by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
Dear Ko Hla Min and all,
With Metta.
Aung Min (M69)
Danny (Tint Lwin, M69) wrote :
Dear Ko Aung Min,
So sorry to hear that Ko Yin Kyu has passed away.
Did anybody visit him when was hospitalised?
Ivan (Khin Maung Oo, M69) wrote :
Hi dear classmates:
It is sad, sad sad, we need contribute our Nar Ye fund for his funeral and for supporting his family. It is the best we can do now.
Another suggestion to our dear classmate to evaluate our balancing life.
* The longer we stay, the more this kind of sad news will hear, the less of our classmate counting, so value our relationship and childhood friends.
* Life is short, don’t stretch your exhaustion brain and still-healthy body working. Enough is enough, take the retirement at or before 65 years old.
* You must know exactly to Love YOURSELF, it sounds selfish, but be practical. Don’t lie to yourself , be honest yourself.
Yi Yi Khaing (Vilma, ChE69) wrote :
My condolences for the family of Ko Yin Kyu’s family.
Yes I agree totally with Ivan, to cherish our friends and families in our sunset years. At the same time doing good deeds while we can.
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
U Win Maung (EE69er) represented RIT in Rowing, Swimming and Water Polo. He is a Back Stroke specialist. He swam the 2000 meters Cross-Lake with Back Stroke. He is known as “Lake” or “Leit” (Tortoise in reference to his Back Stroke swimming). U Htay Aung (M69, Burma Selected) and several others using Front Crawl finish quite ahead of Leit. Before graduation, he went to UK for license & training in air craft maintenance. He joined UBA/BAC. He is now an entrepreneur doing family business.
U Sein Myint (K K Wong, EP69) represented RIT in Rowing, Swimming & Water Polo. Someone transformed his name “Kwet” into “Khwet”. He is a major donor of the 69er Health Care Fund and the EE69er HCF. After retirement, he spends time in Singapore, Yangon and California.
U Htin Kyaw (Peter Wun, MEHS63) worked for the Institute of Economics and UCC before joining HIC and FERD. He was called “Htaw Kyin”. Some British could not pronounce his name. They called him “Ha Htin Coil”.
U Kyaw Nyein (GBNF) taught Numerical Methods & Numerical Analysis at UCC. He played soccer and volley ball. He was fondly called “Kyein”.
U Mya Thein (GBNF) taught at the Institute of Economics, UCC and ITMBU. He was originally called “Bogyoke” and later became known as “Bo Shoke”.
U Thein Oo taught at the Institute of Economics and UCC. His friends called him “Ah Thay Lay”. He was good at volleyball, table tennis and cards.
U Kyaw Zan Hein (C69, GBNF) was admitted to the 2nd BE in 1964 as Roll Number 14. There were no word processors in those days; only the use of cyclostyle (Gestener). So, when the person who was admitted as Roll Number 14 did not join RIT, the Admin Office typed in Shwee’s name instead. Some would call him Kyaw Zan Shwee.
U Hla Min (L T Gwan, SPHS64, EP70, GBNF) joined UCC as Chief Operator. He was called CO by his colleagues and “Pauk Si” by his close friends. His father loaned money to a Pauk Si vendor, who did not pay back the loan. At break time at SPHS, he would get Pauk Si from the vendor.
Daw Aye Aye Than (ChE72) is the sister of Sayama Dr. Hla Hla Sein (Maths) and Ma Myint Myint Sein (Diana, M70). Her friends called her Pauk Pauk.
U Myint Maung (EP69) is one of the young 69ers and one of the few Eligible Bachelors. He represented RIT EE Department in Volleyball along with Saw Edison, U Aye Thein & U Maung Maung. He was called “Bu” in reference to “Minbu” (his home town).
U Khin Maung Myint (C69, GBNF) was called Shastri (former Prime Minister of India).
U Ohn Thwin (PPFC, GBNF) attended classes at UCC & BARB. He was called “Ohn Thee” (Coconut) by his friends.
U Ko Gyi was a Lecturing Tutor in Maths. He is known for reciting the first 100 digits of PI (a constant which is 3.14159265 …). He used Rocket as an example in his classes. For some reason, he named Tin Tin Myint (Emma, ChE70) as “Rocket”. Classmates who witnessed the naming might provide details.
