Genius?

I was browsing through Nomadlife's blogs and came across one that talked about a book on American history. A link snapped up in my head to this story I'd read about two years ago on the internet. It was about a young genius who's intellect was probably far ahead of any other in recorded human history. In his mid-teens, Willam Sidis was writing his own story of the Americas - culled from various sources - even from wampum belts of Native American tribes.

Here's an excerpt from the Prometheus Society's biography of the genius who died unmarried, misunderstood and forgotten at the age of 46.

"His name was William James Sidis, and his IQ was estimated at between 250 and 300 [8, p. 283]. At eighteen months he could read The New York Times, at two he taught himself Latin, at three he learned Greek. By the time he was an adult he could speak more than forty languages and dialects. He gained entrance to Harvard at eleven, and gave a lecture on four-dimensional bodies to the Harvard Mathematical Club his first year. He graduated cum laude at sixteen, and became the youngest professor in history. He deduced the possibility of black holes more than twenty years before Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar published An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure. His life held possibilities for achievement that few people can imagine. Of all the prodigies for which there are records, his was probably the most powerful intellect of all. And yet it all came to nothing. He soon gave up his position as a professor, and for the rest of his life wandered from one menial job to another. His experiences as a child prodigy had proven so painful that he decided for the rest of his life to shun public exposure at all costs. Henceforth, he denied his gifts, refused to think about mathematics, and above all refused to perform as he had been made to do as a child. Instead, he devoted his intellect almost exclusively to the collection of streetcar transfers, and to the study of the history of his native Boston. He worked hard at becoming a normal human being, but never entirely succeeded. He found the concept of beauty, for example, to be completely incomprehensible, and the idea of sex repelled him."

Unrelated to what i normally write about - but history has many fascinating stories. This just seemed like one of them. Keep discovering!

Let the games begin..

So here's the bit where the challenge begins... I've spent a week adjusting to everything around me and now it's time to buckle down and get started. We've sorted out what we're going to be doing within the team, atleast over the next two weeks. Hopefully our national plans should kick in after that. We're beginning prelimnary national plans this weekend - my third consecutive weekend spent outside Beijing city!

The apartment's taking shape too. We spent most of last night clearing out the last remaining bastions of cobwebs and grime from our (now sparkling new) kitchen and also figured out what it's going to take to get the DVD player working in tandem with our giant 29" TV. At 7 RMB a DVD (about INR 35) it's going to fast become our favourite form of entertainment.

I'm really excited about the next three months. If things stay as they are, it seems that I will be coaching two LCs which AIESEC is still extening to in Tianjin and in Guangzhou. The travelling will play its part in the challenge(Beijing to Guangzhou is almost a day away by train!) but the alone time should help me focus better on the task that lies ahead.

I gotta start practising my Mandarin more dilligently. I did manage to bargain pretty successfully with the shopkeeper when I bought lychees the day before. Though it's still not entirely clear what frustrated him more - my negotiating skills or my broken 'putong khwa'.

John (Canada) and I were sharing some amusing experiences we'd had over the last few days. While attempting to negotiate with the locals here, we're commanding our brains to find the Mandarin phrase for 'too expensive' (ta-gwai la) He ends up saying things like "ai caramba" or "mon dieu!" The hindi phrases that I utter are unfit for translation on a nice, family blog like this. A recent survey did rank Beijing as one of the ten most expensive cities to live in, so we dont think we're being taken for a ride just because we belong to the 'Laoi' community.

Anyways, I have to get busy with the work here. We've got a nicely hectic week coming up and losing the internet last evening was possibly the worst thing that could happen at the start off!

Until the next one...

Having tea in the Chairman's private jet... 

Adam, Olliver, Fadis, Peter and Me at the Wall in Mutianyu 

John, Crystal, Leon, Peter and me at the Imperial Gardens in the Forbidden City 

Meet me at Starbucks... the one INSIDE the Forbidden City... 

Olliver and Peter, guarding Chinese airspace! 

Tea with Chaiman Mao in his private jet 

Peking Duck, Tian'anmen Square & the Forbidden City

Most foodies know that Beijing food is delicious & that the most delicious of them all is the enponymously named Peking Duck. Now, the best duck in all of Beijing (according to Crystal, Leon's girlfriend) was to be had at a restaurant near Tian'anmen Square. Peking duck really is indescribable - it's crusty and soft all at once and tastes like nothing you've ever had. The meal was fantastic.. and as I always say.. A full stomach is the best ways to begin long marches (I've got every half witted General in the history of combat to back me up on that!)

We passed by Tian'anmen Square on the way to the Forbidden City and since I dont want the good people at Nomadlife to get in trouble with the authorities in China, I'll hold back on the cliches. It suffices to say that colossal events took place here - the square is massive and very, very busy! It set the tone for the rest of the day almost perfectly! North of Tian'anmen Square is the Forbidden City. Tempted as we were to pick up the Roger Moore Audio Guide; the 40 RMB fee for a single headset kept us from it. Please no mentions about how expensive Peking Duck is, that is food and to me food is not an expense but an investment.

The series of gates and courtyards that lead up to the living and administrative quarters of the Imperial Palace should have given us some sort of indicator as to how vast the Forbidden City really is. There's a reason the palace survived the near total historical purging of the Cultural Revolution - it was probably just too big!! The good emperors of the Qing and Ming Dynasty were obviously not satisfied with their Great Wall and so built this palace as their last line of defense. Oddly enough, a 'simple' peasant revolution, many centuries ago managed to do what generations of greedy Mongols could not & forced the emperor to hang himself rather than fall to their hands.

Once you pass each gate, you enter giant courtyards, the smallest of which was about 200 meters long! At the end of every courtyard are more buildings, built for various purposes - administration, dining, sleeping, sleeping with and just plain relaxing. There is even a gigantic green room built solely for the Emperor, who would get himself all decked up for an evening of revelry.

The imperial gardens, the last locale of the Forbidden City are located far North of the palace and seem almost surreal - covered with tall trees that twist and turn as if they've been severly tortured and with giant boulders that stick out of the ground at all sorts of odd angles. The Emperor's concubines would live around the gardens - it was a nice way to keep them entertained while he busied himself with matters of the kingdom.

Final verdict - this place is steeped in hisory and is definitely worth a visit for it's architecture and just plain "spectacularity"! (I am aware that I just made that word up). The Forbidden City is symbolic of both ancient and modern china in many ways. You find a few hints of a racy new country on the brink of 'superpower-dom' like the Starbucks that's located near where the emperor would take his own meals or the scores of construction workers who are painstakingly restoring sections of the Palace to preseve it better. On the other hand, you find yourself awestruck by how decadent a life the rulers really lived and you notice that some of China's poverty can be seen just as soon as you leave the palace grounds. Give yourself a good 5-6 hours to discover the place, you'll need that long! And don't forget to begin with a good meal of Peking Duck!