River of Smoke : Amitav Ghosh

On the Opium Trail

'River of smoke' is the second installment of the fabulous Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. It follows the lives of the 'jahaj-bhais' aboard the famed Ibis setting off on a migratory journey to Mauritius. Although the Ibis plays less of a role here than it did in the 'Sea of Poppies' much of the same cast of characters exist and are joined by a few more.

The book starts with the storm that ended the first book with Neel and Ah Fath escaping the Ibis under cover of the storm and eventually making their way to Singapore and in Neel's case to Canton. Here we are introduced to the central character of the book , a Parsee merchant from Bombay called Bahram Modi who is aboard another ship at the time of the storm heading towards Canton. He is carrying a big shipment of opium which is his gamble at setting himself up as an independent businessman. His ship too gets caught in the storm and the vivid description of the swaying opium carts as Bahram evades his way through is one of the highlights of the book. Eventually Bahram reaches Canton after suffering minor damages with Neel in tow who he has employed as a munshi en route.

In China itself, the opium trade is under great danger as the Chinese have finally realized the effects of the substance. The British themselves have no compunction over the trade as they do it in the name of 'free trade' which is as much a religious credo to them as Jesus Christ. As one merchant pithily says 'Free trade is Jesus Christ'. Even though he too is an opium merchant Bahram is troubled by the nature of the trade and somehow convinces himself by comparing it to the uncontrollable wind upon which he has simply set his sails, in essence detaching himself from morality.

The drama reaches another level with the arrival of commissioner Lin who is a smart and canny administrator who has promised the king that he will root out the opium scourge. Then begins a cat and mouse game between the merchants and the Chinese administration with each upping the ante. As the commissioner tightens the screws the merchants forced to yield more and more eventually leading to a minor victory for the commissioner when the book ends with the war very imminent.

Amitav Ghosh's prose is lush and wonderfully evocative of 18th century China. The bustling Hutongs with the china-men speaking in their pidgin, the boat women's course hand and tongue, the tactful notices of the mandarins make you feel you are indeed in the middle kingdom. It is quite easy to see the similarity between the opium trade of the 18th century and today's oil economy as both have a bunch of western countries setting upon Asian countries in the name of free trade and indeed freedom proving Marx's dictum of history repeating twice.

There are other small details too that stay in your mind like the multi-course meals served among the merchants, the effect of the inhaled opium, the Indians with their diversity trying to conjure a little India foreseeing the Indian nation a century later, the underlying racism of some of the British merchants, these and many more details are vividly written.

This book will invariably be compared to the first one. As brilliant as 'Sea of Poppies' was this book should be rated higher. Although few of the characters from the first book like Deeti and Neel don't get too much prominence you understand it is for a reason as Bahram becomes such an overpowering character in this book. The moral dilemmas are more starker as they are played out in all its complexity in Bahram's mind which takes the novel to an altogether different plane. He realizes in the end the falsehood of his rationalizations and tragically realizes that the trade is nothing but a deal with the devil for which he has to pay. Bahram's dilemma is beautifully summed up towards the end as he says overlooking the young Indians playing in the maidan 'what was it all for, was it just that these fellows could speak English, wear hats and trousers and play cricket'.

In the end with the opium wars looming in the background the stage is set for a fantastic denouement in the final book of the trilogy which will bring to an end one of the great works of modern literature.

Sea of Poppies : Amitav Ghosh

In the shadow of Opium

Historical fiction is that rare thing that is difficult to research, hard to put into fiction and harder still to make it gripping. Amitav Ghosh has succeeded in doing all three and more in his Ibis trilogy and the 'Sea of Poppies' is our entryway into the great world that he creates.The Ibis trilogy aims to bring alive the opium trade, from its origins in India to its eventual destination of China along the way exploring the migratory history of the Indian people across the Indian ocean. This novel in particular traces the origins of the opium trade which Ghosh himself calls 'the dirty secret of capitalism' across the towns, cities and plains of 18th century British India.

The story starts in Ghazipur on the banks of the Ganga whose fertile lands have been turned into poppy fields grown to satisfy the increasing demand of the drug in China. The British have run a trade deficit with China as they don't have anything to exchange for the enormous quantities of tea they import and have thus zeroed in on the opium trade to offset this deficit. The trade helps them both ways as they have a near monopoly on opium cultivation in eastern India which they sell in the Chinese markets at enormous profits. Of course no morality pricks them as they are doing all this in the name of free trade even as they have hypocritically banned the drug in their own country.

The story of opium is told through a diverse cast of characters who happen to end up on a slave ship called the Ibis as it set sails to Mauritius. Chief among them is Deeti who is widowed of her opium addicted husband soon after the novel begins and escapes her relatives who are hell bent on forcing sati on her. She is joined on the Ibis by Neel Rattan Haldar who is a rich landlord fallen on hard times who ends up as a convict meant for deportation. A mulatto American called Zachary Reid rides on the ship looking for adventure. The ship is also boarded by a young botanist girl called Paulette who is escaping a dreaded life in Calcutta after her father passed away. These and many others come to share the Ibis and become in the evocative words of Ghosh himself 'jahaj-bhais', a term still used by their descendants in Mauritius.

The rest of the story traces these characters as they make their way across the Bay of Bengal. Their suffering inside the ship, their almost mythical attachment to the Indian landmass and their deep sadness when they finally leave behind that land and enter the 'black water' all these are captured in a spell binding manner. The novel ends in a great big storm with Neel and his fellow convict friend attempting an escape. The next two novels in the trilogy will pick the threads from here and string together the story culminating in the opium wars.

