Bangkok Diary - Part 2

(A post from 2009, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

Thai people are always so gentle and smiling. I don't remember any encounter with a person who talked to me with anger or irritation.

However, I did meet a crazy taxi driver. He had a picture of himself with his son on his dashbaord and a small golden Buddha statue. He drove like a maniac on the run. On the highway, he wove in and out of the traffic, overtaking from right and left, and when required passing on the emergency lane while I was holding on to the seat with a thumping heart and praying silently. In between he had long and vivacious telephone conversation so that he missed the turnings and then backed straight into the traffic, uncaring of braking cars all around. He whistled at all the women, made some easy-to-understand gestures to explain what he would like to do with them and when some of them looked back at him with disgust, he broke into loud laughter.

Every now and then, after such an encounter, he would turn back to look at me and wink. Dumb sod, driven by testostrone with his brain in his dick, I repeated to myself while smiling back at him. How do you deal with such macho types? They give me an inferiority complex even while I tell myself that such excessive machoness must be a sign of some deep sense of inadequacy.

"How long are you going to take? Should I wait for you?", he asked when we reached our destination, while I mopped my brows. No more taxi for me today, I told him, I will take the sky train for going back.

Another picture that remains in my mind is that of groups of men intent on their billiard tables in narrow market streets.

***
Temperatures were not so high but the humidity was bad and it brought back memories of Chenai, when it was still Madras. Fortunately all the meetings were in air-conditioned buildings and all the taxis were also air-conditioned. So the trick was to work during the day and go out only early morning or in evening, when cool breeze was so pleasant. Even local Bangkokites (BTW, how do you call Bangkok inhabitants? Bangkokies? Bangkokinese? Bangites?) shared this view since in the afternoon, every one seemed to prefer lazy siestas.

***
I loved the dresses of the Thai air-hostesses. They must be the best dressed airlines crew of the world. Their purples, magentas, and occasional yellows, blacks and grey coloured traditional dresses in silk make them seem like statues from some ancient temples. In fact, I think that if I have choose colours for Thailand, I would choose purple and magenta like in the lotus flowers in a temple below.

***
Bangkok is rich in temples and religious symbols. The Buddhist monks fascinate me with their orange robes and they didn't seem to mind when I stopped to click their pictures.

Thai people have a special relationship towards their King, that was so strange to me. It reminded me of the kind of faith people in an Indian village can have for religious figures like Ram or Hanuman, full of reverence and awe. Like this statue of the king, where one person came to me to ask me to pray before taking its picture.

Other statues, in spite of obvious differences in facial traits, provoke old memories like this statue in an old Buddist temple in Mahanak that made me think of "chalat musafir moh liya re pinjre wali muniya" from Teesri Kasam.

I was fascinated by the Buddha statues in different postures. At one level I find it a little strange that statues of Gautam Buddh who left his palace to become a bhikshuk and preached about non-attachment are almost always of gold. Though as a child I used to go often to the Buddh temple in Birla Mandir in Delhi, I knew about the basic story of Gautam Buddh and had even been to Lumbini, my knowledge about his teachings was relatively limited.

Bangkok visit stimulated me to buy and read Pankaj Mishra's book, An End to Suffering - The Buddha In The World (Picador India, 2004). If you have not read it and you are interested in Buddha and Buddhism, I recommend this book. It is an immensly readable mix of auto-biography, anecdotes and reflections about Gautam Buddha's life and teachings.

Along with Buddhism, Thailand also has signs of Hinduism. Brahmin priests are part of Kings religious ceremonies. Like the Garuda statue on royal buildings that carry the queen's name.

I was also struck by the statues in black stone of some kind of priests or gurus. Perhaps looking at all the gold coloured statues was responsible for this effect, but when I saw them against the backdrop of colourful frescoes, I thought that they looked striking.

***
The giant swing, Sao Ching Chaa, was used for some kind of ritualistic event in the past. However, many persons involved in the ritual who were supposed to swing on it lost their lives and the ritual was stopped in the last century. There has been some idea of restarting the ritual as part of the tourist attraction events. Now in the middle of a traffic island, it looks like an awkward giant left there from an alien ship.

***
This post was originally written in 2009

Bangkok Diary - Part 1

(A post from 2009, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

It is my first day in Bangkok. I am determined to go around the city, even if it means waking up at five in the morning with a five hour jet lag and walking around like a zoombie. Every day some non-work related visit, even if it is very small, that is my resolve. The meeting today was never ending, starting at nine and going on till eight in the evening. We didn't even have a lunch break, and while others were eating I made my presentation, which meant that no one asked me any questions!

