Wowed by Wuhan!

Early this year it seemed that I would have a chance to visit China. Wuhan in China! Let us be honest. The name Wuhan does not get the kind of excitement like Beijing or Shanghai. And the name China does not give the same excitement as Japan or Korea. 

Finally, I took the trip in late November. It was my first time to China. I consider myself as a logical person, the kind of person who does not get affected by propaganda! Boy, I was wrong. In this blog, I shall pen down some of the positive and not-so-positive experiences I have been having in Wuhan. Before I came, my ex-student turned close friend Naadir (who had spent one whole year in China) was extremely excited for me! He will always tell me "sir (he wont give up addressing me as "sir"),  I am so excited that you are finally going to China!". I just could not understand why...till I came!

Landing and Arrival: The behaviour of immigration officers at your port of entry can tell a lot about the people and the land. Cape Town and Bangkok have always given me the best experiences. In spite of working all day, the African officers in Cape Town will always try to crack a joke to make you smile! Wuhan was different and was pleasant. As soon as I started filling my entry form an officer approached me and started asking me questions and taking notes. My heart beat increased. But contrary to my experience in the USA and (once) in Germany, this officer started chatting with me and then started filling my form in Chinese to help me out! It was quick and easy.

Finding cash and SIM card: This was a huge challenge. If you do not have AliPay or WeChat then you would be severely challenged. In all the countries I have visited so far there would be agents in the airport to sell you SIM cards and to exchange cash for you. Not in Wuhan. And no ATM machine accepts MasterCard or VISA cards! These two companies have made travel so seamless. Not in China! It took me a while to appreciate what I was experiencing. A whole country has been working pretty well without depending on these banking giants. #respect ! Oh well, it worked out OK. I could get AliPay and now a days AliPay allows you to link your foreign credit card. So it was all good at the end. 

The University: I have seen pictures of Chinese universities. Big buildings and big roads. I was up for a surprise here as well. Universities in China, at least in Wuhan, are full of trees and gardens! Of course they have nice buildings with cool architectures. But, the amount of forested lands they have been able to maintain is mind blowing. In my experience, I have seen such prevalence of forests only in UC Berkeley. 

The Museums: Being a provincial capital, Wuhan is home to a lot of museums. I started with the Museum of Wuchang Uprising. Till that time I never knew how important Wuhan is Chinese history. It was in Wuhan where the famous Xinhai Revolution started that ended the last imperial dynasty of China and started the first Chinese republic led by the legendary Sun Yat-Sun. Then, I visited the new Qintai art museum whose architecture was more impressive than the art collection it had. Not that the art collection was bad; just that the architecture was next level. Later, I visited Hubei Provincial Museum which is a massive building with an impressive architecture. It had a lot of collections from the history of Hubei. And, of course anything and any place in China would have a history of at least 3000 years. I was really pleased to see it full of visitors and school-kids. I did not have time to visit many more museums though the choice was literally endless. Every museum is huge and impressive and there is NO entry fees (even for foreigners)! This is how museums should be, free to the public. It is a crime to charge entry fees to museums maintained by public money.

Wuchang Uprising Memorial

Qintai Art Museum Building (from top)

Hubei Provincial Museum

City Planning and Nature: I wont lie. Before visiting China I had an impression that Chinese cities would be like Dubai, full of concrete jungles. And I was wrong. At least Wuhan kept reminding me of Sweden. The more I explore the city the more I respect the city planners who designed this city of 12 million people while still making sure that no where in the city is too far from forests. There are many many massive gardens. When I was in Sweden, I came to know from the municipality officers that they found a substantial reduction in air pollution if there is a row of trees between roads and buildings. They try to do that in most new developments in Sweden. I found that in most streets in Wuhan. I visited the massive botanical garden they have which can easily take one a good six hours to visit. Apparently, they follow the Feng Shui guidelines to city planning. Traditionally they used to do this. During early phases of modernisation these guidelines were not followed causing in high levels of pollution, congestion and flooding. I was told that in the modern times they are trying to follow Feng Shui guidelines again so as to have a sustainable city co-existing with nature.

I am crazy for watching moonrises on full moon evenings. I was lucky to have full moon on one of these days. I randomly tried to find a place from where I can watch the moonrise. Then I took the bus to that "spot". The spot was actually a bridge in one of the lakes here. Surrounding it was a forest which took me 40 minutes to walk through! The view was breathtaking. But I was really impressed by the fact that the city government has taken all the pain to build the forest, the bridge and many such places where people can come for "FREE", be in nature and enjoy. 

