Stories Around Me

Flowers in the Grass Ledgend (5)

2010-03-10T13:49:00.003+07:00

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Flowers in the Grass Ledgend (4)

2010-03-10T13:35:00.003+07:00

In an early morning, dew drops visited to earth. The grasses host them for the morning and explained about the world. The flowers in the grass land made friend with the tiny drops of water. They shared freshness, beauty and the elegence of their partnership. In that morning, they created a performance art show named "Dewellers on Earth".

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Flowers in the Grass Ledgend (3)

2010-03-10T13:27:00.006+07:00

ျမက္ပင္ေတြ တစ္ေန႔တစ္ခါ ႏွင္းရည္ေသာက္

ငါကမင့္စကား ၾကားလည္း ၾကားခ်င္

ေၾကာက္လည္းေၾကာက္၊

ေဆာင္းဦးကာလကုန္ရင္ ျမက္ေတြေသေရာ၊

ငါေကာ.....။

(ဂ်ပန္ကဗ်ာတစ္ရာရဲ႕ ကဗ်ာတစ္ရာ မွ)

ေဒါက္တာသန္းထြန္း ျမန္မာျပန္သည္

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Flowers in the Grass Ledgend (2)

2010-03-10T13:05:00.005+07:00

In the dark of the night, a winter, the grasses whispered. They had an assembly of how they will make their debutante of the year. The little flowers in the grass were excited of how they can manage to make the mother earth more beautiful. Yes, they had been discussing about how they will bloom and when. Who will go when? They were deciding their time and period. The little insects and crickets were giving applause that the little awake and traced their path in the morning.

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

လြင့္ေျမာျခင္းမိုးတိမ္

2010-03-06T23:48:00.005+07:00

ပန္းတစ္ပြင့္ရဲ႕ ေနဝင္ခ်ိန္ အလွက
ခူးယူသူရဲ႕ ဘဝနဲ႔ ဆိုင္သတဲ့လား
ေျမေပၚမွာ ၊ ေရထဲမွာ
ေနရာတိုင္းမွာ လွႏိုင္ တဲ့ပန္းက
ဘာအားမာန္ ေတြနဲ႔မို႔
အံတုႏိုင္ရဲတာလဲ။

ပန္းပံုျပင္

Flowers in the Grass Ledgend (1)

2009-09-17T15:46:00.006+07:00

"A weed is no more than a flower in disguised." There are flowers in unexpected corner of our life that are waiting for us to enjoy but we usually skiped it.
There are colours that awaits us to see but we usually omitted it.
Thre are beauties in nature but we need to regonize.

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Deciver's Season

2009-06-29T18:05:00.003+07:00

Cast in the shape of scent or suggestion;
over, along night’s avenue streaming,
as hope or moth above street-lamp flying,
paradise flutters the evening air.

Is it the almond’s coral bay
which beckons both the heart and eye
to fabled continents of pearl
where paradise gardens sway with the wind?

Caught in a crochet of leaves and tresses-
a conjured trellis of gold and green-
close to the touch yet not for touching,
paradise hovers an inch out of hand.

So April ends and the charm is over.
One dawn within the shaken boughs
we find a death’s-head choked with blossom….
paradise gardens fall in the wind.
Derek Stanford
1918

There was a time Indian Lilac blomming daringly in a summer. But before that flowers were even waiting to bloom, there was a person who listened someone's secret dream.

What could be the dream of a little girl three years ago? Whom did she trust and open her heart? Now, these are not important at all. Whom, did I trust? May I ask myself again. Is there a posibility she can manage with? It is not important at all. However, the only important thing is to carry on.

One may not notice that receiving trust from someone is a responsibility to maintain the trust.

With a heartfull of love and a pocketfull of dreams,

Pan Pon Pyin

Life in Parallel Frames

2009-06-26T15:11:00.005+07:00

There is somewhere I could hide my happiness and sadness during a two years stay in a very colourful and peceful town. That is a paint-brush and a paper with blocks on it to rander all my emotion with colours.
If our life be straight lines paralle to each other never intertwine, there is still an enormous attraction for all of us that might be like a hurricane or a black hole. Our colour of life rander around that enormous attraction. The space of these strips differ with some having a bigger place and some have to move on as thin and fast lines. The colour of our lives changes but not in the same pattern. Some moves wildly from one to another, some would change harmoniously, some with contrast and some mildly mixing with others.
But there are still lives that could not bear the full and have to take out a piece to rander with completely different colou from its own life. As an artist, I would simply wish our earth would be more colourful and composed beautifully with all different shapes, colours and pattern from every strip of colours around us.

ေက်ာင္းသြားေဖၚ ႏွင္႔ ဒဂၤါးျပား

2009-06-17T18:20:00.006+07:00

ေ၀း ကြာမွဳေတြရဲ့ နိဒါန္းကို
ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းျခင္း ရဲ့ အစလို႔
လမ္းခြဲမွာ
ငါတို႔ သတ္မွတ္ၾကတယ္ ဆိုပါစို႔
ေက်ာင္းသြားေဖၚေရ….

မၿငိမ္းခ်မ္း လည္းရိွပါေစ
ငါတို႔ဟာ
တစ္ေလွတည္း စီး တစ္ခရီးတည္းသြား သမို႔
အလြမ္းတို႔ ျပယ္ေစသတည္း
မုန္းမာန္တို႔ ေ၀းေစသတည္း….

မတူတဲ့ အျမင္…
ၾကင္နာမွ်တ ေ၀ခြဲမရတာေတြ
ငါတို႔ၾကားမွာ ျခားနားထားခဲ့ရင္
လွပတဲ့အနာဂတ္ တစ္ခုဆီကို
ငါတို႔တူတူ သြားတဲ့အခါ….

