Issue 219-220

For Amitabh Vardhan cinema is not just a form of entertainment. It is a passion. As the managing director and CEO of Cine Grand since 2010, he has dedicated himself to creating and crafting the ultimate cinema experience for viewers. Mr Vardhan's previous experience has prepared him well for the task – his professional background spans several countries, including India, the US, the UK, Romania, and Serbia, and a number of industries such as consumer goods, services, hospitality, and real estate.

In Joseph Heller's timeless masterpiece, Catch 22, there is a minor character named Major Major Major Major. Major Major Major Major Major has a father, whom Heller describes as a "God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist... who advocates thrift and hard work, and disapproves of loose women who turn him down." Catch 22 was a very popular book in Communist Bulgaria because those who read it did not have to be very imaginative to see the obvious parallels with real life this side of the Iron Curtain.

Before coming to Sofia as His Majesty's Ambassador, Nathaniel Copsey was the chief speech writer for the foreign secretary. As he covered the full range of UK foreign policy's issues, he had wide access and connections to the British and international media. With a background as an academic, latterly a professor of politics, Nathaniel Copsey focused on Europe, particularly the EU and Eastern Europe. He was involved in both the 2015 renegotiation of the EU treaty and the subsequent referendum in 2016.

Traditions, both ancient and new, define nations and communities. Bulgarians make no exception. A country of diverse cultures and religions, its calendar is peppered with events, festivals and rites that range from cute to curious, even bizarre. Some of them are ancient, like the dances of the kukeri and nestinari, while others are new, such as greeting the first rays of the rising sun on 1 July. Almost all are heavily affected by globalisation and social media, yet keep a strong core of authenticity. 

Calm is the last word to describe the Bulgarian Black Sea coast with in summer. Then, the resorts and beaches teem with tourists and suffer from noise and litter. The feeling that you have stumbled into some sort of a din is inevitable.

Men and women in bathing suits partake, come rain or shine, of some hot mineral springs that flow freely through the yellowish mud. A very un-orthodox church with bold, non-Christian-like murals stands nearby. So does a small one-storey village house, a cabin really. The place is well known to thousands of Bulgarians who used to frequent that house to converse with Vanga, this country's only officially-recognised and government-endorsed clairvoyant; a mystic, who died in 1996, but who continues to star in various tabloids internationally.

Driving Bulgaria into the eurozone is a crime.

Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of Vazrazhdane, or Revival, party

I was in my office in the Finance Ministry and, just like the rest of the Bulgarian people, we celebrated. If I remember correctly, there were fireworks in Sofia and across the country.

Asen Vasilev, Changes Continued, on the day Boyko Borisov was arrested, in 2022

1. The sweet-sour beverage Bulgarians sometimes have at corner sweetshops is called...

A. Boza

B. Ayryan

C. Limoncello

2. Which UNESCO site is located on the Danube?

A. Pirin National Park

B. Kazanlak Tomb

C. Srebarna Lake

Boyko Borisov's GERB, the largest party in the National Assembly, put forward a candidate; so did Kostadin Kostadinov's Revival; Slavi Trifonov's There Is Such a People; the BSP, or Bulgarian Socialist Party; and the PP-DB, or Changes Continued-Democratic Bulgaria.