A Tale of Three Cities

Last night I dreamt I went to Berlin again.

Admittedly, I dream about the place morning noon and night. Its one of those easy going, care free, hip cities that are so nice to live in. And at a price that my student budget can stretch to. It has a vibe that I have never felt anywhere else in the world. I was lucky enough to spend part of last year living there as part of my year abroad and I would do anything to go back there as quick as possible.

It's the third city that I have ever been in love with. First it was Paris, then Moscow, and now Berlin. When I fall in love with a city, I become obsessed. I start planning my life there, look at rents and property prices and think of ways I can earn myself a living.

Paris

I fell in love with Paris during sixth form whilst studying French A-Level. The class teacher ran trips to Paris every year and he knew so much about the place. Despite getting lost in search of the Venus de Milo and losing my favorite scarf in the Louvre, I liked Paris immediately. Even when an old French man stopped me and asked me if he could take a picture of my long hair as he was a photographer and collecting hair pictures for an upcoming exhibition. I agreed on the condition that he provide me material for my coursework, which got a high mark. I learned how to get my own back on the waiters and insult them in their own language. I spent hours walking along the Seine and exploring the Latin Quarter buying Russian poetry at Shakespeare and Company. I hatched a plan to run away to Paris on my eighteenth birthday. Mainly due to a lack of funds, it never happened. Looking back on it now, it's probably a good thing, considering how inexperienced in the ways of the world I was.


Moscow


I lived in Moscow during my gap year to work with a charity. I barely knew the alphabet and had never been there before. My mother's best friend at university studied Russian and had taken her on a short tour of Moscow and St Petersburg in the late 70s whilst they were still students. My knowledge of Russia came from my mother's impressions of the place on that trip and stories of her friends antics, like selling her Jeans. Moscow was big, brash but beautiful. I lived with an English teacher who talked alot and her son, who although he was only a year younger, was terribly shy and for the most part didn't want to talk to me. It was through Tanya, the English teacher, that I learned about this thing called the Russian soul moulded by years of pain and hardship. However bad life was, Russians remained optimistic for the future. I spent my spare time wondering round the houses of famous writers who had tried to encapsulate the Russian soul in their work.

There were two things that annoyed me about Moscow: the inflation and the fact that it was a man's town. Every time I had returned to Moscow, the prices have gone up significantly. In my gap year in 2004, the cost of a single on the metro was 10 roubles. As of May 2007, the cost was 17 roubles. Even though by western standards this is still quite cheap (1 rouble is about 2 English pennies), it is still a good indicator of the price of living.

It's a man's city due to the way Russian men view women there. I never felt safe enough to go out on my own after dark (which I frequently did in Berlin). There are also strip clubs everywhere and even bars had guest strippers. After a while, all the sex on show got on my nerves.


Berlin

The first time I went there was on an organised trip with the university. I didn't like it at first, as I was still in love with Moscow. But by the end of the week I didn't want to leave, although I felt Berlin to be a bit too big and scary. Surprising, considering that I had lived in Moscow.

When I found out I would be in Berlin on my year abroad on a marketing placement in a top hotel, I was initially very scared. How would I fit into such a big place and find my way around without the safety net of a university group? My fears was unfounded and I soon fitted into the place as if I had been a jam doughnut all my life.

I loved the multiculturalness of the place. I've never felt a place be so welcoming to other cultures. Unlike other countries I'd been to, it makes an effort to get to know other cultures. I lived in a Turkish neighbourhood and soon became addicted to Goezlemers - a sort of Turkish stuffed flat bread similar to the Indian barota/parata.

In the Indian community, they say that you can always find Indians everywhere. Berlin had just the right amount of Asians. Enough for there to create a need for specialist food and clothes shops but not enough to create a little India where everyone knows everyone and disapproves if you wear a skirt that doesn't reach the floor. Bollywood and everything Indian is the current fashion and there were many Bollywood/Bhangra parties to go to. Unlike the ones in the UK, they were full of escapism and didn't have groups of Asian boys hogging the dance floor. Dressing up, unlike most of the other club nights in Berlin, was the done thing and I spent many happy hours getting ready. In keeping with Berlin, often nights didn't end until the early morning. I think the latest I ever came home was 6 am.

Berlin has however spoiled nights out for me in the UK. Everything is so expensive (cocktails and entrance are about twice the price) and everything ends at 2am. Perhaps its a good thing considering I am (supposed to be) working for my finals!

The Years of Russia and India

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, spent 28 hours in Moscow earlier this week. Apparently, he was in talks with Putin and returning the visit that Putin made to India in January. Improving relationships between the countries, ordering weapons, that sort of thing. According to an interview with RIA Novosti 2008 will be The Year of Russia in India and 2009 will be The Year of India in Russia. The aim is supposedly to encourage trade and all round happiness between the two countries.

It has to be said that I am a little suspicious of this friendship between the two countries. Whatever people say, Russia still hasn't quite recovered from Soviet Times and is still influenced by the Soviet mentality. A characteristic of this was a suspicion of all foreigners which is still visible today. Many Russians that I met during my various trips there were friendly, kind and welcoming. Russia does however contain some of the most racist people I have met. During one stay, I was thrown out of my flat for being a "dirty Indian".

