Also for me, I was thinking that my hometown will always be in a constant situation with a pleasing relaxed atmosphere. In my childhood, my family didn't own a house so I was staying in the market stall selling food and drink to laborers at the harbor of Shwegyin river. Meanwhile, this river was clean with fast flow and an important waterway for trade and transportation especially in the rainy season. Anually on the day after the full moon day of Thadingyut in October, my hometown is more crowded than usual for celebrating the magnificent lighting festival on Shwegyin river. Many visitors around the country come and partake in the festival to enjoy the daytime boat rowing races as well as competitive orchestrated padding exhibitions by both women and men teams. After darkness falls, people launch hundreds of colorful lotus-shaped oil lamps onto the river to pay homage to Buddha's descent from heaven. These days, my living area is full of street fairs, thick with the smell of street foods, and noise with music and dance performances. I am sure that local people of Shwegyin Township were really proud and always took pleasure in this occasion like they had never imagined the coming tragedy to their cherished moments.
One day, I saw the big excavators and bulldozers lined up along the riverside and later they went down to the river. Many people were watching this scene surprisingly and worryingly, but for children including me it was as wonderful as the robotic movement in the movies. Actually, they would operate the gold mining in the water; the beginning of a nightmare for the Shwegyin river. According to old people, this river would be ruined by digging large holes under the water and using the harmful chemical substances to collect gold. This river is a remarkable trademark not for Shwegyin, but as an essential providence for the inhabitants' livelihood with fishing and many plantation and farmland along the river bank. No one owns the river as a common prosperity and no one can allow the permission harmful to that kind of place without local people's agreement. But, people had not enough strength and encouragement to reveal the rights and initiate the movement for prohibition according to the collusion of successive burmese army and business corporations. To my surprise, the owner of this gold mining company was also born and raised in Shwegyin as a homegrown. I was wondering why he wanted to spoil the beauty of Shwegyin river like he had never played and went swimming in it.
After a year, it was a tragedy for my hometown that the river became vast and shallow with high sediment level, polluted with mud and not easy for waterways with boats. Everything was muddled up in chaos including devastating people's livelihood and weather conditions. There was always heavy flooding during the rainy season and after that sediments remained even in the residential area. My family always had to move away for a while before an outgoing flood. Moreover, in the hot season it was easy to dry up as soon as the temperature rose and rainfall dropped. Small scale business of water transportation fell down and people built a large bamboo bridge sized for riding two motorbikes to trade farmland products to town. In addition, people in the market stalls near the harbor were forced to relocate away and the buildings were demolished with cranes by the local authorities according to the project of a concert bridge construction in coming years.
Worsely, there was not enough water to go around in the river on the Thadingyut occasion to celebrate the festival. People were demanding the water to be released from the Shwegyin dam to get sufficient flow for the festival which had never happened before throughout history. As for me, I left my beautiful childhood memories in this place beside the river; like the wreck of the housing in pieces. The city dwellers comprised the committee mainly with an elite group to hold the lighting festival as usual with water supply from the dam. Unexpectedly, the former owner of a gold-mining company which operated in Shwegyin river, became a chairman in this commission. Later, when they reformed the river flow for water restoration and the construction of the bridge was finished, everything was gone from authenticity. Finally, I realized that a hypocrite can destroy and raise the community at the same time and all manners of immorality can be covered with money. While I am standing on the bridge, I lack the senses to feel the touch of breeze across the river, see the movement of clouds over the mountains and hear the flow of water with the loud noise of people speaking and motorbike engines. Though every good moment was far far away in the past for me, I hope I can find the spark in the dark.
Shwe Thinn
6 Sept 2023
Narrative Essay
