REASTUC

THIMPHU

Spring of 1989.I was rudely awakened by a sharp and tingling slap on my face. The willow leaves indeed struck hard. My father, sister ( karma Chuki) and I were sleeping on the truck head, where the luggage is usually kept. My father had been transferred to Thimphu, and this is my earliest memory of Thimphu. The willow trees were the first ones to greet me.
School was fun. My sisters and me, coming from the South, knew Nepali more than Dzongkna or English. But it was not that difficult, we could communicate with others because our needs were never as complcated as that of grown-ups. Children understand each other... almost everytime. I say 'almost' because I have an incident to share. An incident that I related to my parents and had them laughing. It sound rather stupid now and is a source of embarrassment to me, but it had filled me with happiness just to see people laugh though at my expense.
The incident. In Lungtenzampa Jr high school, we had slides where we used to play during tea breaks and other free time. Now, to make it more interesting we would climb up the slide rather than slide down it. I climbed up and was unable to climb up further, a girl stood at the top, seeing her I reached out my and said 'push'. She did so, and rather hard . I went sliding down, all my efforts wasted. What made my parents laugh was the fact that I had reached out my hand and said push instead of pull.