BHUTAN DIARY

राह पे रहते हैं यादों पे गुजर करते हैं
खुश रहो एहले वतन हम तो सफ़र करते हैं II

LESSON AT KALIGHAT

CALCUTTA ok Kolkota 31 Aug 07
I had taken a break after a long time and i was joined by my friends Rohit,Abhishek Kanti and Deepak.We were having a good time when Abhishek was ordered to pay his respect at Kalighat by his mother.A holy shrine dedicated to Goddess Kali in South kolkota.It is one of the 51 shakti peeth.The right toe of Dakshayani is said to have fallen here. The Shakti here is known as Kalika, while the Bhairava is Nakulesh. It is a very famous place and a pilgrimage for Shakta (Shiva and Durga/Kali/Shakti worshippers) followers within the Hindu religion.

Four of us as soon as we set afoot there were swarmed by panda community.Finally one of them was hired by our friend abhishek.We all posed as students so he agreed to charge just Rs 21.we thought thank God.Abhishek being a smart executive of a reputed mobile company thought he has struck agreat business deal.He opened up to the gentleman came to know his roots even.The gentleman was from Darbhanga in Bihar , was there for generations and he even came to know his ancestral village and all that in few paces to the shop where we had to take of our shoes and buy prashad.Being a smart MBA graduate that he was we bought prasad almost worth 300 rs and there went our cover of students.

The Gentleman from Darbhanga introduced us to another man as his nephew and from there onwards he was to be our mentor.We walked another few paces and were made to buy some flowers and bangles of lah for the deity . In the search for greater blessings or sanctimoniously or for fear of unknown we did as was told.The moment we landed inside the temple we were marked by another three pandas and made to pay the patronage to the deity separately.Later on we realised we had paid according to our purses.The way they were selling the blessings of The Goddess was a lesson for all sales person. We were made to visit the temple with a time lag or in phased manner so that we could not negotiate the blessings together a lesson for our Diplomats and businessmen.This time when they are negotiating further on 123 at NSG they must come here once.Fianlly when we came out we all were penny wise a lesson for our financial wizards.

And I was made wordly wise of the organised economy of Temples and holy shrines.How there is a symbiotic existence of priests,prashad shops,flower shops,souviner shops and beggars. Military wise i was tactically and strategically wiser and ofcourse we all were blessed by The Goddess Kali in one way or the other.

MATCH PLAY

My First Real Match Play

It was two days before a tournamnt at RTGC ( Royal Thimphu Golf Club).I went to play at Royal Thimphu Golf club with Col Ajeet Meelu and Mr Ashok. Col Meelu is the one who introduced us to Golf by us i mean me and Mr Gupta. He being a 15 handicap always use to play at ease with us .That day there were other Bhutanese golfers also there and suddenly before tee off it was decided to have a match play.Now in Match play there are two players who team as one team and pitch themselves against others. I was the worst and most handicapped ie 18 amongst the players. Golf balls were juggled and put in a hat shaken and thrown to the ground ,the closest two were paired.I was teamed up with captain Kinga Dorji of Royal Bhutan Police.I exclaimed "friends our is the weakest team".There were 5 teams in all and i had never seen Kinga play and was not aware of his game or handicap.I was really skeptical about our chances.I had lost the match before it even started.Col Meelu asked me to calm down and said my teammate was a very steady player.

Now the stakes , every one contributed 1000 rupees the winner was to take 5000,runners up 3000 and the third team 2000. The game was to be played on stableford system of scoring.The first group of five ball teed off. We followed. my partner was a very steady player and me equally unsteady & erratic in my game.In the first nine i only scored 7 points whereas the average was 15.My partner had 20 points.I felt sorry for him.Back nine first hole gave me a birdie and my game turned though i could only make 17 points in the back nine.But it was a good round to my standards.My total score was 24 and our team's was 63.We tied up for the fourth position at 63.It was a brave effort not from me but from capt kinga.To top it all we decided to play the same match in same format the next day and to my surprise when people suggested change of team kinga refused saying he would rather have me as team.How is that for team spirit and camaraderie.

I learned a few things from him and understood real listening is willingness to let other person change you.