Film Review ‘Seven Alone’

 

   The film Seven Alone is an adventure film which is released in United Stated in 1974, produced by Audio Services Company. It is one hour and twenty-nine minutes.  This film is the true account of seven orphans who keep on going for Oregon after their parents, Dewey Martin and Ann Collings both died on the trail. Dewey Martin died from blood poisoning and Anne Collings in childbirth. 

This family film was so down-to-earth about everything that happened to people and their love of the Mid-West and the trip they were willing to take to the North-western part of the country. This film starts with a couple with six children struggling to scratch the surface of the land in Missouri to settle in this part of the country. His main concern was going to the West like most of his neighbours. However, his wife simply did not like the idea at all. Once a decision was made, the story becomes very interesting and tragic; another baby is born, increasing the family to seven. This is a very down-to-earth depiction of how settlers travelled with their families and had great determination and faith in God to lead them to a better way of living in the great land of the United States. 

The Sager’s journey is set against the background of the adventures of some other real pioneers and frontier characters such as Kit Carson and missionaries Dr Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa Whitman. After the action of Seven AloneMarcus and Narcissa Whitman were later murdered and their mission destroyed in the Oregon territory. As for Kit Carson, his very real exploits needed no embellishing from dime novel writers. Dean Smith plays him in this film and both the Whitman and Carson stories have never really been adequately told in the film. 

The film Seven Alone is not a Hollywood blockbuster, but it is based on the lives of a group of people who go from the Midwest to the west coast in 1842 and 1843 and experience the hardships that came with it. The emphasis was on the Sager family and their children, who were left to stand for themselves after their parents died on the journey. There are no Oscar-winning performances or even anything particularly engaging in terms of acting ability. There are no special effects, as there are today, but it is a simple film that didn't need them. One of the positive aspects of this picture is the absence of any spectacular love scenes. Instead, imagine what it would have been like to go across the nation at a speed slightly quicker than a stroll, rain or shine, with limited shelter, and contending with illness and Indian attacks. This doesn't give a very politically correct view of the native American Indian. But then again, Indians and white men had not even begun to learn to live together in 1843. This film depicts violent behaviour and condescending discourse directed at Indians, but I'm sure the genuine dialogue and behaviour were just as horrible, if not worse, back then. 

Parents should watch this film with their children Therefore, I recommend a simple and entertaining film based on a real family's struggle to stay together. It can also be viewed as a teaching tool to build determination, passion and resilience to face hardship. 

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Life is a Boomerang

 

The Hindi film titled 'Jai Ho' ended at 5:00 pm. Some eyes filled with tears while others felt their hearts elevated by the heroic actions of well-known actor Salman Khan in the movie theatre in Samdrup Jongkhar. Mr Dendup, a gentleman with short curly hair and dark eyes, was truly inspired by the dialogue stated. "Thank you, maat kahiye, instead "teen logukay madat Kijay". Mr Dendup could still remember the captivating phrases while driving a taxi as he headed home with his passengers in the evening. He saw a stooping grandma with a walking stick and limping with a rosary in her hand. He suddenly stopped the vehicle, struck by the events of the film, and asked, 

"Abe, where are you going? Get in, please!"

"Thank you, my son. I am going to Dewathang. " 

She thanked him genuinely, with a stammering voice. They conversed casually. After a while, she fell asleep. The jerking of the car suddenly woke her up. 

"Could you tell me where we have reached now?"

"There's nearly a kilometre left to reach your destination." 

They arrived at her destination A few minutes later, and he woke her up. Abe stepped out of the car. She took out her torn black wallet and paid her fare. Mr Dendup said, "I don't want fare; instead, you help three other people." The old Abe was thrilled and said, "Thank you very much," with eyes full of tears. He started his journey and thought of the film and felt inspired. He narrated the story to the passengers in his car. They arrived at their destination, and he charged only Nu. 100 per head. They all dispersed. 

The next day, Mr Dendup decided to help another person. With determination, he announced, "Trashigang one... Trashigang one..." in the taxi parking at Samdrup Jongkhar. No sooner did he announce it than he got the passenger and started towards Trashigang. When he reached Morong, he saw a beautiful girl in blue tego with red wonju, clad in thin mathra Kera, carrying a beautiful yellow patterned Jola sitting beside the road and trembling. Mr Dendup felt pity for her and stopped the car. He asked, "What's wrong with you? May I help you?"

