About a year ago, I used to tutor two students from the weekend class at ILBC. Their house is located at Shan Road (Baho Road) and my teaching hours were from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. I often take two or three buses to go to their house in the evenings but I can only take the 167 Hilux bus to get home at night. I don’t like taking 167 buses because they drive very fast but I didn’t have any other choices.

One day, I got on the 167 bus and chose to sit one seat away from the back window of the bus because I didn’t want to sit too close to the natural gas tanks placed between the seats and the back window. But, a poor-looking woman decided to sit beside the gas tank on the opposite side of the bus while holding a small baby in her laps.

After a minute, the bus took off and was going fast as usual. Suddenly, the driver hit the brake at the traffic light. I don’t exactly remember what happened to me at that time but I think I had some minor scratches.

I was silently cursing the driver when I noticed the mother and the baby sitting next to me. I found out that the baby hit his/her head on the gas tanks when the driver stepped on the brake. I look at the baby and he/she wasn’t just staring space-less without even crying.  The mother kept rubbing the baby’s chest, probably to lessen his/her shock. She also looked like she was about to cry.

I also felt like crying as well. I really wished that I had sat next to her on the bus to prevent the baby from getting hurt.

I don’t remember their faces anymore but sometimes I think of them when I’m taking Hilux buses.

Reblogged from Speaking Out Loud:

U Khin Maung Cho gave a guest talk at British Council's library about global warming and climate change on July 2 from 5pm to 7pm. Although I already have some basic knowledge about the topic, I still went there to listen. He talked about the causes of the greenhouse effect and what we can do to prevent it. Most of the do and don't shown in the PowerPoint were targeted for European countries, but we can also abide to those suggestions.

Read more… 808 more words

A long time ago, we used to be friends
But I haven’t thought of you lately at all
If ever again, a greeting I send to you,
Short and sweet to the soul is all I intend.

The lyric makes me think about friends I haven’t keep in touch with for quite a while now. I usually associate my friends into three categories, online friends, normal friends and online friends who I consider as real friends. What I mean by ‘real friends’ is friends I met outside, from work, school, etc. While I often meet with ‘online friends who I consider as real friends’ once or twice a month, it’s been quite awhile since I met with any of my normal friends.

Next week, I might be meeting with my former classmates from Diploma in English class for our annual reunion. What’s ironic is that most of the classmates who will come to the reunion are those I wasn’t quite close with in the class, but those I was close to will not come to meeting.

Compared to this diploma class, I’m more close to my classmates from MA class. It’s so difficult to meet with them after our university days are over. Maybe I will organize some kind of reunion for us. I just hope most of them will come. Whenever I organize something with me in the past, most of them rarely come.

On the first day, I arrived at the Inya Lake Hotel before 10 am. The first thing I noticed as I got off from the taxi was a group of people circling around something. I got closer and found that Monument bookstore was selling some English books for 1,000 kyats each. Most of them are used books but are still in pretty good conditions so it was really worth buying. I wanted to pick some books myself but I only brought 10,000 kyats with me and I didn’t know how much I might need to spend for lunch.

Bookworms scrambling to get good books

Monument was also selling other books especially by the authors who are coming to the literary festival. The sales girl explained that the customers can buy these books and ask the authors to sign them. When I saw Sayar Thant Myint U’s “River of Lost Footstep” book, I regretted not bring my own copy. It was being sold for 14,000 kyats, which is not so bad because the last time I asked for the price of that book at Myanmar Book Center, it was around 16,000 kyats. I thought it was too expensive and my online friend gave the book to me as a gift when she visited Myanmar in December.

River of Lost Footsteps being sold at Monument

The opening ceremony was held at the Sunset Terrace and the first session started at 10:30 pm. I wasn’t interested in the first session so I just look around the place. I immediately saw Myanmar Book Center’s stall and went over to check it out. The bookshop was giving another book buffet where customers can buy paper bags worth 10,000 kyats or 20,000 kyats and pick as many books as they want as long as they fit in the paper bags. Again, I regretted not bringing more money to spend.

