Walking across the lane, I saw a small girl, clad in a blue overcoat, thick black pants, blue gloves and a black muffler around her neck. She was holding her mother's hand and waiting in front of the nearby pre school gate.Winter had shed its leaves on the city of Nanjing.
It was 8:29 AM and as usual I was running to catch the 8:37 metro. We were supposed to be in office at 9:00 AM. 9:01 AM was also considered as an exception. I reached the metro station at exact 8:35 AM. I had 2 minutes left. I went and bought the English version of China Daily newspaper. It was very usual to see people reading newspapers in metro while traveling to office. Each station had people who collected read newspapers and then provided them to other passengers who were in need of one. But yes, there was no one present to collect my newspaper. No one used or wanted to read anything other than Chinese. Talking about English, I never saw a Chinese who really wanted to know English out of ineterest. It was majorly compulsion that made some of them learn English. For instance, many of my chinese counter parts tried speaking English, because me and my other Indian colleagues had visited China for a product takeover. It wasn't a big surprise, but yes, the fact that they study English for around 10-12 years of their schooling was a little surprising. We had to have google translator open while talking to them!! I remember the time when we first came to our office in Nanjing, China. It was a very sunny morning, quite hot. Summers and winters are extreme in this part of the country. Girls were clad in short, open dresses. Some of them seemed to be in kind of picnic and beach wears! But yes, they did look hot! There's a general perception of chinese people being short and stout. I was kind of surprised to see tall and normal heighted people. I myself being short, was a little disappointed to see many tall good looking, kind of blonde girls. The office was built on more than 300 acres of land. It had many buildings all having almost 5 floors. The view was awsome. The first day, we met some of our chinese managers. They were speaking near to fluent English (in Chinese terms). Then we met our mentors. And gosh, none of them knew English except for one person and thankfully that person was my mentor. We used to sit in meeting rooms for sessions and it took each one of them around 1 hour to explain a basic flow, mainly because half of the time they used to use google translator to find the correct words.
When I look back now, I feel that the last 5 months were a real experience. Not all get this kind of experience in their lives. Three things, which people should learn from chinese is their dedication, commitment and hardwork. People in my company work long hours because they had committed a date to their clients. They never liked to deter from their commitments until and unless there were some major issues. One cannot find people on streets of Nanjing after 9:30 AM max. All will be in their respective offices, doing their respective jobs. In Bangalore, you can find roads busy at all times! People in this part of the world seem to be very calm, living in their own small world, untouched by outside reality. When one talks with them about countries/continents of the world, they look at you with surprise. They are not aware of big names like, Europe, Arabian countries, Australia etc (but ya I think all know about US and India (India is called as Indu there)). Its shocking for a person like me to accept this, because I come from a place where nothing is hidden from us. (And why do I say hidden... a.) Newspapers in China seem to carry news only about China. b.) Except for CCTV there is no other english/foreign channel available in most parts. c.) Most of the websites which are in someway related to the outside world are banned (but yes, copy of those websites do exist). d.) Many of the people there are not interested in knowing about other places.) But yes, there is a shocking difference in the way this country is known to the world. The world inside is very different, very advanced, very developed and very much westernized. Only a very small portion of their culture seem to exist now. Weddings are like western/christian weddings, except for the fact that churches do not exist here as most of the chinese people are atheist. People do not wear their cultural dresses in their daily lives as well as their weddings. In fact, I never saw anyone wearing those in the past 5 months of my stay here.
Now the season being winter, all seem to be covered in huge jackets, pants and boots. It is very difficult for me to get up early morning in this cold (it's around 5-6 degrees here in Jan starting) and go to office. I wish I could have slept more. As I get ready and go down in the lift, I see all usual confounded eyes still staring at me, making me think, 'had I not been here for the past 5 months?'. But yes, seasons doesn't make much of a difference in peoples’ lives here, except for their clothing.
