Category: Mi Aung

ဒေါ် မိ အောင် Daw Mi Aung

ဓါတ်ပုံလေးတွေပြန်ကြည့်မိတော့၊ Teacher Monica (ဒေါ်ဆွေဆွေတင်) ရဲ့အတန်းက ဓါတ်ပုံလေးပြန်တွေ့မိပါတယ်။ အဌမတန်းနှစ်၊ ကျမရဲ့အဖေကွယ်လွန်တဲ့နှစ်ကဓါတ်ပုံလေးဆိုတော့ ၊ ၅၃နှစ်ကြာခဲ့ပါပြီ။ “အတ္တကင်းပြီး၊ဟန်ပန်မရှိ၊ မာန်မာနကင်းတဲ့ဖြူဖြူစင်စင်ရုပ်လေးတွေမို့သိပ်ကိုချစ်စရာကောင်းလှပါတယ်။”

သူငယ်ချင်းလေးတွေတော်တော်များများရဲ့မျက်နှာလေးတွေကိုကြည့်မိတော့ နုနုနယ်နယ် အပြစ်ကင်းလှတဲ့ ပုံရိပ် လေးတွေ ပါလားလို့ ရင်ထဲမှာခံစားမိတာပါ။ ၈တန်းနှစ်ဖြေပြီးတော့၊ ဝိဇ္ဇာနဲ့သိပ္ပံ ခွဲလိုက်တာမို့ ၉တန်းတက်တဲ့နှစ်မှာ အတန်းတွေ ကွဲသွားကြတာ။ သိပ္ပံတန်းကိုအတူတူတက်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူငယ်ချင်းတွေတောင်မှ ၁၀တန်းဖြေပြီးကထဲက ကွဲကွာသွားကြတာ၊ ဝိဇ္ဇာတန်းဖက်ရောက်သွားတဲ့သူတွေနဲ့တော့ ပိုပြီးဝေးခဲ့ကြရတာပါဘဲ။

၉တန်း၊၁၀တန်းအထိ အတူရှိနေပြီး၊ အမှတ်မိဆုံးအနီးကပ်ဆုံးသူငယ်ချင်းတွေလဲ ၁၀တန်းဖြေပြီး၊ အောင်သွားသူနဲ့ ကျကျန်ခဲ့တဲ့သူနဲ့၊ မတွေ့ကြတော့တဲ့သူတွေလဲအများကြီးပါ။ ယ္ခုအသက်၇၀တန်းရောက်တဲ့အထိကိုလုံးဝမတွေ့ကြရတော့တာမို့ တွေးကြည့်မိရင် အတော်ဝမ်းနည်းစရာကောင်းတာ။ (တွေ့တုန်းကြုံတုန်းလေးမှာ ချစ်ချစ်ခင်ခင်ရှိကြဖို့ သင်ခန်းစာရလိုက်သလိုပါဘဲ။) တချို့သူငယ်ချင်းလေးတွေဆိုရင် တမလွန်ကိုတောင်ရောက်သွားကြပြီလို့ သတင်းကြားရတော့ အလွန်စိတ်မကောင်းဖြစ်ရပါတယ်။ (ကိုယ်တွေလဲ တစ်နေ့ – – – – – – တကယ်တော့၊မလွန်ဆန်နိုင်တဲ့တရားပါ။)

၉တန်းတက်တော့ ကျမ၊ မစိန်ရည်၊ ကြည်ကြည်အေးတို့ကအတန်းတူကြပြီး၊ နုနုကအတန်းကွဲပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ အတွဲမပျက်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ ကျမတို့၈တန်းမှာအတူတွဲဖြစ်ခဲ့တဲ့ ခင်ခင်စန်းကတော့ အိမ်ထောင်ကျသွားလို့၊ ကျမတို့လေးယောက်ဘဲကျန်ခဲ့ရတာပါ။ မှတ်မိသလောက်ကတော့ စာကြိုးစားကြတဲ့ မိမိအေး၊ Kathleen, Dolly နဲ့ Sheila တို့ကလဲအတူတွဲလျက်။ ထူးထူးငွေ၊ Maisie Soe, ညိုညိုစိန်၊ Molly Lattတို့၊ Mitzi, May, Irene, Pamela,တို့၊ Amy, Muriel, တင်တင်အေး၊ နုနုအေးနဲ့Jasmine တို့၊ ခင်ခင်သိုက်၊ Lily, Nancy, Nora, Stellaတို့ အတွဲလိုက်လေးတွေလို့ထင်မိပါတယ်။

၉တန်း သိပ္ပံခန်းမှာပျော်ပျော်ပါးပါး ပညာသင်ခဲ့ကြပြီး၊ ၁၀တန်းရောက်တဲ့နှစ်မှာတော့ ဘဝအတွက် အကြိတ်အနယ် ကြိုးစားကြ ရတော့မှာပေါ့။ ကျောင်းသားဆိုတာ စာမေးပွဲဖြေကြရပြီဆိုကထဲက အောင်ချင်တတ်ကြတာပါ။ စာမေးပွဲ မအောင်ချင်တဲ့သူ ရှိမယ် မထင်ပါဘူး။ စာ မကျက် တဲ့ လူ လဲ အချိန်တန်ရင်တော့ အောင်ချင်ကြတာပါ။

၉တန်း၊ ၁၀တန်းလောက်ရောက်လာတော့ အထက်တန်းကျောင်းသူတွေဖြစ်ကြပြီလေ။ ငယ်စိတ်နဲ့ ဘဲ ဗရုတ်သုက္ခနေတတ် ကြ သူတွေရှိသလို၊ အပျိုကြီးဟန်ပန်နဲ့နေတတ်ကြသူတွေလဲရှိတာပေါ့။ တချို့များဆို ဆံပင်ပုံစံလေးကစလို့ပြောင်းသွားကြတာ။ ကျမတို့ခေတ်က အပျိုမလေးတွေဆို ပျားအုံဆံပင် (bee hive) လေးနဲ့။ တချို့ကတော့ ခေါင်းတောင်မှဖီးရဲ့လားမသိ ၊ဆံပင်စုတ် ဖွားလေးနဲ့။ ဘာဘဲပြောပြော “ငယ်ဂုဏ်”လေးရှိနေတော့ ချစ်စရာကောင်းသလို၊ လှလဲလှကြပါတယ်။

