From Moscow-With Love-Part II

Having seen the Red Square in the night, my colleague Gaurav and I were keen to revisit the place in the morning. After a hearty breakfast at the Metropole we strolled over to the Red Square. There was fresh snow on the sidewalks and it was snowing steadily. Fortunately there wasn’t too much wind and we were comfortable in our layers

of clothing, the mittens, the heavy woolen socks, and the caps. We walked

leisurely, taking in the sights and sounds of the city, swathed in white. At the Kremlin, we watched the ceremony of the ”change of guards”, with all its pomp and splendour. Seeing the guards standing stiffly in their enclosures, expressionless, staring ahead, almost frozen in the cold. I wondered that this must be one of the toughest jobs in the world, doing nothing for hours, just standing stiffly come rain, snow, hail or sunshine.

Planning on seeing Moscow on foot, Gaurav and I

armed ourselves with bars of chocolate from a nearby store and walked over to the St. Basil’s Cathedral on the Red Square. The Cathedral built-in the 16th century is an architectural marvel, its design, shaped as a flame of a large bonfire, is peerless. The multi-coloured onion shaped domes add a surreal dimension to the edifice. We bought our tickets from a kiosk outside the church and g

ingerly walked inside the dimly lit church. We went around the building, through narrow staircases and corridors leading into rooms with orthodox Christian iconography. We stepped out at the back and found ourselves on a sloping walk away with the Kremlin wall on the side. We walked down the slope towards the Moskva river - the river lending its name to the city situated on its banks.

We scrambled up a staircase on the side of a bridge spanning the river and were rewarded with the view of the frozen river. We had never seen a frozen river before and were mesmerized with the wide ice mass meandering around the city. Standing on the windswept bridge we could also see the beautiful golden domes of the chapels and the majestic buildings inside the Kremlin. We stood atop the bridge over a frozen Moskva on a cold winter day, overlooking the mighty Kremlin and enjoying the moment as only we could.

Moscow streets are lined with inviting cafes. For those exploring the city on foot, they

provide a great place for rest. We ducked into a nice cafe, where I caught up with work (hey, we were in Moscow on work!), while we were served hot cappuccinos. The sidewalk cafes in M

oscow are nice and warm and are just right for a break, particularly when it is snowing outside and the mercury is well below the freezing point. Our biggest barrier in assimilating more of

Moscow had so far been the language. Even in the cafe, we did not have anyone who understood English, and we had to manage by pantomime. While it is hilarious what Gaurav did to get us two hot cappuccino, it is not really all that funny when one is trying to relate the markings on a map, and our actual location on the ground.

Marking our way to The Gorky Park, as well as we could on the map, we trudged out once again and off we went on a road, which looked like some kind of a diplomatic enclave. There were many foreign missions lining the street and we gaped at these wonderful stately mansions. Following, the map we came upon a McDonald’s, from where we turned right. Our next landmark was to be the October Square, which we were to recognize by the statues of Lenin. We stumbled along, following the map, not sure, where we were headed. Since we had defined our destination rather loosely and were intent on enjoying the journey, it really did not matter. Somehow this reminded me of the adage ‘if you do not know your destination, any road will lead you there’!

We did reach the October Square and kept our date with Lenin, standing tall and proud in the middle of a beautiful square. This is the last statue of Lenin erected in Moscow in 1985, he is cast as a world titan, astride peasants, workers and soldiers following in his footsteps. Now under overcast skies and with snow falling around us, Lenin looked a little weary and the October Square looked very deso

late.

Elated on having made it to the October Square, we now headed off in the direction of the famous Gorky Park. The Gorky Park is an amusement park, which was opened in 1928. It is located on Krymsky Val, right across the Moskva and has been made famous the world over by the metal bang Scorpions, popular single ‘The Winds of Change”. Having reached the park by the late afternoon, the winter day light was now fading, Gaurav and I have been walking for more than 6 hours and were quite tired. We munched on the last of our chocolate bars and stepped into the vast park. The park was alive with young folks, skating on the ice. It seemed a popular place with young Muscovites, mostly couples and youngsters, enjoying a day out in the sno

w. Gaurav and I rested on the side and watched these youngsters whiz past on their ice skates. The park was covered in snow and a Christmas tree on the far side glowed in a eerie blue light.

We stepped out of the park to return to Metropole in a cab. We were scheduled to attend a Ramayana in Russian at a theater adjacent to the Bolshoi theater and Tanya was to pick us up at the hotel and escort us to the theater. We soon discovered how difficult it is to hail a taxi in Moscow. For some reason the taxis are not clearly marked and it is difficult to figure out a taxi from a private car. We stood on the highway, hailing cars passing by till one beat up Lada drew at the curb. The language barrier was again upon us and we got Tanya to speak with the cabbie, who than drove swiftly along the frozen river and dropped us at the Metropole.

