Maung Thaw Ka - Thoughts of a Pensioner

I have been planning to get up early in the morning and walk 6 miles for my health for almost 40 years, but since I only woke up at 9 am for 365 days a year, I had to eat Kapya Nastar and go to the office until I received my pension. After receiving my pension, I slept so much that I only woke up at 10 am. Ahosugavattha, it is good to have a pension.

Here, the word "nastar" is explained to non-Burmese Muslims in Mandalay. Again, "breakfast" in Myanmar is "chuttar hazari". According to an educated young man who has a French diploma and has not yet found a job on a daily wage of 5 kyats 25, it is called "petite de shuné". If we are to understand it in common terms, it most closely means having a drink when getting up early in the morning. If you have not yet explained what I have written, my purpose has been achieved. The reason is that I have been writing since I started writing, like a golden peacock, and I have not yet written a book on a topic that is nothing, but I have been busy writing and keeping my friends' eyes busy with my writing.

There is a reason. I am not writing without a reason. Today, Burmese literature is full of confusing and confusing writing, in other words, it is difficult to write texts that are easy for the public to understand, and it is difficult to write in a way that is confusing and confusing.

While I was practicing my complicated literary work, a retired military friend of mine walked into my tent, carrying a walking stick and “a bag of flowers, a bottle of wine, and a cigarette.”

• Me.. Morning Major, did you come back by walking, or did you come back after visiting the temple?
• Pensioner.. Morning, morning, Major, I just came to you after a short break from the pagoda.
• (To make matters worse, Major Morning, as I have called him all my life, is a polite and respectful address, and he responds in the same way. I have read that the English writer Charles Dickens wrote in his novel "Dunbar and Son" that... Dickens first came to America at the end of the American Civil War. After observing the American landscape, Dickens made a remark. "This is a strange country. If you bump into three men shoulder to shoulder in the street, one of them will be an ex-general," he said. Then he sighed. "O! flag of liberty at close quarter thou art nothing but a sorry fustian ." I have not yet bought a designer watch by Tatou, so I do not know the meaning of that sentence.)
• Me.. I'm low on energy, so what's going on with my energy now?
• Oh, of course, I'll have to call my own people to the lab once, have you eaten yet?
• Me.. Well... I guess everyone in modern times is doing these things. This is also a kind of disease.
• Yes. I'm thinking about opening a tea shop or a restaurant. I'm taking some advice from you.
• Me.. Don't try it. Opening a tea shop is a job for people who are stupid. If I do it for a year, I will be screaming "Want, Tu Kaw" even in my dreams. It's a free job.
• Even.. If it's free work, why do you have to do it? I heard you opened a tea shop.
• Me.. I am not a business person. I am a literary worker. The woman at home is the one who cooks rice. There is one thing. The tea shop business is being criticized every day. Former officials are being attacked.
• Oh, my.. I'm just trying to figure it out. Who's coming to greet me?
• Me.. The cow's milk is given by the cow. If you think that the salam has decreased a little, you will say, "Hey, kid.. I won't take your milk anymore, you have too many panni." I give it about ten times a day.
• . . This is also a disease. If you don't work like that, what will you do? We don't get a full pension. Even if you get a full pension, six hundred kyats a month is an immovable asset. I . . Don't move. I'm going to go in and see if the grass will respect me. It's like stepping on a big tree and getting paid. Also, every business outside is illegal. We don't have a clean slate. We do printing. We have to deal with illegal paper. We open clinics. We are familiar with illegal medicine. Finally, even if you want to watch a movie, you have to buy tickets illegally.
• Yes. Today, everyone has some kind of contraband on their person. From watches, pens, glasses to slippers. Every house has it. Cassette tapes, toothbrushes, soap dishes, all of them are smuggled in without duty. Is it possible that we want to be free from contraband?
• I.. Currently, I am in a situation where I cannot be completely free. But I will be free as much as possible. Don't use anything. Don't listen to cassette tapes. I don't brush my teeth, I eat with a stick and hot water. My toothpaste is charcoal powder and salt, and I wear a Pathein hat soaked in oil instead of a hat. If you, the great old soldiers, can't be a role model, who can?
• . . If you can have the attitude you mentioned, it would be good. I haven't seen it much yet. The main thing is ego. Pride, resentment, and selfishness are also common. There is a misconception that we had to do it at the worst time, and only when the good times came did we go out and starve. We have fulfilled our responsibility. That's enough. Let them continue to shoulder their historical responsibilities in turn. Right...
• Me.. Yes. Not only that. In the present, we will also fulfill our responsibilities as much as we can. As much as we can. For example.. cleaning the community, sweeping the streets, and keeping the fire safe. We want to avoid selling BEDC white liquor, and smuggling cigarette boxes, so that we don't leave a black mark on our history..
• . . So what do you do? Have you never seen a broom sweeper? Me . . . I have fulfilled my duty to the country by doing nothing. Here, if you are satisfied with the English translation of the golden peacock, the blind poet Milton said, "They also serve who only stand and wait."
• Oh.. I don't know the meaning of that because I haven't bought a tattoo dictionary yet. I'll go.
• Me.. Yes. The more I don't know what I'm talking about, the more people think I'm great. Now.. come on, old pensioner. See you next time.

A Variety of Funny Magazine, August, 1979.