Tough and uplifting youth rhythm

Issue 3, 2022

"China-India Dialogue"

The first national multimedia platform to promote in-depth dialogue between China and India

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought long shadows and persistent trauma to the otherwise colorful and vibrant human society. While the world has been in the process of recovery, this embarrassing global memory will undoubtedly live on for a long time to come. The epidemic, which caught the world by surprise, has had a long-term and huge negative impact on the livelihoods of many people, and many ordinary young people at the cusp of the storm, who should be enjoying the spring of globalization, are suffering from the melancholy of life stagnation. But it is their tenacious and upward life rhythm like grass that makes me want to go deeper into them and understand their daily life and ideals. Raju is an old friend of mine. He lives in a small town called Narayanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India, which is a suburb of Varanasi, the holy city of Hinduism.

In 2012, I met him at a meditation center in Sarnath, a holy place of Buddhism in India. The monsoon that year brought rain that did not cross the roadside and the fields, and in the evening I arrived just in time before the meditation center closed on the rain and mud. In the well-organized schedule of the morning bells and evening drums in the meditation center, although I was silent from beginning to end, I was quietly observing the people and things around me curiously. In my meditation practice, I found that Raju, who practiced in a wheelchair, had better concentration than others. Every day when the sun was not opening, I heard the sound of La Jiu paddling his wheelchair to meditate in my bedroom. After the meditation period, Raju told me that he was going back to his home more than 20 kilometers away in a wheelchair, just like when he came. I was very worried for him, but he left calmly. It rained heavily after noon that day. After the rain stopped, I tried to contact Lajiu. He smiled and told me that he was soaked all over.

In the autumn of the same year, La Jiu, who was in his early twenties, began to learn how to repair mobile phones with the masters in the town. Rajiu studied diligently and opened his own mobile phone repair booth in Narayanpur town the following summer. It has been more than ten years from 2012 to 2022, the replacement of mobile phones has been accelerated, and the young people in small towns have never fallen behind. In 2013, when smart touch-screen mobile phones began to appear frequently on the streets of Narayanpur, Raju chose to close his business and went to Allahabad to learn about smartphone maintenance with the help and introduction of his friends. Later, he successfully got his own. Small shops can ensure the orderly operation of life.

When the new crown pneumonia epidemic first broke out in India, the frequent closure of the city severely affected Raju's business. Although he had some savings, in the anxiety and anxiety at the time, La Jiu always felt that life seemed hopeless. Now, Lajiu's business has basically recovered to the level of 2019. Many young Indians like Raju have also resumed their normal jobs, reluctant to be a duckweed in the turbulent times.

In 2019, I met Amit in the old town of Bhubaneshwar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. Although much shorter in time, it is equally profound and interesting. In the early spring of that year, on the way from Visakhapatnam to Kolkata, I decided to stop at Bhubaneshwar, a city where the lively and mundane old part of the city coexisted me. As the sun went down, I was strolling by the lakeside of Bindusaga Lake in the old city. I saw a strong young man with tattoos on his arms and a camera in his hand, who was concentrating on taking pictures of the beautiful scenery around the lake. after all. During the break between shooting, Amit invited me to sit on the stone steps by the lake and took out my mobile phone to share my past works with me.

During the conversation, I learned that he is a freelance photographer and documentary maker with a creative ambition to take root in Odisha and let the world see the beauty of Odisha. At night, the shore of Bindusaga Lake was breezy, and Amit took me into the depths of the old city with a large bag of equipment, and patiently shared with me the historical anecdotes and legends of the old city, which can be seen in his words and conversations Love for the native land. Amit, who is stylishly dressed, has the word "creativity" tattooed on his arm, and his outgoing personality is a keen observation of local culture and art. He told me that after undertaking the work related to the production of the tourism propaganda film of the Odisha state government, he and his girlfriend drove a motorcycle to explore all over the state, determined to do the work better. Thanks to the accumulation of bit by bit, he can now undertake commercial photography and government projects alone. Later, during the train journey from Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata, I got a message from Amit reminding me not to forget to attend his photography exhibition in Delhi in October. That October, I arrived on time to see the world of art woven by this young man at an art institution near Lodi Gardens in Derry.

In 2020, when Odisha began to be closed due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Amit and his girlfriend were busy editing pictures and editing videos at home. Back then, he was always joking about the weight gain and moodiness associated with staying home for long periods of time. Now, the two have once again started a cool motorcycle journey. Long hair, tattoos and heavy metal outfits stand out in Odisha's sea-to-air coast and lush green mountains. Amit urged me to reunite with him if I had the chance to travel together and improve my shooting techniques.

In the prosperous and fertile land of China and India, it is the constant blooming of every young person in the life track that has such a rich life practice in the Chinese and Indian society.