Who are Digital Natives?
What could be the possible reasons of children doing better than their parents do to work on with the digital technology? If you have a child, think of them. Have you ever taught them how to operate mobile phones, tabs, laptops, phablets, and so on? Alternatively, who else is teaching them? The only answer is ‘they are known as digital natives including those born after 1980s. What about those born before 1980? They are known as digital immigrants. It is just like the native speakers and non-native speakers of English.
Techopedia defines “digital natives” as those born after 1980 following the introduction of digital technology. They are said to be surrounded by technology often from their early childhood or otherwise ‘born into it’. Therefore, the natives are more likely to be familiar with the terminology of the digital world, interacting regularly with technology themselves. This idea is being supported from the practical environment, where present day children pick up how to operate television, mobiles, laptops, etc. without the instructions from their parents.
Those born before 1980 are considered as the digital immigrants. These are the people who hate digital technology and said to be less quick to pick up new technologies. They need someone to guide them to operate digital equipment such as mobile phones, television, etc. If they are the teachers, they would use handwritten notes to teach their students and avoid using PowerPoint presentations or any other digital media. Even if they have to use technology, they need to seek assistance from the digital natives.
Popular Belief and Superstitions in Eastern Bhutan1. Meeting or seeing someone carrying empty basket or bags on the way is believed to be a bad omen. The desired objective/targets will not be achieved or it would fail desperately.
2. Seeing monkey on the way when someone goes for a business is considered bad omen and will not be a successful venture.
3. Seeing languor on the way when someone goes for a business is considered good luck and will be a successful venture.
4. If our palm itches, we would get money.
5. If we dreamt a dream of stools, we would get money.
6. If we dreamt a dream of climbing uphill or blazing fires, it is considered good omens and signify success.
7. If we dreamt a dream of going downhill, it is a bad omen and signify failures.
8. Cutting fingernails and hair in the night is considered bad and is believed that our life will be shortening.
9. If we see new moon in first three days of waxing while standing up, it is believed that we will have no happiness for the whole month.
10. If someone encounter indulging sex during the day, it is considered ill luck.
11. Grinding and clenching teeth while sleeping is considered bad. It is believed that if we do our parents will die.
12. Dreaming a dream of landslides, falling trees, washed by rivers and falling teeth out of gum is considered bad omen and it would bring misfortunes and ill luck.
13. Meeting someone milking cow is considered perfectly a good omen and will achieve one’s mission.
14. Dreaming a dream of fish is believed to bring cough and runny nose.
15. If we dreamt a dream of red chilies, we would end up quarreling the next day.
16. If one encounters a deer and faces butt, it is considered lucky but unlucky if faces head first.
17. If we see a cat crossing road while driving, it is considered bad luck.
18. Accidently if stool of birds fall on us, it is considered a bad omen.
19. Leaping cow signifies raining if it is sunny and vice versa.
20. Horses neighing and cow mooing at midnight is a bad omen. It is considered that the owner will encounter misfortunes.
21. Encountering wildcat and black cobra is considered bad omen and it is believed to cause sickness.
22. Dreaming any kinds of meat (pork, beef, etc.) is considered bad omen and signify death to someone in the community.
23. Dogs crying at night are believed to signify death in the direction the dogs are facing. If they are facing one’s home they are quickly chased away.
24. If we dreamt dying of someone, it is believed that the person might have over eaten.
25. Dreaming any kinds of snakes is considered bad omen. It is believed that we are targeted by some wickeder and misfortune may fall on us.
26. If the fish bones struck on your throat while eating, immediately get rhododendron flower and eat. The bones would go away.
Otherwise, while eating fish, be mindful of rhododendron flower. The bones wouldn't get struck on your throat.
Also, if the bones seems to be hard to remove from your throat, get the claws of an otter and scratch on the spot. You would get rid of bones.
What is Thab-sung???
