"Meeting Maung-Maung" - Pico Iyer

In Meeting Maung-Maung, Pico Iyer demonstrates a theme of experience and being helpful and kind to others is more important in life than money. He does this by describing Maung-Maung as someone who prefers to meet tourists and help them have a good experience in Mandalay than getting a job to use his degree in mathematics, which he is still proud of. Maung-Maung is also depicted as a sweet soul who tries his best at following the Buddhist principles of life and cherishes the people he meets by making albums to commemorate them. Iyer uses simile to show Maung-Maung as a cautious, caring individual, "...as gently as if it were his Bubble, Maung-Maung passed across the other volume..." Through the description of the way to Maung-Maung's home, "dirty alleyways," "lanes of run-down shacks," "a hut, fronted with weeds," the author paints a negative picture of the city and despite this, Maung-Maung is shown again as grateful, "smiling proudly." From meeting Maung-Maung, Pico Iyer was enlightened on the idea that experience and placing an important on other people's happiness are more important than money, materialistic things, or status.