May | 2014 | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

09/05/2014

India’s Women’s Vote Becomes More Independent – Businessweek

To avoid upsetting her husband, Urmila Devi told him she’ll heed his request to vote for India’s ruling Congress party when their village of 50 families participates in national elections. Once inside the polling booth, she plans to ignore his suggestion. “I’ll vote for a different party,” Devi, 26, says outside her one-room house in Galanodhan Purwa village in Uttar Pradesh state, where she cares for her two children. “I’m concerned about women’s safety. It should be the government’s top priority.”

India's Women's Vote Becomes More Independent

A growing number of women are defying traditional gender roles in India and asserting their voice in elections that began on April 7 and end on May 16. Prompting the change: Higher literacy rates, greater financial independence, and a desire to stem violence against women, which became a highly visible issue after the gang rape and murder of a student in New Delhi in December 2012.

“Over the years, we’ve asked women if they voted on their own or if they voted for whoever their husbands or fathers asked them to,” says Sanjay Kumar, New Delhi-based director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, which conducts opinion polls. “Women were reluctant to tell us earlier, but increasingly they’re saying they’re voting on their own, no matter what the men say.”

via India’s Women’s Vote Becomes More Independent – Businessweek.

Posted in Elections, Good news, India alert, Politics | 2 Comments »

Tags: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, congress party, India, Indian National Congress, national elections, New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, traditional gender roles in India, Urmila Devi, Uttar Pradesh, Violence against women, Voting

09/05/2014

Literary Leaders: Why China’s President is So Fond of Dropping Confucius – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Generous girths aside, Winston Churchill and Chinese President Xi Jinping would seem to have little in common. One was popularly elected, while the other gained power by means of a shadowy process few understand. One was a giant who made his name leading his country through war, while the other’s legacy is still very much in the making.

But the two do share one characteristic besides their robust builds: a fondness for literary allusions.

In the same way Churchill littered his legendary speeches with references to the Bible and nods to Shakespeare, Mr. Xi has displayed a tendency to lard his writings and public statements with quotations from classical Chinese literature.

Xi Jinping Getty Images

On Thursday, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily devoted itself to cataloging the Chinese leader’s literary references, running a full-page spread dedicated to explaining 13 allusions spanning the later part of Mr. Xi’s career. The aim, it said, was to explain the Chinese leader’s thoughts on “the question of cultivating morality among leading cadres.”

Some analysts have interpreted Mr. Xi’s embrace of the classics as a move akin to Churchill’s borrowing from “Henry V” in his World War II speeches: an effort to use pride in a venerable cultural tradition to rally the nation at a time of crisis.

China is not facing war, but Mr. Xi and other Chinese leaders have portrayed the Communist Party as facing a raft of daunting challenges: endemic corruption, hostility abroad and an exceedingly tricky economic transition opposed by entrenched special interests. Having long ago traded in Marxism for the market, analysts say, the party is now trying to shore up its legitimacy by associating itself with a Confucian tradition it once lambasted as feudal and backwards.

Some of Mr. Xi’s references cited by the People’s Daily have more obvious resonances with today’s politics than others.

One quote Mr. Xi used from the Confucian “Book of Rites” in a 2007 essay speaks directly to his current efforts to clean up the behavior of China’s wayward bureaucrats: “Nothing is more visible than what is hidden, and nothing is more obvious than what is minute. Therefore a gentleman is careful of himself even when alone.”

In other instances, however, Mr. Xi’s allusions are less pointed, instead evoking an inchoate political anxiety. Such was the case during a 2013 visit to the Central Party School, when he quoted a line from the “Book of Songs,” another Confucian classic: “In fear and trembling, as if walking on thin ice, as if approaching a deep abyss.”

Mr. Xi is by no means the first Chinese leader to weave classical literature into his essays and speeches. Nor is he the first to attempt to leaven the Communist Party’s rhetoric with a sprinkling of Confucianism. Mr. Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao similarly borrowed from Confucius when he introduced the notion of a “harmonious society” more than a decade ago, notes Sam Crane, a professor of Asian Studies at Williams College. But Mr. Xi, Mr. Crane says, “is being more explicit and direct in his classicism.”

