India and China constantly bicker over the border and bilateral business, but the neighbours bond over judging suitable brides. Check this:

Xinhua, Nov 11: Some 1,500 young women have submitted applications in Guangzhou, capital of southern China’s Guangdong province, to attend a ball which hosts a field of single and quite wealthy men Read more

My first teacher in Beijing made me repeat ‘jerk’ and ‘church’ several times until I could growl the Mandarin Rrrr. After a gap, I’m now back to school where a 26-year-old Song laoshi (Teacher Song) stares at me wide-eyed and orders: angry, I want more angry!’ Read more

I remember the thrill a windy day last March, when I first set eyes on what was then the world’s most controversial skyscraper being built. It still draws China’s biggest buzz about a building. Read more

The White House opened its doors to Indians to celebrate Diwali with US President Barack Obama greeting the guests and lighting the traditional Indian lamps. Each guest left with a box of Indian sweets and memories of feeling at home. In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wore a garland and hosted a Diwali party at 10 Downing Street to cap a week of Indian festivities in the UK. Read more

I put down my cell phone and ignored the laptop. In the age of broadband in the capital of the third-biggest economy with more netizens than the population of USA, it was once again time to switch on the fax machine, dig into a drawer and pull out my prized possession: a red plastic chop (seal). Read more

The curvy girls in ghagra cholis were swaying their hips on stage to Aishwarya Rai’s moves in the 2005 Bollywood hit kajra re that continues to crash into Indian weddings.

But this was a stodgy old Beijing theatre where elite Chinese usually amble past signs saying ‘please keep quiet’ and ‘please dress decently’ to watch classical Peking Opera. Read more

“Hello, this is Rajeev,’’ said the caller from Chinese telecom major Huawei, that operates its biggest overseas research and development centre in Bangalore since 1999.

As my taxi rolled down Beijing’s main east-west axis, past a gun toting commando guarding gardeners placing potted plants for China’s high-security military parade on October 1, I assumed that Rajeev was an Indian India spokesperson of Huawei. Read more

Just when I began to think that Beijing was bored of swine flu, (H1N1) I met an Indian parent ordered to check his son’s temperature every morning and note it on a school form.

A nanny on the school bus checks the card. Any student with a temperature above 37.5 degrees Celsius and/or a cough, runny nose and headache, may be offloaded. Everybody — students, parents and visitors— must disinfect their hands at the school entrance. Read more

Your Chinese is good. Which country are you from?
India.
Ah. I don’t feel friendly toward India.

My Chinese friend and I were practising how to say ‘let’s stay in touch’ in Mandarin, when the taxi driver glanced behind to ask about my nationality and retort that he did not feel friendly toward India. Read more

In small towns with big wide roads and markets flaunting fake Armani as street fashion, who would notice the acquisition of a refrigerator? But this humble appliance could be China’s most curious household asset sold for the sake of the recession. Read more