Ye Shan - 5 short stories

A bird that has lost its perch

( one)

I would like to tell you about the houses in the neighborhood where we live. The neighborhood is a small neighborhood with 6 lanes, but the houses are very close together. Since it is a civil servant neighborhood, the houses should be similar in shape, but they are built on whatever land they can, so they are of various shapes and the number of houses is more than the number of houses. If we were to take a census of the neighborhood, I think we would have to take a census of Mu Nae Aung. .

The neighborhood is divided by a main road. So the benefits and privileges between the houses on the side of the road and the houses in the interior also change. The small houses that have been expanded by the houses on the side of the road have become shops. There are restaurants, tea shops, fruit stalls, fish and fish paste stalls, grocery stores, cold stores, bookstores, tape stores, hair salons, and PCO phone shops, as well as game shops and billiard tables. These shops are not run by the employees themselves. Since they are salaried employees and do not have any extra money, the wealth to establish a shop is very small. So they easily rent out shop spaces that make money quickly. When they get a little bit of money, they can forget about their own situation.

The houses on the side of the road are rented out as small shops and the houses inside are also suitable for renters. Since they are small houses with high stilts, they even rent them out after laying a foundation stone. Some do not rent permanent houses and open small guesthouses. The small space on the back is a comfortable paradise for those who cannot afford to go to large guesthouses. They are also convenient. There are many children and adults who welcome passengers who get off the train at dusk. Since they only send them to the guesthouses for the day, there is a rush of people asking whether they want to stay or not when the train arrives. When you add the calls of taxi drivers, the station becomes chaotic when the train arrives.

In the evening, when the rain had stopped, the streets of our neighborhood were very crowded. I was amazed as I watched people from the neighborhood vomit on the streets. How many people are there in the neighborhood? There are also many children. There are also many stray dogs.

The designs of the people who come to the street are also very diverse and colorful. The clothes of those who come from the delta and the left to work and eat in the market are very different from the clothes of those who live in the village in the neighborhood.

The people in the neighborhood, wearing tight jeans, tight shirts, earrings, and hair in a ponytail, walking back and forth on the street, listening to music in tea shops, and talking about the upcoming football game that night, are the mainstays of the neighborhood. The young girls also wear short skirts and shorts, with their necks slightly higher than their bodies, their hair done with a machine, and they show off their style in small record stores, choosing records, eating steaks, and eating barbecue. It's a mistake to think that this is a model show.

In addition to being close to the city, it is easy to get to by car and train, and it is easy to shop, eat, and do other things, and the cost of renting a house is very low. It is not surprising that renters have become wealthy. If you compare the neighborhood, which is full of life and built with chaotic sentences, to Saya Maung Htun Thu's Thaw Beila Flat, I would be happy to accept it.

My house is perpendicular to the road and faces three lanes, so I can rent out a grocery store and a small store, but my next door room is inside the lane, so I can't rent out a shop. So I only do the traditional business of renting out houses in the neighborhood. If I can build three 8-foot-wide rooms on the side of the plot, I don't think the monthly income of that house will be less than the monthly salary of the head of the household.

I don't know who the tenants are in the next room, but a woman leaves with a basket of vegetables, and a man leaves with a basket of seasonal fruits such as grapefruit, mango, banana, and pineapple, so I can conclude that they are people who come from the Alaw or the Delta to live and sell. Are the greengrocers and fruit sellers married or single, do they have children, where in the Delta or in the Anaga region? I'm not interested, but my wife spends about half an hour getting her hair done at the local women's hair salon once a month, and I can gather all the information.

Just now, a man and a woman who sell fruits and vegetables live next door to my house. There is an old woman in a small town in the delta (my wife seems to have forgotten the name of the town), the woman’s mother. They also have a son. The boy’s name is Min Khant. He is about 10 years old. He has been sent to school. The man sells fruits in the Sulaye area and the woman sells vegetables in the Thein Phyu market. Now the old woman is very sick and has been hospitalized. And they bring news that no one has come to visit her.

" Brother... I don't know if my grandmother will die. What if she dies? It's convenient to have a funeral, but where will we have lunch?"

My wife searched and thought about it.