Memories Of Life In Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1983-1985)

I lived in Belgrade from 1983 to 1985, from the age of 10 till the age of 12. Back then, it was the capital of Yugoslavia. Now of course, it is the capital of Serbia. My father was there as the Indian Ambassador. My parents, my second sister and I went there, but my elder sister had to stay back in boarding school in India, because back then, the International School of Belgrade (ISB) only went up to Grade 8. My second sister and I were in Grade 8 and Grade 5 respectively, but my elder sister was in Grade 11 so she couldn't join us there. My father had been terribly upset about not being able to take my elder sister along, but the boarding school back in India worked out very well for her, and a year later, my second sister also went there.

The Parliament Building, Belgrade

We lived on Andre Nikolica Street 19, barely 500 meters away from the International School of Belgrade. We used to walk to school. The distance was further reduced if we chose to cut across the Africa Museum, instead of walking along the road. The Indian Ambassador's residence was spread over an area of close to 2 acres. It had formerly been the hunting lodge of a Serbian Duke. The house was absolutely beautiful, with four bedrooms up on the first floor, a wooden staircase going up, the drawing / dining / living rooms on the ground floor, and the kitchen in the basement. There was a separate building that housed the servants' quarters, and there was even an underground tunnel connecting it to the main house. The premises had an outdoor swimming pool and a large garden, fully of cherry trees and a lot of other exotic greenery. As one entered the gate, there was a marble statue of Venus outside the house. The drawing room had ceiling frescoes of cherubs and nymphs. The main bathroom had a stain glass panel of Venus. The whole house was like a living museum!

The Indian Ambassador's Residence in Belgrade

The years spent at International School of Belgrade were without doubt my best school years ever, and I have very fond memories of them. Back then, there were just 165 students present in the school. My Grade 5 teacher was Mrs Miletic, a lovely lady. I didn't keep very good health those days, with occasional asthma attacks. As a result, I would often get exemption from Physical Education class, and I would sit and draw pictures of animals while my classmates were out playing sports. My Grade 6 teacher was Mr Doneski. He was also the Middle School Science teacher. As an extra curricular activity after school, he taught chess, and I took a strong interest in the game and eventually went on to become the school champion. The Middle School Maths teacher was Mrs Obradovic. She was a strict, no nonsense teacher, but was very good at her subject and was well respected. The Middle School English teacher was Mrs Jovovic, an extremely likable person. The school principal was an American, Mr Miller, and his wife, Mrs Miller, was the librarian.

The school had special events like the annual Spelling Bee competition, and the annual Book Writing competition, both of which were won by my sister in 1983-84. It also had a unique sport, Four Square, which was a hot favourite with students during their breaks. We were also exposed to Music classes and Self Defence classes. There used to be an annual pet show, where our Lhasa Apsu, Karma, was crowned the "most beautiful dog". There was also an annual fund raising run through which money was collected for charity, and the amount of money collected depended on how many laps one ran. So there were numerous activities conducted to keep the students engaged and interested.

My best friend in school was Peter Vanderwal, the son of the Australian Ambassador, and my next door neighbour. I was extremely fond of Peter, and he was easily the most popular boy in class. Greg Wilde, also an Australian, was another friend of mine from school. I met "little Greg" in Canberra years later in 2011. He was as warm and friendly as he had always been, but I would hardly call him "little" anymore. Peter Pudaite was a classmate whose father was at the India Embassy, and he became a friend. I've met him again in Delhi and in Kolkata after we were both grown ups. Abeer Al Ajel, a Kuwaiti girl, got along well with me - she had lived in India for a few years, and that was something we had in common. Nandi Ahuja, a fashionable kid who had an Indian father and a Yugoslavian mother, was another friend I made. Monish and Karishma Mansukhani, children of the Air India representative in Belgrade, became friends. Shankar Narayan, the son of an Indian diplomat, was another friend and we used to enjoy watching movies together on his VCR player. Mujib Rahman from Bangladesh was a year senior to me in school, and he became a friend because of our common love for chess.

Meeting Peter Vanderwal in 2015 in Delhi NCR,
after almost 3 decades

Peter Vanderwal was always in and out of our house. We would chat, play Nintendo video games together, and read comics together. His favourite meal at our place was "meat balls and puris", which our venerable old cook, Moti Singh, used to make with a lot of love and affection (Moti Singh's son Jaswant also stayed with us and did work around the house, and became a good friend of mine). I would also visit Peter's place next door quite often. I can never forget one incident. Dinners at Peter's home were formal events, where people dressed up and were served by liveried butlers. One evening I went for dinner, and chicken was served. As a typical Indian boy, I was used to eating chicken with my fingers. Everyone else started eating with a knife and fork. Peter saw me looking uncomfortable and he dug in with his fingers. His mother immediately ticked him off and said "Peter, that's not the way we eat around here!" I somehow struggled through dinner with a knife and fork that evening, and then I said I must learn how to eat with a knife and fork. Soon there was no looking back, because it became so much a part of my life. Even now, everyone laughs because give me a puri, paratha, or dosa, and I will go after it with a knife and fork!

