Oriental odyssey- Part 1

Yes it must be seeming like I have a lot of time on hand to be able to write another blog within one week!! Well....kind of yes, but then it's more out of my lack of faith in my memory, that I am writing this post. Lest I should forget all the details, I should pen down (or in this case type out). I was scheduled to travel back to my project in US, when I was told to cut short my vacation and travel to Shanghai (China) for a week and then travel back. As much as I hated leaving home earlier, I was tempted to (OK this will sound pompous!) add another country to the list.

Well, since it was a week long trip, naturally that left no time to venture the 'Manhattan of China' during the day. During the evening, me and my colleague ventured out on foot to see the local Shanghai. We decided to go see the "Bund", which curiously enough is derived from the Urdu word "band" meaning embankment (just a bit of trivia I just found). The word travelled to Shanghai through the Jews who fled from India and settled in Shanghai. This area traditionally housed banks and trading institutions. But the history aside, it would have been one beautiful place to walk, had it not been for the enormous structures covering the Huangpu river. Shanghai is preparing for the World Expo in 2010 and you can see the difference in preparation between there and in New Delhi for the Common Wealth Games.

I had stopped writing the blog last night and guess what? I am resuming the same from within my office. Everyone is in the holiday mood and so the calendar has no meetings, and the mails have only one response OOO (Out of Office)

So coming back to my riverside walk. All was going well till me and my colleague thought that it would be a good idea to have a coffee in the freezing weather. And we spotted a McDonald's cafe right in front of us in a street we later realized was India' version of Fashion Street (actually think that is what is was called even in Shanghai!). Just when I decided to take out my wallet to pay for the coffee and the glass of milk (yes, keep no doubts, I was not the one ordering the milk :) ) I realized that I had been mugged......MY WALLET WAS MISSING!!!! I was consoled that I was carrying a huge bag and that the wallet must be somewhere in there only. And I believed it :D

Anyways, we drank the coffee, clicked some pictures, fake bargained for some items in the Fashion Street and returned happily. Then when I checked my bag, what was I to find? What else....the bag was not there! Hurriedly I called up all my credit/debit card companies and blocked the cards and then sat down to think. Foolishly enough I had not kept any money with my luggage and had it not been for my colleague, I would hae been stranded in a non English speaking country on a business trip, without a single paisa!!!! Had placed a request with American Express for a replacement card (God bless them that they stuck to their word and delivered the card within 24 hrs!!), but the aadarsh (ideal) world citizen in me told me that I should lodge a complaint with the police for the lost wallet. So I tried to explain to the hotel reception that I need their help in getting the FIR written. low as they are, it took 4 Chinese people to understand this. After that they told me to go back to my room......hello.....I wanted to talk to the Police.....Oh is it? Then they made a call to the local Police station and took me to a meeting room away from the eyes of the public loitering in the hotel lobby and the Policemen came there. The room was shut. Me, 2 cops, and an ENGLISH SPEAKING CHINESE!!! Then started the interrogation----where did you go, why did you go there, who went with you, what time did you go there.......

(I hope this is going somewhere).

I tried to tell them that the wallet was brown in colour, had a photo of an Indian Saint (Sai Baba), my driver's license (and all other content description) and that I had the number of the cab in which I was travelling. To my layman mind they seemed like important information. Apparently not!!

And then cops then told the conceirge, who then told me that I was supposed to go to the Police station with them

(What??? I have not stolen the wallet!!! It was MY BROWN wallet and it has been stolen!!! Why should I go to the Police station? You have the information you think is important to find the thief.....go fetch!!)

Yes that was my thought bubble as I walked towards the cab.

I knew this bit of trivia but never thought I would find it irritating. Neha (my name!!) is phonetically verrrrrry similar to Hello in the Mandarin language. "Ni Hao" (don't believe me? read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_hao). So how is this irritating? I am in a Police station in China, at 11:30 PM, with a police man who is so old that you would want to help him sit straight in a chair (so naturally he is hard of hearing too) and I am trying to tell him my name......and he is smiling back and nodding!!! I rambled something (censored) and smiled back (I could ramble in any language I wanted....English or Hindi....they understood neither!!!! :D ). Then finally I handed over my passport to him and told the conceirge who was accompanying me to tell the sweet old man that I had enough of saying hello to him and that he should read my name from the passport.

After snoozing at the police station for an hour, I thought I had worried my parents back home enough, to have their first born sit in a Police station in a foreign land at an ungodly hour, I decided that the rate at which the FIR was being written, I could safely conclude that I would never get back my wallet and head back to the hotel. Oh...by the way here the guy finally asked me the wallet description and contents (phew!!! something to make me hope that they were not just humoring me by writing a fake FIR). I told the conceirge, that it was getting late and that I would come and collect my FIR the next day morning and we should leave now. Somehow the ultimatums always make people work faster (not as fast as I had hoped). The grandfather policeman quickly asked me to sign on few places which were duly translated to me in English. I wrote it down, that I am signing based on my understanding of the translation only and should not be held responsible if I have been misquoted cuz I could only see ants on that piece of paper and somewhere between the ants was the name "Neha Chaturvedi" (that was the only English on that paper, in case you did not get that!!). And then he said he will complete the rest and keep it so that I can collect it tomorrow. So much so for the speed :)

I signed the paper and stepped out hoping for a cab (though it was just a 5 minutes walk to the hotel, but Shanghai does get really cold in the night). The concierge had kept himself warm with 3-4 cigarettes in the 1 hour I was there. We literally sprinted to the Hotel. Before I could finally call it a day I recieved a call from the reception that the police were waiting for me downstairs. I rushed downstairs, literally singing praises for the fast action that the Chinese police take.....they already found my wallet??? I was told that people did not find their passports, how could I hope of finding my wallet, but they had found it....!

By now the lift reached the reception. I eagerly walked up to the Policemen (never was I so happy to see a cop).....and he handed me.....MY COPY OF THE FIR!!!!! So people don't really find their wallets in Shanghai!!

I was too tired by now to mull over the happenings. I called up home, let them know I was okay and that the Chinese police had not put me in jail for losing my wallet and finally hit the sack.

wan an (Good Night!)