Emma is co-founder of Triple Gems Publication. She is also co-founder of Dana Sri Lanka (DSL). She is called Mae Daw Gyi မယ်တော်ကြီး by the young monks studying in Sri Lanka.
It is a form of “Kala” or “Kular” (Person of dark color).
Some young dark skinned kids (e.g. Aye Win Hlaing (Abel, EE72)) are given the nickname “La La”.
He was a Nigerian student who led demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Rangoon (in our younger days).
U Moe Hein (ChE69) represented RIT in swimming & water polo. He has a loud voice (which is very helpful in supporting RIT athletes in the Inter-Institute Tournaments). He is called Ajala by his close friends.
U Khin Maung Lay (M70) represented RIT in soccer. He was emcee (Master of Ceremonies) at the Reunion & Acariya Pu Zaw Pwe of the Combined 1st BE Intake of 64 and 65. He was a member of the Myanmar Human Rights Commission. He is the son of U Khin Maung Latt (AFPFL Minister) and younger brother of Saya U Khin Maung Gyi (English, GBNF).
Several alumni are called “Phone Gyi” (Monk) by their friends.
I know some people named Kyet Taw. They may have “Taw” in their names.
It is the name of a cartoon character. It literally means “Golden, Bald Head”. Toe Nyunt (Ted Mya Maung) starred in a movie of that name.
U Wynn Htain Oo (M72) is a super fund raiser is fondly known as “Shwe Gaung Byaung”. He is also known as
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
Most members graduated in 1970. Some left RIT before graduation. A few took Sabbatical & graduated later.
U Ohn Khine (M70) reports the Gone But Not Forgotten (GBNF) list periodically.
An entry contains
As of June 20, 2025, there were 143 entries in the GBNF list.
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
In this part of the world, three companies collect and monitor data to determine if a person is credit worthy. They provide a FICO score that is used by companies and institutions to determine the risk level of a person applying for a loan (e.g to buy a house).
Sad to say, one company was presumably STINGY or not technologically savvy to provide multiple line of defense against intruders. Even after two of its subsidiaries were hacked, the company did NOT report the intrusion to its customers and the general public, most of whom now have to figure what lies ahead with their precious private data (such as social security number, credit cards …) stolen.
Could this incident have been prevented?
Many years ago, I had to use a Smart Card to enter the office building and to access computers. We were told NOT to use SSN and sensitive information in e-mails. We had to refrain from printing documents heedlessly, and to shred them (or put in special bins for shredding later).
We had to take courses about
(a) handling different types of data — private, sensitive, classified …
(b) secure communication channels and/or secure data
(c) integrity
One company developed software to encrypt or replace sensitive data from e-mails, files, database. The test environment has to ensure that no sensitive data is leaked. A subtle assumption is that insiders may explicitly or implicitly be partners in crime.
I have touched only the surface of the security problem.
Professor Dr. Than Tun was asked “Why should we learn History?”
He replied, “To ensure that one is not stupid or dumb”.
To paraphrase, “Why should we learn about Computer & Data Security?”
“To save countless people from having sleepless nights. Losing one’s identity, assets … is intolerable”.
U Khin Maung Zaw (KMZ, EC76) wrote :
One of the first work items on the Data Security is the classification of the data, it depends on what kind (or items) of data is collected/stored in a given application, At some point, it is termed ‘Data Asset’ and have several categories as below.
HBI – High Business Impact
MBI – Medium Business Impact
LBI – Low Business Impact
PII – Personally Identifiable Information
HSPII – Highly Sensitive PII
Of course, the above is not the exhaustive list, and is UN, HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, has one of the strictest regulatory requirements.
by Khin Zaw
Updated : July 2025
What is Burmese music like? To ears accustomed only to Western music, ours may at first be a little disconcerting. It may seem more like a medley of spontaneous, unrelated sounds than a careful composition. And its rhythmic patterns may be hard to follow at first hearing. But I think that if you will listen to some of it a few times—and the Burmese Folk and Traditional Music record in the Ethnic Folkways Library offers a good sampling—you will discover that ours is actually a fully developed musical art. Historically, the traditions of Burmese music go back at least fifteen hundred years. For we know from a fascinating description in a Chinese chronicle of the year 802 A.D. that our musical instruments, and compositions for them, were already highly perfected at that time.
