At the funeral he came up to the car and said, "From now on,I will be your literary father."
At that time he had only read one of my short stories, my first one in fact. He put on the title.
It was something that my writer cousin Minshin (U Win Maung) told me when I said "I don't have anything to write about." I was maybe 10--as my father died when I was 13.
So Ko Ko told me what had happened to him and I wrote it down.
U Khin Zaw (K) compared it to Chekhov--in print. I got 40 kyats from the (Burmese) Guardian--First ever real money from writing--now it's 5000 kyats=1 USD. 8 cents!
About a year later when we had moved to stay with Uncle and Aunty Shwe Shane on Prome Road--I showed him my 2nd story--maybe it was another Minshin translation--I can't remember.
K wrote back a note--"You are a writer now. You don't need to run anything you write past me anymore."
Wow--I didn't get swollen-headed, in spite of what sister Y thinks.
I just read more and wrote more, and felt more--and watched people more.
Big thank you so many years later.
Poet ko ko thett introduced me to K's daughter, a Carmelite nun! but religious folks except for The Walking Monk--who carried my 2 large suitcases full of artwork to the dormitory in Helsinki, are generally boring to talk to--but not that U Sopaka "Thawpaka."
The good thing about hanging out with or just watching--people at press conferences, the older man in the elevator,maybe a professional photographer,people in the foodcourt etc etc--
is you get very observant.
This photographer guy--by the time he got off on somefloor, I had constructed a whole character based on the way he looked.
I will splice it with a story my friend told me about a wildlife photographer who married a Burmese woman and mistreated her.
I am saving the nature
the nature of the abuse from you--for rom com in my head--
https://moemaka.net/eng/2017/08/sequel-grandma-met-a-good-teacher-at-aye-yeik-thar-by-junior-win/
end post.