The Sharchop community in Lauri
Gewog, Samdrupjongkhar, has a special tradition of applying a black mark called
"Thab-sung" whenever they leave their homes. Thab-sung literally means
the fire place oven amulet. The grandparents or the eldest person from a family
are responsible to give Thab-sung to the younger ones. They obtain the
Thab-sung mark by using soot from the oven with their fingers. An adults
will be given three finger marks on their chest – one from each of their
pointing, middle, and ring fingers, while children have a single finger mark on
their nose from the pointing finger.
Many people from outside the community
wonder about the mark when they come across someone having Thab-sungsung. This
practice has a connection to and has emerged from the following story as
narrated by my grandpa.
The oral story says that there
was a Lama and his disciple meditating in a cave deep within a forest. One day,
the Lama sent his disciple to the village to collect supplies, instructing him
to return the following day. As soon as the disciple reached home, he prepared
to leave, explaining that they had no provisions even for the evening. Although
his parents urged him to stay the night, he disregarded their request and
departed after the sun had set behind the mountain. After a few hours, he
ventured into the dark night and unexpectedly encountered a beautiful woman.
She inquired, "Where are you going? Where have you come from? Do you have
any company?" The disciple answered her questions, and in their
conversation, he received the "Thab-sung" from this mysterious woman,
who then promptly departed.
The disciple's early arrival at
his destination surprised the Lama. The Lama inquired about the reason for his
quick return, considering he had been permitted to stay home. The disciple gave
a few explanations and, when asked if he had encountered anyone during his
journey, he confessed, "I met a lovely woman in the dark night and
exchanged a few words." The Lama was taken aback and exclaimed, "How
could you encounter a woman in the dark night? While she may have appeared as a
woman to you, in reality, she was a witch. Tonight, she will come here to take
your life. You must leave this place to escape her." The disciple, in a
state of terror and astonishment, had no alternative but to find a new
location.
The Lama granted him a blessing
and provided him with a talisman, explaining that it would shield him from
potential misfortunes. He was directed to head to a cave where a Yogi lived.
Following the Lama's instructions, the disciple proceeded to the cave where a yogi
resided. The Yogi instructed him to hide behind the bed as the night falls.
Before long, they heard the witches approaching with loud cries. The witches
went to the Lama's dwelling and inquired about the boy. The Lama denied the
presence of any other individuals and advised them to disregard the boy.
Subsequently, the witches took a different route and reached the cave where the
Yogi resided.
"Has anyone arrived
here?" questioned the witches.
"Only you are present,"
responded the Yogi.
In response, the witches uttered
rudely "Please refrain from falsehood. We've imprinted three fingerprints
on his chest, and we recognize him. We'll call his name, and if he's here, he
will face peril". They then initiated three consecutive calls:
"Santala, Santala, Santala," which literally means the person having black
mark on the chest. Receiving no response, they assumed they had caused his
demise and departed. Their continuous calls, in fact, shattered the talisman
into pieces, but the disciple remained unharmed. The disciple was taken aback
when he noticed that the talisman given by his Lama had inexplicably broken into
pieces. He inquired of the Yogi what had happened to his talisman. The Yogi
explained, "The evil spirits conjured by the witches have transferred onto
the talisman and the Thab-sung. It has averted all your misfortunes. If there
had been no talisman or Thab-sung on your body, you might have faced the death."
Even today, the community in my
village has not forgotten the recounted incidents, and they continue to provide
Thabsung to those departing from their homes. It is imperative to consistently
obtain Thab-sung from Lama, grandparents, or parents as an identity to signify
that the bearer has someone to protect them, and no other spirits are allowed
to inflict harm.
HYPERTENSION?
Scientifically hypertension is regarded as the silent killer and many people having high HTN does not know that they have it. In fact, research has proven that nearly one-third of people who have high blood pressure don't know it. The only way to know if your blood pressure is high is through regular checkups.
