Zar Tar is a stack of palm leaves smeared with residual oil and folded into a handy packet. When I am educated enough able to understand the information written in Zar Tar, it becomes my precious treasure as possession of traditional value that belongs to me from my infancy. At least that is how I know the time I was born, according to my Zar Tar record. A few days later, acquainted astrologer of my mother from the village, made Zar Tar and inscribed my name, Tun Ba Kaung, on it. I was born at home on Saturday, at 10 in the morning.

It symbolizes the combination of the particular virtue for a person and astrological calculation of the day of the week that the person was born based on Burmese lunar calendar year. I could give no perfect answer, for the traditional custom I was so used to, without thinking too much about my family roots after my grandmother passed away when I was still a little boy.Ī few years later, after witnessing different cultural practices around the world, I realized that the Burmese custom of naming is fairly unique. “Do you mean to say,” asked one of the scholars, “that you have no last name according to your father?” On my replying in the negative all the scholars, except the venerable professor, looked at me in astonishment, and in a question which I shall not easily forget, they asked “No last name? How do you trace the root of your ancestors?” The question stunned me at that time. Once his students learned of my Burmese origin, the remainder of the discussion turned to Burmese culture, tradition, and finally names. George Orwell's first novel, inspired by his experiences in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, Burmese Days includes a new introduction by Emma Larkin in Penguin Modern Classics.About seven years ago, while I was spending a few days in Philadelphia and enjoying great hospitality of Professor Leonard Swindler, the distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought & Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University, I attended one of discussions with his graduate students. Flory's life is changed further by the arrival of beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen from Paris, who offers an escape from loneliness and the 'lie' of colonial life. The only thing that can save him is membership of the all-white Club, and Flory can help. The doctor is in danger: U Po Kyin, a corrupt magistrate, is plotting his downfall. When Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Indian Dr Veraswami, he defies this orthodoxy. Based on his experiences as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell's first novel presents a devastating picture of British colonial ruleīurmese Days describes corruption and imperial bigotry in a society where, 'after all, natives were natives'.

The burmese days