Bangkok: Ancient city Modern veneer

Bangkok is a very modern city and not just in terms of architecture and technology. It predates Indian economic surge by almost 30 years and has experienced a stock market debacle in the early nineties and a crash of its currency – the Thai Baht in last nineties when the IMF coached its financial recovery. So in many ways it has gone through what the US and Europe are going through now and what India and China have not since their economies burgeoned.

Whilst Mumbai dreams of becoming the next Shanghai, and New Delhi hopes to become Taiwan, Bangkok offers a template of how Indian cities might look in the future. This is because of the cultural similarity between the two nations – particularly in the way religiosity of the common Thai, their reverence for the royalty, much like our reverence for our political royalty, their tolerant and welcoming manner, their love for bargaining about everything, and finally the importance eating and sharing within families has. Their ‘cool heart’ or jai yen characteristic means that you are unlikely to see heated arguments and certainly no fights. In fact we hardly saw a single policeman – traffic or otherwise during our time there, despite hour long traffic jams and a thriving sex industry. They regulate themselves. No honking, and no shouting. In fact Thais will look at your with alarm if you raise your voice and become rude. They tend to smile or laugh nervously as they don’t know how to react. Do bargain when there for most things, even in big shops are inflated in price. The best bet is to start at 50% and stop somewhere between 2/3 or 4/5 of the asking price. Do this with a smile and be aware whenever someone says ‘ this one costs 100baht but only for you I’ll give it for 90baht’. Its more likely to cost around 50-60Baht. One GBP is 45 Baht, which is valued 1.5 times that of Indian Rupee.

Thais are 80% Buddhists and this religion receives royal patronage. However people are free to practice any other religion and we saw Portugese churches, Mosques, and Indian temples. Thais practice Theravada Buddhism where they believe in one Buddha who attained Nirvana – they call it Nippana, and hence no Dalai Lama for them, unlike the Mahayana group which believes in the reincarnation of Buddha, who comes to earth again and again (like our avatars) through the Dalai. In fact the northern Asian countries of China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Taiwan are all Mahayana while the southern countries are Theravada – Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Burma and Cambodia. Thai Buddhism is a conglomeration of Hindu rituals, ancient animistic practice of worshipping spirits, and Buddhism. Thus, you will have priests presiding over Buddhist temples (which are not called pagodas), offerings of food, fruits, flowers, incense and money are made to appease the lord, requests are made to god (‘If my daughter gets married, I shall offer you Baht 1000, and so on), and a great deal of superstition abounds. In fact you will find in every temple, the Chinese practice (this one comes from Mahayana) of shaking a container full of wooden/bamboo sticks with numbers written on them, held within two folded hands, until the rapid rhythmic shaking throws out one stick. ON the wall would be a stand with messages/advice written on paper under various numbers and you would be expected to go check the number you got. Much like the Indian practice of the parrot picking out a sheet on the roadside. The difference is that Thais take it very seriously as though the advice is straight from the Lord Buddha himself.

In Bangkok, the ancient lives alongside the modern. After the Thai economy crashed in early 90’s increasingly Thai women from the northern districts turned to catering to men by offering traditional Thai massage for small earnings as the men folk turned to alchohol and domestic abuse. This coincided with the end of the drug trade in the Golden Triangle (wait for a blog covering this in the next few days), where thousands of poor farmers were stopped from growing poppies for opium (much like the situation is in Afghanistan today), making them paupers overnight. Now Thai massage is like Ayurvedic massage where the masseuse uses elbows and knees gently to apply pressure in key points to release stress, tension and pain. But some women turned this into a sex trade and others found that much more income could be made if they offered themselves after their skills.

This coincided with a boom of cheap and gratuitous tourism from European countries where men flocked in hundreds every year to benefit from cheap sex industry which was safer than the more vicious industry of the West. Some of these men started marrying these poor women, usually middle aged or older European men, often British. The women jumped at the prospect of leaving a sordid practice behind, going to the UK (Germany, and eastern European countries) and living a comfortable, albeit a lonely life. I remember chatting with a London cabbie once who’d a young Thai wife. He said the reason he got married was ‘because western women think selfishly, but Thais know how to respect and love their men. When I get back home, my bath is ready and hot sumptuous food is on the table. She does not ask for much exceptt respect and equality. I’m more than pleased to provide that’.

