Mindless Banter

I came here last May and since then slowly and steadily the city has been growing on me. I find a lot of similarities between India and Korea in terms of the shopping markets, the town plans, people behavior in public, etc etc. Well, people may disagree, but thats their point of view.Let me talk about whats not same. The pride in one's own country, its culture and language. Making systems, procedures and following them. The way they keep their surroundings clean even while staying in a godforsaken alley. And the penchant to enjoy life and nature. The list is long, but I intend to stop here.

I stay in Mapo which is actually in downtown Seoul and my place is just above the station. Its a grand view from my pad and perhaps any new tourist in town could come to my place and I could show them the Han River, The Seoul TV Tower and the 63 Building. Thats a LOT...and on a full moon night....its fantastic.

I have been trying out the different types of Korean Food and I love the Samgyepsal. Soft slices of Pork meat barbecued on charcoal fire and eaten with a variety of leaves and accompaniments. I make that at home too but in a slightly different home grown method.

This month we are having this Film Festival in Seoul, but I got to know pretty late in the day. Veerzara, Raincoat and Page 3 were what I could manage to see. Missed out on Pinjar, though. A few of my Korean colleagues have evinced interest and that’s a good sign. I have been planning to watch some Korean movies myself and I now need to implement my plan.

The latest fad here in Korea is to develop un-chartered areas into tourism spots by creating Television Serial Outdoor shooting sets. The serial goes live, the place gets famous, commerce increases, and tourists come in – all in all a great idea. I am sure we benchmark such stuff in India too. In India a lot of tourist spots are like doing a pilgrimage. Bad transportation, lousy accommodation and reservations systems, pathetic marketing, seem to be the order of the day. We are happy with the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Kodaikanal and the beaches of Goa. Lets privatize Ministry of Tourism, and I ‘ll take over Marketing. Who would look after Operations?

Today I had Beef Curry for lunch and a colleague of mine, Andy treated me and Yes, I eat beef and for that matter I eat most of the stuff. I need some guts for cockroaches perhaps as in China, but I have advanced to silk worms all right!! I am deviating and so I will backtrack. I was talking about the curry bit and found that perhaps we Indians can give a long lecture to most guys outside of India on the variety of curries that could be produced by differentiating the apices, their proportions and the administration. In Korea, a lot of people think that a “Curry”: is a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. That’s a new one for you? Nothing could be more untrue. I can perhaps tell you on how some curries can ensure that your liver and kidneys start malfunctioning if you are habituated with them.Well, that’s it for now and we’ll catch up again. Sphere: Related Content