WHISPERS OF ZAGREB

“WHAT BRINGS YOU TO Zagreb?” I turned around to see who had addressed me. A well-dressed man older than me stood next to me, smiling. I was studying a silhouette of a man carved in stone—Nikola Tesla, whose home was once this city.

- NITIN CHAUDHARY

I didn’t know how to answer him. I had come to the Croatian capital on a whim. While most tourists head to Dubrovnik—home to Gothic and Renaissance-style palaces (which became the backdrop of the television series "Game of Thrones")—I had decided to come to Zagreb. When deciding on the visit, on my mind was the Museum of Broken Relationships, which happens to be one of Croatia’s busiest tourist attractions. It houses mementoes from failed relationships, painting an emotional landscape of human connections. Anyone can donate a remembrance here. I had walked through it earlier in the day, observing each piece whispering tales of love, despair, and anguish. The melancholy stayed with me as I left the museum back to the city's cobblestone streets. That was when I came across this sculpture of Tesla.

“I don’t know”, I answered uncertainly, “just that I wanted to be in a city where I could learn something new.”

“Then you are at the right place”, answered the man with a smile and walked away, continuing what I felt was his daily stroll on these cobblestone streets.