Random Notes from my China Trip - Part 1

China.  I was not too enthusiastic about going there.  There was just one reason - China is a large, populous country like India.  This fact painted a picture of China resembling India with its crumbled infrastructure, inadequate space and insufficient resources. 

I felt stupid.  Not because I considered that my notions about China could be wrong, but because I felt that these are not reasons for not taking interest in going to a country.  After all, this notion and lack of interest did not make for a person influenced by present day economics, and an economics that is, beyond doubt, being shaped by this big country.

Not fair ground tents: Beijing's developments seem to be well-grounded
than just being the side effects of Olympics 

There was also this mild concern to do with language and communication.  I was told that it would be hard to get through only with English.  So, what happens if I go somewhere and get lost? 

Well, my concerns turned out to be unscientific, biased and completely unfounded. They were as conveniently bigoted as the notion of considering all Westerners as people with loose morals.   And I felt stupid for qualifying my stupidity  as that associated with my ‘irrational feelings of not taking interest’, whereas my stupidity was in fact, genuine stupidity -  pure lack of knowledge and know-how. 

China just left me gaping.  The trip became memorable, for all the right reasons.  The following are some random notes on my experiences:

-          Mind your Language: Lesson 1:  Language is definitely a problem.  You cannot ask your way around; not all signs are in English; even the [5-star] hotel staff might not interpret your English correctly [and you theirs].  So it is essential that you anticipate your most frequent queries and responses and have them written in Chinese.  Keep a copy of this sheet with you always.  Most hotels give you their address card in Chinese with the phrase: ‘Take me to my home’ written in Chinese. 

The Climb to the top: Beijing's infrastructure vouches
 for China's ascendancy to the ranks of superpowers

-          Mind your Language: Lesson 2:  Be careful when you attempt to speak Chinese names, such as those of your destinations.  Chinese seems to be a language, in which, every fine change in pronunciation/ diction can twist a word to carry a different meaning.  It would be quite unfortunate if your taxi driver hears your ‘Chin’ as a ‘Cheen’ or as a ‘Ching’ or as a ‘Jin’.  My overconfidence with Chinese names provided me a [of course, paid] tour of Shanghai that I did not really intend to take.

-          Maximum City: I had more apprehensions about Beijing than about Shanghai.  Somehow, it felt that Beijing is too much into the deep [good 2000 Km up north Shanghai, it’s the real mainland China], that I can manage in Shanghai, but in Beijing… hmm… doubtful.  Also, I did not have much expectation from the city – capitals are not always the most exciting of places [exception: Paris?].  But Beijing just shattered my notions.  When I was expecting, at the maximum, a city comparable to Delhi [Delhi, I hear is better, except for the weather], Beijing just fumbled me with its size, infrastructure and facilities [Marriot Beijing was more posh, cozy and stylish than Marriot Shanghai].  I was especially impressed with the roads - All the roads are far broader – much richer than their Indian counterparts, lined with trees, well-tended rose bushes (!) and tall, stylish buildings.

It definitely gave the picture of a bold, dominant economy that China has become.  Though, some of these developments can be attributed to the Olympics, it doesn’t look as if these are just recent developments.  The city seems to have planned its infrastructure long ago. 

Holistic?:  China's economic growth might not be
well distributed, but so is India's.

I visited a public sector customer in Beijing and it was time again to correct my assumptions about China.  While I had imagined a place that will most likely resemble the headquarters of one of the public sectors in India, this one was absolutely efficient and gave the picture that it is all about business – clean, neat, modern and highly professional.  The line of plush conference rooms with high tech projection systems, though could be considered superficial evidences of sophistication, in this case, just became subtle statements of the default classiness of the organization.

-          Language Again: This meeting also made me realize that Chinese is a complete language in that one can conduct discussions about technology and science completely in Chinese.  Though I couldn’t participate in conversations directly [as they were all in Chinese], I was fishing for facial expressions and the occasional English word that I thought would pop up now and then.  But no.  I could neither discern the facial expressions nor scoop English words.  I was awestruck to know that words such as browser, compatibility, UI technology, bandwidth etc can be expressed purely in Chinese.  I know that it is possible to find equivalents for such words in, say Tamil or Hindi.  Even then, how much of this ‘native language’ words is used in conversations?  [And whether it is worthwhile to have higher education in our native languages is a question worthy of a separate discussion.]

