Alexander Pushkin's 217th birth anniversary

I paid tribute to the great poet and playwright in this article

Here is a little excerpt from the article, where I quote three of Pushkin's poems.

“If this life deceives you sometimes,


Don't be sad or mad at it!


On a gloomy day, submit:


Trust - fair day will come, why grieve you? 


Heart lives in the future, so

What if gloom pervade the present?


All is fleeting, all will go;


What is gone will then be pleasant.”

Book Review: Once Upon A Hill by Kalpish Ratna

I live in Andheri, a much-maligned suburb of Bombay that makes me cringe at times. It's also a place that I have grown to love over time. A maddening concrete jungle, Andheri has some hidden patches of greenery like the tranquil campuses of Bhavan's college and the Hansraj Moraji school, both of which have been recently nailed shut to the members of the public.

These green patches are a bird sanctuary and since my building is close enough to the campuses, a lot of beautiful and exotic birds come to my balcony garden. A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find out that a large and visible rock in my neighbourhood, Gilbert Hill was once a much larger hill that stretched all the way to S.V. Road.  The co-author of 'Once Upon A Hill' even pointed out that my building is actually on the hill.

This wonderful book traces the origins of Andheri and goes back a long way before the advent of human beings.  The authors went through a painstaking process of getting old maps from lazy bureaucrats and accessing old books from nasty librarians.

Our journey begins in Andheri East from a Christian village, where there were actually paddy fields till the mid-1970s! We read about local heroes and the earliest converts to Catholicism, as well as the communities that trace their origins to the sun.

Coming back to the western part of Andheri where I stay, I get a proper sense of the length of the hill that once included the part behind the Navrang Cinema, which has been taken over by slums. The writers explain how and when the quarrying was done. The Bhavan's campus is on flat land but now lies where a big part of the hill did.

The writers are rightfully very sympathetic to the poor who settled down by the hill and formed slum clusters.

I don't want to spoil the surprises in the book, so I'll leave that to the readers. But the book is a great guide to those who want to know more about the history of Andheri and Jogeshwari and places that seem to just be names like the Mahakali Caves.

As I stand on my terrace on this pre-monsoon Sunday evening, I remember a time in the 1990s when I could see hills towards my north. Now the metro station and the line is the first sight, followed by high-rises. In the 1990s, I could see Gilbert Hill when I turned towards the south from my terrace. Now I see a monstrous high-rise that came where a beautiful bungalow called Chaman stood.  Change is the only constant in life. As the book mentions, the building of the temple on top of the hill is likely to cause untold damage to the basalt columns, but then again, if there was no temple, the land mafia would be more than happy to tear down what's left of the hill!

Like with all books written by Kalpish Ratna, there are welcome lessons in history and science. I learnt a lot about the plague in 'Room 000' and 'The Quarantine Papers' and in this book I got an introduction of the science of geology.

'Once Upon a Hill' is a good read that's incredibly hard to put down, although I think it would have better off without the chapter on the 60 million year journey of a turtle and a frog, or if the chapter stayed with the wider script of the book.

Also, it would only be fair to note that this book is yet another tribute by Kalpish Ratna to Bombay's unsung heroes.

   

Join me and plant ten trees

On the occasion of World Environment Day, Project GreenHands a grassroots ecological initiative of Isha Foundation, has come up with a novel way to help you plant a tree.

For Rs 100 (or $1 if you're not in India) you can get a farmer in India to plant a tree. You will get a certificate with a tree code that gives you the GPS coordinates of your tree and the name of the farmer who is looking after your tree.

Project GreenHands' tree planting movement has involved 2 million people of all ages and from all walks of life. Since its inception in 2004, the project has enabled planting of 28 million saplings till date.

To plant a tree, go to this link.

I planted ten trees today. Join me and help make India's air cleaner! 

Hong Kong's fading English feel

I could never praise this wonderful city enough. It is modern, bustling, clean, energetic and has a great mix of urban prowess, nature and culture. 

Like every other place on earth, Hong Kong is rapidly changing and reinventing itself. The biggest change I notice in the city now, compared to 2004 when I first visited is that the English feel and heritage are fading. Back then, a lot more of the English accents sounded like the Queen's English. 

