Way of life.

Walk into a local restaurant in Guangzhou and you are warmly welcomed in by pretty girls of the same physical proportion in long Chinese dresses or in western casual t-shirts and jeans with the restaurant’s name and logo on their t-shirts that are all of identical color and size. With a bow they walk you over to your seat and leave a signed pad with various columns where orders are kep tabs on.The order is then beamed back via a handheld electronic touch screen device and the table mapped to the order. The order is taken by the chef in the kitchen with another handheld and replied back for service once ready. A hot bowl of Chinese tea is placed promptly in front of you once you are seated comfortably and served into small tea cups with elan followed by a smile and a polite gesture to go ahead and enjoy the tea. A pack of paper napkins and a set of chopsticks either wooden or enamel is placed along with a set of bowls and saucers encased in air tight polythene sheets post washing and sterilization( lessons learnt from SARS, I suppose)

Orders can start with choices of dim sums, starters like tofu, choi-sum, chicken feet, chicken wings, pork knuckles, braised beef etc followed by mi-fan(bowl of rice) and some meat based dish or seafood ( giant sized jumbo lobsters with tentacles and legs et all or Fish (whole parts with head eyes et all). Wine is a common accompaniment for dinner while beer is a common accompaniment for all meals. Dessert is never too sweet and has only a dash of sweetness but invariably delicious. A pair of toothpicks are also left for use post the meal.

All meals are eaten with great fervour, loud conversations and almost at all times accompanied by a smoking cigarette. Baijiu or white liquor is then served in generous measure in shot glasses post dinner. This can be extremely strong (55% a.c) and with a very compelling odour and smell. This is consumed with great passion and at great speeds. I have seen 6 shot glasses being downed by men in a span of 15 minutes. Affluent Chinese drink Cognac, the more expensive ones are more popular. The odd Chinese drink Scotch or other drinks. All men smoke heavily at all places. Some women do. This is followed by a walk along the river or street followed by more green tea to diffuse any ill effects of alcohol. Some indulge in massage of the foot or the whole body in many massage places one can find everywhere.

The Chinese exercise almost at all times, all common walking areas have parks with unsophisticated, easy to use exercise equipment for use by all for free. Tai-chi is commonly practiced by many older citizens along the pavements or by the riverside. Some practice and teach Gong Fu(Kung-fu) along the wayside and women gather in the evening and do Chinese style aerobics to the Chinese tunes blasting out of boom boxes on most parks. I have seen couples swaying to ball dancing tunes, singing Chinese operas and also dancing the samba or the salsa or even the tango in many parks as I walk with my wife along the riverside on the walk ways that wind through the various parks along the riverbank.

Almost all Chinese men look charmingly the same with similar hair-do, same complexion and same physical proportions. Same with women, most women look the same – pretty, with the same skin tone and colour, same hair styles – always long and shiny silky black, same physical proportions. Very difficult to find many teenagers. Very easy to find many babies and many pets (mostly dogs) in all houses. Very easy to find very senior citizens. This is the Chinese way of life in a busy city, the good way of life always.

A Very Happy New Year of the Tiger.

Xin Nian Kuai Le(Mandarin)! Kung Hei Fat Choy(Cantonese) means Happy New year. Yes, it is Chinese New year time in the Middle Kingdom and everything around the city of Five Rams(Guangzhou) have adorned a vibrant red and gold tinge. This is the time of for grand celebrations, spending time with family and loved ones and a time for sharing good cheer. It is certainly the most beautiful time to be in this wonderful country in the land of the Dragon.

The Chinese celebrate the Chinese New Year (will be referred as CNY henceforth) as if there is no tomorrow. Supermarkets and wayside stores go equally bersek promoting their wares and buyers go totally over the top in a buying frenzy. One wonders if there was ever a recession in this kingdom in the recent times. I was in a queue for one whole hour at a leading dept store in Guangzhou awaiting my turn to get to the payment counter! There are simply a billion and a few million more people! And people just want to buy!!.

Wayside stores have beautiful Chinese lanterns in Red and gold and a zillion other hanging stuff in red and gold for people to indulge in and share with fellow revelers. Shopping season never really ends in China but becomes a feverish frenzied peak just before CNY. This is the time of the year when the Chinese are ringing in the year of the tiger. This time around and supposed to be a good year compared to the last year which was the year of the rat. Last year was bad indeed for most people across the globe and hope it is the opposite this year. People have started believing so and that is quite evident in the way they spend!

