Either I had to create a new blog or revamp and continue on this old one. Well, I decided to revive this one in the "Urawaza" spirit (since the theme of this particular essay is going to be deeply east asian).
Deep, er.. actually long, because I traveled about 4746.52 kilometers (on map) to Beijing, China in the third week of August to attend the IAU general assembly. IAU : International Astronomical Union. I got to give a 15 min talk and attend one special session and a symposium on astrophysical magnetic fields (my area of research). Thats in summary. My trip to China.
But how can I deprive this blog essay of the juicy details, academic and non-academic. Well, mostly non-academic. How can I not recount the tales from this land far far away ? Who are these Chinese and what did they do to me ? Did I survive ?
Hmmm... Let me dive into the details right away.
Right through the initial struggle of finding accommodation (the organisers had goofed up the reservations), including walking up and down between the hotel and the venue for the conference, I could not help but notice how different Beijing was from the other metropolitan cities I had been to in India, like Delhi (there were some similarities, both being capital cities) or Mumbai or Bangalore or Chennai. Or perhaps, more so, because the part of the city I was in, was the Olympic games village area (Chaoyang District), which is the newer part of Beijing (thanks to Olympics 2008).
The traffic seemed quite efficient or atleast it looked as though everyone has aced their driving tests. Beijing has been aware of its growing traffic for sometime now but have been managing it quite well. They have the world's third most dense subway and then they have implemented policies such as even and odd number plated cars driving on alternate days respectively. India's chaotic traffic, on the other hand, can seem alarming and suicidal. Of course, I have spent many fun hours zig-zagging through Bangalore traffic, working constantly on some prediction algorithms inside my head, and executing them on almost delta time scales. But if you wanted to take a walk to the market, along the broken footpath, its not going to be a pleasant affair.
But more strikingly, I liked Beijing for its cool and casual attitude at the outset.
Smaller population on streets, uniform in numbers everywhere and everyone looked like they were all out for a stroll ! And the tall skyscrapers surrounding the streets, gives a feel of being in a different planet altogether (I haven't been to other continents as yet. So this might be a more common occurrence in places like the US). I hadn't liked a metropolitan city before, with all its jazz, either due to the traffic, or pollution, or feeling claustrophobic, for lack of greenery, etc. I started to take a liking to Beijing.
Well, on day 5 (I skipped 1,2,3,4 !), the first session on magnetic fields (in ISM and IGM) had ended. I happily finished my talk on day 4 and critically analysed it, and the events after, for the next 24 hours, until I got mentally exhausted. I had met a few well-known important researchers of the field and had enjoyed Chinese hospitality at NAOC (their astronomy institute) and now I was ready (in mind and body, both), on day 6, to venture out.
Now on the very first day, the dinner had turned into a guessing game. We had walked into a restaurant whose menu was up on the board with the picture of the food item, next to the Chinese name, and I had to find something that looked decently vegetarian. As a result, the four of us kept trying to communicate this to the people behind the counter endlessly. After this episode, now I had to make sure that I was carrying a map with Chinese markings, to be able to ask directions. But my trip around central Beijing turned out to be quite easy, due to the accessibility of subway system and I was quite self-sufficient. I firstly visited the National Museum of Art,
and spent about an hour or so.
I came out, felt inspired to buy some art material off the shop right in front and then pushed off to "Wangfujing Street", a popular market place. As I waited for the bus, I noticed after several buses passed by, that only I and this young girl with a suitcase, were still left waiting at the bus-stop. So I went to her to generally comment on the delay and ask if she was taking the same bus as me. She hurriedly made a sign pointing to her mouth and ear. I was a bit taken aback. But I quickly pointed out on the map and she nodded vigorously. Bus numbered 103 came twice and went. The first time I almost got on and jumped off at the last moment, as the door was closing and there was simply no space to get further in. Neither was the girl able to get on it. This was the only bus, which was so crowded. All others (non-103) were nearly empty. Then, the second time, we both decided it was not worth it. I managed to suggest to her to take the metro, but she indicated on the map that her place was quite a detour from the main station. Then, when it came the third time, we both made a go for it. Generally, one is supposed to get in from the front door, but due to shortage of time and space, we got on at the back. And immediately, the crowd of Chinese inside the bus started yelling at this girl, and I was alarmed. I wanted to tell them she couldn't hear them while she was dearly holding onto the suitcase looking distressed. The door closed and the bus moved on. At the next stop, the entire crowd pushed at her as they got off. I had managed to move to a side while she was still stuck at the door with her luggage. They nearly pushed her out. I asked her if she was ok, and she just nodded. After a while, Wangfujing street came and I got down. She looked a bit puzzled and then she realised that I was getting off earlier than she had expected. I still feel like I shouldn't have got down. I had made a friend and I should have gone all the way, to atleast drop her off. We waved bye to each other.