ကျမနဲ့နုနုက ၁၀တန်းကျလိုက်တော့ လေးယောက်တွဲလဲ လက်တွဲပြုတ်သွားရတာပါဘဲ။ နောက်တစ်နှစ်၁၀တန်းဖြေတော့ နုနုကျန်ခဲ့ပြန်ပါရော။ သူငယ်ချင်းတွေ ဒီလိုနဲ့တစ်ယောက်တစ်ကွဲစီပေါ့။ အမြဲတန်းတတွဲတွဲရှိခဲ့ကြသူတွေတောင် အတော်ကြာ ကြာမတွေ့ကြတာမို့၊ တစ်တန်းထဲနေပြီး အတူမတွဲကြသူတွေဆိုရင်တော့ ဘယ်လိုမှပြန်မဆုံနိုင်ကြတော့လောက်အောင်ပါဘဲ။

နောက်ပိုင်းအိမ်ထောင်တွေကြကုန်ကြတော့ပိုလို့တောင်ဆိုးပါသေးတယ်။ ၁၀တန်းအောင်ပြီး နုနုရဲ့မင်္ဂလာဆောင် မှာဆုံပြီးနောက် ပိုင်း အကြာကြီးကိုမတွေ့ကြတော့တာပါ။ မစိန်ရည်ရဲ့မင်္ဂလာဆောင်ကတော့ကျမမသိကိုမသိလိုက်ရတဲ့အဖြစ်ပါဘဲ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ကျမ ဘွဲ့ယူတော့ ကြည်ကြည်အေးနဲ့မိမိအေးက ရောက်လာလို့တကယ်ပျော်ခဲ့မိတာပါ။

လုပ်ငန်းခွင်ထဲရောက်သွားတော့ ပိုလို့ဝေးသွားကြပါပြီ။ တစ်ရက်တော့ကျမတို့ ရုံးပေါ်ကနေ လှမ်းကြည့်လိုက်တာ ကိုအောင်မိုး ဟိန်းကိုလှမ်းတွေ့လိုက်တာ။ သူကလဲ မိအောင်မဟုတ်လားဆိုပြီး၊ စကားပြောမိလို့သာ နုနုတို့ကစော်ဘွားကြီး ကုန်းအိမ်မှာ နေတယ်ဆိုတာသိလိုက်ရတာ။ ကိုအောင်မိုးဟိန်းက နုနုရဲ့အမျိုးသားလေ။ ကျမ၁၀တန်းကျခဲ့တဲ့နှစ်က သိမ်ဖြူလမ်းက ဆရာ ဦးမြင့်ဆွေ အင်္ဂလိပ်စာသင်တန်းကိုအတူတူတက်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူငယ်ချင်းတွေပါ။ သူက နုနုနဲ့တွေ့လိုက်ပါဦးဆိုပေမဲ့၊ မတွေ့ ဖြစ် ကြပါဘူး။ လှည်းတန်းစျေးမှာ တခါဘဲဆုံခဲ့ကြတာ။ ဘာ ကို မှ ပုံသေတွက်ထားလို့မရတဲ့လူ့ဘဝပါ။

သူငယ်ချင်းတွေအားလုံးထဲမှာတော့ မစိန်ရည်က ခြေအပေါက်ဆုံးပါဘဲ။ သူဘဲ ကျမတို့လေးယောက်ပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ဖို့ကြိုးစားခဲ့လို့သာ၊ ပြန်ဆုံဆည်းကြရတာပါ။တကယ်ကျေးဇူးတင်ရပါတယ်။ ဓာတ် ပုံလေးထဲက သူငယ်ချင်းတွေကတော့ အားလုံးပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ဖို့က၊ ဘယ်လိုမှမျှော်လင့်လို့မရတော့ပါဘူး။ သံယောဇဥ်ကြီးတတ်သူမို့လွမ်းမိပါရဲ့။

ကျမ သိမ်ဖြူလမ်းအလုပ်ကအပြန်၊ “မMable” လို့လှမ်းအော်ခေါ်သံလေးကိုလဲမမေ့ပါဘူး။ Mitzi နဲ့ May ရယ်လေ။ ကိုယ့်ကိုမှတ်မိပြီး လှမ်းခေါ်လိုက်ကြတာလေးကိုဘယ်အချိန်ပြန်ပြီးတွေးမိ၊ တွေးမိ ရင်ထဲမှာပီတိဖြစ်နေမိတာ။ ကျမကသူတို့ထက်အသက်ကြီးတာမို့ ကိုယ့်ညီမလေးတွေလိုပါဘဲ။

ခုဆို တဖြည်းဖြည်း အိုတဲ့ဘက်ကို ရောက်လာကြပြီမို့၊ ပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ခွင့်တောင်ရှိကြပါ့မလား။

အဝေး ကနေ မေတ္တာပို့ရင်းနဲ့ဘဲ – – – -ကျန်းမာစွာအသက်ရှည်ပြီး၊ တရားဘာဝနာများအားထုတ်နိုင်ကြပါစေ။

• She is the daughter of ICS U Ba Tint and Daw Khin Saw Mu.
• Younger brother : U Nay Oke Tint (St. Paul’s)
• She is a proud Great Grandmother.
• She taught English at RIT. She donated back the Garawa money to RIT-related projects.

• She requested Swel Daw Yeik Foundation to take care of sayas and sayamas from non-Engineering Departments.

• She is a bilingual author.