This is also the time for the Great Chinese People Movement. The large industrial cities that drive the world’s second largest economy houses people from all over the Middle Kingdom to feed its assembly lines. This mammoth human population travels back to their home towns in remote parts of China just before the CNY thus jamming all means of transportation across the country for weeks. This is probably the worse time to travel in China and the worst time to get caught amidst this travel frenzy if one lands up in China during this time. The picture posted is an example of the Guanzghou Railway station during the time of the CNY last year.

Everything in China comes to a total standstill well before CNY and the wheels start grinding again a few weeks past the CNY. Then once it picks up speed, it roars through the year, hurtling away towards infinity till it is time for the next big break later during the year in October for the Moon festival (which I will post in a different post later). During this time, the roads have less people as the city empties out with the residents travelling back to their hometowns to spend the New Year with their families. Offices are almost empty with just a few skeleton staff pretending to keep the business going and not having to shutdown completely lest clients start worrying of a closure.

I will miss this CNY this year which I enjoyed and celeberated with my Chinese colleagues and friends in Guangzhou for the last two years. I will be away from the Middle kingdom, but my soul will remain here and welcome the Chinese New year of the Tiger with renewed vigour, hope and expectations.This is the year of the tiger and I have a feeling that it sure will be a tiger of a year.

How are you?

Image Courtesy: lostlaowai.com

“Ni Hao Ma?” means a very friendly “How are you?” in Putonghua (Mandarin).That was a very friendly visitor at my door last evening saying that after rattling my door for five minutes. I had just returned from work and was halfway out of my shirtsleeves when the “friendly” rattle came from my front door. The rattle was familiar. This wasn’t the first time .In fact I had lost count of how many times it has happened in the last two and a half years I have spent in China. It happens almost certainly every time I renew my work permit and residence visas or travel overseas and return which is reasonably atleast once a quarter or once every quarter on an average except for 2009 which was a year of cut travel budgets and flights traded for video conferences. ( I had travelled to India and Thailand each once ). I digress.

So , I pull my shirt sleeves back on and manage to wear few of the buttons before I get to the door in order to open it and avoid my door from caving inwards.

There I see a beaming gentleman outside my door flanked by two women trying to pull my door frame apart to get me to open the door. I open the door and let them in. They edge past me with their shoulder (remember soccer?). Then they stand still and look back and forth at me and the couch a few times. I got the message and politely offered them a seat at my straight backed dining table chair which they took, I guess regretfully but pretentiously gracefully!

My wife heard all this from within the bedroom and blissfully left me to deal with our visitors. She has seen me play this part to perfection many times and did not want to see a repeat lest she has to clap and hand me the Oscars again! She stayed inside the bedroom pretending to rearrange her wardrobe a bit. She knew that such matters don’t don’t need her attention and that she can rely on the husband to manage this at least! I digress again.

I am familiar with this ritual. All too familiar. Played my part in this drama many times. Burnt my hands once and won applauses almost all other times. I feign ignorance and asked them , Ni hao ma? For which they answer with a curt reply in English – passpot? (yeah, thas right, he meant passport!). I show recognition of that word and ask them to wait while I spend good time trying to dish it out of my bag from where I exactly I know I can get it in a second. I finally do and hand it over to them. They flick through it. I think – “lots of pages huh!”( almost finishing my second booklet now). They cant find the most important document they want. They are excited, they flick through again. Can’t find it. They look at me and then do not want to ask (and it wasn’t the language barrier!), so they try once again. I wait for the ritual to finish and then when they look at me again I ask innocently – is there anything I can do for you? He doesn’t understand – as expected, and the lady nearby replies. “Where is visa?”(yes, my grammar isn’t that good!) . I say – oh! Let me show it to you and in a nano second find it for them. All three grin and pour over the document as if they haven’t seen anything more controversial and dangerous, then look at me. I gathered they were trying to match the appearance on the pic with the face of the real me in front of them. Not convinced, so they look up at me and down at the passport few times and then make notes very vigorously. I have seen that also happen many times in the past and stayed calm. According my history teacher in school, “lots of notes always don’t mean lots of information, my dear”. I was a good history student, I remembered those famous words. I calmly assure myself that I’ll be fine.

