By Yin Nwe Ko

 

I T has been not less than a week since the smell of fruit wafted through my room. Right now, I am in an upset situation. I’m not in good health. While taking a break from work and staying at home, friends often came to me to ask about my poor health. Everyone who came carried along with a hearty meal of lentils as well as fruit juices. They came from a fruitful region. In this way, my little house was full of their love and fruits, I did not know that it gradually became a fruit shop with love.

 

In the earlier days of my recovery, I have to do my homework at home. Sometimes the nightwork is not completed until the early hours of the morning. Because of my habit of getting up in the sun, I do not eat breakfast regularly and am somewhat hungry that morning. I cannot find anything to eat but fruits near me. I decided to eat only fruit. When there is no choice, I wonder if it is natural for people to choose what they have. I make a bitter cup of coffee and hold a fruit slicer. Peeling a squash, my mind starts drifting hither and thither.

 

Does the smell of apples awaken me? My thoughts go back to my childhood as I look at the apples, which are more than I can have.

 

What is the difference between being scanty and being abundant?

 

My childhood was based in a small town far from Yangon. It was the early socialist era. As a small town, everything was rare. Apple was also the name of rare and precious fruit. It was a royal fruit that would be very expensive. As for the diet for unhealthy people, I thought it had ever been food for the rich for many years. It would not be wrong to conclude that it is the impact of a closed economy

 

One day, my mother and I visited a relative’s house. I vaguely remember that I slept there for about two or three nights. I think I was about five years old. There were also children in that family. Most of them are my cousins and some are children from the neighbourhood. In every early night, the whole house was in an uproar of same-aged children.

 

One evening, the hostess sat down on a stool and let the children sit down, peeling a rare apple. We squatted down in front of my aunt and watched her apple. It would be more appropriate to say that we are hungry. We did not know the taste of apples yet. As the jungle children had never eaten apple. The taste of an apple we had never eaten would be the most delicious one of heaven in our dreams.

 

After chopping an apple into several small pieces, my aunt held a cane. “Well ... come on. Take it one by one. Who takes more? I’ll hit the one who needs it,” she said, sharing the apple pieces. The children could no longer be tied. We wanted to know the taste of very strange fruit. We spread our hands before my aunt. Nearby children were getting it first, and children who did not yet get it were pushing each other to get it. The noise from the apple robbery was already getting uproar.

 

I, far behind the group, stepped forward to get my share of apples. My aunt was shouting and sharing an apple piece with one hand and with the other, she repeatedly sent her cane to the heads of those who seemed to be thought it was another outreach. At that moment, her cane fell hard on my head as I hesitantly approached her to get a slice of apple.

 

My aunt beat the wrong person, but I still panicked, wondering if my memory had memorized the incident for years. I didn’t eat my share of apples that day. I even remembered the details of looking at her through tears.

 

I think that it was my bitterness that began over being punished innocently. That trauma seemed to have plagued me for the rest of my life. If not, I did not want to accept it and If I thought it was unfair, the root cause of rebellion might be these hits of cane. An unforeseen event one did not think might have been imagined that it would be a lifetime for a person.

 

I should have to mention one of the highlights of my life here. My parents never beat me up until they were dead. They only controlled their son by pointing out all the sins I had committed. For that reason, I wondered

 

If my young heart had kept as a deadly scar on beating the punishment without committing any fault. That memory took me from good to bad. The good was that I have never beaten my children and my staff in my life and extreme care was taken not to punish the one who did not actually commit the fault.

 

Bullying the weak in life is the nature of the savages. It is a ‘wildlife law’. I did not understand what Dad was saying. After twothirds of my life, I seemed to have come to a deeper understanding of his wise words.

 

But ...in the first decade of the 21st century, television news coverage includes orange, green, and blue of Conflicts over black smoke and smog are still seen. Technology, strength, modern heroism, etc. that continues to dominate and kill everything is still aired. Relying on weapons, the strong still win over the weak. Selfish wars centred on self-interest are still rampant, with threats not to cling to power. The unbalanced weight of crime and punishment continues to erupt around the world.

 

I’m currently listening to a song over and over again. It is a song by a well-known pop star. I happen to sing it as if I am not satisfied enough to listen to. Many times I have been swept away by the melody of that song. As I sing the song, I am indeed in a new world of imagination. At the end of the song, I automatically feel like I am back in the scary real world. Certainly, the environment in which I live cannot provide me with security. How long do I have to try to escape with that song every time whenever I get discouraged? Even if you have heard the song before, please try to listen to it again.

 

“...The world is full of atrocities.

At first glance, I was shocked.

Love that is too thin ... Think

immediately about the future

 Wisdom and Love

Will there still be beautiful days

in my heart?

This wisdom and love ... Can

you overcome the worst forces

in life?

Faithful hearts ... The new

world of all Faithful hearts ...

Everyone’s dream

Oh, I’m going. Oh, I’m going...”

 

One does not need a bow or arrow to reach the new world beyond oppression but just needs love and wisdom. Did the singer say that all needed are wisdom and love? Or does one dare to say, “Can one really be free from the world that is sinking into the abyss of love and wisdom?”

 

The whole room fully smells of the fragrance of apples...