"...Sir pe laal topi Russie..."

Yesterday it was fairly modern-day Afghanistan. Today it's Russia around the time of the Revolution. Last week it was China around Deng Xiaoping, last month was Isak Dinesen's Kenya. ...and The Lion King. I am travelling these days, aren't I?

Today I watched a movie I'd been hoping to watch for more than eleven years now. Long ago, in high school, when we were studying Russian history and the Russian revolution, the teacher (I still smile every time I think of Mrs. Maria Fernandes!) urged us to get hold of this movie. I never actually had the chance. Today, however, I finally watched Doctor Zhivago. It's strange, this combination of Boris Pasternak (adapted), Ayn Rand, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in my head is actually forming my opinion of Russia... socio-politically, culturally, and, ultimately, geographically, too. Add to that a little bit of Paul Theroux and the fact that my mother always wanted me to go to Moscow to study physics and you'll have all the reasons why I want to take a trip there. I want to see if my impression of Russia and Russians is correct. I want to feel their vibrancy in the midst of a hostile climate and all the political, economical and social upheavals of the last few decades. Some months ago, I saw a documentary about real estate in Russia, and how, through this industry, you can see an emergent class of neo-capitalists forging hidden deals to cut around the government regulations. Still, you can see the differences between the more economically liberalized Russia of today and what it was, say, fifteen years ago.

Oh, by the way, don't you see that Doctor Zhivago can also be styled, We, The Living? Only, with a lot more zest and hope. It's no wonder Boris Pasternak stayed back, and Alyssa Rosenbaum left.