Years ago, it had taken me a full minute to recover when one of my Chinese colleagues suddently started singing his version of Raj Kapoor's "Awaaraa Hu". He then told me that when he was growing up, he had seen many of the Raj Kapoor's movies - in China.

The reason I remembered this incident was because yesterday I read a piece of news about Raj Kapoor's movies being screened in a place in Russia again. An old Russian woman was quoted explaining why his movies were so popular there. In the 50s Russia was just emerging from the war with Germany and the common man's life was no bed of roses. The woman said that the Russians drew a lot of inspiration from the Indian populace as depicted in Kapoor's movies - leaving a hard life but keeping alive its hopes of a better future.

चलना जीवनकी कहानी, रुकना मौतकी निशानी
सरपे लाल टोपी रुसी, फिरभी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी