2 + 2 = 5 (London, and Geneva / New York)

I had been given a small compass that would fit onto the strap of a wrist-watch.  Viewing flats around 2000, I’d take it along to check which room faced which direction — where the morning/afternoon sun would be — for the light.  

At the time, the Chinese concept of fengshui had just become known to the general British population, with fairly regular references to it in the papers.  Some TV programmes also featured fengshui experts checking out properties for clients.  (fēngshuǐ / 风水 /  “wind water” = geomancy, checking out the lie of the land for things like energy lines, for auspicious positioning of houses.)  The vendors and estate agents showing me around the properties would invariably think it was some exotic fengshui measuring instrument instead of the plain old compass which any Westerner would recognise.

This reminded me of a story I’d heard about Morarji Desai (Indian prime minister 1977–1979) who was known to drink his own urine, as part of "urine therapy".  (I have heard that some people do have this practice as we lose a lot of nutrients in our urine.  It makes logical sense, therefore, to recycle our urine, but most of us are too squeamish about such things.)  

One day, he was at a United Nations conference.  Everyone had a glass of water in front of them, but Desai had a glass of pale yellow liquid in front of him.  

Nobody could concentrate on the speeches, discussions and arguments put forward at that session — they all had their eyes glued to that glass of pale yellow liquid, waiting to see if he would drink it in public.  

He did, and people gasped / blinked.  It turned out to be plain old diluted lemon juice.  

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d done it deliberately for the dramatic effect…

(London, 2000; Geneva/New York)

(See also blog entry Jumping to conclusions)