In recent times the Patpong and Nana areas have become havens for gay and trans-sexual men. Thailans has a larger than usual share of hermaphrodites (eunuchs in lay terms) according to a local friend, who have always been accepted as part of the society, unlike India where they are marginalized and ostracized. These men, called 'ladyboys' are now offering themselves as consort and attracting a type of tourism that Thailand can do without. But its tolerant nature means that the government does not put a stop to it nor does the religious nature of the society abhor this blatant sexuality. The funny part is that these places, called go-go bars abound and nestle comfortably next to normal shops and restaurants. I found even burkha-clad women (the little Arabia is smack in the middle of Nana district) with their husbands walking calmly through lines of women and gay men standing on the sidewalks. No cheap cat-calls for those soliciting busines and no lewd gestures by those walking through their districts - that's 'Jai yen' or cool heart for you.

Food, markets and meals of Thailand, Laos & Cambodia - Part II

Then there is a variety of noodles too although nothing is really served without rice. You will not find any semblance of bread anywhere unless you went to a bakery, Indian or a western eatery. Noodles are made from either rice, wheat or mung daal flour. You have hofun – wide, flat rice-flour noodles, dried rice vermicelli – very fine rice threads, egg noodles or bami made from wheat and similar to ramen, and glass or cellophane noodles – thin transparent noodles made from mung bean flour.

All south east Asian dishes contain coconut – either in the form of milk, oil or grated into pastes and curries. Thais particularly put palm sugar in everything so one must either be prepared for sweet dishes or ask them to desist. However, there is also a tremendous use of red and very hot chillies – dried, red and green varieties and the really hot variety of Bird’s Eye chillies in UK - which are usually made into paste and put in dishes. You don’t realize the chilli content of your dish as its masked by palm sugar (they don’t use cane sugar) and coconut milk but my word, you do realize it the next morning in the toilet. Other spices commonly used pretty much everywhere are coriander – seeds, leaves and roots, galangal – a rhizome similar to ginger with a distinctive and often pungent fragrance, kafir lime juice and leaves, green peppercorns, krachai or Chinese keys, lemongrass, rice vinegar, rice wine, shrimp and fish paste/sauce, tapioca pearls, tamarind, water chestnut, taucheo or salted soy beans. There is hardly in frying in oil so that the food always tastes fresh and nice.

People eat several times a day – the urban Thais are really nibblers with no fixed rule for eating who will eat a full meal for breakfast or have something light and simple for lunch. More rural Cambodians tend to eat a very heavy breakfast and then only one other meal a day. This is in keeping with Buddhist teaching where monks eat only two meals a day - one at 5am and the other at 2pm. Depending on where you are eating you can have a sumptuous meal for Baht 200 (around £4)in Thailand, for Riyal 10,000 ($2.50)in Cambodia and for Kip 100, 000 (around $13.00) for the whole family in most parts in Laos. Its much cheaper in road-side vendors although one must make sure everything is piping hot.

Thais eat a lot of fruits – what Indians do with their fried fritters, pakoras, vadas, etc or the western man with burgers, nuggets, fried fish, the Thais do with their fruits – they snack on it. You will find small glass and wooden tricycles ferry fresh papaya, watermelons, pineapples (I’ve never eaten sweeter pineapples in my life), coconut, guava, mandarin orange, apples, and the famous Durian. Eaten fresh or dipped into a sauce of sugar, salt and ground chilli, these fruits taste wonderful.

The meat, fish and vegetable markets play a very important part in the common man's life as he must get to it several times a week, although with modern gadgets like fridges, this is easier now. The markets are veritable museums of what the human mouth can consume and the gut can digest. You can everything you never anticipated to be on your plate out here – everything from beetles to tadpoles, snakes to cow stomach, from really small fishes to sharks, and most of those alive and moving!! It’s not something for the squeamish because the smell can be unbearable sometimes for those not used to going to fresh fish and meat markets. But the experience is once in a lifetime so give it a go. Do particularly try out a market about 55 kms outside of Bangkok in a place called Samud Sonkhran (or if you prefer Samudra Sagaram in Indian lingo). At predictable times during the day (10am and 1pm) the neatly and busy market laid out along a train track contracts and expands to let through the local trains pass. Its amazing to watch - Check this out…

