Dear Ko Hla Min,
Ko Aung Naing (Bahadur) Mining Engineer, our batch passed away on 14 August, 2011 at the age of 70.
He was the Principal of the GTI (Taungyi / Aye Thar Yar).
His funeral will be held on 4 PM today at Yaewai.
With Metta,
Aung Min (69 Mech)
Dear Sayas and Colleagues,
Saya U Soe Paing scanned selected magazines from the University Central Library.
In 2010, Ko Thein Swe (GBNF) emailed an old and asked if people can recognize the names and faces in the photo.
I went to the Univ Central Library on Tuesday and managed to get scanned photos from the Eng Student Annual Magazines 51-52, 52-53, 56-57 and 60-61. Photos include photos of Sayas, students of that year. From these when can know about the Sayas at that year. We can also identify the students at that year.
The 1956-57 magazine contains photos when the new Leik Khone Engineering Buildings were inaugurated in 1956 Nov by the Prime Minister at that time U Ba Swe.
In the 1952-53 magazine I found out that Mr. Robert Hole (ex-EE, Highways, PWD,PWC,CC; uncle of Percy Maung Maung and uncle Bobby to me) was the English editor. I called Uncle Bobby and requested him to write something about his engineering student days, his teachers and fellow students. He agreed and asked for about three weeks time.
I need to go back and to the UCL to get more info from the RIT handbook 1966-67 and photos from the Hlyat Sit Sar Saung.
U Ba Than has donated some of his Engineering College photos to the MES library and I need to go there to check up on the photos.
Best wishes
SP
RIT stands not only for Rangoon Institute of Technology, but all preceding and succeeding Engineering Schools in Burma / Myanmar
…
Computer Science (CS) and Computer Technology (CT) evolve.
The following are two early definitions of CS.
The first definition has the same flavor as a definition of Physics. It is general to say, “Physics is the study of natural phenomena.”
The second definition might sound restrictive, but it still covers a lot of topics and application.
There is a book called “Program = Algorithms + Data Structures”.
Professor Donald Knuth (Stanford University) thought that he could finish his 7-volume book “The Art of Computer Programming” in a couple of years. It was an under-estimate of the growth of Computers, Computer Science and Applications. It took over two decades to complete and revise the first three volumes and part of the fourth volume. One reason was that his book contributed to the growth of the Design and Analysis of Algorithms.
I have covered some topics in the early days of Computing in general and UCC in particular.
I missed out several people. I mentioned many names, but did not elaborate on some of them.
I did not cover in-depth the PDP configuration and use, the introduction of PCs, and robots.
It would take a long time and I would not be able to fill in all the blanks.
I believe in an idea that characterizes Jules Verne. “If one can dream, others can fulfill”.
I had a personal experience to support that idea. In 1999, I started “RIT International Newsletter” and dreamed that sayas and alumni will get reconnected electronically and physically. With the help of sponsors (including five Golden Sponsors), able and dedicated sayas and alumni, volunteers, supporters and well-wishers, the First RIT Grand Reunion and SPZP (Saya Pu Zaw Pwe) was held in San Francisco in October 2000. The world-wide SPZPs were subsequently held in Singapore in 2002, 2007 and 2010, and in Yangon in 2004, 2012 and 2016.
I had paid back to RIT.
I now have a chance to pay back to UCC.
Thanks to my family members for supporting me in the endeavors to pay back to the institutions and my mentors that helped me develop to where I am today.
I hope that sayas and alumni of UCC, ICST and UCSY will enhance my document into one that professional historians will envy.
My introduction to teaching at RIT began as a team member of the English Department. Besides Daw Yin Yin Mya (Head of the English and known to us as Terry), and Daw Sheila Saing (Asst. Head), there were 10 tutors including myself.
In his own inimitable and affectionate way, Saya U Khin, also one of the new tutors, decided to spice up our group by giving us nicknames. I’m sure my former colleagues will forgive me for revealing these juicy tidbits as this generous gesture of U Khin’s served to bind and give our departmental community a semblance of togetherness.