Book Buffet at Myanmar Book Center

At another stall, I saw some metal figures of General Aung San, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Thein Sein. A woman who was in charge of the shop said those figures are sold for $25 each while other smaller ones are $10. According to her, these metal figures can only be bought at the gift shop at the Inya Lake Hotel. I would love to collect these figures but the prices were a bit expensive for me.

Metal figures of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, General Aung San and President U Thein Sein

The second session started at 11:30 am and I attended the discussion about “Translation and Adaptation”. This discussion was conducted in Myanmar language by Myanmar authors who are from the field of translation. At first, I must admit that I was bored to death listening to the presentations because they were quoting famous translators from the Sar Pay Beik Man book, which contains term papers the author submitted for the translator seminar in 1967. No offense to the presenters, but I have practically memorized most of the words written in some of the term papers while doing a thesis on translation last year. I only became interested in the topic during the questions and answers session because the audience started discussing about the use of ‘thu ma’ (she) in Myanmar writing.

In the Myanmar language, we don’t really use ‘she’, ‘her’, or ‘hers’ as pronouns. We only have non-descriptive pronoun ‘thu’ to describe both male and female. However, there has been frequent use of ‘thu ma’ in the media and translated novels, short stories, etc. So, conservatives of the Myanmar language, particularly the older generation, disliked it a lot. They often quote how famous author Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay never mentioned the word ‘thu ma’ in her novel although it was titled “Thu Ma”. It was an interesting topic and I would have liked to hear more, but when I heard sounds of people clapping next door, I suddenly became aware that I was late for the next session.

For the next session, I went to listen to a very interesting topic by Sudha Shah and Sayar Thant Myint U. It was about King Thibaw, the last king of Myanmar who was exiled to Ratnagiri, India. The room was quite packed and I noticed that there were more foreigners in the room than local people. There weren’t any seat left but most of the people were still standing in the room and listening to the presentation. I stood still the whole time and recorded the presentations so I couldn’t take any photos.

Sudha Shah said she spent 7 years researching about King Thibaw and his family after he arrived at the royal residence in Ratnagiri. She said she was inspired by Amitah Gosh’s “The Glass Palace” to do this book and she was surprised that nobody has done a research about the king. She explained about her book using the slideshows and I felt sad that some of the items shown in the photo slideshows were in the possession of foreign museum although they had originally belonged to the royal family.

Sayar Thant Myint U with the only surviving granddaughter of King Thibaw (Photo: Sayar Thant Myint U’s Twitter)

There’s more to write about this subject but I don’t want to bore my readers with long and winding passages. Perhaps I’ll write more about this subject after I get the chance to read this book. I tried to find it at the bookstores at the festival, but it’s not available. Sudha Shah said famous author Sayar Nay Win Myint will translate this book in Myanmar so it’s good news for the Myanmar readers. This author has also translated “The Glass Palace” a few years ago.

Sayar Thant Myint U and Caroline Courtauld from “The Future of Our Heritage Building” discussion

I also attended “The Future of Our Heritage Building”, “Blogging and Literature”, and half of “Writing under Censorship and the Future of Free Speech” in the afternoon. I won’t go into details about them because my post is already long enough. However, I do want to say that the session about blogging made me do some self-reflection about what I’ve been writing on my blogs since 2005/2006. I realize that I’m still nothing after all these years and people won’t ever describe my blog as a blog worth reading. Nowadays, I’m a little ashamed to call myself a blogger because I rarely write often.

I’ll write more about my experiences on the second day and the third day later when I have time.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

By the time Thai rock band Slot Machine appeared on stage, I was feeling extremely tired. I had been standing since 1:45 pm and I hadn’t got the chance to sit down at all. So, I wasn’t really pleased to wait again for Jason Mraz to appear. But when the band started playing the music, I felt some kind of vibration and the powerful music hit us all. The crowd went crazy for the band although they were singing mostly in Thai. The lead singer surprised me when he started shouting 1,2,3,4 in the Myanmar language. He must have memorized it. Most of the other foreigners only said “Mingalarbar” or “Kyay Zuu Tin Par Tae”, but he introduced his band by saying “We are Slot Machine from Yoedayar”, Yoedayar is an informal name for Thailand in Myanmar language.