Food, markets and meals of Thailand, Laos & Cambodia - Part I

The day began with a trawl through Thai food bazaar in our hotel; the Majestic Grande, a 25 storey five star affair with costs nearer three star level. It has its dining room on 7th floor with the swimming pool set outside and visible from other skyscrapers around it. Breakfast was included and had two sections – Continental and Asian, the latter consisting of largely Thai and Chinese style dishes. I would tuck into the Asian section with real gutso given that Chinese is my faviourite.

People in SEAsia are wonderful cooks and have the magical ability to concoct something out of nothing. Their staple cereal is rice which comes in different flaviours and colours and is served in many ways. You would have rice that is steamed, that is sticky and that is sticky and steamed. Rice is not boiled but placed in a bamboo container and steamed over boiling water. Rice comes in various hues of white, yellow, brown and violet. Usually sticky rice is a breakfast dish or comes as part of starter, while steamed rice is eaten with main course. They tend to eat with hands in rural areas but with a fork and spoon otherwise. The fork is used to shovel food on to the spoon and just as in the west you would not put knife into your mouth, the not so cosmopolitan SEAsians look aghast if a fork is put into the mouth.

Now the more one can say about the spices, the less it would be. Spices form the backbone of all dishes and these folks have the ability to tingle all your taste buds – simultaneously. From sweet and sour to hot/spicy and mild, from tangy to pungent, from hot to cold: no wonder Bangkok is known as the Kitchen of the world as Thais merge Asian with European tastes. They use spices differently to how Indians do – no powdering, pickling or preserving spice pastes for Thais who use fresh spices everytime. Meat of all kinds is served along with a range of fish and poultry dishes. In some Chinese influence restaurants it’s not unusual to find a section on the menu that says ‘Insects’. Thais are known to eat fried insects which I’m told has a crunchy and nutty feel (do keep a glass of lager handily placed next to you should the guts rebel).

While all this was of no interest to Amita, I had a great time. For vegetarians, most restaurants and street vendors would cook all the dishes that contain meat by putting vegetables instead. Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, sweet potato (I could hardly find potato anywhere in this trip), carrots, pak choi – that quintessential Chinese spinach with a wonderful taste, beans, corns and other vegetables make up for what the vegetarian misses out in meat dishes, although without any regrets. Whilst veggies generally tend to ensure that no meat, fish or eggs are in their dishes, beware that you specifically ask that no fish or oyster sauce is used in vegetarian cooking as every Thai dish has traces of it!

Kingdom of Siam: Ayuthayya

Thailand
Thailand was born only on 11th May 1949 before which the nation was referred to by Westerners as ‘Siam’. Medieval Indian references to the country calls it ‘Soumyadesh’ or the land of ‘gentle, calm’ peoples. There are heated debates even now as to the origins of the word Siam. Next door neighbours, the Khmer Cambodians tend to call the Thai by their original Khmer name of ‘Siem’, which means ‘theif or pilferer’ (Ravana, the demon kind from the Indian epic Ramayan is called ‘Siem’ for stealing lady Sita away from her husband Rama). The Khmers believe that Thais stole away Cambodian land in the 13th century after being allowed to live as friends.

The word "Syâm or Syâma" in Sanskrit & Pali means ‘dark skinned’. Khmers, who were Hindus prior to converting to Buddhism, may have used it to refer to ‘dark souls’. Alternatively, it may have been used as a racial sub-typing; Siamese people being "dark/brown" people, being separated by the fairer Chinese, generally considered "yellow people". If one considers the Irish, English, German, Danes as sub races or tribes of "white" as the Sioux, Chickasaw, Pawnee are tribes of the "Red people" in North America, then the Siamese sub-races are the Tai-Kadai, Mon-Khmer and the Austronesian Karen, etc.

The original Siam nation was created between Khmer Cambodia and Thai-Kadai state of ‘Sukhothai', a distortion of the Sanskrit word ‘Sukhodaya’ which means ‘happiness-kindness’. Thais even today place a high value on ‘jai yen’ or ‘cool heart’ such that even in the most trying bumper to bumper traffic jams, honking is rarely heard, even when the other car has just squeezed yours out.