Another thing I was amazed about was the preservation of wet-lands. This is a major problem in Indian cities. Greedy developers and corrupt governments have made sure that all the wet-lands in Indian cities have more or less disappeared. The result is urban floods as soon as monsoon starts. My own city Bhubaneswar suffers acutely from this. When I was a kid the city had many wet-lands. Now it has none! When I was a kid rain water would disappear within minutes. Now even a one hour rain will cause floods in many suburbs. In Wuhan they have made sure to retain a lot of the wet lands. 

And of course, did I tell about the public transport? It works! Every time things were on time (unlike Germany!). The frequency was good enough to make you not take a cab. Trains were on time and very fast. The (economy) seats in the trains had deeper pushback than economy flights! Oh, its all very cheap. A ride in metro to anywhere will cost you 25 Cents (USD). My train ride (220km) costed me 10 USD and took me 1 hour and 15 minutes!

Rows of trees between road and buildings.

Road inside the forest leading to my "spot"!

Sunset from my "spot"!

Wetlands within the city.

The People: As I mentioned above the immigration officers dealing with me were extremely courteous and efficient. I faced this many times in my short stay. For example when I arrived at the Hubei Provincial Museum, I realised that it needs pre-booking using WeChat and I had no WeChat! The security saw my passport and was all excited that I am from India. She used her WeChat to book me in! I was in Jingzhou and wanted chicken fired rice. The lady managing the small eatery asked me many questions. When she knew that I am from India and am travelling alone (poor me!) she started giving me free tea and then offered me free stinky tofu! I have been genuinely touched by all the kindness I have got from complete strangers. 

Stinky tofu offered by the kind eatery owner.

I am still processing my experiences in China. At least in the urban areas and the semi-urban places I have been to, things are better off than many European cities. I am sure there might be issues and I am sure there are geo-political things I am not aware of or things I have not been exposed to. But, who is perfect? Just a few weeks ago the Australians voted, in a referendum, against giving voice to the aboriginal population. But, I am not going to go political in this blog. All I wanted to say is that as a visitor, that too from India, I experienced tremendous amount of kindness. What I witnessed are perfectly working infrastructures and governments which take great care of what they are supposed to do. It is definitely a country to visit. However, be warned that there are just too many things to witness. You need at least a month to even touch the tip of the iceberg that is China.

PS: By the way, the city of Wuhan is a research mega-power! It has 35 higher educational and research institutes including two universities ranking within the top 200 in the world!

 

Two war-torn countries

Long back I read an anecdote. A teacher was trying to teach a life lesson to their students. They heated water in three pots. In one was added an egg; in the other a carrot and in the last one a few coffee beans. After a while the teacher asked the students to check the condition of the three things. They used them to explain three ways in which people react to adversaries. 

Carrot: It was tough and firm before the hardship (i.e. boiling water) and was converted to something soft and pulpy. 

Egg: It was soft and brittle at the beginning. It became hard and tough. 

Coffee: It was ordinary before. The hardship not only made it aromatic rather it made the hardship (boiling water) aromatic as well!

Wars destroy generations; wars destroy spirit; wars destroy humanity. I was privileged to visit two countries which have had been the stage of a lot of violent wars in the last hundred years. I visited Serbia in April and Vietnam in June. 

Serbia has been a small but extremely powerful nation throughout the history. Being squeezed between two big powers (Ottomans to the east and Austria-Hungary to the west) it got the favour of neither and was the ground of frequent wars. The last war to hit the soil was, of course, the Balkan wars. Wars have made the Serbs rough and admire "masculinity". Strong spirits (pun intended) were in abundance. The common Serb is proud (and rightly so) of their glorious history. The present is not very glorious though. Infrastructures are dilapidating, houses and apartments are in need of maintenance (most apartments looked really ugly with peeled off paintings) and roads were full of potholes. I found the following click very symbolic of the present day Serbia. 

A toy tiger guarding over a garbage bin with potholed roads and Soviet style buildings in the background.

That being said, the country is trying its best to improve things. Heavy investment and aid from the EU is creating islands of fine building and architectures. 

A sculpture by the banks of Danube in Novi Sad.

Buildings of a specialised research facility (biosense.rs) focussing on the use of technology to solve challenges in agriculture.