Daw Yin Yin Mya was complimented with the name Shwe Man Mé (in honor of her previous beauty pageant title). I wouldn’t want to reveal Daw Sheila Saing’s nickname. Despite its not being slanderous or derogatory, it was a typical humorous expression of what we Burmese immediately notice about anyone’s appearance. U Win Mra was known as Rakhine gyi, Saya Tony (Sao Kan Gyi) as Shan gyi (sadly gone, but he must be smiling down on us from his abode of eternal rest), Sayama Toni as Byaing ma gyi, Sayama Muriel – a name I don’t recall, but which I think reflected her sweet innocence and being the object of Saya U Khin’s “secret” admiration, Sayama Khin Saw Tint, ungallantly nicknamed Ahnaik té gyi, and Sayama Charity who was inexplicably called Shwe nga.
For some strange reason, U Khin spared me, perhaps out of intimidation or deference for my scrabble prowess, as he often challenged but rarely ever beat me in games involving money bets.
Both Saya Joe Ba Maung, and Saya Kyaw Lwin Hla, easy targets, were also excepted by U Khin, perhaps to portray a side of his that reminded him of having some good social graces. These intimate nicknames, characteristic of us Burmese helped with the bonding process more closely, and nobody took offense at their liberal use. It certainly seemed that despite our different ethnic backgrounds, we enjoyed a far greater measure of coexistence, cooperation, and friendship in our department than the Burmese government of the day did, in their efforts to co-opt and mold the various ethnic groups of the country into a unified whole.
Those were halcyon days for us at RIT, teaching classes of 20 to 25 respectful and committed students, who basically went along with what we decided was appropriate to teach, and in the manner we decided was best for them to learn. Saya U Khin and I usually had Sayama Terry’s ear, so to speak, and we got to make considerable input into the curriculum and test instruments. At exam time, I was given the duty of conducting the Listening tests over a loudspeaker system across a few wooden framed classrooms (not unlike large zayats), likely due to my previous stint as a radio entertainer with the BBS.
I got to love my work and I became very attached to the students. In particular, I remember one student. In my classes, he was almost habitually slouched over his desk in the last row of the class, seemingly half asleep on one bent elbow with glasses barely supported on his nose, and seldom looking up or towards the front of the classroom. His seeming indifference belied a very active, bright, and absorbing mind, one which on facing a problem or engaging in conversation requiring close concentration manifested its ability to ably comprehend sophisticated concepts or language use. Usually indulging in his pastime of doodling, I’m sure he was immersed in daydreams of one day becoming an editor of a successful newspaper or a widely popular and eagerly-read newsletter.
When I wasn’t teaching, I was either playing scrabble with Saya U Khin, Roland Thein, Sayama Anne, or Bobby Myo Tun, now respectfully addressed as Bhikku Pannagavesaka, who undoubtedly must now be spending some time apart from his meditation in his monastery in Mawlamyine to reminisce on some of the earthly pleasures RIT once had to offer.
Our teaching staff was a friendly bunch. We had a regular stream of students, and some members of other departments visiting with us either to exchange pleasantries or to “check out the scenery” from our vantage point on the 3rd floor. Regulars such as Roland Thein and the Rev. Bobby Myo Tun (no disrespect intended), were often joined by Johnny Hla Min, Kenny Wong, Robert Win Boh, La La, George Tun Pe, D.S. Saluja, Toby Kittim Ku, Zaw Min Nawaday, Walter Tan, Gregory Win Htut, Reggie Kyaw Nyunt, etc., and their delightful female counterparts viz., Christine Phyu Phyu Latt, Emma Myint (later an RIT sayama), and Pamela Myo Min (now Head of Architecture) etc.,. Others, one year junior were Merrylin Smith (now Mrs. Zaw Mon with a very successful career in the US government’s EPA), Than Than Yi (at whose house I played tennis a few doors from Daw Aung San Su Kyi’s residence on University Avenue), Amy Lei Lei Myaing (Tex), Rosie Gyi, Annie (?), and Merlin Vaz, etc., Many of these students not only strolled into our “English Corner”, but unstintingly gave of their time to help me set up the RIT scrabble group, which later even involved the participation of Sayagyis Dr. Aung Gyi, U Min Wun, and perhaps Saya Bilal Raschid in competition games in the institute. The students’ help also extended to organizing the department’s debates and carol singing at Christmas time – an interesting seasonal Christian celebratory event, where racism and religious discrimination played no part in the thinking of our community. We were just happy to be one, and to do things and enjoy each other’s company in whatever manner we could, all in true Burmese fashion.