Sure, high tea is popular, the streets bear the names of the colonisers and English is widely in use and more or less enough to get around most of the neighbourhoods, but Hong Kong is slowly evolving into what it calls itself - Asia's World City. An international city that is at the forefront of financial services. 

There is a craze for international brands and a growing awareness of environmental issues, a springing up of vegan and vegetarian restaurants, rising intolerance of mainland Chinese and a host of things both good and bad. I have always found the city and its inhabitants friendly and helpful. 

Russia's role in Burma's independence struggle

It became increasingly apparent by the 1930s that the sun would eventually set on the British Empire. This was the decade that began with the Great Depression and ended with the outbreak of the Second World War. While Britain was in the process of gradually granting autonomy to its most prized colonies such as India, impatience and revolutionary fervor reached its peak in the country now known as Myanmar.

Read more here

Glimpses of Moscow in the last days of winter

The winter was extended in Moscow. Here are some images.

Serebryany Bor in the late winter

Here are some images from one of Moscow's most beautiful forests in the winter 

Abramtsevo Estate in late winter

Here are some pictures from the historic Abramtsevo Estate near Moscow. 

Calcutta Collage

Here are some images from my trip to Calcutta earlier this month.

Hindu and Buddhist art at the Indian National Museum in Kolkata

Here are images of the museum's great collection. 

Overheard in a Moscow underpass

There I was on lazy and cold Saturday morning minding my own business as I walked to a cafe on Tverskaya Street. The drizzle and gloomy weather ensured that the streets were even emptier than on a regular Saturday morning.

At the cafe, there were some people desperate to get over a Friday hangover by having some wine! I tried to plug my ears to the non-polite society Russian that was being uttered.

As I walked back through Tverskaya I needed to cross an underpass. Moscow's underpasses tend to be places where street musicians perform in order to make some extra money.  This Saturday though, it was too early for them to be around. Instead there were two strange-looking people debating the merits of killing someone!

"Why not kill Vova instead," one questioned the other. Suddenly my lazy Saturday morning walking pace got a lot faster and I was out of the underpass in a jiffy.  Oh, the empty Tverskaya Street never looked better!

Home sweet Moscow

You know you're at home in a city when you can easily blend in with its flow and rhythm of life. When I take the Aeroexpress from Domodedeovo Airport and then switch over to the metro at Paveletskaya without batting an eyelid, I realise that it's almost like taking a local train from Dadar after arriving in Bombay by a long-distance train.

I seem to have a magical power to bring in sunshine and warm weather to this city. Yesterday was as warm and perfect a spring day in the capital as possible. And the sun is out today as well, although we are expecting snow tomorrow.

Calcutta's fading Chinatown

At its peak, the Chinese community, comprising of Hakka-speaking immigrants, in Calcutta numbered 20,000. Then the 1962 India-China War happened and that lead to a drastic reduction in numbers, especially after the entire ethnic Chinese population was interned in a camp in Rajasthan for a few years!

The remnants of this community live in an area which is a walking distance from the West Bengal government's main offices. Small lanes have buildings with Chinese signs and decorations. Mothers take their daughters in cycle rickshaws to school, old men share a laugh at a food stall and older women, who probably have fascinating stories walk to their homes.

I tried some of the Chinese food being sold on the streets and I certify that it is indeed delicious. The community now numbers around 2000 and is dying. I honestly wish there were more Chinese people here, given the fact that they are great businessmen and job generators. Look what the Chinese community has managed to achieve in Malaysia.

  

Kolkata Marathon: Thank You Kolkata Police and Goddess Kali!

As soon as I stepped out of my hotel in Shakespeare Sarani (Theatre Road), I had a great feeling about running the half marathon this morning. The weather was lovely and the climatic conditions ideal to run on.

But from the second I got to Red Road, I had to deal with a bunch of clueless volunteers! And it was the volunteers who proved to be the bane of a chaotic and poorly organised run. (More later).

As soon as the run began at 6 am sharp, the heavens opened up and there was a gentle rain. It felt like blessings from Goddess Kali herself.  After all, this is her city! A few roads were totally closed for the run and I thoroughly enjoyed the start as gentle raindrops fell on me. The weather stayed perfect throughout the run.

The route took us through the main gate of the Victoria Memorial, the Esplanade, past the tram lines and through some poorer areas and upto Science City before turning back. Although traffic was open for most of the route, the friendly staff of the Kolkata Police were a great help. In fact, they were the ones guiding the runners as many volunteers did not turn up.