2007 is The Year of China in Russia. The project may have achieved some of its economic goals, but in terms of its social goals it still has a long way to go. In recent years there has been an influx of immigrants from China. Some legal, most illegal. The average Russian doesn't like this. He sees the schools being overrun my immigrant children, jobs being taken over by their parents and cheap Chinese imports being sold instead of Russian ones. A popular Russian joke goes "It is the year 2100. All is quite on the Finland-China border." The average Russian is not only angry, he is afraid that there will be no Russians left soon. Admittedly, it is partly the Russian's fault. The birthrate has been dropping and there are more abortions than live births. This means that the average Russia had better get busy, or face facts and rely on immigration.

Russians have however adopted one thing from China: the food. In St Petersburg and Moscow, restaurants selling Chinese food are everywhere. I hope that the same will happen with Indian food. Although there are many in Moscow, there is only one decent one in St Petersburg.

During Soviet Times, Russian TV used to show Bollywood films dubbed in Russian. There is a certain generation of women who will swoon when you mention the words Rishi Kapoor. It's helped create a positive image of Indians in Russia, although I'm not sure if Russians believe that we run around dancing in wet saris when we find our soul mate. I used to get stopped on the street by people asking if I was from India. After a while, it got boring explaining everything so my usual answer, especially to the ugly Russian eager to take me home with him, was that I was from outer space and went to a university on the moon. I had great fun with a provincial woman, who was probably from one of the former USSR states, whilst waiting to see Lenin . She went further than everyone else and began asking personal questions. I ended up telling her that I was no one, I didn't exist, India wasn't a country and that it was all a figment of her imagination.

Despite my concerns about Russians welcoming Indians and their culture into their country in 2009, I am looking forward to observing how it all turns out. I hope there is some cultural collaboration as well as business collaboration between the two countries. A bollywood version of Anna Karenina would be well worth seeing. Tolstoy's work has all the prerequisites for a bollywood film - a love story and a running time of at least 3 hours.

What's in a Title?

I should probably explain the thinking behind the title of this blog. Why is it called "The Foreign Foreign Correspondent"?

At the moment, only about half the title rings true. The "Foreign Correspondent" bit is relatively simple reminder of where I want to be and what I am aiming for, namely some sort of life abroad after I finish my final year studying German and Russian at university.

The first "Foreign" is harder to explain. For the sake of attaching a label to myself, I call myself a British Asian. In terms of citizenship I am British. In terms of outward looks I am Indian. In terms of cultural values I am both British and Indian and if you add to that my degree subjects, a little German and Russian too.

In this day and age when we have so many politically correct words to try and describe nationality, I still find the vocab confining and lacking. Dual heritage, bicultural, multilingual, exotic, ethnic, second generation, descendant of an immigrant to name a few. After a while they begin to sound like harmful food additives responsible for toddlers' tantrums. I believe that, like languages, cultures can be learnt, absorbed and adapted by an individual for the purpose of the individual's own identity. It continues to surprise me that learning the culture is considered the by-product of learning a language. Not hugely important, but something that can be picked up along the way along with a few red faces when it all goes horribly wrong.

I love the way that learning about other cultures opens the mind. I love celebrating the similarities as well as the differences of the four cultures that I am lucky enough to partake in. I am comfortable enough with my own identity to have explained it many times to bemused people used to only having one culture and who sometimes believe that all foreigners will eventually go back to their own countries. I got talking to a German (in German) at a party last night. It was quite typical of the other identity/nationality conversations I have had.

"So are you Indian?"

"I'm a British national"

"Oh, so were you born in India?"

"No, I was born here. My parents moved over here with their parents when they were children."

"Oh, so are you Indian or English"

"Both"

"Ok. So will you go back to India one day"

"Don't really know. What I'd really like to do is go and live in Germany. That would be fun."

At this point the poor German is very confused and leaves saying something about finding his friend. He is confused because I look Indian, but speak English without an accent. I am fully integrated in English society rather than living in an "ethnic" part of town but yet want to run off and live in Germany.

Well I won't stand a chance of running off to Germany if I don't get my work finished and pass my degree. I supposed I had better get back to it otherwise I will have to delete the "Foreign Correspondent" part of the title.

Happy New Year

Let me start by wishing one and all a happy new year. Not the one that happens on the first of January, but the one that people light candles for. Otherwise known as Diwali. Its an auspicious day a bit like Christmas, but without the tree and with the tinsel. The usual get together with family, eat, drink and be merry idea. So it's typical then that I find myself stuck at uni as I had lots of work to do and my parents didn't really want to make the effort to get people together for a party.

My celebration of the festival of light was low key. I went home via the charity shops and picked up a candle to burn and managed to make traditional milk and rice pudding without the firemen dropping by. Although thinking about it now, their presence might have contributed to the celebrations.

Diwali is also an auspicious day for new things, like wearing new clothes and of course starting new blogs. If I had gone home I would be stuffing myself with food rather than typing this. It remains to be seen whether I made the right choice.