The article won third prize in the writing contest "Dien Quang and I", aiming to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the company's founding.
Seven years have passed since I graduated from university and moved to Ho Chi Minh City with my family, and I have had the opportunity to visit Hanoi again. After two days in the capital, I quickly packed my bags and returned to my hometown.
Nam Dinh city still retains its ancient and peaceful features. The small streets, the rows of banyan trees in late autumn have yellow leaves mixed with red. The only difference is that the sidewalks have been paved with new stones instead of cement and in the areas near the fields have been replaced by a series of industrial parks and new urban areas are springing up. I stayed at the old house in the city for a day. The next day, my brothers drove me to visit a close friend in Hai Hau.
The coastal area of Hai Hau has changed a lot compared to my memory of nearly ten years ago. The road from Do Quan bridge to the town, which stretches for dozens of kilometers, has been widened and paved, replacing the small road with many potholes of the past. The large bridge has been built grandly. On both sides of the road, houses are close together, replacing the shabby tiled roofs. I opened the car door, to smell the smell of straw that people are burning in the late afternoon, carried by the wind, and felt something stirring in it, a nostalgia for a time gone by in one's life.
When we got to Hai Hau town, it was already dark. We went to a coastal restaurant to have dinner and waited to meet an old friend we had not seen for many years. Sitting down to drink a cup of hot tea to warm up and dispel the cold of the last day of autumn in this coastal area, I suddenly heard the owner calling the waiter: "Turn on the lights. It's dark." Hearing the guy reply briefly "Yes". With a sip, in a split second the gloomy space of the end of the day was lit up again. The guys who were with us exclaimed "the lights are so bright!". I looked up and immediately realized that the restaurant was using two 45W Daylight Dien Quang bulbs. One was a bit old, the other was brand new, and two 18w Daylight Dien Quang bulbs were added in the front yard. Next to that, other restaurants had also turned on their lights. Most of them use energy-saving bulbs, some places have warm yellow light, some have white light interwoven, mixed with high-pressure street lights to create a charming shimmering look for the coastal city.
The dishes were served. After chatting with the owner, I asked, “What kind of light are you using that is so bright?” The owner honestly said in a loud voice, “Dien Quang light bulbs from the South, they are bright and durable.” I continued to ask, “Why don’t you buy other lights instead of seeing these Dien Quang bulbs?” He replied, “More than two years ago, I bought some 18w Dien Quang bulbs and found them good, so I just bought more to use.” I was suddenly moved when I thought about the Dien Quang light bulbs from our factory in Binh Duong or Bien Hoa, which had traveled nearly two thousand kilometers, through many transportation trips, and were supported by many hands of workers to get here, and were still preserved intact to light up the space in this remote coastal city in the North. That was the sweat and effort of many people. I remember the days when I went with my brothers in the Dien Quang Marketing Department to the remote shrimp fields in Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, all the way to Dam Doi district in Ca Mau where the farmers in the Southwest kept the lights on all night to watch the shrimp in the fields. The Dien Quang light bulb has gone to every corner of the beloved Fatherland, from the cities to the countryside, from the fields to the open sea, from the South to the North, as the lyrics of the song Dien Quang Shines Bright wrote:
"I replace the bright sunlight on all the roads of our beloved homeland"
I feel proud to be one of Dien Quang's employees, to see with my own eyes tonight that the products of my company have traveled thousands of miles to shine right in my motherland. I hope that its light will be present everywhere in Vietnam when the night falls, and reach further across the ocean to light up many other vast lands, as our aspirational slogan says: "Where there is Electricity, there is Dien Quang".
But that's my story, for tomorrow. Tonight, under the warm light of Dien Quang, melting away the cold of a winter day in the northern coastal region, let's drink and chat happily, celebrating the day we meet again...
Hai Hau - Nam Dinh, November 9, 2011.
Dang Trung
