Good Reads

I have been ensnared by a book:  the Piano Tuner.  It is based in England and colonial Burma (now Mynmar) and I love the aspects of it that cross a little into my life.  

Jbird tunes pianos and I have sat through many tunings and discussed tuning at length with him.  The repetitious movements, and harsh sounds that are so necessary for the desired outcome are described at length within the book.  

I have not been to Myanmar but I have been close.  I once travelled to the southern most point of Bangladesh and saw refugees from that neighbouring country in camps on the riverbed.  The book describes foothills similar to those of the Himalayas in India or Nepal, sticky translucent rice like that in Laos, and that curious reaction from locals to any oddity: the crowds, stares, and cheeky children.  It covers the political state between the colonising British and original cultures which might be compared to many countries around the world.  Gun power was the main feature, while love as a was tactic met by the invaders with unease and disbelief.  The local lengthy festivities described fit with cultures of that part of the world yet are curiously their own.   

I am transported back to those times as well as the times of my own travels as I contemplate the improbability of a piano surviving such high humidity, heat, and isolated travel.