The People’s Daily spread, he adds, is “a rather obvious attempt to bolster [Xi’s] image as a proper gentleman in old Confucian terms: well read, morally upright and finding moral inspiration in the classic texts.”

In a country where even mundane conversations are often shot through with pithy aphorisms taken from classical literature, it makes sense for Mr. Xi show off his sophistication. Yet there could be some danger in reviving the classical texts, which are often vague, shot through with allegory and open to a wide range of interpretations.

Take, for example, this famous quote from Confucius’ Analects that appears in an essay by Mr. Xi on poverty alleviation: “It’s easier to rob an army of its general than it is to rob a common man of his purpose and will.”

According the People’s Daily, Mr. Xi intention in evoking the passage was to encourage officials to cultivate the willpower necessary to “push ahead in the face of innumerable challenges.” But Mr. Crane notes that it might be read differently, particularly in light of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square.

“We should not assume that the state is the articulator of those purposes and will,” he says. “And, indeed, 25 years ago there was a rather massive divergence in the expression of popular purposes and state power.”

via Literary Leaders: Why China’s President is So Fond of Dropping Confucius – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Confucianism is not an obstacle to democracy

Posted in China alert, Politics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Chinese classics, Communist Party, Confucianism, Confucius, George W. Bush, People's Daily, Tiananmen Square, Winston Churchill, Xi JinPing

09/05/2014

Wheat vs. Rice: How China’s North-South Culinary Divide Shapes Personality – China Real Time Report – WSJ

In China, as in many countries, the north-south divide runs deep. People from the north are seen as hale and hearty, while southerners are often portrayed as cunning, cultured traders. Northerners are taller than southerners. The north eats noodles, while the south eats rice—and according to new research, when it comes to personality, that difference has meant everything.

A study published Friday by a group of psychologists in the journal Science finds that China’s noodle-slurping northerners are more individualistic, show more “analytic thought” and divorce more frequently. By contrast, the authors write, rice-eating southerners show more hallmarks traditionally associated with East Asian culture, including more “holistic thought” and lower divorce rates.

The reason? Cultivating rice, the authors say, is a lot harder. Picture a rice paddy, its delicate seedlings tucked in a bed of water. They require careful tending and many hours of labor—by some estimates, twice as much as wheat—as well as reliance on irrigation systems that require neighborly cooperation. As the authors write, for southerners growing rice, “strict self-reliance might have meant starvation.”

Growing wheat, by contrast, the north’s staple grain, is much simpler. One Chinese farming guide from the 1600s quoted in the study advised aspiring farmers that “if one is short of labor power, it is best to grow wheat.”

To produce their findings, the authors evaluated the attitudes of 1,162 Han Chinese students in Beijing and Liaoning in the north and in Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan and Sichuan in the south. To control for other factors that distinguish the north and south—such as climate, dialect and contact with herding cultures—the authors also analyzed differences between various neighboring counties in five central provinces along China’s rice-wheat border.

According to the authors, the influence of rice cultivation can help explain East Asia’s “strangely persistent interdependence.” For example, they say South Korea and Japan have remained less individualistic than Western countries, even as they’ve grown more wealthy.

The authors aren’t alone in observing the influence various crops have on shaping culture. Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book “Outliers” also drew connections between a hard-working ethic (measured by a willingness to fill out long, tedious questionnaires) to a historical tradition of rice cultivation in places such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, given that the farming of such crops is arguably an equally tedious chore.

But what will happen to such differences after people move away from tending such crops, as is now happening across China? The study cites findings that U.S. regions settled by Scottish and Irish herders show more violence even long after most herders’ descendants have found other lines of work as evidence that cultural traits stubbornly resist change, even over time. (Herders, psychologists theorize, are ready to put their lives on the line to protect their animals against thieves or attack.)

