My Second Native

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon. That’s where I’ve spent more than half my lifetime. I have experienced both  setbacks and enthusiasm staying in Yangon for many years. In fact, it’s like my second native, and whenever I reached around the world, I could hardly forget where I started the rat race or city life back in my teenage years.

            Some people from Yangon say they’re never happy living anywhere except Yangon. Perhaps they’re right, partly because this is the center of all the sources from food and living things to latest models of computer devices, and to say the most, you can get whatever you need instantly in Yangon. More, most of the standard fashion Myanmar girls fancy are originated  (also partly from Korean TV series) from this capital, now just being regarded as the economic capital second to Naypyitaw. Business headquarters, wholesale malls, best restaurants, arts, music, periodicals, medicine, garment, and so forth all are stationed in Yangon, whatever their origins may be.

            However Yangon sometimes treated me like a stranger. There’re several couples of younger people going all along the Yangon streets and supermarkets, but the city failed to offer me a decent girl to get along with, what an unfairness!

The truth, though, is that I’m clinged to Yangon, both during hard times and good ones. Nargis gave me unexceptional fear of living in a port city, witnessing from start to end the nagging wind and rain, in the middle of the storm hitting delta region historically in early May 2008. My joyful moment was when I was just graduated from a university in Yangon, being able to accept the degree scroll from the once-impressive convocation hall inside the compound of Yangon University near Hledan.

            My pity, unfortunately, towards my adopted city was it’s dull and obsolete infrastructure. You’ll see just a few high rises, less than a dozen even in downtown business zone. The badly-damaged paved roads are not standardized, some major roads being reconstructed only a third or left unrepaired, flecks of spitting and litter abounds, etc. In fact, the prestigious image of Yangon will, as one friend noted, never fade away, along with the great Shwedagon, seemingly awaiting to catch up with other advanced regional capitals.

            Recent cool weather, a sign of climate change has also hit Yangon. A week of gloomy weather in extreme coolness reminded me the day of Nargis, but the weather reporting system was so smart to warn and give exact detail of the event and all are correct, mostly via FMs. When a public FM radio was started back in 2000, it’s a big effort to tune it for radio lovers like me; now there’s about 7 FM waves and more to put forward, although the quality of real-time reporting and public programmes require some technical expertise.

           Some critics argue the lagging behind in some aspect of Yangon and reaching advance in some will continue to overwhelm in Yangon for many years to come. As for me I will never forget Yangon and will be ever more delighted to be a permanent resident of Yangon in my future. All because it’s my only second native, that’s enough.