Balanced: The country of 1.5 billion is the world's largest
producer and world's 2nd largest consumer

-          Beijing Traffic: The city of 22 million is estimated to be running a staggering 4.2 million cars – a number, to the growing concern of everyone, is growing at a steady pace [an interesting statistics says that 2214 new vehicles hit Beijing roads everyday].  Every road seems to be clogged with traffic, irrespective of whether it’s a peak or an off-peak hour [and in spite of the broad and better roads].  The Beijing municipality is trying several alternatives such as having ‘no-car days’, congestion tax, higher parking fee etc, but to no avail.  Road trips in Beijing are taken with buffer hours calculated considering the traffic jams.  Every major road has traffic congestion indicators, but they can’t be of much help if one’s main route, as well as all alternative routes is clogged.

-          That Cloud of Puff: A big irksome factor in Beijing is public smoking.  The tinge of tobacco can always be felt in the air.  Since public smoking is allowed, and since the air has a vague trace of nicotine [or did I imagine that?], there’s no point in someone excusing themselves and either not smoking or trying to let the puff out in a different direction.  I’m sure this will be annoying even to an avid smoker – or perhaps a week in Beijing roads could be an effective therapy session for such smokers to quit smoking.  Add to this acrid atmosphere, a dash of the exhaust gases from the voluminous Beijing traffic, and you would have experienced the notorious Beijing pollution. How do people cope up with such levels of pollution?  Get a Chinese perspective of weather and pollution in this interesting NYT article.

To To be continued...

To

Meenakshi - in The Age of Kali

I am curious to know how outsiders perceive India – us and our culture.  Because they, like children who spot rainbows in oil spillages, can sometimes reveal things that miss our senses. Their views may not be always akin to ‘finding rainbows’.  They can also be like the newcomer’s wrinkling of nose at the stench of the Kovum river, and his bewilderment at people who carry on with life on its banks, indifferent or insensitive to this stench [V.S. Naipaul’s variety].

Nevertheless, these authors, not very surprisingly, reveal fascinating things about our world that we simply didn’t bother to find about. Most of the times, their perspectives are thought-provoking, making us wonder why things are so.  But sometimes, their perspectives seem to stem from stereotypical biases or assumptions.

Last weekend, I got hold of a copy of William Dalrymple’s ‘Age of Kali’. The book makes an interesting read with topics as light and frothy as Shobha De and her Bombay socialite evenings and as serious and grim as Sri Lankan turmoil.  Though the anecdotes and experiences are nearly a decade old, they still have relevance today.  And as always, its always fascinating to look at the past and wonder at the way things have panned out.

On browsing the TOC, a particular chapter caught my attention immediately – At the Court of the Fish-eyed 

Goddess – as it was about the temple of Madurai, a topic close to my heart, and it’s Goddess Meenakshi.  I read this chapter first.

Bliss as Sweet as Appam

Why fiddle in a long queue for hours,   get caught in a hooting horde, get squeezed between sweaty bods, loose your peace of mind to the disrespectful guards and the chiding priests, only to be dissatisfied with the fleeting glimpse of the deity for whom you travelled so much?  By the time you get to reach the sanctum sanctorum, if you think retrospectively, you will realize that there’s not much trace of bhakthi left, that you had reserved for the God.

[Some of my friends might argue why ever go to the temples and get into all this trouble.  And my answer is that I simply love the magic of old temples.]

Or perhaps, I shouldn’t generalize.  But this was the experience of my family when we visited Sri Rangam a few months ago.  I had just visited this temple once when I was in my fourth standard.  The beautiful island, with its majestic temple gopuram rising above the coconut sea, always used to allure me every time I crossed Trichy (Thiruchirappalli).  When a friend of us scheduled her marriage in Trichy, I thought that this is the great opportunity that I had been waiting for to do a temple tour of Trichy, Thanjavur and Kumbakonam.

