The first thing that comes to many Malayali’s mind about Poland is a dialogue from the film Sandhesam (1991), “Don’t mention about Poland (Polandine patti oraksharm mindi pokarathu)”. The movie was a political satire where two brothers belong to two opposing political parties (congress and communist). This dialogue comes as a frustration to the rhetorical question “What happened in Poland (Polandil enthu sambavichu)”.

I reached Poland two years ago on All Saints day in 2017, and today marks the completion of two successful years here. Immediately after submission of my PhD thesis, I came to Warsaw when I had no clue that I will fall in love with this city.

Warsaw, is full of surprises. I love greenery and Warsaw is very green, and has multiple parks and gardens. The Vistula river and multitude of other bodies adds to both serenity and tranquility. Having a national park (Kampinos) adjacent to the capital city is another feature of Warsaw. The city has an excellent public transportation system. Warsaw is beautiful throughout the year irrespective of the season: snowy white winters, colourful spring, lushy green summer and the golden brown autumn.

Like the mythical bird phoenix, which rises from its ashes, Warsaw was rebuilt after it was annihilated by German forces under Hitler. The old town of Warsaw was rebuilt from the the rubbles using 18th century paintings. The museums in Warsaw narrate the terror the city had undergone.

During the two years of stay here, I explored some of the places within Poland and in nearby countries. I have written about some of the places in posts on this blog, I will write about the remaining soon. I am looking forward to explore more places in near future.