She was worried and thought, "No one had stopped to help for the last hour. Is this ata going to hurt me? He doesn't look safe; he looks hungry." He could see that she was frightened. He knew how she felt. He said, "I'm here to help you, Ausa. Why don't you get into the car? It's warm. By the way, my name is Dendup from Trishigang. He asked the same question again, "What's wrong with you? Where are you going? "The girl felt a little comfortable answering his questions and replied, "I have been waiting here for a hitchhike since this morning. I am going to Mongar Hospital for treatment, but I did not get a hitchhike. Ata, I am Lhamo from O- O- rong.” He felt sympathetic and adjusted her in his car. She felt delighted and said, "Kadrinchhe la ata", with folded hands, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks as she got into the car. After a few kilometres, a tyre punctured, and all the passengers in the vehicle were frightened. Mr Dendup crawled under the car, looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon, he was able to change the tyre.  He got dirty, and his hands hurt. She rolled down the window and began talking to him as he tightened up the lug nuts. 

Mr Dendup smiled as he closed the trunk. The journey continued, and Mr Dendup was bit worried about carrying an extra passenger. However, he decided in his mind to pay a fine if he was caught. Suddenly, he saw the traffic police checking, and he was hooked. He explained the situation and was not fined. Mr Dendup thought, "I am not fined; it's due to my good intention. Thank God!"

They reached Trashigang, and the girl asked how much she owed him. She decided to pay according to the demand of the taxi driver. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Mr Dendup never thought about being paid. He was helping someone in need. He told her that if she wanted to pay him back whenever she saw someone who needed help. She was asked to give that person the assistance they needed. The girl said "Thank you ata" and halted in the restaurant for a night. 

The next day, she travelled in a Bolero Taxi towards Mongar and stopped at Rolong for breakfast. A mile down the road, Lhamo saw a small cafe. She went in to eat before making her trip. It was a dingy-looking restaurant. The whole scene was strange to her. The waitress brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She always smiled. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but never let the stress and aches change her attitude. Lhamo wondered, but then she remembered Mr Dendup’s words. 

After the girl finished her meal, she paid Ngultrum one thousand. The waitress quickly went to get the change for her thousand notes, but the girl left. The waitress wondered where the girl could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin on the table.

She read, "You don't owe me anything. Somebody once helped me out the way I'm helping you. If you want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you." With tears in her eyes. Under the napkin were three more ten hundred notes. She was thrilled but had no one to acknowledge her. 

The waitress remains …

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 ཟླ་བ་༨་པ་༩་པ་ ཏོན་ངངམ་ཤར་བེ་རེན་པ། ཕེ་མུང་གུན་ཙུན་ཡ་ཕེ་ དུས་ཚོད་རེན་པ་གི་ལ། བེར་ཐོག་ཏོན་ཐོག་དག་ནི་ བྲུ་ནཱ་༩་ག་ཏེན་ཅ། ངངམ་ལ་སོ་ཕུ་སོ་ཕུ་ རི་དི་སར་སར་སིར་སིར། ཇ་ཚ་ཉིག་ཙིང་ཆམ་ཀ་ ཕིད་པུ་སིར་སིར་ཕི་ནི། ཙུག་ཆང་ཤོང་ཆང་དག་ནི་ ལྟོ་ཆང་སོབ་ཆང་ཇམ་ནི། ཨེ་ཏེན་དུག་ཁ་ལུམ་པ་ སྤྲོ་ཝ་ཤོ་ལས་ལུགས་གསལ། ཆོ་ནེ་ཆོ་ཝ་དུག་མངལ་ མ་ནེ་མ་ཀ་དུག་ངལ། དཀོ་མཆོག་གསུམ་ག་ཐུགས་སྨོན་ ཕ་མ་སྤུན་ཆའི་སྨོན་ལམ། སེམས་ཀ་ཏ་བུདྲེན་ནི་ སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་ནི་ཆོན་ཅ།། Author: Mr Chophel (AMC, Engineer) 

My brother Chophel, has written this beautiful song in local dialect in the family WeChat group on 26th August 2022. This is a message and reminds the farmers and their nature of the work of sawing winter crops. It also reminiscences the cultural values struggling to survive in the tiny village, Lungzor, under Trashigang Dzongkhag, Lumang gewog, and Wamrong Drungkhag.

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Mentoring Reflection, Autumn Semester, 2022

My Reflection on the Mentoring Program (August 10, 2022)

    The mentoring program for the semester started on August 10^th, 2022. The group gathered with our mentor in the general IT lab at 1.40 pm.

    The session started with the introduction of old and new members. As of now, we have 8 members mentored by Mr. Chenga Dorji. During the introduction, I found out that we have a heterogeneous team. We have pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and social workers. I am delighted to see that our mentor possessed a wide range of characteristics, and his seasoned experience will ensure the smooth flow of the mentoring program this semester. Besides all those, I am sure the professional development workshop on Bhutan Baccalaureate must have further strengthened the already existing knowledge of the mentoring program.

