Chapter-3

2016, December, Sule Pagoda Road, Yangon

LIN got off the crowded commuter bus which stopped at Sule Bus Stop. He needed to queue up until the passengers in front of him finally got off the bus.

He watched people taking different directions when they disembarked. Some went up to a series of cinemas across the road. Some directed towards the Sule Pagoda where they were going to pray. Some went in the direction of Theingyi Bazaar to buy commodities or other things they needed.

But, Lin was walking easily along the road towards Sule Pagoda, and he needed to stop at the traffic lights to cross Anawrahta Road on which many big and small vehicles were running almost continuously, only stopping for a red light.

Last night, he had finished reading the poetry book “Rainbow Land and Other Burma Verses” by C. J Richards. In the book, there was one poem titled “To an Indian bull on Sule Pagoda Road” and Lin wanted to find out about which spot on Sule Pagoda Road the poet had composed his poem.

When he got up this Saturday morning, he told his uncle, U Thein Lwin that he wanted to go downtown to meet his friend and to look for some books to read. Upon his uncle’s agreement, he went into town.

As usual, he wore his white shirt, slinging his Shan bag on his shoulder, and he applied some coconut oil on his head to keep his hair neat and tidy.

Lin remembered that his mother had applied coconut oil since he was young. Every time Lin went to school, his mother did this to keep his hair shiny and healthy.

Lin noticed that there was a flyover for people to use, but hurried pedestrians preferred using asphalt roads.

The cars and buses ran hard without stopping for pedestrians. The traffic policeman at his stall yelled at the jay walkers to use the bridge, but people failed to listen to his advice.

Lin also joined the group of jay walkers, waiting for the yellow bus to pass before him, then, he crossed Anawrahta Road (previously Frazer Road). He strolled along Sule Pagoda road, flanking a series of residence buildings which were in need of a coat of paint.

When he looked up at the year the buildings were built, he saw that they were built in 1923. He knew from the history books that during those years, Burma’s economy was booming and the government and people could build many buildings like these.

When he passed the fire station, he glanced at it, but he did not stop for long. He came down this road because he was trying to find the spot where C.J Richards wrote his poem.

Finally, he thought that he had reached it. It was the spot on the pavement which lied very close to Sule Pagoda. He stopped on that spot on the pavement, and took out the poetry book he had with him, and started to read it slowly to enjoy every bit of it.

A grubby girl approached him to feed the pigeons which had gathered on the pavement. Lin realized how bad the pavement had become because of the amount of bird droppings. But, he knew that there were paradoxical points related to feeding pigeons.

Some thought that pigeons would ruin the pavement so they should not feed birds, while others feed them to gain merits.

Lin simply declined the offer genteelly with a soft smile so that the girl shrank away, leaving Lin to ponder on the poem.

Beside him on the road, buses and private cars were coming and going on both sides like horses freed from padlocks. Some honked their horns to make more noise than needed, even though this part of the city was reserved as a horn-free zone.

On the side of the City Hall, there was also another bus stop at which people were waiting for buses to go home or to go uptown. Lin saw them standing on the pavement although there was a bus shelter for commuters.

Lin noticed that the road was busier and more crowded than in colonial days. In those days, people used man-pulled carts, and trishaws. The significant sight of those days would be pilgrims coming to visit the pagoda.

Even C. J Richards would have seen several people walking down the road in Rangoon. When he saw an Indian bull blocking his way, he composed a poem about the incident and published it in his book.

Because of the author, Lin could visualize what Sule Pagoda and its environs would have been like in those days.

Meanwhile, a man with a little girl was feeding raw corn seeds to pigeons on the pavement. The flurry of the noisy birds and they were trying to snatch as many seeds as possible.

The little girl seemed very excited to be feeding these birds which surrounded her, and she threw the seeds in different directions to be more active and invite a bigger flurry of birds.

She was giggling all the time, raising her small arms occasionally with big smiles on her small face. Her father was trying to hold her still, but he could not seem to control her well.

But, for Lin, he remembered the words C. J Richards used in the poem “Much honoured consort of thousand kile”, and started to like the poet’s sense of non-discrimination despite the fact that he was a colonizer.

After reading the poem, Lin smiled. Some words like Chowringheewere still ringing in his ears, but he did not get the meaning of it. He decided that when he got back to his house, he would look for the word Chowringhee.

He stood there for fifteen minutes. After that, he walked in the direction of Mahabandoola Park at which some food company was staging their product promotion with decorated arches at the entrance of the park, and playing some music to attract people to come into the park.

In the meantime, some of their employees gave out sample food to people who entered the park.