Happy Janmashtami!

There are a lot of different religions in India. Among all, Hinduism has the most followers. Right after Raksha Bandhan festival (I explained it in a previous post) last week, today, it is Janmashtami which is a Hindu festival to celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna! Another no working day during the weekday this month! The main roads are full of crowds. People gather together singing and dancing.  

In Mumbai, the festival is known as Dahi Handi - breaking the pot. Handi is a clay pot filled with buttermilk. In order to break the handi, group of youngsters need build up a human pyramid about 2 to 3-floor height, so the top person can reach the handi and use the coconut to break it.When the buttermilk spill over the entire group, it symbolizes their achievement through unity. Over 4000 handis are placed all over Mumbai. Many groups travel around in trucks, competing with each other, trying to break as many as possible during the whole day. People enjoy competitions and like to follow the truck cheering for their group (see the picture at right I took from my window).  

I planed to go to one venue, but my Indian friend told me it is better stay home watching the live. He said I would not find a good spot to watch and might lose myself among crowds. However, the most important point is:  Because of the spirit of London Olympic Games this year, one event organizer has offered the prize of 25 Lakhs of rupees (about 55000 dollars) to the group which can build up a human pyramid of 10 layers to hit the handi. How can I miss this show?

Have Invited some friends come over, ordered some pizza, we are ready to see who will be the lucky winner! Climbing, keep climbing!

The word for today:

die tuo han

叠罗汉

 human pyramid

The influence of Typhoon

Landing at 3:20am yesterday in Xiangshan County of neighboring Zhejiang Province, Haikui, the 11th typhoon this year, brought strong gales and heavy downpours to my home town Shanghai, China. No ships had been allowed in or out of Shanghai's ports, the world's busiest by container volume, since Tuesday night. Nearly a third of the city suffered torrential rain with precipitation over 100 millimeters. The worst area suffered the most with 194 millimeters.


Since all students are still having their summer vacation, all outdoor activities are canceled on Wednesday. All metro links change their operation time due to the effect of bad weather condition. "Do we need to go for work?" is the big question among working classes. All government owned companies desided to give at least Wednesday off for all their employees. However, multinational companies in Shanghai were allowed to make their own decisions. According to my friends' experiences and information I collected, let's see the differences:
1.   Diageo             UK              Human Resources Department sent email, one dayoff for everyone
2.   Autodesk         US               Informed dayoff one day before as well as sending email to follow up make sure all employees are safe.
3.   Microsoft Services   US      Work at home or company pays transporation (taxi) fee if employee has to work in the office
4.   SAPA             Sweden        Half-day off
5.   Decathlon       Frence          All deparment heads make decision. Most of people did not come to office.
6.   LVMH            Frence          Did not get any notice the day before. However, nobody came to work in one department. Finally, informed afternoon half day off.
7.   Volkswagen   Germany       Everybody needs to be on duty. All managers come to follow up.
8.   OMEGA        Switzerland   Email all to come to work, but nobody need work overtime.
9.   Sony              Japan             Employees can choose work at home or  one dayoff
10. Puli                Taiwan          Foced stuff to take one dayoff, but it is not for free. Everyone has to change it with 1 day annual leave.

We can get some clue about the company culture through this case. The country backgroud of the company also influents the decision making.


Typhoon will be around until this weekend. Hope everybody in Shanghai could safely pass this period. 

The word for today:
 Tai Feng
 台  风
 Typhoon

          

2 best things to enjoy in Mumbai!

1. Movies

I am a big fan of movies. I enjoy watching movies in cinemas. I remember it normally costs around 12 dollars for a ticket in States. In Mumbai, you pay 12 dollars you can get a comfortable sofa seat in their best 180 degree cinema. The normal seat costs only 5 or 6 dollars. The even better thing is all movies here are launched at the same time as US. It is fantastic, isn't it?

Besides, Mumbai is also the home of Bollywood. Bollywood is well known as Hollywood in Asia.  Every month, there are around 6 new Hindi movies released. Even though they do not have any English Subtitles; most of time I was just seeing the pictures and making my own story, seeing beautiful actors dancing on romantic songs is already pretty entertaining. Do not know why Bollywood movies are always shot aboard such as US, UK, Switzerland, Thailand, and Hong Kong.  By watching the movie, I also have a feeling that I was a having a city tour and some old memory suddenly flash back.  

Believe or not, Mumbai is definitely the heaven for movie fans who loves Hollywood and Bollywood like me!   

2. Door to Door Services

I stay in a rental apartment. At the beginning, my door bell was ringing continuously from morning to evening. When I opened door, some strange people looked at me innocently or sometimes I not even see any people outside. Once, I got really mad and asked my Indian friends how I should stop that. They laughed at me big time. They said that it is happening to them everyday too, but no body wants to trouble me. It is their daily job to serve you to get themselves some business.