Holy smoke: The Gopurams of Sri Rangam temple are tall  and majestic.

No doubt the temple is vast and beautiful.  The layers and layers of wide praharams and the innumerable shrines of beautiful deities are so fascinating.  As much as the age of the temple and the miraculous stories that surround it, the chaste and devoted iyengars who visit the temple inspire a sense of respect for the temple and make the place even more rare and precious – as if the place has a quality that you would revere, and feel shy to touch and feel.

Those who spoiled this fantastic experience were the temple authoritie and the priests.  The authorities had some amazing rules that’ll defy the ones you can find in Catch-22.  And the pujaris were very discourteous to people who looked less affluent, while they chased the better looking ones with donation tickets.  These are worthy of a separate post.  And this state of affairs is not uncommon these  days in any big, established temples.

At the end of the day, all I remember are the broad, brilliant eyes of Ranganathar in the divine lights of the inner shrine.

Just a speck for the time bird: Kollidam as seen in Kallanai.

The very next day, I had a darshan of the God in a different place, in a more peaceful setting, with just mystical soundlessness as the background.

Divinity in simplicity: Koviladi Appakkudathan temple is  charmingly quaint and calm.

This heart warming experience was at Thirupernagar, also called as Koviladi [the place that's just about an adi-kal distance from Sri Rangam], just about 15 -20 kms from Trichy,  on the way to Thiruvaiyyar.


To give further indications to its location, Koviladi is on the way from Trichy  to Thirukkattupalli [a slightly better known Shaivite town and should be even better known for people who have read Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan].
The route itself is scenic [at least in early summer!] and courses through the rich Thanjavur delta of paddy fields and criss-crosses the great Kollidam, river.  It passes through the Grand Anaicut or Kallani, the great reservoir on Cauvery, built by the early Cholas.  One gets to see how the river is part and parcel of everyday lives of people here.

In Koviladi, Lord Vishnu, reclines in his Adisehsa bed, as he does in Sri Rangam.  He’s known by the name Thiru Appakkudathan or Appala Ranganathan.  The name follows from this story: 

A king once was cursed by the Sage Dhurvasa and to be liberated, was asked to feed a lakh people at this kshetram.  One day, when the king was engaged in such an annadhana, Lord Vishnu came to him, disguised as a Brahmin.  The Brahmin consumed all the food that had been prepared.  When the perplexed king, asked the Brahmin, what could suppress his hunger, the Brahmin said that a pot (kudam) of appam would do the miracle.  So the king did, and lo his curse was removed.  Lord Vishnu showed himself and continued to reside in this temple. To this day, appam is offered to the Lord as neivedhyam.

It is also considered the place where Sage Markandeya was blessed by Lord Vishnu and was relieved of the curse of dying at the age of 16.  The sage can be seen at the feet of the Lord in the shrine.  It is also considered the place where the Lord squashed Indra's pride.
In the shrine, one can partake the Lord, in his full glory, from head to feet, without the disturbance from the chiding priests and the impatient crowd.  The Lord is charming and could be seen resting his right hand on a silver pot, which is meant to be the pot of appams.   The Lord is accompanied by Goddess Lakshmi, known as Kamalvalli.

The fallen God: The temple though was undergoing renovation,  lacks maintenance

The young bhattar (priest) at the temple, explained the thalapuranam (the story of the place) in clear, detailed manner.  He sang several pasurams on the presiding deity, in his golden voice and charmed us with his sincerity and devotion to the temple.  I forgot his name, but I think it could be Srinivasa Bhattar (as I see in this blog).

Ad Hominem

My friend Vijay TV's (VTV) recent blog post prompted me to write a few lines on it.

Like him, I never thought I'd write on this subject.   But unlike him, I didn't bother to write, because I was, simply not bothered.

I will not contest VTV's sentiments towards this issue. That's not the problem at all […though I read Kushboo's statement differently.]

But what piqued me, was his rationale in defending his sentiment which reaches the ultimate conclusion that Kushboo should shut up.  Why?

