It’s just a short taxi ride. We stop before a hotel I have never been to before in Xuchang. We enter, and I can see the “live display” in front. The place is buzzing. In case you are wondering with your dirty mind what the live display is, rest it. Just poor little frogs, eels […]
It was around 11AM when Stefanie – an old friend from my teaching days in China – and her daughter, Emma, came to our hotel. The initial meeting was a bit awkward – I don’t know if this is how it is for everyone. But for me, whenever I meet someone after a long time, […]
Most of my friends know I am a vegetarian. However, most of them do not know why I am a vegetarian. It’s something I like to keep to myself, especially as I see no merit in arguing with a meat-lover over the potential benefits of chewing on a cow’s behind or a carrot’s top. To […]
Last Saturday, Fu Julie invited us home to watch South Korean movies. Why is an American who was staying in Cambodia for 4 years, and now in China inviting two Indians to watch a South Korean movie? Globalization, eh? Having had nothing to do that evening, we readily agreed. Fu Julie’s apartment is typical of […]
Tuesday was a holiday here, it being Qing Ming Jie or Tomb Sweeping Day. I was really happy because I was missing Tuesday’s speaking and listening class, which I hate. The teacher for this class, Tang Laoshi, is just an ordinary fluff ball of biases and prejudices. I could take it if she was a […]
One of my good friends, Voozy, was very fascinated with the story of Arabib, the girl from Tunisia caught in a confusing love triangle. Here’s an update on her. Last week, I came out of my room around the same time as Arabib. She was dressed, ready to go somewhere, and so was I. Dinner […]
And finally…India wins the cricket World Cup! Having been an ardent cricket follower ever since I can remember, it was sweet joy to sit in a pub in Chengdu, well past midnight and watch Indian cricket’s finest hour in more than two decades. Saturday afternoon presented itself and having decided well in advance that we […]
I am really sorry to those wonderful people in my life whose mails I haven’t responded to yet. Thank you for writing in to me, I have been fairly lax in replying. But I hope you will like my reason. After my previous two disastrous tests, I was determined to improve my scores in the […]
Qingcheng Shan is a famous Taoist temple, but lurking behind it is the disdainfully named Qingcheng Back Mountain. It was a gloomy cloudy day on Wednesday when the university packed all the foreign students into 3 buses for what was to be a day-long trip. Except that none of us that time knew we were […]