Rest area on U Bein

There should be no rush crossing a beautiful teak bridge.  There are two covered rest-areas on the bridge, giving walkers an opportunity to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.

U Pain Teak bridge

Food for bridge crossers

Taungthaman Lake

A view of the Taungthaman Lake

A bridge made of teak

Historically, powerful kingdoms of Myanmar were formed around Amarapura (now part of Mandalay) and Mandalay--the Irrawaddy River being the life line of this central region.  The British entered Myanmar—just like they entered South Asia--from the sea and developed Yangon as the capital.  And this is how see Mandalay and Yangon: Mandalay being from the time of innocence and self-sustenance when all the needs of the local population could be met with indigenous resources; Yangon from the time of international trade and increased dependence on others.  Mandalay being the real Myanmar; Yangon being the Myanmar the colonial masters wanted to see.

Taungthaman Lake, south of Mandalay, is a natural depression acting as a catch basin for the rainwater falling on higher elevation areas east of Irriwaddy River (and east of Taungthaman Lake).  The lake water drains into the Irriwaddy River through a narrow stream.  The U Bein (U Pain) bridge—Burmese speakers, please tell us how U Bein (U Pain) should be pronounced—is over the narrow middle part of the Taungthaman Lake, running east-west and connecting the rural parts of the area to the urban sprawl of Mandalay.

Here you see the historical U Pain bridge, as seen from its west end.

Another corner of the monastery

Monk and the monastery

Mutkay

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Burqavaganza in San Francisco

Shahid Nadeem’s play ‘Burqavaganza’ was a sold out show in San Francisco, on Saturday, June 2.  Saturday’s workshop performance of Burqavaganza, directed by Vidhu Singh, was presented by RasaNova Theater and Friends of South Asia (FOSA) in association with Footloose at Shotwell.  In the photo you see the cast of ‘Burqavaganza’ with playwright Shahid Nadeem during the Q&A session following the performance.

OPEN Forum 2012

Where do Pakistani-Americans go to if they want to reduce the degrees of separation between them and the brightest minds working in the field of technology?  To the OPEN Forum, of course!   An all-day program of lectures and workshops the annual OPEN Forum provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and the time-proven techniques you can use to achieve your goals, and to find people that are in the fields you are pursuing or want to pursue.  OPEN Forum 2012, under the leadership of its new president Moazzam Chaudry, was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on June 2.

This year too, OPEN had three plenary sessions: a morning ‘fireside chat’ featuring Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia, a non-profit organization, moderated by Ammar Hanafi, general partner at Alloy Ventures; an afternoon keynote by Salman Khan of the Khan Academy; and an evening ‘fireside chat’ featuring Al Lieb, Cofounder & CEO of Clearside dot com and Aaron Levie, Cofounder &CEO of Box dot com, moderated by Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital.

This photo shows the audience at the session with Salman Khan.  Around 400 people gathered to listen to English-understanding-world’s favorite teacher over the Internet.

Another view of the monastery

Israeli photographers at the monastery