Mandalay Moments

The sky loses its blue again, as we lurch back down into the dusty plain that surrounds Mandalay. The scenery stays colorful though:

I almost gave up walking in Mandalay– traffic is horrendous and pedestrians dodge between cacophonic surges of exhaust-fume belching buses, taxis and motorcycles. I see countless young faces, already set in solemn, bleak or sad expressions, and at the same time, I’m given so many smiles- authentic, tentative and radiant that I feel ashamed of freaking out about the noise, the panicked scurrying and the airless heat. Anyway, locked in a taxi I’d have missed the unpaved lanes- the boy leading a dark little pig on a string; the child skipping by, a bird made from old magazine pages held high above her head; the upturned faces proudly surveying the installation of a bright new neon sign that reads Mobile More. And I wouldn’t have noticed the hazily lit teashop that appeared out of state-owned electricity-cut darkness, every chair taken, all eyes riveted on 22 tiny figures on a small flickering screen- Glory, Glory Man United!

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