Maung Tha Cho - Dreams Don't Come Closer and Life's Perspectives

I don't eat chicken on rainy days.

(One)

My daughter...

Oh... A father who had been walking since before he could even yawn, came home drenched in sweat, and after listening to his father's radio, which he used to listen to every morning, he took his bicycle outside. When his daughter came to him and handed him the shopping basket...

"Dad, I just bought chicken."

The father, while attaching the shopping basket to the handlebars of his bicycle, looked at his daughter and then at his mother, who was standing behind her, and asked her if she was still tired. The mother laughed.

"I've never eaten chicken before, it's just cooked."

Dad remembered something, and as he pushed his bike out with a faint smile, his thoughts suddenly entered his morning again as he reached the road.

(2 years)

My daughter..

Behind the words of my mother and father, “I can only eat chicken now, I can only eat chicken now,” there was a very subtle and delicate social perspective that my daughter and I could not tell. Yes. Behind the words of my mother and father, there were some small fragments of life that I wanted to remind my daughter with my hand. I don’t know if my daughter remembers. Before that, my father had been away from home for many days. It was the month of Pyatho. My father had been in Bagan during the winter months when the Pyatho festival was being held at Ananda Pagoda. My father had been in Bagan for the entire duration of the festival. Ten or fifteen days were Pyatho days, when we were away from home. My daughter, those were the days when my daughters and I could not eat chicken.

(three)

It's not because he's avoiding his life because of his religious beliefs or anything, or because he's running out of money to buy groceries, but it's not because he's struggling to live, and the fact that my daughter and I haven't eaten chicken for days is strange to others, I don't know if it's strange, my daughter. In fact, it's a matter that is directly related to the environment where my father lives.

As you know, the neighborhood in front of the college where my father lived was very sparsely populated. The most densely populated area was near my father's house. There was no one in the main house. There was no one in the main house. There was no one in the front house. There was only one house in the back. That house was as small as my father's house. The family in that house was not poor, but their life was not very luxurious. The young man who headed the family was uneducated. He had not even finished primary school because he had no education. As you know, his wife had a degree, but she was always busy with her two young children who did not want to be separated by even a year. When my father went on trips and there was no one to take my mother to the market, the young man in that house became the one who would help my mother and me to the market. Behind his shrill voice, "Why don't you go to the market?", there will be a mixture of love and affection between good neighbors.

(four)

My daughter... When I returned from Bagan, my father and mother could not stop talking about the hardships they faced at the market. The main thing was that they felt sorry for Soe Naing Win in the next house. At a time when their children were seeing glimpses of life, where they had to buy food and drink in small quantities, they said, "Please buy a boneless chicken." "Please buy a small river carp." "Please buy a small river shrimp." It was a shame to say that I would not dare to say anything. He did not want to put a heavier, more magnificent, and more valuable burden on his heart than the burden he had already carried for his family. So he ordered a sour pork, a sweet potato,

Potatoes, eggs, fish, shrimp, and even a few days ago, my daughter didn't eat chicken... My daughter... The Soe Naing Win family in the back house told me that they eat a lot of butter every day, but even my daughter and mother couldn't believe it.

(Fish)

I don't remember. Once upon a time, my mother and father ordered medicine for U Soe Naing Win, saying that he was on the road. I ordered Liprovite to make my little brother Pauk Sana want to eat instead of Vitazone. Elephants. Monkeys, rabbits, owls, and all the cute little bottles of medicine. U Soe Naing Win said, "My son wants to eat too, don't worry." When he said that, my mother and father looked at me with eyes that looked like they had committed a crime. My daughter... Dad, when my father was away, my daughter wanted to eat ice cream, and I told my mother not to ask the children to buy it for them, even if they didn't want to buy it. When my father came back, I would buy it for them. Now look. My daughter doesn't eat chicken on the days of the dead. This is also a sign of good fortune in life, Dad thought, when the chicken stood in front of Ma Phyu Phyu, and Ma Phyu Phyu even managed to pull the chicken away. Then he looked at Dad and said

"Boneless, right?" Cook and eat chicken, Uncle Sak's daughter.

(1999, July, Cherry Magazine)