The Diversity Blog

Jun 7, 2017

Save the Black Necked Crane: Good Karma (LinkedIn, April 16, 2017).

black necked crane

The hope and wish to spot the vulnerable black necked cranes kept me going from Thimphu to Gangtey, in charming Bhutan. Thanks to the extensive road-works all along, the drive to the glacial Phobjikha valley, home of Gangteng Monastery and the host for the bird renowned ornithologist late Dr Salim Ali never got to see, turned out to be much longer than anticipated.

The black necked crane is categorized as ‘vulnerable’ in the red list of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are winter visitors to the Phobjikha where they breed in summer. On arrival here they are seen to circumambulate the Gangteng Monastery three times and repeat this act as they begin to return to Tibetan plateau in early spring. The Monastery hosts a Black Necked Crane festival in its courtyard every year starting November 11. Revered as heavenly birds, their arrival is considered a good omen and echo of their calls is a source of spiritual happiness.

Just as we got closer to 3000 meters above the mean sea level, the interplay of clouds and light on the emerging landscape made every moment rather dramatic. Sighting the second highest peak in the Bhutanese Himalayas – Mount Jomolhari and other snow capped ranges, splendid red and pink rhododendrons, white orchids, nomads selling their wares including the yak cheese in the vast prairie like rugged terrain, the 108 colourful stupas at Dochula – was an exciting build up to the arrival in the glacial valley. The red pandas did not oblige. The Kalij pheasants and Tinkas – the red beaked crows did!

Tour guide Yeshi kept the hope of spotting the elusive cranes in early April alive as he gets a fresh update from his WhatsApp network. “Guys, there could still be three of them around – two mature and a baby”. “No worries”, says he in American accent, “you will in the least see the injured Karma in his cage at the crane centre”. Some consolation! Karma he informs will never be able to fly again as he has permanently damaged his left wing.

As I check into my room at the Wangdu Lodge, on the periphery of the wetlands in the valley – where the cranes spend up to five months arriving late October or early November and departing late February or early March, Yeshi has some great news. There is a crane very close to our lodge. I rush out in time to take a few hurried pictures – before it flies off – from close enough to hear the flapping and cackle. The sunlight by then was already dimming inside the valley and lighting up the higher reaches of the surrounding mountains.

All three days at Gangtey the divine bird kept re-appearing. Why it chose not to follow the flock remains a mystery. I overheard some speculation at the Visitor Centre about its lack of fitness to fly the distance and altitude. However, it seems to be looking after itself alright and rather mindful of the preying eyes of wild dogs, leopards and foxes.

Perhaps it was one of these that disabled Karma, the caged resident at the Centre, managed by the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN). A mirror on the cage wall seems to dispel his loneliness. There is an ongoing appeal inviting contributions to look after him. As I take pictures, Yeshi points at what is supposed to be white portions of his wings which have begun to get darker!

Supporters of the black necked cranes need to be mindful that their arrivals now attract increasing number of interested tourists. That means more construction, more chopped trees, growing agriculture and land acquisition around the wetlands, increasing vehicular activity – while the Gangteng monastery ensures local community celebrates the connection – the economics could potentially threaten the bird’s eco-system.

The ICDP (Integrated Black Necked Crane Conservation & Development Program) introduced since 1999 successfully does the balancing act with the following goals:

Promote positive attitudes toward the conservation and habitat
Enhance economic opportunities for the local community
Conduct research on their habitat and threats
Develop Phobjikha into a model ecotourism destination
Enable self-sustainability of the PCAP (Phobjikha Conservation Area Program) committee with representation of all local stakeholders, with an emphasis on alternative income generating opportunities for local women.

While the RSPN seems to be in good control, any extra support will only keep the dramatic celebration ongoing for benefit of the posterity. In the meantime kindly do consider responding to the appeal.

Jun 7, 2017

Contract Certainty, Governance & Risk – Thoughts from a Leader: Mr. Sandeep Phadnis (Happenings@RQBE, Issue 29).

Our guest’s expertise ranges from governance and compliance to the full spectrum of risk, including risk transfer. He has a rare feather in his cap. A hands on experience in Liability class policy wordings. A true champion of Contract Certainty!

Mr. Sandeep Phadnis has 25 years’ professional experience in Corporate Secretarial & Legal functions. He is Head Secretarial at Kirloskar Brothers Limited, an iconic 130 year old brand. Mr. Phadnis is an Associate member at both The Institute of Company Secretaries of India and The Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, UK.