Because she's from the cinema industry, which according to VTV, is the biggest sex industry.  And people who come from such an industry - presumably, people with loose morals, do not have a stand to comment on such topics.

My question, then, VTV,  is, had the statement been made by someone outside the film industry, let’s say N Ram or  Sachin Tendulkar (whom I’m sure, you’d have some respect for),  would it have been more acceptable or carried more credibility?

If not, I guess you’re falling in trap of the classical logical fallacy.

Invitations to the Dream World

Read this beautiful lullaby in one of the blogs that I read regularly and was charmed by the innocently simple, beautiful and hopeful lines.

Lullabies are the most soothing songs of this earth. It’s blissful to catch a scene of a mother singing to her baby, making the little one sleep:

The night is cool, and the earth is wet. Sounds have ceased and the world is at rest. Save the cicadas', there’s no other sound. Stars are winking and the moon’s playing hide and seek. The deeply scented night flowers have bloomed somewhere, filling the air with mystique. And then you hear the mother singing to her child. This is heaven.

Lullabies are about all beautiful in the universe – the moon, the stars, flowers, birds, mountains, oceans, and other wonderful things. They make a person dream and imagine, hope and believe in the goodness of life.

They might, sometimes, carry a tinge of sadness, a subtle reference to the plights and sufferings of the mother or the family or the clan itself. They might be loaded with the parent’s own longings, unfulfilled dreams and wishes. This is the flavour that most lullaby songs in Indian movies carry (for e.g. the classic ‘Malarnthum malaratha’ (Paasamalar) with some magnificent lyrics from Kannadhasan, or the very poignant ‘Thendrale…thendrale’ (Kadhal Desam) by ARR, in the recent times ).

Even then, they leave a final word of consolation to the wounded, instil the belief that things would be alright and that tomorrow would be a grand new day.

There are many beautiful lullabies composed in Carnatic music, mainly sung to a deity – be it Rama or Krishna - ‘Jo Jo Achchuthananda Jo Jo Mukunda’ by MSS comes to my mind immediately. Someone wondered why these lullabies are always for Gods and not for Goddesses. It could be that we see all Goddesses as mothers, and mothers are not meant to sleep, but keep vigil on their young ones. Some gender bias here?

Switching back to the topic of lullabies –When I started digging for lullabies in Tamil, I came across this beautiful one –a popular one:

கண்ணான கண்ணுறங்கு என் கண்மணியே!

கானமயிலுறங்கு என் பூமணியே!

பொன்னான பொழுதுறங்கு என் வெண்மணியே!

பூமரத்து வண்டுறங்கு என் விண் நிலவே!

செண்டாட பூமலரும் வண்டாட தேன்வடியும்!

வண்டாடும் பொய்கையினில் !

வந்தாடும் அன்ன ஊஞ்சல்!

அன்ன ஊஞ்சல் போலிருக்கும் என் மண் ஒளியே!

அருங்கிளியே தேன்மழையே திருவாசகமே நீயுறங்கு!

Each word in this song paints a beautiful picture or sows a marvellous thought – either calling out to the little child with the simplest of endearments such as a parrot or a peacock or taking the affection to a higher level by comparing the child to a song of great wisdom (திருவாசகமே).

Here’s how I translated this song (with doles of creative liberty(!)):

My vision, apple of my eye,

Peacock dancing to an overcast sky,

My precious jewel, my flawless pearl,

Fluttering butterfly on a flowery trail,

Moon of my clear night skies

Time to rest, close your eyes.

Oh, the li’l bud grows a honeyed flower,

Beckoning the merry bee,

That dances over lotus flowers

Where sways the swan, see.

Oh, the one swaying like the swan,

Light of my mind, my dawn

Sweet parrot, my nectar rain,

Song of rarest wisdom, one can find,

Time to rest, may you sleep.

These are great words to invite sleep and step into the realms of dreams.

So, what happened to such beautiful lullabies these days?

P.S. To be fair to Parvathy, she sings great many a deal of devotional songs to Pranav and to be fair to myself, I sing lots of film songs to him J

How dreams are squashed

The past week has been a period of highs and lows that immediately followed the highs, that eventually ended in a harrowing climax.

