My First Experience as an Editor

Dr Maung Maung Nyo

(Chindwin River and Monywa)

Preamble

I have many interest and hobbies since my childhood. I was a very agile, active child involved in all kinds of plays and games that were popular at that time. Once I was playing “running after the mad dog (Khwe Yu Lite Tan)” and the domestic dog of a friend bit my left thigh. I was taken to the District Hospital in Monywa and was given 14 subcutaneous injections for anti-Rabies serum for 14 days! I still have a big scar on my left thigh from that dog bite. Once I was hit by the football about 4 or 5 feet from a kicker and fell unconscious. It was during a friendly match between the day scholars and the Bandoola Wing of the Male Hostel at the Branch Medical Faculty (BMF) in Mandalay
(Now renamed University of Medicine Mandalay) in 1957. The football kicker at that time was my close friend and class mate Dr Chit Khaing. He rushed to me and revived me frantically. Luckily I recovered, but I stopped playing football altogether since then. Yes, I can easily discard certain sports and games, but not literature.

(Mandalay Fort and Moat)

Introduction to Literature

My father used to buy monthly Burmese Magazines like Thwe Thauk (The Comrade) and Shumawa (The Enchanting Beauty) Magazines regularly when we were young and we browsed through those magazines starting with U Ba Gyan’s cartoons, then Minthuwun’s children fables and stories. From those beginnings I learned to read poems, short stories and articles on various subjects. My father always talked about Thein Pe Myint who was his class mate and he was writing his war time experiences “Traveler during the War (Sit Ah Twin Kha Yee The) in the Shumawa Magazine. Our school, the No. 1 State High School in Monywa, encouraged literary activities and it was the alma mater of my father, Thein Pe Myint, O’ Way U Nyo Mya.his brother ICS U Soe Tin. ICS U Ba Nyein etc. Thus a literary tradition was thrust into me and its bug bites me for ever.

(Monywa Thambuddhey Pagoda)

Debut in Literature

My literary bug remained dormant from the 7th standard in 1952 to the premedical intermediate class at the University of Rangoon in 1956 due to heavy curricular load.
I, however, attended the talks given by prominent literary figures like Dr Htin Aung,
U Thar Myat, Daw Khin Myo Chit etc at the University of Rangoon. They instilled in me not only literary knowledge but also love of literature. The Myat Yadana Magazine ( The Precious Gem) published by the Young Monks Association of Mandalay selected my article written about the Shwe Gu Ni ( Red Cave) Pagoda in Monywa, but it was not published due to my inability to submit photographs by me. My first article was published in the Kye Mon (The Mirror) Daily in 1959. It was about the Burmese culture and Western Dance. (Artist Pagyi Maung Ngwe Tun gave me a cutting of my first article in Kyemon in 1986 or 87.) Then, I was appointed as the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of the BMF Annual Magazine in 1959. I duly took full responsibility to publish it even though I transferred to the Medical College in Rangoon that year. I continued contributing to the Kyemon Daily with articles on current students’ interest like abolition of 3-F system, giving more stipends and state scholarship to students etc.

(Rangoon Medical College)

Problems as an Editor

The first problem faced by the Editor or Editor-in-Chief was to get the approval of members of the editorial committee to work in unison or congenially. It’s no good if there is much grumbling and one has to have cordial relations with other members. I started any meeting jovially but with definite agenda and I tolerated whatever was said of me with laughter, but I drove to arrive at a conclusion. I was liked by many students at that time. No body dared to challenge me also probably because I held the key to their meals as
I was the Secretary of the messing committee that looked after their meals everyday.

(Sule Pagoda)

The second problem was getting enough manuscripts (Sarmu) for the annual magazine. We had only about 200 or 250 students at BMF at that time and few wrote. So, we had to get the articles and short stories from outside famous authors of Mandalay like Ludu Daw Ah Mar, Daw Marlar, Mya Myo Lwin, Chit Nyo, Kyi Mya etc. The late Dr Hoke Kyaing accompanied me whenever I went and he also wrote several articles with pseudonym Man Tun Kyaing. He even thought of changing his name from Hoke Kyaing to Tun Kyaing. The late Dr Tun Shwe and Tekkatho Phone Naing also contributed to our magazine. The latter republished his novel that appeared in our magazine as a solo novel after 4 or 5 years. It was entitled as “ The Oversized Ocean and the Silvery Star ( Ye Pin Le Hnint Ngwe Zin Kye)”.

(Shwedagon Pagoda)

The third problem was cover design and painting. The BMF lacked an artist like Dr San Myint or Dr Nyunt Wai of IM 2 at that time. Commercial painting for a magazine cover was also expensive. So, we looked for an artist to paint for our cover free. We found Pagyi Maung Ngwe Tun willing to help us. Maung Ngwe Tun drew the cover with white background, red staff and snake and black bold letters for BMF.

The fourth problem was printing and we had connection with a press in Rangoon that was popular with the university students and the magazine was published in the late 1959. I had to collect advertisement for the stores and shops at the Bogyoke Market, first to persuade them to advertise in our magazine and secondly to get their printing blocks to be given to the press. I succeeded with the assistance of the late Dr Hoke Kyaing and Dr Win Hlaing.

The last and most important thing was to distribute the published magazine and to recover the costs of printing, paper, advertisements, sundry expenses and so on. The food and traveling expenses you incurred and spent for you and your friends doing the magazine jobs had to be borne by you. I was able to foot them as I was a premedical scholarship holder and a military medical cadet officer in those days.

I won’t talk about things like getting ‘filler’ article, quips, cartoons and poems. I myself provided many articles and poems for the first publication of the BMF Annual Magazine.
I was capable of writing in both Burmese and English.

(My Family in Australia during my Visit There)

Epilogue

The first experience of the Editor in British terminology or the Editor-in-Chief in American usage is one of satisfaction and excitement. It gives a pleasure that is not available in other areas or adventures. It’s like a mother seeing her first born child after so many labour pains suffered by her, yet, now he is the product of such pain, so lively and lovely, crying and clinging to you!

From this literary experience, one embarks upon a literary career full of joys and jolts but never free of excitement and ecstasy as you live in a world of learned and leisurely people where every body is equal and every one respects the other. There is no question of money or wealth and richness in dealings and one is at peace with oneself and with others. Besides, it welcomes any body from any trade provided that person has an interest in literature who can read and write. We have learned poets like Zaw Gyi and Min Thu Wun, ungrduated poets like Daung New Swe, famous writers coming from the street like Thaw Dar Swe, air force pilot Lethaye Tit Oo, merchant seaman Annawar Soe Moe, Doctors like Maung Thin and myself etc. And a single writing may be very successful. The late Dr Ohn Maung was awarded the national literary prize for writing his travelogue to UK to cure his son’s ailment hydrocephalus. Margaret Mitchell only once wrote a novel; it was the ever best seller,” Gone with the Wind”.

Since then, I have continued writing, taking part in all literary activities being elected to the editorial boards of many magazines and to the executive committee of many journals such as the Pyin Nya Padetha Journal (University Knwledge Journal or Academic Digest), University Research Journal, Burma Medical Journal and so on. I have also won some literary prizes including the National Literary Prize of Burma. I was even selected as the Burma’s representative for the UNESCO literary prize in the 1980s. Is this personal boasting? No, I am near 70 years of age and this is told just to share my experience with younger generations of medical doctors.

My experience as an editor is, indeed, indelible, yes, undeletable and unforgettable. It gives me immense pleasure whenever I think of it. And it makes me what I am today.

Dr Maung Maung Nyo
19.10.2008