Tag: China

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Musings

Fold top Sandwich bag

Opening a plastic bag is frustrating. The 2 ends stick together stronger than a superglue and no matter how much you blow, rub or curse they don’t separate. The productivity and the temper at the restaurants and take-away counters could be reduced substantially if the daily battle to open a plastic bag be reduced from a 30sec 2 hand chore to zero.

fold top sandwich bag

At Seven-Eleven Shanghai they use a unique fold top sandwich bag. Nothing rocket science about it, one end of the bag is folded to make a sleeve hence preventing the vacuum lock that makes packing an excruciating exercise. Also there is a lot of convenience in eating because the flap (other end) floats underneath your sandwich and protects your shirt from the dripping sauce.
BTW I am yet to find a single convincing answer why Indian government has banned plastic bag less than 30-50 microns. Thicker plastic is no more environment friendly than its thinner counterpart. But it surely is bulkier making it more difficult to recycle (per bag)

Categories
Musings

Chinese History

This week’s economist talks about how China is trying to open up a thousand museums all across its country to promote & educate Chinese about their rich culture, heritage and history. I went to the majestic Shanghai Museum and could not stop at the painstaking methodological collection and display of the history of China. What is more that they truly understand how there cannot be one version of the history. Unlike an island, the boundaries of all big counties have shifted over time. Some regions like tibet and the north west became part of the mainstream only recently and have a different culture, history and heritage.

political boundaries of kingdoms in China throughout history

A few years ago I interacted with a Canadian born girl of Chinese origin. She was saddened by the fact that Chinese today are completely ignorant of their culture and history. Even residents of Beijing did not knew about the Tiananmen Square Massacre 1989. The European occupation, Japanese invasion (WW-2) and the communist revolution led to burning down and looting of all the major museums. The propaganda that followed resulting in rewriting the history to glorify (even creating fictitious accounts) of the parts that suiting the current ruling regime. I guess things are now changing and the museums is the right way to correct the history. After all its our culture, heritage that separates us from the barbarians.
On a sad note, it saddens me that India’s role in the current world and history is diminishing and there is nothing that we are doing to correct it. Russia imposed the history of Moscow as USSR history to its far flung regions (even Asia). Delhi is trying to do the same. The history of Buddhism & south Indian kings esp Cholas are being increasingly marginalized.
There is a saying that history repeats itself. Rather than being ignorant fools, we should spend time in learning from our past mistakes.
 

Categories
Musings

China: bike grip

Driving a bike in winter is always an issue
1. clumsy gloves: the thick gloves often slip and makes it difficult to maintain the grip on the handle.
2. Fat fingers: the insulation pads often make it difficult to operate buttons
3. chill & wind shear makes the ride uncomfortable. Whats worse is that with the hands pointed in front, the wind leaks from the cuffs and freezes the whole arms.
Chinese innovation to keep hands warm and yet not have fat fingers warm grips to ensure fingers are warm in snow[/caption]
However Chinese solved this problem in a simple, yet innovative way. These inexpensive grips ensures that the hands stay warm, yet agile even in the thickest of the snow.

Categories
Thoughts

India’s love for peace? ( you can conquer but not rule).. tibet chapter

The Iraq war has clearly validated that you can conquer the country in a matter of hours, but it will take a heavy toll if you wish to establish a rule there.

A thousand Americans lost their life in Iraq not while fighting but while acting as a sentry, guarding the outposts and regular patrol duty. The people strongly condemn the foreign rule and they violently express their opinions.

Well, bringing this to the context of India- China relation opens up a new dimension in the secret wars and foreign policy disaster which I was talking about.

Tibet was a buffer state between the 2 Asian Giants. The presence of a buffer territory is a time tested method of reducing the tension and border incidents between the two super-powers. Chinese acquisition of Tibet did not go very well with India.
1) We condemned the Dragon of being an aggressor.
2) Gave shelter to the spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
3) Questioned the validity of the puppet govt. and the new Dalai Lama which Chinese govt. installed.
Chinese saw it in this way:
1) In order to rule Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s presence has to be quenched.
2) In future, if India gets powerful and it can use absconding leader as a pretense to expand its territories.
3) Over years the British had slowly and steadily expanded their territories into the weak Tibet, the Mac-Mohan line was forced on Tibet kingdom.

The war preparation at that moment was next to nothing. In fact India lost so much ground without even a single fight that Pakistan’s thought of capturing the buffer state of Kashmir could be put into action.

If China would have been an aggressor, it could have simply flag marched into New Delhi and we would be standing and accusing it of back-stabbing. Chanakya esp. said that there is friendship among equals. Humble states may call their alliance friendship, but it is actually submitting and seeking protection. It is a misfortune that the work of such a wonderful manager of diplomatic relations gathers dust.

 

Categories
Thoughts

India is a peace loving nation?

Well we are as much peace loving as USA..

I always wondered why none of the neighbors on India (except Bhutan) support us in the international community. Digging a bit deep I find:

1) Sri-Lanka: we bred, supported and armed the LTTE and pushed the country into civil war which lasted for decades.

2) Bangladesh: We for them, liberated them from the oppressors in Pakistan (atleast our history books say so) yet when there is a match between India and Pakistan, I see more Bangladeshi support for the green flag. Indira Gandhi actually nurtured and armed MUKTI BAHINI for the liberation of bangadesh

3) Nepal: we are arming and training the dictator army who just recently over-threw an elected democratic parliament.

4) China: we are regularly fighting for the seat in the UN council. Due to opposition for communist governments, the state of Taiwan got the permanent Veto powers rather than the communist china. India is said to be the forefront campaigners who helped China to get back its seat. Yet there is no mention of reciprocating this favor.

5) Afghanistan: We were hand in glove with Russia in establishing and running the unpopular communist regime there and burnt our fingers.

6) Pakistan: no explanation needed.

7) Myanmar: read the papers there. Every other day you hear about Indian’s violating there territorial rights.

8) Sikim: we were supposed to be the protectors of this small hill state. But alas we gobbled her up.

Please correct me if I missed any neighbor.

Haven’t you ever wondered, there is no country who thinks highly of us or whom we have done some good. I wish someone catches the foreign affairs ministry for an explanation.