“OUR” BELGRADE (April 15, 2003)
When I wrote Rada Iveković, who now lives in Paris, that I would be going to Belgrade, she wrote back asking me to send her greetings to “our” Belgrade. This morning I walked around the part of the city where we both lived as kids. I first went to Jovanova 33, where I lived with my parents from 1948 to 1965. There I found only two names I knew well: Jovičić and Rodić. Then I went to Rige od Fere 20, where Rada used to live with her brother and parents. There I found four names I had known since childhood: Papo, Makiedo, Soldatić, and Govorušić. My parents were friends with all these people, and I was friends with all their children. Most of my parents’ generation is gone, and most of my generation is abroad. God only knows who now lives in these apartments. Which is why I suppressed the first impulse to ring all these bells.