Carpe Diem #374, Novosibirsk

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I told you in an earlier post I was a bit early with the story about the "ring of fire", because I am reading "Aleph" at the same time ... so I hold on a while. But ... now we are in Novosibirsk and it's here that Paulo discovers that he has deeper feelings for Hilal ... he desires her, but realises that he cannot do something with those feelings. He writes/says: "We are all souls wandering the cosmos and, at the same time, living our lives, but with a sense that  we are passing from one incarnation to another. If something touches the code of our soul, it is remembered for ever and affects whatever comes afterwards". He realizes that he knew Hilal in an other life. He's grateful to life, because he was allowed to find her again.
In Novosibirsk Hilal and Paulo meet the 'Goddess of Novosibirsk" named Tatiana who looks 'in love' with Paulo too, at least Hilal thinks that.
They visit a foutain and there Hilal performs a kind of ritual. Through that ritual she and Tatiana become very close and Paulo stands alone.
Later on he goes to a dojo with Yao, his translator, for a 'duel' of Aikido. Yao wins everytime, because Paulo isn't focussed. Paulo is only busy with Hilal in his mind. After their work-out of Aikido ... Paulo realises very strong that he has feelings for Hilal and that he has known her in a former life as he was already aware of after they entered the "Aleph" on the balcony of the TSR.
Novosibirsk looks like the turning-point of the journey. After Novosibirsk Paulo finally finds out that he was once part of the Inquisition, the witch-hunt. He realises that Hilal was once a girl of whom was said that she was a witch and that he was the one who sentenced her to death by burning on a pyre.

Novosibirsk Trans Siberian Railway Station

Let me tell you a little bit more about Novosibirsk, once a little town, but now a major city. After the building of the TSR Novosibirsk became such a big city with over one million citizens.

Novosibirsk, founded in 1893 at the future site of a Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river of Ob, first received the name Novonikolayevsk in honor both of Saint Nicholas and of the reigning Tsar Nicholas II in place of Krivoshchekovskaya village, was founded in 1696. The bridge was completed in the spring of 1897, making the new settlement the regional transport hub. The importance of the city further increased with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway in the early 20th century. The new railway connected Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
At the time of the bridge's opening, Novonikolayevsk hosted a population of 7,800 people. Its first bank opened in 1906, with a total of five banks operating by 1915. In 1907, Novonikolayevsk, now with a population exceeding 47,000, was granted town status with full rights for self-government.

By 1917, Novosibirsk possessed seven Orthodox churches and one Roman Catholic church, several cinemas, forty primary schools, a high school, a teaching seminary, and the Romanov House non-classical secondary school. In 1913, Novonikolayevsk became one of the first places in Russia to institute compulsory primary education.

The Russian Civil War took a toll on the city, with wartime epidemics, especially typhus and cholera, claiming thousands of lives. In the course of the war the Ob River Bridge was destroyed and for the first time in its history the population of Novonikolayevsk began to decline.

Well ... it's here in Novosibirsk were the ancient love between Paulo and Hilal starts again blooming in the next phase of our trip we will discover in which circumstances they have known each other in a former life.

blooming love
after 500 years not have been together -
pair of swans

pair of swans
sharing their same history -
the old pond

This episode will be open for your submissions until January 15th 12.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode later on today and that will be our third Special haiku by our featured haiku-poet from Russia Alexey Andreyev. !! This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions !! Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with our Haiku Kai.