A fraction of a second – that’s all it takes…

… to change your life that is. You can plan all you want, but it does really just take a second to unravel all those plans. I realized that today

For all those wondering why I am philosophical – I was in an accident today. I have been in accidents before, two actually. But I don’t remember a thing of what happened in those accidents, I heard about what happened from people. This one however was different. I remember every moment of those few seconds clearly, and it’s a memory which will stay with me forever. I have heard people say that when death passes you, what you see is a flashback of your life and all your loved ones flash in front of your eyes. Well nothing like that happened to me. Weirdly enough, I watched everything happen as if I were watching a movie. My first thought was that I was wearing a seatbelt, so I was safe even if the car toppled unless of course I got trapped and the car exploded (watching too many movies does that to you). The second thought was to hold on to my SLR so that it doesn’t get damaged (I guess I love it a little too much). Even after the car came back into control, the only thing on my mind was to get out of the mess. I even went sightseeing, shopping and picture clicking after dropping of the car. And if anyone sees the pictures that we have clicked after the episode, they would never guess that we were in a car crash just hours before that. I guess all of our reactions would have been different if anything would have happened to any one of us. Thank God that nothing did and it was just the car which bore the brunt of it all.

Learnt some stuff today:

Miracles do happen and fate is not a “concept” – it does exist: it was nothing short of a miracle and maybe our fate, that though the car was at a 120 km/ph and we hit the divider resulting in the car going completely out of control for about 3-4 kms, all five of us came out of it without a scratch. In the previous two, it was just me who bore the brunt and the others were unscathed. This time fate was on my side too!!

People do care – just don’t show it: A couple of Swedish colleagues are our 911. They always bail us out of trouble. Until today I thought they did it just to be nice to some crazy Indians. But the concern and care that I sensed in their voice today, took me by surprise and a pleasant one at that. I cannot explain in words, what a comfort it was to realize that far away from family and friends, people geniunely cared. It was comforting to say the least.

Nagging is good : Today was the first day I didn’t nag my friend while he was driving. People say I am a control freak, which is why I chew someone’s brains out if I don’t trust his/her driving (which is almost always). I guess it’s my way of being in control. But today, I let it go and let him drive the way he wanted. Seeing the result…hmmm… well I am going to revert being a nag. Nagging is better than getting injured or killed!!!

Should always be dressed for the weather: Now this one is for my friend (he knows, and hence am not mentioning names :-)). We were waiting outside for assistance to come in a -15 degree C for an hour. And though we froze our jackets came through for us. I am sure without them we would have died of hypothermia, okay that’s exaggerating it a bit, but am not far away from the truth. So my dear friend always carry warm clothing with you - like someone says, there is a thin line between courage and stupidity, why cross it??

Retail therapy doesn’t help: I shopped after we sorted out stuff. And shopped not for necessities but for things which were not needed. I told my self that it was my way of dealing with things. Well it doesn’t work, and things do catch up with you. My mom tells me that I always have delayed reaction to traumatic experiences, and its only after around 8 hrs have passed is this experience beginning to sink in and I am a nervous wreck. In short – what a waste of money!!

I guess I have had enough of learning that I can take for one day and am off to try and do something to put my hyperactive mind to rest. For all the people behind the wheels – be extra careful, coz it does take just a second….

Ps: this was my second attempt to visit the IKEA store in Happaranda. The first one was when we landed there on one of the 3 days in a year that IKEA is shut, and well the second one is all over my blog… I’m all the more determined to break the jinx now

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Its official now - The winters are here

Skelleftea had its first proper snowfall today!

It was a pleasant surprise to wake up in the morning and find everything white... It reminded me of the time when I first came to this place sometime in Feb. I woke up a desi who hadn't seen the snow and ended up going for a nice long walk with him and my camera for company. His enthusiasm was infectious to say the least. I took some pictures of the snow and me in the snow (Something I didn't do even when I first came here). For a change, I resisted the temptation of practicing my photography skills and just let someone else take pictures of me... It also made me realise that I should myself a normal digicam to make it easy for people to take decent pictures of me ( The SLR gets a little too complicated for normal people!!)-- Any volunteers-- Donations are most welcome :-)

Skelleftea is back to the normal, dark days with the snow almost melting now...Today was a glimpse of the winter wonderland this place will turn into - hopefully sooner than later.....