I’m not a big fan of rock music so I was not really in a good mood to enjoy the music. I finally sat down for awhile to rest my legs and put myself in a better mood. I noticed that the guys standing near me kept complaining about how tired they are and they kept sitting down in turns. Maybe women can stand long hours more than them because the guys don’t go shopping like us. When we go shopping, we can go from shops to shops for hours without resting

Jason Mraz finally appeared on stage around 9:20pm and he and his band performed non-stop for an hour. Among the songs he sang, I only recognize a couple of the songs from his third album and his latest single. I still haven’t listened to his latest album so I only knew “Make It Mine”, “I’m Yours”, “Lucky”, “Only Human”, and “I Won’t Give Up”.

A couple of hours earlier, PPL said it will be nice if he sing “Lucky” at the concert. I told her that since it’s a duet song, he probably won’t sing it. Or he might have to sing it with PPKT. We all laughed at my joke, but to my horror he really did sing “Couple with PPKT. OMG! It was totally imaginable. Their voices didn’t match each other. PPKT sang half of the lyrics in English and half of them in Myanmar while Jason sang as he usually did. I wish he had sang the song with Chan Chan instead

The only good thing about her appearance was that people started leaving around the time so I can finally see the stage without standing on my tiptoes. It was also easier for me to watch the projector screens.

After each songs, the band still kept playing music while Jason talked to the audience about human trafficking and slavery. The same messages have been repeatedly said over and over again by the presenters, the local artists, and special guests, who asked us to respond to them and make us chant words, but when Jason talked to us, we responded not out of obligation but because we really wanted to. He surely knew how to move people.

When he sang “I’m Yours”, the whole crowd responded to that song. I realized that I have listened to this song for multiple times, but I didn’t really remember all the lyrics. It’s a shame that I could only sing along to 75 percent of the song. Jason asked us to wave hands while we were singing so I tried to wave my hands but it got tiring after a few seconds.

The concert finally ended at 10:30 pm. I was pretty exhausted for standing for nearly 8 hours straight. I was thinking of taking a taxi home with Ma Latt, but we met with Snow, who offered to drive us all home. While we were walking to where her car was parked, I noticed so many trash on the ground. Most of them were the Coca-Cola plastic cups and water cups. It is nice that they offered us free drinks but I wish they also have provided us some trashcans. Even if there were trashcans, I know people would still throw the litters on the ground, but at least some will be motivated to throw the trash directly in the cans.

On the way to the car, I checked my phone and saw a SMS from my sister. She told me that she was going home by bus. It was pretty late and I will be in trouble if both of us don’t arrive at home at the same time. I called her several times because the reception was really bad. We got no reception while we were inside the park so none of us can use the internet while we were inside. Maybe the crew were afraid that someone will upload a live coverage of the concert using the internet. It’s not like the internet connection is going to be that good anyway. We can barely browse Facebook much less view YouTube.

Anyway, I finally got in touch with my sister and we were able to go home together. We arrived at home after 11 pm. My sister had already ate dinner so I had my dinner and took some painkillers before going to bed.

Note: I apologize if you think this is a very long winded post. I really wanted to record everything I remember. Even then, there are some things I didn’t mention because it wasn’t about me but about the crews and photographers.

Photo credit: MTV EXIT

The concert started at 6 pm but not before the presenters, San Htut and Aye Myat Thu, annoyed us with small talks about human trafficking. I know the concert was aimed at raising awareness for human trafficking, but we were tired of waiting. Beside, AMT’s voice was quite annoying. I like her as a model, but I cringe whenever she spoke. Why can’t they find a better presenter?

