Change is in the air

It's the sky. In Myanmar, it dominates the horizon and dwarfs you, whether you are passing through the green fields or on the Irrawaddy. And it's a watercolour. It can never be an oil painting. The luminescence of the light will not allow it to be. From the airplane window, Myanmar is spread out like a Kashmiri carpet, all the pastel hues, an orderly pattern of beiges and greens. The sky is big even in Yangon, a city that feels like Rangoon, but not for long.A hotel room under $100 a night in Yangon is a steal. Rents in Yangon are “more expensive than Manhattan,'' says a diplomat. In Golden Valley in Bahan township, a leafy, posh diplomatic area, even the UN has moved out. “It is all the oil money,'' says an embassy official. An expat family recently moved out when their landlord upped their rent to $10,000 a month.

“Traffic jams,'' says Rajeev Rawal, associate director at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Myanmar, when asked what has changed in the country. “Four years ago, you never had any.” When the Rawals moved in, the junta was in control. “The army could come and check your house at midnight,'' he says. Mentioning anything political was risky.This seems firmly the past today. The chaos of democracy may not be a reality at the moment, with the junta just playing the game, but there seems to be a freshness in the air.

At red lights in Yangon, hawkers can barely hold the newspapers they are selling. There are now more than 30 of them. Most of the newspapers are in Burmese and have been launched recently. An English daily is due to start soon.New flyovers are being built. “You pass something every day thinking one day you will return to take a picture,'' says Anne Celeste, who left Paris for Myanmar, 12 years ago, after a trip to Bagan, the land of the thousand pagodas. “Then, it disappears. Yangon is changing so fast,” she says.

But, it still retains some from the old. The two worlds have not collided as yet. It is chaotic, yet peaceful. Surprising, yet predictable. There are five-star hotels. Even dance bars. But, the image of a monk in deep maroon, walking with an umbrella, oil painting reproduction. That picture, which has come to symbolise the country, the colonial stereotype, is common enough. Women and men with their face covered with a thick paste of tanakha [a cosmetic preparation] still amble along the streets that are lined with hoardings advertising face-creams. Men still wear longyis. Chai stalls dot every street corner. It looks as if time has stood still.

“It is like the India of the 1950s,'' says Anil Vishwakarma, project director of Essar, which handles several projects in Myanmar. There are malls, but they have not really become a way of life. A holiday is still a time for people to stroll down the lake, holding hands. Children play on jungle gyms. Couples armed with huge umbrellas sit with their back to the world, hiding behind the span of the brollies. But that is only half the picture. There is also the skyscraper that is coming up next to Inle Lake hotel, a condominium with a coffee shop. Another shop sells cappuccino and wine, right next to a stall of Aung San Suu Kyi merchandise.

Air traffic is busy, with Myanmar all set to be the next hot destination. The golden triangle of Bagan, Mandalay and Yangon is connected by four flights a day. As one taxi driver puts it, “Myanmar is booming.”Pansodan Gallery, hidden behind a flyover and up a dingy staircase, is reflective of this change. Piled up with old posters, pictures and paintings, the gallery is a treasure trove for those looking for something beautiful from the past or wanting to invest in bolder strokes of new artists. “This was the first window for artists,'' says Aung Soe Min, the owner. “Now, they get paid better than actors.”

Myanmar isn't simple. It is superstitious. Former dictator Gen. Ne Win shot his reflection in the mirror as an astrologer had predicted that he would be shot. International roaming may still not be available—though in Yangon in some places there was signal—yet at a simple restaurant, the waitress will take your order on a tablet.

The junta can willingly 'relinquish' power to start a democracy. The military has donned the civvies and is on the road to democracy. But, “There is not one official in the director level who is an ethnic. Chief ministers of every state are ex-military,'' says a diplomat. Myanmar has a secret police, one of the most efficient in the world. George Orwell apparently got the idea of 1984 from his stint in the country. Yet, trust is something that is handed out like candy. You can leave your bag with jewellery somewhere, even in a taxi, and will get it back.

Identities are complicated in Myanmar. Your family can have lived here for generations, yet you can be identified as Indian on your national ID. “The whole national movement was against the British,'' says Harn Yawnghwe, executive director of Euro Burma Office. “We don't want any foreigners. This feeling carried on with south Asians and even Indians, who came with the British and stayed on. These elements have not been dealt with. We need to revisit history,” he says.

Yawnghwe is back after 48 years in exile, to help cobble together a peace settlement with the armed ethnic groups. His father, Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma, died in prison. His brother was shot dead by the army in the coup by Ne Win. There are many such stories of suffering.But in Myanmar, you don't speak of suffering.

Than Win Htut, the planning editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, too, is back, to start a television talk-show, the first of its kind in Myanmar. There is heated discussion about the format. “We interviewed this couple in which one partner was Buddhist and the other Muslim,'' he says. “I suddenly got a call from a Buddhist monk who told me I was a sympathiser.” These issues still simmer. And will determine the country's future. “My friends have told me to be careful. This whole thing may still be an act by the government. This is new for us. Earlier, we were not allowed to interview officials. Now we can,” says Htut.

The feeling that change may not be everlasting, at least when it comes to politics, comes up in conversations. Do not bring up politics on your own, is what the guide book tells you. But, in Myanmar, politics is like the rain, it is a constant companion. “The government has lied to us for years. They may be lying again,'' says Zarni Mann, a reporter at The Irrawaddy Magazine, who lived in Delhi for seven years.

Democracy may not change the fortunes of the country, but economics will. The biggest challenge for the country will be capacity building. “Money is not a problem. It is flowing into the country like the Irrawaddy,'' says an Indian diplomat. Post-1964, all the teaching in schools was done in Burmese.
Convent schools were shut and foreign teachers were asked to leave. “It is a fairly literate country. But, English is a problem, even for engineers and doctors,'' says a diplomat.

Every city has a story, the kind that defines it. In Bombay, it would be a rags-to-riches story. Delhi has its share of crazy drivers. Or the loud Punjabis who insist that you come for a meal to their house without ever specifying the date. But in Yangon, it will be probably be about generosity. It is the kind of city where you can go into a restaurant, order a soup, get it spectacularly wrong, and not get charged for it. Not because you asked. But the waiter noticed you had not touched it.

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