Notes from the Middle Kingdom

Don't try this at home

You are on a busy Beijing street.  Everybody’s trying to go their own way, somehow.  You know from experience that if you don’t push your way a little you are never going to get there.  You know about courtesy; you know about politeness – yes you remember all your etiquette and manners but sometimes you have to get things done.  Getting things done, like crossing a road, may not be as easy as it sounds.  And if you are going to get there, you know you have to do so in a flash, and you may have to break a few rules here and there. 

The trick here, according to Dema, is to walk somewhere in the middle, among the milling crowd where you have the least chance of involving in an accident. You don’t have the time to die yet; and in any case if you happen to be the one among the millions, it's going to be too much of a coincidence.  You don’t want to help manufacture that coincidence, since it won’t be a coincidence anymore.   A single Mizo soul among a billion of them, come on, give others the chance!

Crossing the road, well, it’s not so mundane anymore.  Before you cross the road, your Singaporean friends most probably will confront you with the all important question of “Do you HAVE insurance?”  And that would surely give you some nerves.  The next big Q is, “Do I have the SOS card in my wallet?”  followed by others like “Is my phone number written down?”  “Am I safely tucked somewhere in the middle?” etc, etc.  Then you have to try and get across when everybody else is trying to do the same thing from all directions.  So, you throw courtesy and caution to the winds, and try to get to the other side.

Now, back to that busy street in Beijing.  You are waiting for the light and when it goes green you took the nearest hand to your right, where a moment ago was your better half.  Then you are practically on flight, trying to make it across, along with the crowd, somewhere in the middle.  You are tightly holding on to the hand.  You feel a tug here, a tug there, but you only have eyes for the other side.  Phew, you finally made it, and heave a big sigh of relief.  You manage to get your lady across yet another road; no small feat! 

Somehow, you wonder why the lady in question was trying to get her hand away so quickly.  She was frantically trying to pull her hand free from you!  Then you turn to her, surprised, and a bit annoyed.  Then she says “Hey, mister, what are you doing? Excuse me!” Then you find her turning red out of anger.  You have already released her hand when she said that as if you it were a live charcoal.

Now you realise that the hand you were holding a moment ago in fact was not your better half’s.  Somehow, she had been nudged away from your side, while you waited for the light.  You have taken a hand that never belonged to you since Adam!  Then it is your turn to blush and look stupid.  Fortunately she arrives by your side as you try to lamely explain yourself to the bemused lady.  Her mere presence by your side was a good enough evidence to back up your story that you have made a mistake.  Being away from her usually means trouble and ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.  You are glad she arrives just on time. 

‘Her hand was very soft, by the way’, so you think!