Real Game: Khyabtha

After the recitation test that had taken three days with more than 500 monks now (there were only not more than 300 monks when Ngodup first joined the monastery) the debate test was on its fourth day. The senior classes had done their tests (debate test was still carried out inside the prayer-hall but as per the influx of new comers it was to be arranged in two parts to save time and more parts later on). Now Takrig class had just begun. Ngodup, Tashi and Dorjee were seated on the same row just at the end of the front row, as the pending ones had to be gathered forward. They were all nervous. Dadul had prepared something for Ngodup but he found it too simple. He hadn't been able to prepare better one. Tashi was more nervous, as his shiny sweated protruding forehead suggested the struggle within. Dorjee seemed normal. Gelek was seated on the back row. It was him who was more animated. Those beside him egged on him to be more frenzied.

‘Gelek, just think you are a boxer readying for the ring. It’s your turn next. Well, I will massage your back,’ said one beside and began doing so.

Gelek was more animated. He raised his hands up like a fighter readying for the ring when the other pretended to massage his back. His mimicking so was through watching Rocky during a past Gag-ye, recess days after Summer Retreat. Ngodup watched him and found him like out of his mind. But when his named was read out after the ring, Gelek stood up shakily. His bare feet looked tacky as they touched the dark slab floor. The wide mid aisle with rows of faces on either side and the abbot and ex-abbots at the head, he was bewitched dumb but he could begin something. He went straight by plunging his head towards the sitting one at mike rather than saying in the standing mike that now and then gave off shrill sharp sounds. The disciplinarian interrupted by asking him to stand up and say in the mike. He did so when his voices shook. The later 15 minutes duration was like he had gone all stiff and his voice frozen. But after sitting down and getting hold on to a familiar phrase in five minutes he came to real fighter life. His voice raised, animated almost like he had been before he stood up. He began to repeat the same phrase again and again like he had found the secret of debating. It happened just after the one standing, an older one from Tibet with heavy accent of Amdo dialect, repeated the same phrase twice.

‘Dhoe, Dhoe every possibility is reason. You know how clear it’s,’ said Gelek by pressing his mouth near the mike. He was taking the full advantage by not letting the phrase slip away from his mouth as to prove that he had got something to say, that he had learned. He was like in a trance amid rising roar of laughter. But he didn't care; he was lost so. He just kept repeating the same phrase to the complete wonder of the one standing, who was like lost himself, as he wasn’t given time to carry on but to stand and smile. So Gelek could carry on till the bell rang when he got up proudly and walked back in a measured slow gait.

‘Oh, such shame. But he couldn’t feel it. Look at him,’ said Dorjee who was embarrassed instead. 

Then Tashi’s name was called. The one sitting was still lost like he couldn't believe it yet. He was still smiling like being hypnotized. So it saved Tashi who could carry on his memorized piece of debate in low voice. Then it was Ngodup’s turn. He was pleased. He had talked with Tashi to answer slowly if he happened to stand to debate with him. After the initial nervousness marked by not feeling what he was doing that lasted for less than a minute Ngodup debated economically to pass the time. Tashi did as per Ngodup’s wish, but Ngodup found him not knowing certain points. It was like bonus gift for him to recite himself in deliberate slowness. So when the bell rang, what he had been waiting for, it was like completing the test, as what he feared was to stand. They would say answering was easy as one could choose between Dhoe, Chechir and Takmadup, but no such options for questioning when one has to manage everything as per the trend of answering and that by standing among that many.

When Ngodup returned back to his place, he found Gelek was still excited as backed by those beside him. Dorjee had stood up and begun debating. Dorjee had such guts to be able to speak up and stand up among many. He wasn't of the rest type but his poorness was of being more open and thereby being sort of over-confident that overlooked learning in depth but only with something to say with a scintillating touch. But in the risky game of debating one’s weak spots could be revealed so soon and, especially, a grandiloquent narration has to be honed to the ground. Even if he was confident and could debate loudly like he didn't need mike, he had to bear every embarrassment when he missed or said something funny. So Dorjee was the type who had extra shield, that he wasn't the type weakened by embarrassment. He could fight it back rather brazenly and with humor as well. All he cared was to debate loudly and ‘with his head raised.’ Dorjee did so to the wonder of the rest gaping at him. He did so despite some laughter.

When Dorjee returned back, Gelek was calm like he had been subdued. Ngodup was baffled.

‘Oh, Dorjee, you did so well. Only you can do so. I can’t gather such courage,’ said Ngodup.

‘Ngodup, you can do it. It’s up to you. I don’t have any such feeling of embarrassment. If others can do it, why I can’t? I think so. You know one has to work for it to gain advantage,’ said Dorjee while he was still getting settled after the heat of his feat.

Gelek was casting low glances at Dorjee. Dorjee was sated as he fanned himself with the end of his Zhen, the maroon strip of cloth. They were all so pleased as they had made through the most troubling obstacle of the year.