ဆိုက္ကားစီးၿပီး သြားေနတယ္လို႔
သိေနတဲ့ လူႏွစ္ေယာက္မွာ
ေက်ာခိုင္းထားရတာ
ျပႆနာ မဟုတ္ဘူးေနာ္
ေက်ာင္းသြားေဖၚရယ္….

တို႔ေတြရဲ့လမ္း ေျခလွမ္းအသေခၤ်
မတူတာေတြစုစည္း
ၿငီးတြားဖို႔ေတာ့ မလိုခဲ့ဘူးေနာ္
အာဃာတမ်ား လြင့္၍
ျပဳံးပန္းတို႔ ပြင့္ေစသတည္း ။

ပန္းပံုျပင္

Beauty of Complication

2009-06-16T16:57:00.003+07:00

In art, as in literature, ugliness rendered with compassion is beauty.
W. Joe Innis, Artist

There was in December 2007, Annivesiry of Faculty of Agriculture was held. There was a friend place that attracted me so much. That was the display of lilies.

There were stalks entangled among each other to make them into a knot. It was a very simple arrangement that just put the whole plant into a pot and tied into a knot of flowers. There was a feeling of entangle. It makes me smother to see that knot of flowers but it is amazingly simple and natural decoration that is attractive.

In life, I always felt entangle or supressed but it is part of me. I have to communicate and cooperate to make a simple yet beautiful compromise with others though it may restrain my freedom. Yes, I want to be part of the knot of flower to creat a beautiful place around me.

Dawn in Bagan

2009-06-09T17:54:00.003+07:00

* Dhamayangyi Temple at Dawn from Shwe San Daw Pagoda.

A morning in March 2007, there was a girl travelling in Bagan with hope, expectation and courage for the challenges that will come to her for the next two years.

Her uncle, Saw Yan Naing, told her at that time that the uprising pagodas everywhere in Bagan is a civilisation that is the most distinct glory in Southeast Asia. This is the only one archaelogical site in the histroy with enormous brickworks in Southeast Aisa.

He said, the long lasting civilization with full of glory need a great work and took a long time to build up. Yes, of course the people of Bagan built up the city from time to time and it took about 400 years for the civilization to get to the most beautiful and prosperous stage. It took the life time of about five generations. But if those people did not improve the knowledge, system and skills knowing that the results will not come back in their life time, will there be a wonderful civilization?

With that tought, I whispared myself, "Be patient, be patient, be patient and have preseverence to overcome the struggle. It is not building a whole civilization, it is just going a step forward, it should not be difficult at all because there will be friends and collegues sharing the task with us."

*These pictures were taken from Shwe San Daw Stupa at dawn.

If I were a flower, .......

2009-06-08T23:57:00.004+07:00

These pictures were taken when my heart was broken. I thought if I were a flower, will I be heart broken when someone leaved me alone?

If I were a flower, will I be crying when all the expectaion gone away?

I think that I am not as fragile or as short-lived as a flower.

Why those teary eyes shedding the juice of heart when I lost someone?

I think the flowers would have experienced that so many people just stop and had a glance and then leaved.

If they cry for everyone who glanced at them, will they be still beautiful?

A flower does not bloomed dedicating to someone like human beings that they can decorate the earth more than other things. May be that is why they can give a radiant of beauty, the glory of earth that comes from the gallant act. Blooming of a lower itself is adventurous effort being unkonw about thier future, whether they will be picked up by some one or will they wilted and die. They don't know who will pick them up or what kind of intention that bypassers will have. How they will disappered is a puzzel but they still glow their lives to give out glory on earth. They come on to earth without a fail. It is a small flower that have courage and glow with elegence.

I can't think why I am crying and cannot brave like a flower. I live longer than a flower and have plans in life. A flower does not come with a plan but with courage. So, I have tears when my plans does not meet with reality. If I were a flower, I will not cry and just give a beautiful smile to fill the earth with my beauty.

However, these flowers infront of me were very beautiful that I stopped crying and gazed at them. They are with similar range of colour. They have so many different shapes, colours and character but they are equally beautiful. If I were I flower, I will never compete with anyone or any flower because I am the daughter of earth and other flowers will be my sibilings.

A Homeless Evening

2009-06-04T22:14:00.003+07:00

There is not a single star, where will be the moon?
Not a piece of cloud, where will be the cover from glare?
Please not a single bird,
for there is a pair of teary eyes with full of expectation.
Where will be my hide-out?
Some say that a heor just roam around,
May I not be a hero.
May I be a bird who can go back home for every single flight.
Even the flowers in my mother's garden will cry
if I don't have a place to lie.
Please, all the lullabies come to me,
for a girl longing for home.

Enriching and Preserving

2009-06-04T15:39:00.005+07:00

If colours are made to be attractive,
how about this...
but....
If I were choose to be a flower, I would rather be white that anyone can put any colour they would desire and be peaceful. But in a culture........

If flower represents a culture of a nation, will we be white flowers or colourful flowers? Is that white means innocent, gracefulness and purity? Or is that mean unicolour, colourless and boaring? So, where is the beauty of cultural diversity? Sometimes I long for purity but for the culture, certainly I don't want my culture be pure. I would appreciate diversity. Some say that impurity means disguised but I would rather be disguised in culture than confront with others. Then what? Where will be my tridition, custom and culture in the age of globalization.

So, where is an answer for that cultural diversity and purity. How to accept? Where to accept and where to say no? Yes we really don't have a clear cut solution. So, how our society will be going into a unity without conflict?

If we don't mix and pure in each of our culture and unite together? If you say that I am a cocktail, I would rather accept because the combitnation of same colourless species seems lack of interst and I think we need color to mix in this cluster.

The Mount Popa of Myanmar

2009-06-02T16:13:00.003+07:00

Mount Popa, an extinct volcano in Kyaukpadaung, near Bagan.

Cliff of Mount Popa is about 2417 feet above sea level with 777 stairs to go up the hill.

The Mount Popa stands in Kyaukpadaung Township in central dry zone. It is an extinct volcano about 4950 feet above the sea level. The mountain is famous for its yellowish flowers called Sagawar and rich varieties of its flora and funna. The cliff of Mount Popa is also famous in the legend of Myanmar thirty-seven Nat stories.
There are thousands of vistors to Popa mountain for so many different reasons all around the year. Some are for the Nat festivals, historical research, holidays and environmental research around the mountain. This is one of the earliest community forestry projects in Myanmar. The restoration of habitats in Mount Popa starts around 1970s.
In the songs and poems as early as Bagan era (1240s) and up till now, the yellowish flowers from Popa is still famous. The heories from the kingdoms are sent to Popa as messengers for plucking the flowers. The legendary heories in Bagan and Ava were around Popa in the stories with the beautiful girls from Popa mountain. The cliff of Popa is the place in the ledgends where the beautiful girls were waiting for their husband or their beloved. The stories were not happy endings of course. What was the cause of tragedy in these stories? Some people may answer that it is the fedual system. I would like to answer the cause of these repetitiveness of dramatic tragedy is that superstition and unawareness of gender equity.
I would like to mean that the Popa mountain stands as Mount Olypus of Myanmar having so many female Nats and stories of repetitive tragedy because of gender inequality. Now, in the days of 21st century, people still carrying the trait of superstition and gender discrimination in a different costumes. Under different skin, ethnicity and colours, we have so many tragedies because of unawareness. How long these beautiful flowers in Popa will still falling with the wind? How long shall we take these tragic histroy along with us? How long shall we still give compensation to our mistreat or unfair judgement to those legendary girls by worshiping or giving respect in our society? Yes, we have so many questions yet not have answer to us in our society.

The Flame of the Forest

2009-05-31T22:12:00.004+07:00

There was a day in February, I wandered in the campus feeling despair. There was a tree blooming orange red flowers near the red temple I like. It is the flame of the forest, the symbol of our university. I remember the time I climbed the tree near a little stream to pluck the flame of the forest. At that time I was nine. I felt for love. I missed my grandma. It is a very significant flower in my grandma's life.
She was sixteen and my grandpa was fifty-four, she fell in love with my grandpa taking outdoor pictures in the forest in front of grandpa's bungalow. It was a time when there were flame of the forest blooming brightly. She got married with him no matter whatever people around her refused. She had a blind love rejecting all her opportunity and a student life as a medical student. She finally divorced with my grandpa after fourteen years hearing he said to her that the monkey he brought up is scaring him then. She managed herself to get three degrees, two diplomas and a master and proved her ability to her ex-husband and in-laws. How did she manage her emotion, feelings and love? I think, the flame of the forest would have burned her heart and life. How did she face life with the little children and as a divorced wife? Her decisions and the way she lived was too bold to me. I can't imagine is there other way for her to live peacefully in life. I am not sure.
When I see the flowers blooming as if burning in the middle of the day, I remembered to look at my heart and problems again. Is it a big scar like the problem that grandma faced? I have courage to reconsider the problems in my life and felt that I am not that bad in life. However, the flame of the forest reminds me of a girl who passed the same problems with me much earlier on earth.

The Red Charming Tree

2009-05-06T23:42:00.006+07:00

* Peeping into the dream.

* Flowers of the heaven.

It was an evening in the first week of November 2006, there was a friend I met in the campus. We sat under that tree together for the first time. The tree was green. We liked that place and usually go back there together and discussed so many things, about our career, education, future, past experiences, culture and such a many little things. Enjoyable talks after all.

That tree is one of my favorite trees, Delonix regia (or) Poinciana regia, usually covered with red flowers the whole summer. It turn into a red tree covering with brilliant red color during the whole summer. In his mind that tree is always green. We went to that tree often. He would never have an idea of the tree in brilliant red color. He never have a chance to see our favorite tree in that completely different appearance because he have never been there in summer.

One day in May, I went to that tree alone and took the picture for a friend who have never had a chance to see the another face of our favorite tree. May be this is called cultural difference. In my opinion, the diversity of culture, concept, mindset and ideas comes from a diversity of experiences we have had. I just wish that the diversity we have will be charming like the tree with its adaptability to match nature.

To the Horizon

2009-05-03T11:29:00.007+07:00

In the lexicon of youth, there is hope, ambition and eagerness. I had loaded these in my back-pack and started my journey to look for the truth of life. The beginning of the journey is somewhere in my childhood.

The line between youth and childhood is too delicate that it is like cut by a fine sword, we even did not know that part of our body is cut and we only recognized that it is left behind when we go a step forward (Rabindranath Tagore, Short Stories) .

Long long a way I go and go further to ward the horizon, I am still searching, searching for my dream. I am not sure where I will be able to possess my dream yet. This is the emotion I have when I paint this picture from the top of a waterfall near my campus. Down there in the picture is Chiang Mai University Campus, where I am currently fighting for my dreams.

With love to everyone who come and see me here. Please forgive me for not posting for a long time. Even thought I miss this blog terribly, I have to keep on my eye focus on the battle with my thesis.