• The following article is about her mother Daw Khin Saw Mu (Khit San Kabyar) and her aunts : Daw Khin Mya Mu (spouse of Prof. U E Maung; Kyauk Sar ကျောက်စာ Expert; Thamadi Myo Wun သမာဓိမြို့ဝန်) and Daw Tin Saw Mu (Senior Lecturer in English).

• She passed away in 2021.
  Her son passed away a few days earlier.

Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint wrote :

Daw Mya was “thamadi myo wun” must be like Justice of Peace. She handled family related cases like custody etc.

Khatiza Htay Htay Nwe wrote :

Sweet memories and proud moments of their relatives.

ဒေါ် မိ အောင် Daw Mi Aung

ဓါတ်ပုံလေးတွေပြန်ကြည့်မိတော့၊ Teacher Monica (ဒေါ်ဆွေဆွေတင်) ရဲ့အတန်းက ဓါတ်ပုံလေးပြန်တွေ့မိပါတယ်။ အဌမတန်းနှစ်၊ ကျမရဲ့အဖေကွယ်လွန်တဲ့နှစ်ကဓါတ်ပုံလေးဆိုတော့ ၊ ၅၃နှစ်ကြာခဲ့ပါပြီ။ “အတ္တကင်းပြီး၊ဟန်ပန်မရှိ၊ မာန်မာနကင်းတဲ့ဖြူဖြူစင်စင်ရုပ်လေးတွေမို့သိပ်ကိုချစ်စရာကောင်းလှပါတယ်။”

သူငယ်ချင်းလေးတွေတော်တော်များများရဲ့မျက်နှာလေးတွေကိုကြည့်မိတော့ နုနုနယ်နယ် အပြစ်ကင်းလှတဲ့ ပုံရိပ် လေးတွေ ပါလားလို့ ရင်ထဲမှာခံစားမိတာပါ။ ၈တန်းနှစ်ဖြေပြီးတော့၊ ဝိဇ္ဇာနဲ့သိပ္ပံ ခွဲလိုက်တာမို့ ၉တန်းတက်တဲ့နှစ်မှာ အတန်းတွေ ကွဲသွားကြတာ။ သိပ္ပံတန်းကိုအတူတူတက်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူငယ်ချင်းတွေတောင်မှ ၁၀တန်းဖြေပြီးကထဲက ကွဲကွာသွားကြတာ၊ ဝိဇ္ဇာတန်းဖက်ရောက်သွားတဲ့သူတွေနဲ့တော့ ပိုပြီးဝေးခဲ့ကြရတာပါဘဲ။

၉တန်း၊၁၀တန်းအထိ အတူရှိနေပြီး၊ အမှတ်မိဆုံးအနီးကပ်ဆုံးသူငယ်ချင်းတွေလဲ ၁၀တန်းဖြေပြီး၊ အောင်သွားသူနဲ့ ကျကျန်ခဲ့တဲ့သူနဲ့၊ မတွေ့ကြတော့တဲ့သူတွေလဲအများကြီးပါ။ ယ္ခုအသက်၇၀တန်းရောက်တဲ့အထိကိုလုံးဝမတွေ့ကြရတော့တာမို့ တွေးကြည့်မိရင် အတော်ဝမ်းနည်းစရာကောင်းတာ။ (တွေ့တုန်းကြုံတုန်းလေးမှာ ချစ်ချစ်ခင်ခင်ရှိကြဖို့ သင်ခန်းစာရလိုက်သလိုပါဘဲ။) တချို့သူငယ်ချင်းလေးတွေဆိုရင် တမလွန်ကိုတောင်ရောက်သွားကြပြီလို့ သတင်းကြားရတော့ အလွန်စိတ်မကောင်းဖြစ်ရပါတယ်။ (ကိုယ်တွေလဲ တစ်နေ့ – – – – – – တကယ်တော့၊မလွန်ဆန်နိုင်တဲ့တရားပါ။)

၉တန်းတက်တော့ ကျမ၊ မစိန်ရည်၊ ကြည်ကြည်အေးတို့ကအတန်းတူကြပြီး၊ နုနုကအတန်းကွဲပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ အတွဲမပျက်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ ကျမတို့၈တန်းမှာအတူတွဲဖြစ်ခဲ့တဲ့ ခင်ခင်စန်းကတော့ အိမ်ထောင်ကျသွားလို့၊ ကျမတို့လေးယောက်ဘဲကျန်ခဲ့ရတာပါ။ မှတ်မိသလောက်ကတော့ စာကြိုးစားကြတဲ့ မိမိအေး၊ Kathleen, Dolly နဲ့ Sheila တို့ကလဲအတူတွဲလျက်။ ထူးထူးငွေ၊ Maisie Soe, ညိုညိုစိန်၊ Molly Lattတို့၊ Mitzi, May, Irene, Pamela,တို့၊ Amy, Muriel, တင်တင်အေး၊ နုနုအေးနဲ့Jasmine တို့၊ ခင်ခင်သိုက်၊ Lily, Nancy, Nora, Stellaတို့ အတွဲလိုက်လေးတွေလို့ထင်မိပါတယ်။

၉တန်း သိပ္ပံခန်းမှာပျော်ပျော်ပါးပါး ပညာသင်ခဲ့ကြပြီး၊ ၁၀တန်းရောက်တဲ့နှစ်မှာတော့ ဘဝအတွက် အကြိတ်အနယ် ကြိုးစားကြ ရတော့မှာပေါ့။ ကျောင်းသားဆိုတာ စာမေးပွဲဖြေကြရပြီဆိုကထဲက အောင်ချင်တတ်ကြတာပါ။ စာမေးပွဲ မအောင်ချင်တဲ့သူ ရှိမယ် မထင်ပါဘူး။ စာ မကျက် တဲ့ လူ လဲ အချိန်တန်ရင်တော့ အောင်ချင်ကြတာပါ။