And yes, if you are in Serbia do not miss the amazing food it has to offer. Being in the middle of two civilisations has its own benefits one of which is the emergence of some very unique and amazing foods. Cafes are in abundance and the meat you get in Serbia is one of the best in Europe. (No offence; but the meat in western Europe is just disgusting!)

One of the numerous road-side cafes.

Now, let us look at the coffee of our story (pun intended), the country which is the second largest producer of coffee, Vietnam. In spite of decades of war the common Vietnamese is extremely hospitable and kind. Everyone you meet will greet you with humility (for no reason) and a kind smile. The place is not very developed. But, unlike Serbia the infrastructure is in good condition. Even rural roads have no potholes. It is an extremely safe country. In a walk in the morning you will bump into elderlies (in 60s and 70s) exercising, meditating, practicing dance and Tai Chi. Cafes are in abundance and the coffee is really of very high quality. Road side places keep serving Pho from early morning till late night. 

The quintessential Pho :)

Your common Vietnamese is humble for no real reason. Because they are one of the most aware and educated masses I have come across. They know about their history and culture. They know about science and facts. The guy serving me coffee in a cafe knew of the scientific reasons of why there are so many small hills in Halong Bay! A digital marketing guy I met knew a lot about the artefacts in their national art museum.  In India or South Africa, even highly educated people would know nothing about art museums!

A lacquer painting (sơn mài) from Vietnamese Art Museum (Hanoi). Vietnamese artists are well known to have mastered lacquer painting. On the top left part of this painting you can notice the great leader Ho Chi Minh.  

A wooden statue of Avalokeswara Boddhisatwa. Avalokeswara is the Boddhisatwa of compassion. He was so compassionate that he decided not to achieve enlightenment and rather help all the suffering sentients. He was granted a thousand arms (by Amitabha Buddha) to help him in his endeavour to help thousands of suffering sentients.

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. I loved to get drenched in the vibes of Hanoi. I felt relaxed. I felt rejuvenated (even in their heavy traffic!). Not sure if it were the kind people. Not sure if it were the extremely sweet tender coconut water. Not sure if it were the old couple running a fruit shop who insisted on taking less money from me for the juice I drank at their place everyday. Not sure if it was the coffee! Not sure if it was the sunset. Not sure if ......

Super sweet tender coconut water in the morning. In the background is a scooter which is the main mode of transport for millions of Vietnamese hoi poloi.

Sunset from West lake (Hanoi).

 

P5 Path to Purpose

 A few weeks back, I was listening to a podcast which talked about the difference between purpose and goals in one's life. I have been musing over it since then to find purpose in my life. Finally, I came up with a flow or algorithm which I think might help one to find a purpose in life. Of course, I am not going to talk about grand purposes like saving the earth and stuff. If that happens, it happens. 

I think, for a normal person purpose can have many facets. Facets which one thinks may make one happy. Facets, that may contribute one to have a meaningful life. Here are the five I found for myself. I think it kind of captures it for most people (especially those from the orient). 

P1. Parents: This came up pretty high up in my list. Being able to be there for my parents would make me feel satisfied and happy, for sure. 

P2. Partnership: This was also very important for me. Partnership both in terms of good friends and companies as well as a romantic partner. 

P3. Passion: I do not want to be one of those guys who look forward to weekends! I want to do things I feel passionate about so that I feel relaxed by working on them.

P4. Payment: Of course, I need a decent regular income. My needs are few. So my payment desires are mediocre!

P5. Place: Place matters a lot as well. A place with easy access to nature. A place where one does not have to face unkind people on a daily basis. A place that works.

To be clear, these are not the purpose of my life. These are enablers. These enable one to see the path to purpose with clarity.

Basking in Budapest

 For some reason, flights to and from Budapest are substantially cheaper than those from any other city in the EU. This made me book a flight from Budapest in my recent visit to Europe. And, I decided to take a two-days break in Budapest as well. 

My experience in Budapest was different from my experience in any other European city. It was also serendipitous that I was visiting Budapest from Denmark, one of the most egalitarian nation. Budapest is, indeed, a city trying its best to leave the era of the iron curtain and embrace the era of free-trade. But, old habits die hard. I shall give two quick examples of this, subtle but interesting. I took a shuttle from airport to my Airbnb apartment in the city. While dropping off a passenger in a fancy hotel, the driver saw a few black Mercedes cars parked in front of the hotel. He exasperated, “so many diplomats and VIPs”! This is a simple statement but carries a lot of socio-economic baggage in it. It shows that people see the weight in a black Mercedes and that people latently respect this show-off of wealth. This was diametrically opposite of the way people behave in western and northern Europe.