I felt a tinge of sadness on a few occasions during those times in Belgrade. My elder sister hadn't come along to Belgrade. My second sister had to leave for boarding school after 1 year. Peter's father got transferred to Papua New Guinea after Grade 5, which meant my best friend left Belgrade. My mother also had a health scare. It was suspected that she may have cancer, but it turned out to be TB. We did have a scare for a few months while she was ill. All these incidents left me sad. However, I had my loving and supportive parents with me, and that meant a lot to me and pulled me out of every difficult situation. My father was of course busy with his work, but my mother was always there for me, and I absolutely adored her. She would spend a lot of time with me, get my favourite dishes prepared for me, and take me for my swimming and tennis classes. I used to watch the daily 7:15 pm cartoon on TV (so what if it was in Serbo Croatian, and not in English!), and if we were ever out, I would pester my parents to get back home on time, and they always obliged! Whenever my father traveled to Delhi on work, as he had to from time to time, I would give him a list of my favourite Amar Chitra Katha comics to buy, and I built up a large collection, which I have with me even today (I read these out to my 5 year old son).

With my parents, I traveled around Yugoslavia a fair bit, and my favourite destinations back then were the walled Roman city of Dubrovnik, and the former fishing village of Sveti Stefan, which had been converted into a luxurious resort. I can never forget the joy of eating fried eggs with ham and bacon for breakfast straight from a frying pan in Sveti Stefan! The beautiful lakes at Plitvice were another highlight of our visits around Yugoslavia. The pretty towns of Zagreb and Ljubljana were other places I enjoyed visiting. During a visit to Skopje, while my father was busy with official work, my mom and I were taken around the town by the local government's protocol team. At Skopje Zoo, I remember seeing an animal and insisting with a lot of authority and confidence that it was a hyena. It turned out to be a baby bear, much to my mother's amusement. I also remember that we were taken to a winery. I got very nervous when my mother was asked to taste different types of wines. In Hindi, I kept telling her that she'd get drunk, so she should just pretend that she was sipping!

View of the Walled Town, Dubrovnik

Church of St Marks, Zagreb 

Three Rivers Fountain and Cathedral, Ljubljana

There were people who became close to our family. There was Deepak Malik from the embassy, and his lively, interesting and friendly wife Chandana. They had a 3 year old son, Orko, who was a real favourite at our house. Deepak was a great chess player, and I remember our 28:1 score in his favour. It was very sad news indeed when he passed away at a young age, some 15 years later. There was Lal Pudaite from the embassy. He was from the North East of India, as was his extremely warm wife, Lani Pudaite. Their two children were Peter and Dingdi, with Peter being my classmate and friend. There was Renu Rajan, the daughter of Mr Rajan who worked in the embassy. Renu was a warm person who went on to settle down in Belgrade, and become a doctor. She has kept in touch with us all these years and visits us in Delhi whenever she comes. Milenko and Vladomir were local drivers at the Indian embassy, and both were very likable people. Milenko hardly spoke a word of English, but he still enjoyed a great rapport with my family. Vesna Vucic worked at the Indian embassy, and was very popular with everyone, with her gentle demeanour and charming ways. Lubitsa and Elisabeth worked as part time helpers at our residence, and George was our gardener. They were all amiable people. People can make all the difference in a place that's away from home, and we had such wonderful people in our lives in Belgrade.

Renu Rajan with my Mother in Delhi in 2019

In 2009, I visited Belgrade, and I stayed at Renu's place with her and her young son Nihal. During that visit, I visited ISB and though I didn't get to meet my old teachers there as they had all retired, I met another teacher, Mrs Pat Andjelkovic, an American lady settled in Belgrade for decades. She took time out and showed me around the school. The school had expanded in the 24 years that I had been away. The school now went up to Grade 12, and the senior school was where the Australian Ambassador's house used to be. Mrs Andjelkovic visits India almost every year, and we make it a point to meet. We've struck up a warm friendship, though she is so much my senior and I didn't know her at all when I lived in Belgrade. Thanks to her, I managed to meet Mrs Jovovic. I rang up my sister and got her to talk to Mrs Jovovic, who had been her homeroom teacher. I also managed to speak to Mrs Miletic on the phone.

Pat Andjelkovic in Delhi in 2019

During my 2009 visit to Belgrade, I visited our old home in addition to visiting my old school. I also managed to see a lot of Belgrade's sites, including the Parliament Building (also called the National Assembly), Kalimegdan Fortress and St Marks Church. It was a very nostalgic visit indeed, and I returned to India and told my parents and my sisters all about it. Thinking back on my life, those 2 years were among the happiest years of my life. I did miss my sisters a lot, but I had my doting parents, I had an absolutely amazing house, I went to a school that I loved, and I made some good friends.

Kalimegdan Fortress, Belgrade

President Josef Broz Tito had passed away a few years earlier, and he had done a great job of holding the county together. When we were there, there was no sign of the ethnic trouble that was to come about barely a decade later, which resulted in the country eventually splitting into Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. The mid 1980's were a happy time in Yugoslavia, and I absolutely cherish my childhood memories from Belgrade. I think I would like to take my wife Kamalini and my son Rehaan back to Belgrade some day, to show them the place where I spent 2 magical years of my life!

St Marks Church, Belgrade