The bus drove down the dusty road, The air conditioning was not what
\nthe kids were used to in their own countries. All carrying their
\nionized water packets and personal temperature controllers. The
\nChinese students immediately put on their pollution masks that were
\nstandard for any travel outside China.
\n“But then”, Geeta mused, ” we were told to expect a bit of adventure.”<\/p>\n
\nHer parents had said that life must not be selfish and that we must
\nalso learn about those that were less fortunate than us, culturally
\nor materially.
\n“They sure are”, she thought as she saw the little urchins run after
\nthe bus shouting “Choculatte ! Choculatte !” A strange mixture
\nbetween heavily accented Spanish and Creole English.
\nOf course the Chinese kids had known about the tremendous poverty
\nhere. They had come prepared with high energy enzyme imprinted candy
\nbars to throw to these urchins while taking quick Videograms of them.
\nThis then was the City she had read about in her travel sites. Not a
\nnormal tourist path, but then Geeta was always looking to go where her
\nfriends would not want to. Most of them would have gone to Shanghai
\nor Mumbai.
\nDown the broken streets, with people staring aimlessly. Prostitutes
\nhanging out in skirts too tight and stocking torn at the seams. Men
\nin T shirts, sweating, swigging what looked like stale beer. She
\ntugged at Yang’s arm – pointing to a building that looked like an
\nancient Chinese palace.
\n“An entertainment centre” said the Guide. with great passion ” Once
\nthis city was the centre of culture in the whole world, the great
\nentertainment machine.” Hard to believe.
\nAs Geeta and Yang stepped out of the Bus to take a small climb to what
\nthe Guide promised was the proudest landmark of the City. Up the
\nhill, with a lot of grumbling kids, and into the area now overgrown
\nwith forest and shrub. There the proud Guide showed them large
\nletters almost falling off their steel support. Yang spelled it out
\nH – OLL…Y – WO…O – D
\n“Did you know that the word Bollywood was coined from this City ?’
\nsaid the Guide proudly.
\n‘Dont be silly” said Yang to the Guide. Mouth pouting in disadain.
\nAll the children giggled. They found the Guide so funny.
\nGeeta felt sorry for the Guide. It’s like the myth that the word
\nBoogle came from an ancient site called Google.
\n? Shekhar Kapur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bus drove down the dusty road, The air conditioning was not what the kids were used to in their own countries. All carrying their ionized water packets and personal temperature controllers. The Chinese students immediately put on their pollution masks that were standard for any travel outside China. “But then”, Geeta mused, ” we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n