The Race Question

You may have wondered what was keeping yours truly out of radar, or you may not have given a fiddler's fart at all.  

It has become so hard to find the time to update a blog or whatever log you are keeping.  Time is of essence and I find myself running out of supplies most of the time.

You are my reader and I am your writer.  You are my audience and I am your speaker.  And right now you are listening to me, and I am speaking to you alone.  What I say matters to you and the fact that you are listening and taking in whatever I say matters to me.

I have to admit that the infectious American optimism is getting even to me, and I am beginning to believe that change is coming, and that change would be for the good of all.  The Obama factor is BIG and believe me it’s going to change a lot of things.  I believe I will want to remember where I was and what I was doing when it happened.  As of now, I am living in a country where the colour of your skin does not seem to matter in theory but it does and sometime it can hit you very hard when you have to face it, especially in my line of work, teaching language science and a language which is not my native tongue. 

As a people group, I believe most of us are racists, may be more so than people in our neigbouring states.  I wouldn't want to be a non-local person in our land because of all the things an outsider has to endure.  The Burmese, the Vais, the Brus, the Chakmas - it's not easy for them at all.  You can't imagine one of them becoming the Chief Minister of the state.  The names we call, the treatment we mete out, the way we abuse and the general negative attitude we have of them - I would never want to endure in the life of me.  It would be an understatement to say 'It's not nice!' when you are made to feel the second best, not because of your ability, but merely for the colour of your skin or the passport you are holding. 

I have written extensively on the demigod status that some white-skinned folks enjoy in some societies including ours.  And I am still trying to find ways to convince people that a person is not better or worse than you simply because of his race or colour.  As the walls of separation came crushing down in the land of opportunities, I begin to believe that one day we would be free of all these shackles and live as equals in this southwest region of the galaxy.  The place may look like a little speck of dust from outer space, but we shall find that there's a room for us all, black and blue, white and green and all colours, on this planet after all.  So, I salute you, Mr. President Elect, and I join you in saying "Yes, We Can!" with much more enthusiasm and believe than when you first begun. 

One man spoke of his dream on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."  Just look at what had become of his dreams.  You have to dream big, and the dream will come to you eventually.

Some Photos from Mizoram, India

I was dreaming that once we got back to India, I would shoot away everywhere, and would come out with some wonderful pics on the land and the people of India, especially of Mizoram. Now, I realized that this takes time and energy and inspiration, and most of all sweat. After being here for almost a year I managed a few thousand pics, most of them of family members, and wish I could come up with better ones than what I have now here.

A mail from Mr. Menahem Fogel, of Jerusalem Post, asking for permission to use my photos inspired me to post these. So thanks to him.

See the Photos Here

Hong Kong Ahoy!

Arrival

Lindsay warned us that the red taxis are the urban ones and they are less likely to know where Sai O was and that it would be better for us to take the green ones since they were local to the New Territories and most of them by now know where the college was. Upon arrival my sweetheart and I consulted one another and decided that it was the red ones, not the green ones that he advised us to take. So, in we go, like sheep to the slaughter and rode the red one and the flag fall was 12.50 Hong Kong Dollars and we were told that it costs about 50 HK $ to get to our destination. Soon after the ride the meter read 50 Dollars but the driver showed no sign of slowing down and he sped on and we began to get a bit uneasy. But thinking that the amount may not be exactly $ 50, let’s wait a bit and then we can talk to Jane, so we thought. After reaching the bank of Sai kung village the meter read 140 dollars and we were then almost sure of either this that the driver had no idea of where he was going or he was trying to rip us off.

We talked to him in Putonghua (Mandarin) which he understood a bit but talked to us mostly in Cantonese which was Greek to us. Upon departure he did speak to someone on the radio and he got a response and was told the whereabouts but now we were lost and angry too. We rang up Jane and she talked to the driver and gave him a new direction and the driver took us back which was basically driving back the same way. 

When we reached Sai O junction we decided to get down and perhaps talk to Jane and may be get another taxi or wait for them to pick us up. We appeared very angry and upset and talked to the driver and insisted on paying him 50 dollars since that was what people usually pay from the University station anyway. Surprisingly enough, he was okay with the amount and he went off leaving us quite relieved in a way. We had thought that we were really in for it but to get off rather so easily was unbelievable and we just shot off a quick thank you note upwards. Just then a Caucasian looking guy was by and seemed like he was looking for someone, when he saw us getting off the cab with our backpacks he enquired if we were us, and we were so happy to see him. That was our first meeting of Lindsay, a colleague whom we have never met before. We also met his wife Jane on the way to the campus and she was so kind to cook us dinner as it was already getting a bit late to go elsewhere.

