FROM CHARMINAR TO CHINA

by Shweta yammada

Ring road broke upon the highways. We then went to Tiananmen square.

  Tiananmen square is a large city square in the centre of Beijing. Infamous for the protests of 1989, which were influenced partly by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, used mainly non-violent methods and can be considered as a case of civil resistance. Led by mainly students and intellectuals the protests occurred in the year that was to see the collapse of a number of communist governments in eastern Europe. The People’s Liberation Army moved into the streets of Beijing and cleared the square with live fire. Unfortunately we did not have the time to visit Mao’s place where only two thousand people were allowed to see his body per day. Then we went to ‘The Forbidden city’. Inside Beijing, the Ming emperor Yongle built the Forbidden city, which only the emperor and his household were allowed to use. This is a typical building inside the imperial complex.

  ‘The Forbidden city’, was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing and now houses the palace museum. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural development in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden city was declared a world Heritage site in1987 and is listed by the UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

  Thomas and Michelle promised that they would take us to see the ‘Great Wall’ on Sunday. So on Sunday we went to see ‘The Great Wall’ at ‘Badaling’. We went up to the wall in a ropeway. It was very exciting. Once we reached the wall, I felt thrilled with my first step on the Great Wall. Each and every moment spent on the Great Wall reminded me of the people who helped make this a wonder. We walked around four kilometers in the scorching sun and while returning back we took a slide chair which took us down.

  The Great Wall was built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups by the emperor of China, ‘Qin Shi Huang’. I sincerely wished then that some emperor would have envisaged something like this for India as well!

  I was tired and hungry. So we had dinner and then we were taken to see the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium for a stroll and view the masterpiece which I was told was started and completed in just six months. I admired the sheer brilliance of the art and architecture involved. It was truly a masterpiece.

  The spectacular Bird's Nest stadium, hailed as the finest arena in the world and the centrepiece of the most expensive Olympics in history, is full of hidden symbolism.

  In Chinese mythology, the sun is represented by a circle and the moon by a square, reflected by the shape of the bird's nest and the Water Cube aquatic centre opposite, reinforced when the venues are lit at night, red for the Bird's Nest and blue for the Water Cube.

  Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium has a revolutionary design, which was chosen at the end of a six month long international competition.

  It is designed to last for 100 years and withstand a force of eight magnitude earthquake.

  It is one of the most environmentally-friendly stadiums in the world, as under the soil geothermal pipes help heat indoor parts of stadium in winter and rainwater is collected and stored in underground cisterns for irrigation and to flush lavatories.

  Eventually we retired to the comfort of our hotel room tired and exhausted. The period of our sojourn to China had ended and we were due to catch the early morning flight to India via Bangkok. It was a fairytale come true, the memories of which would last with me forever.