Pyi Pyi

Once In the High School

2009-02-13T11:38:00.005+07:00

In the rain we walked with friends holding hands in hands. Breathing songs into our souls. Learning the world. I realized now that it was just a white sheet of paper. No ideas about life but I was lucky enough to be a student whom was taught to achieve so many things in a short time.
I hated the headmistress for teaching me so many things at the same time. When they were in hand of mine, it is just my benefit. She does not claim anything from me. The only thing my teacher share from me is the word that I am her masterpiece. Sometimes, the skill I learn from her was just how to do, I thought. Actually, I now know that it was how to perceive and how to accept the responsibility. Once my teachers told me to do this and to do that. They prevented me to waste time. If I would have a chance to go back to high school with all these teachers, I would have behave better since they are my benefactors showing me the way to neglect the mambo jumbo and laziness.
Whenever I see the high school students, I have a memory in my high school life that is glittering in the past. Everything I did in high school.......
bring me happiness....
gave me friendship......
make me smile....
remind me think....
taught me behave well....
help me get out of troubles....
NOW!
I was waiting my future impatiently as a girl. It was ten years ago. All the anger, stress, love and hatred in high school leaved as an acquaintance in my memory. How about the experiences now? How long will they last as misery or difficulty? The things I am getting miserable can leave me a trace of golden memory one day. I think, my duty is to pass it. To win it. To overcome it. Then it will be a memory of an old aged when I look back the past.
Trying to mature with hope and love,.........

Last Sketch with an Old Friend

2009-01-27T12:25:00.004+07:00

It was a long time that I did not get a chance to draw sketches with the small ink pen received as a present from a colleague friend. Yesterday, I was in sorrow that I was trying to clean my room. I found out that little ink pen and remember the days that she and I painted with that little ink pen together in Yangon Institute of Economics. We were sometimes painting in our lecture books. Sometimes, we sat down near the grasses and painted the portrait of these little grasses since we wanted to honor them as anonymous decorators of earth.
I tried to just test the pen weather I could still use it or not. I drew a big tree and small grasses. Some leaves are on the ground, with a breeze, some are floating in the wind. It makes me feel happy listening the falling leaves sweeping the ground. There is a small house beyond the height. A small country path coming out but there is just a vague end. Nothing is in order, how to end this event is not in the painter’s hand. There is a big acacia standing by the small house showing the heat of dessert. Behind that is a range of mountains far away. There is a happy reunion inside the painting. A person is running towards a small boy. It is between those big shady tree and acacia. There upon them, is a kite floating in the air with glee.
After that sketch, I tried to make another one since I have had more to take out from my heart. When I pulled out the cap, the ink pen was broken, it died because of his old age. It was an old ink pen lived nearly ten years following wherever I went. I just wanted to keep the memories with the ink pen in my life. This painting is the last one it made with me.

Exquisite Story of Night

2008-11-07T15:15:00.009+07:00

Welcome thee with the disappearance of my immortality.
I am repeating an endless pilgrimage for all my life long to thee,
My existence, march, victory and capacity destined to thy inaugurating.
We are.........
Not together forever,
Thou departed for me to grow,
I die for thy delivery to earth,
My heart is for thee to live,
Thine for my repeated regeneration.
Me, a hoot and a howler afar of thy paradise
I wish you could hear my gloomy whisper at every dawn.
I constantly beseech thou for embedding me in thy life forever.
May I reincarnate in thy presence to renounce my forfeit of my life to thee.

The Manuha Temple

2008-09-22T23:07:00.011+07:00

Photo:The master piece of an extreme art.

It is one of the famous temple in Bagan, old ancient city in Myanmar. If someone go there, they would have experience with the various legends which are related to the temples and the royal families. It is a tourist destination in Myanmar. More than that, Bagan is the heart of Myanmar people. One can experience the beautiful scenic nature of the old city, animation from the old ages, cultural essence and the principles of the heroes in the history, smell of the dessert trees called, Tamar is one of the most beautiful symbol of central Myanmar.

One can see the drinking water pots donated for free under the trees and at the temples where there is scarce of water. The warmly welcomed common houses where we meet people and talk to each other while we are refreshing our tiredness under the burning of the sun. The small and big, great and anonymous, detailed and rough temples all contributing the beautiful nature of Bagan.

When someone go to Bagan, it is to say that the trip is not completed if he has not been to Manuha temple. The Manuha Temple is the temple built by the Hmong King, Manuha who was confined in Bagan by King Manuha of 'Suwanabhumi'. I don't know weather it is true or not, it is said in the history that King Anawrahta of Bagan was so magnanimous that he let former king, whom he defeated, to live in a palace the same as in his kingdom 'Suwanabhumi' in 'Bagan'. I think it is like house arrest nowadays. In the history, people tell this story as a magnanimity of the king Anawrahta. When I have had a visit to U Khun Tun Oo's house in his house arrest, I could not believe that King Anawrahta was magnanimous. It was a palace but it is not at his kingdom. How would be the King Manuha in his house arrest? I think the palace would not be pleasurable anymore.

One day, the king Manuha sold his ruby ring, one of the most precious one he owned at that time, to a rich man in Myinkabar village with nine carts of silver pieces. He built the Manuha temple with that money he earned from his royal ring. Some people say that the temple portray the Hmong generosity to give away the possessions. Some say that it is the symbolic of his confinement in Bagan with a very huge Buddha statue in a relatively small temple. However, it is really unproportionate to put four very big Buddha statues in that temple since it only left a small place for the visitors and we even got the feeling of suffocation from the form. Some historians interpret that 'The Buddha statue is really big but have a small temple, I am king but have no place here'.

