dear stan,
now , i wish to talk about ma ma mya, professor dr mya mya
as you all know her.she wrote a series of health education articles in burmese
in the working people's daily and the pay-phu-hlyar magazine of that period.her
articles are based on the woman's physiology nd diseases.she asked me to allow
her to borrow burmese words from my books.i said, "an hnour to me, please
make use freely.".actually she was not the first person to request
permission from me to use my books.her elder sister dr hla hla requested me to
use my book on human anatomy in burmese entitled " the introduction to
human anatmy (khan-da-veda lan-nhyum) to teach the regional college students. i
gave her permission and she broadcast form the Myanma Ahthan regularly.
dr daw mya may was a very popular ObGyn at the time.she
had a busy practice.her articles were well read and liked by the people.her
articles appearred in the pay-phu-hlyaar magazine as the wife of that magazine
was taking treatment with her.that editor u mya hlaing was the one who
suggested her to use my burmese health books for her articles.he was a good
friend of mine.he was the younger brother of the famed bo let ya and dr hla
shwe, the father of dr tha hla shwe, the retired rector of IM2.all were my good
friends.
because of the articles' popularity dr mya may published
them in a book form.i thought that book could win the national literary
prize,but it did not probably because her written burmese resemble english.yes,
her english is very good.she has been educated in the darjeeling's convent.in
the days before the 1960s many affluent people in burma sent their children to
darjeeling for good high school education.dr mya and dr hla hla were two
examples.some other persons were dr htunt saing, now profesor of surgery in
hongkong, dr aung thu, anatomist now deceased, and actor nyunt win.
i still remember our dean (special professor in charge) in
mandalay branch medical faculty scolding his indian students failing to beat me
in the physiology and anatomy tests.he said." Look at maung nyo, this
fellow is a burmese coming from the vernacular high school and beating you all
coming from the darjeeling! useless, hopeless!" i felt very sorry for my
friends inderjit singh toor and angelo rodrigues and a lady.they just smiled
and lowered thier faces. darjeeling in those days was that famous and highly
rated. and when i was posted to the eye word at RGH, dr u ko gyi introduced us
to a fair, stout and suave gentleman as "This is the father of emily than
pe, a drajeeling graduate and the most intelligent student in her class now
studying in UK."
dr mya mya was a
very good student.she gained the first place at the final part 2 mbbs
examination. dr u ba than was vry fond of her. i heard a reliable or convincing
rumour that he even persuaded her to marry his son georgie ba than. she of
course refused. she married her childhood sweet heart u kyaw khin, the forest
officer.thier wedding was well described in the society column of the nation
daily published in those days.
dr mya mya hs been very active in sports and social
activities.she was a badminton champion in her student's days.she took active
part in the stdents' activities when she was the OG professor at IM1.she was
very active in the medical education activities too.she and other three
professors namely drs khin kyi kyi, maung maung sein and khun aung kyi of
mandalay were sent to the university of new south wales training centre in the
1980s for medical education.they were very active in burma after they came back
from australia.
we called dr mya mya "the other emily" for two
reasons.one is that there is one dr emily hansu, the physician, a christian and
the econd reason is that emily brontee was the famous novelist of the Wuthering
Heights.
ma ma mya or dr mya mya is very sympathetic to
students.once we had to investigate some house surgeons for spoiling the
graduation dinner and for destroying the government properties.i was the
chairman of the enquiry committee and she and dr khin kyi kyi were the
members.we found the culprits and we had to punish. i proposed to do it
according to law(rules), but she wanted to be lenient.but the then minister for
health u tun wai was a lawyer ( he had a BL degree before joining the air
force) and the culpable house officers were duly punished by being debarred
from training for six months.
she was very popular with her students, both undergraduate and postgraduate.i heard from reliable sources that a powerful daughter of the most powerful person in burma at the time offerred her the post of IM1 rector, but she refused.so many great professors have refused the rectorship, u kyee paw, daw khin si, surgeon dr myint aung etc.dr mya mya and u kyaw khin have three children and all are educated and well established now.i heard that she is now living in the USA.may she live long!