A short story from Myanmar explicated

 A short story from Myanmar

THE FENCE

Written by Kyu Kyu Thin

A closereading  by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

The story starts  with the conversation  among the members of a family. The subject is the purchase of a new house.The proximity to the bus stand, the time needed to commute to the workplace where the female members of the family work and the distance of the school where the youngest member of the family studies are the most significant decision variables apart from the price of the house. Moreover, to the decision takers of the family, the husband and wife, the environment is more important  than the space within the house. Environment is a broad concept as revealed from the story. Firstly, right now they are pent up in an apartment or what we might called a flat or a suite. They have to climb thirty five steps to reach the door of the apartment but now it seems that they are looking forward to a self contained house which is different from a suite. And they want trees and plants and some space in addition to the built space.  This suggests their longing for an abode away from the humdrum of the city life where there is tremendous scarcity of space. And perhaps this urge for a separate house and longing for trees and plants in the garden drive the city dwellers away to suburbs and therein lies the secret of modern suburbanization.  It is the natural environment- the mango tree and bamboo groves, as well as the social environment- the neighbourhood which are very important. Well, to possess a house with plants and trees and some ground space means to go to the suburb. And once we are in a suburb, we need transports. So the two young boys of the family need bicycles.

The conversation among the members of the family has been down to the earth lively and interesting. There is the wife who is a little complaining. With her – the houses are bit small though. The husband however tells her that the house is pretty spacious. Well then the wife protests that the house is a little costly. The husband says no to it. He tells us that it is his friend who wants to sell the house at the right price and there is no room for bargaining. This is perhaps the archetypal battle between husband and wife found in Calcutta and California as well as in Rangoon. Or maybe this is the archetypal battle between the head of the family and one who is dependant on him or her economically. Be that as it may, they agree to buy the house.

 We get a vivid description of the house. The area of the ground is 30 by 50 feet. Since there is no fence, it looks a bit larger. In fact in this world of space crunch to create the illusion of space is one of the skills of an architect. Here too the architect of a story teller creates an illusion of space. And surely the fence could stand for a symbol. Robert Frost opines that good fences make good neighbours. But has it not fragmented the world? Think of Huen Tsang. He did not need any visa or passport. He simply walked down to India past the Gobi desert and past the Himalayas. World was boundless in those times. The foundation of the house is brick and the roof is tin. There is electricity too. There are two bedrooms in the house and the little kitchen as an extension. Two three sheets of tin roofing in the house are however worn out. There is a mango tree in the east and drumstick at the back laden with white blossoms. In front of the house there is a wide gravel road. If one takes about fifteen steps along the road, one reaches the front of the house. The price is say about thirty thousand. Thus the author gives us a vivid pen picture of the house dwelling on its apparently minor details. We can see the house in front of our eyes as it were. The portrait of the house in its suggestions give up the socio economic matrix or the socio economic space where the house is located. In a country like England whether a house has electricity or not is always besides the point .But in a country like India or Myanmar this is a significant point. Not all houses have electricity in these countries. An Indian reader therefore understands the predicament featured in the story. Seen in the Indian context however, a house with fifteen hundred square feet ground area is too dear for a lower middle class family to purchase. But mark you, this is a family where every member is working hard. The father goes out sharp at six in the morning and comes back home in the night. He has no holiday. The mother and the daughter go out to work and come back at five in the evening. The eldest son also works and at the same time continues his studies. Thus everyone is up and doing economically.

          So far we have studied the vertical axis of the story. Now the horizontal axis begins. The family buys the house and shift their from the apartment. Since the fences are not there, there are repeated trespasses. The chicken feed on the lettuce. The pigs carry off the clothes to mud. These events provoke different responses from different members of the family. The young boy true to his youth will kill the chicken with his catapult. The mother wants a fence around the house. The father however scratches his head and suffers from inaction as it were. Then the third trespass occurs. A man trespasses the house. And the neighbours detect it. They raise a hue and cry. And the members of the family are awakened from sleep. The man is caught and carried away by the neighbours. Next day the father and the two sons engage themselves in raising a fence. And there the story ends.

