Part 2
The chaos settling into the calm
The earliest
memory of China is of Beijing. Landing in Beijing, the first
thing that strikes… having never traveled outside India
is that the land smells different! Strange but true. The
air has a different feel to it and the people… you
realize that you are surrounded by people who don't seem
to be like you at all. People whom you realize only later
are just the same… just like you.
And the second thing that strikes you is the language! I
hear sounds of a language unlike anything I have ever heard!
I assume immediately, considering how difficult it was to
carry on a normal conversation with even an average English
speaker, that I would hardly be able to make friends here.
How wrong I would be!! Assumptions have a funny way of turning
back and rebounding…and landing you with the first
of these lessons dictated by an ancient land steeped in
philosophy. Lesson One? Never assume anything!! Good old
Confucius and indeed any of the thousand "Laughing
Buddhas" dotting the country would be smiling at me,
a mere mortal trying to construct the truth that they have
known for centuries!!
Beijing is a mad rush. A mad rush to leave the airport!
A mad rush to catch the train to destination two, Taiyuan.
Missing it in the madness. And then, how it changes. China
moves from one time zone to another. Chaos changes herself
over to Serenity. Just whiling time. Sipping tea. And listening
to this genial, but slightly drunk Australian. The beautiful
music of Chinese flutes, slowly floating through the air
and resting a while on the imprint of the mind. Gently smiling
the hours away. Watching the endless stream of cycles. Feeling
the pulse of a city, its people. Waiting. Just waiting.
For the next train. A journey only just begun.
See
a piece of this journey in a poem: The
Beauty of Travel
