A Day in Shwe Paukkan
Dr Maung Maung Nyo
On the second day of January 2010
We left Parami Quarter before eleven
Nyunt Way (Katha) and son at hand
We sit squeeze and speak like rabbits in a den.
(Paragu Shantinikatan Library at Shwe Paukkan, Notrh Okkalapa)
The car is air-conditioned clean and light
The chauffeur is sweet swift and street wise
But roads are unsurfaced and uneven with holes
We ride the car like ships in rough sea in tow.
No one has ever been to the place before
Shwe Paukkan is famous for Paragu’s lore
He has built a library worth many Kyats in croes
We have to find a way asking people though.
(L to R: Nyunt Way(Katha or Dr Thein Nyunt, Dr MMNyo, Dr NOM,
Phtographer,Dagon Taryar, Min Yu Way and Paragu; Standing Right
is Dr Than Win)
After bumping and bundling the same road twice
We find the Paragu Shantinikatan building right
In the centre of huts shrubs and trees village like
We wonder at warm welcome and wonderful sight.
(Saya Paragu Cheering on the Extreme Right)
Saya Paragu is waiting with all smiles
He has been longing for this all the time
With home cooked food whisky and wine
He has invited the media persons too to dine.
( L to R: Min Yu Way, Paragu, Devi, Dagon Taryar,Nyunt Way (Katha),
Dr MMNyo, Dr Nan Ommar, Myint Myint Sein)
Dagon Taryar Min Yu Way and Dr Than Win
Myint Myint Sein and Devi all smiling
They welcome us with media men chiming
We hand over the computer before dining.
(Dr Nan Ommar and Dr MM Nyo Handing Over the Computer to
Paragu is happy boisterous and buoyant
He says today is the happiest he has spent
For 88 years doing nothing for him self
Disrobed at 17 to write for people needing help.
His library was the third biggest in Burma early
After the National Archives and Rangoon University
But now it has become the biggest in the country
The former two have been shelved to the quandary.
He speaks he smiles and he laughs
He says he is very excited and emotional just
To say that it’s his red letter day at long last
We applaud him by drinking and dining in chorus.
He shows us his library around
Over forty thousand books bound
In Burmese, English, Hindi, Pali, French all found
We can also read in Chinese and Bengali along.
He has employed a librarian and four assistants
They are paid monthly wages at subsistence
From the royalties of his books
It needs a regular income for good.
We leave the place in the late after noon
Enjoying the food, friendship and fun fume
Taxing on a rugged rough and raw road
Our body in pain and bones already broke
Yet we feel happy and leave with a hope
To enlighten the people to widen their scope!
Dr Maung Maung Nyo
7.1.2010 (original)
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