၉တန်း၊ ၁၀တန်းလောက်ရောက်လာတော့ အထက်တန်းကျောင်းသူတွေဖြစ်ကြပြီလေ။ ငယ်စိတ်နဲ့ ဘဲ ဗရုတ်သုက္ခနေတတ် ကြ သူတွေရှိသလို၊ အပျိုကြီးဟန်ပန်နဲ့နေတတ်ကြသူတွေလဲရှိတာပေါ့။ တချို့များဆို ဆံပင်ပုံစံလေးကစလို့ပြောင်းသွားကြတာ။ ကျမတို့ခေတ်က အပျိုမလေးတွေဆို ပျားအုံဆံပင် (bee hive) လေးနဲ့။ တချို့ကတော့ ခေါင်းတောင်မှဖီးရဲ့လားမသိ ၊ဆံပင်စုတ် ဖွားလေးနဲ့။ ဘာဘဲပြောပြော “ငယ်ဂုဏ်”လေးရှိနေတော့ ချစ်စရာကောင်းသလို၊ လှလဲလှကြပါတယ်။

ကျမနဲ့နုနုက ၁၀တန်းကျလိုက်တော့ လေးယောက်တွဲလဲ လက်တွဲပြုတ်သွားရတာပါဘဲ။ နောက်တစ်နှစ်၁၀တန်းဖြေတော့ နုနုကျန်ခဲ့ပြန်ပါရော။ သူငယ်ချင်းတွေ ဒီလိုနဲ့တစ်ယောက်တစ်ကွဲစီပေါ့။ အမြဲတန်းတတွဲတွဲရှိခဲ့ကြသူတွေတောင် အတော်ကြာ ကြာမတွေ့ကြတာမို့၊ တစ်တန်းထဲနေပြီး အတူမတွဲကြသူတွေဆိုရင်တော့ ဘယ်လိုမှပြန်မဆုံနိုင်ကြတော့လောက်အောင်ပါဘဲ။

နောက်ပိုင်းအိမ်ထောင်တွေကြကုန်ကြတော့ပိုလို့တောင်ဆိုးပါသေးတယ်။ ၁၀တန်းအောင်ပြီး နုနုရဲ့မင်္ဂလာဆောင် မှာဆုံပြီးနောက် ပိုင်း အကြာကြီးကိုမတွေ့ကြတော့တာပါ။ မစိန်ရည်ရဲ့မင်္ဂလာဆောင်ကတော့ကျမမသိကိုမသိလိုက်ရတဲ့အဖြစ်ပါဘဲ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ကျမ ဘွဲ့ယူတော့ ကြည်ကြည်အေးနဲ့မိမိအေးက ရောက်လာလို့တကယ်ပျော်ခဲ့မိတာပါ။

လုပ်ငန်းခွင်ထဲရောက်သွားတော့ ပိုလို့ဝေးသွားကြပါပြီ။ တစ်ရက်တော့ကျမတို့ ရုံးပေါ်ကနေ လှမ်းကြည့်လိုက်တာ ကိုအောင်မိုး ဟိန်းကိုလှမ်းတွေ့လိုက်တာ။ သူကလဲ မိအောင်မဟုတ်လားဆိုပြီး၊ စကားပြောမိလို့သာ နုနုတို့ကစော်ဘွားကြီး ကုန်းအိမ်မှာ နေတယ်ဆိုတာသိလိုက်ရတာ။ ကိုအောင်မိုးဟိန်းက နုနုရဲ့အမျိုးသားလေ။ ကျမ၁၀တန်းကျခဲ့တဲ့နှစ်က သိမ်ဖြူလမ်းက ဆရာ ဦးမြင့်ဆွေ အင်္ဂလိပ်စာသင်တန်းကိုအတူတူတက်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့သူငယ်ချင်းတွေပါ။ သူက နုနုနဲ့တွေ့လိုက်ပါဦးဆိုပေမဲ့၊ မတွေ့ ဖြစ် ကြပါဘူး။ လှည်းတန်းစျေးမှာ တခါဘဲဆုံခဲ့ကြတာ။ ဘာ ကို မှ ပုံသေတွက်ထားလို့မရတဲ့လူ့ဘဝပါ။

သူငယ်ချင်းတွေအားလုံးထဲမှာတော့ မစိန်ရည်က ခြေအပေါက်ဆုံးပါဘဲ။ သူဘဲ ကျမတို့လေးယောက်ပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ဖို့ကြိုးစားခဲ့လို့သာ၊ ပြန်ဆုံဆည်းကြရတာပါ။တကယ်ကျေးဇူးတင်ရပါတယ်။ ဓာတ် ပုံလေးထဲက သူငယ်ချင်းတွေကတော့ အားလုံးပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ဖို့က၊ ဘယ်လိုမှမျှော်လင့်လို့မရတော့ပါဘူး။ သံယောဇဥ်ကြီးတတ်သူမို့လွမ်းမိပါရဲ့။

ကျမ သိမ်ဖြူလမ်းအလုပ်ကအပြန်၊ “မMable” လို့လှမ်းအော်ခေါ်သံလေးကိုလဲမမေ့ပါဘူး။ Mitzi နဲ့ May ရယ်လေ။ ကိုယ့်ကိုမှတ်မိပြီး လှမ်းခေါ်လိုက်ကြတာလေးကိုဘယ်အချိန်ပြန်ပြီးတွေးမိ၊ တွေးမိ ရင်ထဲမှာပီတိဖြစ်နေမိတာ။ ကျမကသူတို့ထက်အသက်ကြီးတာမို့ ကိုယ့်ညီမလေးတွေလိုပါဘဲ။

ခုဆို တဖြည်းဖြည်း အိုတဲ့ဘက်ကို ရောက်လာကြပြီမို့၊ ပြန်ဆုံနိုင်ခွင့်တောင်ရှိကြပါ့မလား။

အဝေး ကနေ မေတ္တာပို့ရင်းနဲ့ဘဲ – – – -ကျန်းမာစွာအသက်ရှည်ပြီး၊ တရားဘာဝနာများအားထုတ်နိုင်ကြပါစေ။

March 2011

Dear Ko Hla Min,

Thanks to Saya U Soe Paing for his great endeavour in visiting the UCL (Universities’ Central Library) numerous times to gather and record invaluable information relating to RIT (and BOC college of Engineering as well). And thanks to you for archiving all through your emails and keeping all RITians gelled together.