He sits on the Boards of Karad Projects and Motors Limited, The Kolhapur Steel Limited, SPP Pumps Inc. and Syncroflo Inc., Atlanta.

Q: What makes policy wordings particularly of a specialist insurance offering unique?

A: Insurance policies, for long, have been worded by the lawyers in our country. These used to be typically health, vehicle, marine and life contracts. With the advent of special insurance products, the need was felt to have specialists for insurance policy wordings.

The specialist insurance products are offered by insurers so as to suit the needs of the customers, which may deviate from the standard products. Most of the times, such policies are customized to suit the specific needs. In such cases, the policy wordings play a very significant role. The wordings in such cases should hit the balance between the customers’ expectations, the insurer’s offerings and the regulatory provisions. It is not an easy task to satisfy all the stakeholders and that’s where the policy wordings play a crucial role.

Q: Can contract structure be a differentiator in the sense that it is explicit and there is no room for ambiguity?

A: An insurance contract is an arrangement in which one party, the insurer, accepts significant insurance risk from another party, the policyholder, to compensate the policyholder if a specific uncertain future event impacts the policyholder for a defined consideration called insurance premium.

Taking forward what I have said in the answer to earlier question, I feel it is very important to have the insurance policy drafted by an expert. It has to be explicit and there should be no room for different interpretation as it has the potential to lead the same to litigation. The policy ought to be read in toto to derive the correct meaning. One cannot read the wording in isolation. These need to be read and understood in both letter and spirit. For which it is essential that the policy is structured properly with no ambiguity.

Q: Should consumers of complex insurance solutions invest in better understanding of coverage wordings?

A: The complex insurance policies entail high amount of premium. And in that case it is pertinent that the consumer understands what he is getting in return. Not many consumers are yet investing in the better understanding of insurance contracts.

There are insurance brokers who have the expertise in insurance policy wordings and provide these services to the consumers. However, it is always better to have an in house expert who understands the policy wordings and knows not only the agreed terms but also what is going on within that can impact the policy in future. Probably broker may not have access to this.

Q: Do you get a sense that customers here are beginning to value quality of coverage rather than price alone?

A: Earlier days, consumers used to care only for insurance premium rather than coverage. So it was quantity over quality. They were not much concerned about what they were getting in return. It was mostly governed by the thought that I have done my job by paying the lowest possible premium for the insurance cover without really bothering about what all they got in return.

With many private players entering the insurance arena, there is already a lot of competition in place. And actually insurance has become a ‘sector’ to recognize. People have started realizing that it is a Buyer’s market. With resulting growing awareness customers have started realizing the importance of quality of offerings. They do expect a lot of value added services rather than just the product. This is what is keeping the insurance industry on its toes continuously.

Q: What in your mind needs to be done to ensure ‘contract certainty’ comes of age in our market?

A: Contract certainty is achieved by the complete and final agreement of all terms between the insured and insurer before inception. The full wordings need to be agreed before the parties formally commit to the contract of insurance. I feel there should be a Code of Conduct, which can act as a Charter document while ensuring contract certainty. The Code may make it mandatory that the policy wordings or a term sheet is shared with the consumer before inception of the insurance contract.

Q: Do you believe risk transfer involving reputational risks is part and parcel of an organisation’s governance process?

A: I believe that a major challenge for businesses worldwide today is getting ready for the unexpected. While preparing the risk mitigation plan, often reputational risk is overlooked or underestimated. Risk management is a part of the governance process and it also entails transfer of risk. The insurable risks can be transferred to insurers. However, reputational risk and evaluation of loss of reputation is difficult to quantify and transfer. The consumers have to manage these risks on their own. The slightest error, whether unintentional or intentional, can not only quickly escalate into a major incident that causes damage to the reputation but also causes damage to the resources at hand. While designing the Governance process, the attention also needs to be paid to the reputational risk and mitigation plan for the same.

Q: As a Key Management Person (KMP) and ‘gatekeeper of governance’ do you believe a Company Secretary rather than the CFO will increasingly be the key decision maker in risk transfer?

A: I have always believed that the roles of Company Secretary and the Chief Financial Officer complement each other. They both are KMPs and have very important roles to play. While CS is nominated as a Compliance Officer, the CFO also has to pay attention to various compliances as well. The CFO has a good understanding of the financial implications of any decision on the business whereas the CS can evaluate the regulatory and contractual aspects of a decision. Because of this, I feel that these two positions should jointly be the key decision makers in risk management process.

