Sadhu - Love pattern

“No, Ma Thin Hton, what you say is not true. When you were young, your parents raised you with the system you are talking about. Well, that system is no longer modern, it is no longer modern.”

About 15 minutes before I heard such a voice, a woman in her forties, who was sitting in the small garden in front of a large stilt-roofed house on Ye Kyaw Street in eastern Yangon, was walking with steady steps from west to east and from east to west, while she was sitting with her brother and sister.

In that neighborhood, it is not easy to find land large enough to live in with a large yard and a garden, but almost every house has a small plot of land in front of it, surrounded by a fence, and cultivated with plants like a garden.

Daw Thin Hton also managed and cultivated the garden in front of her house... with various flowers and plants, and while she was walking in a relaxed manner, a postman appeared at the gate and handed her a letter. She looked at the envelope.

Mya Mya Tin

House number 376

Ye Kyaw Road, Ye Kyaw, Yangon.

Upon seeing the address, Daw Thin Hton's eyes suddenly widened, she straightened her slightly bent waist, and then quickly turned and entered the house.

Daw Thin Hton's husband was a merchant, so he made a living by buying and selling various medicines from Shwe Kyin. The spacious basement of the house was used as a warehouse, so it was packed with large packages of medicines.

Daw Thin Hton turned around and left the garden, and as she was about to go upstairs, she saw a man standing near the large medicine boxes downstairs, making a list with a book. She came down the stairs and stood near the man.

“Here, Ko Nyo Maung, a letter arrived with your daughter’s name on it.”

He took the bitten cigar out of his mouth and spat it out...

"Why did you give me a letter with my daughter's name on it? I gave it to my daughter."

U Nyo Maung's words and actions were cold, but Daw Thin Hton's expression was as if the letter she was holding was almost as important as the letter she had been asked to send.

"You can't help but talk carelessly, Ko Nyo Maung. Do you know what this letter is?"

"I can't help but wonder. Someone must have given the princess a letter. What do you think of the letter?"

After asking this question while placing the ledger in his hand on the table, U Nyo Maung sat down on a nearby armchair, looking as if he was enjoying a glass of ice water. Daw Thin Hton, as if she could not bear such behavior, pulled out a chair and sat down near U Nyo Maung.

"You're really tough, Ko Nyo Maung. Hey, I've been proud of you every chance I get, saying you've done a great job, and now..."

"Hey... wait a minute, are you saying something as grand as (sixteen stories)? What does it have to do with me going around and getting a letter to my daughter?"

U Nyo Maung asked this while quickly blowing out the smoke from his half-lit cigar...

"I'm just being careful. You know how I used to worry about my daughter, who was still a teenager, getting boyfriend letters out of nowhere?"

U Nyo Maung smiled at Daw Thin Hton, who was waving the letter in one hand, then sat up straighter, leaning back in his chair...

"I'm thinking about this too, son."

"So why are you asking me to give it to your daughter?"

"Sir.. isn't this a letter from my daughter? This is a matter that concerns my daughter. Neither you nor I have the right to read or control anything in this."

Upon hearing those words, Daw Thin Hton felt as if the entire universe had turned upside down.

"What are you talking about, Ko Nyo Maung? The way you talk about having a daughter after running away is so indifferent."

"Now... now, leaving aside the trivialities, tell me what you want to say about this letter."

“No, Ko Nyo Maung, have you noticed that your daughter is now at the most emotional age, the age where anything can easily happen to her?”

"Oh, yes, my daughter is now 15 years old. What's wrong with that?"

U Nyo Maung's demeanor was that of a government minister who, even after reading bad news about officials in one of his departments taking bribes, did not seem to be affected in any way, and showed no signs of taking action, but simply threw the newspaper away.

"The longer you listen, the farther away you are, Ko Nyo Maung. Your daughter is only 15 years old, a young girl who will be turning 15 this coming Thadingyut, so she is not old enough to criticize her mistakes. That's why I am writing this letter to you, lest she end up with the wrong people..."

"Do you want me to look into it? Or do you want me to delete it? Let me tell you briefly."

U Nyo Maung asked, as he saw a hand-sized blue dragonfly on the arm of a chair,...

“I can’t stand talking to you anymore, Ko Nyo Maung. Look at this letter now. If it’s a love letter, tear it up.”

"Oh, that's right, it's an insult to the rights that a person deserves."

Upon hearing those words, Daw Thin Hton's eyes widened and she let out a sigh.

"Are you insulting the fact that your parents, out of good faith, deleted the love letter that came to your daughter, fearing that she might end up with someone they didn't know?"

I gently puffed out the already short cigar with my index finger, middle finger, and thumb, holding it against the butt...

“Oh, that’s also an insult. I’ll tell you, listen, you who are the most intelligent of us, let’s say that a snake, an animal, eats a frog and swallows it. When a person sees this, he feels sorry for the frog and wants to save a life, so he drives the snake and the frog away. That is an insult to the right of that snake. If you compare it to the law, it is like blocking someone else’s food. The frog is the snake’s food, and the snake will eat the frog if it sees it. The frog will run away from the snake to save its life. So, they have the right to solve the problem of the snake and the frog. They can solve it themselves. There is no need for people to interfere in this.”