As good a prose as it is from Ghosh it is the extent of his research that impresses the most. The details of the poppy crop, the way it is harvested and even the way it looks and its many usages are an eye opener for anybody. Also the way the opium is then processed in the factory and made ready for export is simply fascinating. The scene at the factory that vividly describes the processing of the opium as Deeti hurtles from room to room looking for her husband is one of the best written passages I have read and just this scene is worth the effort of picking up the book.

What alarms one is the extent to which opium played a role in the creation of modern India and China and also its huge impact on Britain and US. The entire Indian economy lead by its leading families and royals was driven by opium, China of course suffered immensely from the ill effects of opium and opium kicked off its 'century of humiliations'. On the other side, the English effectively ran a 'drug wielding cartel' across Asia which helped them run their empire. Even the leading American families like the Coolidges and Roosevelts amassed their wealth upon the trade so much so that the great riches of the American east coat were built upon the opium trade. Even more alarming is the fact that this story of opium has completely vanished from public memory across the world and more so in India. Hence kudos to Ghosh for bringing alive this forgotten page of world history.

The language of the novel is another fascinating aspect of it. The pure well of the queen's English is mixed with a plethora of words from Hindustani, so you have the pleasure of finding words like 'khidmatgars', 'tankh-wah', 'afeem-khor' and 'Kaala paani' among others including quite a few imaginary expletives. Add to these the words of the sea faring sailors or lascars and you have a fascinating cacophony of words and languages.

All in all, the sea of poppies makes for a gripping read and tells the story of opium that needs to be told in a world that is very much it's creation but has sadly and dare we say conveniently forgotten it.

Arzee the Dwarf : Chandrahas Choudhury

Convicted by reality, pardoned by imagination

Arzee is a dwarf working the projection room of the once great but now declining Bombay theater called 'Noor'. As one of his poet-philosopher-driver friend memorably says, he is 'chained by reality but pardoned by imagination'. He imagines himself being thought of as a special person despite his height, imagines working as the head projectionist at the Noor some day and dares to imagine marrying and settling down too. He is a thinking man who ponders about people, god and life, even as one of the other characters derisively calls his mind a 'theater of emotions'.

But too often reality jolts him like a thunderbolt. His dreams for the Noor come crashing down as the owners want to sell off the loss making theater. He is hounded by the betting cartel to whom he owes money. The girl he loves is wrenched away from him by her father and finally he gets to know of a family secret which makes him so despondent as to appear as a 'dissident' to happiness. Arzee finally manages to somehow get out of these difficulties and attain some kind of closure when the book ends.

Chandrahas Choudhury has created a character in Arzee who reflects all of us who have some kind of inadequacies. Arzee's inadequacies are externally manifested in his dwarfness which forces him to 'talk to the asses and crotches of the world' but many of us too suffer inadequacies internally and we like Arzee try to overcome them throughought our lives with varying degrees of success. Arzee's anxieties are the same as ours - a decent job, someone to love and a life of happiness. These are our anxieties too and this makes Arzee a very relatable character despite his dwarfness.

The novel also is a quintessential 'Bombay novel' where the city is as much a character as the others. The cast of characters with their varying backgrounds and thoughts could only have been assembled in the great metropolis. There is a wonderful description of the bustling train station which is a superb piece of cityscape writing. The great theater and the wonderfully evocative 'great beam' inside it can also be looked upon as a distinct character. The fascination with the movies and the effect it has on mass culture is beautifully depicted and is an ode to the charm of the erstwhile single screen theaters. 

Although its a very good novel with lot of layers, it does have a few shortcomings. The ending seems a bit contrived and has an almost bollywoodish feel to it. Also a few characters could have been given a longer run , like Arzee's poet-philosopher-driver friend Dasharatji and the blind daughter of the head projectionist who light up the only scenes they appear in, an extended role for each of them would have given an added dimension. Nevertheless the novel heralds the arrival of another English speaking voice to the welcome cacophony that is Indian writing in English and we should all welcome it.

Between the Assassinations : Aravind Adiga

Subaltern biography of an Indian town

Kittur, sitting on the western coast of India 'between Goa and Calicut' is Aravind Adiga's Malgudi whose host of characters bring out the preoccupations of little town India with its plethora of caste, religious and moral conflicts. Purportedly a collection of short stories set in the seven- year period between the assassinations of prime minister Gandhi and her son however the stories translate easily to contemporary times as the issues involved are still very much alive.

Mangalore is the clear inspiration for Kittur not just in terms of geographical locale but also for its mix of religions , languages and castes. As with any collection of short stories some of the stories are sublime and others ordinary however the sublime ones clearly triumph and they live on in your mind.

Although not as biting as 'The White Tiger' Adiga still retains his feel for the pulse of subaltern India. Many of the themes and characters remind one of his most famous novel and it is a delight to see how they incubated in the author's mind and seeped into the novel which he wrote a few years later.

The effecting moments are many. For instance in the first story where a muslim boy in a desperate need of dignity develops a surrogate pride in Muslim achievements in far away north India only to be jolted back to reality when he finds himself tempted by an Islamic terrorist. The shuddering inferiority complex of a low caste mother in front of her Brahmin son and the conflicts wrecked on the boy himself as he tries to locate his true being holds a mirror to the continued prominence of caste in modern India.

Or the arresting story of a honest journalist who after realizing perchance the untruth of whatever he has written thus far seeks redemption by writing one true story at last. Or the sigh of a cart puller who laments the injustice in the world when he sees an elephant with almost no load striding in front of him even as he pulls a humongous load.

Or the touching story of a quack sexologist who sells fake sugar filled tablets to credulous youth finds himself assisting a young man to find a cure for an ailment that could be AIDS as he questions the justice in it all with the youth getting this terrible disease on 'his very first time'. Or the disillusioned communist who after a lifetime of keeping the faith rues that 'Americans had somehow won' and 'Marx had become mute'.

