Airliners-India

ameya

Raj Kapoor and the India magic in Russia

That Raj Kapoor is famous and loved in Russia is well known but little did we expect that we would get special treatment because we were Indians in St. Petersburg. The population born and raised in Soviet Union are in love about all things Indian.

We stood out as Tourists as we boarded a local city bus at one of the metro stations in St. Petersburg to go to the hotel where we were staying. To be sure that we get down at the right stop, we made our way near the front door, near the driver, to get a better view of the road and decide where to get down.

The jolly old bus driver looked at us and asked if we are from India and when we nodded in the affirmative, his next question was Raj Kapoor with a sparkle in his eyes and again we nodded after which to our utter surprise he started humming a Raj Kapoor song!

As we reached our stop he asked us where we wanted to go and we pointed at the multistoried hotel nearby, he asked us not to get down and instead we continued in the bus wondering what is his logic until he stopped bang in the middle of the street and opened the door right opposite our hotel and let us down.

We thanked him and he waved back at us. We crossed the road with a fantastic feeling of the bonds that have been created between the countries decades ago and how one gets to experience it even today.

He couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t speak Russian, but this was a fine example of what cultural ties can do to overcome language barriers. It was one of those moments to feel proud of being Indians.

I have had a very special treatment from an Afghan driver in the USA as soon as he heard that I am from India. More about it, some other time.
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Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

something similar happened with me, when subway artist started to play "mera joota hai japani' on his accordian.... I was walking and instantly froze.. next thing, that song was my ringtone.

VT-ASJ
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ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:11 pm Post subject:

PAL@YWG · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:55 am Post subject:

Ameya,
It's quite common in the former USSR space (from Azerbaijan to Tajikistan) to find people who grew up with Indian cinema. Raj Kapoor with older generation and Disco Dancer Mithun Chakravorty with the younger generation. Disco Dancer came at a time when Soviet young population were desperate to get the taste of prevailing western pop culture of the time. Disco Dancer was the alternative to that. Little they knew that it was a copy from the Hollywood blockbuster, forgot the name now but watched the movie.

Russian TV channels even now periodically shows remake of Disco Dancer songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZoJHoD7g7U
enjoy!
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ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:39 am Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Ameya Sir, Aseem and Samir-da: I read all your posts with a good deal of interest, since the phenomenon also struck me weirdly enough, in a place which Ameya Sir and Mrs.Joshi visited a month back...Vilnius, of all place.
I was on the bus to the airport, with a torrential rain forecast for the evening. It had already started raining, and Vilnius had been flooded a few days back. (July, 2017). On the bus, all of a sudden, a co-passenger started humming a Talat Mahmood tune (of all songs). In addition to the Raj Kapoor ones, it was a complete shock to me. mauzandarA...mauzandarA. This is not a very common Talat song, and possibly refers to the old land in Central Asia where I guessed he traced his roots to. I was speechless.
Ameya Sir: please recount the incident with the Afghan driver.
Cheers, Sumantra.

himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

Alexandria 2008: A lot of taxi drivers were AB fans would sing the 1970s songs with ease.

They also spoke fondly about Nehru and his relationship with their country.
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ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:17 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:18 pm Post subject: