The boy gazed at the people on the platform through the wide-open train window
The Yangon Circular train clattered to a halt. At my side, a boy dangled his elbow from the window frame, gazing at the platform with the calm of someone who has long since surrendered to the heat. The carriage had no air-conditioning, of course. Every window gaped wide, admitting a stream of air thick with dust, sweat, and the smell of the city. I leaned out with him and let my eyes follow his.
What lay on the platform was no postcard of rustic simplicity, but something closer to exhaustion in public view. Men lounged on benches painted in tired yellows and greens; youths slumped forward, foreheads in their palms. Those still upright stood with hands on their hips, as though conceding defeat to the sun. They neither boarded nor disembarked; they simply remained. A station, one assumes, is built for motion—yet here in Yangon, immobility seemed the truer rhythm.
Perhaps the railway itself embodies this paradox. It circles the city endlessly, but with such delay that the act of hurrying has long since been abandoned. The train no longer carries its passengers so much as it frames, stop by stop, the spectacle of those who do not move. Even the bundles of newspapers stacked on the platform looked more like weights holding down the day than items meant to be read.
Mopping sweat from my brow, I caught myself wondering whether these people were resting or simply drowning in surplus time. Either way, what filled the air was not the awe that travel brochures promise, but a different kind of tableau: a station where the only spectacle is that of waiting without waiting. And in that paradox, the vast disorder of Yangon revealed itself with disarming clarity.
| Sep 2012 IN THE CITY MYANMAR | |
| BENCH CAR WINDOW PLATFORM TRAIN YANGON |
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PHOTO DATA
No
6764
Shooting Date
Mar 2010
Posted On
September 1, 2012
Modified On
September 3, 2025
Place
Yangon, Myanmar
Genre
Street Photography
Camera
RICOH GR DIGITAL
