Know your neighbour — Zaw Win Tun/ Greenwood Elements, New Town

The last time Captain Zaw Win Tun sat in the cockpit, it was to ferry medical supplies to Dibrugarh on April 17. Since then, he has been staying locked down in his Greenwood Elements apartment. A fortnight ago, when the Alliance Air pilot came down to register for a voluntary blood donation camp being held at the New Town residential complex, his neighbours were pleasantly surprised.

The 49-year-old Myanmar national smiles on hearing of their reaction. “I get my salary from Indian people. This is the least I can do to help out,” he said, adding that he could donate blood only because of the lockdown. “Pilots are not supposed to give blood. But since I am not flying now, I can.”

It has been a year now that the man from Yangon has made New Town his home. “I have been flying for 25 years now but this is my first post abroad.”

A deserted street in Yangon during the partial lockdown in Myanmar, clicked by Captain Tun’s son Thukha Zawwintun Courtesy: Thukha Zawwintun

As a 16-year-old, he had joined the country’s defence services academy. “I got my wings after four years. My first job was with Myanmar Airways.” It is while on his second job, as the chief pilot with Mann Yadanarpon Airlines, that India beckoned. “Myanmar is just an hour and half away by flight from Calcutta. The weather is the same as back home, especially in monsoon and winter. And this complex is clean and secure,” he says.

Tun being as adept a cook as his wife, the couple have not been stressed in the kitchen in the lockdown phase. “We take rice with chicken or fish curry as our staple. In fact, we have rice for both breakfast and lunch. Dinner is a light noodle soup.” He misses going to “JJ” (Jiban Jamuna) near City Centre 2 for biryani and chicken curry. “But supplies are not a problem. I am going shopping every two or three days. Potato and groceries are coming to the complex. And I am getting murgi and fish from the wet market that is open nearby.”

Myanmar is under semi lockdown. “We have not been hit that hard by Covid-19. There are 168 cases and only six fatalities. Offices are open though only 50 per cent attendance allowed at a time. But travel outside the country or even to other cities is banned.”

He gets news of home from YouTube links of Voice of America Burmese, Radio Free Asia, Myanmar and BBC Burmese. And of course from his children. “My 23-year-old daughter is in hotel management while my 20-year-old son is a senior first officer in my earlier airline, Mann Yadanarpon,” he says.

Travel restrictions in this pandemic season stalled a family reunion that was planned in April. “I had bought April 10 tickets for both of them. This would have been their first visit.” But he is not too upset as he knows even if they could manage to land he could hardly have shown them around during the lockdown. “The tickets are valid for a whole year. They will come when this blows over,” he said, ending the conversation with a smile and proof of his newly acquired smattering of Hindi — “koi baat nahin”.