A day in the life of China!
Dear loved one's back home,
China reminds me of India like no other world city has !! Beihaai could have been Bangalore and Guangzhou could have been Gurgaon!
A China Travelogue
I made a quick sojourn to China last week. As always the act of travelling always entices me. Planning the travel, the vroom of the flight, The tension of getting through the immigration check posts are enough to pump your adrenaline. Before I reached China I was itching to get my foot in, after I reached China I was dying to get out!! It is this nomadic instinct in me that kind of gets me to do new things and quit before it comes to a logical conclusion! Somebody said " MBA is like a public toilet ; People outside cant wait to get in, people inside are dying to get out." well well... this time I am in no hurry to come out of the loo without getting the work done !!
A Communist tongue trapped in a capitalist body :
There was one thing I wanted to do when I went to China, type democracy into google and get blocked. I also wanted to try "pervert communist" and other not so pleasant words but could not resist from fathoming the spooks in china standing behind my shoulders.I don't know why I had that urge, but I think it's got to do with the fact that I hail from the largest democracy on the planet, when something is taken away from you, only then do you realize the value of what you have. Now that I am back home, the one thing I distinctly remember is the immigration check post. I have been through a few check posts before and have never felt this close scrutiny before. The sharp and beautiful lady (Deadly combo) placed the passport near my face to check the match and stayed like that for almost 10 seconds. It was probably my most awkward and difficult 10 seconds. Once I was in, the liberal in me, always reminded me that this was the first time I was in a non democratic country. China has abandoned communism for all practical purposes but espouses communism with great zest. As for India sadly, we still have a communist party that believes in communism!!
The land of the not so free but the home of prosperous
I am sure, all of you are aware of the good roads and buildings that have sprang up in China, not so true.... The roads are not just good they are great.The buildings not big, they are humongous. China is probably redefining the term " Size does matter". You cant help but be awestruck by the hardware in place. One would have described the former USSR in the same veneer a few decades ago. What happened to USSR is for history to say. The facade is just too overwhelming for all of us to easily miss on the software that runs in the veins of China. I like to scratch beneath the surface and try and expose China to you. Beijing was hosting the Africa summit last year and needed to prop up a good show for it's guests. The Beijing municipality unilaterally decides that cars with number plates ending with odd number will not hit the roads today !! That cuts the traffic to half and helps the pollution meter to scale down a few notches. That is China's approach to problem solving. Swift and lethal !! Olympics is on next year, they need new stadiums, have to improve the pollution parameter, they don't want beggars and other minor hassles. Solutions are again painfully simple. Just remove, evacuate and clean!!!
If that was the downside, there is also a lesson for us to learn from China. It is their iron determination to win at any cost! China is wooing foreign investments like it is all for them to have. The Chinese people have redefined long hours and hard work that will break your myths about hard working Indians. Bangalore and Bombay is 25 years behind Shanghai and Beijing, and for now it looks like this century belongs to China. Recent surveys say that Chinese people do not consider freedom as important ... making money is more important for them. Deng Xiaoping, former President said " It doesn't matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mice! " That puts the mood in China succinctly. They are in to win and if you get on their way then you had it !!
As for me, my right to self determination and feeling of democracy is more important than clean roads and big buildings. For that if I have to tolerate Deve Gowda or Laloo Yadav then I will.
And here is my last piece of China commentary. China is like Sachin Tendulkar, He can blaze its way to sixes but can often get out at 99. India is like Rahul Dravid, his run rate is slow but very sure!!
I suspect if any of you have reached till this point of the mail, and if you have I would love to hear on what you have to say :)
China reminds me of India like no other world city has !! Beihaai could have been Bangalore and Guangzhou could have been Gurgaon!
A China Travelogue
I made a quick sojourn to China last week. As always the act of travelling always entices me. Planning the travel, the vroom of the flight, The tension of getting through the immigration check posts are enough to pump your adrenaline. Before I reached China I was itching to get my foot in, after I reached China I was dying to get out!! It is this nomadic instinct in me that kind of gets me to do new things and quit before it comes to a logical conclusion! Somebody said " MBA is like a public toilet ; People outside cant wait to get in, people inside are dying to get out." well well... this time I am in no hurry to come out of the loo without getting the work done !!
A Communist tongue trapped in a capitalist body :
There was one thing I wanted to do when I went to China, type democracy into google and get blocked. I also wanted to try "pervert communist" and other not so pleasant words but could not resist from fathoming the spooks in china standing behind my shoulders.I don't know why I had that urge, but I think it's got to do with the fact that I hail from the largest democracy on the planet, when something is taken away from you, only then do you realize the value of what you have. Now that I am back home, the one thing I distinctly remember is the immigration check post. I have been through a few check posts before and have never felt this close scrutiny before. The sharp and beautiful lady (Deadly combo) placed the passport near my face to check the match and stayed like that for almost 10 seconds. It was probably my most awkward and difficult 10 seconds. Once I was in, the liberal in me, always reminded me that this was the first time I was in a non democratic country. China has abandoned communism for all practical purposes but espouses communism with great zest. As for India sadly, we still have a communist party that believes in communism!!
The land of the not so free but the home of prosperous
I am sure, all of you are aware of the good roads and buildings that have sprang up in China, not so true.... The roads are not just good they are great.The buildings not big, they are humongous. China is probably redefining the term " Size does matter". You cant help but be awestruck by the hardware in place. One would have described the former USSR in the same veneer a few decades ago. What happened to USSR is for history to say. The facade is just too overwhelming for all of us to easily miss on the software that runs in the veins of China. I like to scratch beneath the surface and try and expose China to you. Beijing was hosting the Africa summit last year and needed to prop up a good show for it's guests. The Beijing municipality unilaterally decides that cars with number plates ending with odd number will not hit the roads today !! That cuts the traffic to half and helps the pollution meter to scale down a few notches. That is China's approach to problem solving. Swift and lethal !! Olympics is on next year, they need new stadiums, have to improve the pollution parameter, they don't want beggars and other minor hassles. Solutions are again painfully simple. Just remove, evacuate and clean!!!
If that was the downside, there is also a lesson for us to learn from China. It is their iron determination to win at any cost! China is wooing foreign investments like it is all for them to have. The Chinese people have redefined long hours and hard work that will break your myths about hard working Indians. Bangalore and Bombay is 25 years behind Shanghai and Beijing, and for now it looks like this century belongs to China. Recent surveys say that Chinese people do not consider freedom as important ... making money is more important for them. Deng Xiaoping, former President said " It doesn't matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mice! " That puts the mood in China succinctly. They are in to win and if you get on their way then you had it !!
As for me, my right to self determination and feeling of democracy is more important than clean roads and big buildings. For that if I have to tolerate Deve Gowda or Laloo Yadav then I will.
I suspect if any of you have reached till this point of the mail, and if you have I would love to hear on what you have to say :)
Comments
For a moment i was really proud of the thought, until i read your blog about the traffic system in Beijing.
Well i must say iam eagerly waiting for a miracle of that sort to happen