Only when Saya U Soe Paing mentioned Engineering Students’ Magazines, I happen to recall one Engineering Students’ Magazine in which I was part of it. That was in Academic Year 1960-1961. I was still an Electrical Engineering Student at that time (2nd year, or, by the present calling, 4th year). At Rangoon University (Main University) they had a University Students’ Union (in Burmese, Thud Meg-ga is translated as Union), and we had correspondingly an Engineering Students’ Union as well at our Faculty of Engineering at Leik-Khone (Dome), Prome Road.

At that time I met one Ko Hla Tin (Civil) who was my senior and several years older than me, staying at Prome Hall which was adjacent to Leik Khone, only separated by a fence. He was an avid poet (pen name Kay-tu Win Tint, from Taunggoo) and I used to visit his room at Prome Hall to talk about poems and literature during lunch or break times. I also met one senior (can’t recall his name, I think Ko Sein Hlaing) who was the Secretary of the Students’ Union. After some lively discussions, we decided to issue an Engineering Students’ Union Annual Magazine and they made me the Chief Editor. The Magazine consisted of two sections, Burmese and English, of which Saya U Aung Khin (Mech) was the English Editor.

I still have the 1960-61 issue neatly tucked in a cupboard in Yangon.

Now I remember that Ko Sein Hlaing (EE?) is still in Yangon, helping to look after his grand children, but not in good health. Ko Sein Hlaing’s daughter was my daughter’s very close friend since their childhood days. We met once in Singapore about 12 years back.

Dear Ko Hla Min, this is the time to reminisce and be happy about the good old days and try to fly back with whatever time machine we could get hold of. Time really flies and we should realize that our days are numbered.

Moe Aung

by Maung Maung Win

Updated : May 2025

by U Maung Maung Win (M61)

I passed the final examination in April 1961 and was among the top five. Even with that result and an excellent resume, I found it very hard to get a job. I applied to many departments, but because Burma was not an industrialized country but based on agriculture and forest, engineering jobs were very scarce. At that time we would not have a clue and idea to apply for overseas jobs, e.g. in Singapore and many overseas shipping companies. We were the last graduates from the BOC College, as a matter of fact from a new complex, three storey with one on the left side of the building facing Prome Road. The ground floor was used as administration and office for clerical staff; the second floor for library; and the third for staff conference/meeting room. The adjacent extension also had three storeys. The ground floor of the first extension being used for car-park, the second and third floors being for lecture-theatres and offices for staff. The remaining two behind — used for lecture-theatres including T1, T2 and T3 and laboratories — were built not long ago in front of the BOC College building which was one storey building where some teaching staff and lecture-rooms and also engineering work shop with office for work shop superintendent and employees. The new complex was behind the Dome (Leik Khone) and also there was a rectangular shape pool of water in the front precinct including the Old BOC College that everything inclusive was the Faculty of Engineering, under the University of Rangoon.

I think in 1961 the whole faculty was moved to the new larger complex, a gift from Russia in Gyogone, Insein township and also because the scope of engineering education became more extensive the Faculty of Engineering was shifted to Gyogone in 1961 and it was named the Burma Institute of Technology (BIT) but still under the Rangoon University. That time Dr Maung Maung Kha was the dean of BIT as well as professor of the Department of Physics, Rangoon University and U Sein Hla was the registrar. Both were very friendly and generous in dealing with staff and students. But the Burma Institute of Technology was still under the Rangoon University without any autonomy and independent entity yet. With the introduction of the new education system in 1964 the Burma Institute of Technology was renamed again as the Rangoon Institute of Technology with its own rector and independent authority as an independent technological university status until July 1, 1988.

One day I was fortunate that I was called by Sayagyi U Aung Khin, head of the Mechanical through a friend U Aye (Mech. Retd. CE), my next door neighbour of my home town Moulmein and one year junior to me. Next day I went and saw him who asked me, whether I had an aptitude for teaching. As I was desperate to get a job I told him then and there that I was and on the same day 19 June 61 after writing an application, I got appointed as Assistant Lecturer through Sayagyi U Aung Khin’s generosity after the university senate approval. I will never ever forget Sayagyi U Aung Khin for his timely help to get a job for me when I was desperate after the job for which I appreciate, recognise and acknowledge his generosity, honesty and integrity as long as I live, I promise.

Medium of Teaching

When I got the job I had a pretty hard time in delivering my teaching of subjects and explanation in English because we were supposed to explain in English medium. Yes I tried a lot before I went into the class with a lot of practice in my room in front of the mirror; slow and steady I got the confidence and courage and I remember those four years from 61 to 64, it was a success that I could deal with the subject as well as the students. I felt quite satisfied because I enjoyed the company of students and their cooperation. Thank God for helping me out because I was educated not from a good grammar school but from an ordinary mission school where every subject was explained and taught in Burmese language and English speaking was not compulsory like Saint schools run by Catholic Mission.

Involvement with Students

A year later in 62 when U Aung Than (Mining) resigned to join the Mining industry, I got his job as a hall tutor in F-Block where only final year students were housed for two years until I got married in 64. Let me say something about the nature of hostels in Gyogone which was different from other hostels in Kamayut because there are only six adjacent 3 storey blocks namely A, B, C, D, E and F under three wardens who controlled and administered from their own residence on the campus for lodging, food, safety and security etc of students and each block had its own hall-tutor.