Here's to the season of Winter Jackets, never ending nights and the subzero temperatures!!

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Just some random gibberish

It’s been a while since my last blog and have been meaning to write for a long time now, but just haven’t managed to find the time, energy and anything interesting to write about. Or like my friends say – maybe I finally have some work to do!!

Speaking of work - I have been enlightening the Swedish junta here on Swedish labor laws. The expression on their faces when they listen to their own laws is priceless!! It just got me wondering to how some people can manage a business without knowing where the money goes. I guess it’s my fault for having been here for this long and still manage to get shocked but such things. Let me just stop ranting about work right now, or this blog will go on forever…


What is it with Indian cricket fans all of a sudden- They have suddenly become all too aware and intelligent enough to relate monkey chants with racism!! Either that or it was Symonds’s imagination in Baroda and the second time, well after so much of hype in the media, how could the infamous Mumbai crowd resist?? Not that Australians should be the ones complaining about it considering their obsession with Muthiah Muralitharan was no less than racism. However I hope that what happened in Mumbai was not done with a racist mentality. Considering we are a society still obsessed with the fair skin, this incident could be a mirror of what our society is all about. We still have matrimonial adds by educated men stating that they want fair wives. How on earth is fair related to being a good life partner is something beyond understanding. It however doesn’t take away the credit from us to blend as easily despite being a country full of diversity, and this is why I hope that the incident was purely fun and not racist. India has an image of a good blend of different types of people and it’s good to keep it that way.

The other piece of news that caught my attention was the whole fiasco in Bangalore politics- A complete abuse of democracy!!! It was disgusting to see the “supposed leaders” of the country reduce themselves to clowns for power. I know expecting integrity from politicians is too much an expectation, but this kind of stooping low was dumb founding. It is high time that we change some bits of our constitution to make it an efficient democracy. First of all we should have a retirement age for politicians. Our corporate houses have a retirement age of 58, and we should follow the same for politicians too. We do not need leaders who have one foot in the grave, making any sort of policies for the country!! Secondly, similar to corporate houses, there should be a background check on all candidates, and people with any sort of criminal history should not be allowed to stand for elections. When we do not trust people with a murky background in business, how can we trust them to run the country? And lastly, we should have a bi-party system similar to the US – the problem of not having majority, coalitions being formed just for seats and not ideology and then pulling out for the flimsiest of the reasons will be solved. When I was growing up my parents always told me that I had no right to ask for freedom of choices if I didn’t behave responsibly. I guess the same applies for every sphere of life!!!

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The Young Guns of India

Yes this title is taken from one of my favourite movies, and like that movie, this blog is dedicated to the generation next or the Young India as its being termed now. A couple of days back I was reading the results of a survey on the youth in different parts of the world on a website. It mentioned that the Indian youth were the happiest, focused on work and the most optimistic about the future as compared to the youth of the rest of the world. The survey ironically was done by a Swedish agency.

Then a couple of days back the Indian cricket team won the world cup. Well the cricket team features yet again, but this time it’s not cynicism, but pure admiration for the way they won the cup. They were fearless, brave, calm and played like a team after a long time. It was pure joy to watch the semi-finals and the finals (courtesy the internet and cricinfo), though I didn’t think I would survive the heart attacks that I almost got!! It was more special since we put the Aussies at their place and a win against Pakistan is always special (looks like that record will take a while to break). The celebrations all across the country are warranted for, as the cup comes to us after 24 years, and no one really knows when the next time will be. It’s a pity that I am far away from all the fun in India, and have given up on explaining to the Swedes, the part that cricket plays in our lives!!