In my office, there is a long stretch of road for walking. There are benches at certain points, where you can sit/sleep etc. We found a place where sun rays used to hit after noon. It was a real respite from the cold winds. Me and another colleague of mine, used to sit there while Chinese people slept on their seats inside office. Yes, they do have a half an hour sleep break after lunch! Hard to find such a thing in India! We are now all excited about going back to India in some days, not that we didn't enjoy our stay here, but it's a feel good factor. I sometimes wonder how people stay away from their homeland for years together. My sister has been in US for the past 2.5 years and she is still excited about being there! Anyways, most of my weekends are spent in shopping. Chinese have a lot of cultural stuff when it comes to shopping. There is a market area near a place called Confucius temple, this is a temple devoted to the memory of Confucius (a Chinese thinker and social philosopher) and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism. This market area known as Fuji mayo, has small shops having different varieties of souvenirs of art and culture. But yes, they do charge you a lot if you are a foreigner and if you don’t know how to bargain! One of my friends’s, a guy, wanted to buy a shawl and the shopkeeper, a lady, and asked him for 250 Yuan! And I bargained to bring the rate down to 75 Yuan! So except for the fact that they try to charge more, they are very nice to you. They try to talk to you in Chinese, (all smiling and giggling, some being shy) which off course I or my friends didn’t understand. But it did make us happy shopping there.
All shops in Nanjing, are now covered with decoration items, almost all in red color. They have hanging dragons, fish etc, demonic faces, red clothing, symbols of good omen. I did buy some for my home back in India. Spring festival, i.e. Chinese new year was about to arrive. It is starting on 22nd Jan, the day when I along with my colleagues are leaving for India. Now, as the day is closer, I feel that I will miss this place a lot. The only wish which I was not fulfilled was to see snow covered Nanjing. The last week is pretty odd and exciting here. Because of Spring festival, all Chinese team mates are going to their respective home towns. My office is getting empty day by day. It's the 20th and one can see no more Chinese faces around. All had bid us good bye, taken photos and left by now. We are still here, waiting to wrap up some left out work, with the excitement of going back in another day's time.
21st morning, though being a Saturday, we had to go to office (work always comes first). I as usual, was not in a mood to get up and go early. I got up slowly and started getting ready, it was almost 10 AM. My phone rang, it was my team mate Gowry, she said, "hey go outside, it's snowing!" I was like, finally! And I went down all excited, the first snow I ever saw in Nanjing, had to be on the day when we were supposed to leave! I went to office, in snow, I was very happy, didn't even bother to wear my gloves, I wanted to feel the snow! The day was quite a happy one, took a lot of pics in snow, in the dark, played in snow with other team mates.
22nd morning, the day, when we are supposed to leave, we all got up early morning. Our flight is at 2:30 PM, but as warned by our Chinese colleagues, we started early. It's hard to find taxis or any such mode of transportation on this day, as all are in their homes celebrating new year. I went outside the hotel, and, yes, this was the final treat, the whole place outside was covered in white!
It was 8:29 AM and as usual I was running to catch the 8:37 metro. We were supposed to be in office at 9:00 AM. 9:01 AM was also considered as an exception. I reached the metro station at exact 8:35 AM. I had 2 minutes left. I went and bought the English version of China Daily newspaper. It was very usual to see people reading newspapers in metro while traveling to office. Each station had people who collected read newspapers and then provided them to other passengers who were in need of one. But yes, there was no one present to collect my newspaper. No one used or wanted to read anything other than Chinese. Talking about English, I never saw a Chinese who really wanted to know English out of ineterest. It was majorly compulsion that made some of them learn English. For instance, many of my chinese counter parts tried speaking English, because me and my other Indian colleagues had visited China for a product takeover. It wasn't a big surprise, but yes, the fact that they study English for around 10-12 years of their schooling was a little surprising. We had to have google translator open while talking to them!! I remember the time when we first came to our office in Nanjing, China. It was a very sunny morning, quite hot. Summers and winters are extreme in this part of the country. Girls were clad in short, open dresses. Some of them seemed to be in kind of picnic and beach wears! But yes, they did look hot! There's a general perception of chinese people being short and stout. I was kind of surprised to see tall and normal heighted people. I myself being short, was a little disappointed to see many tall good looking, kind of blonde girls. The office was built on more than 300 acres of land. It had many buildings all having almost 5 floors. The view was awsome. The first day, we met some of our chinese managers. They were speaking near to fluent English (in Chinese terms). Then we met our mentors. And gosh, none of them knew English except for one person and thankfully that person was my mentor. We used to sit in meeting rooms for sessions and it took each one of them around 1 hour to explain a basic flow, mainly because half of the time they used to use google translator to find the correct words.
