Some beautiful images of dreamy Indian homes. (I am thinking a lot lately about messy gardens, terracotta tiles, Indian linen, vintage floor fans and switchboards, native plants, floral printed curtains, warm earth.)
Todays moodboard.
Some beautiful images of dreamy Indian homes. (I am thinking a lot lately about messy gardens, terracotta tiles, Indian linen, vintage floor fans and switchboards, native plants, floral printed curtains, warm earth.)
Todays moodboard.
I went into a supermarket yesterday after many months. That's when I realized I now use apps with my local groceries for most of my deliveries.
Anyhow, during my trip to China, I had an extremely delicious breakfast for 3 days in arow. I would go to this local grocery store and buy the same thing. It was yoghurt with cereal and dried strawberry. And yesterday, I craved for exactly that. So, I went to the supermarket here to recreate it.
I went to the cereal section. It was so big, with so many brands and options, I felt a little lost. That's when I noticed this extremely old man, he had with him a lovely walking stick. I say lovely because the walking stick was very beautiful, with an intricately carved top handle. He had hearing aids on, and to me, he seemed to be struggling. He kept raising his hands to the top shelf and his hands were shaking. He stood in one place, not moving.
As a 35-year-old I myself was struggling choosing a box of cereals, and presumed he was too. I went up to him and asked him if I could help him, maybe he needed some help in taking the box from the top shelf?
He looked at me and told me smilingly. "Thank you for asking. But I am guarding these 4 boxes. They are the last 4 boxes of Oreo cereal in Dubai. My grandson and I went to Lulu, Choithrams, Carrefour, Spinneys. Nothing. All sold out."
He pointed to the 4 boxes and said "I am going to buy all 4. But I ´m waiting for my daughter to come. I want to confirm this is the one. Children are very specific. My grandson loved this so much. Can you believe that all Oreo cereal boxes are sold out? This is the last supermarket that has these. And only 4 boxes left."
He looked at me through his glasses and once again thanked me. He stood there the whole time I was in the supermarket, ensuring no one else buys them.
That interaction was very wholesome for me. The old man must´ve easily been 80, he was a local Emirati and I loved what he was doing.
Anyhow, I purchase colored fruit loop cereal and dried strawberries, and hope to recreate my Shanghai breakfast in Dubai.
There was a drama called The Newsroom that I really liked. I recall enjoying most of the earlier episodes. One of the things that still sits in my head is an episode where Jane Fonda´s character (or her son´s - I can´t quite remember) wanted to get rid of someone from the organization.
It´s nearly never easy to fire people from big companies - maybe unless in a mass lay off.
In this fictional organization too, they wanted to fire someone, and it was brought to their attention that firing isn´t so simple.
She (he?) went on to say that they understand how difficult it is to fire someone in a senior position, but all they need to do is create a context.
As a 25-year-old watching this drama, I didn´t quite get it.
But as someone in a mid-senior position in a company, having seen so much corporate drama and politics across companies, countries, and industries, this sentence resonates very well with me.
I now know context is everything. Context can very cleverly be developed gradually, over a period of few months, no one will suspect a thing. We humans love gossip, love to hear what anyone and everyone has to say about someone else - this way context spreads.
To the extent that we start to normalize the next bit of contextual news. It no longer surprises us that so and so is doing a bad job (he probably is doing the same job as he always was doing), but perhaps, someone said something about him - being late, smoking too much, errors in emails, never opening the doors for women, unpolished shoe etc. And this beef - scattered over a few months, targeted strategically, will question his actual output (even though his output is the same).
It´s subtle, quiet, effective and spreads quickly. And there you go, you have context. So, when you want to finally fire someone, no one is surprised because a strong context looms in the background.
This is the 2nd part of my China miniseries. Wherever I go, I ´m always interested to see how people actually live. How have the buildings been designed, especially the older buildings, built 30-40 years ago. When you´re thinking of a city that has 22m people, the urban planning becomes so important.
Most older buildings we saw had at least 10-12 floors, the newer ones were 20-25 floors high, made more of glass and steel than concrete. Most photos I took were while being in a taxi.
Beijing has several glass and steel skyscrapers, both for residences and offices - but I focused on the older buildings. They are what, in my eyes, have character.
There were some areas that were ear-marked to be preserved by the government, to avoid gentrification. I hope the next time I go; I can still walk the inner lanes and see my favorite hutongs. Built during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the Beijing Hutongs are filled with houses located around a square courtyard where the inhabitants lead a traditional life anchored in the past. That´s my next post!
What can you write about your trip to China? I want to write so much that I foresee that my fingers are going to hurt.
For us, China was always an opaque notion. Yes, almost everything we use is Made in China, including our car and phone, yes - we've learnt about the Great Wall of China and the 1.4b people, yes, we have heard about the Chinese fried rice but beyond that, we've barely seen any photos or given a second thought to the 2nd largest economy in the world.
To be honest, traveling to China was never part of our plan in the near future, we had our entire trip booked to Japan but we never received our visa on time and were in a pickle, and on a whim, last moment, decided to go to Beijing and Shanghai. After traveling there, I'm cautious of not saying I traveled to China, it's like saying you traveled to India after seeing a part of Delhi. India does not equal a part of a city, it's too vast.
We did 4 days in Beijing and 3 in Shanghai. We did so much, saw so much, this was an extreme cultural immersion. I loved every moment of my trip. Like always, I thought it would be amazing to live and work there. This is a never-ending problem in my life, whether in Hanoi or Singapore, Amsterdam or Barcelona.
I enjoyed the marriage of old and new in Beijing, and liked the very-modern city that Shanghai is - it's one of the finest cities that I have visited in my life. And that it houses 25m people is very hard to believe unless you've been there and seen the housing, transit system and the infrastructure built.
I took a total of 563 photos and videos, and this is a miniseries in order for me to remember my trip.
Here is part 1.
Part 2 is Buildings of Beijing.
There are so many things I want to remember and so I write.
The city houses 22m people. It was formerly called Peking which is how the airport got it´s IATA code name PEK.
I was very surprised to find dedicated 2-wheeler lanes throughout the city. We saw so many people ride cycles as well as 2-wheelers and this was something I really appreciated.
I think I will go back.
The iconic Louis Vuitton building, this was right by the Seine. |
I bought some real cute souvenirs from here, not the usual magnets. |
So many perfect bricks and chimneys. |
That pink building. |