Dreamers, Mad hatters and Trouble Makers!


Thought I will take a break from my travellogue of China and tell you another story. I met a very dear and old friend the other day who I met some 22 years ago.  We worked in the same organisation and in the same function for more than ten years.  There was no particular purpose in the meeting, except to  catch up with each other after a long time. We sat down with tall glasses of chilled ice tea in the Bangalore afternoon, in a laid back coffee place, watching people passing us by in a languid pace.  After a bit of chit-chat, my friend looked at my face and said: “your eyes are looking rather sad, how come”?  I was taken aback; for multiple reasons; first I did not think that my eyes were sad and secondly, my friend was never in a habit of being intimate either for himself or towards others.

Visiting the giant neighbour – Beijing (part 1)


Beijing was originally called Peking and then the name changed to Beijing, only to be changed again and reverted back. It has an interesting history of name change with the change in the political scenario. Our first glimpse through the aircraft window revealed a rather brown and desolate looking landscape.  We were arriving there towards the end of winter season with temperature hovering around 3 degrees centigrade (at 11.30 in the morning and below – degrees in the night) and hence the flowers were not in bloom.  The winter is rather severe in most parts of China specially in Beijing and the surrounding areas.  My heart sank a little without the usual greenery that one is used to seeing in India.