Despite assurances, there were very few water stations. (Once again, thank Kali for the weather). We received a bottle of water after the 7 km mark and then again at two more points. The organises did not offer us electral water till the 18 km mark! And there were no mobile toilets on the route (!) To make matters worse, the few existing km markers were kept at the wrong spots. I trust GPS via my Garmin watch more than I do the spots.

This was the first time in a long distance run, I actually stopped to buy coconut water on the route to avoid dehydration! To make matters worse, I had a few close shaves with speeding buses and trucks! A bus driver yelled at me in Bengali for running on the road! And yes, there was a grand total of 1 person cheering us on the path! Come on, Calcutta, this is no way to organise a marathon. I feel sorry for those who ran 42.195 km.

Anyway I felt energetic and strong and held my nerves to run with relative ease as I passed the Victoria Memorial again and into a closed road before storming to the finish line.  Even the post-run logistics were a joke!

Despite the poor organisation, I had a great time.  This was my first major run since I ran the marathon in Kuala Lumpur in October 2014. It's good to know that I am still in great shape!

Now it's time to celebrate!

A trip to the Indian National Museum

I was put off with this Rs 20 for Indians and Rs 500 for foreigners entry charge! Come on, Calcutta, India is not a poor country desperate for the foreigner's money anymore...Having written that, I am full of praise for the outstanding collection of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures the museum houses. There are also a few Jain sculptures there.

I was lucky enough to be in the city when an exhibition of Indian Buddhist art was on display. There are great pieces of both Theravada and Mahayana art.

I just wonder whether the Brits took most of these idols from intact archaeological sites or whether they found them during excavations! Spending an afternoon at the museum, I learned a lot about Hindu and Buddhist art from the 9th to 11 centuries.  The works featured sandstone idols from just before the Christian era to basalt sculptures from the 10th and 11th centuries.

Buddhist and Hindu art lived side by side from the 9th to 11th centuries. Judging by what I saw the religions seemed to coexist fine in Bihar, as they did in Ellora, where you have Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sculptures.

This lends credence to the theory I hear often in Sri Lanka that it was Islamic invaders that finished off Theravada Buddhism in the subcontinent with the exception of the emerald island and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (where 98 percent of the population were Buddhists), which were handed to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) by the mischievous departing Brits.

The most interesting sculpture I saw was of Mahavira. The 2nd century BC idol showed the founder of Jainism in a meditative pose and I mistook him for the Buddha, especially because he had oriental features.

Another stunner was a 2nd century AD sculpture of the Buddha offering protection. He is actually smiling! I had never seen a smiling Buddha statue before.

I was also impressed with the various Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Ganesha sculptures. The museum has Hindu artwork from Bihar, southern India as well as Indonesia.

Ther museum also has parts of the huge Bharhut Stupa, which was believed to have been built by Emperor Ashoka. The copper gates are in great condition and the reliefs such the finest degree of craftsmanship and artistic ability existed in India at that time.

Seeing all these great art works convinces me that India was way ahead of its time right upto the point that the Islamic invasions began.

It's time for us to rise once again and honour our great ancestors!

Remnants of imperial grandeur in Calcutta

It's obvious that the British colonisers wanted Calcutta to be some kind of tropical London. 

The historic centre of the city is not wanting when it comes to public spaces. There's the huge maidan, which could gobble up the Azad, Oval and Cross Maidans of Bombay and have a vast amount of space.  Walking from busy Chowringee to the parallel roads that lead to the Mohammedan Sporting stadium and the Eden Gardens, you see the green spaces. There always seems to be a handful of homeless people in these spaces (Chances are that a local will say they're all Bangladeshis!!!)

Showering has a fabulous collection of colonial buildings fitting of an Imperial British capital city. There is a mix of large red buildings and some whitewashed giants, like the Indian National Museum.  Much in Calcutta style though, the sidewalks are full of markets and street food vendors who are cooking some lip-smacking delicacies. 

The British continued to have economic interests in Calcutta after they shifted the capital to Delhi, and many businessmen stayed on for a while in the city even after Indian independence.  The names of Calcutta-based businesses like Britannia are a legacy of what was once a strong English and Scottish presence. 