Then they ask for “Another member in house? “ This is when my wife makes an entry into the scene, acknowledges their presence and walks away. I quietly hand over her passport to them. I wait. The same ritual of rigorous page flicking and note making repeats and then after final assessment of my real face with the mugshot in the passport , they hand over both the documents to me. Then they go on to ask me “where is registration certificate”. I know exactly where it is and dish it out for their detailed examination again. I realize that three heads (one with a hat) can actually come so close together to examine a document! Then one of them says “ go to police station” ! I say “ For what” . “registration !“ , he says. I say “that is what you are holding – the registration!” he is confused, and so are the women. They all ponder over the document, take our passports back from us and bunch their heads together to look at it again.3 long minutes later and after doing the ritual of juggling looks between notes, passport and registration certificate many times, they uniformly and together look up at me smiling while handing over all the documents and say Veli good, veli veli good (yes,Very!). I say “Xie Xie”(Thankyou!) and smile. Peace has been made once again between Indians and Chinese! The visitors remind both my wife and me to carry the original passport, the registration certificate and the work permit on our person all the time when we go out of the house. We nod and make polite noises in understanding. We know it too well. They meant it.

Flashback. One month ago. My wife and I were stepping out of the elevator of our apartment block for a stroll by the river side. Our apartment is by the riverside, which means technically we were inside the apartment block but not inside our flat/apartment. We walk straight into a group of armed(read guns and batons) visitors to the apartment who were outside the elevator waiting for lesser mortals like us to step out. They size us up suspiciously.Intimidation techniques – my mind says aloud. Evidently so – the guns and baton et al!!

A lady steps forward and authoritatively demands for our ‘passpots’ and I reply enthusiastically say , “sure”, its at home, why don’t you come along and take a look” . My wife is aghast at being questioned for a passport inside the premises of our apartment and even more so on my response! If I could put words together to describe how she looked – she looked like – “what is this ya!! And look at you!”. So we step right back into the elevator along with wife, our visitors, a golden retriever and an old lady and I sheepishly grin without looking at anyone in particular. My wife isn’t a bit amused and lets me know.

The lift races towards the sky as if there was no tomorrow to do that again!(ya right!!)I open the door and let the group with their guns and batons in and offer them a seat on my couch this time. After examining the passports that I dished out, the leader of the group pulls out a book and writes me a challan for 500 RMB(Yuan)! That is Rs.3500 boss! I feign ignorance and ask what it was for and am curtly told to pay fine for not carrying our passports on person. My arguments that we are within the premises and not outside meant that technically we are at home were met with curt responses with a hand clasped over the baton stating “You no inside house. You outside!!. I try to reason (yeah, I tried, can you imagine!!). Wife is glaring now! I can hear the flames flick my skin! I said “You expect us to carry these documents everywhere outside all the time, what if we lose it.?” To which I get a response. “Be careful!!” Well I asked for it , dint I ?!!. Then I say , “ you mean to say, I need to carry it even when I go out for lunch from work , or going to the ATM down stairs?!” the response was , “ we can check you anytime, anywhere, pay the fine!!. Then while writing and handing me the challan she said the most beautiful and the most familiar thing that their counterparts in Bangalore always say “This time OK, just pay 50RMB, next time full payment, OK!” Wow! That almost sounded like a negotiation. I smiled agreement and we both knew we had a deal. I knew this too well to wait further. I promptly made the “payment”. The visitors wished me a good day and went away smoothly the way the 100 RMB (50 each for me and wife) found its way into her coat pocket. Well, Good day?!! Maybe, it was. I was just poorer by a 100 quid. It could have been a lot worse.

Size does matter!

Anyone who discusses scale in any forum is invariably talking about China or India. Most likely, it is China than the other alternative.

Here is some perspective , the obvious ones being :

The world’s most populated country. The most spoken language in the world(obviously!). The biggest manufacturing industry – the world’s factory. The fastest and the largest emerging nation. The largest Communist Country. The second largest economy. The worlds fastest train – Guangzhou to Wuhan. The world’s biggest square – Tiananmen. The G2.And many more.


Here are some examples that are testimonies to the largesse of China, both historically and in modern times :
 Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during various successive dynasties against foreign invasion from the Mongolians and the Manchurians. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km. This is made up of 6,259.6 km of sections of actual wall, 359.7 km of trenches and 2,232.5 km of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.




Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China are figures, dating from 210 BC, discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China. The pits contain terracotta statues of over 8,000 life sized soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. The Terracotta statues are spread across the underbelly of the city of Modern day Xian for 53 square kilometers! That is a massive city under a city with life
sized palaces, cavalry, horses, armaments and infantrymen made of terracotta with no single horse , soldier or general resembling another, buried under the city as a takeaway for the emperor to be reborn with in his after life. Only 1 % of this h as been excavated and less than half of it has been made open to the public.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is also the world's largest political party. The party was small at first, but grew intermittently through the 1920s. Twelve voting delegates were seated at the 1st National Party Congress in 1921. The total membership in the party had grown to a staggering 60 million by 2000!






Courtesy:Web 2.0



 Courtesy:Web 2.0

The Three Gorges dam is the world biggest man made dam built ever. This is China’s Mega dam across the mighty Yangtze river or the Chang Jiang as the Zhongguoren, the people of the Middle kingdom call it , is the 3rd biggest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile! The dam wall is made of concrete and is about 2,309 metres (7,575 ft) long, and 101 metres (331 ft) high. The wall is 115 metres (380 ft) thick on the bottom and 40 metres (131.2 ft) thick on top. The project used 27,200,000 cubic metres (35,600,000 cu yd) of concrete, 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers, and moved about 102,600,000 cubic metres (134,200,000 cu yd) of earth. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW. The reservoir flooded a total area of 632 km² of land, enough to cover Singapore. This dam provides 10% of the power needs of the powerhouse that is China!


There are many more examples and every one of them clearly of magnificent proportions. These are not rare to find but on the contrary, are too common and too many to list in this blog. These are manifestations of the Chinese phsyche. This is a reflection of their superiority and largesse. This is a reflection of their intent to be the biggest and the most dominating force in the world. The canvas in China is very tall and wide. The writing on the canvas is loud and clear. China is big, getting bigger and bigger in all realms. And size does matter.

Life in the times of Swine Flu..

Image Courtesy: World Health Organization(WHO)

As I walk into the immigration area at Shenzen, China enroute to Guangzhou from Hong Kong, a uniformed officer flicks away as a matter of obvious routine from my passport folds, my self declaration of having no illness in the last many days. Upon filling in the ‘Arrival’ form I am asked to step aside by another uniformed officer with a laser gun pointed at my forehead. I am then directed with a side wards nod of his uniform cap adorned head to move on to the counters for the visa stamping. That was a temperature check to identify if I was a carrier of the Flu of the piggy variety. I breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn’t asked to step aside to be quarantined. I did not have any flu nor did i have any issues with being medically treated for it, but worried for the compulsory quarantine for months if I was a suspect case of some sort. It doesn’t matter even if you are a high ranking diplomat of the mightiest of nations. The writing on the wall cannot be clearer. Swine flu suspect will be quarantined.

The rest of the world seems to have reduced the tempo of the Mexican wave of swine flu but the middle kingdom is relentless in its pursuit for excellence in flu prevention via quarantine. I travelled to HK and was never checked for any flu symptoms nor was I asked to fill in a self declaration. I have travelled to many countries in Asia and the Americas since the flu broke out the same time the recession broke out and have never seen anyone taking such great precautions to prevent Flu carriers from entering their boundaries. If these weren’t enough, the flight attendants in the flights bound for Middle Kingdom are also armed with laser guns that detect carriers. These are pointed at will at passengers while on the flight so that carriers can be detected and quarantined before setting foot on the Kingdom’s soil.
For those who don’t know it yet – here are some quips doing the rounds in this part of the world:

The Kingdom is the largest consumer of pork and the largest exporter of it too.
Eating swine(pork) has nothing to do with the swine flu.

Zhonguo Cha aka Chinese Tea.

We Keralites have one significant achievement to our credit. Of setting up a tea shop even on the Moon! No mean achievement I say, but people have their benchmarks! So be it.

I love coffee. The filter coffee at Saravana Bhavan Chennai, the Arabica and Columbian varieties from Marks & Spencer’s Hong Kong, and the Frapuchino at Starbucks, Guangzhou China.I am also a tea drinker. It’s in the DNA you see. I love tea even better than coffee.

