First Week in Beijing

My first week in China was not uneventful. I had been allotted a four room apartment by the company. And on a first come first serve basis, I dug in my name flag into the master bedroom. In one corner of my heart I wished that the other rooms stayed vacant for the rest of my stay here. Food was indeed a grave problem. My first friend in the city was my mentor, Mr. ShenHong. The lean fellow backed up with a plethora of work experience greeted me with a benevolent smile. His eyes reached my turban time and again and retreated back. I could guess the question going on in his mind but I waited for him to ask himself. And it came across at the lunch time while I was fighting with my fingers to hold the two pieces of wooden sticks that had been handed over to me to eat rice and noodles.

“Why are you wearing this Hat?” and in an instant I replied with a smile. A smile reflecting that my desire had been fulfilled.

“It’s my culture, my religion. It’s called Turban. It’s a symbol of my religion as a respect”

Most of the Chinese don’t have a religion. So another tough part of the endeavor was to explain what religion is.

After the lunch, we went back to our workstation and I opened wikipedia at his place to give him the page for ‘Sikh’. He said he would read it later after the sleep time. Did I hear it right? Sleep time? This was not a government office in India, so what was this sleep time? As these thoughts were rushing through my mind, the lights dimmed, he pulled out a thin foldable mattress from under the table, undid his shoes and lay down comfortably on it. It was the ‘official’ rest time for the Chinese Huawei Office. The idea was welcome with open arms, and in no time I was dozing on my chair. My mentor kept his word of reading the wikipedia after we woke up at 2.

My wish of staying alone in the apartment faced a silent death in a week’s time, and I don’t regret that it did. My roommates, a guy from Ranchi, who looked like a bachelor but actually wasn’t, and a Sikh from Bhopal, who looked married, but wasn’t stepped in with bags full of the usual stuff I mentioned before. I made them some soup ( they still curse me for the pathetic welcome syrup I had given them), and I stood staring as the kitchen shelves found some occupancy on top of them with all kinds of spices and Pulses. The first and only question that came into my mind after I learned that Mandeep (the sikh guy) was a vegetarian was, “You’re gonna have a tough time here. What are you gonna do?” to which Anupam (the other guy) replied as he placed a big packet of Coriander powder in one of the cupboards, “Arey Hero! Khud se banayenge khana. Tu tension na le. Jab tak rahenge bindas rahenge” (Dude! We’ll cook the food ourselves. Don’t worry. We’ll have a merry time together) How couldn’t I worry! I did not know how to cook. I wept in the kitchen that night for it was really a hard work to cut onions with dry eyes. But the Pulav they cooked was good indeed. The Sikh had his first good dinner in China. The very next day we were joined by the fourth roommate. A senior person in Mandeep’s and Anupam’s team.

Me and Mandeep were the opposite ends of a rope that seldom had consensus on something. He was a silent Amritdhari (Baptised) sikh with Big Daddy advises. My mom was happy to know I had a roommate so close to our religion. It’s as they say in Gurbani (The God’s Verses) “Nirbhao hoye bhajo bhagwan, Sadh sangat mil keeno daan”, means, ‘Fearlessly chant the name of the God, this gift is given in the company of the holy people’. Anupam was a happy going guy who could mix up with anyone. Joe Sir (the senior) were as much a friend to us as anyone else. He had been to China a few number of times before. All in all, we roomates complimented each other. Joe Sir and Anupam were my Guru’s on the tips and tricks to woo a Chinki. It was the 14th Feb that day when we four were together for the first time. Another of my ‘Single’ status Valentines’, no matter how hard I tried to find a date, and had almost fixed one. But…

The next day while coming down the stairs with my mentor at the lunch time, he suddenly raised his hand and uttered ‘Deepinder, Look!’, as he pointed out to a Turbaned person walking at a distance, ‘There’s another Sikh’. ‘Yes sir, He’s my roommate’, I replied with a smile.’