To begin with the fundamentals, let us first analyze our Burmese scale. It sounds as though it might have quarter tones and microtones, but actually it does not. It is the same as your European diatonic scale, but with this difference, that the fourth and seventh notes are both “neutral,” so that the succession of notes is different. The makers of our early instruments did not provide for the accidentals in an octave. Yet our music does modulate from the tonic to the dominant—say, from C major to G major—and frequently from the tonic to the subdominant — C major to F major, and back again. But we have no F sharp, or B flat. What we do is to put our F halfway between F natural and F sharp, and our B halfway between B flat and B natural.
Since we do not have the chromatic scale, our music may sound a bit flat to Westerners. Another basic point of difference is its essentially two-dimensional nature. The development of harmony has given Western music enormous depth. Because our instruments were not suitable for harmony, our music has instead developed a complexity of pure melodic patterns. You derive your musical satisfaction from marching in depth with chords. We have to get ours by going in the single file of notes, twisting and turning in graceful patterns. Even our drums play tunes. Thus our putt waing, a circle of tuned drums, is not merely for percussion, but plays a melody itself.
The rhythmic systems of Burmese music may have been determined by the nature of our language, which is not accentual but tonal. Rhythm in English depends largely on differences of emphasis on the syllables in the words and the words in the sentence. Burmese verse depends rather on the schematic arrangement of words with certain sounds recurring at fixed points. This means that timing and caesuras have great importance. In fact, in our singing the caesuras are even more important than the syllables or words in each measure. Often the singer keeps time with a pair of tiny bells and a small clapper in his hand.
The most usual time in our music is a simple duple or a simple quadruple beat. In the duple, the bells and the clapper go alternately. In the quadruple there is a rest on one or the other of the middle beats. No great importance is attached to the variation. In one and the same piece the quadruple may sometimes change into the duple, or become faster or slower. But never must a musician get out of rhythmic time. So far as I am aware, compound time has never been used in our music.
Turning to the instruments which are now most in use, we must give pride of place to the graceful, boat-shaped harp, the thirteen-stringed saung kauk (see Plate 23 in art section). The Burmese orchestra is called a saing. Its ensemble includes the picturesque putt waing, with the player seated in his circle of drums, a circle of gongs (the kyee waing), the big putt ma drum, cymbals, clappers, and wind instruments such as the hnè (like an oboe) and the palwé (a bamboo pipe). The saing accompanies our stage performances (zat pwès), our ritual dances (nat pwès), and others of the many festal occasions that enliven Burmese life.
Even though Buddhist doctrine has sometimes frowned on music as appealing to the senses, we Burmese must be one of the most music-loving peoples in the world. Folk music is very much alive in our villages, where several interesting kinds of drums are especially popular.
The bucolic dohpat (which can be heard on Side II, Band 4 of the Folkways record) presides over village roisterings and goes along with itinerant singers. The pot-shaped ozi, boon companion of the bamboo flute, may be trusted to go off on such a spree of tune and rapid rhythm as to make one’s limbs twitch to dance. The big bongyi (Side II, Band 3) is lord of the paddy fields, where its thundering rhythm eases the toil of those who are transplanting the rice. The byaw drum (Side I, Band 2) has its day in such home ceremonies as our almsgivings and shinpyu head-shavings.
Our classical music is far more elaborate than the instinctive rural drumming and singing, and scholars usually divide it into six main categories, most of which are represented on the Folkways record. But I must not risk tiring you with too many strange names and will say only that these classical compositions are usually songs, ranging in theme and tone from simple lyrics to courtly measures eulogizing the king or the royal city and solemn chants composed in adoration of Lord Buddha.
One of the most important events in the history of Burmese music—and all Burmese culture for that matter— was the second conquest of Siam by King Hsinbyushin in 1767. It is pleasant to think that although our wars with Siam were generally motivated by the Siamese king’s white elephants, we brought back something which was by no means a white elephant to us! Craftsmen, entertainers, musicians, dancers numbering many hundreds were imported from Siam to Burma, and they brought about a vast augmentation of our culture. New life and new forms were infused into our theater, our classical dance style is far closer to that of Siam than, say, to that of India, and a principal type of our classical song, the yodaya (Side I, Band 3 and Side II, Band 8), takes its name from Ayuthia, the old capital of Thailand.