However, the three Buddha statues are the masterpieces of the confined king, having different looks on the face of the statue from the different angles. As a person who come in to the person, he would see the smiling Buddha in his first look. If he would squeeze in himself into the temple, he would see the frowning Buddha from the side view. Unluckily, I did not take picture of frowning Buddha in my camera. The sad emotion was created in the temple artistically and delicately. Some architects say that the temple and the statues are not proportionate that it gives different looks from different position, unstable.

I think it was not an accident, it has an intention since it was one of the extremism in the architecture of ancient Bagan. In the temple there is a stone script which says that, ‘The King Manuha was building a temple. The King Anawrahta that, whether I could help you my dear friend to build this temple together. Let me send my messengers to help you. The king Manuha said, ‘no, I don’t want your help to do a good deed. Then the King Anawarahta replied that, Manuha don’t need my help that he should finish building the temple within six months. Then the former King made his temple with four statue by himself within six months and six days.’ When I read this I feel more confidence that it was the artifacts of a humiliated king. When I see the prison arts, I think that the Manuha Temple could be the one of the earliest prison arts in Myanmar built in 11th century.

Thailand at the Cross-Road

2008-09-12T17:42:00.005+07:00

When shall we be able to vow this for our country? Where is peace and negotiation? The paper flag in the above picture is a remain of the Thai Anti-government Protesters who demonstrated near the Nawarat Bridge in Chiang Mai, on 3rd September 2008. It went on peacefully and smoothly. When there was a coo in 2006 September, I was in Thailand just 3 days after the coo. My study in Thailand started just after that event. The civillians and the knowledge think tanks were discussing about their new constitution and their hope for decentralization and civilian government was dawned over their enthusium. Now and again, Thailand is loking for the new hope for the better management of their country. I would wish for all the Thai citizens and my colleagues Myanmar citizens for a better governance and hopes.

Hope of the Night

2008-09-11T22:27:00.006+07:00

When I took that picture, I felt sincerity. It was at the King's Birthday in the Chiang Mai University Campus. Everyone around me was laughing, bustling and enjoying the exhibition and the local markets. Gazing the beautiful handicrafts that sale on the small shop, I thought when my country would be peaceful like this. When will people in my country be able to enjoy the celebrities and festivals peacefully and contentedly?

May be some people will say that we, Burmese are not as gentle as Thai. I heard that word so many times from my colleagues. They used to say that Burmese people does not know how to appreciate.

In my point of view, it is not true. We know appreciation but it is true that it is really different in the way we enjoy the festivals. We are like more destructive and more quarreling. I think, Myanmar people are more simple and sincere showing our true emotion from the bottom of our heart. When we like something or someone, we appreciate it so much. It is like the whiteness that I could capture in the picture.

To portray a beautiful figure with elegance petals, we need the manner and ethic. We have to try to go back to a stage when we were taught well and practice well. That was the time we were less stressed and have had more freedom. We have to let the heart and thought free to enjoy properly. We have to set our heart open and our mind be free to let everyone happy calmly in our country. To get to this stage, it is not a short-term project. It would be a long-term restructuring. It is not a reformation. We have our own future to create since we are in the dark now.

Why Do People Pretend?

2008-09-10T23:25:00.007+07:00

(This post is the response to 'The Art of Pretending' from http://hanthitnyeim.isgreat.org/ )

Human is a social animal, that we pretend. We pretend because we need to pretend. Even the animals change their color or habit when it is needed for their survival. There are so many plausible answers for pretending. Sometimes, we pretend that we are wicked, cunning. Sometimes, we pretend because it is necessary that we want to be polite. Once, my mother said that we pretend because we should have diplomacy in our relation. We should be polite not showing our dislike openly or rudely with our behaviors. We can show our dislikes but tamely or delicately in the rules of the society.These social norms differ from one society to another. Then, learning about the norms and social structure or the rules of the different societies becomes the science of human beings.

However, we pretend because we are hesitate or shy since we have bad intention to the other party or other person. We are trying not to hurt the other person because of our bad thought to them. As far as we could pretend for that reason, we are still giving an effort to build up a good relation in our society since we are trying to be polite. My mom used to say that people can make friend with each other as long as we can be polite to each other. In fact, it is a form of pretending because of hesitation. If we are no longer to shy to each other to perform our likeness or dislikes to each other, there comes in quarreling.

တတ္သမွ် မွတ္သမွ်

2008-09-06T16:46:00.008+07:00

ဦးဟန္သစ္ၿငိမ္ရဲ႕ Tag ခ်က္အား မအားသည့္ၾကားမွ တုန္႔ျပန္ျခင္းျဖစ္ပါသည္။

ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕နာမည္ ............ ပန္းပံုျပင္
ကိုယ္ကိုသူငယ္ခ်င္းေတြကဒီလိုေခၚတယ္ ............. ပံုျပင္ [သို႔] အဖြားႀကီး (ပံုျပင္ေတြေျပာလြန္းလို႔)
ကိုယ္ဒီမွာေနတယ္............ ေျမႏွင့္ မိုးၾကား
ကိုယ္႔ဆီဖုန္းဆက္ခ်င္ရင္............ ဖုန္းနဲ႔ဆက္

ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕အၾကိဳက္ဆံုးေတြက
အေရာင္ဆိုရင္............ သဘာ၀အေရာင္
အ၀တ္အစားဆိုရင္............ ၀တ္လို႔ရတဲ့အရာေတြ
အစားအစာဆိုရင္............ မခ်က္ဘဲစားလို႔ရတဲ့အရာ
ပစၥည္းဆိုရင္............ လွတာမွန္သမွ်
သီခ်င္းဆိုရင္............ ေခတ္ေဟာင္း ေခတ္ေဆြး (နားေထာင္ရင္းအိပ္လို႔ရတဲ့သီခ်င္းအားလံုး)
စာေရးစာဆရာ............ စာေရးတဲ့သူအားလံုး (ေခတ္ေပၚအခ်စ္၀တၳဳနဲ႔ တက္ၾကမ္းေရးသူမပါ)
စာအုပ္............ ဘဂ၀ါဂီတ
Life style............ သိခ်င္ရင္ စံုစမ္း
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕၀ါသနာ............ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ျခင္း အႏုပညာ
အလိုခ်င္ဆံုးလက္ေဆာင္............ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္တုတ္ေကာက္
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕ အခ်စ္ဆံုးသူက............ ေျပာလို႔မရဘူး
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕ အေလးစားဆံုးသူက............ အခ်စ္ဆံုးသူ
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕ အခင္ဆံုးသူငယ္ခ်င္းက............ ကိုယ္နဲ႔တူတူ မဟုတ္တာေတြ လုပ္တဲ့သူ
ကုိယ္႔ကို အမ်ားဆံုးနားလည္မွဳေပးႏိုင္သူက............ ကိုယ့္ရဲ႕အခင္ဆံုး သူငယ္ခ်င္း
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕ အမုန္းဆံုးသူက............ မခ်စ္ႏိုင္တဲ့သူ
ရင္အခုန္ဆံုးအခ်ိန္............ စာေမးပဲြခန္းထဲ ေရာက္တဲ့အခ်ိန္
အေၾကာက္ဆံုးအခ်ိန္............ စာေမးပဲြနား နီးတဲ့အခ်ိန္
အေပ်ာ္ဆံုးအခ်ိန္............ စာေမးပဲြ ၿပီးတဲ့အခ်ိန္
အမွတ္တရေန႔............ ေန႔တိုင္း
ဆုေတာင္းတုိင္းသာျပည္႔မယ္ဆိုရင္ေတာင္းမဲ႔ဆု............ ေပါ့ေပါ့ပါးပါးျပံဳးၿပီး ပ်ံပါရေစ
အခ်စ္ဆိုတာ............ မပိုင္တဲ့အေၾကာင္း မေတြးနဲ႔
အမုန္းဆိုတာ............ မေပ်ာ္ရႊင္မႈ
အလြမ္းဆိုတာ............ မခ်စ္တတ္သူေတြအတြက္
သံေယာဇဥ္ဆိုတာ............ အိမ္ေမြးတိရစၧာန္
ဘ၀ဆိုတာ............ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ျခင္း
သူငယ္ခ်င္းဆိုတာ............ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ေဖာ္
ခ်စ္သူဆိုတာ............ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္တုတ္ေကာက္
ကိုယ္႔ကိုကိုယ္ဒီလိုထင္တယ္............ တယ္လမ္းမ်ားတဲ့ငါပဲ
ကိုယ္႔ရဲ႕လက္ဆြဲေဆာင္ပုဒ္က............ ဘ၀မွာ ကိုယ့္လမ္းကိုယ္ေလွ်ာက္တတ္ဖို႔လိုတယ္
အေျပာခ်င္ဆံုးစကားတစ္ခြန္း............ မေျပာတာပဲ ေကာင္းပါတယ္

ေရွး႐ိုးစဥ္လာအတိုင္း Tag ဖို႔စဥ္းစားေတာ့ မေလးေမ ကို Tag ပါသည္။

Life in Chinag Mai (1)

2008-08-24T21:22:00.005+07:00

When I came to Chiang Mai, there was nobody come and fetch me at the bus station. I did not know where to go. There was only one map that I got from the bus. I could tell the red cub driver to go to Chiagn Mai University in Thai, " Pai Mahawittayalai Chiang Mai". I did not even know how Chiang Mai looks alike. I did not know how to go to my friend's apartment either. My friend did not know how to tell me to come to him.
At that moment, there was no divination in me to expect that it would be a city I would have to stay for a bout two years learning the society I am interested in. I was just a girl who has a prone to be fear, depend on others. However, that was the first experience for me to go into the unknown future without any supporter around me. I made friends, enjoy learning, going around and build my confidence to be able to face the problems alone. I was in the mist at that time. Now, I have a clear vision into my future. It was the strength in my heart that I build up in that small town.
Two days ago, I went to the mountain called Doi Suthep. I walked up with some friends. I went to the waterfall that Ko Thinker showed me when I arrived to Chiang Mai for the first time. I was there looking down the city among the mist. I could not believe that I was in the stage of metamorphosis during these three years. My ambiguity was changed into the force for me go in depth into the unknown world. In my mind it was just yesterday. I went to the Huay Kaew Waterfall with Ko Thinker, painting outdoor pictures. Second time, I went up there to go for picnic with a soul friend for breakfast. I even hear the laugh of my friend there looking at me and said, 'that is the only picnic that I have had for picnic.' If I ask myself that what today is?
My soul will answer that today is the basis for tomorrow and the future. If I have not come to Chiang Mai for the first time and did not enthusiastic to adapt here at that time, if there were not Ko Thinker giving strength to someone he had met for about two hours only, these miracles in my life will not have happened. Today, I am here with confidence to seek for truth because of the warm welcome from Ko Thinker and Ma Marlar for whom they have not known before and my curiosity to come here for the first time.

ပန္ၾကားခ်က္

2008-08-13T08:37:00.005+07:00

I would like to send my apology for not adding any post for a long time for the visitors. I really want to send the post for my visitors. At the moment, I am doing a tiresome job for my thesis and doing volunteer job at the same time. For that reason, I can't send the new post even though I have so many things I want to write. However, I will find my time to send more in the future.

