Navneet：中国人说“喜欢”不说“爱”（3）

Navneet：经常令我吃惊的是，中国人交流之间很少用谢谢等礼貌用语。中国人的礼节表达不会像西方人那样太频繁，西方人一直说“谢谢啊，抱歉啊之类的”，多到让人觉得缺乏真诚。而完全不说又散发着冷漠，肯定会让人不愉快。有一次听一个学习中文的有声教程，我发现中国父母对孩子表达感情时不习惯用“爱”这个词，而是用“喜欢”。作为印度人，这是难以理解的，我觉得爱是最强大的人类情感，表达起来时不应该有任何限制，除非说出来会让你陷入麻烦。

译文来源：三泰虎
外文标题：A Taste of Chinese Hospitality.............Part 3
外文地址：http://creative.sulekha.com/a-taste-of-chinese-hospitality-part-3_623583_blog

I started going to the shipyard from the very next day of arriving at Gaogang but Andrew found a great company in my wife ( or was it the other way round!!). He was her man Friday. He showed her around the town and showed where she could have or should have meal and where she shouldn’t. Having food outside has always been an enigma for us. We have tried sometimes and failed miserably because we don’t know what we will get served to us even after we somehow manage to place an order. We are from that small percentage of Indians who are non-vegetarians, though we belong to the Brahmin community but to every non-vegetarian Indian, China can be a challenge..

抵达高港的第二天，我就去了船厂。周五，Andrew带着我妻子到城里到处逛，带她去看哪些该吃的，也看了不该吃的。一直以来，在外吃饭对我们是头疼问题。我们试过几次，结果那个惨啊。我们不知道端上来的会是什么，虽然我们点了菜的。我们是属于少数不素食的印度人之一，虽然我们属于婆罗门群体。对每一位非素食的印度人来说，中国会是一个挑战...

Would you try this.....

你会试吃这个吗...

or this.......

这个呢...

This picture is of the colony where I live. There are no dogs, the cats and the birds are rarely seen because this is a colony for the human beings and not for a gamut of all the creatures who cohabit with them.

下面这张图片是在我住的小区拍的。小区里看不到狗，看不到猫，看不到鸟儿。这可是人类住的小区，不是所有生物的群居之处。

Our residential complex

Traditionally Brahmin s were associated with propagation and preservation of religion, rituals, customs and scriptures of Hinduism. But that was thousands of years ago when the society got divided on the basis of vocation. It’s sad that in India, the caste became a boon for some and a bane of inheritance for other. It was not intended to be so. Now that demarcation is not so rigid. I shouldn’t be saying so because whenever we try to search for a match for our son, the people want to match the intricate details of caste and horoscope. They want to know about the family lineage besides what are the qualifications and the qualities of the boy, so let me modify my statement; seeing from my perspective many people have come out of rigid confines of caste but mostly when they are talking about it in public or speaking about it for others.

传统上，婆罗门被与印度教的宗教、仪式、习俗和经文联系起来，不过这要追溯到数千年前社会被根据职业而分化时期。遗憾地是，在当今印度，种姓成为了某些人的福利的同时，却成为另一部分人与生俱来的祸害。而这原本不是如此的。如今，界定不是那么严格了。我本不该这样说的，因为当我们为儿子找对象时，人们会要求种姓和星座等错综复杂的细节能够对得上。除了想了解男方的资格和品质外，他们还会想了解男方的家族世系。为此，我要修改我的声明：在我看来，许多人走出了严格的种姓束缚，不过这仅限于公开讨论种姓或者是谈论别人的时候才不介意。

The following pictures are of in and around the colony where we live

Gang Cheng Hua Yuan

港城花园

We looked for a roomy apartment and shifted to it a week after our arrival. By that time Andrew had been to Naning to meet ‘Sunny’ whom he had got acquainted to on my chat forum which I started as a solution to communicate with my Chinese fans desirous of speaking to me.

我们找了一套宽敞的公寓，抵达一周后搬进去的。那时候，Andrew已经去了南京见Sunny了，后者是他在QQ群里认识的。我开QQ群是为了跟我的中国粉丝交流。

Unicorn is one great friend who has helped me get over the hurdles of Chinese language which definitely can destroy the plans of weak spirited people like me and shake the determination of great enthusiasts. He lives in Naning. After Andrew met Sunny at Naning and told him about us (me and my wife) and I don’t know what he said because meeting someone in person demolishes the icon one holds in his/her mind. It is more devastating in the case of the writers because people build fine images of their persona based on their ability of putting their thoughts together. It is different in the case of the film personalities because their virtual images are known to the people but writers, many of which go by their nom de plumes live in obscurity and I think they should continue to do that. However, we are all made of flesh and blood and have our foibles and follies but somehow when we size other, we try to be very exacting, we don't make any compromises and concessions. I am a haggard frump and my wife has grown out of proportions. Time has done less damage to us than what we have done to each other.

Unicorn是其中一位帮助我克服中文语言障碍的朋友之一。要不然语言障碍会毁掉我这样精神脆弱者的计划，动摇狂热者的决心。

他住在南京。Andrew在南京与Sunny见面并聊到了我们（我和我妻子），不知道他说了什么。亲眼目睹后会毁掉心目中的偶像的，特别是对靠思想组织能力来构建良好形象的作家，而这与影像已经众所周知的电影明星不一样。

然而，我们都是有血有肉的人，有自己的弱点，有自己的罪恶。当我们对其他人做出判断时，我们是非常苛刻的，不会做出任何妥协和让步。

我是一位憔悴的守旧者，而我妻子的身材已经不成比例。