Only in C-Block we had hair salon, reading room and student recreation such as table tennis on the ground floor. Many students played Chin Lone the Burmese traditional sport a sort of soccer made of cane usually any number of players can take part and play. Also many students played soccer in front of the blocks between lanes after their class for relaxation before dinner and many other took stroll after their dinner around Gyogone area. It was really fun and game for all students during their stay in the campus. Most of them were very friendly, obedient and co-operative which are the assets to become law abiding and responsible citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

Before I forget let me say how generous was Sayagyi Rector U Yone Mo (I remember him as rector not as principal even though the Institute was still under Rangoon University) because he invited six hall tutors, U Tun Shwe (A-Block), U Myo Kyi (B-Block), U San Tint (C-Block), U Shwe Yi (D-Block), U San Tun (E-Block) and myself (F-Block) but U San Tun could not make it because he spent most of the weekends with his family in the city, to his residence in 8th Miles monthly to dinner with him over friendly conversation. I worked in that capacity for two years until I got married in April 64 and also U San Tun quit when he got married, so also U Shwe Yi got married and the rest three moved out and lived in A/L quarters like us slowly one by one. I moved out to live in the assistant lecturer quarters 16C (Upper East) being 4-units two storey building meant for four assistant lecturers and their families.

Also I like to add something about Sayar U Tha Tun, B.Sc, F.R.I.B.A. (Fellowship of Royal Institute of British Architects), A.A. Dip (Lond.), A.M.T.P.I. (Associate Member of Town Planning Institute), F.I.B.A., officiating head of Arch Dept, who came along with me sometimes to the hostels, ate and chat with me because we were best of pals.

• Old Paulian
• Stood Fourth in Burma in the Matriculation of 1963
• Taught in Myanmar and Malaysia
• Hobbies
  Writing poems and articles
  Painting
• Founder of “Sagar Pariyae” Facebook Group
  

by Saya Dr. San Hla Aung

I was first introduced to U Sein Win by my friend and colleague Dr Win Thein when I got back to Yangon after my graduate studies in the U.S. and resumed my teaching job. U Sein Win got his M.S. in E.E. from the University of Michigan and had joined R.I.T. while I was away, after first working at UBARI (Union of Burma Applied Research Institute) upon his return to Myanmar. He was a brilliant student also specializing in Nuclear Power Engineering and worked for sometime at the internationally known ORNL (Oak Ridge National Lab.)

There was good chemistry among the three of us and we became very close friends in no time. U Sein Win and I also came to be famously known among our crowd to be always pulling each other’s legs and arguing about any given topic whenever we get together socially. As he always said, “we agree to disagree on everything.” Everyone enjoyed watching and hearing us gently rib each other about our chosen fields of engineering. I used to tell him A.I.E.E.E. (American Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) of which he was a member, should be renamed A.I.E.E.E.E. (American Institute of Electrical, Electronic, and Eccentric Engineers) and he retorted by saying how how dull and backward Civil (especially Structural) Engineering is. He even once brought an electrical engineering book along where he had underlined a remark in the foreword that said how retarded structural engineers are and showed it around. The author certainly must have had a very disagreeable civil engineer friend!!

One of U Sein Win’s hobbies was to tinker with and repair electrical and mechanical equipment and I served as his ‘assistant’ very often. For one thing, I was pretty good at taking things apart and he was very impressed by it. Putting things back together is quite another matter though, and that was the subject of some of his jokes about civil engineers!!

Please let me add a few things about his love of rowing and swimming. He and I used to go to RUBC (Rangoon University Boat Club) and row coxless pairs frequently. He was taking German classes at that time offered by the Goethe Institute through the German Embassy and got friendly with the language Professor and embassy first secretary, so we sometimes went out with them to row shell fours, coxed by club caretaker U Par Oo.

Now about swimming. We also used to swim regularly at the the university swimming pool and U Sein Win was a great fan of Jacques Cousteau, the famous French undersea explorer and scientist, and one day talked to me about going to Ngapali and do snorkel diving. I agreed and we planned to do the trip.

We managed to buy snorkel, mask, and flippers from Chopra Brothers Sports Store and practiced diving at the swimming pool and finally flew to Ngapali together with Dr Win Thein and a friend of his U Myint U, I think in 1964 during the summer holidays. The beach was not crowded at the time and The Strand was the only hotel there. We rented a bungalow not very far from the airport for about a week and went out everyday snorkeling at low tide. U Myint U joined U Sein Win and me, but Dr Win Thein stayed in a row boat towing 3 inflated tires for us to hang on to when we surfaced to rest. We did not have to go out far, the water was crystal clear with plenty of colorful fish around us down there. We were so happy with the experience, but U Sein Win was the most thrilled (he somehow got hold of a spear gun before we left Yangon, but it was a rather unwieldy piece of equipment for us even to practice on the ground and I managed to persuade him against bringing it along.)

U Sein Win also loved reading and western classical music, and we used to share recordings and books, some things we seemed to agree to agree on!!

U Sein Win and I remained close friends even after we got married and had our own families. The last time I met with him after I migrated to the U.S. was when I visited Yangon with my son and daughter in 2002. Not very long after that, Dr Win Thein gave me the sad news of his passing away. He was a very fine human being, always friendly, unassuming, and never talking ill about anybody. I will always remember him with a very warm heart and am sure that he reached a very happy and noble abode in his next existence.

by Thein Han

Updated : May 2025

Stories by U Thein Han (Maryland)
Former Systems Engineer, IBM Burma

Long Journey

From March 1, 1929

It’s been a long journey. 91 years is long and I made it. I’ve reached the aged barrier 90 and from now on everyday is a bonus for me. My health is the same, no problem. Blood tests results are good. Memory is still sharp. I can drive my car for grocery shopping. I think I will be with you all this year.

I’m living proof that Exercise and Healthy food will keep you in good health and prolong your life. I’ve been doing exercise since I retired in 1994 after I joined HP Senior Center using the Physical Equipment and having lunch at the center. I use light weights (30, 40 lbs) for arm, leg, thigh exercise and walk fast for 1/2 mile (10 minutes) on a Treadmill.

At night before I go to bed, I do Balance exercise 3 times a week given to me by my Physical Therapist.

So Folks, “It’s your life, Exercise, Eat Healthy Food, No Smoking and Drinking, Travel and Enjoy your good life”.

