Gypsy at Large

Imagine you are over 6,000 km away from India setting your foot on an Island in the Baltic Sea where the chill in the weather has almost reached your bones. You encounter barely 12 people during your first few hours on the Island. And the first person you talk to refuse to let go of your hand and keep blabbering about Bollywood, when he comes to know that you are from India. Well this happened to me as I was traveling with a farrago (always wanted to use it after Mr. Shashi Tharoor enlightened us ) of mixed nationalities - one from China, one German, one half Canadian, one half German and of course myself an Indian. We reached Kuressare in Saaremaa island of Estonia in the afternoon, but did not see a single soul. As we took a stroll and zeroed in on a nice restaurant for our early dinner, an old man walked in and intrigued by our diversity struck a conversation and then it veered towards Bollywood. This was not the first time that the goodwill towards...

The two cities speak the same language and have had a shared history. But fate threw them on different sides of the border. For Narva and Ivangorod – small towns in Estonia and Russia respectively- the history has been strongly tied to each other as both were part of the erstwhile Soviet Empire. But after Soviet disintegration in 1991 they have been going through different narratives spawned by their respective governments and still maintain sanity in their approach towards each other. The river Narva dividing the two towns. Another view of the border It was for the first time that I crossed a border by foot. Crossing the bridge between Ivangorod and Narva immediately brought the analogy of the border between India and Pakistan (which I have never been able to cross over) in my mind; or if we narrow it down further – that of Indian Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Having cross border ties between families, the two cities have not cut down th...

Weathering the Storm This storm was of my own making! Before starting for Russia I checked the Weather Updates for Moscow, like an expert traveler. It read 24 degrees. An elated me, dreaming of warmer climate, packed all my summer dresses. As I happen to meet my travel partner at the Erfurt Hauptbahnhof (Germany), I got the shock. The temperature in Moscow was Zero degree and an excited me has read 24 Fahrenheit as 24 degrees!  On way to Izmaylovo Market Orthodox Church, as clouds cover the sky I somehow survived the inclement weather in Russia, which is as unpredictable – if not more – as its actions in the international politics. But for future travelers – never forget to take warm clothing. Me and Moscow Even before I began packing for my maiden trip to Russia (that I did at the eleventh hour), all my friends had doled out a safety advisory vis-à-vis the bastion of Communism. Incidents of People of the Colour being targeted were narrated. ...