The white tiger showed a man who rose from the underclass with all it's attached miseries to break the glass ceiling and secure a good life. However the characters in this book barely attempt to break the mold and instead wallow in their travails with little hope in sight. However in the process they give us a glimpse into the lives of subaltern India.

The White Tiger : Aravind Adiga

India's Flaubert explores the 'darkness'

Every once in a while comes a book that challenges what passes for mainstream opinion. 'The White Tiger' is one such book which came around the time when India was hailed as a rising power with the holy grail of Superpower-dom just a few steps away. Adiga's novel throws cold water on the face of the people with such grand delusions and forces them to stare hard at reality. It definitely deserved the Booker prize as it presented the stark realities of modern India much to the displeasure of the 'shining India' crowd raised on fantasies of superpower-dom.

It is written as a dramatic monologue which reminds one of the narrator from 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' but only more angrier. The story takes us through the protagonist Balram Halwai's birth and upbringing in the 'darkness' of eastern India with its stark caste and religious conflicts where 'one cannot be a good man even if one wants to be' to the radiant 'light' of Bangalore bustling with call centers symbolizing new India. The contrast between this 'darkness' and 'light' is one of the central themes of the book and shows two disparate countries within one. The people from each of these Indias might as well been from different planets, such is the contrast.

Balram typifies the plight of the rural poor as he grows up in an impoverished village wrought by landlords termed with imaginative names like 'Stork' and 'Buffalo' who cruelly fatten on the labors of the poor. He is sent to a dysfunctional school where the teacher collaborates to rip the students of the government funds . He is then rudely taken out of school to supplement the family income after they 'suffer' the marriage of a sister. He goes on to work as a 'human spider' working the tables in one of the ubiquitous tea shops and finally ends up in the local town where he learns to drive and lands a job as a driver.

As a driver he experiences the unfairness of the master-servant relationship which seems to mirror the rich-poor relationship outside. The inherent injustice in the relationship is best brought out by an incident which culminates in Balram being asked to take responsibility for an accident caused by the madam of the house. Although the charge is never pressed, just the fact that the master - and shockingly he himself - had found it normal that a driver take the blame disillusions him. Balram starts to relate his own state with that of the poor outside and feels that both of them are like roosters trapped within a coop which condition them to bear the injustices without rebelling.

The 'Rooster Coop' is the most abiding image from the novel. Adiga compares the disillusioned poor tempered by history to be inherently subservient to roosters in a coop. Like the roosters in the coop they do not rebel even in the face of impending doom as the 'coop is guarded from inside'. As Balram says himself, the coop is so sturdy that it would take an extraordinary 'freak of nature' - a white tiger like himself someone who is born 'once in a generation' to break out of this coop. Although one can argue with the means used by Balram to break out of the coop one has to sympathize with his helplessness and also that of the poor in general who have no means of breaking out of this coop. Balram sees his act in a larger context of breaking out of the coop and terms himself as 'neither man nor a demon' but simply someone who has 'woken up' in an unjust world and has decided to act rather than face his inevitable fate of dying a pitiful death like many of his ilk. In other words violence becomes an acceptable currency of transaction for the poor in an unjust world. Although one does not agree with his actions one does understand his motivations.

Adiga's writing is flawless and the images he conjures stick in your mind for a long time. As Dickens and Flaubert exposed the cruelties bred by industrialization in 19th century England and France Adiga does the same exposé with the 21st century growing India. Adiga also doffs his hat in the direction of Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' who he acknowledges as an inspiration. As Ellison brought out the issue of racism from the perspective of the black man Adiga endeavors to bring out the perspective of poverty and caste discrimination from the perspective of the Indian poor and succeeds marvelously.

Joseph Anton : Salman Rushdie

Memoir of a 'multi-rooted' man

Joseph Anton - a pseudonym conjured by the author joining first names of Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekov - tries to be different things at the same time and succeeds brilliantly.

Primarily a memoir about the almost decade long siege Salman Rushdie was under due to the Fatwa, it is also an eloquent treatise for free speech and its value to the world where it has increasingly come under attack. It also elaborates on the author-publisher relationship and provides insights into the goings on in the publishing industry.Finally to spice things up he also adds details from his personal life and in the process excoriating two of his ex-wives!

Rushdie purportedly kept a diary during the Fatwa years and that would explain his detailed day-on-day account of those days. Although rich in detail it also tends to get monotonous after the first few years what with innumerable parties, home shifts and speaking engagements. This makes the book 100-pages too long but this is a minor criticism of a brilliant book.

It is written in the third person which gives it a novelistic feel with the author himself being the prime actor. There are cameos from the who's who of the literary world and Rushdie always remembers to drop in a good word for someone who helped him or stood up for his cause. On the other hand he dishes out opprobrium to those who let him down during the time.

It also provides wonderful insights into what went on in the author's mind when he wrote his novels, explaining the points of conception of the idea, the way he worked out key characters and their inspirations from real life. The conception of the 'The Satanic Verses' based on a course he took in university is one of the best passages in the book which provides a historical context to the novel and is a fitting reply to those who accused him of coming up with an 'insult' for a novel. As he rightly points out why would he spend five years of his life working tediously on as he says a literary exploration of 'revelation from the standpoint of an unbeliever' if he wanted to come up with a mere 'insult'.

His defenses of free speech are among the most passionate passages in the book where he argues for a free society with a cacophony of varied opinions where everyone has a right to express his/her opinion without fear. He also emphatically points out the importance of 'stories' in our society and warns us against the pernicious attempt by religious extremists to monopolize them. In the process he attacks both the left and the right on letting down the principle at various times and urges the general public to hold steadfast to the principle.