When I look back now, I feel that the last 5 months were a real experience. Not all get this kind of experience in their lives. Three things, which people should learn from chinese is their dedication, commitment and hardwork. People in my company work long hours because they had committed a date to their clients. They never liked to deter from their commitments until and unless there were some major issues. One cannot find people on streets of Nanjing after 9:30 AM max. All will be in their respective offices, doing their respective jobs. In Bangalore, you can find roads busy at all times! People in this part of the world seem to be very calm, living in their own small world, untouched by outside reality. When one talks with them about countries/continents of the world, they look at you with surprise. They are not aware of big names like, Europe, Arabian countries, Australia etc (but ya I think all know about US and India (India is called as Indu there)). Its shocking for a person like me to accept this, because I come from a place where nothing is hidden from us. (And why do I say hidden... a.) Newspapers in China seem to carry news only about China. b.) Except for CCTV there is no other english/foreign channel available in most parts. c.) Most of the websites which are in someway related to the outside world are banned (but yes, copy of those websites do exist). d.) Many of the people there are not interested in knowing about other places.) But yes, there is a shocking difference in the way this country is known to the world. The world inside is very different, very advanced, very developed and very much westernized. Only a very small portion of their culture seem to exist now. Weddings are like western/christian weddings, except for the fact that churches do not exist here as most of the chinese people are atheist. People do not wear their cultural dresses in their daily lives as well as their weddings. In fact, I never saw anyone wearing those in the past 5 months of my stay here.
Now the season being winter, all seem to be covered in huge jackets, pants and boots. It is very difficult for me to get up early morning in this cold (it's around 5-6 degrees here in Jan starting) and go to office. I wish I could have slept more. As I get ready and go down in the lift, I see all usual confounded eyes still staring at me, making me think, 'had I not been here for the past 5 months?'. But yes, seasons doesn't make much of a difference in peoples’ lives here, except for their clothing.
In my office, there is a long stretch of road for walking. There are benches at certain points, where you can sit/sleep etc. We found a place where sun rays used to hit after noon. It was a real respite from the cold winds. Me and another colleague of mine, used to sit there while Chinese people slept on their seats inside office. Yes, they do have a half an hour sleep break after lunch! Hard to find such a thing in India! We are now all excited about going back to India in some days, not that we didn't enjoy our stay here, but it's a feel good factor. I sometimes wonder how people stay away from their homeland for years together. My sister has been in US for the past 2.5 years and she is still excited about being there! Anyways, most of my weekends are spent in shopping. Chinese have a lot of cultural stuff when it comes to shopping. There is a market area near a place called Confucius temple, this is a temple devoted to the memory of Confucius (a Chinese thinker and social philosopher) and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism. This market area known as Fuji mayo, has small shops having different varieties of souvenirs of art and culture. But yes, they do charge you a lot if you are a foreigner and if you don’t know how to bargain! One of my friends’s, a guy, wanted to buy a shawl and the shopkeeper, a lady, and asked him for 250 Yuan! And I bargained to bring the rate down to 75 Yuan! So except for the fact that they try to charge more, they are very nice to you. They try to talk to you in Chinese, (all smiling and giggling, some being shy) which off course I or my friends didn’t understand. But it did make us happy shopping there.
All shops in Nanjing, are now covered with decoration items, almost all in red color. They have hanging dragons, fish etc, demonic faces, red clothing, symbols of good omen. I did buy some for my home back in India. Spring festival, i.e. Chinese new year was about to arrive. It is starting on 22nd Jan, the day when I along with my colleagues are leaving for India. Now, as the day is closer, I feel that I will miss this place a lot. The only wish which I was not fulfilled was to see snow covered Nanjing. The last week is pretty odd and exciting here. Because of Spring festival, all Chinese team mates are going to their respective home towns. My office is getting empty day by day. It's the 20th and one can see no more Chinese faces around. All had bid us good bye, taken photos and left by now. We are still here, waiting to wrap up some left out work, with the excitement of going back in another day's time.
21st morning, though being a Saturday, we had to go to office (work always comes first). I as usual, was not in a mood to get up and go early. I got up slowly and started getting ready, it was almost 10 AM. My phone rang, it was my team mate Gowry, she said, "hey go outside, it's snowing!" I was like, finally! And I went down all excited, the first snow I ever saw in Nanjing, had to be on the day when we were supposed to leave! I went to office, in snow, I was very happy, didn't even bother to wear my gloves, I wanted to feel the snow! The day was quite a happy one, took a lot of pics in snow, in the dark, played in snow with other team mates.
22nd morning, the day, when we are supposed to leave, we all got up early morning. Our flight is at 2:30 PM, but as warned by our Chinese colleagues, we started early. It's hard to find taxis or any such mode of transportation on this day, as all are in their homes celebrating new year. I went outside the hotel, and, yes, this was the final treat, the whole place outside was covered in white!
