Love the way you lie
Posted on 07. Oct, 2010 by Leela Raina in Adopt a Negotiator, India
In case you were thinking you clicked on the wrong link while looking for the song by Eminem and Rihanna , you aren’t because this blog is my ode to the beautiful composition. It’s a little different for some of you rappers out there , but hey , there is a first time for everything right?
On the holy day of 5 of October two things happened; both of which weren’t predicted by Nostradamus. When we arrived at the tracker booth in the convention centre one of tracker tshirts was missing. Manish, our coordinator searched vigourously throughout the NGO area, after all with the tight security where could this tshirt have gone? If someone stole it then who ?
We came to certain USUAL SUSPECTS like competitors, negotiators wanting the shirt for there children, kleptomaniancs who love freebies, or maybe one of the big dirty oil companies whom we have been targeting for so long. We understood the tshirts were in high demand when we used to witness a hustle bustle around our ( first time ever set up ) booth asking for the tshirts. People were so desperate to get them that they offered money for it. We as the team were so proud of the presence we had and the respect we had built amongst the UNFCCC circles and much beyond and I would really like to thank you all for
5 oct was also the fine day that I started feeling unwell ,with signs of blowing hot and cold, fever, chills and an inherent urge to look away and not smell the chinese food around. My head would ring from time to time with 220 volts of shock and agony through each and every neuron. So I tried the usual Crocin and Sualin and it didn’t seem to get better . Today I visited the emergency centre at the convention centre, which was full of female nurses all present to convert different parts of your english sentence into chinese and a very competent woman doctor. She diagnosed me with Tonsilitis , from the sound of which gave me relief ( yes , relief ) since I was worried it was swine flu or something. She wanted me to go to the hospital and get a blood test and called for the ambulance. After trying to get my point across with great difficulty she said I could take the pennicilin and other antibiotics for the infection. By the time she ended her sentence the driver of the ambulance walked in , and lo and behold- he was in tracker uniform. I pinched myself , could my tracker team care about me so much that they gave the medical centre a shirt to make me feel at home ? Or was I just working too hard and couldn’t think of anything else but - what blog should I put up today?.
I asked the nurses to ask him where he got the shirt from ? Apparently he was given the shirt by a policeman to wear as his uniform and when I asked him whether he knows whats written on it. He said in chinese, of course, it says, tianjin’s special police academy for emergency. I explained to everyone in the room what it actually meant but I dont think he wanted to believe it.
It was like the best thing he owned.
A false pride .
His identity.
and the best gift he’d ever got.
Looking at his happy face, I didnt say much. But I loved the way he lied.
When I enquired about the policemen, they not only denied of having seen the t shirt but denied even knowing the ambulance driver.
In the evening , after the AGF meeting with the NGO focal points when I came to catch a picture of him , I saw him busy getting photographed with each delegate that would come out of the security gate. He is a funny and frivoulous chinese man who loved all the attention. This was probably the first time he had ever seen any foreigners. When he saw me coming out , he shoulted, came running( literally) to have a photo with me and my colleague. And all I left him with were numerous strings of harmonic che che’s ( chinese for thank you) .
Case of the missing tracker tshirt solved!
Note : some of us might hate to wear the tshirt for all sorts of reasons . Maybe because of complicated reasons like spoiling your relations with your negotiators or stupid ones like the fitting and misfit feeling you get when you see everyone else in formal clothes or just the lack of freedom to wear what you want to . But the fact remains it has become our identity and has acquired a status. and we are proud of that.
Hilarious!
And hope you feel better soon Leela!
Leela - you are a star.. wonderful
Loving ittttttt~and DIDI,I found the med store which shall open tomorrow~will try to get the VC and VB for u~
Fantastic story. Feel better soon, and thanks for all your hard work.
Really nice story, Leela! I did not know that we had to wear again this t-shirt. I really thought that we were done with it!! It’s part of our identity, I agree, but I really prefer when I don’t wear. But… please get one for me in Cancun!
nice. u have a gift of telling interesting stories leela. probably its because of all the bollywood movies u have watched. good one.