Love for Russian Language

Today I am writing this post about the age which is represented by black and white photographs ie. nearly thirty to thirty five years back. I was eighteen years old and had taken admission into Allahabad University as an Undergraduate student. We were young and had big dreams and a vision to change the world. It was during this time that many of my friends and I joined diploma classes in foreign languages. Ashima had joined French classess and Renu and I joined Russian. The main reason for joining these clasess was the Russian teacher Gopesh Ji. I had heard so much about him and every one praised his love for the language. The classes were held in the evening from six to seven or five to six now I do not remember. But what I remember was that it would get very dark during winters. Dr. Gopesh opened a new world for us. He introduced us not only to the language but the culture and history of Russia. His class was such a lot of fun and one would feel that time just flew and one really wished that this would continue for ever. He had a very sharp wit and what I remember today was the humour that he would bring into the class.One would never be bored in the class. Today as a teacher I always remember him and secretly wish that I am able to influence my students and have the kind of impact he had on his students. He influenced me a lot and I started taking a lot of interest in the Russian language and litearature. It was primarily due to his influence that I slowly started reading and the whole new world of Russian literateurs opend up before my eyes. I read Fyodor Dostoevsky, author of such classics as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Count Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Anton Chekhov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also impressed me a lot especially The first Circle, and One day in the life of Ivan Donisovich. The Russian names were very difficult to pronounce and I developed my own style of pronouncing them in a way which was convenient and then I enjoyed the books. The market price of these books was also cheap and one could easily buy them. I also developed a lot of interest in short stories. It was a shock to all of us when Dr. Gopesh suddenly passed away after teaching us for one year. He was also a writer and a poet if I remember correctly. I still have a photo graph of Dr. Gopesh given to me by his daughter Anita who wrote on this, that he was the bridge that bound us together. Anita was a writer in her own right and tyhough I do not remember any of the titles of her story I can still remeber one of her stories which impressed me a lot. It was related to bigamy and had the male point of view. Russian class were never the same after this though the new teacher was also very good and had a Russian wife. We went to a number of places on picnic with the new teachers but I think the new teacher did have a tough time because each and every student would compare him to Dr. Gopesh. Even today, though so many years have passed I still continue my love for Russian literature and culture and feel very nostalgic when ever I read any novel or story for I am transported back to those days gone by.