“In the case of China,” the authors conclude, “only time will tell.”

via Wheat vs. Rice: How China’s North-South Culinary Divide Shapes Personality – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

■ Eastern and Western cultural differences may come down to rice and wheat

Posted in China alert, Economics, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, East Asia, Han Chinese, Japan, Malcolm Gladwell, Rice, rice cultivation, rice paddy, South Korea, Wheat

09/05/2014

China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Vision Revealed | The Diplomat

On Thursday, China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency unveiled an ongoing feature entitled “New Silk Road, New Dreams.” The series promises to “dig up the historical and cultural meaning of the Silk Road, and spread awareness of China’s friendly policies towards neighboring countries.” The first article [Chinese] was titled “How Can the World Be Win-Win? China Is Answering the Question.”

Xinhua Silk Road Map

The Xinhua series promises the clearest look so far at China’s vision for its Silk Road Economic Belt as well as the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most intriguing pieces released Thursday was a map showing China’s ambitious visions for the “New Silk Road” and “New Maritime Silk Road.” It’s the clearest vision to date of the scope of China’s Silk Road plan.

According to the map, the land-based “New Silk Road” will begin in Xi’an in central China before stretching west through Lanzhou (Gansu province), Urumqi (Xinjiang), and Khorgas (Xinjiang), which is near the border with Kazakhstan. The Silk Road then runs southwest from Central Asia to northern Iran before swinging west through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. From Istanbul, the Silk Road crosses the Bosporus Strait and heads northwest through Europe, including Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Reaching Duisburg in Germany, it swings north to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From Rotterdam, the path runs south to Venice, Italy — where it meets up with the equally ambitious Maritime Silk Road.

The Maritime Silk Road will begin in Quanzhou in Fujian province, and also hit Guangzhou (Guangdong pronvince), Beihai (Guangxi), and Haikou (Hainan) before heading south to the Malacca Strait. From Kuala Lumpur, the Maritime Silk Road heads to Kolkata, India then crosses the rest of the Indian Ocean to Nairobi, Kenya (the Xinhua map does not include a stop in Sri Lanka, despite indications in February that the island country would be a part of the Maritime Silk Road). From Nairobi, the Maritime Silk Road goes north around the Horn of Africa and moves through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, with a stop in Athens before meeting the land-based Silk Road in Venice.

The maps of the two Silk Roads drive home the enormous scale of the project: the Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road combined will create a massive loop linking three continents. If any single image conveys China’s ambitions to reclaim its place as the “Middle Kingdom,” linked to the world by trade and cultural exchanges, the Xinhua map is it. Even the name of the project, the Silk Road, is inextricably linked to China’s past as a source of goods and information for the rest of the world.

China’s economic vision is no less expansive than the geographic vision. According to the Xinhua article, the Silk Road will bring “new opportunities and a new future to China and every country along the road that is seeking to develop.” The article envisions an “economic cooperation area” that stretches from the Western Pacific to the Baltic Sea.

Despite this expansive goal, it’s not quite clear yet exactly what will tie together the disparate countries along the New Silk Road (both on land and at sea). China has discussed building up infrastructure (especially railways and ports) along the route, yet the Xinhua article specifically says the vision includes more than simply speedy transportation. China envisions a trade network where “goods are more abundant and trade is more high-end.” Beijing expects the economic contact along the Silk Roads to boost productivity in each country. As part of this vision, China has repeatedly stressed its economic compatibility with many of the countries along the planned route, and offered technological assistance to countries in key industries.

China also envisions the Silk Road as a region of “more capital convergence and currency integration” — in other words, a region where currency exchanges are fluid and easy. Xinhua notes that China’s currency, the renminbi, is becoming more widely used in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Thailand. Yet the article does not call for the renminbi to become the Silk Road’s primary currency, but rather hopes that local currencies will be the dominant means of economic deals.

From economic exchanges, China hopes to gain closer cultural and political ties with each of the countries along the Silk Road — resulting in a new model of “mutual respect and mutual trust.” The Silk Road creates not just an economic trade route, but a community with “common interests, fate, and responsibilities.” The Silk Road represents China’s visions for an interdependent economic and political community stretching from East Asia to western Europe, and it’s clear that China believes its principles will be the guiding force in this new community. “China’s wisdom for building an open world economy and open international relations is being drawn on more and more each day,” Xinhua wrote.