A lot has been said about Dhoni, and the team playing fearlessly, enjoying what they do and not being bogged down by the past etc, and I find no sense in repeating it here. To me it’s a reflection of how “Young India” is. And I see it everyday, especially now that I am here in Sweden and I can appreciate the difference between the youth of the two countries and hence two very different cultures. People here get surprised when my colleagues and I (all below 30) talk to them about various aspects of business and get involved in decision making. They cannot imagine how kids are sent for such important assignments, and get all the more bewildered when I tell them that it’s a common feature in the company to give responsibility to youngsters, more so because the average age of the employees of the company is around 26. That shocks them beyond belief!! Almost all of them who have visited India talk of the young people there, how educated they are, and how they are willing to stretch, and how seriously they take their careers, this apart from complaining about the traffic there!! While it’s nothing unusual for me; after living here, I can understand why it shocks them. Most people here start taking their careers seriously only after they turn 30 or more. And even when people work, the attitude to work is very different from what it is in India. Here work is as aptly put by a Swedish colleague, a method to sustain their hobbies; very different from India, where it’s a social symbol, a means to a good living and a lot more…. Obviously when these people meet 22 year olds who know exactly what they want, and are prepared to work hard and take all possible chances to get there, they do a complete somersault!!

While at one hand when I look around here, I feel these people here are lucky not to have as many people as we have in India making their lives easier and more content, on the other hand I feel I am lucky to be born in India in this era. Its good to be a part of the club termed as an achiever, fearless and willing to go all the way!! It’s possible that all this due to the excessive competition that we face from childhood that makes us aggressive and give our all out to win. Maybe the fact that “if not me, then someone else is going to take my place”, or maybe its only because we live in a society where education, the kind of work someone does, the kind of money someone earns decides his or her social standing that propels us to give it our best and not fear from taking risks to win.

Whatever the reasons are, I feel it will do us good in the long run. Its already proved by the Indian economy doing so well, the rupee rising, the sensex being around the 17K mark, a lot of Indians abroad wanting to get back, some Swedish colleagues of mine expressing interest to work in India and now even with us doing so well in Hockey, soccer and winning the world cup!!

PS: I am aware of the contradictions in the previous blog and this one on Indian cricket… cannot help it, I am the original fickle Indian cricket fan!! Also wanted to spew venom against that statement made by Shoaib Mallik, but then let it pass, since its either a reflection of his poor English, or ignorance or pathetic thinking - in any case, completely unworthy of any comment.

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An Eternal Optimist

This is a story about a friend who believes that the Indian cricket team can do no wrong…if the team bats miserably – the pitch was bad, how could they help it, the bowlers will surely do a good job and win the match for us …oops they got hit all over the place – poor guys, some of them were suffering from injuries but still played, fielding is bad – they try but somehow cannot seem to see the ball due to bad lighting… when he cannot convince himself longer, he also puts the blame on Dawood Ibrahim and his devious methods of earning a quick buck through cricket!!! This is a cycle that goes on and on, but my friend doesn’t lose faith and still believes that Indian cricket team is the best…

And best it is…I mean who can refute the fact that its one of the best batting line ups on paper, it is another matter that this famed line-up chokes on most of the crucial games …Bowling is an area that India has always been weak in, but when we get a decent fast bowler, in the hope of creating a Kapil Dev, we ensure that he forgets how to bowl too…then there are this list of fast bowlers, medium pacers, spinners that I cannot seem to remember because they keep flitting in and out of the team…some of them we remember more for their in-field behavior as compared to their performance…but then whatever catches attention right? My friend tells me it is because we want to develop the second line of talent that we never seem to have a permanent team, a permanent opening pair I guess is too much to ask for… how does it matter if we lose a million matches in the name of developing talent! Fielding is something I don’t even want to start with.. I think Indian fielding has been a subject of a million jokes and was even a successful ad campaign for a washing powder brand, need I say more….but despite all this, this eternally optimistic friend of mine bought a subscription to watch the match online, went to office to watch the match with a LAN connection on a big screen, hooting for India to win…. Just to come back moping yet again!! But like I said the cycle repeats over and over again, so this friend is disappointed that the wireless connection does not work at the airport, is secretly thrilled that the flight is delayed and there is trouble with our tickets just so that he could stay a little longer at the airport and call home in India to check on the scores of the match between India and Pakistan in the 20-20 world cup… I am hoping for his sake and the sake of a million others like him that India at least keep this record of beating Pakistan in the world cup matches… It’s the Indian team – you never know… they love breaking these type of records!!

