself in the big bad world, I found that it still exudes much of the magic of that village that I enjoyed growing up in.

I took pictures of the children of my village that brought back memories of my own childhood in this very soil… pictures in which I found myself as the protagonist, but the role was played by these children.

The village urchin Me.. but the role played by this boy

The actors have changed...but the toys have remained the same. The simple thrills that these wooden toy trucks emanates to a village child is thousand times more than the excitement experienced by the children in towns from their authentic battery operated toys purchased from high-end showrooms. Ask me!

And if I had the authority, I wouldn't trade the wooden cart below for any numbers of American Mountain Bikes! They are simply priceless!

Community Vitality is visible in principle and in practice such as, in the villagers coming together to erect prayer flags as below:

...or the villagers coming together to help a household carry and spread the natural manures in the maize fields..

It was after all, my village and on this very soil, I had grown up doing these manual jobs..So I am there too lending a helping hand in memory of the days I spent looking after the cows, or helping in maize plantation in this very field!

In retrospect, I now realize that for the instinct of the child in me, my village was a magical and unique place in time.. where grandmothers' stories were more thrilling than any Hollywood suspense movies and where simple meals with family sitting together and sharing the day's experiences was more fulfilling than the satisfaction derived from eating all alone in five star hotels. Those who grew up with me in this village will always desire to have it the way it was, atleast in our memories... because this humble upbringing in the rural settings has sheilded us from the bad qualities of life like arrogance and jealousy and instead,  instilled in us the embossed quality of humbleness with simple needs and these qualities have carried us thus far in life.

I only wish my children had a similar area to experience the delights of childhood in a village. Alas, that is not to be. 

Finally, I saw in this boy the shy 'me' during my childhood, who used to be easily scared and immediately hide whenever an outsider came to our village:

When memories are all you have, reminiscing about them is the most difficult thing because, as much as we wish or try as we might, no one can really turn back the clock. 

However, as I look back on those vintage memories, one thought always cheers me up and brings a smile on my face... and that is, as simple and ignorant farmers in the village, would my parents have even imagined in their wildest dreams that their ignorant and carefree son would one day venture into the unknown world and not only complete his education but start a family of his own… and even start blogging?