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By Ravi S. Narasimhan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-17 10:03

When I was in India a couple of weeks ago, my mother was fretting - about how I would make do without yogurt.

It's no wonder the tainted-milk scandal in China was the big story in Indian media, which caters to a people who start the day with milk delivered at home and use it in tea, coffee, food and sweets - apart from making yogurt and other dairy products.

On the same trip, which was part business and involved a visit from New Delhi to a neighboring provincial capital, a senior editor in China Daily called me with some very helpful advice: Don't take planes, trains or buses. There are bombs going off everywhere, he warned me earnestly.

A bomb did go off in Delhi the next day; and I went about my business.

And having come back to China, I haven't stopped eating yogurt.

The two incidents illustrate to me how much - or how little - the two countries know about each other.

It is naive to suggest that even for the two giant neighbors - the fastest growing major economies in the world which are destined to be No 1 and No 2 sometime this century - blanket coverage of each other is feasible.

Truth is, however much Asia trumpets its ancient civilization and culture or its shared values and mores, Sarah Palin makes for more interesting reading - or viewing - than landmark rural reform in China or rural resistance to reforms in India.

After working in China for more than six years, I find little has changed in perceptions about each other's country even though the media presence and coverage has increased. The Olympics was something else, an event my compatriots couldn't stop talking about glowingly even two months later.

Among a core group ranging from big corporates to smaller enterprises, there is definite interaction to mutual benefit. Last month's trade figures show China's trade with India was by far the fastest growing.

But that apart, the stereotypes continue to abound.

In China:

India is a land full of software wizards (minus one at least, me).

People watch cricket all day (blame me).

The rich are very rich and the poor, very poor (never mind the Chinese Gini Coefficient)

Everyone can sing and dance (wonder where they got that idea from).

Politics is chaotic and democracy can be a drawback to development (mostly true).

In India:

When China sets its mind to it, it does (the Olympics is a prime example but India is worried they will soon take up cricket).

A strong, central leadership is essential to run vast countries like India and China (true)

The Chinese eat everything (almost true; I have to constantly answer questions about snake blood etc).

They never seem to put on weight despite eating all that (generally true).

And how come they are so good at hardware (like India in software? At least as good).

Stereotypes are, of course, rooted in reality, but going beyond is a huge effort. I wouldn't expect Indians to be as knowledgeable about China as I am - and the same would hold good for a Chinese journalist posted in New Delhi.

If things have to change, why not the governments of the two countries announce massive exchange programs for young (and older for that matter) people? And reciprocal visits by journalists on a similar scale?

The only time, it seems, our envoys make the news is when they are summoned, typically out of office hours, to register a protest.

Allow them to make headline news of a different kind.

E-mail: ravi@chinadaily.com.cn