The story is apparently a didactic one. In any and every household there are wants and difficulties. A household must be read in the context of the society where it exists. The new house where the family comes did not have a fence. And the chicken and pigs of the neighbours  would pop into the house now and then. So a fence was necessary. But that would enrage the neighbours because since there were no fence around a house it had become already a convention that the domestic animals looked after by the neighbours would come there and one must not protest against it. But when there was a person who intruded into the house and neighbours detected him the neighbours would no longer oppose if a fence were raised around the house. Economics is a social science . the initiatives of a Robinson Crusoe in an island never before inhabited by a man will never be earmarked as economic activities. Similarly when wants are presently satisfied, it is a fairy tale. The need of a fence around a house is a need for the safe guard of life and property. And of course it is a want in terms of economics because a labourer has to be employed to get the thing done. When the members of the family raise the fence themselves instead of employing a labourer , they are performing an economic activity  because they are saving some money . Well a penny saved is a penny invested so did the Calvinists say. Of course, there are some economies that are raised on expenditure. But neither Myanmar nor India is that affluent. Here opportunity cost and savings make sense. And one must remember that economics is a social science. Want might drive a person to economic activity---- that is rudimentary economics. Even if wants are there , one cannot act to satisfy the same. Or else unemployment would not multiply in the developing countries. The social situation must be congenial for economic activities. This short story teaches us what volumes of text books of economics do not. Once again the role of the administration or the decision maker has been brought home to thw readers with great realism. The members of a family might want their grievances redressed presently but any act whatever is a social act. So unless the social environment becomes congenial, the head of the family or the administrator or the government cannot get the grievances redressed.

The story teller is very skilled in delineating the different relationships. The child tells his mother that he must kill the chicken of the neighbour and enjoy a feast. The mother tells him in reply that she will buy chicken at the market and cook food for him. The child tells her that there must be the mango sauce. By the by, they have a mango tree in  the east of the house. This conversation between the mother and the child perhaps touches the heart of the mother and of the child anywhere in the world. The story is thus very realistic, educative and legitimatises the family- the basic unit of the society. But is it not the family that raises a fence and fragments the human society?

In any narrative whatever, there must be some ambiguity. The person who trespassed into the house of the family under focus did not look like a thief. What befell him we do not know. But it was this man that functioned as the deus ex machina that helped the family to raise the fence.

  A short story from Myanmar

THE FENCE

Written by Kyu Kyu Thin

A closereading  by Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

The story starts  with the conversation  among the members of a family. The subject is the purchase of a new house.The proximity to the bus stand, the time needed to commute to the workplace where the female members of the family work and the distance of the school where the youngest member of the family studies are the most significant decision variables apart from the price of the house. Moreover, to the decision takers of the family, the husband and wife, the environment is more important  than the space within the house. Environment is a broad concept as revealed from the story. Firstly, right now they are pent up in an apartment or what we might called a flat or a suite. They have to climb thirty five steps to reach the door of the apartment but now it seems that they are looking forward to a self contained house which is different from a suite. And they want trees and plants and some space in addition to the built space.  This suggests their longing for an abode away from the humdrum of the city life where there is tremendous scarcity of space. And perhaps this urge for a separate house and longing for trees and plants in the garden drive the city dwellers away to suburbs and therein lies the secret of modern suburbanization.  It is the natural environment- the mango tree and bamboo groves, as well as the social environment- the neighbourhood which are very important. Well, to possess a house with plants and trees and some ground space means to go to the suburb. And once we are in a suburb, we need transports. So the two young boys of the family need bicycles.

The conversation among the members of the family has been down to the earth lively and interesting. There is the wife who is a little complaining. With her – the houses are bit small though. The husband however tells her that the house is pretty spacious. Well then the wife protests that the house is a little costly. The husband says no to it. He tells us that it is his friend who wants to sell the house at the right price and there is no room for bargaining. This is perhaps the archetypal battle between husband and wife found in Calcutta and California as well as in Rangoon. Or maybe this is the archetypal battle between the head of the family and one who is dependant on him or her economically. Be that as it may, they agree to buy the house.