I guess it’s just too much to ask a team of 12 players to carry the hope and expectations of a billion people… I guess it’s too much to ask of them to perform well…at least to make us feel that they tried their best… but then again I guess its not too much considering all the money they make out of the sponsorship that they get – all thanks to the expectations of the very same billion people…

Today the captain of the Indian team has resigned, we are a team without both a captain and a coach…My friend says, things cannot get worse than this…we have to go upwards at least now.. I thought we already hit rock bottom when we lost to Bangladesh and Srilanka, didn’t make it to the Super eight and the team winning against Bangladesh in Bangladesh was making news!… Oh but then I forget my friend is an eternally optimistic Indian cricket fan…

PS: we reached Skelleftea and got to know that India finally managed to win the tie breaker...never mind that after reducing Pakistan for 59/5 in the 11th over there should not have been left a scope for a tie breaker in the first place…the good news my friend tells me is that they managed to keep this one record intact – at least for now…..

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Contradictions Galore

A new Indian, or desi as we call ourselves here, has come to Skelleftea recently, and as always, I treated (read dragged) him to my famous 5 km walk by the river, on our walk he threw a wrapper on the road… and this became the topic of discussion on the dinner table… how conscious are we as nation towards cleanliness of our environment??

The answer comes easy to all of us, since we do walk/drive on streets with out eyes wide open – its there for all to see!! It’s amazing how we Indians generally insist on keeping our houses spic and span, but don’t follow the same rules when it comes to the streets…..most of us do not think twice before throwing something on the streets without a care for what will become of it, how unhygienic it is, or what impression it would create on the minds of foreigners coming to visit one of the fastest growing economy...we don’t care since its not our house getting dirty!!!

One major excuse that I get to hear whenever this comes up is that there is a lack of infrastructure (read sufficient dustbins), but come on guys, how much of an effort is it, to keep the wrapper, or any other kind of garbage with you until you find a garbage can and then just dump it… its basically just a mindset issue… on my last visit to Cochin, the burning issue was the garbage disposal system, and I am not exaggerating but there was an ever-growing pile of plastics bags full of rubbish every 100 mtrs on the streets.. The whole city was stinking and there was a hue and cry created on this issue, which finally needed the intervention of the high court…well yes the blame was put on the municipal cooperation, but what do they do in a state where almost no land is owned by the government and everyone is ready to go on a strike for just about nothing….I saw some really well dressed people, living in beautiful big houses come early morning and throw their bags on the street … the question on my mind was that hadn’t they heard of the age old method of disposing waste - the decomposition pit!! You don’t really need a court to tell you something which is basic common sense…but then again common sense is not so common after all…

The amazing thing to see, is that these same very people who have no regard for the surroundings in India, become an epitome of following rules in every aspect when go abroad, so much so that they surpass that the locals living there ( my friend was an exception though)…the heartrending thing is that we have become so insensitive to the whole issue in India that we don’t even notice it as a problem …its only when you come abroad do you see a stark difference…. its not that the Swedes are extra clean, they are far from it….its there for anyone who wakes up and takes a walk early in the morning before the cleaning happens – there are beer bottles and wrappers everywhere. They have the advantage of being so scarcely populated for the place and the money they have that they can afford to look spic and span despite not being that… We don’t have that in India, so isn’t it as dutiful citizens our duty to keep it clean?? I know it’s a fairly basic issue but then shouldn’t we get the basics right before we aim for the stars??

PS: I know a lot of us are conscious about what we do.. this is targeted at the other 75% of the population

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The battle is on...

