Some months ago, I picked up this coffee table book of "Aung San Suu Kyi - A Portrait in Words and Pictures" at Vinnies. The check-out lady was surprised, "Why are you interested in Burma?" to which I answered, "Because I used to live and work there."
When she continued, "I am Burmese and I am from Rangoon," I began to take notice of her typical soft Burmese voice and took another look at her typical gentle Burmese demeanour. "It's been almost fifty years since I left Rangoon but I'm still in love with Burma and its people," I told her as she gave me that typical doe-eyed Burmese look and wished me good-bye.
I am a regular Vinnies customer, and it was a few weeks later that we met again at the check-out. "Oh, it's you again! Have you read the Aung San Suu Kyi book yet?" she wanted to know. "Not yet," I replied, and then told her where I used to live and work in Rangoon. When I mentioned that for a few months I had also lived at the Inya Lake Hotel, she told me that her father had been its manager, although not at my time. What a small world!
Weeks went by during which I stocked up on more books and DVDs, until one day it was another "Oh, it's you again!" and we struck up another conversation during which I confessed that my love of Burma and the Burmese people had been more than just platonic. Perhaps I must've also confessed that "ငါ့ရဲ့ ပထမဆုံးနဲ့ တစ်ဦးတည်းသော အချစ်" had been a certain Daw Khin San Myint whose memory I still carried to this day, because when I visited Vinnies again today, she asked me, "Is her family name Thaw?"
Quite taken aback, I asked, "Yes, how did you know?", after which she told me that her father, U Pye Aye, who now also lives in Batemans Bay, took over as manager of the Thamada Hotel from Daw Khin San Myint's father when he passed away after suffering a heart attack in 1977, and that U Pye Aye was somehow related to the Thaw family. Small world indeed!
Would I like to visit Burma again, she then wanted to know. "With all that emotional baggage I now carry, I'd never get past the check-in counter," I told her and left before my emotions could completely overwhelm me.
"Happiness is just an illusion, filled with sadness and confusion. What becomes of the broken-hearted who had love that's now departed?