Chan Chan first sang a Buddhist song she once sang on Fashion Music Festival TV program a couple of years ago. It was a nice performance to watch the Rakhine traditional dance with candle lights. For her second song, she chose to cover Shania Twain’s “You’re the Still the One”. When I first heard the music, I thought she was going to sing the Myanmar cover/copy version but instead she sang in English. Thank god. Chan Chan is a great singer but most of her songs are western or Chinese cover songs. I hope she will start singing original songs from now on.

Sai Sai came on next and performed two songs: “We are only Friends” and “We are Bachelors”. Again, Sai Sai avoided singing his popular hits because they contain samplings from western hip-hop songs. He really got the crowd going and made us all excited. Beside Jason Mraz, I have been wanting to see Sai Sai as well. I am not really that interested in other singers.

Chit Thu Wai sang two songs written by Linn Linn and then Linn Linn himself came on stage. Unfortunately, he only sang one song. The crew from the MTV EXIT standing behind us was talking to another person about how amazing he was. Even though it was just one song, he gave a powerful performance.

The rest of the local performers were Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein (PPKT), Phyo Gyi, and R Zarni. By the time these singers appear, I could only listen to them but couldn’t see them on the projector screens. As I wasn’t really interested, I didn’t bother to look at the screen after PPKT’s first performance. I only looked because I was curious about what kind of clothes she was going on. She was at first wearing a black wrapping covering her whole body, but she later removed it to show her white outfit, her usual trademark to match her name. FYI, Phyu means white in Myanmar.

PPKT’s latest album contains only original songs so she has no trouble picking non-cover songs for the concert. After singing two songs, she said there must be 50,000 people here right now, but her latest album only sold 5,000 copies. I understand what artists feel about people buying pirate copies instead of original songs, but I felt offended by what she said. It’s like she accused the audience of buying pirate copies or downloading from the internet. I do admit that I never really liked her from the start because of her personality. I have her albums in mp3 format but I’ve never really listened to them. Most of the times, I buy original albums if I really like the singers, but for those I don’t like, I don’t even bother to listen to them.

I also didn’t like Phyo Gyi’s performance. I didn’t know any of his songs. It’s hard to believe that I used to be his fan when he first started featuring in Sai Sai’s album.

R Zarni was the last local performer. I worried about him because he doesn’t have much original songs. He sang three songs at the concert and none of them were his own. The first one was an old song by Soe Paing. The second was originally sang by Soe Lwin Lwin and the last song was originally sang by Lay Phyu. But still, the crowd were crazy for him. I also had a great time singing to the “Classic Beauty”, which made him become extremely popular after the Soe Lwin Lwin commemoration live show was released. Before he sang this song, he said he’ll be singing a classic original song so I started wondering which classic song he was going to copy. A while ago, an online friend posted on his a wall a list of classic songs the Myanmar artists should sing at this concert not to embarrass themselves in front of the foreigners. I was wondering whether he was going to see songs like “Naga Ni” (Red Dragon), but instead he sang “Classic Beauty” lolz

Before each singer appeared, the annoying presenters kept appearing on stage and talking to the audience while we just wanted them to get off the stage. I don’t know remember exactly in order, but the Australian Ambassador and US Ambassador Derek Mitchell came on stage at separate time to talk to the audience about human trafficking. Sayar Atta Kyaw acted as an interpreter for the US Ambassador in case there are those who couldn’t understand English.

Some of the singers also kept asking “How are you all?” and we all replied “Not so good” because it was pretty crowded. Some guys even shouted “I’m hungry” or “I’m thirsty”. The Coca-Cola booth is too far away from us and it will be quite difficult to push through the crowd to get to the nearby exist. Thank god I didn’t feel the need to pee. In fact, I wasn’t even starving at all. I felt thirsty from time to time but I tried not to drink too much water.

credit photos: MTV EXIT

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I have been looking forward to MTV EXIT’s live concert in Myanmar ever since I read that Jason Mraz is going to perform in Myanmar. It seems like a dream for us to be given a chance see an international famous artist in Myanmar. Not only the concert is free, it is also the first time for an open-air concert have been held at People’s Square, with the Shwedagon Pagoda as the backdrop.