There are also some lovely churches here and of course, the piece de resistance, the Victoria Memorial, one of the most beautiful buildings in all of India.  It's a great place to relax and read a book in the mornings or take an evening walk and enjoy the sunset before the building gets beautifully illuminated. 

I love Calcutta as it is, but will continue to embrace every small change I see here. But it's wonderful to see the yellow ambassador taxis, the old buses, the rickety trams and the remnants of once great buildings. 

With patches of London surrounded by unbelievable Indian chaos, this is one of the greatest cities on earth. 

Oh Calcutta!

It's always a fascinating drive to the city center of Calcutta from the airport. The stark contrasts, sights, sounds are all so visible on this one-hour ride.

The smell of frying fish, the sound of a loudspeaker blaring some political message that is not meant for the ears of non-Bengalis, the sight of women wearing large bindis, the new signs of capitalism, along with trams and buses from the 1950s.

On the drive, I see grimy lanes of slums from a Dominic Lapierre book, antique 18th century buildings with balconies, from where people have witnessed several important moments in history, new shops selling the latest smartphones, Kali temples, political posters.

There is a very unique aura that this wonderful city has! Oh Calcutta! You are indeed my favourite metro city in India, and it is indeed a pleasure to once again be your guest. 

Nightmare at the Mumbai domestic airport

The last time I dealt with an unending delay on a domestic flight in India was when I flew the now-defunct Air Deccan in 2005. The airline heralded an era of low-cost travel in the country, along with the aviation boom that has led to air traffic congestion in most cities.

In Bombay, if the main runway is shut, flyers should be set for a harrowing experience. I expected to reach Calcutta (Kolkatta) at 1:40 pm as I was supposed to fly on Indigo from Bombay at 11:40 am.  In a case of mismanagement, the airline kept announcing small delays. They first said departure would be at noon and then 12:30 and then 1 pm and then 2:00 pm! The excuse was that inbound flight from Calcutta did not have enough fuel to circle around Bombay and had to be diverted to Baroda.

In the middle of this, they announced that they would be giving refreshments. I got on the queue like a civilised person, but fellow travellers started behaving like refugees from a war zone and were pushing and shoving to get a container of dal and rice from the Balaji restaurant!

Finally, they announced that the flight would take off at 3:30 pm and we boarded for such a departure only to wait in the plane for another hour before take off.

So what led to the delays? The closure of the main runway. What led to that? A Jet Airways flight from Delhi was the culprit. Apparently there was a hydraulics problem with its landing gear, which malfunctioned and caused massive damage to the main runway. I have enough reasons to dislike Jet Airways, which has gone from a world class airline to something that must be avoided. People should sue them for poor maintenance and the inconvenience caused by them to all travellers in Bombay.

This does not absolve Indigo of poor management! They seem to be an airline with zero contingency plans!

Thankfully, I am now in the City of Joy! Better late than never!

Images from beautiful Mount Lavinia

If only, we had such a beautiful beach with clean water in Bombay!

Here are images from Mount Lavinia

My experiences as a (part-time) student in Russia

In this article I wrote about my trials and tribulations with learning the Russian language. Note: I am not gay  :)  

Colombo beauties

The most beautiful girls in Colombo can be seen at the cafes in Colombo 7.

Coco Veranda, by far my favourite cafe in the city, seems to be a magnet for Colombo beauties. I'd say that Sri Lankan women look like their Malayali counterparts but with one major difference. The women in Colombo are very well groomed and carry themselves better.

They are also more trusting of and less hostile towards men, than the girls in India. And then there's the beautiful smile. Don't ask why just about everyone seems to have such nice teeth in Sri Lanka :)

The gutted building near the Mount Lavinia beach

A gutted building that is near the beach on Mount Lavinia has been an eyesore for the last 33 years. It was once the Tilly's Beach Hotel, which was owned by a Tamil businessman.

The hotel was a favourite among residents of Colombo as well as German and Russian tourists. Colomboites would enjoy the Sunday Lunch Table Buffet, while many tourists had a mad crush on the handsome head chef,  a culinary genius who understood Russian and German besides his native Tamil, Sinhalese and English.