This is to do with my dear FLL team of five. This super team was selected to compete in the Taiwan International Championship.

The issue of travel expenses was very altruistically taken care of by my company. The CR team was extremely generous and agile to negotiate and get funds for us. This was just fantastic, as our company usually sponsored the team that came first.

When we broke the kids, the kids were super excited. The school - the headmaster and the teachers, also appeared excited, but with some reservation. Why?

They also wanted to check if one of them can also travel to Taiwan (of course, the headmaster gets the priority).

The reason is that they wanted to ensure the safety of the kids. This is extremely essential, as this is the kids' first international travel - You know, how parents became extremely anxious even for a short trip out of school.

This seemed fine, though there was no real need for the teachers to travel, as we three mentors would be accompanying the kids anyway.

'Oh great!', said the headmaster, 'so your company will pay for the teacher as well, right?'

Oh yeah, so that’s how it was?! But that’s not possible – the teachers have, technically, no role in the FLL competition. And these teachers, absolutely had no role, except that they allowed the kids to participate in the competition. We told the teachers that this would not be difficult. They weren’t pleased:

Hmm, well in that case, things will be difficult.

You see, these parents are extremely anxious about their kids. And this is an international trip, travel by air (to note: None of the teachers have travelled in flights), so they might not really agree.

("Teacher, you remember the trip to Mysore and the 150 odd phone calls that came to us from parents, when something wrong happened to some kid?" Well, that just indicates that you aren't the right person to take care of kids isn't it?! Wrong example, perhaps?!)

And in fact, we already have 'tried convincing' the parents. The first question that they asked was in fact, 'Sir, are you also travelling? Or is Madam travelling? If not, we don’t want to send our kids.'

(The madam is always with a long, rounded stick with which she knocks on students’ heads. Parents want her to be the kids’ guardian? Oh perhaps, she uses the stick to rattle students' brains and put it good work?!)

We told them - see, we are not travelling. But that’s not something to worry about, as the company guys are going. But don't hold us responsible for all the (bad) things that might happen in Taiwan. We can't also ask the company people as we're completely out of the picture (That's some great convincing!).

So its not us, you see. We're all happy for our kids. But the parents will not let the kids travel without us ("Teacher, you remember the trip to....")

The teachers’ intention was clearly very clear. They were asking us what’s in there for them.

We tried speaking to the parents. They turned out to be people in the landscape that the teachers had painted. But I wouldn’t blame them, as it was apparent that the teachers have very clearly impressed on them their motivations(One of the teachers who tried convincing the parents was promptly asked if he didn’t have a class to attend to (instead of spoiling the fortune for the great teachers).)

There, that was how an opportunity that has all the potential to change the lives of five kids forever, was grounded down, because of a group of teachers wanted to have a free take-off.

So, what became of those people in that noble profession of teaching? Don’t I consider some of my teachers, if not all, as not just subject experts, but teachers of life-lessons? Didn't I want to emulate them? Is it not true that I still remember them with admiration and respect and as persons of great personal integrity?!

What happened to all of them? What happened to the idea of ‘Maatha, Pitha, Guru, Deivam’?

Somehow, it’s very difficult to accept the teachers’ wish as that of people who have never had the opportunity to travel abroad and let this go. Especially, when these teachers had never made any effort to understand this competition; even when the India finals happened in our own office campus, just a few minutes away from the school. If they had earlier thought that their responsibility stopped with allowing the kids to participate, I guess they should stick to that responsibility now as well.

It was so heart-breaking to see the excitement in the kids’ face fade into a sad helplessness.

I might get pas this experience , but I do pray that they break out of this shroud and the path, of following their parents, of becoming daily wage labourers.

PS: I have skipped the episodes where we tried taking up the case of the teachers with our benefactors in our company. They didn’t see any reason (very rightly so) why the company should sponsor. I have skipped the number of iterations we had with the school. Today, the CR department advised us to stop– they felt that the teachers might trouble the kids in the future, even if we coerce them to let them go now.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen..

