Wednesday 12 June 2013

Mingalabar ...

If in Kuwait, I was warmly greeted with ah lan wah sah lan (welcome), yet when I arrived in Myanmar (Burma) the word Mingalabar was 'sprinkled' all over me. It also gives a lovely meaning i.e. bless upon you or auspiciousness :))

We arrived in Yangon in mid 1999, which was to be our home-sweet-home for five fruitful years. Although, I was discouraged by some colleagues to trail my better half to a country which was then ruled by junta, but I followed my little heart and, since then I've never regretted my decision. 

The fruitful five years include - me seeing my school going children grown up to become teenagers; meeting fellow DS from other nations; getting to know local friends who later became loyal Thursday buddies; understanding the Myanmar unique culture of trusting the fortune tellers; and the opportunity to explore the exotic country which was very rich with marine life, beautiful paddy fields, luxurious gems stones, acres and acres of teak wood forests; and thousands of stupas and pagodas. 

The beautiful experience which I tasted and gathered prompted me to write a journal which later was turned into a book in 2002 entitled Myanmar - Seeing is Believing, about my life through the eyes of a DS residing in the country. Indeed, I was very fortunate to receive lots of encouragement from not only from my better half but other loyal friends and acquaintances in the land full of mystics and antiques that at the end of the day, my dream to produce the book was finally a dream comes true! 

My heartiest TQ to Allah SWT who not only gave but blessed me with the opportunity to reside in Yangon, to be acquainted with the Yangon-tus, and most of all to be able to learn and understand my fellow ASEAN neighbour. Indeed, the ASEAN solidarity and friendship among us was very strong and  thus, I truly enjoyed my stay there which was full of stories to narrate and share with my friends in the cyber world. Insyallah :)

No comments:

Post a Comment