Mystery & fascination about Chinese things
By 2009-12-21 16:24:01
China is not just a vast land mass you see covering a large part of the hemisphere on the globe. It is a store house of mythologies, traditions,
flavours — all lying curled up like a sleeping dragon in our fantasy. For us it’s the land of noodles, kung fu, dragon dances, happy Buddhas, Taoism.
We follow them avidly in our daily lives, but often more with awe and wonder than with complete understanding. Their roots remain an enigma, shrouded in mystery and time, in a distant land.
I was never the one to give any thought to our fascination with Chinese things while I was growing up on a healthy diet of kung fu movies. Or, on the not-so-healthy roadside chowmien. Little did I know of this humble dish’s adventures around the world and how it made its home from New York’s China Town to Kolkata’s Tangra lane.
Ask any Kolkatan where China is and he will politely tell you to take a cab and go to Tangra. Of course, that is China. Here you can dig into the most delicious Chinese food that every Kolkatan loves. Chilly chicken, pot rice, noodles of all types, momos and dimsums, Chinese wine and more.
Every Kolkatan knows this unique world of flavours, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Chinese pickle, tucked away in the lanes and alleys of Tangra. So what if he has never set foot on the other side of the Great Wall. He has been there and tasted it, right in Kolkata!
Fascination with anything Chinese is an understatement. We promptly become its experts. I had an aunt who dabbled in Feng Shui. No, dabbled would be saying it wrong. She was no less than an authority in the Chinese art of Harmony. And, quite a following she had! Friends and neighbours converted overnight into collectors of wind chimes, three-legged frogs, scrolls and other gewgaws.
My wife invited her to our home one day and she flipped open a compass and my favourite old armchair which had stood in its corner for ages now suddenly became the hurdle to all the family’s happiness. It was blocking the Chi energy.
Forgotten nooks and crannies were now cornerstones to the home’s prosperity. Here a coin, there a chime, a few old things of a peaceable man shifted and cleared out, and all happiness was taken care of. That’s the power of Feng Shui.
Inside innumerable Indian homes, shops, offices, even cars, you can find these curious additions. But god forbid if you declare them as cute and whimsical curios, as I once did, you’ll be curtly told that they are very important Feng Shui entities, performing the critical job of channeling Yin and Yang energies. And, pray do not loom over them so long,
I was told, else you will deflect the positive vibrations! I muttered under my breath that you should have been positively deflected to China before being born here, but thought the better of it.
We follow them avidly in our daily lives, but often more with awe and wonder than with complete understanding. Their roots remain an enigma, shrouded in mystery and time, in a distant land.
I was never the one to give any thought to our fascination with Chinese things while I was growing up on a healthy diet of kung fu movies. Or, on the not-so-healthy roadside chowmien. Little did I know of this humble dish’s adventures around the world and how it made its home from New York’s China Town to Kolkata’s Tangra lane.
Ask any Kolkatan where China is and he will politely tell you to take a cab and go to Tangra. Of course, that is China. Here you can dig into the most delicious Chinese food that every Kolkatan loves. Chilly chicken, pot rice, noodles of all types, momos and dimsums, Chinese wine and more.
Every Kolkatan knows this unique world of flavours, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Chinese pickle, tucked away in the lanes and alleys of Tangra. So what if he has never set foot on the other side of the Great Wall. He has been there and tasted it, right in Kolkata!
Fascination with anything Chinese is an understatement. We promptly become its experts. I had an aunt who dabbled in Feng Shui. No, dabbled would be saying it wrong. She was no less than an authority in the Chinese art of Harmony. And, quite a following she had! Friends and neighbours converted overnight into collectors of wind chimes, three-legged frogs, scrolls and other gewgaws.
My wife invited her to our home one day and she flipped open a compass and my favourite old armchair which had stood in its corner for ages now suddenly became the hurdle to all the family’s happiness. It was blocking the Chi energy.
Forgotten nooks and crannies were now cornerstones to the home’s prosperity. Here a coin, there a chime, a few old things of a peaceable man shifted and cleared out, and all happiness was taken care of. That’s the power of Feng Shui.
Inside innumerable Indian homes, shops, offices, even cars, you can find these curious additions. But god forbid if you declare them as cute and whimsical curios, as I once did, you’ll be curtly told that they are very important Feng Shui entities, performing the critical job of channeling Yin and Yang energies. And, pray do not loom over them so long,
I was told, else you will deflect the positive vibrations! I muttered under my breath that you should have been positively deflected to China before being born here, but thought the better of it.
From economictimes.indiatimes.com