However, inspite of all my good intentions, by the time I came back to the hotel, I was so tired that I immediately went to bed.

***

I had the meeting at the UN centre and I found time to sneak out and take a look at the democracy protesters outside. They have blocked many roads just outside the parliament house. There is a huge screen showing some leader thundering against corrupt government leaders. "Thaskin get out", is written on a huge board. But the whole place is almost empty. Perhaps it is the heat?

But isn't Thaskin already out, why are is PDA (people's democracy alliance) still continuing its protests, I ask. Somchai, the new prime minister is Thaskin's brother-in-law, someone says. Someone else says that PDA is not just democratic idealists and radical revolutionaries, it also has power brokers, old military men and other lumpen elements.

I don't know the country or its politics well enough to express any opinions, but I am impressed that the government can allow protesters so much space and autonomy in the middle of the city centre, for months. There is no police inside the protest area, it is covered by barbed wires and PDA persons control that you are not carrying any guns or bombs inside.

 

***
Bangkok airport has this amazing group of statues at its entrance. With a purple moustached dancing Vishnu in the centre and golden Sheshnaag, the divine snake being pulled by the fair skinned devas and dark skinned asuras for finding Amrit, the necter of immortality. People entering the airport invariably stop in front of it to take pictures and to get their own pictures.

No one stops you from taking pictures at Bangkok airport. Perhaps they do not have terrorist threats or perhaps they know that with mobile phones and other technological gadgets, taking pictures without getting detected is easy now. Perhaps Delhi airport authorities can learn from them and be less paranoid?

On one hand, I like this kind of public celebration of cultural and religious myths. Perhaps rather than Indian "secularism means no religion or religious symbols in public spaces", it would be more colourful and enjoyable to have symbols of all the different religions in public spaces in India.

However, while I like the colourful statues of Bangkok airport, there are two things about this story of devas and asuras that I do not like. First is all the racial undertones of the fair skinned devas and dark skinned asuras. Second is the treachery of devas, who use Vishnu to cheat the asuras and take away all the Amrit, necter of immortality. Were not devas supposed to be the good guys? The story makes me think of the friendship gesture of Vajpai who went to Pakistan while Pakistanis were planning the attack on Kargil.

There are other such photogenic places in Bangkok airport. I heard that Delhi is making a new terminal 3 that should be ready by 2010 Commonwealth games, perhaps they can take some ideas from Bangkok about airport decorations!

***
Bangkok seems to me the city of cats. I have never seen so many of them except long time ago in Venice. Now even in Venice you don't see them any more but here they lord over empty temples, fruit markets, side walks. They are not afraid of me. Some times, they come near, rub against my legs and meow, waiting to be scratched behind their ears.

***

Even dogs abound in Bangkok, perhaps it has something to do with the Buddhist piety? One of the most lovable was this small puppy at the shop in Mahanak fruit market.

***

Except for the restaurents in our hotel, I can't find any restaurents here. No Wimpy, or McDonald, or KFC, etc. There is a food center on the sixth floor, in the shopping mall under our hotel but it closes at 6 PM and evening dinner is a problem. We are in an area full of thousands of shops and people milling around all the time but the only eating places are all Thai street venders kind of persons, where no one speaks English.

Yet, Thailand has been open to foreign markets for a long time. Why didn't McDonald and KFC try here? Or, perhaps they did and didn't find much market? That Thailand has never been colonized and very small percentage of people here speaks English, and they all seem to be very proud of their language, their culture, has something to do with it?

I don't know. So I usually go to eat on the roadside eateries, pointing at things I want to try. They are good most of the times, even if sometimes so spicey that I almost need to call a fire brigade.

Just accross the street from my hotel is this bustling fruit, vegetable, fish and meat market. Compared to similar places in India, I feel that narrow streets in this area are less dirty and people carrying heavy loads and doing menial work, seem slightly better.

***
This post was originally written in 2009

Olives and Cypresses - Travels in Tuscany

(A post from 2010, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

A few days ago we were watching the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace. I didn’t like the film, even if the leading lady did look a little bit like Rani Mukherjee. I don’t like Denis Craig. His perpetually constipated expression somehow makes me think of ducks. But the initial car race and fight in the A1 highway between Bologna and Florence and then in the city of Siena, reminded me that we had never been to Siena.

Why don’t we go to Siena on this weekend, I proposed. On the map it didn’t look very far. If we take highway, probably we will be there in less than two hours, I said. Often, my wife is not very receptive to such proposals. She feels that they are too tiring. But this time, she didn’t refuse outright, she only frowned and said, we shall see. So I knew, the trip was on.