My day starts with a strong cuppa with just the all time favourite Brooke Bond Red Label (BB RB) tea, milk and sugar boiled to the right level of strength that neither tea, sugar nor milk can claim superiority over the other! Tried Lipton Yellow label and never quite loved it as much as the BB RB one. Neither did Society nor the Mallu varieties of AVT and Kannan Devan or the Tamil varieties of 3 Roses or Stanes and the North Eastern variety of Darjeeling, Assam or the English Duncan’s and Twinings do! So it is the BB RB for me.

In India one rarely sees tea in any other form other than the dark variety which is used as a stimulating brew with sugar and milk or drank rarely as black tea or as the light, no milk, hot and sweet lemon laced version called the ‘Sulaimani’ which came to India along with the Iranis, Parsees and the Mohammedans from Central Asia.  Little did I know when I arrived in the Middle Kingdom that this is where the great drink called ‘tea’ originated from. Tea is called ‘Cha’ in Mandarin. It seems to have morphed into ‘Chaya’ in Malayalam and Chai in Hindi when it trekked across the mighty Himalayas in the purse of the Chinese scholars who came to Nalanda to study Buddhism and swam across the South China Sea in the company of the esteemed Chinese Wok called the ‘Cheeni chatti’ and the grand Cheena wala(Chinese fishing net) to reach the God’s own country. These symbols that are so very native to China are now part of the Malayali’s daily life!, To the point that a claim by the Chinese to return them to China will draw blood! Globalization is not a new phenomenon, the Chinese Silk Route traders were the ancestors of todays ‘Globalony’ as an eminent Harvard academician and economist put it.


In the Middle Kingdom (read Zhong Guo aka China), tea or Cha as it is locally known rules supreme. It is humble as a common mans drink and is the also the connoisseurs indulgence that are worth its weight in Gold and Diamonds.The Cha is available in China in a myriad number of flavours, colours, tastes and as combinations with a surprising array of other interesting stuff. Chinese Cha predominantly is available in 3 forms – white tea, green tea and dark tea. None of these varieties are ever mixed with sugar or milk for consumption but always only with boiling hot water.

The white teas are usually teas that are plucked young, dried for a shorter period along with flowers like chrysanthemum, jasmine so that the flavours of the flower mix with the ones of the tea. These teas are roasted very mildly and hence are light teas lending almost no colour or just a very light green to the tea when hot water is poured on them on a tea pot for consumption. These teas are great antioxidants and are used to wash away toxins as well as for giving a great smelling drink and a refreshing experience to consumers.

The green teas also come in different flavours mixed with other herbs like ginseng and are also high on anti oxidants and other properties that help one detox and be refreshed. The most famous and popular Chas belong to this category like the Oolong Cha. The best Oolong Chas are supposedly produced in the high sun kissed mountains of Taiwan. The Chinese disagree and believe that the mainland produces the best teas of all varieties.

The darker varieties like the ‘pu-erh’ cha or the ‘boley’ cha are roasted longer and also have more anti oxidants but have a roasted flavour which is fantastic. There are over a 100 varieties of teas of all kinds available in the Middle kingdom. The ‘English breakfast’ varieties of dark tea are popular in Hongkong and amongst many Chinese as well.

I like both the Taiwanese one and the one from the Mainland, especially the Oolong Cha variety so much that I have packets of them in my office as well as at home and drink Cha along the day right until bed time. My day starts with a cup of English tea – the BB RB Indian variety and the rest of the day the Oolong one takes over.

Tea was discovered centuries ago in China when a dry tea leaf was blown into a pot of boiling water by the breeze in a Chinese village. The villager smelt the aroma of the tea and liked it so he tasted the drink and the rest is history.

The Chinese place symbolism very highly in their lives and associate everything as a symbol of something else. Hence teas have evolved into various kind associated with symbolism. The best, the most expensive and the rarest of teas is the Monkey picked variety of tea. That’s correct – these are picked by monkeys who by virtue of their natural senses can identify the exact leaves to be plucked at the exact maturity levels. The monkeys that are trained to pick such leaves and deposit them with their owners are also prized possessions. Monkeys are also an integral part of Chinese Mythology attributed with great powers – aka the Monkey King! I am hoping to see an army of monkeys being unleashed to go and pluck tea leaves and they scamper along and pick up baskets and start doing the job. I wouldn’t be surprised if I do, this is China. In China, everything is possible!