Tilly's was set on fire during the 1983 Colombo genocide of Tamils, which was the handiwork of racist criminal politician Cyril Matthew. The man handed voter's lists to organised mobs, so they could hunt down Tamils. This was the exact same blueprint used in riots in neighbouring India in the 1980s and 90s.

The hotel was evacuated of its staff and occupants before a mob set it on fire.

When I asked a local about the building a few years ago, he told me the story about how the riots in Black July quickly spread to Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia and that the building was one of the first targets of the rioters (basically local criminals backed by the UNP government).

While the police turned a blind eye in many parts of Colombo in those days, W.A. Samarawickrema, Senior Superintendent of the Mount Lavinia Police had his force open fire on the rioters.  The police force was overwhelmed by the mob that had the backing of the army. Army officers who were trained in Sandhurst and Dehra Dun lost their sense of discipline and encouraged and assisted the mobs.

The building sits on prime land and many developers have been trying to seize it, but the Sri Lankan government wants to return it either to the owner or his heirs. I have heard many stories about the owner. Some say he was murdered in 1983 and had no surviving family members. Others say he lives in Canada or the UK, and is not keen to set foot in Sri Lanka again.

Maybe it is better that the building stands there as a memorial to one of the most shameful episodes in  Sri Lankan history.

Please note: 

The events of 1983 in Colombo were shameful and disgusting, but I cannot mention them without writing about by best Sri Lankan friend, a Sinhalese man, who risked his life by taking a Tamil colleague and his mother in his car and then to his home in Nugegoda.

When the mobs came to his house, he lied and said that there were no Tamils there. If they found the mother and son, they would have murdered my friend and his family as well.

The Tamil family went to India as refugees and then moved to Canada. Every month, the mother calls my friend from Canada and talks to him. Such is her gratitude.  There were several cases of Sinhalese and Burgher families risking their lives to save their Tamil friends. The Tamil community has picked up the pieces and thrives in Colombo now, and is among the wealthiest in the country. 

Images from Bali

These photos were taken in October-November 2015

Better posting them late than never  :) 

The bellies are vanishing in Colombo

An Arjuna Ranatunga-type belly was a common sight in Colombo ten years ago. Many members of that generation did not care much about physical fitness, but oh have the times changed!

One of the main reasons for this change is the fact that several parks have been landscaped across Colombo. My beloved Nugegoda has a wonderful park that is just a 5-minute walk away from the post office. A lagoon flows through the park, which is blessed with an abundance of wildlife from monitor lizards to a variety of birds.

There's also a wonderful and big park coming up off the High Level Road in Pepilyana Road.  This is in addition to an enormous park near the Bellanwila Temple, which has a nice bicycle track as well.

I also saw some new parks in the city centre and the Jayawardenepura Kotte area, near the parliament.  

People make great use of these parks, as well as the beach on Mount Lavinia. This is an absolutely welcome change in Colombo.

High tea at the Mount Lavinia Hotel

14 years of travelling to Sri Lanka and I never once went inside the iconic Mount Lavinia hotel. That changed this week, when I had high tea at the oceanside terrace.

The high tea spread (especially the savouries) leaves a lot to be desired, but the hotel obviously charges for the views. The views of the blue ocean, Colombo city and the coves are absolutely stunning. This is probably the best place to have a sundowner in all of Sri Lanka.

It's obvious that the bloody civil war is a thing of the past in Sri Lanka, when one can enter any five star hotel without even passing a metal detector. This is the way hospitality was meant to be before the terrorists ruined it all in many parts of the world.

May peace prevail permanently on this emerald isle!

The advent of cheaper transport options in Colombo

Until a few years ago, the only ways to get around Colombo were really cheap buses or three wheelers that made an art form of ripping people off.

By 2013, most of the autos started using electronic meters and now the only obstacle was knowing the fastest way to get somewhere, as Colombo is circular and not linear like Bombay.

Now, thanks to Uber and an impending flood of radio taxis and other aggregators, it is easy to get around Colombo. In addition to this, plans are on for a modern mass rapid transport system.  If this becomes a reality, the Sri Lankan capital moves one step closer to becoming world class. 

Notes from Colombo: Who spoils the image of Indians abroad?

A lot of middle class Indians complain that their working class brethren spoil the image of Indians in foreign countries. From my own personal experiences, it's the rich and upper middle class folk from India who need a behavioural adjustment.

