Bhutan: Sonam the ninja and Cookie the cook

Sonam (he's 36 years old...always dressed as a Ninja in black, with a big knife and he has this Kung-fu type body) gave me company to the campsite...we talked about Nagarjuna movies (he saw Don #1 in which the villain is a Bhutanese actor)...I was surprised that he saw Telugu movies! He told me several things during our walk...about their health system (many doctors, sent by the government to be educated in other countries), their youth wanting to look like Korean pop stars, about the gross national happiness index, about alcohol is offered even to Buddha (nothing wrong...whatever is available in the world is there for us), sex and phallus and divine madman, about no gays in Bhutan, about his work in Japan (he worked there for 5 years), about his parents and farmland, about the development he saw in the last 30 years under the 4th king, about Internet and its usage, about polygamous relationships, about the benevolent 4th king whom people loved (he keeps giving land away and isn't money-minded) and about how he educated people about democracy. He told me once that he was told that he was a bird in his previous life. I generally found him very knowledgeable.

In that chat with Sonam...some themes kept resonating...that people know what's right (inside) and often major decisions are left for them to take instead of a government or a higher authority intervening. The other theme was that nothing is taboo...there's really nothing to be averse to or have obsessiveness towards...everything is the same...on being neutral...there's a gentleness in approach about everything.

Here are my notes of Sonam and Cookie...