Some adventures are just impatient and begin before their time. I was still 48 hours away from landing in Moscow when the owner of the place I had booked called to say that it had been flooded out and was “out of use.”
“That’s ok. I can get another place for a week and move in then,” I tried to sound very calm.
“You don’t understand. It has been completely flooded out. It’s dangerous to even use electricity and repairs can take up to 6 months”
****! And just like that, began what I like to call “Russia–Volume III.” Incidentally, Russia-Volume III is also Moscow-Volume I. The last two times I’ve been here, I’ve lived in Petersburg (Piter). This was going to be my first time living in Moscow. If such a thing happened in Piter, I have a gazillion friends to bail me out. In Moscow, I knew as many people as Jeffery Archer had in the title of Kane and Abel.
Truth be told, Aeroflot is not the best airline in the world. I was so drained after the red-eye that my brain couldn’t even figure out if it was because of the uncomfortable seats, the terrible food or the flight announcement at odd hours. (Oh well, at least it didn’t crash!) My initial plan was to roam around in the city-center till noon and then check in to the last-minute expensive hostel I had booked to temporarily save the day. But I made one of the better decisions of my life by heading straight to the hostel and paying for the previous night just so I could go to bed.
When I woke up at 2:30PM, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t dark yet. That’s the norm in Piter at this time of the year and I was glad to discover that Moscow is ‘powered’ till just after 5PM. Luckily, Moscow is also not as cold. While Piter shivers at around minus 20, Moscow is relatively cosy at around minus 10. People here say that once the temperature dips below minus 5, you can’t really tell how cold it is. But if like me, you had gone from plus 13 in Delhi to minus 11 in Moscow, 
you’d damn well be able to tell how cold it is. I guess that’s why clicking photos at the Red Square felt like such an ordeal. I was wrapped inside 3 thick sweaters, an overcoat, jeans thrown over 2 pairs of tights, along with the usual hat, scarf and mittens and yet, somehow it was still not warm enough. After taking less than a dozen photos of the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin’s Mausoleum, and the beautifully lit GUM(1), the index finger of my right hand, which was all I had chosen to expose to the Russian winter, had already slipped into a coma. I had to practically do a Vidya Balan and suck it to bring it back to life!
I’m Garfield when it comes to Mondays but 17th January 2011 was a special Monday. It was my first day as an intern at the Carnegie Moscow Center(2) and also my official baptism into international relations. Even though I devoured Foreign Policy more lustfully than The Wall Street Journal, I had been a corporate kitten so far. This internship was going to be my transition - an attempt at converting my hobby into a career.
I walked in excitedly and was at my work-station in 30 minutes. And what a work-station! I si
t in the library, which is the dome of the Galeriya Aktyor building on Tverskaya - Moscow’s most famous street – that overlooks Tverskaya (obviously!) on both sides, Pushkin Square with his statue, and you can see 3 of the 7 Stalinist skyscrapers(3) including the imposing Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But the view I fell in love with was the Pepsi billboard right across the street that said, “Vsyo tolko nachinaetsya!” (It’s only just beginning). How true!
First days usually involve quietly slipping into a new environment but mine involved a 4PM office party with lots of champagne and wine! It was our IT Manager, Volodya’s 50th birthday and we all gathered to celebrate in style. (They even made me toast in Hindi!) The party was a great way to meet all the research experts and staff at Carnegie, who were all very curious and welcoming as I am their first-ever Indian intern. That’s also how I met Alexander Starikov. He came up and told me that he had visited Delhi back in 1959. Wow! Nostalgia lit up his eyes as he gently sipped his wine. “I stayed at Krishna Road.”
“Krishna Road?” I struggled to remember.
“It is where all the embassies are.”
Really? Then this is somewhere in present-day Chanakyapuri – where I live!
Alexander went on to explain his role as the Deputy Director of Carnegie’s journal, Pro et Contra, and also shared that the photos hanging around the office and the conference hall were his works! At first glance, I wondered what photo-editing function had been used to get the wind and ripple effects but Alexander revealed that he usually sits by ponds, waits for a leaf to fall and snatches the perfect moment. None of his works(4) had been edited. He had captured life either through the rainy glasses of moving trolleybuses or through the dusty windows of the city’s high-rises. I could hardly believe that such exquisite art hadn’t been edited! Adobe Photoshop – eat your heart out.
As I walked back home that evening, the champagne wore off and the Moscow winter began to ferociously gnaw at my skin. You know it’s too cold when:
-You accidentally leave Backstreet Boys on repeat play on your iPod but it’s too cold to take it out of your pocket and change the song
-You spend an extra couple of seconds behind a car exhaust while crossing the road just so it can warm you up
-You want to give a fitting reply to the construction worker who just made a rather inappropriate gesture at you but your middle finger is too scared to leave the warm confines of your mittens
So ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned because there’s a lot more to come. After all, vsyo tolko nachinaetsya!
Notes:
1. Gosudarstvenii Universalnii Magasin = State Universal Shop–the abyss of shopping during Soviet times now adorned by the Louis Vuttons, D&Gs and Chanels of the world
2. About Carnegie: http://carnegie.ru/about/?lang=en
3. Moscow’s Seven Sisters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(Moscow)
4. Some pics of Alexander Starikov’s photos are here: http://tinyurl.com/5vyevl9