His personal life too is opened up in a frank manner. His relationship with his first wife Clarissa and their son Zafar beautifully done, especially moving is his moments with a dying Clarissa. The relationship with his second wife - and wife at the time of the Fatwa - Marianne Wiggins is the most frantic and he frankly writes about the the strains in their marriage and how it fell apart, their quarrels do provide comic relief at times! Also funny and revealing are his comments about his last wife the model and TV persona Padma Lakshmi whom he calls the 'illusion' who comes across as a self seeking and ambitious. To be fair Rushdie too confesses to being selfish at times in his relationships especially with his third wife Elizabeth who was left stranded after the Padma Lakshmi 'thunderbolt'struck him.

What came as a surprise are accounts of the author as a boy and young man growing up in post-independence Bombay and his journey to boarding school and college in England. His encounters with England rather than making him lose his Indian roots instead provided him with as he says a 'multi-rooted' existence.His love for India shines through, evident in the fact that all his novels had their inspiration from Indian stories. His disappointments with India too come through when at times India rejected him and as he wryly says 'the wounds inflicted by India were the deepest'.

All in all it is a brilliant, moving memoir where the reader will come away much the richer!

Countdown : Amitav Ghosh

The best account of the subcontinent's tryst with the N-bomb

We have all known Amitav Ghosh as the weaver of stories, bringing to life exotic locations and eras. This time he casts his focus on the nuclear dilemmas plaguing India and Pakistan and does so inimitably with style and precision.

On one side he relates the almost illogical underestimation of the nuclear threat on the Indian side who are rather seduced by the ephemeral promises of 'superpower-dom' and on the other hand the logical but overtly pessimistic view on the Pakistani side where there is a real sense of a country going to pieces.

The profiles of George Fernandes , the Indian defense minister at the time and the Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jehangir are beautifully done and are wonderfully illustrative of the politics in both countries. It is especially moving and tragic in many ways to see an idealist like George turned into a Realpolitik leader - the kind whom he criticized all his life. It succinctly shows what is wrong in our cynical politics today where men of ideals are 'spun and spun' by the system until they are hollow shells of their earlier selves.

There is also a wonderful account of the Siachen conflict and the futility of the entire endeavor made even more ludicrous and tragic by the fact that it was these two poor countries who were engaged in it. The description of the perils faced by the soldiers and their feelings are done in a very engaging way.

In the end there is a chilling dystopian description of a Delhi hit by a nuclear missile. This will bring to sense all the gung-ho supporters of the nuclear tests as they will realize what a horrible event they have conspired to bring into existence.

In the end this book despite its slim size espouses strong ideas against a nuclear world and along the way enlightens us also about the tragedy that is India-Pakistan politics. Two thumbs up!

Beijing : Olympian dreams and Neighborly impressions

The idea of the Olympian has traveled a great distance. From the dusty, hot Hellenic mountains to the verdant plains of China it has indeed been a long journey. The Olympics has come and gone in Beijing but its legacy is scattered around the city. It is to explore this Olympian legacy of Beijing that i ventured into on my last outing in China. And also hoped to get some neighborly impressions along the way.

December 15, 2012, Saturday

Olympian dreams

The winter was settling into the vast Chinese landscape. It was a foggy morning indeed with visibility down to the few nervous meters. This was my third visit to the capital and i aimed to visit some of the other major attractions in the city.

Soon after arriving at the Beijing railway station i was onto the by now much familiar metro. The Olympic park was on the northern end of the city. In fact it stretched the famed historic axis that passed through the Tiananmen square and Forbidden city in a northern direction. Since the Olympic park was in the northernmost end of the city i had to do around four metro switches . However this showed the breadth of the Beijing metro as i seamlessly moved across the city and without once being over ground reached my destination in under half an hour!

A pall of fog had enveloped the famed Olympic 'Bird's nest' stadium. The iron twigs of the Bird's nest were vaguely visible in the fog and beckoned us to come closer for a clearer view. On going further the view became much clearer and also hit home the vastness of the Olympic park.

The Bird's nest affirms its name brilliantly with the numerous iron beams bending like twigs and forming a huge metallic nest. Even the uneven shape gives it a distinct view as opposed to a regular stadium. Although a great sporting success, the Olympics were also viewed as a kind of coup de grace over the Chinese economic miracle. And the Communist party left no stone unturned in ensuring that it was a resounding success. The Olympics were controversially awarded to Beijing even as the world was recovering from the horror that had unfolded at the Tiananmen square in the summer of 1989.

But China led by the party had moved forward in great gusto and built remarkable sporting infrastructure and also more importantly readied a crop of spectacular athletes who could win medals by the dozen.However as the Olympian tryst loomed on the horizon, the Tibetan protests around the world came in as a rude reminder to the party in early 2008. Tibet had long claimed independence from China claiming a distinct religion and tradition from mainland China. However it inevitably got caught in the fervor of the Communist revolution in 1949 resulting in the en masse displacement of the Tibetan monks along with the Dalai Lama to India. Bulldozers thundered into peaceful towns strewn with monasteries and in no time entire Tibet was under Communist rule. Thus the embers of human rights violations had been festering for over half a century and the Olympics gave the perfect opportunity to bring Chinese misdeeds into the world's attention. However the situation was rescued in time and the Olympics went on as planned.

And what an Olympics it was. It was kicked off by what is by far the most spectacular opening ceremonies in Olympic history. It was so good that even the Greek gods must have smiled at the audacious display. China had pooled in its resources in a way no other country had and delivered a spectacular ceremony.