Wangfujing was flashy and showy. I just walked around, bought souvenirs, took photos and licked at a triple-deckered ice-cream in the cone. I asked this cute kid with the Chinese headgear if I could take her pic ? And she happily obliged, immediately posing with the 'V' sign.
In the evening, as I returned back, I got down at Olympic Green station and walked back to the bus-stop, from where I could get back to my hotel. On the way, I walked along the central line, which is a special line going all the way across Beijing hitting Tiananmen square on its way. Chinese revere the line and lot of activities happen along this line. They all come out in the evening and celebrate life with song and dance. Beijing was at its beautiful best for me ! With the 'Bird's nest closeby in the background, and sparkling kites which go up almost every night, the atmosphere was full of spirit. There were kids singing out as a band, there was a "Michael Jackson" performance, couples practiced their Ballroom dance joined by tiny kids on the side and a traditional Chinese "Harikatha" (as Gokul puts it) was being told. I was falling in love with Beijing.
Then, for rest of my stay and outings in Beijing, I was constantly clicking at Chinese kids. That was like the theme of my photography in China. In the next two days, I visited the "Great Wall" and "Forbidden city". So, all the emperors of the Ching and Ming dynasty thought they were at the center of the Universe and felt no need to communicate to the rest of the world and did not get wooed by the gifts Mongolians sent them. And Mongolians took it as an insult and decided to attack the Chinese and thats how the wall came up. Not a very morally impressive reason to build a massive wall, whose construction went on for centuries exhausting the Chinese civilians. The wall is a massive 5000 Km stretch structure and its huge and strong. But most of it is in ruins now.
I had a good time at Forbidden city the next day though walking under the sun cannot be deemed to be pleasant. After I had covered half of it, I went scouting for lunch and found a place where I could get some vegetarian lunch.
All the other members of my group were on their own, each with their own automatic explaining machines. Anyway, I would have got left behind, with my constant clicking of photos. As I hogged my lunch, two kids joined me at the table. This 13 year old girl introduced herself (in English !) and her cousin, who she happily pointed out to be fat ! She asked where I was from, and I told her India. She looked surprised and immediately remarked that I was beautiful and she always thought Indians to be very dark and ugly. I wasn't sure how to react. But I couldn't help smiling at her amusement.
And then we chatted about India, her school, her cousin (who was happy to just eat his noodles and smile at me once in a while). All this while her Mom was getting the rest of the family to sit at another table behind us. I left after a hearty 'nice to meet you', 'bye-bye' and a photo.
Though Forbidden Palace covers vast grounds and is magnificent, it really doesn't compare to Mysore Palace (back home) in grandeur. Maybe I shouldn't compare. But Sunil and I agree that we still haven't come across any palace that compares to the one in Mysore !
As I was leaving Forbidden city grounds, this sales-girl got me to drop into her shop and take a look at the paintings and buy one for 200 RMB (that was the most expensive thing that I had bought at China). Vishal's Polish friend, with a blonde dye (who was treated like a rockstar, with all the chinese kids clicking at her all the time !) said that basically I was duped and the painting should cost 20 RMB instead. But strangely I didn't care ! I was happy to pay for the Chinese Samurai painting.
Then, in the next week, in the middle of the week, we decided to visit a 'Hutong' in the evening to finish our shopping in China. But that evening marked the end of my romance with China. I had an incident, where I was nearly demobilised due to an unfortunate health condition. And though Vishal was around, we still had a difficult time and there was no one coming up to us to help us. The following Sunday I was happy to be back home in India.
Now, in China, 'Youtube' was blocked, 'Google' searches were filtered, even mail attachments couldn't be downloaded at all times. I asked my Supervisor to stop adding any modifications to the draft of our paper as I could not download it. When I came back, I was chatting with a Prof. who mentioned a story. His dad in China was having a conversation in some restaurant about how he could not open the BBC website and the students next to him said he should have been able to and BBC wesite is not blocked. Well, of course he could not open the BBC website. But there was yet another story in which he said that the Chinese farmers were asked to change their crop from Rice to Pineapple. And they all became wealthy in 10 years time. And how this could never happen in India.
