Make me Beautiful!!

It was my first time in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan.  Some other entries simply on the country and the conversation will be following shortly.  I had been in the country only 2 days.  I was home. For years, this country had been on my mind.  But even more when I watched the interview of Bhutan's information and Broadcasting Minister, in 1998, on CNN.  He was a Penn State Graduate.  I was attending the University then.  Till this day, Penn State, at least the town is the only place that I consider home.  I connect with people in India, in many ways, but the surroundings, where I feel calm and could simply breathe is State College, PA, 16801!! 

So, Bhutan was on my heart and mind for years.  

And then I arrived in Paro, Bhutan, and felt the same calm.  The town was so clean that I felt like I was part of the Dilip Kumar hit Suhana Safar..from the movie Madhumati.  I did not want to go anywhere, but I was told that Thimphu Teshu, a Bhutanese festival starts that weekend.  The capital was only an hour's drive away and there were plenty of shared taxis available.  I had met people a day ago, who had promised to help me while in town.  This is the beauty of small countries.  You arrive as a stranger and leave a family behind.  In a matter of a few hours, I was in the capital (the taxi stand in town was about 25 minute walk down the hill).  I called Mr. Chimmy and then waited.  The capital, bustling with energy, at least in comparison to Paro, which is like a small city with contained excitement.  With Thimphu Teshu around there were extra tourists in town.  Both my cameras were hanging around my neck and I tapped at people to stop so I could capture beautiful faces.  International entertainment media and advertising industry that completely ignores people who do not fall into their traditional category.  But I see beauty abound, especially as you leave the developed North America.  Beauty is everywhere, but in North America, people are conscious of it, may be even in big cities in India.  But in Bhutan, people have no idea of how beautiful they are.  They are simple, work hard, get optimum sleep and walk much!! Gentility of their souls reflect on their faces....So, I felt like a maniac looking around for faces to capture.  I saw this woman, obviously a southern Bhutanese (southern Bhutanese will have a nepali flavor to them..their jewelry is slightly different).  I pointed my camera at her and she stood still!! There, Kadhinchi!! (thankyou in Dzongkha!)

I noticed her red glass bangles, a speciality of India.  That is where they were first created. India always has a reason behind doing things.  Even though much is changing in  modern times, the lure of some things never fades.  Glass bangles, have been immortalized in songs and poems, along with 'bindi, the dot that women don, and anklets with bells.  One can find glass bangles jingling on the wrists of women in Pakistan and Bangladesh (both were a part of India until 1947 and 1971 respectively) and Nepal--or wherever they are exported.  But in South asia, they are a perpetual fashion!!  Here is what I found out on the net about the reason for wearing glass bangles.

3.2 Benefits of sound waves created by glass bangles

• Due to the subtle weapons emitted from the sound waves of the bangles, the motor organs of the woman are protected.
• The sattvikta (Sattva predominant) of the woman’s motor organs increases.
• A sheath of waves of Action-Energy (Kriya-Shakti) emitted by the bangles is generated around the woman’s body and she is protected from the negative energies.
• The Divine Energy Principle (Shakti-tattva) is activated in the woman and her body sheaths are purified; similarly, the premises too gets purified.  Click here for more

And then, when I was adjusting my camera, she tapped on my shoulder, I turned around to see that she had let her hair down!! She gestured toward herself--she wanted me to take her picture.  I did, and carried the innocence with which she asked me in my heart.  I could not stop smiling all day, just thinking about this woman, who I may never meet again. I did not ask her name.  She looked like she was a construction worker, and had little education, if any.  But like all women, she just wanted to be seen at her best!!

She did not ask me for the photograph, did not ask me to send it anywhere, she will never see it again, but what simplicity existed in that moment when she tapped me and gestured gently towards herself --so that I may capture her long hair and how feminine she looks with her hair down!!  

This post dedicated to all those nameless woman, who feel feminine but are not allowed to be seen that way, due to life's harshness or just their circumstances, who feel ignored and invisible--ladies--you should know, if a rose has bloomed, and died, it has done its job.  For its fragrance lingers in our hearts, and we expect to be delighted with that smell, with every rose that we smell--only because one rose smelled so good!!