India Rising?

India's economy is developing and how. The Sensex rises 20,000 points, the rupee becomes stronger against the USD, etc.

Another thing is developing rapidly - our indifference as a society to events which go completely against the basic fabric of being humans. Events which take away all meaning from word 'civilised'.

We feel vindicated after the verdict in the Priyadarshini Matoo case, but does that put a check on the rapes and murders being committed? Before we can bat an eyelid, we hear about the gruesome rape and murder of the Wipro employee. Of course, there are several others which we don't hear about.

But what amazes me is the kind of reaction to the Tehelka expose on the Gujarat riots. Is it so easy to forget the image of 'people' slitting open a pregnant woman's belly to 'show them what they are all about'?
Can we actually call these people human beings? Can human beings actually be a part of, let alone be proud of such a genocide? Have we as a society forgotten the basic meaning of civilization?

Why is this becoming 'just another story' that was aired on some channels and then shelved into the channel archives? Why is it that the only reaction to this is Tehelka being accused by the Congress and the BJP both for being stooges of the other?! Why is it that the people leading our country, have not even made a single statement, forget about taking action against these murderers?

And the icing on the cake, the people of the state in question... why are they not revolting against the men who did this to them? How can they be so unanimous in their silence on the issue? As if this apathy isn't enough, popularity levels of the man behind the Gujarat genocide and satisfaction levels with his government is still high.

Is it so easy to shrug off things and carry on with life like nothing happened?

Images from China - Part III

Auto, anyone?

















Auto-chestra!
















Meat bouquet!

Images from China - Part II

Cauliflower Fountain!






























The (not so) Yellow Sea



















Old-world meets new-world




















Ornamental Column Square - to commemorate return of Hong Kong

Images from China - Part I

Guess what rather, who welcomed me as soon as I landed in China:

(J: This one is dedicated to you, and no, am not feeling very proud!)

And then...

Just in case you thought you were in the US and not China!...

Are you Lovin' it yet?! :)

Ice Cream Chinese Style, aka How to Kill Ice Cream

1. Create mixture of red beans and nuts.
2. Mount mixture on a wooden stick.
3. Coat mixture with a white milky paste
4. Put it in freezer
5. Sell as a delicacy - 'RED BEAN ICE CREAM'!

... Try at your own risk!

Crazy Craving...

It had to happen sooner or later... Given that I have been away for over a month now, it was just a matter of time.

I was sitting on my workstation after a most insipid lunch, and then it hit me... this sudden craving. And I started imagining it right in front of me. I could smell it.... If I reached out, I could even pick it up and taste it - a cup of hot, steaming Horlicks!!

Horlicks and me, you wonder? Well, about a couple of months back, I came down with this nasty stomach infection as a result of which coffee was prohibited. Plus, I was on this self-driven move to reduce the amount of coffee I was having in a day. So I discovered this Horlicks vending machine in my cafeteria... and got addicted to it! The morning was just not complete without my daily fix of Horlicks!

I got out of the habit really fast when I came to China, and didn't miss it at all! Or so I thought...

Apparently, lack of real or maybe seashell-infested food makes me crave for my cuppa'!

A visit by the sea

All my adventures in China seem to revolve around food. This one is no different! A little background first – since most people here don’t speak any English, all my food ordering is through my two English-speaking colleagues. The standard direction to them being ‘no meat, no chicken, no fish!’

Anyway, after going through the process on a particular day, I sat down to eat my food - noodles and vegetables in soup. After a few bites of vegetables, my spoon hit a hard object and I heard a very pronounced ‘thupp’. I dug around for sometime… and came across some seashells. Yes! SEASHELLS!! There they were, these purple looking (yes, yes, they were rather pretty!) things hidden underneath that layer of vegetables.

I am used to seeing, hell, I have even gone hunting for the damn things, but on a BEACH, not in my food!

I guess vegetarianism really means different things in different countries. Either that, or the non-vegetarian superpowers are trying really really hard for me to convert!

Ee-ya Ee-ya O!

Dalian, a port city, lies just off the Yellow Sea. It was a sunny day and if you ignored the wind, you could call it a really good day!
I decided to brave the wind, and headed out to the seashore of the Yellow Sea.

The sea looked nice enough from a distance, it was calm and blue (not yellow in the least!). I headed straight towards the beach – the plan was to sit for a while and take it all in.

I reached the beach, it was very peaceful… I took a deep breath to get some fresh air into my system… only, got a nice big puff of cigarette smoke inside me!
Glaring at the very rude man who was puffing away in my face, I went a little ahead and again tried the deep breath technique. Only, got in some more smoke. And this time, there wasn’t even anyone near me.
There was absolutely no respite! It was like being on Ol’ McPuffy’s Smoky farm… with a ‘puff, puff everywhere’!!

Back home, and an Internet search revealed, that China (hold your breath! :P) accounts for 30% of the world’s cigarette consumption! Which means two-thirds of the population smokes, and in public places at that!