Me In Chinkyland - Cross Cultural Sensitivity

In my organization, individuals traveling on assignments to client locations are advised to undergo a soft skills training of Cross Cultural Sensitivity. This is to ensure that we are adequately sensitized about the general etiquettes and mannerisms of people spread across a vast geographical canvas.

Some behavior I noticed among the few Chinese I met is as follows:
(Donno if this is applicable to the entire populace of China :D)

1) Extremely inquisitive. I was a foreigner in their land and they wanted to know about my land. Whenever I wore a salwar kameez, they were deeply interested to know about the fabric, the styles etc. The embroidery on my kameez and the bindi on my forehead used to be crowd pullers :D. They used to ask me the significance of the bindi. Based on my little “naalej” of Yoga, I cooked it up quite well and said that there is one prominent Chakra of the human body on the forehead where the bindi is placed :D Unfortunately, these were followed by more questions on Yoga where my little “naalej” dint help :D

2) Youngsters used to feel very fascinated to see a foreigner in a small town of China. They used to run around me to catch a second glimpse (Yep!). Some of them trying to practice the little English they knew. There was one instance where I met a young school girl at a local restaurant. She chatted with me for few minutes and then was emotional enough to kiss on my cheeks!!

3) They are always smiling. They greet you with a broad smile and bow. Extremely courteous and kind to strangers. How I miss this courtesy from people of current “Namma Bengaluru”. People are always in a hurry here with no time for any courtesy :-(

4) The official work hours are pretty long there, around 12 hours (In India unofficially most of us work around 12 hours :-() . After lunch, they used to have an hour break for sleeping!! They used to have small bed under their cubicles on which they used to couch. I remembered my days at the nursery school, where we used to have a sleeping period after the 10am snacks break!!! Good ol’ days :D

5) Very Chivalrous. They would always open the car door for me. Pull the chair at the dinner table. Carry my things wherever I went. But then, I used to feel suffocated and more importantly dependent. How would you feel if your client manager carried your laptop wherever you went!!!!

I can go on and on about the ‘n’ number of memorable instances I have had and ‘m’ number of people I have met. But then, a post on my blog is just not enough to put those wonderful memories in words.

Signing off!!

Question of the Moment: “Do you see elephants on the roads of India?” – In our cross cultural sensitivity program, we were told this is the question most of the Indians face very often in a foreign land. I dismissed thinking the facilitator of the session is just hyping it. But believe me I was really asked this question!!!

Next to Come: Fruits of Labor

BlogMares

My frequency of writing posts to my blog has been very low :( Is it that the beginner’s enthusiasm and addiction to my blog diminished? I pondered over this point and could get a very clear answer “NO”!!! How do I prove this? Ok. Here it goes.

1. I talk blog, walk blog, think blog, dream blog. That’s an exaggeration!! But I am thinking in blog lines whenever some incident happens in my life. I keep thinking how I could blog that incident, what would be the title, the contents etc.
2. I carry my camera most of the time with me to capture some beautiful moments.
3. I already have quite some ideas in my head running. Put down some in writing too. At least the concept is on paper…err…MS Word
4. I want to write a Blook (Blog Book). I want to write a book too on a topic I have in mind some time soon in future ;D (I know some of you would be terming this as “Day Dreaming”. But… )

Ok!! Whats stopping me from writing. I know you would be thinking this lady is going to come up with lame excuses. But, as I have mentioned over and again, I am quite insensitive to what you think and here is why I am not able to blog frequently

1. Monday to Friday – Weekdays are pretty long for me. Start to office at 7a.m and come back only at 10 p.m. No No!!! I am not one of the work worms. Just that I even gym in the office campus!!! This is just to avoid the peak time Bangalore Traffic jams!!
2. Weekends just fly.
3. There are sometimes, I have the concept, idea and content ready. But the flow of the post just does not satisfy me. Even the last post, I posted it half hearted!!
4. The “Next to Come” section in my blog also is holding me back in posting alternate posts. No!! I am not going to stop it. This section is my challenge. I need to retain it around and overcome it. Life should not be smoothened by de-weeding challenges (OK!! A little gyan there. But what the heck!! This is my blog. I can do whatever I want ;D)
5. Lots of other personal and professional commitments take higher priority :(

Having said all this, how am I going to handle this

1. Write shorter and crisper posts – This way I can get some time to work on my ideas even on work days.
2. Accept a post need not be written in one shot. You can have many sittings and fine tune it every time.
3. Dedicate some predetermined time for blogging (Anybody out there who has an idea if this works, please let me know through comments ;D)

Let us see how things uncurl going forwards. Suggestions / Comments from my dear readers are welcome :D

Signing off!!

Resolution of the Moment: Write one post at least for one week. (Do resolutions work? :D But lemme try)

Next to Come: Me in ChinkyLand – Cross Cultural Sensitivity