Resumo de Beyond The Sky And The Earth - A Journey Into Bhutan

In Review: BEYOND THE SKY AND THE EARTH - A Journey into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa, Published by Macmillan Publishers Ltd., London, pages 303, Price ¤16.99.
The book have a spellbinding tale of the lady writer Zamie Zeppa who makes a strange decision to leave her academic studies, family, boy friend, a settled cozy life in Canada to join a two-year teaching programme in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Her grand father gives thousand reasons for not going, but inspired by the opportunity to live in a land as remote as Bhutan, she resolutely embarks on the journey. Another obstacle develops as Zamie is told that she would not be teaching at the Degree College as she is too young to be teaching the students same in age to her. Zamie express her willingness to teach at the junior high school level that meant posting in the core interiors of Bhutan, where there would be no electricity, no regular health services and a very poor connectivity to main Bhutan. At last, she lands in Bhutan, after initial orientation at the Capital Thimpu; she is posted at Pema Gatshel, a small village in remotest mountains of Bhutan and is assigned grade II to teach English. Initially Zamie finds it pathetic to live there and remorse on her decision to come to Bhutan, but very soon, she makes herself comfortable and happy. She rejoices with her Grade II students who introduces to many novel facets of Bhutan village life to Zamie. The King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, also visits her school, he personally asks her about her well-being. Gradually she falls into love with the village life of Bhutan and even finds that life back at developed Canada is not as soothing and cheerful as it is in Bhutan. What she calls in one chapter of the book that she finally makes an entrance into Bhutan, explaining this she writes, ?Arrival is all physical and happens all at ones. The train pulls in, the plane touches down, you get out of the taxi with all your luggage. You can arrive at a place never really enter it; you get there, look around, take few pictures, make a few notes, send post cards home. When you travel like this, you think you know where you are, but infact, you have never left home. Entering takes longer. You cross over slowly, in bits and pieces. You begin to despair: will you ever get over? It is like awakening slowly, over a period of weeks. And then one morning, you open your eyes and you are finally here, really and truly here. You are just beginning to know where you are.? The honeymoon period in Pema Gatshel is over as one early morning Zamie is asked to join as English lecturer in the Sherubtse College that is Bhutan?s highest institute of education. The college and Zamie?s accommodation there has all the modern day amenities with academic syllabus being under the Delhi University of India. With a moving heart, she leaves beloved students of Grade II at Pema Gatshel and joins the college. Here her life takes an unprecedented turn, she remains no more interested in writing back home to her boy friend, now onwards she falls in love and complete awe with the mountains, people, Bhutanese simplicity and at last with Tshewang, her student at the college. The way both meet and surreptitiously foster their relationship is an interesting reading. Finally, Zamie gets conceived and gives birth to a baby back at Canada, but then she returns to her beloved Bhutan and marries Tshewang in Thimpu District court. It is enthralling for the reader to look at the story of Ms. Zeppa i.e. a girl would come all the way from her settled life in developed Canada to Bhutan and fall in love with a person there. Jamie lived in Bhutan from 1989 to 1998. Now, she lives in Toronto and sometimes in Bhutan. The book is indeed a happy reading; it nicely narrates the natural phenomenal beauty of Bhutan. It establishes that in terms of economy Bhutan may be not developed nevertheless happiness rules the roost there. In Canada people may ride on one person one car basisand call themselves developed but people in Bhutan who travel on one person two legs basis are developed in themselves as they are self-sustained and self-contained. It is because of this that Bhutan is the only country in the world who measures Gross National Happiness (GNH) and Thimpu is the only capital in the world that does not have traffic lights. It is an issue to ponder that the solace, comfort and happiness that Bhutan can tender perhaps the most developed nations with all their technology and speedy automobiles cannot. The second important aspect of the book is the significance of following ones own dream rather than being guided by others. You never know where your place has been reserved in the world. Listening to your own voice and self-command can only ensure that you would make fullest use of your single human life. To end, apt would be to quote the beginning couplet in the book that reads as, ?You must leave your home and go forth from your country. The children of Buddha all practice this way. ? The thirty- seven Bodhisattva Practices.?

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