Q: Given your experience as a director on boards across the world, what are your thoughts on a) Level of governance at Indian boards vis-à-vis rest of the world? b) Is the role of independent director on Indian boards getting more onerous?

A. I have been fortunate to receive exposure to the Boards of companies in other countries and their proceedings. The Governance level in Indian companies that I have worked were always at par with the global standards. More or less the governance requirements all over are similar, some are more stringent abroad. Because of Clause 49 of the erstwhile Listing Agreement, all listed Indian entities were following good governance norms. With that many unlisted Indian entities also started following these norms voluntarily.

Today the independent director’s role has become more challenging due to intense scrutiny from stakeholders, greater demands imposed by regulatory requirements and an increase in overall complexity of the business environment in which corporates function. The rights and wrongs of these provisions including the extent to which the law should prescribe the corporate governance practices is a subject matter of intense debate in the Corporate World and its policy makers.

Apr 16, 2017

The Handmaiden’s Woes: Stranded Assets!

“Insurance is a handmaiden of the Industry” was almost a gospel truth when I started in the trade. From an initial sense of detest to try positioning insurance into the mainstream consciousness has been a personal exploration. Perhaps assuming an activist role by refusing to be the doormat is a recurring one. With the arrival of ‘Stranded Assets’ into insurance lexicon the luxury of biding any more time seems to have passed us by. Climate change if I may say is the cause of the handmaiden’s woes resulting into asset stranding. It is important that we recognize the how and why of the brownie points we have been gathering through our journey. Also, how the governance of our economics and politics is converging globally into the troika of ESG? Whether or not we take that seriously, we have already set a ticking time bomb for the human race.

Diminishing carrying capacity

Let’s indulge in some diagnostics ailing the handmaiden.

At the heart of it all is the crying need to bring a balance between Anthropocentrism and Ecocentrism. The individual, cultural, and technological skills of humans are among the attributes that make Homo sapiens, special and different. However, the true measure of evolutionary success, in contrast to temporary empowerment and intensity of resource exploitation, is related to the length of time that a species remains powerful—the sustainability of its enterprise. There are clear signals that the intense exploitation of the environment by humans is causing widespread ecological degradation and a diminished carrying capacity to sustain people, numerous other species, and many types of natural ecosystems. If this environmental deterioration proves to truly be important, and there are many indications that it will, then the recent centuries of unparalleled success of the human species will turn out to be a short-term phenomenon, and will not represent evolutionary success. This will be a clear demonstration of the fact that humans have always, and will always, require access to a continued flow of ecological goods and services to sustain themselves and their societies. (http://science.jrank.org).

Notwithstanding the protection gap, whatever the form, shape and size, if insurance were to continue partnering with an anthropocentric urge it will always run counter to ecocentrism. How does this manifest and get an iron grip over the march of human history? Author Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement is a classic insight into this aspect. A must read for every thinking risk manager. My ancestors were ecological refugees long before the term was invented, says he. Here are some of his nuggets:

That climate change casts a much smaller shadow within the landscape of literary fiction than it does even in the public arena is not hard to establish. And if the urgency of a subject were indeed a criterion of its seriousness, then, considering what climate change actually portends for the future of the earth, it should surely follow that this would be the principal preoccupation of writers the world over – and this, I think, is very far from being the case.
The reality is that ‘growth’ in many coastal cities around the world now depends on ensuring that a blind eye is turned towards risk.
It was in exactly the period in which human activity was changing the earth’s atmosphere that literary imagination became radically centred on the human. Inasmuch as the non-human was written about at all, it was not within the mansion of serious fiction but rather in the outhouses to which science fiction and fantasy had been banished.
Similarly, at exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled from politics, economics and literature alike.
For the body politic, this vision of politics as moral journey has also had the consequence of creating an ever growing divergence between a public sphere of political performance and the realm of actual governance: the latter is now controlled by largely invisible establishments that are guided by imperatives of their own. He alludes to the deep state.
Man’s dominion over Nature: The idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology.
In the text of the Paris Agreement, by contrast, there is not the slightest acknowledgement that something has gone wrong with our dominant paradigms; it contains no clause or article that could be interpreted as a critique of the practices that are known to have created the situation that the Agreement seeks to address. The current paradigm of perpetual growth is enshrined at the core of the text.
The Agreement’s rhetoric serves to clarify much that it leaves unsaid: namely, that its intention, and the essence of what it has achieved, is to create yet another neo-liberal frontier where corporations, entrepreneurs and public officials will be able to join forces in enriching each other.

