Going back to the novels of Peter Hessler, he, I read was living on a paltry allowance he was getting from “Peace Corps” and later from the foreign media houses for which he was working as a freelance reporter. If I remember correctly, somewhere in the book, he wrote about making do with some 2000 dollars a month. This is not a good amount for living comfortably in big cities in China.

回到彼得·赫斯勒的小说，我读到的他靠从“和平队”得到的微薄津贴生活，后来又从他作为自由撰稿记者工作的外国媒体公司那里过活。如果我没记错的话，在书的某个地方，他写过一个月能挣2000美元。这些钱对于在中国大城市舒适地生活可不太够。

Our previous landlord, couldn’t speak a word of English (nor the one in whose flat we shifted in Jan 2017 could), but for us, after having lived in China for so many years this was not an impediment. We knew so many people who could speak for us. Communication has become so easy since the advent of smartphone and now with big strides being made in the field of AA (artificial intelligence), the day is not far when ringing up a friend for hel out won’t be necessary. But often I wonder where is it all this leading us to? Now a days, it is not uncommon to see all members of the family sitting quietly at home, busy with their smartphones.

我们以前的房东不会说英语(我们在2017年1月搬入的那套公寓的房东也不会)，但对我们来说，在中国生活了这么多年，这并不是什么障碍。我们认识很多可以帮我们沟通的人。自从智能手机问世以来，交流变得如此容易，如今在人工智能领域取得了长足的进步，没必要再给朋友打电话求助了。但我常常想，这一切会把我们引向何方?如今，我们经常会看到家里所有的人都安静地坐在家里，忙着玩智能手机。

All communication, all human interaction, that was the soul of the family, the extended family of relatives, friends, the social circle, the banter with the neighbours, has all been replaced by the friends in the virtual world, who we know by their Avtar names or the camouflaged IDs. We don’t know about their backgrounds, their gender, their sexual orientations, weirdness, habits and traits, but yet we so passionately long for their approvals, the thumbs up for every act of ours, for every thought that comes to us.

所有的交流，所有的人际交往，这些都是家庭的灵魂，亲戚朋友的大家庭，社交圈，和邻居的玩笑，都被虚拟世界里的朋友所取代，我们知道他们的名字或者伪装的id。我们不了解他们的背景、他们的性别、他们的性取向、怪癖、习惯和特征，但我们强烈渴望他们的认可，对我们的一举一动点赞，对我们的每一个想法点赞。

In this world full of people, we have lost the feel of a real touch, of hug and embrace, we have lost the feel of a smile on the others face. We have lost the art of sharing the laughter and the excitement of sharing the stories, full of embellishment, exaggeration and hyperbole.  From the real world of touch and feel, we have got transported in to a virtual world of imagination and artificiality.

在这个人山人海的世界里，我们已经失去了真正触摸的感觉，失去了拥抱的感觉，我们已经失去了别人脸上带着微笑的感觉。我们已经失去了分享欢乐的艺术和分享故事的兴奋，到处都是粉饰和夸张。我们已经从触摸和感受的现实世界，被送到了充满想象和不自然的虚拟世界。

资料图

Navneet和读者的讨论

Prasad ganti

Navneetji, good description. China is realy doing well.

Naveet先生，说得真好。中国确实做的很不错。

suchisreesreekumar

Dear NNavneet,

Two extremes of freedom We in India go a step above the extreme pulling us back

High time to draw a line

这是自由的两个极端，我们印度太过自由了，得把我们拉回来一步

现在是划清界限的时候了

navneet

No Suchisree- I don't call them as two extremes of freedom but limited freedom and unreasonable excess of it. See, the difference in the pace of progress. Do you think, we are happier than them

不，我不认为它们是自由的两个极端，而是有限的自由和不合理的过度。看，不同的进步速度。你认为我们比他们更幸福吗?

Suresh

Navneet

A significant observation of mine in just the last 4-yrs... a few big Desi (very much Indian) industrialists have looted Indian banks and have gone abroad now with their loot. With such money they can now get foreign citizenship if they want! I am sure you know their names!

In the same period a few foreigners have come in to do small scale startups putting up their own hard earned money, especially in the health care sector. Many of them are doing quite well; such small scale startups started by foreigners have been backed by Desi and Videshi capitalists. You can know their names too if interested.

Moral of story is, if the investors (Desi or Videshi) have street smartness to do business in places like India, China... they can succeed and they do!

在过去的4年里，我观察到一个重要的发现……一些大商人(主要是印度人)洗劫了印度的银行，现在带着他们的战利品出国了。有了这些钱，如果他们愿意，他们可以获得外国公民身份!我肯定你知道他们的名字!

与此同时，一些外国人也开始拿出自己的血汗钱，涉足小型初创企业，尤其是在医疗保健领域。他们中的许多人做得很好；这些由外国人创办的小型初创企业得到了资本家的支持。如果你感兴趣的话，你也可以查到他们的名字。

故事的寓意是，如果投资者有在印度、中国等地做生意的街头智慧……他们会成功的，他们确实也做到了!

navneet

Being street smart is essential for being successful in business anywhere Sureshji, but besides that for being successful in India, you have to be prepared for delays, lock-outs and unexpected problems crop up because of religio-social conflicts, political activism or other strange reason against which you are fairly secured abroad.

在任何地方，要想在商业上取得成功，精明的街头智慧是必不可少的。但要想在印度取得成功，你还必须准备好应对由于宗教-社会冲突、政治激进主义或其他你在国外没遇到过的奇怪原因而导致的耽搁、禁闭和意外问题。

Suresh

To be successful in India you really do not need an MBA or IAS or anything like that today.

Those with business acumen and street smartness are doing quite well in India Navneet. I am sure you have come across them in every field today.

要想在印度取得成功，你真的不需要MBA或IAS之类的学位。

那些有商业头脑和街头智慧的人在印度的表现相当不错。我相信你今天在各个领域都遇到过他们。