Lithuanian Ambassador to India Diana Mickeviciene on Wednesday welcomed the opening of a new mission in Lithuania and said that the country is very happy to enter a new stage in its ties with India.
“We welcome this step. I think we’re very happy to enter a new stage in our relationships where it’s going to be fully reciprocal. So, we are, of course, wishing our Indian colleagues for setting up themselves in the Lithuanian capital… And we look forward to really working together and to strengthen our relationship.” the envoy said while speaking to the source on India operationalising new mission in Lithuania. Diana Mickeviciene made the remarks as the Lithuanian Embassy launched a comic book named ‘First Lithuanian Travelers in India.’ She said that the book is about some historical characters who travelled from Lithuania to India. She also talked about the book in Hindi language and called it a sign of friendship between the two nations.
“It’s a comic book about some historical characters the people from Lithuania who travel to India who had been wooed by the attraction of Indian civilization, people in India. So, they came and stayed there. They brought part of India with them. Later on, they actually stayed and lived their whole life. So it’s a story about the time where we as two states were colonized by others.We could not have state-to-state relations with the people who actually assured that connection between our countries,” Diana Mickeviciene told ANI.
Responding to a question about ties between India, Lithuania ties and the pull of the Indian civilization in the country in the Baltic region of Europe, the Lithuanian envoy said, “It’s always been very present. I mean, … also is a character of the book from 400 years ago. He … by India. Since then, of course, this connection, linguistic connection between Lithuanian and Sanskrit have been discovered. So, it became an extra factor attracting people to come and research and study this particular connection. And it’s always been there. And I think it’s life and flourishing like never before now-a-days.”
The “First Lithuanian Travelers in India” is a comic book about real historical personalities, men and women from Lithuania whose individual discovery of India was the first recorded connection between the two countries.
The book is based on the historical books – India & Lithuania: A Personal Bond” and “From Lithuania to Santiniketan Schlomith Flaum & Rabindranath Tagore”. It is the translation from the Lithuanian language after its successful debut in Lithuania.
Lithuanian men and women came to India by sailboat, train, and motorbike and the stories recounted in this book will remind the reader of how global and interconnected Lithuania and India had been over the centuries.
Speaking about the launch, Diana Mickeviciene said, “We are connected more than we realize. When both Lithuania and India were colonized, it was the people who maintained the relationship between our countries. The pull of the Indian civilization in Lithuania was always very strong. Indian philosophy and Gandhian ideas had a great influence on the Lithuanian National revival. Lithuanian and Sanskrit linguistic kinship is the special connecting us link.”