The see saw battle continues

Ten plus years ago California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit against leading U.S. and Japanese auto manufacturers, alleging their vehicles’ emissions contributed significantly to global warming, harmed the resources, infrastructure and environmental health of California, and cost the state millions of dollars to address current and future effects.

This push eventually resulted in 2012 regulations that aimed at reducing the country’s oil consumption by 12 billion barrels and eliminate six billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution over the lifetime of the cars affected. That amounts to more than a year’s worth of America’s carbon emissions. The standards would require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks by 2025, to 54.5 miles per gallon, forcing automakers to speed development of highly fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrid and electric cars. The new federal government intends to lower that target.

Environmentalists and public health experts have criticized the automakers’ resistance to emissions rules under the current administration as an about-face. Bonnie Holmes-Gen of the American Lung Association of California, one of many health and environmental groups has reportedly said moving away from strict emissions standards would hurt public health and the health of the planet.

Ever since then Toyota got to the global pole position to be dethroned by Volkswagen which in turn is in the eye of a-scandal-of-a-storm. Indeed the driverless cars are in sight. In the meantime, China has become the world’s largest auto market. Together with India these are the two largest gas guzzlers. The carbon economy continues to dominate our times and Asia is surging ahead.

With this new centre-stage now under thick smog, Ghosh observes:

Asia is conceptually critical to every aspect of global warming: its causes, its philosophical and historical implications, and to the possibility of a global response to it. It takes only a moment’s thought for this to be obvious. Yet, strangely, the implications are rarely reckoned with – and this may be because the discourse on global warming remains largely Eurocentric.

The brute fact is that no strategy can work globally unless it works in Asia and is adopted by large number of Asians. Yet, in this matter too, the conditions that are peculiar to mainland Asia are often absent from the discussion.

In conclusion

Twenty plus years ago I dreamt the insuring community would soon pick the courage of donning some form of activism. Saying no to insure whatever puts the planet at risk. Ten plus years ago one strong ray of hope emerged from California (please see Special Feature – The Greenhouse Effect). Suddenly there is a sense of abdication looming large. Do we wish to be bystanders? Is there nothing that we can do? Amitav Ghosh cites Pope Francis’s critique of the era that he describes as ‘a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities’. If the handmaiden were to continue betting in favour of anthropocentrism its cup of woes will never be empty. Will there be a Noah’s Ark for our rescue yet again or would humanity get a real second chance as in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?…

Mar 13, 2017

D&O: A Liability for Indian Underwriters?

Published in the CII Journal: http://www.cii.co.uk/knowledge/blogs/articles/do-a-liability-for-indian-underwriters/45109

Mar 13, 2017

Risky Times for the Risk Transfer Business

Published in “The Changing Face of Indian Insurance” by BCG and FICCI

Dec 29, 2016

Year end musings…

How do you measure the length of a year other than the number of days – 365 or 366 – whatever that be?! The thought popped when attending the last book launch of the year. And the year to me was representative of a unique timescale relating to authors known and unknown!

“What is it about writers and their stories?” Asks Navtej Sarna and then tells us what he thinks. “The curiosity about the writer’s mental landscape, the yearning for a whiff of the alchemy of inspiration, has governed many of my journeys over the last three decades and more and many of the pieces in this collection are the result”.

It was a cold mid December evening when Navtej sat face to face in a Q&A with William Dalrymple at the Taj Mansingh, New Delhi. That was day one of the current year to me! Second Thoughts is a collection of columns written by him over seven years. The journey, however, commenced much earlier – from the time he began to acquire second-hand classics – when very young. These sparked his literary passion.

I sat in silent awe at the Seattle Athenaeum on April the 29th, listening to Lucia Perillo. It sounded like you were hearing straight from her soul as she read from Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones, a collection of her moving poems.

Her valiant fight with multiple sclerosis translated not only into shaky hands but perhaps heightened and tempered her poetic genius. A Pulitzer finalist, “she displayed her characteristic fearlessness and humour. Throughout her career, Perillo’s poems have brimmed with insight and with matter-of-factness at the wonders and disappointments of nature – especially the failings of the human body”. Gripping a pen to sign my copy of her book was not easy. Yet holding it in a very determined grip, she managed to autograph it. It was only in December that I read about her sad demise on October the 16^th. Suddenly, despite such a short timeline, the year felt much longer.

