There are some specific (read personal) things that
strike you so hard on your memory nerves for a faction of second they pick you
and transport you to an entirely different world altogether, to give you an
illusional effect.
I have listed some of the things I encounter in Hong
Kong frequently.
1. Chinese radio channel
While sitting in a taxi in Hong Kong where a local radio
is being played, a particular interlude played is so much similar to the one played at “Vividh Bharti” (Indian
radio channel) before the nasal anchor used to announce the next program in a tortuously boring tone.
The interlude is almost same and in the next moment you see yourself sitting leisurely in living room in India, or
best, in a saloon, reading a newspaper, waiting for your turn.
Then suddenly with the next jerk in the cab, you are driven
back inside the cab miles away on this international city which is so much
domestic in so many ways.
2. Fragrant Basmati Rice
Many a times walking by ‘Tsui Wah’ (a famous Chinese
restaurant chain in Hong Kong), I have felt so much at home!
3. Punjabi tadka
You’ll laugh out loud if I told you that my Chinese
neighbour’s main door gushes the breeze carrying Indian food…as if his wife
has just given tadka to Rajma (Indian red beans).
My taste buds deny to
separate the illusion from the truth. All I want to do then is to "eat that". My mind has to apply emergency brakes
to avoid embarrassed invasion.
My heart goes, "Oh Lord! forgive this
girl for she doesn’t know what she is smelling".
4. Chung King Mansion
Crossing shady corners inside Chung King Mansion (in Hong
Kong) reminds me of Bandra East (Mumbai). When your ‘womanly radar’ detects too
many suspects around you and your emotional quotient keeps multiplying the
doubts and repeating Bob Marley’s words “You never know how strong you are,
until being strong is your only choice.”
5. That Song...
That one song that is struck in your heart like a cupid even after decades.
Or that one that reminds you of your best friend/ a moment. Or the one that still brings tears in your eyes.
Superb !! I'm gonna right about "ways to visit HK while being in India" :P Missing HK :(
ReplyDeleteIt is a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures. Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same………
ReplyDeleteSuch is the nature of an expatriate life. Stripped of romance, perhaps that's what being an expat is all about: a sense of not wholly belonging. [...] The insider-outsider dichotomy gives life a degree of tension. Not of a needling, negative variety but rather a keep-on-your-toes sort of tension that can plunge or peak with sudden rushes of love or anger. Learning to recognise and interpret cultural behaviour is a vital step forward for expats anywhere, but it doesn't mean that you grow to appreciate all the differences.
~ Sarah Turnbull
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
ReplyDeleteAnd a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.
A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A Horse misus’d upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fiber from the Brain does tear.
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.
The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.
The Gnat that sings his Summer song
Poison gets from Slander’s tongue.
The poison of the Snake and Newt
Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the World we safely go.
Every Night and every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night.
~ William Blake