 We get a vivid description of the house. The area of the ground is 30 by 50 feet. Since there is no fence, it looks a bit larger. In fact in this world of space crunch to create the illusion of space is one of the skills of an architect. Here too the architect of a story teller creates an illusion of space. And surely the fence could stand for a symbol. Robert Frost opines that good fences make good neighbours. But has it not fragmented the world? Think of Huen Tsang. He did not need any visa or passport. He simply walked down to India past the Gobi desert and past the Himalayas. World was boundless in those times. The foundation of the house is brick and the roof is tin. There is electricity too. There are two bedrooms in the house and the little kitchen as an extension. Two three sheets of tin roofing in the house are however worn out. There is a mango tree in the east and drumstick at the back laden with white blossoms. In front of the house there is a wide gravel road. If one takes about fifteen steps along the road, one reaches the front of the house. The price is say about thirty thousand. Thus the author gives us a vivid pen picture of the house dwelling on its apparently minor details. We can see the house in front of our eyes as it were. The portrait of the house in its suggestions give up the socio economic matrix or the socio economic space where the house is located. In a country like England whether a house has electricity or not is always besides the point .But in a country like India or Myanmar this is a significant point. Not all houses have electricity in these countries. An Indian reader therefore understands the predicament featured in the story. Seen in the Indian context however, a house with fifteen hundred square feet ground area is too dear for a lower middle class family to purchase. But mark you, this is a family where every member is working hard. The father goes out sharp at six in the morning and comes back home in the night. He has no holiday. The mother and the daughter go out to work and come back at five in the evening. The eldest son also works and at the same time continues his studies. Thus everyone is up and doing economically.

          So far we have studied the vertical axis of the story. Now the horizontal axis begins. The family buys the house and shift their from the apartment. Since the fences are not there, there are repeated trespasses. The chicken feed on the lettuce. The pigs carry off the clothes to mud. These events provoke different responses from different members of the family. The young boy true to his youth will kill the chicken with his catapult. The mother wants a fence around the house. The father however scratches his head and suffers from inaction as it were. Then the third trespass occurs. A man trespasses the house. And the neighbours detect it. They raise a hue and cry. And the members of the family are awakened from sleep. The man is caught and carried away by the neighbours. Next day the father and the two sons engage themselves in raising a fence. And there the story ends.

The story is apparently a didactic one. In any and every household there are wants and difficulties. A household must be read in the context of the society where it exists. The new house where the family comes did not have a fence. And the chicken and pigs of the neighbours  would pop into the house now and then. So a fence was necessary. But that would enrage the neighbours because since there were no fence around a house it had become already a convention that the domestic animals looked after by the neighbours would come there and one must not protest against it. But when there was a person who intruded into the house and neighbours detected him the neighbours would no longer oppose if a fence were raised around the house. Economics is a social science . the initiatives of a Robinson Crusoe in an island never before inhabited by a man will never be earmarked as economic activities. Similarly when wants are presently satisfied, it is a fairy tale. The need of a fence around a house is a need for the safe guard of life and property. And of course it is a want in terms of economics because a labourer has to be employed to get the thing done. When the members of the family raise the fence themselves instead of employing a labourer , they are performing an economic activity  because they are saving some money . Well a penny saved is a penny invested so did the Calvinists say. Of course, there are some economies that are raised on expenditure. But neither Myanmar nor India is that affluent. Here opportunity cost and savings make sense. And one must remember that economics is a social science. Want might drive a person to economic activity---- that is rudimentary economics. Even if wants are there , one cannot act to satisfy the same. Or else unemployment would not multiply in the developing countries. The social situation must be congenial for economic activities. This short story teaches us what volumes of text books of economics do not. Once again the role of the administration or the decision maker has been brought home to thw readers with great realism. The members of a family might want their grievances redressed presently but any act whatever is a social act. So unless the social environment becomes congenial, the head of the family or the administrator or the government cannot get the grievances redressed.

The story teller is very skilled in delineating the different relationships. The child tells his mother that he must kill the chicken of the neighbour and enjoy a feast. The mother tells him in reply that she will buy chicken at the market and cook food for him. The child tells her that there must be the mango sauce. By the by, they have a mango tree in  the east of the house. This conversation between the mother and the child perhaps touches the heart of the mother and of the child anywhere in the world. The story is thus very realistic, educative and legitimatises the family- the basic unit of the society. But is it not the family that raises a fence and fragments the human society?

In any narrative whatever, there must be some ambiguity. The person who trespassed into the house of the family under focus did not look like a thief. What befell him we do not know. But it was this man that functioned as the deus ex machina that helped the family to raise the fence.