Page 86 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

8 THE JOURNEY TO MY WORKPLACE

The office order said I must join Samdrup Jongkhar Junior High School. And I was supposed to receive
the confirmation order before school reopened. I didn’t. So, I phoned the Dzongkhag Education officer of
Samdrup Jongkhar. The Office Assistant said I was placed at Nganglam Junior High School.
“Nganglam Junior High School?” I said with my mouth wide open. “How could they change my
placement?”
I don’t know, sir,” he said. “Why don’t you ask the ministry?”
“Oops.”
I bit my nails, wondering why the ministry had to send me there. People said Nganglam was at the
frontline, eighty miles west from Samdrup Jongkhar.
Two weeks before school reopened, I went to Mongar to get my luggage from Baggio’s place. Early the
next morning, Baggio’s father helped me to haul my luggage to the bus terminal. About ten juveniles were
on the same bus, heading to SJ.
“Where’re you headed, boys?” I asked.
“Phuentsholing,” replied Boto, the eldest lad in the group.
“It’s school time. Why’re you going there?”
“Shopping.”
“You got permission from your parents?”
He shook his head, grinning.
“You should have told them, boys. They are gonna be worried about you.”
“Our friends would.”
“Oh, really?”
As long as they were having fun with me, I cared not much about their clandestine tour. We arrived at
SJ at 8:30 pm. We hurried into the town. All the hotels were closed. A curfew was instituted and people
said anyone caught outside after 9:00 pm was likely to be shot on sight.
“Hurry, back to the prayer wheel, boys,” I said.
Hungry and cold, we spread our bedding on the cement at a prayer wheel beside the bridge. A
policeman on patrol flashed his torchlight at our faces.
“Who is there?” he thundered.

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