My blog has started looking more like a National Geographic write up or that’s what my friends say. And hence I have decided to finally write about something which has been on my mind for a while now, but just didn’t seem to have the courage to write about it for fear of backlash!! Read on and you’ll know what I mean…

For years I have heard my male friends cribbing about how women were confused people who didn’t know what they want, they kept changing their mind, and to please a woman was an impossible task – this among a whole list of other cribs…and when I heard stories of how those “poor” souls were tortured by their girlfriends, I felt a tad bit sorry for them as well….

However have realized completely on what a waste my sympathies were since it was either lack of tact, or insensitivity or some other stupidity that led to such behavior( if at all it wasn’t anything but mere figment of imagination)…

Experiential learning - I am going through the whole arrange marriage process right now and if I wasn’t the one going through the pain of conversing with guys, it would probably be down right hilarious, though I do end up laughing about it while sharing similar stories of guy behavior with my friends…

Most guys tell me they want their wives to be independent, consultative and have opinions.. however there’s a rider to this – she cannot have a different opinion from him and the skies fall down if she voices it openly too….another funny one “ she should be smart, beautiful, intelligent, witty, homely etc etc” – question if she was all this, why would she marry you and why not Tom Cruise?? And this from a guy, who looks like anything but Tom cruise, I mean get realistic dude!!!! It’s alright for the girl to have a job, but her taking her career seriously is concept alien to a guy… its okay for a guy to be opinionated, go getter, well traveled and ambitious , but a girl be that and she’s labeled as unmarriageable!! Then there is a breed of guys who are working in the US – and OMG do they think they are god’s gift to woman kind or what – they are definitely not going to settle for anyone else than an Aishwarya Rai look alike, how does it matter if their scope is limited to the one place in India where they lived in forever before being transported to a city in the US (some of them have a combination of pathetic English with that horribly fake American accent)…am just wondering now on who is the more confused species – the girl or the guy….

It gets funnier when you actually start talking to them that sometimes you actually believe that we women are such a superior race!! While women talk to compatibility, understanding, ease of communication etc, the guy ends up talking of are we comfortable speaking the same language (literally and not metaphorically) - now I understand communication is important, but shouldn't you look at ideas, views etc rather than the language they are spoken in, how difficult is it to master a language if you really like someone; similarities in the kind of movies we like – am still to understand on how that can be a criteria for someone to decide on marriage but whatever, oh yes how can I forget the all important question – do you know how to cook?? wonder of wonder, if you do manage to find one remotely decent guy among this crazy pack – then he for sure will turn out to be the commitment phobic kinds who is looking at girls because he’s getting older by the day but is so damn cautious about committing that he might just take years to decide!!!

Some of my married friends tell me that what I am going through with guys is just nothing; they live with these confused, erratic souls so they need to be pitied more... Living with creatures who are highly disorganized, moody, dirty, lazy, ill mannered and ungrateful am sure is not an easy task!! Its hilarious how a guy is bewildered when his wife sulks coz he commented that some chick he saw was hot – honesty yes we are all game for it, but tactlessness is a definite NO…they get mad when the wife nags on them being untidy, but quite honestly who wants to live in a place which closely resembles a pig sty!! Well I guess the list just goes on and on…

I am sure some of the guys reading this must be thinking, if men are so bad, why do women get married to them. The answer is simple, women being superior want everyone to try and be perfect like them.. men for us are like a project… we take pity on them and try to make them better, since perfection, is beyond men :P

Note to all my guy friends: don’t get angry at this one – learn from it!!

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The story of 14 islands

Just before I came to Sweden for the first time, someone told me that Stockholm was the most beautiful city that he had visited. Since he is a very well traveled person, my expectations hit the roof!!

My first visit to Stockholm was sometime in March for a day – and I was thoroughly disappointed. It was pretty no doubt, but definitely not out of the world. I couldn’t understand what was that special in the city. It could be because the weather was terrible, it wasn’t all that cold in terms of the temperature but I didn’t really appreciate the cold winds and the rain. This is why I decided, to visit Stockholm in all its glory before the winters came in - And finally, I understood the magic of Stockholm.