The names of certain cities are linked with colours. Like Jaipur is linked with pink. For me Siena is linked with “Burnt Siena”. Why did they call that colour “burnt Siena”, that particular shade of brown? Perhaps because of the colour of earth in around this city? or because of the colour of buildings there? I don't know.

Yesterday, sunday morning, we started from home around 9.30 AM. My wife had changed from “we shall see” to “what is the hurry? why don’t we take the Poretta-Pistoia road and see the small cities on the way?” So we decided, no highway! We shall take the normal road and go slowly, taking time to look around.

We passed through the quaint town of Sasso Marconi, where Mr. Marconi had done his experiments with wireless telegraph more than one century ago. Then we went through Marzabotto that has a wonderful Ethruscan necropolis that we had visited last year. Up and down the road went, passing through Poretta Terme, in through deep mountain passes with snow capped mountains, towards Pistoia in the Tuscany region.

Spring had already arrived in Tuscany with new diamond green grass that looked soft as silk. Scattered with gnarled olive trees and tall conical cypresses, Tuscany landscape has a distinctive look. On the road towards Pistoia, we stopped at a bar in Signorino (literally “unmarried man”), where a huge crowd of bikers was having picnic. Very appropriate, we thought. They all did look unmarried!

Stopover in Vinci

On the way from Pistoia to Empoli, we saw the indications for Vinci and decided on an impulse that it would be nice to see the birthplace of one of the most accompamplished sculture-painter-scientist of all times, Leonardo da Vinci. The small town of Vinci is on the top of a hill surrounded by the gentle landscape of Tuscany, dotted with more olives and cypresses. Right in the middle of the medieval town centre, a Leonardo square has been created with a wooden sculpture showing one of the well known figures made by him.

I liked the Guidi square more where a contemporary Italian artist Mimmo Paladino has sculpted the whole square with shapes and images of Leonardo (picture).

By the time we finished going around Vinci, it was already one of clock. We ate our sandwiches that we had brought from home and then decided to proceed towards Anchiano village about three kilometers away from Vinci, to look at the house where Leonardo da Vinci was born. It was difficult to immagine that a child born in such a humble faraway village would become so famous that his name will be known all over the world (in the picture, Leonardo's house).

Reaching Siena

By the time we reached Siena, perched on the top of a hill, we were a little tired. It was already three of clock. Siena seemed to be full of tourists but we were lucky that we found a parking place almost immediately. The narrow winding streets, medieval houses, renaissance buildings, it was very beautiful. A little tired from going up and down the narrow streets, we ate an icecream and listened to a gifted street violinist.

I had expected to see a small medieval town in the city centre, but what surprised me was the size of the old city. It is huge. I wanted to see the Piazza del Campo, the famous square where the annual Palio horse race takes place. As we walked on and on, there was no sign of this square but arrows on the streets indicated that it was further ahead. Finally when we did come to it, it was one of those “A-ha” moments that you never forget in your life.

Coming down from narrow winding, dark medieval streets on the hills, the square is like a huge natural bowl, open space between the hills and filled with sunlight, sloping down towards the middle and surrouned by more medieval and renaissance buildings that seem handpainted canvass against the blue sky. There is a beautiful fountain in one corner of the square.

Pictures can’t capture its immensity nor the sense the wonder that fills you when you see Piazza del Campo. I had seen it so many times in pictures and films, and yet I had never realized how wonderful it is in reality. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

We are not going to spend too much time here, I told my wife. This city deserves to be seen properly and not in a hurry by tired persons! We will come back here, to spend a whole day or may be a weekend, we agreed, as we walked towards the Duomo (cathedral).

Even the Duomo is very good in Italian gothic style that reminds me of rich wedding cakes, though if you have already seen the cathedrals in Florence and Orvieto, you know what to expect.

We didn’t go inside Duomo, instead we walked back towards the parking to get our car. It was almost five o’clock. The journey back home on the highway was quick, it did take less than two hours. And we are sure, we will back in Siena to explore it better.

If you are planning a visit to Italy, do not miss Siena!

***
This post was originally written in 2010

Looking for Karl Marx - A day in London

(A post from 2010, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

When I heard that Karl Marx's grave is in London, I was very surprised. Poor Marx. Wonder, how he feels surrounded by all the testosterone driven city yuppies the world capital of free market and globalisation.

I had reached London on 8th July afternoon. After I finished my meeting in Euston, I decided to take the underground to Archway and walk to highgate London cemetery, to take a look at old friend Marx's grave.