"So that means your daughter will have to watch her boyfriends grow up and become a prostitute."

Daw Thin Hton shook her head in dissatisfaction and asked sternly, "Why?"

"What's wrong with this? This is an example. Like this, snakes and frogs are animals, they have no sense. They can't be disciplined. My daughter is a human, she has sense. If you discipline her, she will become what you want her to be."

"Not yet, Ko Nyo Maung, you're just saying what you think. I'm not sure how difficult it is to control a 15-year-old girl, but I'm getting old."

"Aye... I know as well as you do, Ma Thinthon."

“So why are you deliberately speaking against tradition, Ko Nyo Maung?”

“What tradition? When a girl reaches puberty, she can’t have sex with her. Is it a tradition that you have to restrict her from writing letters? When you and I were dating, your parents restricted her in the same way. How did you feel at that time?”

Daw Thin Hton couldn't answer. She was sobbing in a distant voice.

“That’s not sympathy, Ma Thin Thon. Your parents were very strict when you were young. You didn’t let me get the letter in the meantime, did you? Aye... Princess will come like this too, don’t worry. It’s not just your daughter, every grown-up young woman, no matter how strict she is, this matter is not safe. They will go to the camp anyway.”

U Nyo Maung threw a cigarette into his mouth and lit a long cigarette.

"No matter what you say, this size is worth it if you can control it, isn't it, Ko Nyo Maung? You'll have to admit that."

"I can't accept it, Ma Thin Hton. You women are very difficult. If you are restricted in love in your youth, you will only rebel against your parents and become complacent. But when you become a mother yourself, you will be restricted from all sides. What kind of women are you, huh..."

U Nyo Maung, disappointed as he said this, turned his back and fell down, while Daw Thin Hton, unperturbed, assumed that she was right.

"So, I want to see my daughter riding an elephant and riding a horse."

“Oh... Every mother in the world wants to see her daughter go around the kingdom as a princess. But women want to choose the man they like in their virginity, and when they become mothers, they want their daughter to marry the man they want to marry. Are you okay? When you were a virgin, you didn’t marry the man your parents approved of, but instead followed me, Ma Thin Hton?”

That question made Daw Thin Htun pause. She thought. She also imagined the events from her childhood.

Daw Thin Htong was the daughter of a high-ranking government official and U Nyo Maung was just an ordinary low-level clerk, so even though they were young and in love, Daw Thin Htong's parents, unable to accept a man like U Nyo Maung, tried to control Daw Thin Htong in various ways, and finally, when they forced her to marry a young judge, Daw Thin Htong ran away and followed her lover U Nyo Maung.

It's amazing that until I finally understood and understood the incident, there was not even a hint of support for what U Nyo Maung was saying.

“That’s right, Ko Nyo Maung. But easy is easy, so in this case, it’s better to be a little more restrained, even if not more.”

"What, we're getting independence but pretending that we can't do anything we don't agree on?"

"No matter what you say, I feel the same way."

Daw Thin Hton spoke in a harsh tone, and listened intently to U Nyo Maung's words as she glanced at the money.

“No, Ma Thin Hton, what you said is not true. When you were young, your parents raised you with the system you are talking about. Well... that system is no longer modern, no longer modern.”

Instead of spitting from the center of his lips, as he normally would, U Nyo Maung spits out the dirty, discolored cigar saliva from the corner of his left lip, a gesture that is both effortless and expressive.

“Do you remember when you and I were dating, you wrote in your letter that your parents’ control was too unfair? Now that you’ve become a mother, are you following this system again? Don’t do it, Ma Thin Hton, this system is outdated.

I have already said that it is not enough. We must let them solve their problems. If you ask any adult what their most important desire is, most people will say that it is love. And this love is only for the person they love. You and I have no right to interfere in this. We must allow them to choose freely what they like.”

“So, if they want what they want, they should just let it go, Ko Nyo Maung.”

"Don't you have any words? It's the parents' responsibility to teach you the right path, and it's the children's responsibility to choose the best wife and husband for their whole lives. If you're smart, you're good, if you're stupid, you're bad. That's all."

Daw Thin Hton didn't say anything, and after a long time...

“It’s like saying, ‘I’ve heard of it before,’ Ko Nyo Maung. It’s only since you’ve been in power that you’ve invented new systems and started to beat your chest. If you continue to give your daughter the right to accept any letter she receives and reply to it, I won’t take responsibility for keeping your daughter. That’s it.”

Upon hearing those words, U Nyo Maung burst out laughing and then...

"Now... then... give me that letter, I will take care of my daughter and teach her the way myself."

As U Nyo Maung spoke, he grabbed the letter from Daw Thin Htong's hand and walked upstairs, and Daw Thin Htong followed without hesitation.

As soon as U Nyo Maung arrived upstairs, his daughter Mya Mya Tin