စိတ်ထဲရှိသမျှ

The first time I read "First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung was many moons ago in a café near the backpacker hostel where I was staying in Siem Reap. Back then, I chose to read the book for no other reason than to educate myself about the Khmer Rouge regime ahead of my upcoming trip to the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, which was just two weeks away. However, despite the heart-wrenching survival story of Loung under the brutal Khmer Rouge, I found myself reading it with the detached mindset of a distant observer, indulging in carrot cake and sipping a hot Americano in the comfort of an air-conditioned room.