On October 22, Putin will wait for Gorbachev and Stalin at the railway station in Changanassery, a small town in south Kerala, to take a rickety old village bus all the way to Moscow. Krushchev wants to join them with Svetlana, carrying their little Sputnik, but only if friend Brezhnev manages to get confirmed rail tickets for all of them.They are eager to meet Lenin who would receive them in Moscow, most likely with Pushkin.All the above are real people and those are their real names. They are going for a conference of Malayalis with Russian names, fully sponsored by the Russian Cultural Centre (RCC) affiliated to the cultural department of the Russian Government. Malayalam movie director Lenin Rajendran will inaugurate the meet in a village called—what else—Moscow, near Changanassery, said RCC chief Ratish Nair. He says the Soviet collapse isn’t a dampener. ‘‘There is a subtle shift, though. From Stalin and Lenin, now people prefer literary characters like Svetlana and Nikita.’’ This is the second time that the RCC is holding this meet. The last was a year ago in Thiruvanantapuram. Nair says a lot more people than last time are likely to turn up for this meet. ‘‘Russian names are so much a part of Kerala culture. We will pay all the expenses for all who have Russian names coming to the meet,’’ he says.