But for all the ambitious talk, details remain scarce on how this vision will be implemented. Will the land- and sea-based Silk Roads be limited to a string of bilateral agreements between China and individual countries, or between China and regional groups like the European Union and ASEAN? Is there a grander vision, such as a regional free trade zone incorporating all the Silk Road countries? Or will China be the tie that binds it all together, with no special agreements directly linking, say, Kazakhstan and Germany?

via China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Vision Revealed | The Diplomat.

Posted in China alert, Economics, railway, shipping, Trade, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, European Union, Maritime Silk Road, Nairobi, Silk Road, Venice

08/05/2014

Four Reasons Why Narendra Modi Makes Some Indians Nervous – Businessweek

The question always comes up in New Delhi these days, somewhere between polite introductions and drinks: What would the reign of Narendra Modi, who seems increasingly likely to be the next prime minister, mean for India?

BJP candidate Narendra Modi addresses an election rally on April 10 at Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur, India

One man, pro-business and a glass of whiskey in hand at the club, told me recently that Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bring needed centralization to a government that at times seems unable to impose its writ. Another—a highly educated liberal in socks, slacks, and polo shirt on the sofa just before lunch—wondered aloud whether the nation is forsaking its secular mooring for a dangerous populist.

Prediction in politics, especially in a nation as large and complex as India, is bound to be wrong much of the time. But public remarks by BJP officials and conservative Hindus apparently taking note of political winds are worth considering. (To be sure, there have been sharp words from both sides. For example, video surfaced of a candidate from the ruling Congress Party saying that he would “chop” Modi into tiny pieces.) Beneath the back and forth of explanation and disavowal, the consistency and vehemence of the messaging suggest an approach that, in a nation with a history of sectarian bloodshed, has some worried:

1. A conservative Hindu politician told a crowd that there are ways to discourage Muslims from purchasing property in Hindu neighborhoods. According to one account, Pravin Togadia allegedly met with protestors outside a home owned by a Muslim businessman and gave the occupant 48 hours to vacate the house. Togadia advised his audience to use stones, tires, and tomatoes, according to the Times of India. Togadia disputed that version of events and claimed through an online post that he was only offering advice on using the legal and governmental channels “if they felt that they are being forced into any selling of their houses.” (The newspaper subsequently said it has video confirming the initial report.)

The anecdote takes on broader significance for two reasons: The incident occurred in the western state of Gujarat, where some 1,000 people, mostly Muslim, were killed in brutal riots that included death-by-sword in 2002. The chief minister of Gujarat at the time of that bloodshed, as is still the case, was Narendra Modi. But as ever in Indian politics, there are caveats: A Supreme Court-appointed panel found no evidence that Modi’s decisions prevented the 2002 riot victims from receiving help. While Modi and Togadia have a shared background in Hindu nationalist politics, the two men do not now get along well.

2. A BJP parliament candidate informed a rally that those who do not support Modi will soon have no place in India. With senior BJP leadership standing by, Giriraj Singh said that Pakistan, the Muslim nation to the west, is where such people belong. BJP officials were quick to publicly express displeasure with Singh’s remarks, but he did not back down: “I stand by my statement that those trying their best to stop Modi from coming to power have no place in India and should go to Pakistan.”

3. A senior Modi aide was accused of telling voters they could get revenge by voting for Modi. Amit Shah was speaking in a north India district earlier this month near the site of riots last year that included murder and reports of gang rape. One account described how a “crowd of Hindu men came brandishing guns, swords and machetes, shouting that Muslims should go either to Pakistan or Kabristan (graveyard).”

4. Modi has signaled his desire to distance his campaign from militant sentiment and focus on shared national goals. As he tweeted on Tuesday:

I disapprove any such irresponsible statement & appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so.

4:58 AM – 22 Apr 2014

Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP’s well wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development & good governance.

4:57 AM – 22 Apr 2014

However, many still point to his remarks during an interview with Reuters last year about the 2002 riots:

“Another thing, any person if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is. If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.”

There was an expression of sadness in those words. And there was, too, the unavoidable fact that he’d compared the dead to dogs.

via Four Reasons Why Narendra Modi Makes Some Indians Nervous – Businessweek.