    After the brief introduction, the mentor explained to us the importance of introducing the mentoring program at Samtse College of Education. The mentoring program was a part of the Bhutan Baccalaureate introduced under the Royal Vision at Pangbisa Royal Academic School. With the paradigm shift in the education system in the country, the educational institutions must change too. So, with this motive, the mentoring program was introduced at the college.

    Furthermore, the mentor instructed the mentees to develop our roadmap with new members and revisit the roadmap with old members. Our mentor did mention the way of writing our roadmap and how to keep track of it. I felt that the members and mentor were bonded by a sense of family ties. I, as a co-mentor, commit to doing my best to play my role in whatever way I can to keep the program alive and assist my mentor as much as I can.

    Finally, I felt I learned more. While working together in a team, I wish to benefit each other in whatever way it may be. I wish to gain more wisdom from the mentoring program so that I may become a capable mentor after the completion of my M.Ed program.

Kelzang

Med II(English)

                                                                                                                           

Co-Mentor    

 

My Reflection on the Mentoring Program (17^th August 2022)

    It was the second mentoring program of the semester. The mentor instructed the co-mentor to lead the session at the last hour through a telegram. I was shocked and panicked as I could not plan any activities for the program. However, most of the mentees had to leave the hospital to receive the 4^th dose of COVID-19 as it is announced the last day. Only M.Ed. mentees were left behind, and we refined our own roadmap.

    At the end of the session, we talked about suggesting our mentor that we share some ideas and knowledge about how to use ICT tools in teaching, like slido, padlet, Jamboard, etc.

31^th August 2022

 

    August 31st was our third mentoring session for this autumn semester. The mentor asked the new mentees to create their own blogging account to share our reflections, roadmap, and another creative write-up in blogging. Our mentor also shared the advantages of having our own blog. So, we were engaged in creating our own blogging account.

    However, I have my own blogging account and have already uploaded a few documents, such as reflections, roadmaps, and other articles. Sadly, due to the shutdown of power, many of the mentees could not use computers to create blogging accounts. Nevertheless, mentees have managed to create their own blogging accounts using their cell phones.

    The session adjourned, reminding the mentees about the next session's activity, on discussions  of our own reflections.

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Kelzang's Roadmap, Autumn 2022

  

Mr Kelzang, Roadmap for Autumn Semester 2022

Goal	Areas of Development	Action Plan	Skills/ Processes/ Watermarks	Indicator of successes	Timeline
To keep subject knowledge up to date and improve communication skills	Cerebral	Read journals for my dissertation write-up every day.   Attain BBE class to upscale my teaching skills. Attain a workshop on AR. Attend webinars and workshops organised in the college	Skills: Reading comprehension, academic writing and Blogging Processes: Exploring different genres  Watermarks: Confident in research	Apply writing, reading and communication skills. Produce  Dissertation paper ICT techniques will be applied in teaching Attended introduction to AR and SPSS on 15th and 16th Attended workshop on Coding 19th Aug. Attended a workshop on the intro. of Leximancer: qualitative data analysis app on 15th Sep.  Attended webinar on "Technology and Lifelong Learning" on 16th Sep.	August -November 2022
To improve spiritual, emotional & physical wellness	Spiritual Emotional   Physical  Social	I will attain evening prayers every Friday.  I Will practice meditation for 5 minutes every day. Eat the right diet and play games such as football, volleyball and archery to keep physically fit.	Skills: taming mind, socialising and keeping physically fit.  Processes: Playing games, attain prayers and meditations. Watermarks: Awareness, humble, sociable and  Mindfulness.	Apply the skills learned such as the posture of meditation, rules and procedures of playing games. Played archery once with my colleagues on the 13th to upskill socialization and keep physically fit.	August - November 2022

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Mr Kelzang, Roadmap for Spring Semester 2022

