lekowala!

Here’s one cool lady

“Letters from Burma” is nice to read.  I recommend it to students doing their GP.  Its better than reading dry essays from “model essays” as there are nuggets of information about politics and history all interwoven into the everyday life of the people.   It exudes such an aura of buddhist calm that I was reminded of my readings in Mindfulness and the Eightfold  Noble Path.  She drew inspiration from the Mahatma hence her non-violent (ahimsa) approach.

This was a nice book to read.  Everytime I read the lines, smells of lemon grass wafted about.  Its about poor farmers in 1970s Thailand that had to pay landlords 2/3 of their harvest as rent and student activists who tried to fight for  the farmers’ rights.  These students were usually from the city who knew nothing about rural life but still driven by keen social awareness to rouse the farmers into some proactivty.

Still the parts about the villagers struggling through poor harvests are heartwrenching but interesting to read.

There was a part where the daughter of the village head was cooking breakfast and all she could cook was rice gruel in water with lemon grass.  Well that sort of scene really gets stuck in one’s head.  There was one where her sister was trying to feed the baby but was producing no milk so couldn’t nurse the baby….  Lots of those in this book.

http://members.authorsguild.net/minfong/work13.htm