In the years following this Thai “invasion,” there lived a remarkable man named U Sa, a veritable Leonardo da Vinci, who was poet, musician, playwright, soldier, diplomat, and statesman all combined. In a long lifetime, he was constantly creating and adapting new literary, dramatic, and musical forms, and over two hundred of our finest songs are attributed to him. Another important school of classical music comes down to us from the Mons; their beautiful songs were long ago enshrined in a collection called the Mahagita.
Finally, some of the purest and oldest forms of our traditional music are preserved in the propitiatory rituals of rural Nat worship. As Dr. Htin Aung explains in his essay, these spirits from the old animist cults have been welcomed into Buddhism, and the country folk still honor them with wayside shrines, or by hanging a coconut turbaned with a piece of red and white cloth from the king post of the house, to which offerings of fruit or cooked rice are made with music and dancing.
Now what has been happening to Burmese music since the radio and the cinema have vastly magnified the influence of Western music upon us? For my purist taste, far too much! But, to speak for the other side — and I fear they are numerous — let me bring in the views of my much admired and musically learned friend Ko Thant of Mandalay.
Ko Thant is scornful of our Burmese instruments because they lack the precision of the Western ones. But does he stop to consider that, in a sense, their very precision has made a slave of the instrumentalist? Our Burmese players attain extraordinary virtuosity with their crude instruments — making them the slaves — and achieve the most subtle shadings in moving from one note to the next. And because they do not read from a written score, but play entirely from memory, our musicians create the music anew at each playing, with full scope for the expression of personal art.
Ko Thant likes the strict discipline of the Western orchestra and condemns the free-for-all of the Burmese saing. He rails at Sein Beda for tuning a recalcitrant drum in the middle of a concert. Ile does not realize that this really does not matter, that Western music is a compound, whose object is harmonious coalescence, whereas ours is a mixture, the pleasure lying in the artful mixing of sounds. A European listens for the total effect of all, a Burmese for the individual effect of each voice in the orchestra.
In our music, accompaniment to singing does not mean a harmonic background to vocal melody, but a partnership in patterns. In and out of the framework of musical time and melodic direction provided by the instruments, the vocal part weaves another, related pattern and direction. So long as they keep to the framework, both singer and player may embellish and improvise. It is skill in weaving sounds, rather than voice production, which determines the quality of the singer.
Ko Thant maintains that music is an “international language” and that we should allow Western instruments and melodies to overwhelm us so that our musicians may speak the same musical tongue as the rest of the world. But does not this idea stem from a basic misconception of the nature of art? Is not the individual voice the really important thing? And will not the community of world culture be far richer and more stimulating if each regional culture seeks to develop its own traditions?
And since we already have improvisation in our music do we really need Western jazz and popular songs? But perhaps that question has already been answered: we have them. As long ago as 1940, Daw Than E wrote this little sketch on that subject:
An old-fashioned Burmese gentleman was visited by a radio salesman. He settled down expectantly as the set was hooked up; perhaps he would hear the soothing strains of a song from the Mahagita. But what came out shocked him; he looked puzzled. “That’s Johnny, the Burmese yodeller,” explained the salesman, “the public adores Johnny; the new trend in Burmese music, you know. Oh, you’ll hear wonderful things with this set. To give you an idea, there’s Good Morning Tin Tin singing Thama-wa-yama to the tune of John Brown’s Body and Eingyipa to a rumba called Mañana mañana. They have Bei mir bist du schoen and Isle of Capri with Burmese words and even the old favorites like Good King Wenceslas —-that’s a duck of a tune —and Come to the Savior, make no delay . . .” At this point the old Burmese gentleman became unconscious.
Yes, we have been flooded with Hawaiian guitars, hillbilly banjos, and Harlem saxophones. Where will it end? As director of broadcasting in Burma I am trying to fight the menace. There are good modern pieces in the Burmese vein still being produced, and a number of popular songs based on our own folk tunes have become hits. And to preserve our old music—since little of it has been written down—we have been making tapes of the best classical pieces and folk songs.
For certainly our Burmese music is worth preserving, just as Gujarat painting, Khmer architecture, Chinese porcelain, and Mayan sculpture are worth preserving. The tragedy in those cases is that the art of the craftsmen has been lost. We cannot let that happen. We must not hope vainly for the evolution of a style that will be neither Burmese nor Western. Rather, we must go back to the purest traditions of our own music—relearn them, safeguard them, and present them to the world in a way the world can understand. For there is a strange beauty in the remote flowering of Burmese music
by Hla Min
Updated : July 2025
HlaMin 