I hope all of you will understand my difficulty and keep on coming to see my blog with beautiful pictures.

With respect to all of you.
ပန္းပံုျပင္

Under the Sky

2008-08-02T16:13:00.008+07:00

The rain was coming. It was a day in May. I was on the Bridge of River Kew looking to the clouds I love. I was missing the clouds I used to see in Laydaung Kan Village, near the Yangon Institute of Economics. I watched the clouds of May in the open field with a teary eyes. I love the evenings in May which makes me reborn with heavy rain drops falling onto my heart. I has been crying in the rain several times. Now, I am another person living for a new destiny, believes and strength. The person I remember when I took that picture was my Mom, who used to tell me to look at the sky and appreciate the colour of nature anywhere I go.

Freedom and Right

2008-07-31T17:42:00.007+07:00

I write this post because these two words had been giving me a headache ten years ago. I was thinking about weather they are different or the same. If they are different, which one we should get first?Which is more important or immediate need to us? What can contribute more for the development, freedom or right? Whenever I have to choose something, I was thing according to these two poles.

Then, it was a "Chicken or Egg" problem for me. Actually, freedom and right is different in the real world though these are conditional to each other. We don't have right to harm others welbeing or property because we have freedom. We can do anything we want or able only when we have freedom. We have freedom to create our dream but the way of creating our imagination should not harm others. We don't have the right to harm others.

When I was in middle school, I read an article about the encounter of a Headmaster of a National School and a farmer on the road. The headmaster asked the farmer, ' Why do you blocked the road, dear uncle?'. The farmer replied that 'I am heating the paddy. I can do it now because Myanmar get freedom and we own our land and can use it.' It was the first hand experience of an author but I don't remember who wrote it. The conclusion of the article was that Myanmar people does not understand the freedom yet and misused it. I did not agree to that article until 2 years ago.

When I go abroad, I used to see the words " Free Burma" everywhere. At first, it seems to be right in my mind. After a while, I started to think who should free Burma. Nobody can free Burma unless we free ourselves. Nobody has the right to take away our freedom unless we gave up. We should not fight for freedom. We need to free ourselves and need to show people how to set ourselves free.

In my opinion, a freeman is brave and vise visa. If we are asking for our freedom, I think it is like we already gave the authority to free us. Actually, no one has the right to take our freedom or set us free. We have the right to live freely. We should own ourselves. We just need to know how to live freely.

The Marketing Cost

2008-07-30T11:29:00.014+07:00

One day in the class, my teacher asked why the cost of marketing is very high nowadays than in the 1800s or at the start of industrialization. There were many answers like because of globalization, which is partly true but I don't think it was enough. Some said that it is because of television that pave us to advertise and make people know about it. How about billboards that are uprising more and more. We are using every channels to reach to the consumers. To portray this picture, I have three facts,

(1) The Pace of Invention
When we are producing a product, the other firms are creating and inventing news. We have to flee away from the huge wave of invention than selling out slowly and drowned. We have to run at a high speed. So, the simple way is to attract people to buy our products quickly. Advertising and commercialization is very costly but we have to make people know about our goods very fast in every possible way.

(2) The Hesitation of Consumers
The lifestyles of people in the first phase of industrialization is different but the phenomena is that everyone wants to buy the products because it is new and they have not have it before. They want to change their lifestyles. Demand was a high force for the industrialization. Today, everyone who can buy already have their needs. Rich people are already surfeited with new. It is more difficult to sell them than ever to substitute our new goods with something they already have. For the poor people, most of them can't buy but with a strong persuasion.

(3) The Globalization of Marketing
In the old days, we exported our goods but we have a strong domestic demand too. Nowadays, we have to rely on the international market more. Demand is more segmented. We have to chase after the demand wherever it goes. It is the globalization that helps our market to enlarge into a single one. So, we have a global competition and our marketing strategy also competing with so many firms and products. We are spending more money on advertising because we want our products to be renowned globally.

A Squid Story

2008-07-27T16:22:00.009+07:00

Even an elephant can changed into the bag of bones.

A train heading toward Kanchanaburi, near the "River Kwe Bridge", Thailand.

There is something embedded in my heart whenever I see a squid. It has been a thorn of bereft since two years ago. It was a day in December 2006, I was walking on a busy street of Bangkok with one of my friend. My mind was strayed on the steps of so many people passing by. I remember that I have not had dinner yet and it was nearly 11:30 P.M. My friend suggested me to look for a little shop to eat something. I was gazing the endless stream of people buzzing and having fun around me, with absence minded look. I just got out of the conversation with anger and remorse. My classmate and I were disagreed about inequality of sharing in my country. He said it was unfair because the development in his state was so poor. I replied asking him how he wanted to improve his state alone when the whole country is under distressed and poverty. His face changed into red and go out from the class. I felt sorry for losing a good friend.
My friend, Rock, said that I have to be brave enough to go back and talk with him again. I have to make up my mind. He suggested me to sit down somewhere and think it over how to be friend with him tomorrow. What should I do? Finally, I decided to go into a small, dark restaurant at the corner of a street. I think it was a Thai noodle shop.
A thin, pale looked waiter came to us and cleared the table. At that time, Rock dropped the cup of water while he was handing them to him. I exclaimed in Burmese. The waiter asked me with a glad smile weather I came from Myanmar. He introduced himself briefly that he is a Shan man came from Kyauk Mae since he was 14 and he was 24 years old now working three part-time jobs a day. I simply asked him what should I order at that time, nearly mid-night. He told me order the noodle dish with squid saying that in Thai pointing at its picture. The honest explanation he gave me made me sad until now.
He said, " I would like to suggest you the boiled noodle with squid because it is very delicious and you might not have seen that fish in our country. It is here only in Thailand. There is not that kind of fish in our country. You should try it." I just did not know how to reply him. What I knew at that time was that the fish exporters in our country were speculating about the exchange rate appreciation of baht that was sourced in Thai politic. Tons of squid and fishes were exported into Thailand. It is plenty in my place. But how a man from my country has not seen it? It is the distribution problem. I think, is it ignorant of people who have not seen a squid which his country has abundant? I think, it is absolutely not. It is just one of the missing bricks in the community. The supply chain was poorly constructed that the disparity constructs mistrust and misunderstanding for a long time between ethnics. The flow of goods, ideas and love in the country is stagnated. The result is that we could not sympathize each other. Lack of contact, understanding and collaboration set us far apart.
Whenever I see the squid which is my favorite, I remembered him, the pale waiter. I used to think about the flow of resources in my poor country and disparity. It is just a symptom of the disease of ill-treated country that is nearly dying. How to survive from it? It just depends on us. Where is the solution? If we closed our mind and heart, it is nowhere else. That is the feeling I got when I took the picture above.

