"Do they eat Fetus in China?"

Last December, a fellow journalist asked me "do the Chinese really eat (human) fetus?"

We were in Durban, South Africa, to cover the UNFCCC climate change summit. We were out to eat and I had ordered Chinese food - my favorite. But my friend, a TV producer from Namibia, looked almost sick. When I pressed for the reason, he told me, 'well, they eat fetus. So, just to enter a Chinese eatery makes me puke. I don't know what meat they have cooked.' Then, seeing that incredulous look on my face, he asked 'do you think its untrue?' 

Now, contrary to what you may think, that friend of mine isn't a bum.

Durban Diary, Entry 3: Findng India Everywhere!

Mother India. I have seen too many sisters of yours in Durban

Courtesy a huge Indian community in Durban, no matter which way you go, you can't miss seeing Indian faces everywhere around you.

I am staying in Hotel Gateway which is next to Durban's biggest shopping complex,also called  the Gateway. Most of the shops there are run by people of Indian origin. In the hotel, every other day there is a wedding party where you see dozens of Indian men and women adding jazz to the posh hotel's air. At the transport hub near the climate summit venue, a number of young volunteers helping the visitors with getting the right bus. Half of them are Indians.

But my story goes a little beyond the obvious. I am finding India where its barely there: in the clothes people wear, the styling of their hair, the way they dress or talk or raise an issue.