Hi I am Anja, philosopher in Exile….

It’s not easy to be born in one state and then after a few months your father thinks of signing you up to the registry under a different name in another country! Then you get into a bipolar situation where you have two first and last names; so often you face pointless situations imposed on you by bureaucracy. In that sense, my life’s journey of a mere immigrant in diapers began to an adult who moved around the world from a young age without being asked anything. So one fine day I came to the conclusion that I was a Philosopher in Exile; wherever it is in this world and in any end of the planet.

All these trips and moving made me a richer person in one sense but by nature I remained very lonely because, like some of my today’s acquaintances, I can’t boast of a child’s friendship that lasts forty years or with something that would be a stable relationship with a city or country. In my personal travels, all sorts of life’s little things are recorded as “The God of Little Things” as Arundhati Roy would say; but also some big microcosmic events. The constant was books that I had read, so at one point I decided to study philosophy, which changed my life from its roots. I’ve acquired a flexible vision in the world; who helped me survive turbulence in my life. At least try to look at that world stoically, calmly and even this one in the year 2022 when the world turns itself upside down.

In my later years I started collecting paws, and more paws, so now I have three dogs, plus a huge library and a studio in Belgrade. The property is small, but mine is like your friends’ closest friends. I’m not entirely single; I don’t know how I would define my situation, except that my principal exists on the other side of the globe who loves me and it’s mutual. In short, the idea here is to share with you, who may be my future companions, some of my knowledge accumulated over the years of learning, travel, existence.