No Refrigerator for a Man From GNH Land

GNH Man

Some thing very funny, rather unexpected and strange happened yesterday. As I said earlier, this year we are seven Bhutanese civil servants here in Gujarat University pursuing our masters in different disciplines. We all live in a Government building occupying three flats. Although, we were denied our minimum necessities for more than a month (in our initial days) after an email or two from my side to the concern people in RCSC, the University finally provided us everything in a matter of one week (except the window curtains, that took them more than a year) That everything included a bed, a table, a chair and a mattress for each individual and a fan in all the rooms plus the running water in our toilet and kitchen. Besides those necessities, each flat is also given a refrigerator and and a toaster too. 

But yesterday, two people, -a male and a female who work in the 'study abroad program office' came to our place and told one of our friend to give the refrigerator which was issued to his room to two Japanese students who have recently joined a University for an exchange program. Initially, those guys wanted us to tell our friend about it but when we declined, they chose to come themselves. It was obvious that they were mistreating our friend. By doing that, they made us, (-the Bhutanese Students) feel less important than those Japanese people. It was a clear case of discrimination! If Freezer is necessity for Japanese then we are no different humans here!

I thought our friend would be enraged by the news. I also thought that he would not consent to such a senseless order from the dean. But to my surprise, our friend displayed all the qualities of a man from GNH land! Without a word, he told them to take the refrigerator and he even came out to help them remove the freezer form his room after calmly removing all his perishable items. By the way, this friend of ours has already been to three different place in span of three years and again the lady told him to shift to the other place strictly on coming Sunday (04/11/2012)

While we were busy moving the freezer, the lady from the office broke these news that saddened us to the core. She complained about our friend for not picking up the calls. She also told us that the dean has in fact ordered them to break the door of our friend and get the freezer from his room. (madam Ne Bola Kye Tala Tor Kye Lee-aww) And this 'tala' thing is not something new here. They have used this tactics to humiliate us in different occasions. One such 'tala'  techniques they uses against us was last July, when we were on our summer break. They locked our room with additional lock and thus prevented us from getting into our room on our return. It's long story though and for now lets not go into detail. (Look at the picture)

This was how we found our door on our return to the University

I immediately told the lady to mind her language. I told her that it is non of her business to tell us everything that are being discussed between her and her boss. I told her to upheld the good images of her boss and not to tarnish her image before us. When my friend told her that he would come to office next day and talk personally to the dean himself, the lady freaked out. She panicked and she went wordless. 

For now I am just waiting for my friend to take up the matter with the dean, so that I could tell her  everything I heard from the loose mouthed subordinate of hers. By the way, we also had one Gujarati guy who went wordless after seeing how our friend was treated by 'study abroad  program office'