She
took swimming lessons in the morning, hanging onto the rail at the side and
paddling her feet, with all the other children on board.
Soon
she could float, and then swim quite well.
As he
talked about Burma with his friends, wondering how it would all be, now that Bogyoke Aung
San
was gone, and there was a major rebellion going on, Kaung kept a watchful eye
on his daughter, swimming and diving in the pool.
He
wanted so much for her to grow up in a country at peace, which was part of the
family of newly independent nations.
He
was very proud of all the young students he had gotten to know in England.
He
wanted them to return to Burma as he was doing.
He
heard everyday of so and so leaving Burma "for good."
It
seemed to him that those who left were mainly people of mixed parentage, who
feared a too strident nationalism.
"The
rats are leaving the sinking ship," he had commented to his wife, one
night on the Leicestershire. "Perhaps
one day Burma will become Communist. There
are so many poor people in Burma. Communism
appeals to the poor ."
Glamis
was silent for a long time.
The
lawyer and the army officer wanted to discuss the rebellion.
As
they sat in the sun near the swimming pool, on the white metal lacework chairs
that got so hot, they discussed their future
and their country's endlessly with "Uncle Kaung," as they
called him.
"The
drums from the Independence Day celebrations had hardly faded, when the damned
Karen rebelled," the army officer, an ethnic Burman, said.
"So
would I, if I were Karen," the lawyer agreed. "Why, under the English they were respected fighters, they had
their own division in the Army, they had officers like Saw Kya Doe trained at
Sandhurst. Most of them are
Christians. Mostly well-educated, at
least in the cities. Perhaps they don't
want to be second-class citizens under us Burmans."
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
Image--Collage, Swimming pool, copyright KM Kaung
2-13-2016
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
Image--Collage, Swimming pool, copyright KM Kaung
2-13-2016