During their reading from Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War at the Seattle Public Library, just a day ahead of the Athenaeum event, Syrian-British co-authors Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami displayed a strong ray of hope for humanity. The disintegration of the state had ironically empowered the common men and women. They rallied together to ensure hygiene, food, healthcare, education of children, looking after the old and injured, power supply, newspapers and radio in the war torn nation. It is heroism of the highest order and a reminder to the world not to forget this tragedy.

An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao was my third book launch attendance the same summer – this one at the Emerald City’s Elliot Bay Book Company. Shobha herself is a brilliant representation of how the Partition continues to influence a generation removed both by time and geography. In a story titled Curfew, she for instance very sensitively captures the remote melancholia of Safia who moves from Lahore to the UK as a child. She seems to be forever running from or for something. As she says, “We leave the places we’re born, the places we’re meant to die, and we wander into the world as defenceless as children. Against such wilderness, such desert.”

The thought about a scale to measure the length of a year crossed my mind when listening to Anosh Irani during his latest gift to the city of his birth. The Parcels‘ “astonishing heart, soul and unforgettable voice is Madhu – born a boy, but made a eunuch – who has spent most of her life in a close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura, the notorious red light district of Bombay”.

Someone at the Mumbai book launch asked Anosh as to how long it took him to write this book. “Perhaps two to three years. However, this story was always with me. I grew up very close to the scene of action and every time I came to Bombay I would want to visit this location to continue my investigation”. The author has been a resident of Vancouver, Canada since 1998. This book launch at the suburban AntiSOCIAL seemed like a befitting end to the year that was.

However, it had to be December the 19^th when I found myself at a panel discussion face-to-face with a scholar and author, at Ahmedabad Management Association. Having had the opportunity to read V. Raghunathan’s many titles and reviewed a couple, the best form of engagement, as it turned out, was to let his brilliance shine through the interpretation of contemporary events via his creations.

I went for Games Indians Play; The Corruption Conundrum; Mahabharat; Duryodhana and the most recent – The Good Indian’s Guide to Queue Jumping. In the process he left the audience, and me, spellbound as well as believe with reasonable conviction – that there is no point in obsessing with a right or wrong. One must also begin to look for the grey.

What a great perspective to have just in time for yet another year!

Dec 9, 2016

Indian Property Insurance Pricing Conundrum

View this document on Scribd

Published at the CII Knowledge Blog: link

Sep 21, 2016

The Chinese-Egyptian link!

Several weeks after the Xian visit I was in Singapore and at a dinner talking to my friend Nimish about a possible connect between ancient China and Egypt. Pre-dating the Silk route! Coincidentally just then I get a text from my wife Medha confirming post card from Xian had arrived, the last of the four recipients. Some remarkable timing!

A fine meal concluded with an amazing adaptation of a designer moon cake by Raffles! Yet it’s the food for thought that warmed the resolve to continue our exploration of the ancient super highway…

Back at work in Mumbai, I get this most amazing mail from Nimish. A link to an authentic paper linking the origins of the Chinese race to ancient Egyptians. Now what do you make of something like this? Nimish calls it prescient! He also promises to introduce me to a Chinese book of antiquity on the Silk Road. In the meantime, for anyone wishing to explore this theme – here is the provocation: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/02/did-chinese-civilization-come-from-ancient-egypt-archeological-debate-at-heart-of-china-national identity/?utm_content=buffer7bb49&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer (Source: Foreign Policy.com).

Sep 20, 2016

Whither H.R. in VUCA times?!

Published in the Journal of the Insurance Institute of India

View this document on Scribd

Aug 21, 2016

The Warriors, the Wall, Xi’an & the Emperor Qin Shihuang!

Recently back from Xi’an I am not surprised that China’s first ever emperor was a product of a Silk Route location – Xi’an or Chang’an in the Shaanxi province. Ying Zheng took the throne in 246 BC at the age of 13. By 221 BC he had unified a collection of warring kingdoms and took the name of Qin Shihuang.

What is now referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, the Terracotta Warriors site, is a part of an elaborate mausoleum created to accompany the emperor during his eternal rest into the afterlife. One of the first projects the young king accomplished when alive was the construction of his own tomb. It is believed he never gave up the quest for immortality and continued his desperate obsession for discovering the elixir.

One enemy that would not give up pushing back the Qin Empire again and again was the Xiongnu tribes. As a response to this challenge came up what became the precursor to the Great Wall. The Qin dynasty lasted only a little past the lifetime of its first emperor (221 to 206 BC).

