Why this obsession with Vanity ?
Why do we shop so much ? why do we strive to look good for parties and gatherings? why do women and nowadays even few men aid themselves with different cosmetics ? why this obsession with vanity ! As i wonder about these things, i too am a participant in this practice may be i participate in these due to pressure and expectations from my dear ones or due to the pressure of the society in general but i am one of them nevertheless.
As one can see there is a heightened pressure amongst most of us, especially women to look in a certain way, wear newer clothes, not to commit the “sin” of repeating a dress she previously wore in another party and a lot of time is spent on discussing, searching, shopping, trying out different combinations just for the sake of vanity. my sincere question to all of us, is all these worth it ? After all if you google the word Vanity the second meaning of it is “ the quality of being worthless or futile” .
To make things clear i am not confusing vanity with being fit, being clean and maintaining a decentness in our appearance. I am talking about the extra length we go to please others, try to seek approval of looking beautiful from others which should be avoided, and this culture of getting ready in formal shirts and suits ( esp seen in USA) when attending parties, the irony is in USA people come in shorts for a exec meetings which is very fine with me but get all dressed up to go and dance in a pub, a pub, the primary function of having a party is to relax, why should one dress up so much for relaxing ?
As i grapple with these questions, i am looking forward to a get to gather where every one can attend with casual jeans, un ironed t-shirts, loose hoodies , not so well combed hair and untrimmed beard.
Just by chance :
Even some 8 days before my trip to Beijing I had no idea that I will be traveling to China the coming week.
It was out of a blue that I got an email from my Manager asking if I was interested to go Beijing to attend a meeting on behalf of her as she had some other commitments, I was very excited and also the dates did not overlap with the Mexico trip I had planned so shot back an email saying I was in within 5 mins, of course my visa etc had to be processed. it so happened that my assignment was until Nov 21 st and had to fly back on 22 nd from Beijing and land on the same day morning in SFO at around 9 Am thanks to the earth being the way it is, and I had enough time to board my flight to Mexico at around noon.
Given this context where I had no clue that I will be visiting China any thing I see and did was exciting not to say that I was traveling on a business class ticket and staying in a 7 start hotel all on companies expenses.
As it turned out my work schedule was not too busy and I had a chance to visit some important places in and around Beijing and eat at some authentic Chinese restaurants thanks to my Chinese colleagues, and during this short stint the following things I have observed about Beijing :
Traffic :
The traffic in Beijing is a pain, any distance which needs about 30 mins will easily take more than an hour, it's worse than Bay Area and seems worst than traffic in Delhi according to a colleague. Although the roads/ freeways structuring is similar to the states, Driving guidelines are not followed by public very similar to India but not as worse.
Fog of Pollution :
Although Beijing or any other Chinese city is not ranked among the top 20 most polluted cities ( it is Delhi and few more indian cities indeed) you can see a thick fog of pollution all over the city forcing the people to hide behind creepy looking face masks, so don't be alarmed if you see scores of people walking down the roads wearing these masks.
currentsparks.com 