Ayuthaya: The ancient capital of Siam was Ayuthaya, the 'lost city'. It is built at a confluence of three rivers - Chao Phraya, Pa Sak and Lopburi and was the seat of Siamese kingdom and culture between 1350-1767AD. The Royal palace was located here from the time of King Ramathibodi 1 (1350) to King Sam Phraya (1448). King Borommatrailokanat (or if you prefer the Hindu version Brahmatriloknath)ordered a temple (Wat)Phra Si Samphet to be built at this site in 1448AD.

Its stranglehold extended (following the waning of Angkor Wat as the pre-eminent kingdom in SE Asia in 1320 AD)at the height of its powers to present day Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar/Burma. Its strength might have been derived from its Sanskrit meaning 'Unassailable' or 'Undefeatable' as well as its ancient namesake of Ayodhya; the birthplace of Rama. It flourished as a river port, webbed as it was by rivers and khlongs (canals), courted by teh Portugese, Dutch, French, English, Chinese and Japanese merchants.

Its popularity and wealth meant potential disaster by greedy foreigners including one attempt by a Greek advisor to plot a coup. But what distant Europeans could not do, the Burmese did when they ransacked Ayuthaya in 1767. They destroyed much of its Buddhist temples and royal edifices and marched off the Siamese to Burma as slaves. Between 1767-1782, the Siamese were led by Phaya Takhsin, a half-Chinese half-Thai general, who moved the capital further south (away from northern Burma) to Thonburi Si Mahasamut. Power went to his head and he called himself the next Buddha and became violent and totalitarian. His ministers deposed him and executed him in the customary mild-mannered Thai way. They sealed him in a velvet sack so no royal blood would spill on the ground and beat him to death with a scented sandalwood club in 1782.

Thailand - Land of Happiness-Kindness

Bangkok is comfortably Asia’s modernist cities, probably just behind Tokyo and Singapore. Founded almost 200 years ago on the banks of Chao Phraya river it consists of 3600 residents for every square kilometer. Whilst that might not be a lot by Indian standards, the style, grace and cleanliness with which Bangkok manages it is exemplary. The streets are clean of litter, even the poorest wear well laundried and pressed clothes, jasmine blossoms hang everywhere and with incense smoke from religious corners sat atop small pedestals, the ‘spirit houses’, you forget the fumes of vehicles. It boasts of a wonderful mass transit system as well as a waterway system that keeps Bangkokians on the move 24/7. Bangkok has over 250 art galleries and hundreds of pretty women and ‘ladyboys’, their version of transvestites and transsexuals, that adorn the street sidewalks, jostling for space next to a vendor selling deep-fried crunchy insects and beetles, and another selling caged birds of paradise. These sit in front of neon-lighted bars full of western tourists with young nubile Thai consorts. It’s a very modern city whose credentials unfold as you disembark at the Suvarnabhumi airport (the entire south-east Asia was given this name by Indians in medieval times, meaning ‘the golden land’), with its ultra-modern look that makes most European and American airports pale into insignificance. Thais approach everything with a sense of playfulness (although their rage at inequity and unfairness does spill over as the recent Red Shirt movement reveals) – ‘sanuk’. It’s a society where women have a lot of power and control – they control family finances, shops are almost always managed by women, they ply the massage and sex industries too. Traffic is a mayhem and everything is planned around the ebbs and flows of it. More later….