My next observation was on one of the streets by Danube where I witnessed a few new buildings whose walls were covered with granite blocks. This is the way people used to show off their wealth a few decades back. Now a days most people have realised that using granites to cover your building is environmentally bad and it is not really pretty. But, in Budapest, banks (these buildings constituted the new offices of a big bank) still think that there is a need to “look” impressive and that this is possible by using heavy granite rocks on your building!

Now, let us come to the nice things about the city. First of all, it has been a melting pot of civilisations and races and religions for a long time. People are almost colour-blind. They do not see your skin colour. English is spoken very well by most Hungarians I met. The city has a thriving cafe culture (as is expected of any Central European city). The city is on both sides of the great Danube river and the Danube mountain is a stones straw away. 

It has an extensive and well run public transport system. However, the roads are mostly in need of maintenance. As you can see in the picture above, they are trying patch-work way to maintain it. But, that does not work in the long run. Many major roads have potholes which can be a menace during rain. 

Back to good things :) …. The city is full of nice gardens. Almost every road has lots of trees. It is a very pedestrian friendly. People are really nice and friendly. The food is very unique. And, cloths are really cheap. Most branded cloths would be almost 50-70 percent cheaper than anywhere else. 

Overall, it is an interesting city. There is a very good entrepreneurial spirit in the city with many incubation centres. I am pretty sure that the city and the country will regain its old glory in the near future.

Clasped hands and soft whispers

(A poem I wrote 8-9 years back...)

The clasped hands,
Don't know what they mean to you;
But to me they mean a lot, the clasped hands,
Which mean the freedom to dream!  1

Your closed-lips on mine,
Don't know what they mean to you;
To me those lips are things foreign;
Whose taste I have never dreamed I could dream!  2

And the soft bite of mine on your cheeks;
Don't know what they mean to you;
For me its all the luck I can hold fast to;
In a particularly unlucky life, that means a lot you see!!  3

That sweet body odour from your clothes,
Don't know what it means to you
For me its the aroma of dream and hope,
Which I am getting the glimpse of after such a long time. 4

Those soft whispers saying "I love you"
Don't know what they mean to you;
For me they are eternal songs of life and panacea!
Which I have longed for ever but got just now!!   5

Soft kisses and soft whispers,
Making a soft moment make hard marks
For my life which was dull and damp;
Credit goes to you my love;
Don't care if you will be there "for ever" for me or not;
Don't care if you will be "all mine" or not;
What I got from you in moments, worth life times;
Will last a life time;
Clasped hands and soft whispers....!!   6

Seal's eyes

(The story I narrate below was told to me by my friend Naadir. Naadir had the opportunity to be a part of the South African Antarctica  mission. And he met this guy, whom we shall call Pieter, in the voyage. I shall narrate the story in first person (But its actually Naadir's story) and I shall add some made-up details.)

It was my providence that I was selected to be a part of the small team of scientists and engineers which went in the South African Antarctica mission in December 2017. Over the long voyage I had the opportunity to get acquaintances with  Pieter. Pieter was in his late 50s and was a wild-life expert. His passion for his work was infectious. He loved animals and he loved whatever little he could do for them. I had great respect for almost all the members of the team, each of whom was an expert in his/her domain. But Pieter was exceptional in his love for animals. I assumed that he must have had this love and craze for wildlife from his childhood days. And may be thats why he chose to study zoology and then might have chosen this career. Over the next two months I came to know the real story about him.

Around 30 years back Pieter was a young man and very skilful at handling wildlife. Those were the old-times! And by some links he got his first contract. The contract was to smuggle a zebra calf for a rich person in Europe. Then started his career as a wildlife smuggler. Animals were his merchandise and getting them safe to the customers skipping the customs was his skill. One such time he had to smuggle few seal cubs to the UK. Seal cubs wont survive without their mother's milk. So Pieter had to bottle feed them. While travelling in the ship, one eventful evening, he was bottle-feeding a cub. He was looking at its eyes. And suddenly he had a feeling that what he was doing was not right. In one split-second his mind filled with nauseating pain for all that he had been doing. He returned back to South Africa with the cubs; and started working as a volunteer to conserve seals. Somehow he was discovered by an environmentalist who tried to talk to senior officials and got him a job in the environment department. His skills were still there with him and now could be used for a positive cause. Since then he has been working tirelessly for the conservation of wild animals.

