The Countdown - the End of a Facinating Journey - 3

I have already written two times on the subject. The final stages of the journey are approaching and completed. The process continues.

The first good-bye dinner was hosted by us at the India House in Minsk on December 8 which happened to be my birthday also. The members of the Embassy staff both local and India based were invited along with the members of the small Indian community in Minsk and also some prominent Belarusian friends like Indian dance teachers Elena Sipach, Ludmila and yoga teacher Natallia. It was a good fun. We purposely kept the party informal as an open house. The food was totally home made with the help of our usual help in the kitchen Purushottam of the Kebabji Restaurant and hot roti and lacha prantha from the Taj Restaurant.

Some of the guests like Naveen Kohli and Vishal Jain had given me the hint that they would like to dance and we prepared accordingly for the non-stop bhangra beats. Almost everybody, in turn, joined the bhangra. My wife Vidya, in spite of her knees, joined and ensured that everybody was at ease. The Bhangra was interrupted occasionally to give floor to the volunteers and impromptu singing talent among the guests led by R.P. Singh. They even sang ' कभी अलबिदा ना कहना ' We enjoyed the party as, we believe, was done by our guests. In fact, we tried our best to wind up, at each station of our posting, with a homely get-together of our fellow workers and friends around. We were all the more happy to see that some of the friends got pleasantly tipsy on that cold and snowy evening. We would miss them all.

I will continue writing on the countdown till be leave Minsk.