Today is a bit cloudy. But it is warm. Contrary to ideas that I had when I first woke up and looked out the window on my slanting ceiling, when I thought it would be a severely cold day. (YES! I have a slanting ceiling from which I can hear rain when they fall)
Coffee break at Sixth Floor D&A building made me think about things. Just hanging out with my class mates.
And Tony, my next door neighbour, was speaking about the song 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses that he is learning on his guitar. He told me that his legs went numb because he sat in one position for too long and didn't move, focusinng on learning the lead pieces for that song.
"Yesterday after I went home," (That would be about 6pm as I recall) "I was learning that song til I slept." (Which would be about 12 at night.)
Which meant that he practised for 6 hours straight. Probably with breaks in between to catch a bite or to go to the toilet. Six hours is a lot of time to pratise guitar on, considering that's what he does every single day.
I told him, "That's one great thing about you Chinese people. You guys practise like mad." Tony and Martin looked a bit unsure about what I was saying, "I mean, you guys practise so much. For example, in Olympics, Chinese athletes practise like hell, right? All day, all night."
"Yeah, yeah." Tony replied, looking pleased.
"No wonder you guys get all the gold medals, man."
Coincidentally, I was also talking to Agus about China too, just before this. Talking about how Google decided to leave from China. Which I understand must have been a big step, considering how important China is to world business and economy. Apparently the Chinese government had been hacking into people's personal Gmail accounts and violating their Human RIghts to Privacy. And for more reasons, that must have been because of China's failure to provide people's right to freedom of expression and privacy, Google decided they won't remain there any longer.
It makes sense, I guess. Because, apparently the government even monitors people's text messages. If that's not over-doing it, I don't know what it is.
I told Agus: "That's why I seriously believe that China cannot become a superpower. America also has secrets and things they hide, but normally it's against other nations and people. Atleast among their people, they have almost close to perfect transparency. China also has secrets and things they hide. But this is against their own people. It's the government against her own people. A country bent against itself cannot stand, no matter how pretty it looks from outside."
It's even in the Bible, and logic, that a kingdom cannot stand if its citizens are fighting and robbing each other behind their backs.
Anyway, my point is, there is a lot to say about China. A country of contradictions, but very unlike India's.
But there is a lot to learn from the dedication and time the people spend on what they do. They don't allow themselves to be distracted. They prioritize on one thing and make it a point to spend all the time in the world to do it.
"It is better to follow a route to its end than to try many roads and end up nowhere."
Just made that up.
Ben Ning, Creative Practitioner