Posted in Elections, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Bharatiya Janata, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Gujarat, India, Modi, Narendra Modi, Pakistan, Praveen Togadia

08/05/2014

The Reluctant Prince of India’s Political Dynasty and His Anticampaign – Businessweek

Whither the House of Gandhi?

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at the district collector's office on April 12 in Amethi, India

The Nehru-Gandhi family has dominated Indian politics since the nation’s independence in 1947, but it now faces a walloping at the polls, possibly its worst ever. While voting in national elections won’t be finished until next month, every indication is the Congress Party—for which a Gandhi presides as president and vice president—will lose the prime minister’s seat and watch its share of parliament thin considerably.

The face of that probable political calamity is Rahul Gandhi, a 43-year-old, good-looking Cambridge man who speaks of the need for a more inclusive political process. And as I’ve heard more than one liberal, middle-class Indian acknowledge with regret in their voices, he’s not much of a public politician.

via The Reluctant Prince of India’s Political Dynasty and His Anticampaign – Businessweek.

Posted in Elections, India alert, Internal politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Cambridge, Gandhi, independence in 1947, India, Indian National Congress, Indian politics, Narendra Modi, national elections, Nehru–Gandhi family, political dynasty, politics, rahul gandhi

08/05/2014

Study Released at World Urban Forum Shows Value of Waste Pickers – Businessweek

You don’t rummage through piles of garbage looking for recyclable items if you have other options in life. Waste pickers are pretty close to the bottom of the career prestige ladder. But they do provide a useful service, simultaneously reducing the volume of waste that goes into landfills and providing useful raw materials like glass, plastic, and paper to manufacturers.

Indian rag pickers search for usable material at a Dhapa dump site, the waste zone in eastern Kolkata

A study released last week at the World Urban Forum in Medellín, Colombia, based on interviews with hundreds of waste pickers, street vendors, and home workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, finds that all three types of workers “could make greater contributions if local policies and practices supported, rather than hindered, their work.” The study was performed by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (Wiego) and its partners in what’s known as the Inclusive Cities project.

Waste pickers are a prime example. Local governments often seem ambivalent about whether to support them or shut them down—for example, by trucking away waste and burying or burning it before anyone has a chance to pick through it.

via Study Released at World Urban Forum Shows Value of Waste Pickers – Businessweek.

Posted in Economics, India alert, poverty | Leave a Comment »

Tags: africa, Asia, Colombia, Informal sector, Latin America, Medellín, recyclable items, Waste pickers, Wiego, World Urban Forum

08/05/2014

The Mystery Shrouding China’s Communist Party Suicides – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Being a government official in China is not for the faint of heart, the thin-skinned or the fragile of mind.

A recent state media report has reverberated online and in the Communist Party press by revealing that at least 54 Chinese officials died of “unnatural causes” in 2013, and that more than 40 percent of those deaths were suicides (in Chinese).

For some, those numbers raise questions about the burden placed on officials as a result of the Party’s anti-corruption crusade. But others see the recent rash of suicides as further evidence of the lack of political openness in China.

The latest victim was Xu Ye’an, the deputy chief of China’s national-level Bureau for Letter and Calls—the agency that handle petitions from disgruntled citizens. According to local media reports (in Chinese), Xu killed himself in his office, those the circumstances of his death remain unclear.

Then there was Zhou Yu, a senior police official in Chongqing and a major player in the anti-gang crackdown there a few years ago. He was found in a hotel room having apparently hanged himself (in Chinese).

There was also the deputy director of a neighborhood construction management office in a small city in Zhejiang province, who was responsible for overseeing building inspections at a time when an entire apartment building collapsed, was reported to have committed suicide in disgrace (in Chinese).

That Chinese officials have had to deal with pressure is nothing new.

A survey in 2009 found that more than 80% of Party officials reported psychological fatigue and mental imbalance (in Chinese). High-level officials even went so far then to tell the Party-run People’s Tribune about the “five ways to death” facing those who worked in the government: “without fortitude, you’ll scare easily; without a good physique, you’ll die from overwork; without capacity for liquor, you’ll die from drink; without a good disposition, you’ll be worried to death; without a good heart, you’ll die from being angry.”