A True Story

When I was working at Montgomery County, Division Of Parking, during my lunch break I took a cab to go to a Chinese Restaurant in Silver Spring [Maryland, USA]. The driver was an African-American from Jamaica. On the way I had a conversation with him and came to know he had a daughter studying at Howard University (African-American University) to be a Lawyer. It happened that my wife was working as a Librarian at Howard University at Washington D.C. so I had a good chat with him. When we arrived at the restaurant I asked him if he had his lunch. He said, “No”. I invited him to have lunch with me. He accepted. I had a long talk with him about Jamaica. After lunch he dropped me at my work.

A few days later while I was walking back from lunch in Silver Spring, it rained heavily. I did not have an umbrella. All of a sudden a car stopped beside me. It was James the Taxi driver that I gave lunch. He told me to hop in and took me to my office. When I asked him, “What is the fare?”, he said, “It’s on the house. No problem”.

I believe in luck

It was in 1948 during my Rangoon University days I did Nation Newspaper Crossword Puzzle and won 2000 Kyats. At that time the value of Kyat was very good. With the money I won I bought a Jeep costing 3000 Kyats.

My next luck was also during my University days when I went to a movie with my friend Ko Sein Lwin. On the return while I was driving my Jeep with my friend beside me, at the corner of Prome Road and Medical College I, we picked up 800 Kyats which was lying on the Road.

When I arrived in Maryland (USA), I went to Safeway Grocery to buy bread. When I took the bread from the shelf I found $20 on the shelf. It was a great help to me when I was penniless.

Another time was when I was walking on Wheaton Avenue with my son, we found $40 on the street.

During our Burmese Christmas Party I won the door prize which was a Television.

At the Thai King’s Birthday party given by our Thai friend, I won Thai Airways luggage for the door prize.

At our Senior Center I won a Cup as a door prize.

While working at Montgomery County, in 1977, I won 2nd prize of the Maryland Lottery which was $2000, because I hit five numbers out of six numbers. At that time $2000 was a lot of money. The 2nd prize is now one million Dollars.

The 1st prize then was one million Dollars. On 25 August 2018 the 1st prize went up to 522 Million and it was won by 11 employees of a bank because they were lucky.

The 13 Thai Cave Footballers survived because of their luck.

My University friend Billy Wu From Maymyo went back home during a holiday, the UBA Dakota plane crashed due to bad weather, but he was lucky and he survived.

Everyone has luck, but we don’t know when we will be lucky.

My Barber

Ko Aye Pe has been my barber since my University days in 1947 till 1971. He also cut the hair of my two sons. He worked at Varsity Hair Dressing Salon in Bogyoke Aung San Market. We were friends till I left for USA in 1971. He was a kind and obliging person and whenever I travel abroad I brought a shirt for him.

On my first visit back to Myanmar in 2005 I wanted to see him and asked my friend U Hla Soe if he knew Ko Aye Pe’s whereabouts. U Hla Soe told me that he has retired and cuts people hair at his home and gave me his address.

Ko San Aung (Sydney Tin, Ko Pyu) and I took a taxi and went to search for him. We found him living in an apartment near the Old Central Jail behind Medical College 1. He was very happy to see me. He told me he’s retired and he’s working at home and the barber chair that I’m sitting on was given by U Hla Soe. I had a long chat with him and returned back to Winner Inn Hotel.

On my next visit to Myanmar two years later, we went to his apartment but was told by his neighbor that he had moved to Ahlone and gave us the address. We went there and found him living with his niece’s family. When we met him he was BLIND. His niece told him there’s someone to see him but did not tell who we were. I sat down next to him and asked him if he knew who I was. He touched my face with his hand to find out who I was. I then told him that I was Ko Charlie and came back to Myanmar for a visit. When he touched my face with his hand my eyes became wet and I was very sad to see him blind, he must be about 75 years then.

It must have been Cataract which could have been treated and cured, maybe no one told him to see an Eye Doctor or that he may not have the cash for the surgery.

Before we left I gave him Kyats 100,000 for being a good friend who was always willing to cut hair for my kids at home. We then said goodbye to him and returned back to Winner Inn Hotel.

Ko Aye Pe was kind to me when I needed his services and his METTA to me. In return I was able to share what I can with him when he needed it.

My Honeymoon

April 23, 1958

It is on this day 23rd April 1958 that I got married to my wife Khin Khin Htway (Flora) at the Strand Hotel. We stayed two nights with her parents and left for our honeymoon to Tokyo, Japan.

April 25, 1958

We arrived Tokyo 0n the 25th and was met at the airport by Mr Fonseka, Ceylon (now Siri Lanka) Ambassador to Japan. He was was a friend of my wife father when he was Ceylon Ambassador to Burma. He took us to a restaurant for lunch and later dropped us at a Hotel near the Imperial Palace.

April 26, 2958

The next day we took the high speed bullet train to Osaka to visit Mr Fukutomi who is a friend and was once an IBM Engineer in Burma. He lived in Takarazuka, a suburb of Osaka. He took us to see the famous Takarazuka Kabuki show performed by women artists only, the men parts were also performed by ladies and not a single men was involved in it.

Trips

We stayed one night in Osaka and then left for our trip to Kyoto, Nara,Yokohama, and Kamakura where there is a Huge BUDDHA sitting statue, it is also a popular beach resort and returned to Tokyo.

Back to Tokyo

In Tokyo we saw a modern topless show at Asakusa Theatre, did some shopping at Diamaru Department store and took a stroll on GINZA street.

We left Japan after three weeks of our memorable honeymoon in Japan.

Hong Kong

From Tokyo we flew to Hong Kong, we stayed at at the famous Peninsular Hotel on Kowloon side where the airport is.

