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| Moldova Diary by Rahul Singh |
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Whenever I suggest a Diary column from outside the country, the editor says, "Give it an Indian angle." Well, the Indian angle to this column is that there is no Indian angle. Let me explain. When Werner Fornos, an old friend and winner of the prestigious United Nations Population Award, invited me to a conference at Moldova, my response was, "Where the hell is Moldova?" Moldova has neither an embassy, nor a consulate, not even an honorary consul, in India. So, how to get a visa? I received the not-very-helpful response that the closest Moldovan embassy was in Beijing. Luckily, a flight from New Delhi to Chisinau, Moldova’s capital, was via Vienna, where Moldova did have an embassy.
Which is where I found myself at 7.45 am one morning, nervously waiting for it to open.
To my surprise and delight, I got my visa within a few minutes. But when I arrived in Chisinau, the lady at the immigration counter scrutinised my passport for a good five minutes. Through the glass partition, I saw her hand it to her colleagues who took turns in examining it, while gesticulating animatedly. After about half a hour, long after all the other passengers had been cleared, she returned and asked me in broken English, "You come from Istanbul, no?" When I replied, "New Delhi, not Istanbul," she looked confused. Two things became clear. One, she suspected me of being a Turk trying to get into Moldova illegally. And, secondly, she had never heard of New Delhi because her next question was, "When you return Istanbul?" Unless somebody challenges me to the contrary, I lay claim to being the first non-diplomat Indian to have entered Moldova since it broke away from the Soviet Union and became an independent republic in 1991.
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Let’s get serious. Moldova is classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, in fact, the poorest in Europe, with almost half its four million population living below the poverty line. That’s poorer than India, though one does not see the more obvious signs of poverty, like beggars and festering slums. Chisinau was virtually levelled in World War II and what has come up are dreary Soviet-style buildings and dilapidated apartment blocks. A few churches that escaped destruction and some parks are the only places worth seeing. I went for a tour of the city with Gerald Gelber, an American Jew attending the same conference. He was on a mission: to find the only synagogue that he had been told still existed in the city. The taxi driver had no clue where it was. Eventually, after going in circles, Gerald spotted a man wearing Jewish attire who pointed it out.
It turned out to be an entirely nondescript building, in a badly rundown part of town, its only distinction being some lovely stained-glass windows. He went on to tell me, with some emotion, that half the population of the city had been Jewish before World War II. "They were all hunted down and massacred—70,000 of them. Only a handful survived. The Moldovans want to wipe the massacre out of their memory." He gave me a Jewish cap to wear as we entered the synagogue. While he knelt in prayer, I closed my eyes for a moment of silence. I will keep that cap in memory of those 70,000 Jews.
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Silver For The Tarnishing
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Poor though it may be, Moldova has one major asset: the beauty of its women. But poverty and beautiful women can be a lethal mix, especially in a time of economic and social flux. That mix has led to what is called in politically correct terminology "human trafficking", or bluntly, prostitution. Moldova probably has more prostitutes per capita than any other country in the world. They ply their trade in various parts of Europe, the Middle East, particularly Dubai, even India. Sadly, they are vital for the nation’s economy, since they bring in valuable remittances, just like Indian and Pakistani workers do from the Gulf. These remittances annually total over one billion dollars (about Rs 5,000 crore), representing a third of Moldova’s GDP.
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Moldova is unique in another, happier way. It has the biggest underground wine cellar in the world. An astounding two million bottles of red, white and sparkling wines can be found lining the walls of 200 km of tunnels, 45 to 80 metres underground, just outside Chisinau. The natural lime constituent of the soil there gives the perfect humidity—85 to 95 per cent—and temperature—12 to 14 degrees C—needed to preserve and age the wine. A plaque from the Guinness Book of World Records proudly displayed on a wall announces this world-beating feat. Apparently, almost every Moldovan household produces its own wine, so strong is the wine culture of the country. If Moldova is looking for an honorary consul in India, I’m sure I can be considered for such a post in Bombay. If nothing else, I can popularise their wines here.
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