What sets the poles apart

Despite being struck by tragedies, Poland has always bounced back. The credit goes to the Polish temperament.

Legend has it that there are366 underground 'cellars'around the main townsquare of Kraków. "One foreach day of the year and then one,"explains our guide, Izabela Hryciow.

The best time to test the theory isclose to midnight when you see theyoung people of this university townswarm the square the largestmedieval plaza in Europe anddive into the restaurants, pubs ordiscos lining it. If you're up early ona weekend, you can also see themtrickling out at six in the morning.

My first visit to a cellar is at thePod Aniolami (Under the Angel)restaurant off the plaza. It's alsowhere I happen to taste a multicoursePolish meal, one of whichwould be enough to feed a family offour. While sipping beetroot soup,our host Agnieszka 'Agni' Dygaexplains the magic of Malopolska,the district around Kraków thatattracts Indians. Agni, an internationalcooperation officer for the districtwho happens to be a fan ofBollywood, says, "One Hindi filmwas shot nearby, umm... Fanaa,that's it!" But what she mostly getsto see is Shah Rukh, whose filmsapparently come bundled free everyother month with a glossy magazine.The reason you see Indians scouringonline for apartments in Poland'ssecond largest city is HCL, the technologycompany that's setting up a250-seater outsourcing centre here.

The next cellar I visit is of adifferent kind the Wieliczka saltmines. This unique place less thanan hour's drive from Kraków wasone of the richest 'factories' ofEurope during the first half of thelast millennium, when salt was oneof the most precious commodities.Today the underground mines, aUnesco World Heritage site thatruns more than 300 km long and300 metres deep, house a spa, galleries,shops, restaurants andchapels all of them carved out ofsalt rocks.

On the wall, on the edge
Polish graffiti artists have taken tothe stencil more than the spray can.Apart from large, stylised letteringson the edge of town and an officialmural wall, most of the graffiti inKraków is hurriedly slapped onthrough pre-cut designs. Maybe it'sbecause of the strong streak of subversionthat runs through most ofthe content.

The only straightforward celebratoryones I spot are of AdamMalysz, a world-beating ski jumper,and of Elvis. Apart from that thereare some adulatory ones of the realElvis in this very Catholic city Karol Wojtyla, who spent most ofhis years in Kraków before beinganointed Pope John Paul II. Apartfrom these, all the writings on thewall have a dark undertone.

In one, a gun-toting man lookinglike Bruce Springsteen and posinglike Clint Eastwood says,'Sometimes anti-social, but alwaysantifascist.' Next to him is a signsimilar to the Sikh emblem.

On one of the last old housesstanding in the Jewish ghetto ofWarsaw, there's the stencil of a manholding a gun to the head of adamsel. It looks like a still from anoir film. The speech bubble translatesas, 'More respect for women,or I kill the bitch.'

Out of darkness
Several things were looking up forPoland till March this year. Thecountry has been sharing open bordersin the west and the south withEuro zone countries since 2004, butit still trades in the much cheaperzloty. Its roaring economic engineshave helped it weather the recessionbetter than the rest of Europe. Infact, the Polish economy is growingso fast that several thousands of thePoles who had migrated westwardsin search of greener pastures havebeen coming back.

Then, unforeseen tragediesstruck in the cruellest month. OnApril 10, the country's president andsome of the top leaders of militaryand economy perished in a planecrash. Later that month, the ashclouds spread eastwards to chokePolish air traffic. A few weeks latermost of the region's rivers, includingthe Vistula, flooded their banks.

The strongest antidote to thegloom is perhaps the Polish temperament.Stanislaw Styrczula, ourbubbly guide to the Tatras hills nearZakopane, put it pithily, "Is there apoint of doing something that's easyand straightforward? That's how thePolish mind works." That againstthe-grain character has seen themthrough centuries of turmoil. It willsurely see them to a new Spring.

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