Now I am pretty comfortable with their services: - Every morning: News paper delivery, garbage pick-up, Laundry pick-up and so on. Every evening, grocery delivery (all fresh products), Laundry delivery and etc. Even the postman will ring your bell to give you your letters. Here, mail box is useless. Everything can be done without getting out of your door. I do not stay on some executive floor at hotel, however I enjoy this kind of services every day with very reasonable prices.


You may not fall in love with Mumbai by the first impression, however, the city really has something special! Come and experience it whenever you have the chance!

The word for today:

Dian Ying
电     影
Movie

Baby Boom this year ?

Just received a great news from my friend that she has just got a "dragon baby"!!! What is the dragon baby? You may have question marks in your mind. Don't get it wrong. We call all babies born this year this way because it is the year of Dragon. Actually, there are still a few parents-to-be on the list! Wonderful! Wonderful!!Wonderful!!!


There are total 12 animals in Chinese zodiac. Every year, the animal changes according to Chinese lunar year calendar. Dragon is the fifth at the rank and the only animal that is from a fairytale. Since dragons symbolize power and elegance, people consider the baby born under dragon year will be extremely lucky and blessed by nature. They have a sense of honor, respect, audacity, and loyalty. Therefore, many couples plan to have their babies this year.

You will see the pictures with 12 animals on the right side. They are actually the traditional Chinese paintings. If you are interested in knowing your Chinese zodiac, leave a comment. I will get you back soon.

Have a nice weekend!

The word for today:

Long Nian
龙     年
Dragon Year

China and India!

Turned on TV, all Indian channels were focus on the badminton match of Wang Yihan (China) and Saina Nehwal (India) in London today. It was a beautiful match to watch. Both of them played so well.  Saina is the big hope of getting the medal for India team, no wonder how many eyes are on her. In fact, Saina is well-known in China as well because of her great performance recently. I think it is fair enough to say that she is the best non-Chinese player in this field. Chinese newspaper had a nice interview of her. Definitely, her fan club is growing in China as well!.


I realize that Indian channels have the debates about China very often these days. Doesn't matter the comments are positive or negative, it is fun to hear the opinions from others. "Dragon Vs Tiger" is a a very hot topic. People love to talk about these 2 counties because both have so many things in common such as big population, door to door neighbors, rich culture, long history and so on. On the other hand, different country policy and speed of development get more people's interests to discuss and compare them with each other. However, most of people think that it is only the matter of time,  both countries will become the superpowers in near future. 

I, as a Chinese living in India, I feel lucky to have the opportunity of experiencing the rises of both counties.  I am not the expert in politics, but I can really feel the spirits of desiring better life. 

The word for today:

Yu Mao Qiu

羽   毛    球

badminton

What a happy day!

When we were babies,  we shared clothes. When we were kids, we shared toys. When we were bigger, we shared story books. When we were teenagers, we shared dreams. Now we are all grownups. We have started building up our own family one by one. We may not have much time to share as before, but we know we will be always there for each other because we are brothers and sisters! No one can change the blood inside our bodies! Great to have you all in my life!


Happy Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection) ！


Although we do not have this festival in our country, we are all global citizen. Lets celebrate together!

So the word for today:

Kuai le = happy

Jie Ri  =  festivals

Jie Ri Kuai Le!

节  日  快   乐！

Happy Festivals!

There is no doubt that today most of Indians are busy on their way to visit their sisters and brothers instead of going to the offices. People are together to celebrate their relationships. A sister will tie a rakhi (sacred thread) on her brother's wrist praying for his well-being and the brother in return will give her a gift and vow to protect her. The last but not the least, they will feed each other some traditional sweets to start anther beautiful year with each others' blessing. When it is a big family with a lot of cousins, it is just amazing to see everybody is running around to tie the rakhis for brothers from small babies to elders. 


What a happy day!

Almost One Year ?!

I was a sort of nervous and curious at this time last year.

Nervous, because I quit the job I loved a lot and chose to follow my love to live in India, a totally new country for me. It was not easy to convince myself  it was a correct decision since I have to be far away from my family and friends, give up so many things I got used to do. Nobody was sure that I could stay here for long. I was just like a student and facing an important exam. 

Curious, because I didn't have an idea about this country besides Taj Mahal from the history book. I had some Indians in my class when I studied in Europe. All of them were really talkative. It was so much fun to have them in parties since all of them were brilliant dancers and crazy drinkers. They were also smart in marks and making friends with professors! Our US professor was amazed by their rich culture since he used to teach in India. So visiting India, was on my to-do list anyway, but never thought it would happen so soon!

As time goes by, I was simply doing fine here. I spent some time to travel around country and tried to understand the culture. I have been to Taj Mahal, Jaipur, Delhi, Goa, Shimla and so on. The entire country is so diverse. There are so many different languages, religious, customs, philosophy and lifestyle. I will share some of my experiences with you later on. 

Today, the word in Mandarin:

Ni Hao,   Yin Du!

你好，     印度！

Hello, India!