'Friends have come from afar, how happy we are' chanted the enthusiastic bunch of drummers as China greeted the world. This Confucian aphorism symbolizing the famed Chinese warmth towards foreigners was quite an apt way to welcome the world. However it was just a start and performance after performance by the various enthusiastic troupes of singers and dancers and musicians had the world spellbound. The piece de resistance however was the lighting the torch by a former gymnast who seem to run across the ceiling of the stadium without any harness.It was one of my great TV spectacles i had ever witnessed as i watched it from the comfort of my drawing room and making a mental note of visiting the place if ever i had a chance. And as luck would have it i was there at that very place!

Apart from the Bird's nest there are various other stadiums around the Olympic park, however the pick of them would be the famous 'Water Cube' swimming stadium. This stadium which hosted the swimming and diving competitions is shaped as a huge water cube. The brilliant blue as well as the elastic appearing exterior gives the impression of a water container. With all the snow around it , it looked as if the water cube was on ice!

After roaming around the Olympic park for a while it was time to turn attention to another aspect of China, its affiliation with that great neighbor to the south.

Neighborly Impressions

India and China have been great neighbors over the centuries, sometimes reluctantly so but neighbors all the same. They have affected each other sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Like two enormous giants they have embraced each other with passion and shared each other's genius and also at other times bickered with each other to show that the world is imperfect.

The Chinese interaction with India started with the advent of Buddhism. China itself a very godless culture relied more on Confucian thoughts as a moral compass. At this time however India was being swept by a storm called Buddhism. Arising as a rebel movement due to the increasing inflexibility and dogmatization of Hinduism , Buddhism came as a new light in the tunnel with none of the affectations that plagued Hinduism. It was devoid of Casteism  hence inclusive in its appeal and its rejection of moribund rituals attracted it to the masses. It had also shed Sanskrit the famed 'Language of the Gods' and had embraced the vernacular thereby able to reach a multitude of people. Also unlike Hinduism it was a proselytizing religion which meant that more and more people were being converted from Hinduism to Buddhism everyday. The great emperor Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism was a turning point in Buddhist history as the religion of the heretics now got state sanction. It was similar to what happened to Christianity after it was adopted as the state religion by the Romans.

The Buddhist wave was not just confined to India but spread far and wide into Asia. Within a few hundred years it had spread to Sri Lanka, China , Japan, much of Indo-China and South east Asia. Buddhism was a typically Indian idea in that it did not seek to uproot the existing cultures but instead mingled with it and took shape in the contours of those cultures. This must be one of the great integrations in history and was so much successful that you could not distinguish the additive from the base in the mixture. Even to this day if you visit Buddhist temples around Asia it will be an effort to think that Buddha was indeed Indian, it is so seamlessly meshed with those various Asian cultures.

In order to explore this Indo-Chinese synchronization i visited the Yonghe Lamasery which is the second biggest Buddhist temple in China. It was built at the time of the great Mings and originally functioned as a residence of the Chinese royalty. However with the building of the Forbidden city the royal family moved there converting it into a monastery. As i entered the place it was redolent with 'Indianness'. The various Sanskrit and Pali inscriptions, the Buddhist incantations, the incense sticks and the way of worshiping of the devotees all were reminiscent of India. It was one of my proudest moments of being an India to see a quintessentially Indian concept being respected and adhered to in such a fashion. It was not as if Buddhism went to a backward culture, in fact China was one of the leading civilizations in the world and the fact that Buddhism found a place and respect there is quite instructive. It shows the universal appeal of Indian values and culture which made by chest swell with pride.

As i explored the temple further, i came across various statues of Buddhist legend which included Gods, incarnations, teachers and monks. It was interesting to know that Buddhism had a pantheon of Gods obviously inspired by Hinduism. The center-piece of the temple was the 20m statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved out of a single sandalwood piece. Also nearby was the statue of Kasyapa Matanga, who was an Indian monk who came over to China to spread Buddhism by translating numerous Buddhist texts to Chinese.

This interaction was not just one-sided. Several Chinese monks visited India which they viewed something of a pilgrimage visiting several places of Buddhist significance and also the great universities of Nalanda and Taxila which were the Harvards and Stanfords of the day. The Chinese had a strange predilections of writing history. In fact they were obsessed about documenting history, not only theirs but even of other people's and so as it came to pass monks such as Hiueng Tsang and Fa Hein wrote most of Indian history in the first millennium. 

Confucian tryst

From the place of Indian impressions it was time to go to a place quintessentially Chinese. The Confucian temple was quite nearby to the Buddhist temple and the contrast was obvious. The Buddhist temple and its street wore a vibrant look with buildings of various colors and the steady stream of incantations. The Confucian temple street was very sober and austere quite like the man himself.

Confucius was born around 600 BC at the time of Chinese history when it was plagued with constant strife and unrest. The period was aptly called the warring states period and as the name indicates was full of chaos and civil wars among the various states. This had a huge influence on Confucius whose thoughts aspired for an orderly and peaceful society , no doubt to counter all the strife around him. His teachings took the form of classical books , poetry and analects. In each of these he expounded values such as loyalty to elders, loyalty to Emperor and those in power , filial piety , peaceful interaction among people and such things. In fact this can be viewed as the beginning of humanism and considering that China started such humanist thought almost 1500 years before the Europeans simply boggles the mind.

Unfortunately Confucius seemed to be way ahead of his time as his China was not ready for it. He searched relentlessly all through his lifetime looking for a King who would patronize him and implement his ideas and bring peace to the society. Alas no such thing happened and despite a huge body of work and a handful of disciples he died thinking himself as a failure. But his ideas were preserved by his disciples for almost 400 years and when China was ultimately united his philosophy came across as the exact idea needed by the Emperor to control his people. Hence Confucianism was institutionalized and spread all over China as the primary moral compass of the people ensuring loyalty of the people to the rulers.

