Week 32 (2010) Moscow: Apocalypse now

On Saturday, 7 August, my Emirates flight from Dubai landed in Moscow. Emirates is one of the coziest airlines. It uses advance gadgets to make flying an experience. The seats can massage the back or bottom of the passenger. I was well fed, well rested, and watching a Hindi cult film – Sholay – on my screen when I felt this stench in my nostrils. My aunt is a pathologist. Many years ago, I had gone with her to a hospital morgue. This smell was that smell. I looked around. To see if the Emirates staff would do anything – like spraying scents. The American airhostesses didn’t move at all.

The plane had landed. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. But it was evening outside.

“It was instrument landing.” One airhostess said to another.

I overheard it and asked her what instrument landing was. Since we had landed, I wasn’t afraid to ask.

“Automatic landing.” She replied. “When the pilot can’t see anything, he relies on the dashboard alone to land.”

We came out of the plane to go to the immigration check area. It was like entering a sauna – but a sauna with a burning smell. All immigration officers had worn masks. I took long breaths, sometimes opening my mouth. I took my handkerchief and tied it around my face.

I wondered if I should take the next flight and go back. This could not be Moscow.

***

I reached the hotel, and then went for a walk to Kremlin. It was nearly forty degrees. Cars had put on all possible lights. The stench was overpowering. My body felt a mild sensation of burning. You touch a hot kettle by mistake, and the sensation lingers for some time. It was that way all over the body. The red square was smoggy. Just like everything else.

It looked like a post-war city. Deserted, full of smoke, gloomy.

***

On Sunday evening, I had booked tickets to see “Swan Lake”- next to the Bolshoi. I wanted the delegation I am with to see the best of Russian ballet. Each ticket had cost us 60 US Dollars. The delegation had asked my advice about the protocol. What dress should they wear to the ballet? I said normally you wear suits to the Bolshoi, but considering the heat, it should be all right to wear simple smart casuals. T-shirts and jeans wouldn’t look good at a ballet.

The Indian delegates were in Russia for the first time. They opted to wear dark suits. I had taken off my sandals to wear socks and shoes. We entered the hall, where a wave of hot wind greeted us.

‘When will you start the air-conditioner?” I asked the usher.

“Air-conditioner? We never had it here.” She said.

For the next two hours, every spectator was busy fanning himself/herself with pamplates, newspapers. I used the tickets. I had removed the socks and shoes. The Indian gentlemen had taken off their jackets and ties. The shirts were damp. Our hands, continuously moving the emergency fans were as tired as the ballerina’s legs. The doors were kept open. Viewers who felt breathing difficulties or dry lips left the halls to go to the washrooms.

I don’t know if it was the weather. Swan Lake is a tragedy. It includes a famous number called ‘the dying swan.’ The beautiful girl who becomes woman during the day and swan in the night succumbs to the evil designs of the sorcerer. The prince can’t marry her.

What did we have here today? They changed the Swan Lake ending. The sorcerer died, and the prince and the swan married in the end. (Are you allowed to change the ending of Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth or Hamlet, simply because the copyright has expired?). Swan Lake with a happy ending. Maybe that was necessary for the dying spectators.

***