A Letter to My Grandmother

(picture by maungyit, who drew for my grandma(KhinMyoChit)'s book; 'Flowers and
Festivals round the Burmese Year, illustrated for Shwedagon Pagoda
festival of our grandparents' days.)

'One of the highlights of the season in Rangoon is the Shwedagon

Pagoda festival celebrated on the grounds around the hill where stands

the great pagoda.' heard from you, grandma, long ago. Today 2600th

anniversary of Shwedagon Pagoda would be held in Rangoon until 7th

march of 2012. It was begun its celebration since two weeks ago. I

hoped to see the grounds filled with rows of bamboo and thatch huts

which were marked stalls or show rooms. I also hoped to taste Burmese

foods and I also wanted to window-shop on the products from all over

the country, from the arid plains of central Burma, northern hill

tract, lowlands and the delta areas of the south.

You told me, grandma, 'there were baskets, mats, trays and boxes made
of cane or bamboo or palm leaves, cotton wool quilts, fillings for
cushion and mattresses, cotton rugs, bags and handwoven textiles in
colourful patterns; paper mache dolls, some of them grotesque yet
attractive: glazed earthern-wares, pots, vases, ash trays;
lacquer-ware useful as well as beautiful on the every corners of the
pagoda ground.' I still heard what you once said to me that 'it was a
wonderland where you may wandered and browsed for hours and come away
finally laden with beautiful things, most of them useless.' Oh! I
could not wait for that experience, grandma.

I had a little chance since I was born to see such a wonderland,
grandma. I had only heard from you and my parents how wonderful and
colorful the Shwedagon Pagoda festival was when we were too young to
understand. So, the last month of the Burmese calendar falls in March,
it was a month of Shwedagon pagoda festival. But there had not been
Shwedagon Pagoda festival for 30 or 40 years. Now 2600th anniversary
of Shwedagon Pagoda was held this year, it was a very great chance for
me. I did not want to miss it. Yes, you said 'it was impossible to
miss the pagoda festival!'

If you were still with us today, surely you would ask me to buy some
Burmese foods from the festival for you, isn't it, grandma? You surely
asked me to buy some beautiful things all over the country, from the
arid plains of central Burma, northern hill tract, lowlands and the
delta areas of the south. I also loved lacquer-wares and
earthern-wares. I liked to buy some hand-made things as bags, dolls or
boxes. Surely I would bring them home, grandma. I hoped to wonder and
browse for hours as you did in your days, grandma.

I really hope walking through the never-ending gastronomical paradise,
I longed to smell the air with heavy aroma of frying, I would love to
taste grand carnival of crispies and pan-cakes, YES! I remembered you
said the most popular is the grand crispies! I did not want to miss to
taste stalls with mountainous heaps of wafers made of glutinous rice
flour, paper thin and light as air and very brittle. I would love to
buy them in bunches of fives or tens, strung on bamboo strips. They
were crunchy and munchable. Surely I would enjoy them 'showering white
flakes on myself and my fellow beings as I chew and jostle my way
through the crowd.' Oh! What a great chance I have had now!

I remembered you told me that 'there were crispies and snacks were a
plenty on the festival grounds!' I was excited to go there, grandma. I
did not know yet what I would see in the festival ground. I am surely
to go there, grandma. You said 'It was impossible to miss the pagoda
festival'. I do not know yet it is the same wonderland as in your
days, grandma. It is impossible to miss it, isn't it, my dear grandma?

I promised you, grandma, surely I will go and see……and…..I will write
an article about it…….the reader must envy me for my luckiest moment
of wandering through the wonderland…..like what you wrote in your
book….I will write an article about my experience of….….like what you
wrote in your article…..grandma…..I promise….one day……

--
'J'