The Confucian ideal of Order is deeply ingrained in the Chinese people whether they acknowledge it or not. This can be traced right through Chinese history right until today in Communist times. The thrust has always been on Order even at the expense of personal freedom and aim is always to foster common views and avoiding of all possible conflicts. This was in marked contrast to India where the individual views and diversity of views were tolerated and in fact encouraged. This fascinating clash of world view was on display during the heydays of Indo-Chinese interactions when the monks from India argued so much with each other that it shocked the Chinese who looked along in disbelief.

In fact this obsession with Order in my view is the main reason for the continuance of Communist rule in China. The communists promised a war ravaged people order and delivered it even at the cost of freedom. What also play on the Chinese mind are the periods when chaos replaced order. This happened during the Taiping rebellion in the mid 19th century which started as a Neo-Christian cult and ended up in a massive civil war resulting in the killing of millions. Soon after that there was the Boxer revolt that started out as an anti-imperialist movement but again sadly ended up in chaos and civil war and millions dead. All these events have ensured that the peaceful Chinese put up with the communists even though they pawn their freedoms in the process.

The Confucian temple opened with the statue of the great man himself and even the temple built for him was unlike any temple. Instead of gaudy idols and incense it had placards which had words written on them. The Chinese in fact believed that words had divine power and this was an example. The Chinese were cultured and knowledgeable even in their superstition! It was not the prettiest of buildings as like the man himself it was very sparse and austere. What were beautiful were the rows of pavilions outside the temple which reminded me of the Forbidden city.

The temple also contained the Imperial college which was responsible for the training of the bureaucrats who would later govern the country. The students came through to the college from a unique system. This was the Imperial examination system. According to the system all the aspiring students from various parts of China had to sit for a rigorous central examination where their knowledge in Confucian classics was tested and the students who passed it were privileged to join the college and pass out to become bureaucrats. The system was started in the first century and went on right till the 20th century when it was put to an end on account of the revolution. Its remarkable to imagine that at a time when kinship and closeness to the King were the primary ways of become a bureaucrat China had a rational system to pick them. There is an adjacent courtyard where the students who had passed out from the college had engraved their names in stone. Its amazing to look at these names which are more than 500 years old. It just showed how much the Imperial examination mattered to young Chinese.

With that my visit for the day and my Chinese trip came to an end. It was satisfying to go to a country which i had always dreamed of but seldom thought it was possible to visit!

Badaling : Something of the gods

Walls are generally a bad sign. They are barriers between people and ideas as shown in places as diverse as Berlin, Cyprus and recently Israel. However sometimes these very walls can help guard people against advancing enemies and so keep the flicker of Civilization burning. The Great wall of China is one such monumental piece of human achievement that has served this purpose for Millennia. It is to this marvel that i traveled to on my next leg of my sojourn through China.

December 8, 2012, Saturday

It was a bright cold day and the clock was striking 7. The biting cold enveloped me as soon as i came out of my hotel. I was filled with excitement at the prospect of visiting a wonder. The Great wall represents China in more ways than one, it stretches for miles just like the way China's history stretches centuries, the sheer audacity of its constructions reflects the audacity displayed by China's myriad rulers, the rise and fall of the wall over mountains represents the rise and fall of China over time.

I caught the fast train from Tianjin to Beijing and the rapid pace of the train transported me to Beijing in no time. Beijing shown brightly in the sun and i proceeded to board another train to Badaling from there. The Great wall stretches for over 5000 KM and Badaling was the most visited place on the wall. It is about 50 KM from Beijing which makes it an ideal spot for foreign tourists to visit. The train to Badaling seemed to jog across the landscape as opposed to the fast pace of its fast train cousin. The slow pace however gave me an opportunity to gaze into the Chinese countryside.

Though it wasn't quite the season for greenery, the scenery was still captivating. As this was the northern part of China it was a mixture of mountains and plains with animals grazing the grass strewn grounds and people going about their quotidian lives. After almost an hour into the journey i sighted the crepuscular outlines of the Great wall for the first time. It was rising on the back of a distant mountain, at fist it appeared like a sliver but soon became quite distinct. Just thinking about the audaciousness of the idea of the wall was mind boggling. Its tough enough constructing any building but it was insanely tough to build something that covers that much distance through various landscapes. After another hour i was at the Badaling train station.

There was a hoard of tourists disembarking from the train at the Badaling station, despite the biting cold. The air was was so thick with cold that you could almost cut it with a knife. But even a cold as severe as this was no hurdle when you are aiming to visit a wonder, so the mind simply shut off the cold even as the body struggled to. A short walk from the station led me to the entrance to what seemed like a tourist base camp with shops of various hues lined up next to each other. The entrance itself was a magnificent gate in resplendent red and painted in various colors at the top.

A little distance from the entrance brought me to the base of the section of the wall. I climbed the wall through steps carved on the niches on the side and sooner than i could realise i was on the wall. The sight that greeted me was simply outstanding. Wherever i looked - either front or back or on the sides - the wall seemed to be omnipresent snaking through the mountainous terrain. The grey of the wall blended brilliantly with the sober color of the mountain and the whole scenery appeared very picturesque.

 The premise of the wall however was to be found in history and geography. The northern part of China bordered Mongolia. Whereas a supreme culture flourished in China, Mongolia was ruled by warlords with ferocious attacking abilities. Even though China's culture rivalled the best in the world they were no match for the Mongols on the battlefield, it was like an old cultured man facing an uncouth youth. So the Mongol threat was a real and present danger right through Chinese history and generations of Chinese grappled for a solution to this Mongol menace.

