Thus Spake Aziz Phater

Coming back to Aziz, there is yet another incident attributed to him. This one was narrated to me by my grand father for I was not born back then. Aziz was young but still a lunatic.

It was the time of warring "Sher" and "Bakra" groups in Kashmir. But Aziz's memory was stuck in time. He believed that Maharaja still ruled Kashmir. One day Aziz was asked by local elder about what would become of the warring groups.

Aziz replied "Yeman banney khen ti, Wany taarey Maharaj Saeb Bombye paeth gaues truck te mathan wale ti asan toorekey"

(Nothing is going to become of these, Now Maharaj Sahib will get a truck load of filth from Bombay and even the people who will rub it onto them will be brought from Bombay )

Even Aziz, who was otherwise free from worldly rules, expressed his incompetence at solving the problem and left things for Maharaj Sahib to take care. And add to this Maharaj Sahib would have had to import filth from Bombay for local filth was not good enough for the task at hand.

Aziz Phater

There used to be a local lunatic named Aziz in my village. Men would generally call him "Aziz Phater" ( Aziz the madman ). Older folk would call him "Aziz Darwesh" ( Aziz the seer ), for many believed that he had the gift of clairvoyance.

Aziz would spend hours and sometimes even days standing in "Raembh Aara" ( Local river ), his gaze fixed on horizon as if looking into distant future. After finishing with his gazing, he would begin an exercise of rolling large stones on the riverbed as if they had been somehow misplaced and he was putting them back in order.

Aziz was almost abandoned by his family. He survived on charity of local people.

Aziz would visit my home and ask my grandfather for urdu newspaper. He'd tear the newspaper in bits and then give them back to my grandfather saying "Roppye... Roppye" ( Money .. Money ). My grandfather would offer him food in return. Sometimes Aziz would refuse rice and in turn ask for "noon Chai", sometimes he would leave without accepting anything, and yet sometimes he'd eat equivalent of three meals in a single go after reciting "Roppye .. Roppye".

Looking back now at things I feel that even our lunatics and seers knew how to benefit from promises of prosperity. In this case it being bits of torn newspaper.

Lost

What was the most beautiful thing that you lost ?
Do you still remember it when you are alone ?
Do you want to forget about it for the very thought of separation from it gives you pain .... or do you want to keep it alive in your heart for it was the most beautiful thing that happened to you.

Whats the right way ? To live in joy of a beautiful memory or to die in remorse of it being just a memory and not reality.

The scenes from past keep repeating themselves in my head like restless souls of people killed before their time was due. I sometimes get lost in these memories and an unintentional smile appears on my face, prompting my friends to ask me what its about. I have nothing to say. I have decided to keep its memory alive with me.

"... our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real" -- Dr Hannibal Lecter to Will Graham in The Red Dragon

Trade Secrets

Pearl Market -- I looked on as mother talked to her daughter

Yu Youan

You Youan garden -- one of the few patches of traditional china left in increasingly western Shanghai Metropolis

Pan, Kang Hai Tao and Ravi

Traditional Chinese Meal -- At Team outing -- We had Beijing Duck which unlike Bombay Duck is real duck eaten with sauce and white Chinese bread

The Lab

Fourteen hours out of my twenty four hour day are spent at this place

This is our local narcissist -- more formally called Mohit Thakur -- and passionately called Thakur (especially if you want to smack him)
The guys is now back in India and preparing for another Journey.

Pearl Tower

The majestic Pearl Tower. It not the tallest building in china - Jin Mao and World Financial Center are probably taller - yet its grandeur sets it apart and it easily catches your eye and imagination while other structures just fade away at night. You see its not the height but the attitude that matter

Sandeep and Milkshake

This is Sandeep Bhutani. Loveingly called Bhutani. ( No he's not from Bhutan, and he takes offence if you ask him )
This guy has a passion for new gadgets and Milk products, be it plain milk, milk shake, milk tea, .....

And a new requirement

This is xtf. Lovelingly called Brian.
Brian looks into configuiration and provisioning sub-system of our project. And mind you, he looks quit closely!!
In early days and even now, Brian will pop up with a new requirement ;-) But thats a part of the game, isn't it.

Official Nights

This is what Shanghai looks like from my office window at half past midnight

Ravi and Puneet

These are one hundred percent genuine smiles. These guys didn't have a to pose for the camera, neither did they need to say "cheese". It all came naturally on their face. Ravi is wearing old flextronics products T-Shirt (Name of company has since changed to Aricent). He's a manager now, he can wear anything ;-)

This is when my Right hand told my left hand to keep quit

Boat and the River

A tourist boat cruises ahead on Hongpo river as majestic Pearl Tower presides over the proceedings

Lonely God

This is a small temple of a Hindu Deity ( probably shiva ) outside one of the malls near Pearl Tower. My Chineese friends told me that people in China don't have a religion ( Communist effect ). It was intresting to find a lonely god, prisoner of his own temple, looking at the busy road ahead as life goes on without his intervention.

Shu-Ja-Hue

ShuJaHue -- The biggest electronic market in shanghai. This is the place where I learnt what negotiation is all about ;-)

Date with the Dragon

It has been sometime now...about three months since I arrived here.
And in the past three months its first time I have been able to access my blog and till few weeks back wikipedia was off-limits too. Outside China I hardly believed that China blocks free information channels and now at shanghai I can see it for real. Though I must say that people in china are as free as anyone in the world...after all what freedome are we talking about...if you feel you are free...you are free and in that sense china is as free as any other country.

For past three months The Dragon has been good to me and hope it'll remain so for rest of my stay ( just got my visa extended for next two months )

Whats in the name !!

Sometime back I acompanied my brother-in-law to a doctors clinic. The clinic was named "Ravi Diagnostic Center". On our turn my Brother-in-law was called in by the doctor and I went in with him. The Doctor was a nice man. After He had finished examining my brother-in-law, I casually asked about the unusual name of the clinic "Ravi". He said "you see, my son's name is Ravi and I love him very much, So I named the clinic 'Ravi' as well".
I asked furter "And who named your son Ravi". "Ofcourse me, who else", he replied.
"And what does, Ravi mean", I asked. "The Sun", he replied.

I now wonder how we humans associate meanings with things.
Was the clinic named after The Sun ??
Moreover if you uttered "Ravi" before the Doctor, would he have thought about his clinic, his son or about Ravi-The Sun.
Doctor named his clinic after his son...but who had named his son in first place?? He himself !! So was naming the clinic "Ravi" really concerned with his son or the fact that he liked the name "Ravi" ??
Or was it that meaning of the word "Ravi" changed for the doctor with time. Intially it meant "The Sun"..later its was the name of his son and now its the name of his clinic.......

Finally Battas in Delhi Got Together