Once I boarded the plane, I had a strange young woman sitting next to me. I call her "strange" because she looked more like an Indian, but had accent of German English. We introduced ourselves, and it is then I got to know that she is a Russian by birth. Her family had moved into Germany during the fall of U.S.S.R Our dialogue centered around India, her personal tour to Thailand as she was traveling to Bangkok, her family and her studies. She was interested in India because she is planning to get a job in one of the large IT companies operating here. The woman named Xenia A. though still in her mid twenties had enough knowledge of Russian literature. I was delighted to know that she had some fair understanding of Dostoevsky. Indeed she was surprised to know that I had good knowledge of Russia and Russian literature! She is a free bird. She just wanted to be along in Bangkok. Not a running-away-a-sort of thing type. But, had responsibly planned her travel, and had enough material with her on Thai culture, people and places in order to make her stay more memorable. She also exuded special interest in knowing more...hated by a large modern youth, which thinks that everything that media and internet cough up are the best. At Dubai, she behaved like a little child with enthusiastic eyes. She was in Asia for the first time! She went into the large shops selling perfumes of the Arab world, tested almost each bottle and chose some, rejected some.... and planned to buy some of them. We had coffee together and then we bid bye to each other. She still remains in my mind as a child throbbing with life! I took my flight to India and reached Calcutta (Kolkata) at 7.50 a.m. on 12 Sept, and disappeared in the maddening noisy crowd of the great Indian city. (End of European Visit)
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