Not Out of Hate. Ma Ma Lay

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СКАЧАТЬ sent the telegram?” queried her father.

      Looking down at the telegram again, Way Way said, “There isn’t any name. It is a message from the office. There is only the name of the firm.”

      The next day U Po Thein rose early, before it was light, and went down to the dock to wait. The Rangoon Express steamer drew up at exactly 6 A.M. Way Way was at home, spending the morning looking in the direction of the road that led from the dock. Her heart had jumped at the sound of the boat from Rangoon’s steam whistle. She was very excited. It was not the excited anticipation one felt waiting for family members one has not seen for a long time, but a vague, restless feeling that made her keep straining her neck towards the road. Because of her burning curiosity to see the Englishman’s household things and servants, now and then she stood at the front of the house to look down the street.

      It was fully two hours after the sound of the steamer’s arrival that the belongings began to appear in front of the house next door. There was an unbelievable amount of furniture. Indian coolies were pushing handcarts stacked high, and more coolies, strung out in a long line over the length of the main paved road, were carrying loads on their heads and on their shoulders.

      Way Way stood watching the coolies take crates and boxes of all sizes into the house, wondering what on earth could be in them and feeling quite overwhelmed at how much of it there was. She noticed that household furniture such as dressers and chairs had been carefully wrapped and stitched in gunny sacking. Then Way Way saw a refrigerator for the first time in her life. She cried out to her aunt, “Auntie, Auntie Thet, look, look; come out and look at this huge white box thing!”

      Daw Thet came running to the front door. She was startled. “Oh my goodness, what in the world is that extraordinary thing! So huge and so white!” she said as she stared at it.

      Way Way’s aunt was one of those people who thought very highly of the British and only just fell short of worshipping them. As befitted a British colonial subject, she had a servile attitude; she thought that everything English was superior and every English person her better. “That lot in the bazaar are all asking whether the Englishman next door has arrived yet,” she said to Way Way. Daw Thet thought that an Englishman coming to live next door would enhance her importance in the eyes of the world.

      Way Way listened on and off to her aunt’s chatter but devoted her real attention to what was happening next door. Not only did she find the household effects amazing, but the two servants were even more astonishing. One was a short, dark-complexioned Burman about thirty years of age, and the other an older Indian man of about fifty who wore gold rimmed spectacles and a dhoti.

      “The servants of the English house are Burmese and Indian,” announced Daw Thet, tapping Way Way’s arm for attention. She went on with her observation, “They may be servants, but they certainly are smart-looking.”

      A long while after the furniture had been taken into the house, U Po Thein returned, smiling and shaking his head. He called out, “Daughter! The agent who is coming is Burmese! Not English!” A loud cry of surprise came out of Daw Thet’s throat; Way Way was struck dumb. Open-mouthed and speechless, she stood dazed as U Po Thein continued, “After the steamer docked and the young servant, Maung Mya, came up to me and said, ‘Sir, my thakin⁵ will not be arriving until tomorrow evening, by motorboat,’ I was still under the impression that he was English and, seeing so much furniture, I asked, ‘Is your master’s “English lady”⁶ also coming?’ He replied, ‘Oh no, sir, my master is not English; he is Burmese.’” So saying, U Po Thein began to laugh uproariously.

      Daw Thet, who had been unable to conceal her utter surprise and disappointment, said abruptly, “Who is he, then?” Way Way, thoroughly taken aback at the news, asked herself in bewilderment, With all those household belongings, what kind of a Burman could he be?

      “U Saw Han is his name,” said U Po Thein. “He’s about thirty-seven years of age. It seems we won’t get to see him until tomorrow evening.”

      So Way Way wondered all day long about what kind of man was coming to live next door. She had been in houses of high Burmese government officials where the servants had answered “your reverence” to their masters, but never before in her life had she heard one Burman call another thakin. It was all thoroughly confusing and unprecedented.

      Due to engine trouble, the agent U Saw Han did not arrive until very late the next night, and Way Way, who had been asleep, learned about it only when Daw Thet informed her the next morning. It took the servants all day to put the house next door in order, and only in the early morning light was Way Way really able to see it properly. So there she stood, looking intently at it from her upstairs window. As she watched, she heard what sounded like a gong from the back room of the house next door. She ran quickly into her aunt’s room, where she could see better, and continued her observations.

      1. Maekala is the name of a goddess who saved the embyro Buddha Mahazanaka from drowning.

      2. The traditional set of containers for the condiments used in chewing betel.

      3. In the British colonial education system, the seventh standard marked the end of middle school.

      4. Located in the north near Mandalay, the Sagaing hills area is the site of numerous monasteries, temples, caves, and retreats. Since ancient times it has been known as a center of the Buddhist faith.

      5. The word “thakin” means “master,” and was originally used only to refer to Englishmen in colonial Burma. In the 1930s, however, young, Western-educated Burmese nationalists appropriated the term. Using it with a fine sense of irony and pride, they insisted on calling themselves thakin, placed the word as an honorific before their names in order to identify themselves in a particularly dramatic way, and proceeded to build an independence movement around their leadership.

      6. That is, an Englishwoman, the (white) wife of an Englishman.

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      Way Way looked out the window, hidden from view except for her head. She saw Maung Mya, the Burmese servant, standing near a table. He had a red silk gaung-baung⁷ wrapped over his Western-style haircut, with one end sticking up jauntily a few inches. He wore a stiff-collared shirt with a spotless white cotton jacket over it. Around his waist was a washed dark blue silk longyi, a kind of Burmese sarong, worn short.⁸ Over one shoulder was a white napkin. Maung Mya’s jacket was fastened with buttons so as not to get in his way while he worked. He stood straight, chest out, legs together, and hands behind him. A gleaming white cloth covered the table, with napkins folded to resemble water lily buds, starched and white like Maung Mya’s jacket.

      Way Way looked at the white china teapot, the polished silver cream and sugar bowls, the biscuit tin of crackers imported from England, the jam jar and butter dish, the bananas, eggs and bread. She noted them all, item by item. This morning Way Way had awakened, gone downstairs for a bath, talked with her aunt about U Saw Han’s arrival, and had forgotten to eat her breakfast. Looking at the meal on the neighbor’s table, she started to feel hungry. The food reminded her of the sweets that people offered to monks on special occasions.

      In Way Way’s household people did not use a table and chairs but sat on the floor on finely woven mats placed around a low, round table in the kitchen. Maung Mya’s straight stance near the nicely appointed table with chairs in the house next door seemed to enhance its elegance. A silver gong mounted on two elephant tusks on a sideboard made Way Way surmise that the sound she СКАЧАТЬ