My Best Friend

We went to school together, we were just schoolmates then. She was two years junior to me, and she used to hold me in high esteem just because I had better academic performance than her. But for me she is the perfect embodiment of a Leader! She celebrated my academic achievement more than her own good performance. I miss the days, when I was teaching her Math, she would be concentrating until her patience ran out and will just say ”oh leave this” and we go for break. The break is a hot water bath in a steel tub, we would hop in together, with a beer by the side, and we would take longer than normal bath. Her employees liked her for she treated them as family and not merely employees, they would just pour hot water as and when she needed. One character she was though!

I didn’t have much joy in getting good results, I didn’t have any motivation then..it was her joy that pushed me to do well, she was more than a best friend!

She is now an educator, and a much better servant for the country than I am. She inspires young souls in a faraway village, she teaches her students not just as “mere students” but as her own children. When we go to Phuntsholing sometimes, all she buys are children’s books, white boards, and all things educational. She brings exam papers for correction home sometimes, and she enjoys correction as she reads out to us what her students wrote. Such innocent souls writing their so called “EXAM” the definition to judge a person to be on top or below in a service rank.

I am a much educated person than her, but when I assess what we have achieved, I hide my face in guilt. There she is who enjoys what she does and goes beyond to do the best, serving her country, the right way. And here I am, sitting and brooding and complaining that my government doesn’t pay me enough for my education! If only there was a means to justify the categorization of achievement in life!

There was this incident, a customer came and he asked “do you have SAKE”, her little sister asked me what it is, as I was telling her sis, she said yes, yes! we have, and she pointed to the bar saying “these are all SAKES”. Customer was offended and raged in fury, we had a big scene. Ofcourse, a very bad way to deal with customers thesedays, but to her, we had our own brands and values to be showing off arrogantly about what we assume we are! I didn’t approve her defense, but there was a wisdom in her argument too that I respected. 

Leaders are at all levels, all we need to do is be One!