“Coming on a small trip?”, my friend Bindu asked as soon as I picked up her call. We had been planning a small getaway to a quaint little homestay at Coonoor since ages, and somewhere between our tight schedules and the pandemic, it just hadn’t materialized. The utter boredom of an uninteresting day combined with the fact that I had been craving for a much needed break, hastened my reply. “Ofcourse, Bindu. I am in”, I replied excitedly as I conjured up images in my head of a beautiful drive up the Nilgiris and the relaxing weekend I might get to spend there. “In that case, get ready for a trip to Russia”, she said excitedly, leaving me agape.
Well, it was not Coonoor she was talking about, but a conducted group tour to Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Murmansk, which happened to be some place in the Arctic Circle… literally on the top of the globe! A Kochi based tour company, Benny’s Royal Tours was the organizer, and Bindu, an avid traveler herself, got interested in this due to the possibility of seeing the Northern lights or the Aurora Borealis at Murmansk. The trip would commence on 21st October, lasting for 8 days and we would return on the 29th.
Forget about an International tour, I hadn’t even imagined a simple Sunday drive… and this was going to be an 8-day foreign tour! How would I manage the home front? And what about my hectic work schedule? Would my family suffer in my absence? Moreover, the cost involved was huge. Am I wasting hard earned money? But my family would have none of it. My son, Varun, immediately started Googling up Russia. Without mincing words, he said, ” You are not getting any younger. A few years down, and you may find it physically tiring to do such a trip. Don’t miss out on this for God’s sake!” (The typical pragmatic Virgo that he is, Varun also added a few more choice sentences, which I’d rather not let the world know ). My sister, Deepa, who was planning to return to her house at Hyderabad offered to extend her stay until after I returned so that our mother would not be left alone. My octogenarian mother, an avid reader of travel related stories, found it exciting too. And that’s how the decision was made.
Like most people of my generation who loved books, my earliest introduction to Russia was through Mikhail Sholokhov’s “And quiet flows the Don”. The four-volume book stored in a brown leather box, along with a lot of other books belonging to my maternal uncle in our ancestral home had aroused the my curiosity since some time especially due to the pictures on the hardbound cover, but being all of 10 years of age at time, there was no way I could make sense of the small printed words stuffed into the pages. Every year, during the long Summer vacations, this became a sort of ritual and I would take great pleasure in opening the box to take out the musty smelling books which included thick hard-bound copies of Mein Kampf, War and Peace, Das Capital, the four volumes of ‘And quiet flows the Don” and some others, the titles which escape my memory now. Just as I got old enough to savor the printed treasures in the box, I found to my horror the whole cache, including my collection of precious Amar Chithra Kathas that my father had brought me over the years, destroyed by termites.
Later on, during my college days, I got an insight into the life of the Czar and Czarina and the effects of the revolution through Danielle Steele’s Zoya. A true blue romantic at heart, I literally cried, reading about the life of Zoya and the cruel fate of her cousins, the innocent children of the Imperial family. The grand palaces, the magnificent dresses worn by royalty, the precious jewelery, the horse drawn carriages, the angry mob of revolutionaries… everything became real and vivid in my imagination as I read and re-read the book word by word. I got a glimpse into food shortages in Russia and their tough life in freezing weather conditions. Moscow and St. Petersburg became places familiar to me after reading that book. Unfortunately, Zoya is no more part of my book collection since the time some unknown person ‘borrowed’ it.
Rasputin was another Russian character made familiar to the whole world thanks to Boney M in the late 70’s. But it was only much later that I became interested enough to read about that mysterious and enigmatic person whom Russians loved to hate. I started checking out documentaries and movies about Russia and its history in Netflix and my interest to visit the place started escalating.
I must say that the days prior to my travel to Russia were truly eventful. If we had a government spying on the activities of civilians, they would surely have noted the unusual interest in Russia from our IP address. While Varun was busy googling the places mentioned in the itinerary which Densal, the tour manager from Bennys Royal Tours had sent me, my sister busied herself researching on the various souvenirs available at Russia, Matryoshka doll being foremost in her list. Some of my other friends dropped not-so-subtle hints about Vodka being the National drink of Russia. Priya another friend who had visited Russia some time back, updated me about the delicious Georgian food available there. My son developed a sadistic pleasure in reminding me about the extreme weather conditions , which as per his words were, “a pleasant 2 to 8 degrees”. And to think that I actually freeze to death in movie theaters!
Conducted group travel was again, something new to me. I did have my reservations about traveling with a whole lot of strangers. But the advantage of such a travel, as I found out, was that the tour company would take care of all required documentation and legalities of traveling to a foreign land, leaving me totally free to worry about the clothing I need to carry.
Shopping for the trip was another experience. My friend, Rani, who had experienced a German winter, and my sister, Deepa who had stayed in London for a few years, gave me a lot of tips, the main thing being the importance of ‘layering’, the only way to combat freezing temperatures. Thermals, fleece jackets, layered jackets, ear muffs, caps, woolen socks, fur lined shoes… I was doubtful if I could get good ones at this part of the world, but Decathlon solved my problem. I must say, they have an amazing range of winter clothing depending on temperatures. I only wish their colour palette were wider to include
some more feminine hues.
As our departure date neared, Bindu and I frequently started exchanging notes on the essentialsrequired. My sister insisted on my carrying basic medicines and prepared a medical kit complete with paracetamol, cough lozenges, antacids, bandaids, pain balms and what not. I also packed a few biscuit packs and some dry snacks just in case I found the food unpalatable, being the picky and choosy non vegetarian that I was.
There were 68 people in the travel group who were to travel in two different flights. While one group was flying Emirates from Kochi to Dubai, and then a connection flight to Moscow, the second one was flying from Kochi by AirArabia to Sharjah with a connection flight to Moscow. The groups would meet at Moscow. Bindu and I had opted to fly from Coimbatore to Sharjah and meet the Airarabia group there to fly to Moscow.
Excited like two school girls on their school excursion, we both boarded the Airarabia flight to Sharjah on the wee hours of the 21st of October 2021.
…to be contd.