Yangon Ba Swe - Five short stories

Male

Khin Tha Mu stood in the middle of the hall, opened his eyes, and looked around. The entire hall was decorated with a red poplin banner that was hanging quietly around the perimeter.

In the background of the stage, a dark green student flag with a peacock motif was spread out, covering the entire stage about halfway.

The tables and chairs on the stage were also tightly covered with red cloth, matching the banner.

In the left corner of the stage, there was also a silk flag with a peacock feather standing upright on a pedestal about six inches high.

Traditionally, there would be a vase of water on the table in the middle.

However, Khin Tha Mu did not like that kind of arrangement. So he brought two large ivory-painted wooden barrels to use as flower pots, and in the barrels he had planted the red “Buddha’s Prayer” flowers, which were blooming in advance for about five days.

Now, the two large, green, and fresh-cut bamboo shoots were on either side of the table on the stage. Khin Tha Mu was quite pleased with his appearance.

Then he turned to his companions and said.

" Khin Lei Lei Win, turn on the lights." When Khin Lei Lei Win ran to turn on the light switch, the whole room became peaceful. The companions were happy in their hearts and looked around at Khin Tha Mu with appreciative eyes.

Khin Tha Mu covered all the lamps in the room with green paper and turned them upside down, facing the ceiling.

The greens reflected off the white ceiling and walls, creating cool, light greens that illuminated the entire room.

The blue light from the slide lights, which were placed on the stage from a place where the audience could not see, fell on the red table, making it look like a large painting with purple dots in some of the dark places.

" He's a rare find in modern inventions, but his ideas are different."

"Fatima, who has been in the arts class for two years, said,"

Khin Tha Mu looked up from where he had been squinting at the bright light falling on the stage, then turned to look at Femme.

" Don't praise me too much, Ma, I'll run out of things to praise for a long time. Just wait and listen to what the writers who have chosen me say and preach. Watch how advanced the ideas are, how innovative the thoughts are."

" Hey, try to speak directly to the people you want to talk to. Don't mix with the crowd. Your Dao is a fish that has been pickled many times. How many Dao people have improved?"

" Then you'll see for yourself what's going on with the Magi."

" Don't do that, I don't want to know about your wealth."

" Yes, Ma, it's a great thing to be associated with him. He's leftist, and his ideas don't even have much to do with the industrial age, we're in the electric and atomic age. I don't know what his ideas are."

" Is he a 'Grudge'?"

" He's not a graduate, he just graduated from Inter, but his English is very good, and the books he reads are not very well understood."

Khin Lei Lei Win entered and started to speak.

" In that case, don't worry, it's very similar. Even if you don't, we have the most modern and advanced art in the entire Malasaung, so we'll be very similar going forward."

Khin Tha Mu twisted and pulled Khin Lei Lei Win's arm.

" I don't go ahead and follow you. He's a handsome man, so I'll go ahead and follow you with beautiful women like Khin Lei Lei Win."

Here, Femma suddenly intervened.

" Oh, it's clear, it's clear, only you can judge whether your sword is only for ideas or for people."

" There's no need to be critical, the Daws are just fools. Now, Magyi himself admits that his novels, which appear in Myawaddy and Shumawa, are new ideas, and Magyi himself doesn't like them."

" I don't know why you guys don't understand this, Tha. You don't read novels that much, and Tha is the only one who is a member of the Mala Sastha."

“ Hey, hey, hey, hey, don’t do this, tell me, my dear.”

" What's not there yet?"

"I don't like the writings of that writer."

"Who else is there?"

"Writer Aung Win"

" I really like it, it's called "Fay Breed", what's that, Auntie?"

" Poor Auntie"

" Sorry, Cha Cha, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't like your older sister, what's wrong with you? Is it because you're young?"

" Mittu, Mittu, I don't know how old or young the poor thing is yet, that's it."

" Yes, I don't know, I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I follow the length of the Buddha, I follow the length of the thunderbolt,"

" Oh, Kyu, you're really trying, just come over and pay for it, this girl."

" What will I get if I win? If not, come here. As a small egg, I will even give you a small piece of fruit. How can I say one person? One vote is certain."

Khin Tha Mu looked at Phat Mee Ma and Khin Kyu May, then suddenly turned from his smiling position to the stage and stared at them with wide eyes.

“ I have an idea. I want to remove the colored paper from the top of a slide light that is hanging on the stage over there, so that the students below can clearly see the people on the stage.”

While Femme was staring at the stage, Kyu stepped in and answered.

" Everything the Prime Minister said is true."

"What's wrong?"

" I know, since we don't do anything, the Prime Minister must have been right."

Then the Khin Tha Mu set up the tables and chairs.