Stockholm has a lot of water channels since this is where the Baltic Sea meets the lake Malaren. It’s very common to see regular ferries connecting the 14 islands that form Stockholm. I decided to ditch the regular sight seeing by bus kind of stuff and travel by boat to all the places I wanted to visit. Though it takes a little more time to see the place as compared to taking the bus or even walking, I really felt that the whole experience made it worthwhile.

The first place I went to was the Vasa museum. This is where the sunken ship Vasa is restored and kept. Vasa was a famed ship of Sweden which sank just after sailing for 1300 mtrs. It was found after 300 years, restored and kept in the museum. It was all that, the Swedes had promised it would be- it’s a massive ship (for the day and age it was built it) and the carvings on the ship are intricate and beautiful. You almost end up feeling sorry for the people who made the ship with so much of care. The whole museum is darkened and the effect of the yellow light highlighting just the ship is brilliant. From there I walked to the Nordic museum, which gave a quick snapshot of the culture of the ancient Vikings. The Nordic museum also had an exhibit of private collectors going on. It was good to see people being encouraged to display their collection of coins, stamps, matchboxes, openers, dolls etc. You name it and they had it there!!

Stockholm is often called the museum city since it has more than 70 museums, but lack of time meant I had to choose between museums and other flavours of Stockholm. Hence I decided that the next stop would be Gamla Stan or the old town. The old town is basically the original Stockholm area sometime in the 17th century or earlier. Just walking in the streets of the old town, takes you into a completely different world – the small open cafes, the numerous antique shops, and the street musicians whose music you can hear everywhere you go, just wove a spell around me. I saw one of the most enthusiastic and fun street musician group there. They were just so full of energy and amazing music that the half and hour I spent listening to them seemed like just a few minutes. It was time then to break away from the magic cast on me to see the world’s first Ice bar in the hotel that I was staying. While walking towards the main Stockholm center, the change of architecture was dramatic that I could almost feel the transition between the old and the new.

The ice bar is a bar where everything, from the tables, to the chairs to even the glasses are made of ice. The temperature of the bar is maintained at a -5 degrees Celsius all year round and its quite a popular tourist destination that appointments are needed to get inside, since they do not allow more than 30 people at one time. It was good to see something so different and so crazy. I had my drink served in a glass made of ice… Cheers or Skall as the Swedish say to crazy ideas!!!!

The next day was reserved for the famed archipelagos of Stockholm. Stockholm has around a 1000 small islands surrounding it. A trip to Stockholm is definitely incomplete without visiting at least one of these archipelagos. It takes quite a while to get to even the nearest of the archipelago and get back. But it’s a trip was well worth it, some of the views were just out of this world. I got down at one of the archipelago called Grindo, walked around and then had a cup of coffee in one of the most beautiful restaurants I have come across – I could spend the entire day, just sitting there and gazing at the sea, however reality sunk in and I caught my ferry to the mainland.

Before I set out for Helsinki, my Swedish colleague asked me to tell him, which capital was prettier – Stockholm or Helsinki. He also assured me that I would be killed either by him or my Finnish colleague!!! ( the Swedes and the Finns share a love hate relationship and its good fun to see them joke about it – a more tamed version of India and Pak). But coming back to his question – I really don’t know....each had its charm – Helsinki was small but fun, and Stockholm enchanting, comparing them would be unfair to both… I told my colleague the same, he wasn’t too convinced though!!!

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Sauna Land

When I planned a work week to Finland in a place called Pernio, I decided that this time I would definitely visit Helsinki. That would be the only way I would be able to compensate one week of living in a place which to me resembles a meditation camp (it’s just got our factory and the guesthouse and nothing else) .

Finland in spite of being neighbours to Sweden and having being ruled by Sweden for a long time, as quite different from the Swedes. Finnish for example, is completely different from Swedish and English and quite difficult to learn at that ( not that I am trying, Swedish is enough for now). Their love for saunas is unbeatable. The ideal Finnish holiday is having a sauna party, in a summer house close to the sea, and cooling off by swimming in the open sea. I was lucky sample a little bit of this idyllic holiday, if only for a few hours. We were taken to the company’s summer cottage close to the sea, and though I didn’t go into the sauna with the guys, spent a lot of time just soaking in the nature….. After that brilliant evening, I set out to Helsinki by train the next day . The train was not as extravagant as the trains in Denmark, but definitely comfortable and not to forget a whole lot cheaper!!

