None The Worse: Last ImpressionsI had previously written about m...

None The Worse: Last Impressions

I had previously written about m...: Last Impressions I had previously written about my first impressions of Siping, my home in China for three weeks. It was only a matt...

Last Impressions

I had previously written about my first impressions of Siping, my home in China for three weeks. It was only a matter of time before I wrote my last impressions of that place.

Much of what I had already mentioned still held true. All the people I met were kindness and generosity personified. I feel if I had only asked, they would have given me their family heirlooms. And they definitely made it their life’s mission to keep us well fed. Short of throwing food into my mouth every time I opened it, they kept plying me with every assortment of food known and unknown. And yes, though eventually the villagers got used to us enough to stop taking my picture every time and offering me their daughter’s hand in marriage, I still felt like a rock star with the royal treatment meted out to me. It would be just small things, like stopping what they are doing to watch us walk past and wave at us, or smiling amicably at us even if we were slurring our words after a glass too many of rice wine, or waving goodbye as we leave their house until we are just specks in the horizon.

But while the intensity of the villagers’ enthusiasm in having us eat their food, drink their wine, and clog their toilets might have mellowed, their love for us, and in turn our love for them, only deepened. Not just the villagers, but also the other participants and the volunteers.

I have had some amazing moments there – playing a drinking game with people from half a dozen countries, playing the judge in Masterchef Siping, having two Germans outlast me in a sauna (Seriously, I’m from India! It gets hot enough over here to fry an egg on the sidewalk! How did the Teutonic lads tolerate that heat?), learning the Cup Song from a German lass, making rolling r sounds with my Chinese volunteer, walking around the largest wholesale market in the world in Yiwu until my blisters had blisters, eating a pizza wearing plastic gloves (never have I come across this concept before), attempting to paint bamboo shoots in painting class which inevitably ended up looking like bones, on that related note – doing the bamboo dance of the She people, and a whole host of other things.

I met some amazing people, not just from Siping, but also from around the world. I lost my heart to them, and farewell was truly bittersweet – it was great to have met them, and I’m happy for the memories we made. But it was also heart wrenching to bid them adieu. Ultimately, a part of me was left behind in Siping. If it were not for that non-descript village tucked away in a quiet corner of China, I would never have had such marvelous experiences or met such wonderful people.

None The Worse: Why Your First Chinese Words Should Be 我饱了你好！The ...

None The Worse: Why Your First Chinese Words Should Be 我饱了
你好！The ...: Why Your First Chinese Words Should Be 我 饱 了 你好！ The first word that most of us learn in Mandarin is Ni Hao . After all, you’d want to...

Why Your First Chinese Words Should Be 我饱了

你好！The first word that most of us learn in Mandarin is Ni Hao. After all, you’d want to learn how to greet people when travelling, and a simple hi or good morning go a long way in thawing the ice between strangers.

While I don’t claim to be a polyglot, I can communicate in six languages (seven if you count gibberish). By now I figured I knew how to learn a language. So when I started with Mandarin, I covered the usual stock phrases – hi, how are you, thank you, my name is, I don’t eat offal, do you have any medicines for incontinence, and so on.

I landed in China thinking I could at least survive a 20 second conversation with someone. However, tired of hearing me murder their language, the Chinese came up with their own plan – to ensure I keep stuffing my mouth with food so that I would stop talking. 

Just kidding! But honestly, during my stay in Siping, I don’t remember ever being hungry. While I have only been here a short while, I must have tasted every root, tuber, fruit, leaf, meat, poultry and fish there is.  Lunch and dinner consist of at least six different dishes. My host family serves me my own weight in food during breakfast, and twice that during other meals.

Between meals, I get enough fruits, sweets and other snacks to start my own shop. When visiting other homes, before I can so much as finish saying Ni Hao, the hosts rush towards me with baskets of fruits, or a cup of tea, or sit me down to an entire seven-course meal!

The most memorable time was when I visited someone’s home and was served a moon cake. I mentioned to the hostess that it was yummy. She immediately filled a huge bag to the brim with moon cakes and handed it to me, ignoring my feeble protests (feeble because I loved them and definitely wanted more).

But at times, even when you are full to bursting, the good people of Siping insist on feeding you more. And while the food is delicious, you may want to decline their offer to give you a fifth helping of dumplings and braised pork. Which is why wo bao le or I am full should be your first Chinese words.

First Impressions

Ever wondered what it must be like to be in the shoes of a celebrity? I got a taste of that when we arrived at Siping village.

As soon as we turned into the village, a sea of people expecting out arrival greeted us.  We beheld a wall of warm light speckled with lights from camera flashes, a storm of excited chatter from the villagers, live music from the welcome ceremony with waist drums adding their booming resonance to the already vibrant atmosphere, and a gaggle of camera totting reporters!

As soon as we got off the bus, we were warmly received by the indefatigable Xu Shufang. We were led to the area where we were to meet our host mother, and throughout the walk from the bus we were followed, nay hounded, by eager admirers. In fact, there were cops acting like our bouncers, keeping people from crowding us. It was such a staggeringly marvellous experience! We all had huge grins plastered to our faces the entire time. The atmosphere was so upbeat, infused with so much enthusiasm it was hard to not be happy.

