It doesn't rhyme perfectly as the title suggests. I mean Nan the Royal palace, then Mandalay, then
Yangon and by that, Yan will strike a discordant note in your ears.
When I reread U Ponnya's poem Jasmine, the first line of the second stanza,
I see the Royal Palace, the palace grounds cut off by the
moat, and the environs where city dwellers live and go about their business.
And I get the sweet scent of jasmine from the royal garden spreading over onto
the abodes of the commoners. I don't know if jasmine is tabooed on the other
side of the moat. But by any reason, I won't think so, and sabe (jasmine) is not thazin (Bulbophyllum
auricomum), the ethereal queen of flowers, poised on topmost branches of the
tallest trees, and reserved for the Royalty. If the uncouth hands of the
commoners were allowed to plant and tend their jasmines, the scent from them
will mingle over the moat with those of the Royal jasmines and this is the
sight and smell roused in me by U Ponnya's poem. And so I do not feel like
seeing the last part of the first line cited simply as sabe getting plentiful
because it is in season in the royal garden.
I haven't stayed any time long enough in Mandalay to get a
bit familiar with its geography, especially the way its streets are referenced.
Nevertheless, I heard that the pya (streets) there now are invaded by imported
bare, fair thighs and emulated by some stocky, not-so-fair ones of locals that
were used to be covered up by sarongs hung down over the feet, so as to give crafty
display of their golden anklets.
Now that the palace has been rebuilt, I guess the public has
access to the palace grounds which used to be garrisoned and closed to the
public. I've no idea, how open or close this place is but I felt it should be
as accessible as the pyramids of Egypt or the ruins of Chiang Mai in Thailand
(disclaimer: never been to either one). At least I am glad.
In Yangon, we used to live in a place called Fa-Sa-Pa-La Sanpya kwet-thit or AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's Freedom
League) model quarter. Kwet-thit means new-quarter and places with that name
usually were vacant land used by people without permission, I guess, most of
them moving in from rural areas looking for better life. However, since our
kwet-thit bears the adjective Sanpya
meaning model, the government must
have at least some involvement in it. Before this AFPFL quarter, I vaguely
recall living in a place called Kya-gu
kwet-thit or tiger's-crossing quarter, it was somewhere around the location
of the previous Ministry of Construction on the Shwe Dagon Pagoda Road.
The Fa-Sa-Pa-La model quarter was bounded on the west by one
of a few thoroughfares from north to the downtown Yangon passing over across
the main rail-line. It was called the Signal-Pagoda Road and later as Alan-pya-paya Lan and I don't know if
the name is still used. On the east was the Upper Phayre Street (now Ah-tet
Pansodan Street). I am not sure about the roads bounding the quarter on the
north and south. I think, on the south it was Victoria Avenue, and on the north
it could be Zoo Road. The quarter was laid out neatly with one main road going
from east to west through the middle and bisecting ten lanes running north to
south. It happened that the whole quarter was burnt down, accidentally, or may
be otherwise as it was the popular opinion in those days. I was about 11 or 12.
Afterwards the government claimed the land and erected some public housing.
After an intervening year or so after the fire, our family got settled in a
public housing site in East Yangon partly as compensation. After 58 years there
we have to move again, now temporarily. But that's another story.
When we were living in Fa-Sa-Pa-La, there on the north and
across the road was the Botanic Garden of the Rangoon Horticultural Society.
There was some building that housed the Society at the far end of the garden to
the east and it was right on the Upper-Phayre Street. Now a hotel is there. The
rest of the garden has now been occupied by commercial game centers and
restaurants and the zoo adjacent to the garden on the far west part has taken
up a large slice of the garden.
Well, I missed this nature park with different trees and
wild life right in the middle of metro Yangon. I remember particularly the
clumps of wamin (king bamboo) with
dark green bulging internodes and stately golden bamboo clumps. The southern
border was lined with thick walls of sein-na-ban bushes bearing yellow, white,
orange, red, and pink flowers and purple berries. Close to the south-east
corner, there was an avenue lined with kabwi
(casuarinas), along which actor Kyaw Swe walked in the sad climax of the
memorable movie "Mhway" based on the story by the writer Khin Hnin
Yu.
As a boy, I knew vaguely that there were military buildings
on the Signal Pagoda hill across the Signal Pagoda Road. I remember that this
hill was commonly called gaw-ya kone,
meaning the hill of English soldiers, I think. We used to have a piece of quite
spacious and slightly raised land with shady trees, mostly kok-ko between the first lane of our quarter and the Signal Pagoda
Road. Right across this space and on
their side of the road there was what I thought the World War II memorial
pillar. Now it is no more. In those days they didn't have a fence or a wall on
the side of the hill that bordered this road. So we can climb up the hill to
reach the pagoda on top. I might have gone up once or twice and on one occasion
I remember vividly tasting zee fruits
(jujube) still green on the tree and it tasted really bitter. It was so calm up
there and I saw no one.
Now that the seat of Government has moved to Nay-pyi-taw and
the military complex on Signal Pagoda hill has been vacated, people who know
this place could have dreams of seeing this place reserved entirely for the
public.
If it were the reality, then from the top of the hill you
would enjoy the breathtaking view of Yangon river itself on the south; Hlaing
river to the west as it flows into Yangon river together with the Twentay canal
in the south; Pazundaung creek in the east meeting Bago river and flowing into
Yangon river in the south-east from where they flow out to the sea; there in
the distance you would see the Kyaik-khauk pagoda and Thanlyin Town. Towards
the north you will get an unobstructed view of our great Shwe Dagon.
Imagine that there will be old people, young people, and
children as you'd seen in Union Day celebrations; beautiful people, beautiful
dressess, beautiful languages and accents those of which you were not used to
seeing or hearing. There will also be our own urbanites as well as foreigners.
Let's think about trees, flowers, green grass and scents of
sabe, gangaw, saga, khayay, and padauk. Anyone could sit and enjoy the views
all around, forgetting time, forgetting everything.
Now, if nice and beautiful hotels spring up all around the
hill, and if you were allowed to enjoy this hill in some restricted space
cordoned off by walls of the hotels, how would you feel?
For me, I would feel like walking along the narrow pavement
between the walls of the Traders Hotel and the Bogyoke Aung Sun Street as I do
now, at times doubting if I am living here on our land.
