Beneath the fallen leaves: Year of reunions... and the search goes on...

We were in Moscow during 1993-1995. I arrived in Moscow in the middle of September. I was coming from Das Island where the summer temperature was a cool 50 degrees, Celsius! Usha and Nikhil arrived on 3rd of October, exactly when Boris Yeltzin started firing on his on Parliament with tanks - not blanks, but live artillery. The flight was early in the morning and I arrived in our flat in Yugozapadnaya around 08.00 AM. Soon after the phone started ringing. It was Daniele, our Site Manager. He told me to switch on the TV and stay home with the doors fully secured. I switched on the TV and tuned to CNN. Well, to my horror, they were telecasting live the assault on Russian Parliament by Russian armed forces! Anil told us later that he was standing in the 11th floor of a building next to Ostenkino (Russian TV Tower) and some bullets landed there.

Any way, that was not the subject this note. The first 3 months were hell for us in Moscow except for the joy of seeing our first snow because no one spoke English, but only Russian. We had to survive with the elementary sign languages or go to the Austrian Store where the only vegetable that is produced in Russia was sold at $14 / kg!

Then, through Vivek Naik, we met the principal of the Kendriya Vidyalaya and through him, some Mallu teachers. One of them was kind enough to direct us to Patrick Lumumba University or friendship university (where third world future leaders like Arafat, Carlos the Jack etc... were trained by Russia) barely 2 km from our residence. There we met Anil and Bhuvana and then few others.

There was a general famine in Russia. In Moscow, they tried to hide it, but the normal Russian subsidized stores have very little supplies. A professor was getting the equivalent of 80-90 USD a month!

Slowly, our apartment became the meeting place and most of the mallu students came to visit us during the weekends. Working for a Western Company in the oil sector we were well looked after and could afford to buy a couple of bottles of prime whisky and lots of chicken. Almost every weekend Usha becomes a culinary expert and most mallu students used to join us for an evening to relax. There were some exceptions because while most were students (Medical / Engineering/PG), some were teachers in KV and some business men too.

Majidka from Kazargod was working with UAE Embassy. Mohandas was doing some business. Laxman was in the pharmaceutical business. Jose in trading. I dont remember all the names, but there was Radhakrishnan from Alleppy, Geetha from Kottayam, Kavitha from Calicut, Ismail, Anil Vincent, Anil Tharyan and there was Anil, Bhuvana and Arun. Since we have left Moscow and moved to Italy, I met Majidka once in Geneva, Switzerland. Met Kurup sir from KV once in Thrissur. After that we lost touch with everyone except Arun Nair.

Later once were travelling from Thrissur to Trivandrum, some one shouted at us in the middle of busy Alleppy town. It was Anil. What a coincidence! We went to his home and met Bhuvana, now his wife and hid daughter, Bharti or Tabu.

Once again, time went by and we lost hope of finding any of them.

Last August when I was home for Onam holidays, I stopped by to meet James in his shop at Chevvoor. There was this gentleman whom James introduced and who was from Calicut. Just taking a chance, I asked him if he knew someone named Kavitha in Calicut and told him that she is a doctor and an actress. As luck would have it, his nephew was working in the same hospital as Kavitha and we discovered one of our missing links.

And then, a few weeks back, I got a mail from another Kavita, this time from London. She asked me, uncle are you the same Ajith uncle, pappa of Nikhil we knew in Moscow? And a second mail, yes, I saw your pictures, you are the same. What a jubilation! Kavita, who was at that time studying in KV Moscow, daughter of Laxman and Anitha, found me through Orkut. We got connected to another of our missing links. Laxman is still in Moscow and they were in Kerala in the last week. We tried to meet, but there were only two days and we could not make it. But now we know where they are and will be in touch.

Now, we continue our search for the other friends missing since 1995...

However, we could reconnect with at least 4 of them this year - a very good year.Hope to catch the others also soon...

For me, Usha and Nikhil, Russia was a beautiful dream. We had a good time there with our mallu friends and we did not face any problems. In fact, the Russians were very friendly unlike described by some others and I even spend one month of my vacation touring Russia and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was all made possible by our student friends from Kerala. Without their help, we could have had a hard time. I dont know if we ever thanked them for their company, their help, above all, their friendship.

Nikhil, me and Usha 12 Feb 2010

Dear friends, if any of you happened to read this, please accept our gratitude and get in touch by writing a comment or leaving your mail id. We love you!