Entry
Hong Kong is one of the few foreign shores where you don’t need a visa even as an Indian passport holder. We do a bit better than Pakistan whose nationals need a visa to enter the city, but we are in the same categories as the Bangladeshis who can enter and stay for 14 days without a visa. As we crossed the border at Shenzhen we were held up at the immigration for about half an hour and were asked various questions which annoyed us a bit. It was more or less understandable since we heard of many stories about Indians and other illegal immigrants living in Hong Kong. The immigration and the taxi experiences put us off initially but the kindness and hospitality we received from Jane and Lindsay really made our day and we rest happily in our room at night.

Cost
Hong Kong is not that expensive if you think in terms of American Dollars, but for people like us who think in terms of Renminbi, things could be quite expensive. For example, a litre of milk costs 5 Renminbi in the mainland but here it costs 15 Dollars, that’s three times over. This is not expensive at all for the locals because they earn much more than the mainlanders. It will be more expensive if things are in terms of INR. What Lonely Planet said about the city becoming pricier is quite right.

Food is really expensive here but more familiar dishes could be found and there are quite a few Indian restaurants as well. Signs and menus are bilingual and a number of people speak English and this is such a great relief because as soon as you cross the border at Shenzhen, which is just half an hour away you could become a complete illiterate and also not too many people speak English. Transport in Hong Kong is excellent and most of the important places are accessible by either the Mass Transit Railway or the KCR. Octopus card is a necessity for people who are going to stay for more than two or three days. The card is accepted in a number of shops, ferry, buses and trains. You can get back the remaining amount of money and the rent (50 HKD) before you leave the city.

Places
There are many interesting places to visit in the New Territories, Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, Lamma Island and the outlying smaller islands but the best place to start in our opinion is the Victoria Peak. There’s a tram that goes up the peak every few minutes and the round trip will cost you 33 dollars which is a pittance when you consider the magnificent view it affords you from the Peak Tower. This trip is a must especially on a clear sunny day which we didn’t get when we were there. Pity!

We accidentally found out that most of the museums offer free entry on Wednesday including the Space Museum and the Art Museum. In the space museum, however, if you want to see the Omnimax show you have to pay around 20 dollars for the front stalls. The show was quite interesting. Walking along the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade that include the Avenue of Stars was a wonderful experience with the latest addition being a sculpture of Bruce Lee which was the right answer to the otherwise empty avenue. There you can trace Jackie Chan’s handprint which turned out to be quite large and also Jet Li’s and other famous Chinese stars and directors. The Ferry ride across the Hong Kong harbour was an experience to remember not only for its unbelievably low price (of 2 HK $ for the top desk) but for the wonderful view and experience it affords you for eight minutes.

There are so many interesting sights to see in Hong Kong that we realized we must need much more than a week to see all the interesting aspects of the city.

Information
The HKTB provides many booklets laden with priceless tourist information free of cost and make sure you pick them up at the airport or the border crossing at Shenzhen. They also provide a very informative tourist map and make sure you get the MTR, KCR and Ma On Shan Railway routes. The tourist information booklet will have the location of most of the important destinations right down to which exit you have to take in the subway and also which bus can get you to there.

Shopping
Lindsay introduced us to this saying about Hong Kong: If it’s not in Hong Kong, it may not be invented yet. This is a very unique city in the world where mostly anything could be found. You can shop till you drop here, literally. The business minded people mostly go to the whole sale market where you can find a lot of African (mostly Nigerians I guess) importers but not too many retail shops though. The Ladies’s Night Market has enough to drive any lady out of her mind for want of more money to buy more, and the Temple Street Market is as good a place as any in terms of choice and price but bring along your mastered art of bargaining.

Somebody was realy glad to find an Indian shop run by a Nepali family who sells things Indian mostly including jalebi and rosagulla and some Indian DVDs as well. However, we weren’t upto buying the red lentils (Dal) which was available for HK $ 160 a kilogram! That is 896 Indian Rupees, my word, that’s just way too much! Don’t be surprised if you see some Indian children playing crickets in the parks because a lot of Indians have settled down here since some of them came in here as British soldiers more than a hundred years ago and many other Indians are illegal immigrants as well. You might meet some of them trying to sell you ‘copy watch, copy watch’ as you walk along the touristic areas like Tsim Sha Tsui.

For those of you who are really into shopping you should drop into the Chinese embassy to get a visa to the mainland and go to Shenzhen where you can find most of the things you want at half the Hong Kong price. However, be prepared to face the crowd which can get really crazy and so much denser than it is in Hong Kong.

Pollution
A lot of Hong Kongers are complaining about the quality of air in Hong Kong which has become very polluted in recent years mainly due to the factory smoke from the neighbouring Guangdong province in the mainland China. But when you dig deeper into it you realize that most of the factories in Guangdong are owned by the Hong Kong businessmen. There you go, as people sow, so they do reap, don’t they? Ha-ha.

What is sad though is the pollution of some of the beaches here. Some of them are so polluted that people don’t swim anymore. Well, I don’t know too much to write more about that but that’s what people say anyway.

Hong Kong provides a wonderful get away and it’s friendly and accessible for everyone, that’s its uniqueness and its beauty.