SoCultures Magazine November 2018

SoCultures November 2018
India & Russia
RUSSIA BEyONd ThE NEwS!
wITh AjAy KAMALAKARAN
SoCultures is curious to know about Russia. Russia! As a country beyond the
headlines! How is it to live in this beautiful country and feel the breeze wandering
around, eat Borodinsky bread at a bakery in Moscow or read a book in a library?
And to know Russia as real as it is, beyond the regular headlines….
We ask several questions to Ajay Kamalakaran about almost everything in Russia.
He is an international journalist and writer based in Mumbai, India. He is the
author of two books about Russia. He was also RBTH’s Consulting Editor for
Asia.
His first work of fiction 'Globetrotting for Love and Other Stories from Sakhalin
Island' was published by Times Group Books in 2017. Ajay speaks fluent Russian,
French and Italian, and a few other European and Indian languages.
You have lived in both the countries – India and Russia. Can you tell us what are
the most vibrant and interesting factors in their respective cultures? Any
similarities?
While India’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is well known around the world, many
people are surprised to find out that Russia has one hundred and sixty different
ethnic groups. Ethnic Russians form eighty one per cent of the country’s one
hundred and forty five million-strong population, but the sheer diversity among the
remaining nineteen per cent of the population can be mind-boggling. This is
reflected in the country’s architecture, cuisine, art and crafts, and even to an extent
in its musical traditions.
Like India, Russia has also absorbed foreign influences and made them her own.
The Russian cultural space is essentially Eurasian, combing the best elements of
East and West. The same country that has produced the great classical music
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