  In the course of our stay in Beijing we met Dr. Deng who was the Chairman of a client chemical company of my father’s company. He personally took us to his plant for inspection which was for audit purposes. When Reddy Sekara uncle started clicking pictures with his camera in the chemical plant Dr. Deng was highly at unease and expressed his displeasure at the same. My father and Sekhar uncle tried and explained to him that these were for audit purposes and that they had to prepare an audit report with these pictures which would be submitted to the Chairman of the company based on which he would be placing a supply order agreement with Dr. Deng. Though not fully convinced he agreed nevertheless when he heard that the order would be for three million dollars. Even then he would not allow Sekhar uncle to click photographs near the process cycle equipment. He agreed however to give them the synthesis route to be shown to the Chairman. Left with no choice they had to accept the same. We later started back on our journey back to our hotel in Dr. Deng’s car. On the way he started enquiring about my father’s company, its business etc. My father explained to him that his chairman Mr. Rajesh had started his business basically as a trading company. Upon further prodding he naively told him that their company also had manufacturing facilities in various chemical plants located at several places in India one in Pune, Hyderabad and other places. Dr. Deng was livid with rage. He accused Sekhar uncle and my father of trying to copy his process, design and threatened to sue them under intellectual property rights. Worse, he immediately asked us to get out of his car and no amount of cajoling seemed to work. He dropped us in the middle of some God-forsaken place and drove off. All of us were too stunned to even think what hit us. Father gave an uncomfortable laugh. “Boss, what do we do now?”, Reddy uncle asked. Dad shrugged his shoulders and said “let’s see”! We glanced around anxiously to get an idea of where we could be. It was an overgrown dirt road for as far as the sight could see. We all felt terrible about the situation we were in. The sun was bright and I was kind of feeling sick! ‘Are you scared?’ Dad asked. ‘No’, I lied and tried to muster all the courage I could. Dad patted me on my shoulder and said ‘Don’t be! I will take care of this, OK!’ I nodded my head feeling reassured. Reddy uncle said ‘It is no big deal, boss, we will handle this’. ‘Sure’ Dad had said. We walked along the path hoping someone or some vehicle would pass along that way. There was no sign of human activity anywhere around this part of the country. Some time passed and I was all tired, hungry and thirsty. Reddy uncle heard the car first. ‘Boss, looks like something is coming this way, we can ask for a lift’. Then we heard it. There was a low rushing sound coming from the dirt road. A long shiny red car appeared over the slight hill and eased towards us. We waved frantically for a lift and the car slowed to stop at the side of the road. The door opened, and the driver stepped outside and strode towards us. He was a chubby man in a white suit. His head was fat and round and without hair except for neat rows above the ears and a black and grey beard.

  ‘You Indian?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, please give us a lift’ Dad asked.

  ‘How you here?’ the man asked.

  ‘We hired a cab, the engine developed problems. The driver left us here and went off looking for help. Please help us and drop us to Beijing. We will pay you. We have a small child with us.’

  Dad had said pointing to me.

  ‘Beijing is very far, you pay me six hundred yen’ the man asked.

  Eager not to let go off the opportunity both Sekhar uncle and dad agreed to this.

  ‘Deal’ said Dad and shook hands with him. ‘Your name?’ asked dad.

  ‘Lee Shang Tourist operator and guide’ he replied with a smile.

  ‘You thirsty?’ asked Shang offering a bottle of cool water.

  I thanked him and drank from it. At the time it tasted like nectar. Both Sekhar uncle and Dad also drank from the same and thanked Mr. Shang profusely.

  ‘What place is this?’ Father asked.

  ‘This place is Hangzhou. How you here?’ he asked.

  ‘We came here to a pharmaceutical company for business purposes’ Sekhar uncle said.

  ‘Ah! Hangzhou’s pharmaceutical industry is well known,’ Mr. Shang said.

  Exhausted we just slumped down into our seats. We were too tired to even look where or how we were going to Beijing so long as we were going. By the time we reached the Grand Hyatt Beijing hotel it was 2 am. We thanked Mr. Shang profusely, paid the bill, took
the keys at the reception and went up to our rooms and had a sound sleep. Dad set the alarm at six as we were due to catch the flight back to India at eight.

  We woke up at six in the morning did the packing and looked around finally to see if we had forgotten anything in a hurry. No, we had packed up everything properly. I heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Boy!’ was I glad to go home. I had never been away from home and I was home-sick by now. Dad called up Thomas and Michelle to bid them good-bye! They offered to drop us at the airport and reached our hotel within a quarter of an hour. Michelle gifted me a perfume as a parting gift. I thanked her while Dad called up the Room-service to help us with the luggage while vacating the room. Sekhar uncle was already waiting for us at the reception. All of us got into the car and we were at the airport just in time. Thomas and Michelle bid us Good-bye and as we were awaiting the customs clearance we got a rude shock. Two uniformed police personnel came and informed my father and Reddy uncle that they needed to frisk them specially and that they could not allow us to board the flight now as there was a search warrant in their name based on a complaint filed by Dr. Deng. Before my father and Reddy uncle could protest they were taken down the hallway to an enclosed room. I followed behind them