The Hans (206 BC to 220 AD) followed the Qin dynasty; it was under their Emperor Wu Di that first Chinese missions were sent to South-East Asia, Central Asia and eventually even Rome, marking the beginnings of the Silk Road. However, even before the Silk Route was formally established, could there be something that Qin Shihuang imbibed from ancient Egypt and its Pharaohs? Perhaps historians would some day be able to unravel the compelling drivers of the two legacies that the first Qin emperor left behind – the Warriors and the Wall.

Thanks to the consolidation by the Qin dynasty, it created a platform for the launch of a first truly global trade route both by land and sea – the Silk Route. The stability and prosperity it brought about, made it a home to several dynasties, later also evolving into a major seat of Buddhist learning. Both Faxian and Xuanzhang the renowned traveler scholars, who extensively explored India, resided in Xian. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda housed Xuanzhang’s library – a collection of Buddhist scriptures he carried with him from ancient India.

Now back to the present. The Terracotta Warriors’ site seems forever busy at a frenzied pace. Such is the rush that the traffic on the approach highway barely crawls owing to major traffic jams. Your patience gets further tested once you get inside the pit area which is covered by humongous hangar like structures. The thousands of eager tourists do not easily give into your desire to get close to anything you may wish to watch closely and patiently. You are bound to get pushed again and again by a sea of humanity. The rapid fire clicking of cameras feels like over-excited glow worms dancing in random orbital patterns.

Slowly and steadily we all get used to the sounds, hustle & bustle, dim lights and get the focus right to be attentive enough to hear what our guide Mr Li has to say. He has his own sense of humour. As we peer into the trenches where stand the formations and lies the rubble – he points at the mounds of clay next to them. ‘That is original clay which has been dug out from the pits to be sold for making fake terracotta soldiers for sale’!

Every now and then he reminds us what all to see and where to look for him ‘you have 20 minutes sharp’, if anyone in the group were to get swallowed in multiple directions. Dr Liang Rong, our guardian angel, from host Tsinghua University SEM keeps a watchful eye to ensure none of us go out of her sight. After centuries of subterranean existence the chance discovery of this amazing find has literally unleashed massive energy wave after wave of curious hordes. ‘Chalo Chalo’ (Let’s go, let’s go) shouts Li when he spots us. He informs our multinational lot as to how he has picked this from the several Indian groups that he receives. It is concise, loud and clear. ‘And I am the only one saying it’!

Despite all the din and distractions one is overcome by the scale of design and execution of the ‘project’. More importantly the enormity of restoring them all – six thousand plus warriors and the paraphernalia from virtual rubble. The Sherris couple who were revisiting since 1997 find the site no different from their first time. Dr Katja Hanewald who specialises in Population Ageing Research at the UNSW and I talk about how it has become scientifically possibile for humans to live a full 300 years. Maybe you need to really survive that long if you want to see a perfect recreation of what Qin Shihuang originally conceived and left behind! Chris Parsons from Cass Business School and I remain foxed by young Qin’s having to reconcile with putting together an empire, pursuit for immortality and life after – all at once!

As we sit down for our formal conference dinner, Katja seated next reminds me the cuisines are hot and extra spicy owing to the Central Asian influences on the Silk Route. They truly represent the culinary diversity of China.

Eight Weirdies In Shaanxi Province
Hot pepper is a delicacy
Local people may have their meals without any meat or vegetable, but they can never do without hot pepper which has already become a kind of delicious food. It can be put in noodle or steamed bread. The hotter the better. (Picture postcard quote)

Then on my return flight from Hong Kong (well ahead of Typhoon Nida making a landfall – it was Signal 1 raised then), I had this young man from Gujarat (Guangdong of India, what The Economist termed it) as a fellow traveller. Returning from Shenzhen where his company gets its I.T. hardware manufactured. He was visiting the client to fix some bugs is all I gather. His excitement about the wonderful commutes on the MTR across large parts of Guangdong was understandable. He did not follow Cantonese but managed his way courtesy the efficient systems. And food? There are plenty of vegetarian options, he said. I even found an Indian restaurant in Shenzhen!

With some time to spare, having checked in, I could not resist entering the airport post office. It was such an abode of peace. The gracious lady manning the counter served me tea as I sat down and scribbled on the four picture post cards. Only the farthest one – to the US – has been delivered till date! The rest I guess are still somewhere on their way via the snail mail on the New Silk Route. A taste of slow paced nostalgia…