What is different is that these strains on the rank-and-file appear to have gotten even more oppressive amidst Beijing’s demands that cadres labor harder, govern more effectively, and behave better. As one essay last week noted (in Chinese), the emphasis for officials these days is on “‘work, work, work,’ ‘assessment, evaluation, assessment,’ ‘management, management, management’.” Cadres, according to the author, now resemble “men used as beasts.”

via The Mystery Shrouding China’s Communist Party Suicides – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Posted in China alert, Politics, Social & cultural, suicide | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, Chinese official, Chinese officials, Chongqing, Communists, Death, Suicide, Zhejiang, Zhou Yu

08/05/2014

A Silver Lining in Beijing Smog: Soaring Pollution Penalty Revenues – Businessweek

Looking for a silver lining in Beijing’s gray smog? The city’s environmental protection bureau says fees collected from polluters are soaring, already totaling 88 million yuan ($14 million) this year. That’s way up from 8.34 million yuan in penalties levied over the same period last year, according to the China Daily.

Tiananmen Square during severe pollution on Feb. 25 in Beijing

The surge in penalties isn’t because the smog’s been worse. In January, the fines went up more than 10-fold for major pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ammonia nitrogen.

The higher fees are already helping encourage companies to retire some of their worst habits. “Many companies used to ignore the old discharge fee because it was simply too insignificant,” said Zhong Chonglei, head of the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Team, at a press conference on May 6. “The increased fee has made many companies realize the importance of emission reduction.”

via A Silver Lining in Beijing Smog: Soaring Pollution Penalty Revenues – Businessweek.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, Beijing China, Beijing Environmental Monitoring Team, China, environmental protection bureau, Fee, Nitrogen dioxide, pollution, Smog

08/05/2014

Website PlateCulture Helps Create Pop-Up Indian Restaurants Across Asia – India Real Time – WSJ

Sunil Dembla arrived at his upscale Bangkok home one recent Tuesday evening to find strangers around his dining room table.

So, he kicked off his shoes and began pouring red wine.

The guests were waiting for the famous chicken biryani, fish tikka and prawn curry made by Mr. Dembla’s wife, Anchaal. In the meantime, the couple’s daughters Neha, 18, and Karina, 14, were chatting with the group like seasoned hostesses.

For on this evening, the Demblas’ Phrom Pong home had become a cozy restaurant — with eight paying customers — thanks to a year-old website called PlateCulture.

Think of it as an Airbnb for foodies in parts of Asia: Keen home chefs open their home to interested diners, who pay a per-head fee for a family-style meal.

Guests, who can book solo or as a group, get the home-cooked cuisine and intimacy of a dinner party, without any work. Hosts get a chance to show off their culinary prowess and open up their homes to prospective friends — as Mrs. Dembla puts it, “expand recipe book and social circle at the same time.”

The Mumbai-born Mrs. Dembla’s menu was traditional Indian, with a few Thai twists added in a salute to her adopted home of Bangkok — for example, her aloo tikki potato croquettes were skewered with stems of fresh lemongrass.

“When we have guests, the food is fancier,” says Mr. Dembla, far from annoyed at coming home to a house full of visitors. “Who can complain about that?”

via Website PlateCulture Helps Create Pop-Up Indian Restaurants Across Asia – India Real Time – WSJ.

Posted in India alert, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Airbnb, Asia, Bangkok, chicken biryani, Cooking, Dembla, dining room table, India, Indian cuisine, mumbai, Sunil Dembla

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

Categories

Blogs I Follow

Archive for May, 2014

India’s Women’s Vote Becomes More Independent – Businessweek

China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Vision Revealed | The Diplomat

Four Reasons Why Narendra Modi Makes Some Indians Nervous – Businessweek

The Reluctant Prince of India’s Political Dynasty and His Anticampaign – Businessweek

Study Released at World Urban Forum Shows Value of Waste Pickers – Businessweek

A Silver Lining in Beijing Smog: Soaring Pollution Penalty Revenues – Businessweek

Tags

Creative Commons

Archives

Meta

Blog Stats

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

Categories

Blogs I Follow

Archive for May, 2014

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Related articles

Tags

Creative Commons

Archives

Meta

Blog Stats