Photographing Yangon.
This photo was taken in the Kandawgyi park. We went for an afternoon walk with Maria as we often do on Sundays to see the city, another part every week. This time we went to this park where they were having the Makers Market, a regular event gathering people selling different items from food and clothes to arts and handicrafts. It’s fascinating!
Growing up in Mauritius, it’s not the kind of activity one is used to. To see that all of this was there, and people living in the same city were making so many different and cool things was a pleasure to discover! This platform allowed people who didn’t know about these to connect with the ones making them. Furthermore, we met a lot of friends we had not seen in a while. We were both so happy to see another close friend with her kids and had fun altogether. It allowed us to enjoy a sunset sitting on the pier, watching flocks of birds flying over the lake and behind the trees, another thing we’ve been wanting to do but never found the time for, primarily because we’re such pandas and can spend the whole day being just that 🐼 While sitting there a group of young local guys came over to us to ask the usual random questions, what is your name and where you come from, to which the answer usually leads to a football reference; Barcelona, Spain -> “Aaah Messi! Barcelona!” and for me…well I don’t say Mauritius because it is just too damn hard to explain where it is and most people have no idea so I say France instead and that lights up their faces exclaiming “Ohh! PSG!! Neymar!! Zidane!” haha 😂 Then they sang for us 🎶 It was fun…until the mosquitoes got thirsty and forced us to run for our blood 💉 Walking around the park, we found some guys break dancing Myanmar style under a big tree with a stereo on the ground next to them. We enjoyed the show for a few minutes.
Why am I saying all this?
I realized that one single event, and one simple thing lead to so many things. Have you ever taken the time to think about how starting off with one thing can lead to so many other things which you did not even plan to see or do? I mean beyond the mere accomplishment of getting to the end of that decision of doing one thing. In this case we decided to go out for a walk in this park. We got to connect with many people, known and unknown alike, connect with nature, connect with the life happening around us, see others connecting around us, and connecting ourselves. How cool is that?!
The photo here made me think of all this. It's not a special photo in any way, but the story behind it and what it reminds me of, is this. The daughter and the dad simply connecting over laughs having a good time. We don't need much to connect with what's around us, do we? Yet we often fall in this belief trap.
You know what to do now 😉
Cheers,
R