On Saturday, I went to a popular cinema hall to watch the excellent Hindi film Neerja.  During the interval, there was a bit of commotion in the hall. A Sri Lankan man stepped on the foot of a woman while walking to his seat.

This lady, who was very light-skinned and spoke with what is called a "covent school" accent, was quite rude with the man and asked him to cross through another row. When he responded to her, she mocked his English and said he "should learn proper English first and then talk." My initial impression was that this was a local Burgher woman.

The Sri Lankan men were there to watch the film and not get into a language argument with that woman.

A couple of minutes later, I heard her telling some others in Hindi to cross through another row. She clearly had a Delhi accent. She then told her friend in Hindi about how little common sense these Sinhalese had!!! I felt like going up to her and asking her to go back to whichever hellhole she came from. The fact that she was mentioning Gurgaon a few times in her conversation with her friend suggested that she was from the National Capital Region.

Then the interval was over and my attention was back on the film.

A visit to a Buddhist temple on a Full Moon night

There is something purely magical about Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka on a Poya  (Full Moon) night.  It's the sight of people dressed in white meditating near the Bodhi tree, the smell of incense, the light of oil lamps, and the cool and gentle breeze.

Some seek merit and blessings in this life, others focus on attaining higher levels of consciousness, while people like me just enjoy the enriching cultural experience. My favourite activity is to gently place lotuses in front of the statues of the Buddha.

These traditions were brought to this blessed island from India more than 2,000 years ago. I wonder if the now-vanished Buddhist temples in Kerala had the same aura and ambience as Sri Lankan temples when India was mostly Buddhist.

It's amazing how many times I have come to this island and enjoyed the Buddhist culture and traditions, yet I have never once set foot in Bodh Gaya and some of the other important Buddhist sites in India. What am I waiting for? 

Beautifully-restored Galle

Just a few years ago, the decay was visible in the Portuguese and Dutch buildings in the Galle fort. After sunset the fort and the town became as empty as Kandy at 8 pm. Yesterday, I noticed a different energy and a different vibe to the southern Sri Lankan town.

The once-decayed buildings are whitewashed with a fresh coat of paint, the streets have been newly-repaved, classical street lights don the lanes and a series of new and elegant boutiques line the fort. If there's one thing the authorities could do, it's to close some of the streets to vehicular traffic.

No camera could have done justice to the crimson red sunset we saw yesterday, a day where the sun was playing hide and seek and the cool Indian Ocean breeze made us forget that were in a tropical island close to the equator. 

The faces of Sri Lanka

People-watching is one of my favourite activities in Colombo. This is a city where I can easily blend in the crowd. Where I can be an outsider who looks like an insider and just calmly observe people with batting an eyelid.

Sri Lankans are very beautiful people and their faces reveal the fact that their ancestors mixed with all visitors (and invaders) to the island. You spot some hardcore Tamil-looking and Bengali-looking people but a vast majority seem to be mixed race and have an interesting set of features. Yesterday while walking through the market of Nugegoda, I spotted many Portuguese faces, some Malay faces, an odd Dutch face and a few Malayali faces (many Keralites migrated here and assimilated with the Sinhalese in the 19th century).

It would be very interesting to map the ancestry of people here.

Turkey's Aegean Coast and the Greek Isles

I visited Turkey in the spring of 2014 and absolutely loved the country and its beautiful and hospitable people. I could easily blend in with the locals in Istanbul and enjoyed the sights, sounds and cuisine of the city.

My favourite part of the country is the Aegean Coast. The villages around Izmir and Kushadashi are breathtakingly beautiful, and the people, the most liberal and secular in all of Turkey. This is the land of delicious olives, ancient historic sites like Ephesus and natural wonders like Pamukkale.

During my trip, I actually crossed the Aegean and spent a few hours in Samos in Greece. The island seemed economically depressed and the faces were far more glum than the smiles I saw on the Turkish mainland.

I would have never imagined that a year later, this beautiful coast would become a den of human smuggling. It breaks my heart to read about people dying in the Aegean while undertaking the dangerous crossing to Greece, in search of a better life in Europe.

The influx of migrants (yes they lose the right to be called refugees when they leave Turkey) has destroyed the tourism industry of the Greek islands. I doubt that this influx will stop as long as human smugglers make fortunes out of desperate immigrants.