On his latest trip to Russia, industrialist and actor Vijay Crishna came away mesmerised by its natural wonders. In a two-part lecture, he shares the story of his journey
Lake Baikal is so vast that it is also known as The Great Sea of Baikal
Travel needs to be documented. However brief or long, planned or sudden, distant or closer to home, no experience can be a substitute for leaving your comfort zone and surrendering yourself to the unknown. Travelogues have done it for ages, and more recently, blogs and Instagram pictures have become the preferred choice for recording memories. But how about a lecture, which though rooted in personal experiences, takes you on a historical and geo-political journey to a land far, far away?
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Smitha V Crishna and Vijay Crishna in Moscow
Vijay Crishna, executive director, Godrej & Boyce, who is a also a veteran theatre actor and avid trekker, aims to do it this Thursday in a two-part lecture at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. Titled The Greatest Lake in the World, and On The Road to The Caucasus, it emerged from his trip to Russia with wife Smitha last September. "I had always wanted to go to Lake Baikal. And since we were in the region, we were suggested we visit the Caucasus as well," says Crishna. The massive body of water located in the mountainous Russian region of Siberia, he explains, is crucial to life on earth because 20 percent of the world’s fresh water comes from Lake Baikal alone.
The Home of Maria Volkonsky, wife of one of the Decemberists, known as the Princess of Siberia
About the impact of climate change on the water body, Crishna says, "It has been more impacted by the mankind. But the way the lake is constituted has helped it resist such developments, and one hopes it continues to be so."
The Zoroastrian Atesgah at Khinalig commissioned by the World Zoroastrian Organisation in London, and peopled continuously for 5,000 years in Azerbaijan’s Greater Caucasus mountains
The Caucasus mountains took the Crishnas on a journey to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. "The Caucasus has been the dividing line between the Black and Caspian seas. The area has been one of strategic importance and contention for a long time," Crishna shares, adding, "So many empires have been at play in the region. Even the Mughals came from around the same area. But we don’t think of it like that. The talk is a voyage of discovery."
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