Sometime ago, I had the opportunity of training 5 kids for the FLL robotics competition, along with two other colleagues (What's FLL?).

Since it’s a robotics competition, competing kids/ teams need a flair for computer programming, concepts of motors, gears, sensors etc. And it needs loads of creativity to evolve approaches and design a robot to accomplish the mission.

Given this skill set, teams are typically formed with kids in their 6^th, 7^th or 8^th standards, and who have exposure to computers (usually have computers at home and probably play a Nintendo or an Xbox). The competition also requires them to be fluent and confident articulators. Therefore, it’s not unexpected that the contest is usually between kids from schools of the upper echelon.

However, we decided that we will not go the road oft travelled – we wanted to give this exposure to young students who wouldn't otherwise have access to such things as computers, robotics and programming. So we formed our team with five young students from class 6 and 7, from a Government school, located in a small village-like locality behind our office campus.

The school caters to the nearby community of, mostly, daily wage labourers working in the huge and multitude constructions happening around. Some of them work as cleaners and other such jobs in my office.

The school was not badly maintained. The teachers intended well. But yes, they had limitations to what they could wish and aspire for their children.

The kids chosen for our team did not have exposure to computers or programming. This, we had somehow expected. Since the school was a Kannada-medium school, they couldn’t speak much English as well. This was a problem, as two of us, including me cannot go beyond ‘Kannada gothuilla’. Nevertheless, we decided to give this a try.

We devised a three-fold curriculum to train the kids on basics of computers, basic English and presentation skills and of course, the robotics programming.

Amid several disruptions to our coaching (due to personal and official reasons), we ploughed ahead, slowly, but definitely not steadily.

The kids became quite familiar with computers (we used to watch other FLL videos in Youtube. And that became their favourite website!). They became adept in making ‘speeches’ – very often surprising us with little snippets that added that extra zing and acumen to their presentations. They had also lots of presence of mind to include changes that we suggested, very naturally in their presentations.

By the time it was time for the India finals, we were confident that we will put up a very decent performance.

But the competition day turned out to be even greater an experience. The kids sizzled with their performance. They zipped through the team work evaluation, technical presentation, as well as the project presentation. In each of these rounds, they were well received by the judges, who were impressed by the kids’ brilliance. Our robot too, in spite of some initial hiccups with the light sensor, ultimately accomplished all the tasks for which it had been designed.

We realized that our team was on par with many other contesting teams. Our team also became a favourite with the crowd.

We were informed that we are one of the top contenders for the top four awards. Despite strong competition from other teams, the sentiment was so loud and positive that we were very hopeful that we will walk away with at least one of the awards.

But we didn’t win any. We felt disappointed, especially for the kids, who were very hopeful that they would win. They were hoping to travel by flights and see more of the World.

But I was happy and content for several reasons.

The kids now understood computers, programming and robotics. They could understand simple English conversations and reply back. They had broken several boundaries and set a higher aspiration for their school.

Recently, we had been to their school and the reception we got made us feel very humble. We were treated like celebrities – the entire school was assembled, we were felicitated and every child in the school wanted to shake hands with us.

More than that, we three coaches had matured by a huge measure.

Several times during our coaching, we were limited by our own ‘admission to reality’ that we had been extremely idealistic in selecting kids from such a background. Often we had to fight off our own disbelief that we will not get anywhere.

And what helped us in fighting this attitude, was the kids’ intelligence, energy and enthusiasm. They were as bright and enthusiastic as we wanted them to be, grasping new knowledge, as they say in Tamil, as camphor catches fire. (During the India finals, they were quite impressed with another team singing Queen’s ‘We will rock you’. They wanted to learn that song and sing like them. So they did!)

And they were never apologetic or coy about their economic conditions. They were aware of their background but never carried it with them. They had higher aspirations and wanted much from life. This, I’m sure, will take them higher.

I hope and pray that they stay and grow like this, and get all the right opportunities and never have to ‘blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air’.

The twist: I just got to know last week that my team has been selected for the FLL event in Taiwan in April (It looks like we stood 4^th in the overall India ranking. Not bad at all!)