Appooppanthaadi - 48

A view from my apartment

Sitting in the 28th Floor apartment in Suzhou, I can hear a shrill screeching sound. Please, for the Heaven's sake, don't think that I am always sitting in my room. I am on job. I work 10 hours in a day for my company. My client is happy, my employer is happier and my readers are the happiest. 


There is no place for doubt in anyone's mind please. But still, my dear friend Anathakrishnan has serious doubts about what I am upto. Everytime after reading my essays, he calls me from Doha. Though he compliments me for the essay, he asks me without asking, if I have no other job here. He strongly believes that I am enjoying paid holidays whereever I go!!



I was interrupted here. An employee of the Chinees vendor, while discussing about various matters, suddenly opened a link on the internet. The link has opened a number of photos about our River Ganga. It was not all about the holiness of the river. A fully decomposed human body floating in the river, a skull on the bank, another corpse somewhere else. People taking bath elsewhere. Some others drinking water from the holy river. 

Click the link to see more about this:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/filthy-india-photos-chinese-netizen-reactions.html



I am not sure if these photographs were really shot from Ganga. But, this is how, our country is portrayed here in China. An average Chinese is well informed about India. They can talk about the child marriages, religious fanatism, dirty habits and so on. Above all, they have clear information about Kashmir issue. They believe that Kasmir is a part of Pakistan and India is occuppying it forcefully. Perceptions are deep rooted, especially when they are mostly exposed to the government controlled media. 


They will never know what RTI and NREGP are. They cannot even imgaine such things happening in their country.  These are the revolutionay schemes our welfare governments do for us.  Even the most advanced countries in the world do not have a ground braking rule like RTI. We must be proud of such rules in our country.


 Let me come back to the shrill noice. The sound has a rythem in it. It starts from one end and then spreads like a fire to the other end. Suddenly it stops. Though it is no music to our ears, it is definitely nature's expression of gladness. We must enjoy it, because now a days, nature shows up its happiness very rarely. Rather, we should say, we do not allow the nature to do it

This is the season, the cicadas occuppy every tree in China. They are the source of this shrill noise. Wherever trees are there, from there we can hear this sound. In China, there is no dearth of greenery and hence the sound is present everywehre. 


 Cicada is the familiar "cheeveedu" in malayalam. These insects are present in our country too. They too make noise, but at a much lower pitch. Its sound is audible in the night in our country. Here, the sound is not heard after the nightfall


I heard this sound the most when I visited Nantong town recently. Wherever I went in the town, from both sides of the roads, there was non stop noise. Still in big cities like Shanghai or Beijing, this sound is hard to listen. The major reason, perhaps, is over urbanisation.

the greenery inside the Century Park

I must say, there are exceptions to this, like the Century Park in Shanghai. The sound there was like a wave. It was similar to the ones created by the football fans while they watch matches in stadiums. It starts at one end and like a wave, it reaches the other end. Here too, the sound started from one end and gradually progressed to the other end. Suddennly it is stopped as if someone has switched it off. After a brief lull, it starts all of a sudden. It was quiet an  interesting experience.

Jinji Lake in night

There are beautiful parks in Suzhou too. Like the Century Park, Suzhou too has a number of parks. Suzhou Industrial Park is a part of Suzhou city, one of the most beautiful places in China. The Jinji Lake is breathtaking and we shall never miss the night view of the lake. 


Click the link to see more photos of Jinji Lake :https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/JinjiLake?authkey=Gv1sRgCKnsw9-749fRQA&feat=email
 

It is just 100KM away from Shanghai. We can reach here by train that takes 40 yuans and just 20 minutes from Shanghai Railway Station. There is a music fountain show on the lake on every Friday and Saturday at 8pm. The jaw dropping show is hard to miss. It is an enchanting blend of fire works, water, light fire and music. 

Have a look at it on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36WpsCDFOw

 I have been walking in one of the parks in Suzhou recently. Like in any other park , this park also has a lot of trees. The cicadas were producing its usual sound here too. I was enjoying the sound while walking in the park. The parks are interesting places in China. 


On one end of this park  there was a group of women making steps to the tune of some music. The group included from young women to the ones as old as 60 or 70 years. They are all trained to do this as a part of physical exercise.  There are a number of devices to do simple exercises installed on another corner of the park. People of any age group can do exercises in these  device. The heartening thing is that women are more involved in exercises in China.

On the other end, there were another group of people dancing to the tune of some music. The music sounded the same as what the other group was playing to do exercise. Here, this group had men and women. Dancing was in doubles. It can be a woman and a man or two women together dancing. They dance not only for entertainment but also for physical exercises. The interesting thing in all these scenes is that people of all age groups participate in this.  

Watch the video on the exercise in open places :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=a8dxYPJ_8CA


Just a few meters away, tiny tots wearing scating shoes were seen moving very fast on a platform in front of the shopping complex near the park. Many kids were also seen moving so adeptly on scating boards.

Believe me, none of these scenes changed my mind. I was never tempted to try any of the devices placed in the park. I never felt like joining a beautiful woman to dance. I was more concerened about preserving my little but elegant tummy. As I said earlier,  tummy is the symbol is musculanity. I shall not do anything that undermines my manliness!

As I was walking out of the park, I saw a Ford car being taken out from the parking space on the side of the road. The driver was taking it backward to take a turn. He did not notice an on- coming Audi car. The reverse moving car hit the audi car on the rear with a thud. Though the collision was not so small, there were not much damages to both the cars. There were minor dents or to be more precise, some scratches on both the cars.


 Surprisingly, both the drivers stopped  the car as it is and got down from them. They did not start abusing each other. There were no fisticuffs. One of them took his phone and called police. The story will end with the police appearing in the scene and dispose of the matter based on the situatioal evidances and the brainwaves produced in their skull at that time. I did not wait to see the conclusion anyway.