Tin Maung Myint - Madam Curie

The Polish girl who would later become the world-famous scientist Marie Curie, named Maya Skłodowska, was a healthy, honest, intelligent, and very bright girl as a child. Marie's teachers in Warsaw remembered her as a very bright student.

At first glance, the youngest Marie might not seem any different from her older siblings, who are all very intelligent. However, if you look closely, you will see a unique quality that is different from all of them.

She is a petite girl, so she is affectionately called Maya. Like her sisters, she wears a beautiful blouse and a blouse, and she likes a black dress with small black ribbons.

There was nothing in the world as fun as climbing onto a cushioned stool and trying to kiss my lovely mother's face.

At such times, Mother would use her beautiful fingers to caress the face and soft hair of her tenacious little daughter. This was the most favorite comfort for Manya from her mother.

As far as Manya could remember, she had never been kissed by her mother. However, whenever she received a word or a smile from her mother, she would feel a gentle joy. Mother Sklodowska's eyes, filled with love and sincerity, seemed to be watching over her little daughter's future.

The little girl did not know about her mother's pitiful loneliness. Her beautiful mother, Skłodowska, was suffering from a serious illness. When the little girl was born in 1867, she began to suffer from lung disease. Despite various treatments, the disease did not improve.

However, Madame Clos Dossier was a religious, very righteous, and very brave woman.

He tried his best to hide the pain he was in. He never lost his temper, insisting that he was healthy. He never gave up. He made his own rules. He kept his own food and drink separate for him. He never hugged or kissed his sons and daughters.

The children only knew a little about their mother's illness when she had a dry cough or when her father frowned. And when they prayed at night, they would add a verse like, "Let's pray for mommy's health to recover." That day, Mommy slowly got up and gently pushed away the little girl who had come into her arms -

"Mom, I have things to do, my daughter. Let's go play in the park," she said. Manya had to leave her mother's side.

Manya remembers last summer. Every summer, her family would visit relatives in the forest. It was a very enjoyable summer school break.

These days, they are all real. They are like little village children. They paddle in the stream. They play and throw mud at each other.

Seven or eight cousins ​​gathered and climbed the old lemon trees. They carried the youngest, Manya, in their arms and carried her to the lemon tree. They wrapped the cherries and gooseberries they had smuggled in with cabbage leaves and ate them cold on the lemon tree.

But they don't have to play all the time. Last summer, Bronya, who was already seven years old, got tired of memorizing all the consonants, so she came up with an idea and played a game of tag with her younger sister, Manya. They took turns playing tag. .

One morning, while reciting a lesson in front of my father and mother, Bronya was stuttering. Manya couldn't wait any longer and helped her sister recite the lesson. Everyone fell silent in astonishment. Thinking that the teacher was playing tricks on her, Manya explained the rest of the lesson in detail.

The little girl, whose ears were burning, immediately realized her mistake. The faces of her father and mother were so surprised that they could not understand, and Bronya's eyes were so angry. Manya burst into tears of sorrow.

Instead of being shocked and shaken by such a situation as a four-year-old girl, the little girl sobbed and said in a hurt voice -

"Don't be mean to Bronya, I didn't do it on purpose. I got it because the papers were so easy," she pleaded.

Later, when Mayya picked up the big books, her father and mother would say, "Daughter, go play with the dice." "Mayya, what about your dolls?" They would have to divert her attention. The father and mother, who were modern intellectuals who understood the psychology of children, were worried that their daughter would become a "ripe" child before her due date.

Manya's parents were both educated people from a wealthy Polish family. Her mother, Skłodowska, was the director of a girls' school, a school that only the Polish upper class could attend. Her father, Skłodowski, had a degree in physics from St. Petersburg University in Russia. He was a physics teacher at a boys' high school. The school's administrator, Ivan, was a Russian teacher. He was a spy sent by the Russian government. All Poles hated him. They feared him.

It was a small thing to be Polish in 1872. Over the past century, Poland had been weakened by powerful neighboring countries. It was annexed by Prussia, a vassal state of Russia and Austria.

Once in 1831, once in 1863, Poland rebelled against Russia. But the revolution failed and the chains were tightened more and more. Polish patriots were arrested. They were imprisoned. Polish property was confiscated. Russian secret police, teachers, and bankers came in and held the Polish people in check. Religion was suppressed and Polish literature was abolished as an official language. In short, the spirit of a nation was killed. But Poland refused to die. Poland, a small country, did not bow its head or knee to the tyranny of a great power.

The Polish patriots fled in droves to Siberia to seek reinforcements. The Polish revolutionaries were not just warriors who attacked the Cossacks with maces and swords, as they had been in the past.

Today's heroes include modern intellectuals. Artists, monks, and teachers, who were the incubators of new ideas and new generations, secretly guided patriotic students by pretending to cooperate with the invaders. .

As the two of them walked hand in hand back into the house from the garden, Teacher Sklo Dossky was telling his wife about Ivan.

As soon as the two sisters entered the study, Madame Sklodowska stopped her work and looked up at her husband. The work she was doing was very laborious. Holding a leather-cutting knife in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, she never wasted time and used it to her advantage. It was a characteristic of a woman to never let time go to waste. The illness that had kept her from going out had taught her to make shoes since she was young.