We left Osaka in the morning and reached Beijing in the afternoon.Lunch was in the flight itself. On reaching Beijing, we were taken ina bus with a commodious underbelly to accommodate all our luggage. Itwas a 45 seater bus for the forty of us. I got the last seat which noone wanted. The last seat was more like a berth as there is no longera requirement for a passage in the end. In view of the fact that theroads were smooth and there were no bumps, the last seat i.e. theberth proved a boon for me. I could comfortably recline on it tocompensate for the deprivation of the afternoon siesta that I amaddicted to in my retired state. During the tour, we do sight seeingfrom morn till eve, rather a tiring schedule, but one does not want tomiss any site. So I found my solution. I converted a seeming threat toan opportunity and grabbed it. My co-tourists, used to the bumps inIndian roads were avoiding the last seat like a plague. I embraced itlike a lover. They later realized the wisdom in my step, but by thenit was too late. Thereafter the last seat became my permanent addressin all the buses that we travelled.Our first stop was the Forbidden City. It is really a condominium ofpalaces for the Emperor, his immediate family and the lesser gentry,not to mention the retinues of all these people. It is called theforbidden city as it was out of bounds for the Janata - the hoipollois - the common people. Only the priviledged - the VIPs couldenter it and even more priviledged - the VVIPs could reside in it. TheAdarsh Society scam in Mumbai tells us that we have our own version ofthe forbidden city. We have the advantage that we have a very largenumber of forbidden cities, thanks to our bureaucrats first creatingscarcities by their bans, prohibitions and delaying tactics followedby the use of discretionary powers of our politicians. Our governingclasses are not as blatant as the old timers' emperors but effectivelythey are more devastating than the former, even if in a subtle way.It was the next day after the Chinese revolution day and huge crowdsfrom all the moffusil areas of the country had come to see theforbidden city. The place was teeming with a multitude of people.There was hardly a space to move. It was in this millieu that I gotseparated from our group. Our tour manager from Kesari Travels usuallycarries a red flag in his hand with 'Kesari' written on it. That helpsus to locate our group. Unfortunately, today, there were any number ofred flags carried by the communist visitors. However hard I tried, Isimply could not locate our group. It took quite some time for theidea to sink in that I was really and truly lost on my first day in analien land without any local currency and my total inability tocopmmunicate in the local lingo. Al the road signs were in Chinese, alanguage even more unfamiliar than Greek and Latin to me. Thealphabets of the latter are at least vaguely familiar but the localalphabets seemed to me like ancient hieroglyphics carved on stone.However I did not lose heart and pushed ahead in the general directionthat we had been going. I knew that we had entered the forbidden cityfrom its rear gate and that we would emerge from the front gate intothe Tiananmen square. I felt heartened when I came across a group ofGujarati speaking N.R.I. s. I ascertained that I was headed in theright direction from their English speaking Chinese guide and pushedahead. Soon I emerged into the Ill-famed Tiananmen square where amultitude of protesting youngsters were shot down a few years back.This place too was no different from the forbidden city. The samecrowds. I approached a policeman but he did not know English nor didany of his colleagues nearby. I then did a crazy thing. I shouted intothe crowd, " Does anyone here Speak English? " Luckily for me a younggirl of Chi. Pallavi's age came forward. I told her my predicament. Ihad a 100 dollar note and a credit card but no Chinese money. Gettingback to the group seemed improbable. The only thing for me to do wasto head straight to the hotel where we had reservations. Fortunately Iknew the name of the hotel. I could take a taxi if she helped me withthe communication. There was also the problem of money. The taxidriver could not give me change, even if heaccepted dollars. The girl suggested a way out. We went to arestaurant that accepted dollars. We ordered a soft drink. I wasreally in need of one. The waitress not omly accepted the 100 dollarbill, she gave me the balance in Chinese currency i.e. Yuans alsoknown as Renminbi. Armed with this, I ventured out. One more problem.No taxis were available. The girl helped me to get a 3 wheeler, thetype that Santosh calls " the rat in the urban sewer that goes by thename of a road ". True to his species, he would not go by the meter.After bargaining, a sum was agreed upon and the girl left after I hadprofusely thanked her. The auto driver, like his Indian counterpart,went through a no. of lanes and bylanes, meandering his way throughthe traffic and deposited me at the rear gate of the hotel. Thereception confirmed that we had reservation there and helped me to getin telephonic touch with the local Chinese guide helping our tourmanager. Wherever we go there is always a local guide to help out thetour manager. To the relief of our tour manager, I told him that I wassafely in the hotel. Poor chap had been scouring the forbidden city insearch of me and worrying whether my cold, cough and wheezing haddeteriorated and I was lying in some corner. The group then came backto the hotel.After a little rest and freshening up, we proceeded to an Indianrestaurant for our dinner, followed by a stroll in the Tiananmensquare. After a leisurely stroll, we returned to the hotel and retiredfor the night.
Pappa (Ramesh N Desai)
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