There’s an old saying that if you visit Burma (now Myanmar) once, you are sure to visit again three times. I have no memory of my first visit, only a sepia photo of myself aged two with my grandmother in Rangoon (now Yangon), the capital of Burma, where my grandfather had established a business in 1890. He exited Burma 50 years later, following a military coup. Last month I was there on visit # 2 with a large family group, which had planned the nostalgia trip. For me it was more than a nostalgic ‘roots’ visit, because ever since I attended a ten-day Vipassana meditation programme in India in 1990, I have been curious about the country in which the Vipassana philosophy originated. This meditation technique has kept the Buddha’s priceless teachings alive for future generations when they were lost to India, until the great Vipassana guru S.N. Goenka brought it back to India in the 1970s. Vipassana proved to be a turning point in my life. The complete silence for ten days which this school of meditation mandates was pure bliss. For those wanting to know more log onto www.dhamma.org. There’s much in contemporary Myanmar to remind one of India. The cities (Rangoon, Bagaan, Mandalay) are Kolkata and Mumbai clones and rural Myanmar replicates rural Goa, especially parts of Inle Lake where time seems to have stood still. Nor has time affected the fisher folk of Inle as they manoeuvre their very basic but elegant canoes across this spectacular 60-mile long lake, casting nets so utilitarian that it makes one reflect upon the virtues of getting and spending and the much-hyped global consumer revolution. As we rode a motorised canoe with water plantations on either side, gazing at blue mountains in the distance, the pristine vista made me feel completely relaxed and in tune with nature and the universe. The big differentiating factor which separates the Myanmar landscape from that of its giant neighbour is the 3,000 pagodas which embellish the country. There are thousands of monasteries and becoming a monk is a very real career option, with the Buddha being revered so passionately. The compounds of pagodas are tranquil playgrounds where mothers with children meet and senior citizens snooze in the shade. The pagodas also have plenty of room inside at the feet of the Buddha, for people to congregate in the shade away from the hot sun. Although in terms of IMF and World Bank measurement criteria the country is rock bottom, even the poorest donate to the pagodas and the people exude calm and serenity while rural and urban environments are spotlessly clean. Myanmar’s duly elected woman leader has been under house arrest for the past 16 years. The daughter of the country’s martyred hero and leader of its independence movement Aung San Suu Kyi is commonly referred to as “the lady”. Our knowledgeable tour guide, when we were far away from government spies and informers, filled us in about her and other realities of this beautiful, tortured…
