Page 14 - TEARS OF SUFFERING

TEARS OF SUFFERING

2 THE TRANSIENT ESCAPE

Ugyen faced the harsh world. With both the parents
gone, he endured suffering all alone. Though he had both
paternal and maternal relatives, they didn’t care for him.
Except for Wangmo—his mother’s younger sister—
everyone ignored his suffering. Ugyen’s mother had
raised Wangmo like her daughter. She had left for
Thimphu in search of a greener pasture a decade ago, but
she couldn’t visit her sister as her husband, who loathed
associating with low social backgrounds, did not permit
her. Her husband dissuaded her with the harsh remark:
“No, you will not!” What he said was final and binding.
She could do nothing except bite her tongue in
frustration. Her husband was a middle-class man, but he
looked down upon what was associated with the prestige
of the lower classes.

Poverty is not a vice, it is an inconvenience. No such
social ethics deprive the status of rich people, nor is it a
crime to associate with the lowly people.

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