One day while shopping in Hong Kong we met four Burmese gentlemen on the street and they were Executive Members of Rangoon Turf Club, they were in Hong Kong at the invitation of Hong Kong Turf Club. One of them, U Chit Khaing saw my wife in her longyi and came to talk to us, he then invited us for a cruise on the Hong Kong Harbour which the Hong Kong Turf Club had arranged for them in the evening. The cruise was during sunset and it was a beautiful ride relaxing on the boat, breathing the fresh air of Hong Kong Harbour and watching the colored lights of Skyscrapers opened one by one, twinkling on the hill. We returned to Rangoon the next day.

Blessed to be together for 62 years

It is now 62 years since our honeymoon in Japan and we are fortunate to be still together and is able to take care of each other.

• Hosted several UCC gatherings at his house.
• Provided delicacies cooked by Ma Kyawt.
• One special gathering was to pay respect to Dr. Chit Swe (Founder of UCC) and Dr. Freddie Ba Hli (Advisor and Board Member of UCC) in 2006

UCC Gathering in 2006

by Kogyi Koung (Saya Dr. Koung Nyunt, A67)

First Song

It was one afternoon in the early May of 1963. Someone was singing a prewar semi-classic song from the second floor of RIT main building. In 1963, RIT buildings were relatively new and that semi-classic song caused a little bit of discomfort for the freshmen [equivalent to 3rd BE] located on the first floor. The song continued as, (. hmain: njou. njou. sain: lou. je . njou pja ji hmaung che . to: dan: kalei: nanbei: ga swe . e:di jwa be: kwe…)

The meaning is: Dull and gloomy cloud override at the horizon; Indistinct brown and dim bluish vision of a wood jetting out from that end is my village … *Note: The title of the song is ‘Htamin: mjein mjein sa: me’ i.e., “Enjoying the meal with relish” . The duet song was first performed by prewar famous singers Ou’ O: Ba Thaung and Sein Party. Later many other singers have rendered their own versions of the song.

We saw an old man singing the song while he was painting watercolor on a huge art paper. He was painting the landscape described in the song. Amazingly the picture was full of life and the song was telling the story. Everybody stopped in front of his office on the second floor and looking with wonder and singing with him.

After a while we asked him, “Sayagyi, who are you and which department do you belong to?” He replied, “I am U Tha Tun, Head of the Department of Architecture”. Oh, my God! How stupid that we, the freshmen of Architecture, don’t even know the head of our department. As time passed, we learned more about ‘The Great U Tha Tun’.

When we became senior students, U Tha Tun’s health deteriorated so much that Saya U Myo Myint Sein (Raymond, A58) stepped up as a ‘Kagemusha’ [Japanese for “shadow-warrior”]. UMMS, as acting head, took care of everything about the department. Young and energetic Saya UMMS found that it was not easy to steer the department as Captain of Architecture’s Flag Ship. There were lots of problems for a relatively young department in RIT.

One such problem occurred during our final year. Two of the most experienced Sayas of architecture left the department and went abroad †[for enhancing their careers].

They were (a) Saya U Sein Maung (with elegant mustache) has long experience in Rangoon City Development Corporation. He taught each and every detail of the development of Rangoon. (b) Saya M.B. Raschid (son of U Raschid, minister of many affairs under Prime Minister U Nu). He taught with all his professional experience and perfect pronunciation of King’s Burmese with ‘zagaboun’ proverbs. Sometimes he corrected our broken Burmese.

Saya UMMS, Head of the department, not only had lost his right and left hand men, but also there was a danger that the notorious Koung Nyunt and Kyaw Thein (both A67) might not finish their Architecture degrees.

After a long struggle, Saya UMMS stabilized the flagship of Architecture and its direction. A pioneer of the Architecture of RIT, Professor U Myo Myint Sein handed over the headship to Dr. Maung Kyaw in early 80’s. In the late 80’s Dr. Lwin Aung (A59) took over.

Second Song

For creative and original works, Architects cannot design during the office hours. It is also true [to a lesser degree] for the students of architecture. During the lectures and tutorial hours we [as students] have to follow what they have taught. After school hours [mostly after 4 or 5 pm], we start to create and test our design ideas. Note that for other students and staff of RIT, such periods are the pleasure and relaxation time.

There were only a few girls in Architecture, but the one in our studio is especially alluring beauty and glamorous face. She was so popular that she became known as the queen of the student-architects. We called her Ma Ma Q.

Most of the evenings many senior students and young eligible bachelors and/or sayas visit our studio. Some stay late into the evenings. At that time we sang a song named ‘Saga: ta’ kathou’ i.e., Language University, by Khin Yu May.

Because in the song, one part said ‘dage lar te. Ko Ko. kwe ja hmar ba lou lou’ i.e., really coming Ko Ko, out of sight he is sth in the air.

Ma Ma Q didn’t know the meaning, but the visiting Ko Kos were annoyed by our song. They politely requested us to stop singing. At that time the notorious KN and KT asked ‘hse’ kjei:’ i.e., extortion money about 2-3 kyats from the Ko Kos and went to U Chit tea shop. This continued for days and weeks.

When the Ko Kos are not visiting our studio, we sang the following song, instead of Ma Ma Q. i.e., Third Song. (Note. Extract from Shwe Kyi: nyo song by Daw Ngwe Myaing)
‘Diga nei. nya hpjin. lar ma te. so: joun ya hmar lar: akou Kja.ma ne. ne: te. Shwe kyi: nyo Shwe kyi: nyo Shwe kyi: nyo’
“To-night coming you said so, may I believe Ako.. Near the blessed golden crow, golden crow, golden crow…”

Editor’s note:

Thanks Kogyi Koung for “True story of RIT in 60’s”. I remember Sayagyi U Tha Tun frequently recite a limerick starting with “A wonderful bird is a pelican”. A limerick has 5 lines with the rhyming pattern: A, A, B, B, A.

The following three rhyming “words” are for the first, second and fifth lines:
(1) Pelican [a bird with a huge beak]
(2) Belican [belly can] => The pelican tries to eat as much as his/her belly can
(3) Hellican [hell I can] => I’m not a pelican, so how the hell can I eat as much?