If you want to learn the history of Myanmar’s biggest city, head to the road where all the city’s books end up. Claudia Sofia Sosa strolls the same streets as Orwell and Neruda
By Claudia Sofia Sosa for Public Streets by Public Books, part of the Guardian Books Network
It’s a Sunday morning, and the light first falls on the squatters who have built their homes on the roof of the colonial telegraph building, an edifice that has been falling into beautiful disrepair since the British built it in 1911. The morning breeze, which is about as refreshing as a hair dryer blowing in your face, brings with it faint chants from the Hindu temple and the call to prayer from the nearby mosque. The eye catches the outline of a Baptist church tower in the distance. Below, on Pansodan Road, the booksellers are setting up shop, piling up hundred-year-old copies of Plato’s Phaedrus on the concrete slabs that lie scattered like puzzle pieces across the open sewers.
Much is made of the fact that George Orwell walked these streets not long ago. His favorite bookstore, Smart and Muckerdom, was just around the corner, on Sule Pagoda Road. Lesser known is the fact that Pablo Neruda also spent some time here. In 1927 he wrote, “I came late to Rangoon. Everything was already there.” It’s funny how often you’ll hear that same sentiment expressed today, carrying with it the underlying belief that there was something majestic about this place that’s only just disappeared.
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