It was a story which can bring tears; a story to rejoice; a story to celebrate the angel in each of us; and a story to feel positive about.

Sadsankalpa

Long back a friend of mine repeated something he has heard from his Guru (Sathya Sai baba), "Just have nobel intention or Sadsankalpa in you; rest of the things will happen on its own".

Time and again this has been shown to be true in my life till date. I shall discuss three of the many such incidents that has happened.

I joined IIT Guwahati in 2006 (as an academic). After joining I wanted to get active and "do something". Never knew what. Never knew how. I will tell you three interesting that happened during my stay in Guwahati. 

There were few tribal (Bodo) villages just next to IIT campus and they had no electricity. I always felt bad. Inside campus we were enjoying an almost developed-country standard of living with uninterrupted power supply. And just outside are these villages with no power at all. I was back in India after three years (in the UK) and that too in North East. I never knew whom to talk about this. By some coincidence there was a meeting in the state power ministry. The professor who was invited from IIT asked me "why don’t you come along as well?” I was happy to accompany. Before proceeding further I will like to talk a little about this particular professor. He was an extremely knowledgeable person, very rich and the brother of the then chief minister of the state. Still, on meeting him one can never tell this all.  He had this enchanting perennial smile which will make your mood lighter and your day brighter. He is one of the nicest and most down-to-earth persons I have ever met. Anyway, in the meeting I knew no one and all were very senior officers. Just as a curiosity, over the tea break, I mentioned the power-less villages to one under-secretary. He told it is a state government policy that all the villages are to be given electricity within next few months and he will check if I am right about what I say. And within next few months those villages got electricity! This was very encouraging. First of all it proved that government officials are not all corrupt. In fact majority are sincere persons who mean all good. And secondly, again, if you have good intentions then things just happen. 

The second incident was even more interesting. I had a desire to donate blood. When I was in the UK, they made me wait for ever and tested my blood two times. Finally they told that I have malaria antibodies in my blood. Hence it is not safe for a common British person. This one time I thought it will be nice to donate blood, now that I am back in India. And almost like a miracle one student approached me within few days. He had this idea of organising a blood donation camp and seeked my help and guidance. The process took a few months. And most of the work was done by that student. I just was there like a figurehead. Anyone from the campus community (including the security guards) were allowed to donate blood. I remember one funny incident. A security guard came to my office and told he wanted to donate blood as well. He told he got too much blood and that is why he gets angry so often. The Assamese word for blood is Tej which also means valour. And he wanted to donate some blood and hence make his head calm! Anyway, the camp was organised with help from all quarters, starting from our campus dispensary doctors to the Guwahati Medical College blood bank. And it was told to me later that that was the largest blood donation camp (in terms of number of units collected) in the whole of North East India till that time!

The last story I will tell you is even more exciting. The usual thing that happens on Republic Day (26th Jan) and Independence Day (15 Aug)  in IIT was a morning parade and free snacks. I was not happy with this. So during my second event (i.e. Independence Day  2007) I thought of having a discussion forum. I advertised it in all hostels. What I got was just 15-20 students. Still we had a vibrant discussion. Lot of energy and new ideas. Few days later one of those students knocked my door. He is a guy who is always full of enthusiasm. Full of energy. I still remember his first line. Without much ado he just told “Rocky sir, such karma he” (Rocky sir (that was what most students used to call me because of my ponytail) we need to do something). Then we discussed a bit. I had this idea for long that we are not utilising our resources wisely. We have an IIT in this region and the campus is full of some of the brightest kids of the nation. And just outside the campus the village schools do not have teachers! We thought may be we can start having tutorial sessions for the village kids inside IIT. IIT campuses have one school (Kendriya Vidyalaya). The then principal of the school was a very enthusiastic guy from Punjab. He was all supportive. He allowed us to use the IIT school classrooms to teach the village kids. I must mention here that not many school principals would have allowed this. Then within few weeks we had a group of volunteers and then started the programme which we called Zero Illiteracy Zone (ZIZ). We would have classes on Saturday afternoons. It was all organised by that student. Once again I was just a figurehead. ZIZ ran years after that student graduated. Through it I have met some amazing students who have stayed on as my friends. And within few years the village schools had some history. For the first time their students cleared the matriculation exams. 

It is really humbling to see how it all happened. I did almost nothing. The only thing I did was “sadsankalpa” and everything else just happened. Like some divine miracle. Or as they say the universe conspires to make them happen.