The Old Genie Hottabych

ZHENYA BOGORAD’S ADVENTURES FAR AWAY IN THE EAST

As soon as Zhenya Bogorad, seated in the first row of the Saturn Theatre, turned around to catch a glimpse of the bearded boy before the movie began, everything suddenly went dark, he heard an ear-splitting whistle, and instead of the hard floor beneath his feet, he felt he was standing in tall grass.

When his eyes became accustomed to the dark, he was greatly amazed to discover that he was in a dense forest filled with the aroma of strange flowers. Lianas hung from huge trees, the likes of which he had never seen before. Yes, these were definitely lianas. It was hot and humid, much hotter than it had been in the projection room.

Holding his arms out, Zhenya took several cautious steps and nearly trod on a … snake! The snake hissed like a broken bicycle pump, flashed its small green eyes and disappeared in the bushes.

“Golly! Where am I?!” Zhenya wondered, not daring to move. “It’s just like the jungles. It’s just like a dream. Why, sure,” he thought happily, “sure, this is all a dream! I’m sleeping and this is a dream.”

At one time or another everyone has had a dream in which he knows quite clearly that he is dreaming. It’s fun to have such a dream: no dangers frighten you, and you always succeed in the most hazardous feats. Most important, you know the time will come when you’ll awake safe and sound in your own bed.

However, when Zhenya attempted to make his way through the prickly bushes, he really got scratched. Since it’s most unpleasant to be hurt, even though you are quite positive everything is just a dream, Zhenya decided to doze off till morning.

When he awoke, he saw the hot, pale blue sky shining brightly through the openings in the crowns of the trees. Zhenya was overjoyed to find his wonderful dream still continuing!

The first thing he saw when he found his way to the edge of the forest were four elephants carrying huge logs in their trunks. A thin, dark-skinned man, naked to the waist and wearing a white turban, was riding the lead elephant.

In the distance, smoke curled from the rooftops of a small village. Now Zhenya knew what he was dreaming about. He was dreaming about India ! This was really wonderful. Yet, still more wonderful things awaited him.

“Who are you?” the man on the elephant asked Zhenya dryly. “An Englishman? A Portuguese? An American?”

“No,” Zhenya answered in broken English. “I Russian, Rusi.” Just to make sure, he pointed to himself and said, “Hindi Rusi bhai, bhai.”

At this, the man on the elephant beamed and nodded so vigorously that it was a wonder his turban didn’t fall off his head.

Then he made his elephant kneel and he took Zhenya up beside him. The whole cavalcade, swaying majestically, continued towards the village.

On the way they met several children.

The man shouted something to them; they gaped and stared at the real-life Soviet boy. Then they dashed back to the village, shouting and skipping. By the time Zhenya Bogorad, a 7B pupil of Moscow Secondary School No. 245, arrived in the village riding the head elephant, its entire population had poured out into the narrow single street.

What a welcome it was!

Zhenya was helped down respectfully, he was led into a room and offered food, which was more than welcome, since he found that even in his sleep he was hungry. Imagine, what a real dream he was having! Then people approached him and shook his hand, then everybody sang a long and plaintive Indian song. Zhenya sang along with them as best he could and everyone was terribly pleased. Then Zhenya sang the democratic youth song and some boys and girls joined in, while the rest sang along as best they could. Then everyone began coaxing a young Hindu youth and he finally gave in and began another song, which Zhenya recognized as “Katyusha.” He joined in enthusiastically, while everyone else clapped in rhythm to the song. Then they shook his hand again and everyone shouted Hindi Rusi bhai, bhai!

When things settled down a bit, the whole village began a conversation with Zhenya. However, since neither he nor the villagers knew very much English, it took a long time for them to discover whether Zhenya was in a hurry to get to Delhi and the Soviet Embassy. But Zhenya was in no special rush. Why should a person hurry when he’s having such an interesting and pleasant dream?

In no time, delegates from a neighbouring village arrived to lead the honoured guest to their village. In this village and in the three others he visited during that wonderful day the scene which had taken place in the first village was repeated again and again.

He spent the night in the fourth village. At day-break delegates from a fifth village were awaiting him. This was when Zhenya began to moan a bit.

Just try not to moan when hundreds of friendly arms toss you up to the accompaniment of: Hindi Rusi bhai, bhai and overflowing emotions make them toss you as high as the clouds.

Luckily for him, they soon heard the rumbling of a small truck which was going past the closest railway station and which was to take Zhenya along.

Smiling villagers surrounded the perspiring boy, they shook his hands and embraced him. Two girls came running up with a large wreath of flowers and put it around his neck. The young guest blushed. Three boys and their schoolteacher brought him a gift of a large bunch of bananas. On behalf of all the villagers, the teacher wished Zhenya a happy journey. The children asked him to say hello to the children of Moscow from the children of India and they also asked for his autograph, just as if he had been a famous person. Naturally, he could not refuse.

Clutching the bunch of bananas with both hands and bowing to all sides, Zhenya was being helped onto the running board when suddenly he … disappeared. He simply vanished!

This in itself was worthy of great amazement, but more amazing still was the fact that not a single villager was surprised at this. They were not surprised, because they immediately and completely forgot all about Zhenya. But we, dear reader, should by no means be surprised that they forgot about him so quickly.