A Memory of My Grandparents – Part (6) - (U) Khin Maung Latt and (Daw) Khin Myo Chit (Writer of Colourful Burma)

(I have been writing about my grandparents – (U) Khin Maung Latt (1915-1996) and (Daw) Khin Myo Chit (1915-1999) since last few weeks ago. Now I now reach the part (6). My grandmother Khin Myo Chit was a well-known writer of Burma. She wrote Colourful Burma, Burmese Scenes and Sketches, Wonderland of Burmese Legends, Three Years Under The Japs, Flowers and Festivals Round the Burmese Year, and so on. Her some books can be read on Amazon Kindle ebook. Here, I now continue to portray about my grandparents ..................)

“In 1937, Burma was separated from India and given a new constitution. The whole country was in a state of discontent. One of the most important days was the National Day – the anniversary of the All Burma Students’ Strike of 1920. During the British regime this National Day was the only day on which people could demonstrate their patriotism and political consciousness.”

(Cute Grandma.)

Before my grandmother came to Rangoon she read in the newspapers about the political activities and as a student she might be joined in making chorus of the National anthem.

When she sat at the editorial desk of the Burma journal in Rangoon, she had a chance to see Thakins at close quarters. (Thakins – Maters, young men of Thirties, University educated and came from highly respectable families, they called themselves Thakins or Masters, they are future hope of Burma.) As a student, my grandma showed sympathy by playing audience when they made speeches.

Her life in Rangoon

She had difficulty in finding a place to live. She just had left the weekly journal and was living the income of free-lance writing. At that time, by the help of a Thakin, she found a place to live. Her new abode was a decent residential flat which was the living quarters of a man called Ko Ba Thin who worked as electrician in the Scott Market (Now known as Bogyoke Market.) He and his wife regarded the Thakins as patriots whom they should help. They were so eager to do something for the country that they did not mind even if they did not get enough themselves. My grandparents always mentioned about them (ko Ba Thin and his wife) with their (my grandparents) heart heavy and sad, for those (ko Ba Thin and his wife) whose life had unhappy ending, not because of foreign enemies.

 

(My grandma standing on right from the viewer, in 1935.)

On 1 st 1937 April, when the Thakins burnt the Union Jack in public, my grandma mentioned the day as the way what she thought as ‘It was all I meant to do, and perhaps all I needed to do.’ It meant that my grandma joined this? I did not know whether she joined or not, but I was told from her old friend (Thakin) Htain Win as he and Khin Myo Chit also burning the Union Jack with (Thakin) Nu, (Thakin) Hla Phay(Bo Let Yar), (Thakin) Tun Own, (Thakin)Tun Aye; he and Khin Myo Chit (my grandma). 

  

(Subtitles below of the historic photo as Thakins burning the Union Jack and the Government of Burma Act of 1935, at an entrance to the High Court in Rangoon on 1^st April 1937. From the ‘Roots of Revolution’ by Dhammika U Ba Than – Retired Colonel.)

A year of 1838 (known as the Revolution of 1300 (Burmese Era) uprising according to Burmese calendar), the Rangoon University Students’ Union organized a mass demonstration, in which all students were to take part. My grandma although she was not a University student, when ko Ba Thin’s two nieces were going to take part in the demonstration, she was to keep them company, also partly because her Thakins friends had asked her to come. My grandma imagined the scene that she met as the girls marched in fours; and three girls and she happened to be in the front line right after the standard bearers, at the moment there was a rude shock they were confronted by baton wielding policemen, some mounted on horseback. All of a sudden, everything became a confusion of horses’ legs and batons. Pools of blood of fallen girls flowed on the smooth tarred road. When my grandma tried to pick them up, a sudden blow felled on her. ‘It was a terrifying experience for me.’ my grandma said. She and Ko Ba Thin’ niece came home bruised and bedgraggled.

 

(1938 – May – 27 The 10000000 Daily Newspaper Cover, my grandma photo was at below left. Her name ‘Khin Myo Chit’ was mentioned below the photo.)

(My grandfather in 1936.)

Here, I was told from my grandmother that when she met a blow on her, she and Ko Ba Thin’ niece were meeting my grandfather, and he took care of them. It might be their second meeting in Rangoon.

(To be continued)