Sangay had been coughing more than a week and accepted it to be the cause of common cough and cold. It kept him barking day and night giving no comforts and slowly progressed into second week. His wife reminded him to get medical advises as it seems very disturbing and disheartening. The next day, Sangay went to the hospital for the checkup and the doctors informed him to have pneumonia. He was sent home with few antibiotics which gave no cure even after a week on medication and the following day he made a visit to Regional Hospital to get checkup by the medical specialists. Waited long in the queue barking uncomfortably to see the specialists and later he was called inside as the turn approached. Inevitably, the doctor placed a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer to check heart beats and blood pressure. He was then directed to conduct blood test, x-ray and ECHO, which took him to different compartments in nervousness. The results were declared in the afternoon and the doctor declared him to have systolic dysfunction, heart failure probably caused by high blood pressure which dreaded to be the end of his living. He was questioned of any parental history, tensions, fears, and so on and so forth. Troubled to answer, there wasn’t any parental history, tensions, etc. and seemingly looks physically active. What was the main cause of his heart failure? It was hypertension, high blood pressure.
Many uneducated and including those having received primary education feels that the term blood pressure means simply ‘more blood’ or increased in volume of blood in their body and no consequences. However, revealing the true story of blood pressure is not what they consider and everyone must get checkup of their blood pressure occasionally to avoid all those uninvited diseases that includes kidney failure, heart failure, diabetes, blindness, etc.
“High blood pressure doesn’t mean that you have more blood, it means more diseases”
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“Many people considers only premature requires medical attention and not for those exceeding the due date”.
The rainy season gave her way to the golden season. The fields were filled with fragrances of the yields and the agriculturalist enjoyed harvesting their crops. Their houses were loaded with rich harvests and every agriculturalist drew dates to celebrate their annual harvest season, Lhasey or Kangsey. The lams and gomchens were busy making their appointment dates, taking turns to organize their rituals. In the mid of the buzzing environment was Lhaden and her husband waiting for their birthing with ambitious predictions. They were suffering from tokophobia as the due date gets nearer and nearer. How long will labour last? How long will the birth take? Will there be no defects? Will the baby be a boy or girl? and so on. They waited for the last day of their ultrasound reports and indeed Lhaden felt no sing of labour on the due day which further made them nervous and took them into post-date pregnancy. Exactly after a week of the post-term by dawn, Lhaden’s labour had begun and after two hours of pain she delivered a daughter. Perfect in figure without any birth defects comforted the couple and celebrated their satisfaction by exchanging a smiles. Lhaden’s husband looked the calendar and declared it was the 30th of the Bhutanese calendar with the morning sun approaching behind their house. Date and time perfectly coincided to name their little daughter “Woedzer”, the rays of the sun. Neighbours, friends, and villagers came for the showering and made their words of wishes to lead a successful life and congratulated the couple for having a beautiful daughter.
Woedzer looked perfectly cute but she refuses to suck mother’s breast milk. The couple began to worry for her refusal and consulted the nearest health worker. The health worker advised them to keep her feeding as the newborn baby usually doesn’t know how to suck for the first few days. Accepting the advice of the health worker, the couple tried their best to feed their little daughter with all possible means although nothing worked for her. Hesitantly, the couple again took their daughter for the checkup and this time the health worker gave a little effort to examine her and confirmed to have fever. The health worker then provided her spoonful of intravenous liquid commonly called as glucose by the people and a quarter of paracetamol tablet. She was just stepping into her second week of life when infused with drugs which further worsened the conditions instead of improving. There were few other people in the centre and everyone heard a continuous hiccup sounding inwardly and the health worker placed her under lights which gave no improvements and referred to one of the District Hospitals. The doctor with few other assistants tried to stabilize the little creature inside the incubator but couldn’t and further worsened the condition. Thereafter, they further referred to Regional Hospital for the treatment and investigation. The medical team then diagnosed as neonatal aspiration of meconium, possible defects of post-date pregnancy. With no hope of recovery, she was put into an incubator and everything turned into darkness in the eyes of the couple when their little daughter inside the incubator went for her permanent sleep.
This is an information to all couples to get medical attention if happens to get into post-date pregnancy/ post-mature births. Many considers only premature requires medical attention and not for those exceeding the due date. In fact, post-date pregnancy seems to be more complicated than premature as post-mature births can carry risks for both the mother and the infant, including fetal malnutrition.