One among the many that are considered as exotic teas are the leaves that are plucked by virgins and dried by the warmth of their body heat while covered with tea leaves overnight. Tea is also used as a herb along with Chinese traditional medicine to help treat some symptoms better. Another rare and prized one is the tea laced with gold dust!

Tea is consumed as an accompaniment to a meal, or as a refreshing drink anytime, or as iced coolants laced with lemon, honey or mint and served in plastic bottles in convenience stores , beating the competion(Pepsi & Coke) out of the ball park!

Tea drinking ceremonies can be so elaborate and very formal that they are used as a medium to show reverence, display of superiority of position and wealth, and also as a stage for social meetings and formal gatherings. There are prescribed different ways of drinking teas for both women and men.

Tea accessories are an extremely important element of the tea drinking ceremonies and tea making/serving. These can be very expensive made of jade and other valuable material or as simple as terracotta or wood. There are tea houses across China where one can sit and enjoy ones selection of great teas in a setting befitting a tea connoisseur!


I continue my journey in the search of more exotic teas in the middle kingdom. I am sure there's a lot more to see and a lot more tea to drink.

The beautiful world of phonetic Mandarin.

I take pride in the fact that I speak, read and write many languages. 5 to be precisely immodest. English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit. Additionally, I also speak Kannada a little, a bit of Bangla/Bengali and some Putonghua (Mandarin).That will make the tally 8 and take it upto 9 when I learn Spanish after I am done with learning Mandarin. Now that I have boasted my vain self off to such an immodest start, let me embark on glorifying the whole effort!

I am currently trying to learn the Chinese Mandarin language from a kind and patient teacher who has miraculously survived the onslaught of my embarrassingly off-track Chinese pronunciations for the zillionth time in a span of 3 months. This gentleman who goes by the name Mr. Wichin Wang Tao is the human epitome of patience and purpose. He never fails to correct me with a smile and always encourages me to speak correctly.

The language is sheer poetry, both in the written and the spoken form. Since it is a phonetic language, each sound and its intonations have a meaning and so does each written character. It amazes me that by writing one character, the Chinese express a complete thought in itself! Which is why I call it poetry!. Imagine what a collection of characters can mean if each character can have meaning on its own. Compare it with English, barring the albhabet ‘A’ I, ‘N’ and X none of the alphabets mean anything by itself and always need a combination of characters or alphabets to form words that have some meaning.

Mandarin is the language spoken by the largest number of people in the world and people like me are adding to that population and will continue to do so in larger numbers. In spite of being the language spoken the most in the world, it has its myriad number of variations that are unique to each province or even with multiple dialects in the same province with most dialects not being understood by all. The common thread in between is the Mandarin language which is the official language of the Peoples Republic of China.

I am told that there are 5000 characters of Mandarin that are commonly used by Mandarin speakers in normal day to day life. In the same breath, I am told that Mandarin has over 25000 characters in the simplified version and much more in the traditional version. Now that’s a lot of language one needs to learn to master this language. Compare with the 26 alphabets of English and I can almost feel the embarrassment that the English language must be feeling! So lets not compare, lets just accept that each language is unique and is beautiful in its own way and also equally powerful for communication. With the peace made, let me move on to other areas on the language.

I also notice that there are a few words in the Indian language that are similar to that of Mandarin. Cha – means tea in most Indian languages and in Mandarin!, neyyo is butter in Mandarin, while neyy is ghee (melted butter) in many South Indian languages. Paapa is father is Mandarin, while papa is father in Hindi and many other languages. Maybe even in English!, I will not venture further in that direction!

Most of all, I enjoy the most when I speak a few words to my Chinese friends in Mandarin and realize that I have got the word, the pronunciation, the intonation and the tone right. My reward is the wide smile of happiness I see on my Chinese friends’ face when I speak Mandarin and am thrown a volley of Mandarin to deal with from their end! I get the feeling that I am instantly welcomed into a different sphere of their heart and life which I wouldn’t have been able to go into if I was just another “laowai”. “Laowai” in Mandarin means foreigner with an unpleasant undertone. It’s the most beautiful reward that anyone can get for speaking this very beautiful language.