A day before the concert, Ma Red bought Jason Mraz t-shirts for me and my sister. We were both happy to wear them to the concert to show our support for our favorite singer. My sister left home earlier as she has to attend a meeting. She said she will be late for the concert but will try to watch it as much as she can.

Tommy told me that the actual concert will only start around 5:30 pm but Ma Red said we need to get there early to line up in front of the entrance gate in order to be near the stage. I was about to leave home when Ma Red called me. I started worrying about not arriving in time so I took a taxi. I arrived in front of Happy World at 1:45 pm. I asked my friends from Native Myanmar forum to meet in front of Happy World because I only know that place, not that I’ve ever been in there. I figured that we might be able to go in through that gate or something. But, I was the only one eager for the concert as I had to wait quite a while for my friends to appear.

The first to arrive were Ma Latt and Ma Apex who were waiting at the other gate near Happy World. We walked back and forth between the two gates before deciding to find the entrance gate. It seems that there are many ways to get into the People’s Square, but the security guards told us to walk until we see the real gate to the concert. On the way, we called PPL and Ma Red who were walking the whole block to reach Happy World when their taxi actually got stuck in traffic on Pyay Road. I feel really bad for them because of my mistake.

We finally reach the entrance gate and let out a sigh when we see the long line of people who were not standing straight in line. It makes us feel worse when Ma Latt said there weren’t any lines when she and Ma Apex passed in front of it 30 minutes ago. Anyway, we have no choice but to line up under the hot sun. It was probably around 2:30 pm when we started to line up.

I noticed that none of us have any water bottles. My friends told me that they can probably buy them inside, but I only saw some staffs from Coca-Cola under a tent. Remembering the reminder from MTV EXIT Facebook page, I set out to buy water bottles. I found a former classmate from my MA class lining up and she came with me as I walked to the gate near the amusement park (located inside the Square) to buy some water bottles.

By the time I got back to my friends, the waiting line became longer and I saw more people cutting the line at the front. My friends and I talked about people cutting in line and having no manners. Perhaps overhearing our talks, the woman behind us was talking to her family (or friends, I’m not too sure) about staying in line. I looked at her and was surprised to see her in her nightclothes. Gosh, what kind of person wears nightclothes to a concert? I kept remembering what Ko XoXo once said about how Myanmar people have no shame in walking around in broad daylight in their nightclothes.

PPL became quite exhausted because of the hot sun and kept talking about going home. We tried to persuade her to stay as it was nearly 4 o’clock. She was also hungry ‘cuz she only ate a small portion during lunch. We told her that we’ll buy something when we get inside although we weren’t sure. Normally, food and drinks are sold near a concert, but this time I saw nothing but that red tent from Coca-Cola.

Five minutes before 4 pm, I saw a few people climbing the wooden fence to get into the Square from the other gate (which was supposed to be an emergency exist, in case of emergency). We thought the security will handle those rowdy boys, but instead they actually let everyone standing at that gate to go inside. People were running to the front of the stage shouting in glee while all of us who have been waiting in line for hours while getting sunburned were extremely pissed off. Some people from the back broke the line and started running to the front of the gate. It was a complete chaos. We also had to run with them because nobody was waiting in line anymore. Many people were circled around the gate and some started cursing at the police guarding the gate. The funny thing about during this chaos is that PPL met with some friends and got a croissant from them. At least she gained something from the chaos

Ten minutes after the chaos, we were allowed to go in, but we had to push our way through the crowd. Thank god there weren’t any stampede or something like that although I got a few scratches on my feet from the wooden sticks on the floor. The security let us all in without checking whether we have tickets or not. I feel bad for those who bought them at high prices. The tickets were given out free, but it was difficult to get for those who were at work and couldn’t get out of the office. I got my ticket because Ma Red picked them for my sister and me. We were desperate to get the tickets because we thought nobody can get in without the tickets, but we were proven to be wrong.

