Burma is "amrub" backwards. A simple, honest statement, one might say, but what relevance does it have to life in general? And why , one might continue , does it matter that "marub" is an anagram of "Burma" if the word is meaningless? By further changing around the letters in "Burma," one eventually realizes that no word that is a recognizable part of the English language ever results. However, by this time, one is frustrated and annoyed for a simple reason. One starts out on this misadventure of switching letters around in the hope , and expectation , that out of the estimated 400,000 words in the English language, at least one word will be formed by the letters found in "Burma." Unfortunately, this seems to be a false hope. Therefore, after working with the word for countless hours, one might resort to inventing one's own definitions for the words one created out of the letters b, u, r, m, and a. That is what I did. I also fabricated meanings to go with my words , words which might eventually come into common usage.

One such word, as mentioned above, is "marub," which, according to the Unabridged Julie Dictionary, has the following meaning: "a Southeast Asian teacher of mysticism and spiritual knowledge." (As in "The chanting marub rubbed the jade and silver pendant to release its healing power to the sick man.")

Another word is "barum," defined as "a milky white liquid taken in ancient Greece to prevent the growth of an eye in the center of the forehead." (As in "Odysseus jeered at the Cyclops, which had obviously refused, as a small child, to drink its barum.")

A third word is "rubam," which has two distinctly different definitions: (1) "an unripe rhubarb" and (2) "a small, furry animal, similar to a womble." (An example of this: "As it was exploring the garden, the young rubam let out a series of high-pitched squeals to alert the vegetables to its presence.")

This small dissertation represents only a small portion of my work. There are numerous other words that are anagrams of "Burma," many of which are unpronounceable. The remaining 107 will not be printed here because of the lack of space and the lack of ink. Incidentally, what this all proves is that everyone should abmur1 their talents to marbu2 various words, especially the names of countries, as this practice apparently produces umbar3 though occasionally tedious results.

1. abmur - to explore in great depth. Also: (inf.) to scuba-dive.

2. marbu - to make an anagram out of, to mix around to produce different meanings.

3. umbar - interesting, fascinating n