The Light of Friendship

2008-07-26T17:20:00.007+07:00

Light itself is amazingly beautiful. Sometimes, I overlooked the place I am haunted already. I was going around everywhere as my soul lead. I went to far away places to take beautiful pictures but I did not see the beauty of the way I was walking everyday for about a year.

One day, I walked through the place with a friend when the days are quite. It was an evening in June, my friend said that everything is beautiful in life but to appreciate it, we need to look carefully and have a healthy mind to see it. It was true. I saw the beautiful light glowing onto the leaves. I think may be because of having a good friend or relaxing in life. May be both. However, I need to see the beauty to get strength in life.

Dream Heart

2008-07-09T01:57:00.007+07:00

In my list of traveling places, there is a place in my five top most list. It is Bagan. Like every Myanmar people, I love Bagan too. May be I would have a different reason. When I went to Bagan for the first time, I was six. Every year, my grandmother took us to a trip. Amongst our trip,I liked the trips to upper Myanmar. It is the people there attract my heart. In most of my trips, we went like adventure tour. Without plans, arrangements and preparations. We slept by the streams, on the road side, at the temples, in the monasteries. On our way, we encounter so many people who helped us, like pouring energy and warmth into our hearts. We were received like friends or relatives even though we were strangers.

My father's comments about upper Myanmar had a great influence in my memory. His experiences as a volunteer student 30 years ago. I appreciated the pure hearts of Upper Myanmar, scenic nature of the small dusty lanes, legendary recitations of old people there, beautiful temples and the long, Arrewaddy River.

Last April, I went to Upper Myanmar again. Oh, my heart! I was astonished. It has changed totally. I was robbed on the road, on my car. On the way between Bagan and Poppa, there were villagers blocking the way and ask for money. They said it was asking donation but it was like a robbery. Some people even grab any food on my car and took away my important documents thinking as if it was food.

At that time, I felt lost. Where is my country. It has changed in a rapid rate. Before that event, I thought my country is the most lovely country on earth with lovely people even though there is a harsh political situation. Now, I realized that I am in a day dream. Everything I loved is being lost in a astonishing rate. The beauty of the temples, murals, beautiful architectural styles. All removed within a short time.All is lost, gone with the hard wind of economic harassment.

My sister said, "Please don't worry. You can go and visit Palaung villages, I know. There still left culture and tradition and everyone has a warm heart there too". But I was thinking when shall my heart be broken again? How long will these cultures survives with the unsolved miseries in our survival.

Friends Together

2008-06-27T02:02:00.007+07:00

There were two trees on the way I went up to Kyaik Htee Yoe Mountain. The branches piercing in to the stems of each other standing abreast. In my thought, they are like friends in a way. They are infringing into each other yet supporting and growing together.It was as if saying that we are together. Weather they grew at the same time? May be or may be not. Does trees are social animals looking for friends?However, these two trees might be happy trees standing together before there is someone to cut them down thinking the way they grow might have some magical power.

The Small Irrawady

2008-06-27T01:37:00.006+07:00

It was in March 2007, I was sitting on the tarrace of 'Bu' Pagoda by the bank of Arrawaddy River. Someone I love had been there about a week before me. I was quite sure in my mind that he would have been sit there and watch the sunset.I wonder what he would think. I wanted to know.

I was thinking about the river. How large it would be in the olden days. Was it the same size like this? I don't think so. There would not much natural degradation in one thousand years ago. I was thinking about the legendary hero, Nyaung Oo Phee, who swam across the river several times during a day. Did he very brave or did the river so small? However, the river is getting smaller and smaller year after year. It was very different within five years period. There was less water and more polluted. How people in the downstream will be sustaining in the future.

Dream of Past

2008-06-27T01:03:00.010+07:00

I took this picture in a morning of January 2008 on the way to go up the Doi Suthep Mountain. It was misty and cold when I went up the mountain. I went to school after going to the tample at Doi Suthep.

At that time, I missed my childhood mornings. Me and my younger sister used to go for a walk in the early morning fifteen years ago. We usually managed to sneek out of the house without making a noise to avoid our parents to wake up and prevent us to go out. I was twelve years old and she was 10. When we were in highschool, we used to see the December mornings too. There was misty and cold like this on the way to our school. The only difference is that we were in a hurried at that time worrying not be late for school. However, we were happy. We have had a nice time with friends on the school-bus.

This time, I was getting worried for something but could not defined what it was. The certain thing should be that I am used to get worried now. It is even in my memory. My sister warned me on that morning to take care of my health. I think she is used to get worried now.