On the way back, I walked back home while carrying an umbrella and a parcel of potato salad for my cousin. When I stopped to let a truck make a u-turn, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in one of my thighs. I can’t remember which side was it. I was surprised to feel the pain so I looked around and saw a dog looking from a short distance. Then, it suddenly run toward me again and bit my other thigh. There was a man watering some plants nearby so he shouted to the dog. The dog just looked at me again from the distance. I looked at thighs and only saw small scratches. I didn’t know whether the dog will attack me again so I just walked as fast as I could.

A lady around my age walked towards me and asked how I was doing. She told me to have rabies vaccination shots and drink some purified. I understand the rabies vaccination part but she got me confused about the water part. She continued and said I must have been pretty shocked and told me to drink not just any water but purified water. Maybe she was telling me to wash the wounds with purified water and got herself confused. I think she was more shocked than I was.

After I got home, I went to the clinic next door to get my shots. After waiting nearly 45 mins, I finally got to see the doctor, but she told me that she will only give me a short for lockjaw vaccination and some medicines. She told me that I can only get rabies vaccination shots at the hospitals. She asked me whether I recognized the dog. All I remember was that it was a brown dog of medium size. She said either I can go and check whether the dog die after 10 days or get the rabies vaccination shots. I don’t like needles but I have no choice but to get the vaccination shots.

So, I went to the hospital and immediately walked into the emergency room. There weren’t any patients in the room and I only saw young female doctors. One of them took the referral note from the doctor and explained to me about the process. There are two types of treatments. The first one takes about a month to complete while the second one was shorter. I chose the second treatment and got two shots on my arms. I will have to return next week to get one shot and the last shot will be given on January 4. That’s fine for the me, except for the price of course.

In the end, I had to pay 23,700 to the hospital and 8,000 kyats to the clinic. And it’s all because I wanted to eat a hot bowl of Rakhine Moat Tee. It’s not really worth it. Plus, I still have two more shots left so I will probably have to spend 25,000 to 30,000 kyats more

It has been quite a while since local cinemas started offering 3D films, but I have never bothered to check them out as the ticket prices are more expensive and I rarely go to the movies. But this time, I wanted to watch “Brave” animated Disney film and it was only available in 3D at Dagon Center II.

Normally, I rarely go out on Sundays because I have to teach Business English to my friend in the afternoon, but we decided to cancel the class and go to the movies instead with another friend. It’s difficult to get tickets for 3D films on the weekends so I asked my friend to make booking for us.

I arrived at the cinema around 3 pm and paid for my tickets. For those who made advanced booking, they have to arrive at the cinema 30 mins before the movie starts. Otherwise, they get sold to other people. I saw some people who were waiting for their chance to buy the tickets from those who didn’t arrive in time to claim the tickets.

Ticket prices were within the range from 1200 kyats, 1500 kyats, 3000 kyats, and 4000 kyats. I asked my friend to buy the 3000 kyats-tickets as I didn’t want to sit too close to the screen. I was handed the tickets and cards to get the 3D glasses. When we leave the cinema, we were given cards after handing over the 3D glasses and these are collected at the entrance. It’s probably a protective measure to prevent anyone from stealing the glasses.

Truthfully, I don’t see what’s the big deal about 3D films. The 3D glass I got was pretty blurry no matter how many times I tried to wipe it with Kleenex tissue. It was quite annoying so I didn’t really enjoy the movie as I should have. As for the movie, it was quite nice. It’s about a princess who didn’t want to get married so she used a spell on her mother to change her fate (or was it destiny?). Her mother turned into a bear so the girl tries to change her back. I just wish I can watch the 2D version instead without those 3D glasses.

I don’t think I will want to go back to the 3D cinemas unless there are some films that I really want to watch like “The Life of Pi”. I have seen the trailer and I really want to watch it. I think it’ll only be screened in 3D version so I’ll have to endure those 3D glasses again