Alexander M Kadakin, Russian Ambassador
Alexander M Kadakin, the Russian ambassador to India, landed in Delhi in 1971 as a young Foreign Service probationer, immediately after finishing his studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. “For a man of 22 to come to the country he had been studying so long was a dream come true,” says Kadakin, who has served twice in New Delhi, the first as the third secretary to the Ambassador in the early 1990s. In early 70s, he remembers the city as “warm-hearted and hospitable”, but manageable. “It was so small that where the wall of the embassy compound ended, there was wilderness. We could see Hotel Maurya from here. At night, we could hear jackals,” he remembers. For a diplomat who has spent more than two-thirds of his diplomatic career in New Delhi, Kadakin has been an eyewitness to the enormous transformations the capital has undergone.
“There has been a change in the flavours of Delhi. In the 1980s, when I came here as the number two in the embassy, a homely atmosphere prevailed in the city,” he reminisces. Kadakin is nostalgic for the weekend shows at the once-famous cinema halls Chanakya and Regal. The versatile diplomat has even written a book on Delhi. He loves the hot samosas from Chandni Chowk and is also addicted to mithais, and hence Bengali Market is a favourite haunt.
“Maybe, Delhi was a bit provincial, but that’s what made it cozy,” says Kadakin, an ethnic Russian born in now-independent Moldova.
He remembers spending hours exploring the shopping districts of Karol Bagh and Chandni Chowk. He feels Delhi has changed enormously into “an ordinary megacity like any other city, flyovers, metro, crowds…”
But, there are parts of Delhi that remain eternal for him. “Some roads like Aurangzeb Road have become more traffic heavy, but it is still there. So is Chandni Chowk,” says the veteran diplomat, who describes himself as an “old-fashioned man”.
If not India, where would you like to be?
The old Russian towns around Moscow, which are figuratively called the Golden Ring
Favourite vacation activity: Going to any Caucasian country in Russia for the mineral water
Things you miss away from Delhi: The people. I can have chicken shish kebab in Moscow. But if I want to talk to my good friend, it’s not the same