SE Asia - India expanded: Day 1

Over the next few days I shall blog about my reflections during our holiday to three south-asian countries: Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, which concluded today. I am going to transcribe my diary jottings - a somewhat ancient system of making 'fair' an older and 'rough' copy. In fact this reflects many aspects of the cultural life and customs of the peoples of these three Asian countries that have so much in common with the two major neighbours - India and China, that until recent times the entire area was known as Indo-China. The countries have established their own identity collectively as the ASEAN block. This consists of 5 countries each on mainland and islands: Cambodia, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam & Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore and Brunei respectively. We left Heathrow on a Thai airways flight - I was flying Thai for the first time and was impressed by how respectfully and lovingly their crew bow and with folded hands greet you with a 'Sawadi Kha' (for women) and 'Sawadi Khraab' (for men) [milar to 'she' and 'he']. I later learnt that this phrase comes from a Khmer greeting used in Cambodia 'SuSwasthi', which derives from 'Saraswati'. Does this refer to the goddess Sarawati, the goddess of art and culture, or to the civilization that initially emerged from the banks of Saraswati river - Vedic Brahmanism? Either way, the greeting and the gentle manner of the crew reminds me of a time when Indian airline crews were equally gentle and quite unlike the brusque and business-like attitudes they have these days. I settle into a deep slumber quickly and am only awakened by noise emanating from fellow travellers assembled around the windows looking down at a wide expanse of light in the middle of dark night on the ground below. I quickly glance a look at the map unfolding on the flight screens to find that we're flying over Muzaffarnagar. The lights are reflected up into the sky from New Delhi, and I try desperately to take a photo with my new Nokia D7000; a task so cumbersome for a novice like me, that I give up equally swiftly. I keep awake for the next two hours to catch a glimpse of Kolkata to compare the luminiscence factor of the two cities but Kolkata does not come anywhere close to New Delhi. Tomorrow will be long day especially since Taksh is unwell - feverish and we'll be 7 hours ahead of our biological clocks, which means jet-lag. Also I'll be welcomes by my dear friend Harp and his newly wedded wife Tee, who will be flying up to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur to spend a couple of days with us. Ciao until then...

Who Am I?

Who am I?

Am I
The blood, flesh, nerves and bones?
Or
The phlegm, spittle, urine or turd?
The eyes, ears, nose ,and tongue,
Or
The skin, nails, hair and breathe?
Who am I?

Am I
The one who has a name?
Who
Is dark, funny and helpful?
Or
The one who has a genealogy
With
A family name, class and creed?
Who am I?

Am I
The experiencer of personal grief and joy,
Envy, jealousy, greed or shame?
Ecstasy, gratitude, pride and Love?
Or is it
My memories that determine who I am?
Who am I ?

Am I
Constituted by my thoughts, ideas, beliefs and quirks?
Or my
Philosophies, religion, ideologies and dogmas?
Am I
The one with compassion, patriotism,
Sacrifice and pain?
Or am I
The only one who asks the question
Who am I?

Am I
Of atoms, molecules, enzymes and chemicals
That course through the body
Or the breath that enters and leaves
And connects me to the universe
Who
Am I?

Am I
The physical, the emotional, the intellectual
And psychological
Or
the categorical, theological
intentional, causal, autobiographical
or
the temporal, spatial, evocative, interpersonal?
Who
Am I?

Am I
The child loved by his parents
Or
the boy who played with his peers
Am I the brat?
Who could never sit still?
Or
the brother
Who always wanted to win?
Who
am I?

Am I the lover
Whose love knew no bounds
Or the father whose concerns are all too real
Am I
The cousin, nephew, uncle or son in law
Or am I
Merely who I call ‘I’
Who
Am I?

Am I
The Bengali growing up in Bihar
Or the
‘Khotta’ spending time in Bengal?
Am I
The north Indian settling down in south India?
Or the Asian
Living in Great Britain?
Who
Am I?

Am I
One who often works wonders
Or
The drug crazed misfit who lives
In the dumps?
The Kishore-‘kanthi’ who could yoddle and woo
Or
The axe-wielding guitarist a-la Motley
Crue?
Who
Am I?

Am I
The eastern cultured in western garbs?
Or the Western intellect with an eastern spirit?
The artist, poet
Dreamer, genius, the psychotic
Or
The analytical, ethical, grounded man of earth?
Who
Am I?

Am I
The cultural, anthropological, Darwinian organism?
Or
The ephemeral, ethereal, unfathomable?
Or
The intrepid, individual or collective unconscious?
Who am I?

Am I this
Or Am I that
A bit of it and bit of wit?
And does it matter
Who calls me what?
For there is no one really in here
Who asks the question
Who am I?

I set aside the question
And ask myself another
Perhaps it is the question
And not me asking it
That poses the problem?

I rephrase it to:
What am I without another?
The existence of whom
Gives me reason to ponder
Who am I?