My host family was kindness itself, always going out of their way to make us feel comfortable.  Not once did I feel like an outsider. They always had fresh fruits and snacks kept in our room, cheerfully cleaning up after us. While I navigated my way around using chopsticks, dropping copious amounts of food into the folds of my pants and jacket, and decorated the table with my own edible-design, they kept piling me with more food and wine.

In one memorable instance, while I was walking around Siping, drinking in the sights and sounds of this quaint village, and snacking on whatever morsels I could find in my jacket folds from that day’s lunch, a lady saw us – a motley bunch of tall, lanky lads, and herded us into her home. She then provided us with a mountain of food and drinks. The wonderful people of Siping display such kindness and generosity on a daily basis.

Every time I greet someone with a Ni Hao or Zao Shang Hao, I get a warm reply in return. Whenever I practice my limited knowledge of Mandarin with the locals, no matter how off key my tones are, everyone responds happily and prattle off, delighted that I almost spoke a sentence correctly. Of course, my knowledge of Mandarin being limited, I understand almost nothing of what they reply. But there is something wonderfully fabulous about these one-sided conversations, of smiling strangers wanting to speak with you and shake your hand and take a picture with you.

Truly, the people of Siping have a heart of gold.

Travelogue

Part 2 - Shikaras on Dal

If you remember, in my last post I was neatly packed into the army jeep at Srinagar airport and whisked away to our accommodation. We stayed in Army Area near the airport in Shekh Pora. We were put up in a grand bungalow set on spacious lawns dotted with apple and pomegranate trees, with neatly manicured hedges running along the edges. Stepping out of the comely lanes of handsome bungalows on to the main thoroughfare, beautiful snow-covered mountains appeared abruptly in the horizon. The air all around was crisp and clear, with the faint smell of pines. It was spectacular. 

Our first order of business, apart from lunch, was boating on Dal Lake. It is the quintessential experience of Srinagar. After a somewhat slow drive through Srinagar's traffic (nothing as bad as Mumbai or Delhi), we reached the shores of the famed lake and sought out a couple of shikaras. 

Now at this point I should mention that not two years ago, while white water rafting in Rishikesh, I had fallen into the rapids and had been swept away more than 1 km by the icy waters of the Ganges, before being pulled aboard another raft. I would like to say that I was calm and reacted with presence of mind, but that would be a lie. It didn't help that I can't swim and that the life jacket was the only thing that had kept me from drowning. 

All this was on my mind as we approached the shikaras, gently bobbing on the water. As we boarded the boats, they started swaying sideways, and I clenched my fists and butt-cheeks in fear. The boatman then pushed the shikara away from the dock and jumped on, causing the already-rocking shikara to sway more, and me to dig my fingernails further into my palms (at this point, I couldn't clench my butt-cheeks anymore). Just as the rocking started to subside and I was starting to relax, another guy jumped on and the process started again.

Ideally, it takes two people to row a shikara with 3 or more people on it, or in our case, one person to row and another to maintain a steady stream of chatter. The boatmen of Dal Lake are really quite different from those in other parts of the country. They are dressed very fashionably in jeans and tees, sporting sunglasses and sneakers, looking more like extras on the set of a Karan Johar movie about extremely good-looking college students. 

Once the boat stops rocking, you can't but marvel at the beauty of the setting. Other shikaras gently lapping over the dark surface of the lake, the waves created by the boats glinting in the sunlight, trees and mountains all around the lake, and no sound except that of the oars slicing through the water and Siddharth Malhotra Part 2 still chatting away, presumably because that's built in as part of the package. Once you tune that out, it really is the most splendid boat ride, until the floating hawkers pull up alongside your boat. 

Dal Lake is home to seemingly hundreds of men selling their trinkets and wares on shikaras. They glide all over the lake, like dragonflies hovering over water, and keep pulling up to every shikara carrying tourists. Once you manage to wave them away, your boatman takes you right into their hive, a floating market built in the middle of the lake. Here, they docked their boat alongside one of the vendors, and then said that they have to bail out water from the boats (you'd think that by now they'd have been able to build boats that don't take on water by just sailing on a calm, smooth lake). So you have no choice but to get out and politely look at the merchandise while Varun and Siddharth take a bright blue plastic pail and begin to slowly bail out water, one teaspoon at a time. 

The process back to the shore is basically the same, where you wave away the hawkers on their shikaras while they merrily bump alongside your boat and make it start rocking with gusto. 

However, one thing that shouldn't be missed is a steaming cup of kahwa on the lake. This sweet tea with spices and nuts is a real treat. The vendors who sell this delectable drink can be spotted easily by the crowd of tourist shikaras around them. 

After a refreshing cuppa, we made our way back to the shore and thence to our stately bungalow. 

None The Worse: Another contest on WC. This time, an author-less ...

None The Worse:
Another contest on WC. This time, an author-less ...: Another contest on WC. This time, an author-less flash contest. The theme - Mayhem/Mystery. Although my entry didn't win, I'm sti...