This time, I had decided to ignore the weather predictions on BBC. Everytime, they say it is going to rain and I carry an umbrella with me, I find a sunny London. So this time, it did decide to rain. The way to highgate rises on a steep hill, it is supposed to be the highest spot in London, so soon I was breathless and more than a little wet.

Finally when I did reach the cemetery, I found that it was closed. In spite of all their claims about London being the financial hub of the world, free markets and all, so many places continue to observe the office times, from 10 AM to 5 PM. I guess, even the cemetery workers need to go out and enjoy the long summer evenings and visiters can very well take a leave if they wish to visit their dead.

So after all my efforts, in the end I could just take a picture of the entrance of the cemetery, that has a sign that no videos and pictures can be taken inside. However, the walk back to Archway was downhill and much more easier, and it was not raining anymore.

I took the underground to Leicester square, where I was supposed to change to the Piccadilly line. In spite of the cold and wind, it was too early to go back to the hotel, so I decided to walk around Leicester square. The London rickshaws with Savanna ads painted over them, outside the Leicester underground station, looked kind of cute.

However, like the Highgate cemetery, even in Leicester square, teeming with tourists, the park in the middle of the square was already closed. With the summer and the sunlight till 9 PM, it seems funny that parks are closed when people come out of the offices. In the park, I could see a small black that looked like Charlie Chaplin, so I decided to take a picture of the park with the zoom.

Then, I walked over to the Trafalgar square. The fourth statueless plinth in Trafalgar square is hosting "living sculptures" by Antony Gormley these days. The concept of this initiative is interesting. Starting from 6 July, a new person will get a place for one hour on the plinth to be a living sculpture and persons will keep on changing every day, 24 hours, till October. A total of 2400 persons are expected to participate in this very inclusive art event and anyone can apply through a website. This website also has a live webcam of the plinth.

When I arrived in Trafalgar square, a lady dressed in red was trying to set up a playing card statue, but with strong wind, the cards were refusing to stay in position and some of them flew off the plinth into the safety net and in the square.

While walking around in the square, near one of those statues sprouting water into the fountain, I heard an Indian father tell his young son in Hindi, "Beta dekho, woh baccha kulli kar raha hai" (Son, look that child is gargling).

Yuck! I didn't want to go near the kulli-water anymore.

By that time, there was some commotion near the fourth plinth. It seemed that the next participant who was supposed to go up as a living sculpture, had not arrived. Finally Sandy Nairne, director of National Portrait gallery, went up as a substitute and sat there sketching something.

From Trafalgar square, I walked towards Piccadilly, where as usual, hordes of tourists were sitting around the Mercury statue, that always reminds me of the god of love, Kamdev, from Indian mythology.

Tired from all the walking, finally I decided to go back to the hotel.

On 9th July, I had an early morning meeting with a French-Italian friend, who is married to an Indian. For our breakfast we went to a small Italian place in one of the small streets near Euston. The place had old pictures of Sorrento, but none there spoke any Italian. Perhaps the original Italian place was bought over by someone else?

I had to go to another meeting near Russel square and there was some time for that, I decided to walk, pulling my suitcase trolley behind me.

When we finished with the meeting, I thought that I could spend a couple of hours in the British museum nearby, as they are having different exhibitions and events linked to India under the Indian Summer initiative. However, the guard at the museum told me that my suitcase was too big for the cloakroom and so he couldn't allow me to enter.

Again I walked back to Euston to kill some time and then took the underground to Victoria. Since it was cloudy and windy, so walking was good fun (after a month in the buring 42 degrees of Delhi, my evident joy at clouds and wind is easy to understand, though most of my European friends are a little perplexed by it).

I still had four hours for my flight back to Italy, so decided to walk to Buckingham palace from Victoria station.

The buildings around Victoria station have a mix of old and new architecture. The golden coloured statue on the old Victoria theater looks strange against the ugly looking high rise building, but some other glass buildings made for much better contrast against the old British architecture.

Buckingham palace area was crowded with tourists. It must be weak British pound that has brought back tourists from all over to UK.

Finally it was the time to take the train back to Gatwick airport but I was quite satisfied by my walking initiatives.

There was a time, when I hardly saw anything in the cities I visited for work. I have been to so many countries and cities, where I saw just the airports and the hotels. But I like my new me, the one who decides to walk, to get lost, to talk to people and to get a feel for the people and the cities. It is more tiring and but also so relaxing!

And, I love clicking with my digital camera. So that I may not spend a lot of time walking around as a tourist, but then I can look at the pictures back home and try to see things that I didn't have time to stop and admire.

***
This post was originally written in 2010