When I was young, I remember listening to Radio Moscow’s Assamese broadcast on the radio. I remember reading about how popular Raj Kapoor was in the then USSR, about what a big hit the movie Awara was, about how the USSR was India’s all-weather friend, about the intrepid space explorers – Laika the first animal in space, and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Some years later, we were witness to an epochal event – the disintegration of the USSR : a time when the entire world learnt two Russian words – glasnost and perestroika.

The next couple of decades coincided with India’s liberalisation, the increasing cultural and economic influence of USA, and the the corresponding disappearance of Russia from our collective consciousness, except as the stereotypical bad guys of Hollywood thrillers.

So when I got a chance to visit Moscow on work a few weeks ago, I was not sure what to expect. Given that it was a work trip, I really didn’t get much time to do much sightseeing. However, what I did manage to see was extremely impressive. It turns out that Moscow is quite a beautiful city, and the changing colours of the autumn leaves embellished this beauty as only nature at its best can.

I was only able to visit two places this time. The first one was the huge, awe inspiring structure of Moscow University. The story is that when huge skyscrapers were being constructed in the US in the fifties, Stalin took it as a personal affront that Russia was falling behind. He ordered the construction of seven buildings, all in different architectural styles, but sharing a common feature – that of being absolutely huge! After all, these were buildings meant to show the Empire State Building its place. These seven buildings are now called the Seven Sisters, and probably the most impressive of them is the Moscow University building, which you can see below.

One interesting fact about this building is that the roads near it are where all of Moscow’s race enthusiasts and stuntmen congegrrate. While I was there, I was lucky enough to witness a few bike stunts on the main road, while on a patch of land nearby a BMW was screeching around making the circles amidst a lot of smoke and dust.

One evening, I caught up with some friends of friends, Indian people who have settled in Moscow, and had a great time chatting with them while gorging on Uzbeki food. Interestingly, many Uzbeki dishes share the same names as the corresponding Indian dishes, from sharbat to kabab to shashlik etc. My understanding it that these dishes came to India from Uzbekistan, which was the homeland of the Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire.

On my very last day in Moscow, I visited the iconic red square, and it totally lived up to the hype.

Just outside the Red Square, before the Resurrection Gate, is a metal plaque that marks “Kilometre Zero”, the centre point of Moscow from which all distances to and from the city are supposed to be measured.

A common belief is that if you stand right on the centre point and make a wish, it will come true. So one gets to see many people doing this, and then placing a coin on the plaque. Of course, there are enough people waiting around to pick up these coins and make good use of them.

For a photographer, the Red Square is a great place for people watching, and I too couldn’t resist the temptation.

Talking of people, there are these men and women dressed in traditional and supposedly royal Russian clothes who make a living out of posing with tourists for photographs.

Unfortunately, I had to rush through and see the sights in a very short time. I am looking forward to be back some day to experience the sights and attractions of Moscow with the respect and focus the city deserves.

Here are some more photographs from the trip. Hope you like them. Please click on the individual image to see it in full size.

 

© 2019 Jishnu Changkakoti. All rights reserved.