For me, India is about incredible diversity and endless exploration. I am lucky to have seen quite a lot in over 30 years of my association with India, much longer than my almost four-year-long ambassadorial posting. I feel at ease and at home in Delhi, and yet India continues to surprise me almost daily.
I got fascinated by India in childhood after seeing the movie Umrao Jaan (1981), but my interest in India grew much beyond movies to become a serious academic interest. For a child who grew up under Soviet rule, the dream of going to India was very ephemeral, as very few in the Soviet Union could actually travel abroad. It was the collapse of the USSR and the restored independence of Lithuania that made it possible.
I came to India first in 1994 as a young diplomat of the newly independent Lithuania for a young diplomats’ training course. Before that, I studied several Indian subjects at Vilnius University: Sanskrit, Hindi, Indian philosophy. It was in Delhi that I was bitten by the “Indian history bug”. Delhi turned out to be incredibly rich in history, yet complex and multi-layered, a city that bled so many times.
As I visited Agra, Jaipur, Ajmer, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Goa, my history map of India started filling up. I went on to read history books. Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, and The Wonder That Was India by AL Basham were my first textbooks on the cultural history of India.
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Religion, family, children, and changes
In 1998, I came to India again as a lecturer of Indian history at Vilnius University to study the history of Indian art. Then I realised how much people’s religious views shaped how they created art, so both art and religiosity became my keywords to understanding Indian history.
After studying Hindu architecture and also fascinated by classical Indian dance, I travelled to Tamil Nadu to see the majestic temples of Thanjavur, Madurai, Kanchipuram, Mahabalipuram; in Odisha, I visited the temples of Konarak, Bhubaneshwar and Puri; in Andhra Pradesh, I took a boat to Nagarjunakonda island to see the excavated Buddhist city; in Maharashtra, I saw beautiful Elora and Ajanta, whose paintings I remembered from my childhood history book. My Himalayan journeys rewarded me with the temples of Chamba, Masroor, Jogeshwar, and encounters with Tibetan Buddhist temples.
Yet the time spent with the people during my travels is my most precious memory. Watching the holy Ganga flow by in Varanasi or Haridwar, seeing thousands of people immersing themselves and praying, gave me more than many books on the Hindu way of life ever could, just like joining my Tamil friend’s family on their pilgrimage to Rameshwaram and taking a holy dip in Dhanushkodi with them was an unforgettable experience. I equally enjoyed the vibes of Ramazan – either in the Old Delhi’s bazaars or tasting all the delicious Iftar food.
My basic Hindi allowed me to enjoy little conversations during my travels. On a bus from Ellora to Aurangabad, I met a retired teacher who, having learned that tea in Lithuania was expensive, suggested that I marry and stay in their village where tea was cheap! There was an old man on another bus in Maharashtra who, seeing me, the only foreigner, on a village bus, asked me in Hindi: “Tum kaun se gaon se aye?” When I replied, “Dilli se”, he expressed great surprise: “Baap re!” — not because I replied in Hindi, but because I came from Delhi!
During my first diplomatic posting in 2011-14, I further travelled around India with my family. Then we experienced how much children are loved in India – everywhere we went, our cranky kids would be welcomed with full hearts; babysitters would volunteer to play with them everywhere we sat down for a meal. My three-year-old son always travelled with his pockets full of mini cars, and he would often woo local kids to be his play buddies – it still melts my heart to remember watching him take out his pocket fleet of cars and play with the little monks in a Sikkim monastery. In 2013, we had the unforgettable family trip through the North East: Kaziranga, Shilong, Cherrapunji, a narrow-gauge train ride from Silchar to Lumding and finally the amazing Hornbill Festival near Kohima.
Each time I come to India, there is a sea of changes. Life has become fast and digital, there are highways everywhere, yet people are still attached to their families, their places of worship, their food and traditions; they are as hospitable as they were.
When I came back to Delhi as ambassador in 2022, I did not prepare much, but I tried to be open-eyed for any changes that may have occurred. Delhi has become even bigger, sadly, more polluted, but many historical sites are now undergoing rebirth. Sunder Nursery was not even open to people 10 years ago. As I have already seen most of Delhi’s historical places, I decided to explore the city’s parks. I joined the group of park-walkers who studied trees, and I think I now know Delhi’s trees better than Lithuanian flora.
I can never say I have seen it all
Traveling around India for leisure is a luxury now as I have much to travel for work, yet such trips also reveal new aspects of India: driving on a highway to the Hyderabad Pharma City, I could barely believe this was the same Hyderabad whose congested Char Minar area I once explored.
When I came back to India as Ambassador in 2022, a few of my personal trips turned out to be very rewarding. A visit to Lucknow, the city of Umrao Jaan, was quite emotional. Its highlight was the meeting with Umrao Jaan’s director Muzaffar Ali at his beautiful home in Lucknow, Kotwara House, where I could even touch the authentic costumes Umrao (Rekha) wore on the sets.
My trip to Badami in Karnataka finally fulfilled my wishlist dating nearly 30 years as it is the textbook place, the cradle of Indian temple architecture. Several days in Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal left me blown away – the temples were gorgeous, but there was more. Badami turns out to be a Petra of India, the most beautiful canyon fortress with red, pink and yellow rock formations. Aihole has a vast plateau with hundreds of prehistoric megalithic burial sites, stone circles and dolmens. Walking among them alone, I was transported to the Stone Age. And the only hotel in Aihole is located in a beautiful Wada – an imposing traditional Marathi manor.
Just before my trip, I had read the fascinating novel Swallowing the Sun by Lakshmi Puri, in which part of the story takes place in a Marathi Wada, so the Aihole stay became a literal illustration of the book!
Also, last April, climbing up the hillock of Dholavira, excavated city of the Harappan civilisation, in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat in scorching heat was very memorable too; it allowed me to literally touch the oldest layers of Indian civilisation about which I taught at Vilnius university for so many years.
I also enjoy my rare peaceful weekends in Delhi: a walk in a park, a meal in many of the city’s great eateries, a concert, and a party at a friend’s home. But when I am not traveling, I am usually planning a trip out of Delhi. I mostly curate my trips myself, reading a lot, seeking help from local people. When on the road in India, I try to speak to people – not only are they helpful, they can make your day.
Increasingly, the Indian map for me is defined not just by places I visited, but also by places I still want to go to. I would still like to do a Dzukou Valley trek in Nagaland. I have not been to Durga Puja in Kolkata. How about Chettinad? I recently saw the most incredible pictures of Gandikota in Andhra and added it to my already long bucket list.
The biggest beauty but also the challenge of discovering India is that it is a civilisational continent. There will never be a point when I can relax and say: I have seen it all. But I have indeed been lucky to travel the length and breadth of India and will have great memories and great stories about India to share.
Diana Mickevičienė is the Ambassador of Lithuania to India. She tweets @DMickeviciene. Views are personal.
This article is part of Diplomatic Cable, a special series in which ambassadors and high commissioners in New Delhi share their experiences of India and introduce readers to the people, culture and traditions of their home countries. Read all the articles here.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)