On other fronts, I thoroughly enjoyed socializing and cultivating friendships with faculty members from other departments. Saya U Sein Shan (Math) was a consistently friendly and jovial presence, as were Saya U Maung Maung Win (Mech) with his flashing smile worthy of any CNN news anchor, Saya Maurice Kyaw Zaw, and Saya U Soe Paing, whom I called “the involver and the motivator”. I had frequent stimulating conversations with Sayas Christopher, U Thein Dan, and U Allen Htay of the Civil department. And of course, I was not only very friendly with Saya Bilal Rachid of the Architecture Dept., but was, and will always continue to be deeply grateful to him for helping me get my Canadian visa. He did much to introduce me to the international diplomatic circuit where the foreign ambassadors often engaged in discussing topical issues, a pastime close to my heart. We now keep in close contact by email, and I plan to visit him and others in the Washington [D.C.] area in the near future.
In the same way that I had learned to smoke from some RIT seniors in 1959, I also learned to drink from socializing and playing tennis with the Russian Architectural and Mining lecturers. Interestingly, Viktor, the head of the Russian group took me aside when I went on my rounds to wish my various colleagues “Good-bye”, and asked if I would mind keeping in touch with him as he wanted to immigrate to Canada. When asked, “Why Canada?” his answer was a simple, “They have excellent fishing there!”
Despite my very cordial relations with Sayagyi U Yone Moe through my occasional visits to his office, there was one person in the administration who seemed to consider me anathema to the institution, with no apparent justifiable reason. Whenever I happened to see U Soe Thein the Registrar, which was practically everyday, he would always stare or glare at me with thinly disguised feelings of dislike.
I know I’m fast forwarding a bit here, but I’d like to narrate an interesting and illuminating anecdote that happened towards the end of my teaching career at RIT.
One day, a brilliant student of mine – who shall remain anonymous, returned from the government’s annual Lu Ye Chun summer camp for outstanding achievers. At the usual meeting of students, faculty and administration in the RIT Assembly Hall, instead of going along meekly with the official policy line of praising the program to the skies, and using the occasion to encourage other students to strive for higher ideals within the government’s philosophical purview, he delivered a critical unflattering message labeling the program as nothing less than an attempt to indoctrinate the students with questionable socialist ideals!
We sat in stunned silence, not for one moment expecting such a tirade. I never quite got around to asking him what chastisement was meted out to him, but within an hour of his outburst, I was “requested” to see U Soe Thein in his office. There, I was pointedly accused of imbuing this student of mine with harmful western liberal thinking that was detrimental to the Burmese Way to Socialism. Despite my protests to the contrary, I was roundly castigated on the grounds that I was a natural suspect due to my westernized manner of dressing, my behavior, and outlook. Well, so much for U Soe Thein – himself a suspected front man for the party, and his heavy-handed attitude.
There was no love lost between us, but I very sadly had to conclude that after this, my first experience of discrimination in my life, and a few other misgivings about the systemic failure I was witnessing, including the plight of the working class people at large, I would sooner or later have to leave the land of my birth, as it was becoming extremely constricting and taxing for me to exist in such a stifling political system. I have since moved on, preferring to relegate the “U Soe Thein fiasco” to a footnote in my teaching career at RIT.
And as for my student? I was left with an absolute sense of admiration for this young, conscientious, and courageous person who had had enough gumption to speak truth to power!
Editor’s notes
HlaMin 