To be Cont......

From Moscow-With Love – Part I

Moscow in winters is a sight to behold, particularly if one is used to what passes for winters in December and January in Delhi. At the Domodedovo airport in Moscow, I could see a light sprinkle of snow on the tarmac below. While taking off from Doha in the afternoon the captain had cheerfully announced that the weather in Moscow would be nowhere like what it was in Doha and now in the twilight of a Moscow evening, with fellow travellers pulling on heavy woollens and snow everywhere, I could imagine what the captain was alluding to.

As I stepped outside the terminal, I felt an icy blast of cold and I wondered so this is how it feels to be in Moscow in December. Strangely, I did not feel uncomfortable, after all I was swathed in multiple layers of clothing and a heavy jacket that would do any Muscovite proud. In fact I felt positively exhilarated, the cold was delightful, the crunch of snow under ones boot, a wonderful feeling.

The drive from the airport to The Metropole took more than 2 hours. Unfortunately, my driver spoke no English and it seemed was in no mood to talk either. We drove from the airport to the city in the dwindling evening light on a road, which seemed lined with bare trees on either side. It seemed to be a wide road, much like any other western freeway, yet it was heavy with traffic and we often got stuck. I amused myself by identifying the makes of the cars on the road and I could see the Toyotas, Hyundais (I myself was in a Hyundai Sonata), Mazdas, Hondas, Fords, Chevvys, Suzukis and the occasional Ladas all jostling for space. Honestly, I couldn’t help but wonder when will we have our home-grown Tatas and Mahindras here and when I spotted a big Ssangyong SUV, I thought that very soon this will sport a Mahindra logo.

The Metropole is a historic hotel. It is located right opposite the Bolshoi theatre and a 5 minutes walk from the famous Red Square. The hotel now has a weary visage, the carpets are a little worse for the wear, the walls and the cornices, while ornate do look their age. The Metropole is now more than a century old, it was completed in 1907 . It predates the October Revolution of 1917, was nationalised by the Bolsheviks in 1918, renamed as the ‘Second House of the Soviets’ and was used as residence for the burgeoning communist bureaucracy. It reverted to being a hotel in 1930 and since than have been hosting celebrities, Presidents, Royalty, Prime Ministers, Heads of the States and the like. Today, it is a comforting presence, elegant and stately, right in the heart of the city, the grand old lady a little wrinkled and maybe a little worse for wear, but welcoming as ever.

We met Tanya the next day morning. Tanya works for the Voice of Russia, speaks English, Hindi and of course Russian and was to be our interpreter and guide during our stay in Moscow. After we finished our day’s work at the Voice of Russia, Tanya recommended that we visit the Tretyakov Art Gallery a bare 5 mins of walk from her office. With Tanya leading the way, we walked to this world-famous repository of Russian art. Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant started collecting Russian art of his time in 1856 and gradually built up his collection. In 1892, he presented it to the city of Moscow. The gallery today houses one of the largest and the finest collection of Russian art. The collection today has more than 130000 exhibits of fine art, created by Russian artists over the centuries. As we wandered around the gallery, completely dumbstruck, (almost all the artists unknown to us!!!), we could not help but marvel at their genius and the timelessness of their craft.

We walked back to the Voice of Russia office in the freezing cold, much excited, exhilarated by the riches we had seen at the Tretyakov art gallery. As we piled into a taxi to return to The Metropole, we explained to the taxi driver, that we were from India. ‘Hindustan …aha …Raj Kapoor…Abara hoon… abaara hoon….’ he crooned. We were dumbstruck once again, Raj Kapoor is long since dead and gone, we do not play his songs that often in our homes anymore, but here he was alive in the heart of a Russian taxi driver, who knows no Hindi but instinctively connects with an iconic song and an artist who played the lovable tramp in most of his movies.

Later in the night, we went out for dinner and on our way back, decided to walk around the Red Square. The Red Square is the heart of Moscow and on its periphery is the Kremlin, the fairy tale like St. Basil’s Cathedral, the State Historical Museum and the ultra luxe GUM department store. The square is also home to Lenin’s tomb, a gleaming granite edifice, erected in the memory of the revered founder of socialism in Russia. The Red Square is brilliantly lit in the night, the St. Basil cathedral, with its multi-hued onion domes is majestic, the imposing Kremlin wall and towers with the glowing red star at the apex is a sight to remember. We wandered aimlessly, taking in all the beauty around us, with the snow-flakes falling gently. The square was almost deserted, with a few die-hard tourists roaming around, like us, enjoying the stillness and the cold of the night. We captured the Kremlin wall clock striking midnight, its sound reverberating around the empty square.

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To be contd