Hindustan Times
Living through a China checkout
On Saturday night, we ordered idlis at one of Beijing’s two restaurants with a basic South Indian menu. I was not surprised when they said that the unpopular idlis and dosas were bumped off the downsized menu and the South Indian cook had gone home to India.
The previous week, while the rest of Beijing was away on holiday for the Lunar New Year, I had my loneliest dinner ever, at an upscale Indian restaurant. I ate alone while two foreigners huddled at a corner table. The owner used to keep the place open through the weeklong holiday for the sake of about two-dozen Indian professionals who worked for a steel company. This year, I heard that they had all been moved to cheaper locations within China to cut travel budgets during the economic crisis. Somebody had shifted to Harbin, city of the ice sculptures, where the winter temperature sinks below minus 30 degrees.
Then this week, Intel made news with the announcement that it would shift 2,000 jobs and move an assembly and test factory from Shanghai to cheaper Chengdu, capital of the earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province in China’s southwest.
By mid-year, the few young Indians I know in Beijing will have also relocated to India or elsewhere in China and Hong Kong, as companies shake up workforces to optimise the economics of cost and location.
Beijing, with its 500-600 Indians, including only a handful of young professionals, was always a lonely place to find a friend from back home. But my 42-storey apartment (minus the inauspicious 4th and 13th floor) was an exception for housing about half-a-dozen Indians. Most of them have left or are on their way out of Beijing.
Those of us who are still here, routinely break the stillness of our glass and steel tower. On weekends, you can find my Mumbai friend’s apartment from the upbeat sound of Socha Hai (playing for the 15th time) from the Rock On DVD that reached Beijing’s NRIs months after its India release. It depresses me to think that the music will soon play only on my 21st floor. (To find me, follow the sound of Desi Girl, current anthem for every desi girl abroad).
Even six months ago, none of us in Beijing had predicted that life would change so much, so fast. Last year this time, China was still a destination for young Indian professionals. But this year, and probably the next, no Indian professionals will move in.
The common conversation over coffee, or takeaway rotis, is now about readjusting to life out of Beijing. Life in an Indian metro emerges as the favoured lifestyle option, perhaps for its familiarity, despite the potholes, battered taxis and chronic backaches that await those who return.
During these conversations, I argue that when I do return I will be grateful for the simple comforts: bank and tax papers in English instead of Chinese; the purchasing power of the Rs 100 note to buy a decent meal; an Internet without firewalls blocking free thought. I will even be grateful for the persistent calls marketing credit cards, unlike the Chinese bank staff who never call, and cannot explain anything related to banking in English.
But I will miss the safety of Beijing’s streets, where I can walk alone, undisturbed, at any hour.
And in case you wondered, we ordered aloo chaat instead of the missing idli. The menu described chaat as a medley of potatoes in yoghurt, tamarind chutney, onion, green chillies and coriander. I must have been homesick to order it, but I could not touch the recessionist recipe they served: cold, hard-boiled potatoes swimming in tomato sauce.
(11 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Reshma Patil on Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Filed under China · Tagged Aloo Chaat, Beijing, Chinese, India, South Indian menu
Cheer up Rish!
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Reshma Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Okay! Will try to post a cheerful dispatch next time : )
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Matt Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Hey it’s fine to be slightly maudlin from time to time, especially when you’re so far from home - I admire your courage for sticking it out and doing such a fine job.
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Fascinating stuff. Very well written. I really think you should put photographs in this blog
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Reshma Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Thanks, photos coming up in the next post…
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For one who has lived in Beijing on and off for over 3 years [moved back to India just 2 weeks back...] i had enjoying being the only “indian” in the village for a quite a while!!! I was lucky enough to have lots of good friends around and never feeling “out of place”.
Adding to the fact am gay… the carefree fabulous drunk debaucheries of Beijing are being missed at wake of shri ram sena pub attacks!!! I jokingly said to a friend..maybe i should join shri ram sena and help them convert all pubs … GAY!!!
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Reshma Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I don’t feel out of place either. i have good friends too, Indians and foreigners…but they are all going away!
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dhruv Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Thats true… everybody is always on the move…nobody is there 4 good…. and we Indians esp dont do well when it comes to good-byes!
PS. i cant write G_A_Y in the post… thats weird!!! :-*
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Being a foodie I am more focused on these kind of details. Your aloo chaat brings home the memory of an organisation in Cambridge trying to raise money for a noble Indian cause. On a cold windy day, with several thousand people walking past hungry trying to enjoy a street fair, they lured people in with the promise of vegetarian Indian food only to serve a very cold and unappetising kind of bhel puri in a room that was colder than the outside. On the corner opposite the local butcher did a roaring trade by selling a huge number of hot dogs. The queues snaking away from his grill would happily have bought any hot Indian meal, had one been on offer.
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Reshma Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 11:35 am
That’s interesting. At least the restaurants here agree to make chapatis for me if I ask with a pleading look. I wonder what they’ll serve at an Indian ‘bazaar’ planned in Beijing this weekend…
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Really nice blog! And pics would be nice. This is the type of blog where one or two pic fit in really well.
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Reshma Reply:
February 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Thanks! Nice pics coming up…
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there’s an “Indian” bazaar this weekend?
Beijing can get gloomy during any normal winter and dealing with a friends exodus in the middle of Beijing’s characteristic grey winter (which is only magnified by the leftover smoke from 2 weeks of nonstop fireworks) can be tough. I am feeling ya…
Nice Blog. Looking forward to pictures!
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Ni hao, Reshma. Nice blog, keep the faith, girl. Your stories are very interesting and who shall blame you for being gloomed out now and then? This is nice, honest writing and I admire you for it. Long ago I heard from an Indian journo (I think he was with PTI) that the only curryleaf tree in Beijing grew in the backyard of the Indian Embassy! Did I ever ask you about it? Just the sort of nonsense that interests me deeply.
Does Nirupama, our present ambassador there, use it, I wonder, being from a curryleaf culture herself? She sings very well, heard her at the India International Centre, has she done that in Beijing?
btw, you have to get hold of this completely demented song, ‘Emossional Atyachar’ from the new film, Dev D (haven’t seen it yet, alas).
The Delhi reporters gave it to Shivani (head of Delhi Reporters) and she made me hear it on her i-pod. It’s such good fun, though I’m still making faces at her all-too-perceptive remark, “The minute I heard it, I thought this song is so Renuka”. Hmpf! And here I thought I was so ‘cultured’. Truly, it’s too, too paagal and she was on the button, I just love that song.
Like Sarita, I like hearing about food. Do tell more when you can and yeah, I’m joining the chorus for pix! Take care and bestest.
Renuka
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Reshma Reply:
February 14th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
thanks for ur msg renuka. yes, i’ve heard of a tiny spice garden of sorts and no i haven’t heard the ambassador sing…we have no idea abt the hindi movies and songs that r the talking point in india. the dvds reach beijing, if at all, weeks or months later…i think i shd demand a courier in return for the pix…!
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renuka Reply:
February 15th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
i’ll see how i can get it across to u!
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