You are here
Home > Mission Delhi >

Mission Delhi – Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

One of the one percent in 13 million.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The lady in white dupatta ascends the hotel staircase to the third floor and enters a corner room. Accompanied by daughter Indraja and friend Rasa, Diana Mickevičienė is recreating this utterly ordinary act after 30 years, to commemorate a special part of her past. She had first stepped inside the same room back in 1994, in this understated but elegant hotel at Vishwa Yuvak Kendra in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri.

She had then stayed in the city for three months, after which she returned home to the newly liberated republic of Lithuania. In late 2022, Diana came back to Delhi, this time as Lithuania’s ambassador, and resides in Vasant Vihar residence.

“Same wardrobe!”—she exclaims in a hushed voice, eyes darting around the room.

Diana was 21 when she landed in Delhi one early morning all those decades ago in September. A fresh recruit in her country’s diplomatic corps, she was part of a batch of 25 diplomats—each from a different nation—-who were sponsored by the Indian government for a Professional Young Diplomats Training course organised by Foreign Service Institute — now known as Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service — under the external affairs ministry.

The diplomats were assigned individual rooms in the hotel. Every morning after breakfast in the dining hall downstairs, they would head to Akbar Bhawan on a chartered bus. That was Diana’s first visit abroad. “On entering this room, I remember I drew open the curtains, and walked into the balcony… the morning sky was dark, but suddenly it was filled with light…. I was surprised. In Europe, the day breaks more slowly.”

Within a few days of their arrival in Delhi, the diplomats were escorted to Sangam cinema, which was screening a rerun of Sholay: “We enjoyed the movie so much that we rented its video cassette from a shop in Yashwant Place, and watched it scores of times, always after our dinner… the TV was in the lobby… I would sing Sholay’s ‘Yeh Dosti’ gaana in my room.”

Curiously, out of all that “magical” stint in our city, Diana gets most sentimental for a short simple flight of staircase linking the hotel’s lobby to the dining hall. “It was the site of many group photos. We would often go up those stairs to check if any of our friends were inside the dining hall—we often hang out there… and while in the dining hall, one of us inevitably ran up those stairs crying about the faxes our families had sent from back home…”

Looking about her first room in Delhi, the ambassador murmurs. “So overwhelming.”

Graciously responding to a request, she begins to sing her beloved Sholay gaana.

[This is the 590th portrait of Mission Delhi project]

Ambassador’s room

1.

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

2.

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

3.

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

4.

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

5.

Mission Delhi - Diana Mickevičienė, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra

Top