Tales in Colour and Other Stories by Kunzang Choden

Author:Kunzang Choden
Format: epub

8

The Photographs

“H

ERE, HERE, LET

me see the photograph also,” said Pema Lhamo as she pushed herself through the circle of women and grabbed the glossy photograph out of someone’s hands. All the other women turned to look at her in surprise and some scolded her, “ Pema Lhamo, you shameless woman, you are always like this. You behave like you are the only one who has eyes. We also want to see the picture.”

A group of women were looking at a photograph of a boy from their village who was studying in a foreign country somewhere. He occasionally sent photographs of himself to his mother, Choden. The mother bubbled with pride at her son’s achievements. Nobody else from this village had ever gone beyond Phuntsholing, the town near the Indian border, and her son was in a foreign country far beyond even India. Just imagine! Choden’s son had not failed a class even once throughout his school and went straight on to Sherubtse College, the only college in the country. After he completed college he joined the government service and had done so well for himself that within a few years, the government sent him to study more in some foreign country. Every time Choden received a photograph she carried it around with her in her kira pouch to show it off to the other villagers. She handled the pictures almost reverently. She balanced the photograph between her thumb and her middle finger, trying not to touch them and leave finger prints. She wrapped them in a piece of cloth and then put them into a plastic bag. It exasperated her to see how these villagers handled the precious pictures. Some already showed traces of folds and cracks and there were unmistakable black sooty finger prints on others.

The picture showed the familiar face in a foreign landscape. He was standing in front of a statue of a naked man. He was looking straight into the camera, posing self-consciously, his right foot in fancy side step, his hands at his waist and his face thrust forward in an exaggerated way. He looked a little out of place and uncomfortable. But he was wearing expensive looking clothes. Those clothes must be new and of good quality, even second hand foreign clothes were so coveted in the village.

“How lucky he is and how happy his mother must be for him!” the women gasped in awe.

“Yes, how fortunate they are!” the women spoke in unison.

Choden loved to see the village girls goggling at her son’s pictures longingly. She teased them, “You know my son is still single. One of you should marry him.”

At this remark a chorus of self depreciating voices lamented, “He will never want pathetic and ragged village girls like us.” Yet each girl felt a stirring in her heart. The girls thought that marrying him would give them the chance they wanted to get out of the village. To live in Thimphu and be a civil servant’s wife, where they would never

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