India, Oct. 26 -- It is lunchtime in Baku. We are sitting outdoors at a long table in the shadow of the Walled City's sandstone walls, sipping a tall glass of blood-red pomegranate juice.

It feels both foreign and familiar.

The political maps tell us we are in a country that leans away from our own. But the crispy gutab naans stuffed with pumpkin and lamb tell a different story. The food and drink at our table speak of an ancient route that connected our ancestors, an offshoot of the Silk Route that ignored the borders we draw today.

And at this long table, in the dappled sun and shade of the mulberry trees, yet another older truth comes to life. This is in the form of our lunchtime companion - the famous Azerbaijani singer Bilal Aliye...