At this time China was being united by a maverick called Shih Huang Di who united all the warring provinces of China and gave rise to the Qin dynasty - due to which China got its name -  in the process giving himself the exalted title of 'First Emperor'. Once the internal issues were settled the first emperor turned his focus to securing China's northern border. He hit upon the idea of building a wall spanning from the sea on the east to the Gobi desert in the west, this wall he envisioned would stop the marauding mongol armies and protect Civilization.

Although the First emperor's intentions were noble and grand they were realised on the backs of the poor labor force of peasants. The peasants were forced most of the times against their will and made to break their backs building the wall. There is also an urban myth that some of the peasants who died in the process were buried inside the wall and that their revenants still haunt the area. Well, there is always the dark side to every monument i thought, be it the great pyramids or the great wall or even the Taj Mahal, these objects of grandeur and beauty always come at the cost of the proverbial have-nots. Their names and nationalities might change but the exploitation of the haves of the have-nots is the same everywhere. At least in our modern world the laboring have-nots seem to have got a better deal and such horrendous tasks appear not to be thrust on them anymore and we can be thankful for that.

As i was in this reverie, the wall with all its beauty was snaking in front of me. Even though the Great wall was started by the First emperor the wall was made 'Great' by the Ming emperors. Even the section of the wall that i was on which is the most well preserved section of the wall was a Ming accomplishment. Since the Ming period came around the middle of the second millennium the total time needed to build the wall comes to a staggering 1500 years which is more time than one could ever imagine. Even so it shows the determination that the Chinese had to resist the Mongol invasion.

The wall was dotted at regular intervals by watch towers and it is said that during times when messages needed to be transmitted fast, smoke signals bellowing from one watchtower being picked up by the next watchtowers was the quickest way to go. It sounds quite tedious for us now but at that time it was indeed a highly practical way of getting messages across.

The irony of the Great wall is that even as it took well over 1500 years to construct it really did not serve its purpose. As a little after its completion the enemies found a chink in not the wall but human nature as they merrily bribed the soldiers guarding the wall and sneaked into China. Soon the whole of China was raided and occupied by the Manchu armies of the north resulting in the Manchu or Qing dynasty which ruled China until the revolution in 1911. The failure of the wall to protect China gave rise to a contempt of the wall, it was forgotten for all practical purposes until it was rediscovered by curious westerners. This was later picked up by the Communists as part of their agenda of reviving Chinese pride and hence the Wall was rescued back to the present times.

Whatever be the effectiveness or otherwise of the Great wall it remains a prime example of what humankind can achieve when it thinks and performs to its potential. The realization that primates who looked and sounded like me were able to build something so monumental gave me a great sense of satisfaction and pride. A shared sense of humanity enveloped me as i left with a great thought from Nehru who said...

 'Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him'.

Yes, there is certainly something godlike in man and when he applies his mind he can rival the gods and produce things like these that resemble something of the gods.

Beijing : On Forbidden ground

Exclusion it seems to me to be the regnant theme throughout most of history. It is the one constant thread that ran through most cultures. However the wheels of history have turned since the advent of the modern period after which the ideas of freedom,equality and inclusion are fortunately replacing this as the prevalent impulse of history. But for most of history exclusion was enforced, if it was the caste system that bred exclusivity in India then it was the feudal order  of master and  serf that plagued  Europe, color and race  too became part of the mixture later on. This notion of exclusivity had its equivalence in China too and nothing exemplified it more than the Forbidden City - the famed residence of the Royal family whose precincts were the exclusive privilege of the King alone. It is to this place that i ventured into as part of my trip through China.

December 1, 2012, Saturday

It was a cold morning in Tianjin that signaled the arrival of the last month of the year. I had readied myself to visit Beijing shielding the cold weather with brash enthusiasm. I proceeded to take the new high-speed train between Tianjin and Beijing which enables the distance of 120 Km to be traversed in under 30 minutes. The fast train was built as part of the Olympics of 2008 and has been an instant hit as it connects Tianjin to the capital city so efficiently that you feel the two cities have merged. The train was very comfortable and very modern and had a speedometer at the head to boot which duly showed the speed. 150 Kph became 200 and then 250 and then reached a peak of 292 which was really exhilarating. Within no time Beijing had arrived.

Beijing showed all the signs of a big city with massive crowds everywhere. In a way the crowds reminded me of the ones back home. The infrastructure of the city which got a boost due to the 2008 Olympic games was simply outstanding. At least the inner city is almost on the level of some of the best cities in Europe in terms of infrastructure, efficiency and cleanliness. The railway station merged seamlessly into the metro station and soon i was inside one of the metro trains precariously wedged between the denizens of the city. After what seemed like eternity i was out of the metro or rather shot out of it and soon i was out above on the ground walking the promenade en route to the Forbidden city.

The first building that came on view was the Chinese communist party office. It was a dour, gray building symbolizing raw power. Apart from the bright red Chinese flag there was not much of color on the edifice. I continued for a bit longer on the promenade and soon the ramparts of the Forbidden city were visible, painted in bright Chinese red. A little further down and the Tianmanen gate - the magnificent entrance to the forbidden city - became visible in all its glory. Opposite to the gate was the equally famous Tiananmen square which with its vast expanse is the largest public square in the world. The square itself is surrounded by lot of buildings of the Chinese state including a mausoleum of Mao Zedong where the Chairman's preserved body gets a steady stream of visitors everyday. In the middle of the square is the Monument to the people's liberty celebrating the victory of the Communist party over the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) in 1949 which lead to the formation of the People's republic.