Goal	Areas of Development	Action Plan	Skills/ Processes/ Watermarks	Indicator of successes	Timeline
To keep subject knowledge up to date	Cerebral	Reading books for 30 minutes every day.	Skills: Reading comprehension Processes: Exploring different genres  Watermarks: Confident	Apply writing, reading and communication skills	April -June 2022
To develop communication skills	Cerebral	Read the required text beside library Watch English movies and listen to English songs Listen to Ted talks	Skills: Fluency & Vocabulary  Processes: Read aloud/silent reading Watermarks: Competent	Reading log book maintained	April-June 2022
To develop a writing habit	Cerebral	Learn different forms of writing (Memoir, travel log, stories, poems) Learn how to create blogging	Skills: Academic writing & Blogging Processes: Research, Writing & Blogging Watermarks: Competent	Few articles would be uploaded in blogging	April- June 2022
To improve spiritual, emotional & physical wellness	Spiritual Emotional Physical	I will join yoga club, attained evening prayers on every Tuesday.  Eat right diet and play games such as football and volley ball to keep physically fit.	Skills: Yoga skills Processes: Yoga Exercise and reading Watermarks: Awareness and  Mindfulness	Attend yoga every Friday from 6:00 am to 7:00 am	April-June,2022
To engage in community services	Social	Interact with friends and share some ideas I will be in Bhutanese attire in long journey to create aware in the community and to let realize the importance of Bhutanese culture.	Skills: Communication and socialization Processes: Interaction and mindfulness  Watermarks: Appreciation		April-June,2022

 

 

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Travel Writing, by Kelzang

Wishing to Explore Wish-Granting Lake in Khaling (Dangling Tsho)

Khaling lies on the lateral highway of Trashigang-Sumbdrup Jongkhar.  It is 54 km drive towards the south from Trashigang and it lies at an altitude of about 2300 m. The Gewog enjoys a temperate climate with warm summer and cold winter.  

 

Dangling Tsho is located north of Khaling. It takes 8-9 hours hike from Khaling town. Every Autumn, hundreds of people seek blessings from Dangling Tsho. They believe that the deity would grant them healthy livestock and a bountiful harvest. 

Legend says that Meme Dangling came with Brokpas of Merak and Sakteng from Tsonag in Tibet under the spiritual guidance of Am Jomo (a female guardian deity) of Merak and Sekten. It is being said that Meme Dangling is a brother of Abi Jomo.

In October 2001, I planned a day hike and asked my friends to refrain from eating meat, onion, and garlic two days before hiking. Orange juice and sweets helped to gear up for the walk at a high altitude. We started our journey at 4:30 am. As we climb up a very steep path through the beautiful meadows, scaringly though, we had an individual torchlight. We all wore gumboots as the track was not so good. We climbed half the way by then it opened a day-light. We rested in a beautiful place, had some juice, and sweets to prevent altitude sickness. We continued our journey and passed through the thick fir forest and trimmed tall trees. I briefed the dos and don’ts at the site because I have listened to some stories from my grandma. 

When it was about to reach Dangling Tsho, we come across a small stream called (Thri-chu). It is fixed with a log bowl to collect the Thri-chu, and Brokpas drink water from it. It is located just below the footpath. It is said that visitors must wash hands, face, and nendar to resin once impurity (Drip). We did it as instructed by my grandma. 

A few minutes’ walk from the Thri-chu site, we turned left and walked down for about three minutes to reach the Dangling Tsho. The lake is so beautiful, calm, and very clean.  We made a fire and some friends collected the leaves of the juniper tree. We fumigated and lit the incense. We prostrated three times, prayed and sought Meme Dangling that no ill luck must befall upon our team. We made three circumambulations, offering Nendar. A few minutes later, we saw shining stars emerge from the lake like popcorns. We were thrilled as we enjoyed seeing the miraculous from the wish-granting lake. We had lunch and met few Brokpas and exchanged dialogues where my friends made fun since the tone of our dialect was peculiar. We all reached back to our stations safely at 3:30 pm.

If you wish to visit Dangling Tsho, you will have to halt a night at Khaling town, and you will get logging facilities. I suggest starting your journey early morning at 5:30 am to come back before the sunset. It is always wise to take pack lunch, enough water, sweets, and some other drinks and incense sticks, a matchbox, knife, and coins for Nendar. You will have to wear hiking boots as the path is very rough and muddy. You must start your journey towards the north of the town, passing through a mini-hydropower plant and have to climb the very steep slope. The path passes through beautiful meadows surrounded by beautiful trimmed tall and big trees, bamboos, and fragrant rhododendrons. 

The best time for hiking is from October to November as the climate becomes suitable for the hikers. These months are ideal because the path is not bushy as the Brokpas migrate south from Merak and Sagten with the herd of cattle and sheep. You will also enjoy viewing the beautiful hurts and animals and conversing with Brokpas on the way. If you have leech phobia, I suggest taking some quantity of salt and pepper to prevent sticking to you. However, there will be few leeches in the Autumn but do not worry. 

Remember that people visiting the lake are forbidden to take meat, fish, onions, and garlic. Should they do that, they invite calamity of windstorms and unprecedented rain, which destroy crops at Khaling and adjoining areas and bring ill-luck to the people of Khaling.

 

 

Kelzang

                                                                                          

 

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