My home away from home

I had a great weekend, full of surprises and excitement. The rugby world cup final was won by South Africa, not England, which was a bit of a surprise and then on Sunday Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was crowned world champion in Formula One, after he won the Brazilian Grand Prix. Even before the race had begun, the only two names on everybody’s lips were Alonso and Hamilton. This, I must say, was the biggest of surprises and one hell of a race. Two of my friends and me actually stayed up till 3 am that night playing the Formula One racing game on our computers through the network. I came second in both races, which disappointed me, considering I rate myself higher. But now that the racing season is over, the hype and fever should stop, at least among us.


In the past week I’ve realized that starting your own blog isn’t all that difficult, maintaining it is. I’ve hardly had any free time on my hands recently, but I’ve been itching to get back to the blog each time I left it. One of the reasons I never started a blog was my laziness to maintain it. But I’ve promised myself that I’ll make an effort. I’ll try and keep things fresh and interesting as much as I can. Maybe 5-6 posts a month should do the trick.




I’ve been in St.Petersburg, Russia for the past five years doing my bachelors in Aerospace Engineering. It’s been a dream-come-true for me to study and live here. The course itself is excellent, but staying in St.Petersburg has been a delightful experience so far. Also known as “The Venice of the North”, “Северная Столица – the northern capital”, this city definitely is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and the easternmost city in Europe. It would always make my top 10. It has over 300 bridges and ranks second in “city with the most bridges in the world” after Venice, Italy. It has white nights during the summer, boasts of one of the best museums in the world – the Hermitage, was the capital of Russia once, is the second largest city in the country(largest – Moscow) and the third largest in Europe(largest – Moscow, second – London). Situated at latitude 59 degrees 57' north, the population of St.Petersburg is around five million as of today, which makes it the northernmost city in the world with a population of more than one million. It is one of the coldest places in Russia, and believe me, it can get really really cold during the winters. The lowest I have ever experienced here would have to be about -32 degrees Celsius back in the winter of 2006. With the heater on, I used to wrap myself in three blankets when I slept in those days. I wonder why so many people still live in Russia even though the weather is such. Take Siberia for example. With temperatures up to -50 degrees Celsius in winter, Siberia has a population of 39 million people. But the truth lies in the facts. And the numbers say that the population of Russia is declining every year. Today, Russia's population of 142,300,000 is only 12.6% that of India and in the next ten years it could drop to
less than 10%.



I’ve always seen Russia as the European version of the USA, only colder and with people speaking a different language around you. Other than that, there are hardly any differences. I’ve heard a lot about the USA over the years through family and friends, who have travelled there. But one thing I’m certain about is this, Russia has preserved it’s cultural integrity and has the capability to operate without interferance from the world. Russian technology is a great example of this. They have their own brand of cars – Lada, etc, aircraft - Sukhoi, Ilyushin, Tupolev, etc and spacecraft – Soyuz, Buran, Vostok, etc.


I haven’t mentioned all the interesting facts about St.Petersburg above, but if I do then I could go on and on. Some, that deserve mention here and make me proud, are the underground railway metro system, the city’s only football(soccer) team – Zenit St.Petersburg, the fact that a part of the film “Goldeneye” was filmed in this city and that it is one of the end-points of the longest railroads in the world – the Trans-Siberian railway.



Russia has given me the opportunity to take my career ahead and to learn a new language while doing so. I’ve made countless friends, had tubs of fun, grown and learnt a lot in these five years. I can comfortably call Russia, especially St.Petersburg, my home away from home.


CHEERS!!!