Magnificent as the square was it dimmed in the presence of the Tiananmen Gate. The Gate was the first of the numerous gates that comprised the palace complex of the Forbidden city. It was in bright red color and the magnificent wooden roof blazed with bright shades of red, green and blue. There was a slew of Red flags dotting its exterior , however surprisingly these were not the Chinese national flags but the red flag of the communist revolutionary left. The most noticeable feature of the gate was the huge portrait of Chairman Mao which hung in the middle over the grand central entrance. The Chairman seemed to fix his gaze on me as i enthusiastically galloped around the gate. The Tiananmen gate symbolizes power. In ancient times it represented the supremacy of the King, for a brief while after the overthrow of the monarchy a portrait of the KMT general Chiang Kai Shek was hung in the same place symbolizing the nationalists' seizure of power and eventually when the communists won power in 1949 and chased the KMT to Taiwan it was duly replaced by Mao's own portrait. So the exterior of the Tiananmen gate is almost a physical canvas on which the history of China gets written on.

After enjoying the exterior it was time to make a move inside. I proceeded to the entrance and as i did i was filled with a sense of awe about the place i was entering. If i were to be at the same place a 100 years earlier i would have been barred from entering and must have settled with just a fleeting glimpse. For centuries the precincts had been the sole preserve of the King and his assorted coterie of wives, concubines and eunuch ministers with the rest of the people actively forbidden from entering it which helped coin the moniker 'Forbidden city'. With these thoughts in mind i passed through the gates and i was finally on Forbidden ground!

One of my earliest memories of the Forbidden city was watching the famous movie 'The Last Emperor' based on the last days of Imperial China on a grainy black and white TV set. The movie came around midnight as English movies used to in those pre-liberalization days and i had stayed awake to watch it,i did not understand much though and slept mid-way through and was really angry with myself the next day for dosing off. So it was unreal to be at the same place and roam the same courtyard the young Emperor Pu Yi roamed in the movie. What must the little boy have felt i thought to have ascended the throne so young and to have caught up in the churning of history and losing his crown and driven away from the palace by the KMT nationalists and eventually dying as a lowly laborer  It must be one of the great tragic stories of the 20th century but history is sometimes like a force of nature and puny human beings are powerless to stop it.

I was always aware of the 'Forbidden' part but seldom thought of the 'City' part of the name. Once inside i realized why it was called a 'City'. The inside was really huge and gives one the feeling of being a city all by itself. There were bewitching ramparts and rooftops and courtyards wherever the eyes set their sight. There is no other country in the world which is connected to a color as much as China is to the color red, the color symbolizes good luck in Chinese culture and it was all pervasive within the forbidden city. Legend says that there are 9999 rooms within the palace complex and the figure seemed fantastic to me before i had been there but now i felt it could well be true , such was the expanse of the complex. Some of the rooms had yellow roofs which indicated the rooms used by royalty and the others had green or blue roofs denoting the rest of the people.

As indicated by the name, the number of denizens of the Forbidden city was quite limited. It was a very exclusive list. The King and his various wives and concubines and the eunuchs who ran the court were the only people inside the forbidden city. The eunuchs were a curious lot who owing to their impotence were

deemed to be 'harmless' and hence gained lot of power within the court , so much so that it became a quite sought after position. From here the Emperor of the middle kingdom as he was used to being called ruled over a large swathe of land with a huge multitude of peoples making him probably the most powerful man on earth. This feeling of being powerful also lead to hubris especially towards the end of imperial China, this is illustrated by a great story where an envoy who brought a request for trade from the English King was chastised by the Chinese emperor who asked the English king to '...tremblingly obey and show no negligence...' which must rate as one of the most arrogant utterances in history. Well such hubris met its nemesis soon enough as in a little over 50 years China lost the opium wars to England and had to sign away Hong kong along with other humiliating concessions.Its a lesson from history that irrespective of whether its a person or a country its best not to be arrogant and always stay humble.

As i moved from room after room, the splendor of the palace was increasing. In one of the rooms the royal throne was kept upon which Emperor sat while his court as well as foreign visitors kowtowed to him. Although China had lot of dynasties the Forbidden city is the work of mainly the Ming and the Qing dynasties with the Ming period like its name being the brightest period of China's history. Ming China produced some of the most sophisticated pieces of art in the form of paintings, porcelain and poetry. There was a room inside which exhibited some of them and it was simply spell-binding. What needs to be stressed is at the same period Europe was undergoing its Renaissance and yet Chinese art equaled and sometimes beat it. The Qings who replaced the Mings though originally not Chinese and who came from Manchuria quickly assimilated with the Chinese and became complete Chinamen and gave rise to the pigtails which was their way of marking out the Chinese as 'occupants' , how ironic is it then that the pigtails which was a mark of servitude came to represent Chinamen around the world. This way of assimilating peoples and cultures is something that China shares with India as even India has this capacity to absorb. I guess the fact that both India and China show little insecurity regarding their glorious cultures gives them the confidence to absorb external elements without any hindrance.

Finally after a long procession through the palace complex i entered the royal gardens. Though it was not verdant enough due to the winter it was still pleasant to walk through the gardens. What caught my eye was the beautiful pavilion in the middle with its circular base and multi-layered roof. One of the features of Chinese and indeed far eastern architectures is the extensive use of wood. Wood being as soft and malleable as it is lends a creative flourish that stone and metal can rarely provide resulting in such marvelous structures.

After exiting the royal gardens it was time to exit the forbidden city. It had been quite an experience for me to actually visit the place which i had only imagined in my mind and its memories will stay for a long time to come.