Dehradun, March 3 -- With College Girls in Tashkent

All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian

This is an unusual title even by my quirky writing standards and style. 'Republic of Karakalpakstan' sounds very strange to me too and it could well be a fictional country right out of a Tintin adventure comic. However it does exist in the real world and happens to be the most unknown and unheard of autonomous region in the world. I didn't even know of its existence until our guide, Atabich, proclaimed 'welcome to Karakalpakstan' (it almost sounded like Pakistan, the way he said it).

This Republic (and not a banana republic) is actually a breakaway state of Uzbekistan which covers the far western portion of this landlocked and somewh...