Day 28: Osh to Tashkent

The distance between Osh to Tashkent is about 431 kms. and it involves Border crossing. We started at about 8:30 am.

The border crossing at Kyrgystan side was quite smooth. They were very cordial and did all the formalities with ease and we were through in about half an hour. On Uzbekistan side it was easy equally and the very feeling of the warmth and love for India was visible. For the first time we felt at home in our journey. The guards were also very courteous. One of the guards took pains to get the apricot fruit from the tree in the compound there. They were fresh and sweet. We all enjoyed the fruit, while the formalities for the entry of the car was being completed.

It is special mention to be made here that the people in general are very warm, open-hearted and their love for India and the Bollywood is very evident. We stopped at a Restaurant just after we left the border. It was a restaurant with many tables across huge area. The food was very good. We took Chicken Shashlik (similar to Chicken tikka). Along with this dish they gave two big breads (round shape) and vegetables. The people here were so open-hearted, one of the elderly person gave Uzbekistan Som (the currency here) 1000 Som to Aviv and Avya. We were refusing to take, but they said that this is our tradition and elders give to children. It was just open heartedness of the person. 1 INR = 122 UZS (Uzbekistan Som).  There were some group of ladies. They called Anju and Aditi and took photos. The people in general gave a warmth feeling and had lot of good vibes for Indians. They remember Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Sridevi, Hrithik Roshan and other Bollywood actors. They do see Hindi movies with subtitles. We took almost 2 hours at this Restaurant for Lunch and Aviv and Avya had a gala time running around because the place was very big.

We reached Tashkent around 7 pm. We took dinner in the hotel room. It was Pizza, Noodles, Chicken etc. It was very good. The time difference between Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan is 1 hour (i.e.5 hours+ GMT).

Tashkent is the city where Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri ji, our PM died in 1966.There was war with Pakistan at that time and USSR negotiated an agreement between India and Pakistan here. Shashtri died here during sleep after signing the agreement in the night.

The first demonstration of a fully electronic TV set to the public was made in Tashkent in summer 1928 by Boris Grabovsky and his team. Boris Grabovsky made this on  a new principle of TV imaging based on the vertical and horizontal electron beam sweeping under high voltage. Nowadays this principle of TV imaging is used practically in all modern cathode-ray tubes.

Tashkent is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. This is the most populated city in the erstwhile Soviet Central Asia. It has population of 24.85 lakhs (2.48 million). It is situated in North-east of the country and is close to the border with Kazakhstan.