I instantly fell in love with Helsinki! It’s not as big as the other cities I’ve been too and there are not many monuments to see there, but to me it was charming nonetheless. It was bright and sunny, and there were people happy and celebrating everywhere. I guess that played a part in creating that magic. The city is a perfect blend of being big enough so that you don’t feel like you are in a small town and a feel of a small town where everything is in a radius of 5 kms so that everything is in walking distance.

One blooper – the hotel refused to check me in before 2 pm, so instead of wasting time, decided to make full use of the good weather and went to Soumenlinna fortress. The fortress in itself was pale in comparison to the Agra fort and the Red fort in Delhi, but what stood out was the beauty it was surrounded by. Some of the views were just unbelievable with the grass lush green and the sea surrounding it on all four sides, I really don’t think any words or even a lot of my pictures can do full justice to the beauty that I saw there. Its because of that, its really not a surprise that the fortress is a popular picnic spot for the locals and a top tourist spot.

After spending close to three hours in the fortress, we headed back to mainland and went to rock church. The church is built from one massive piece of rock, and the architecture inside is worth noticing. It was about to close so we needed to leave early, but otherwise would surely have loved to spend some more time inside.

The next stop was the Cathedral, which is right behind the market square. It’s stark white and hence impossible to miss. The insides of the church were as pretty as the outsides, and once we were done with being a little religious, we headed out to have some good Indian dinner after a long time – all in all a good day!

The next day, we went visiting a zoo, all on my insistence. I went into a zoo after a really long time (can’t even remember when I went last). It’s quite a small zoo, but what attracted me was that it was on an island. It was heartening to see the animals healthy and happy. That’s when I remembered why I stopped visiting zoos in India - they always left me with such an unpleasant feeling! Anyways the rest of the day was spent in walking around on the streets of Helsinki, and not to forget one of my major hobbies – shopping!!....

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Breathe free... You are born in a free country!!

At the breakfast table today, we had a long discussion with the Vikings on India’s independence. Surprisingly the Swedes are very aware of the Indian Independence story a little bit due to us talking about it for days, but more so because it’s been in Swedish papers and the TV channels here are showing Hindi movies this whole week!! (Pity I am missing it all because I am in Finland this week)

During the course of these discussions, when we talked about Sweden, Finland, their development as a country, a few things just struck me deep, and I was proud I was born in a free country – free in every sense of the word.

Sweden for example got its freedom of religion as late as 1950 in spite of never being ruled by someone else. It basically meant that anyone born on Swedish land would automatically be Christian. I was taken aback by that concept, since I could not fathom a life like that; where I would not get a right to practice any religion I wanted to. It made me appreciate the true meaning of being born in a secular country, and no I am not denying that there are numerous riots that happen in the country in the name of religion, but still for a country diverse in every aspect of societal norms, most times we coexist peacefully. There are yet some other countries, where the freedom of press and speech is an alien concept, and in some orkut is banned ( poor those guys), when I think of living in such places, is when I realize how important freedom is. And most times, you are free in India (except for when some crazy people try and be the moral police)

Another thing that I realized when the Swedes talked of 1930s being recent was that how young we are as a nation - I am ignoring the long history of the pre- independence era, since we were not free and definitely not one country. And when I realized that, I grew immensely proud of what we have achieved as a country in this short span of time despite the three wars. For a country which is just 60 years old the economic growth that we have had is worth mentioning, specially the past 4-5 years have been really good for India, with everything going its way, be it a string of acquisitions putting India business houses on the global map, or the Indian movie industry stars gracing Madam Tussauds in their statue forms.

Not that I believe totally in the “India shining” story, or that I believe that we have truly arrived , and I know we have miles to go before we are called a developed nation, before we can be close to a developed country…but like the rang de basanti dialogue goes - koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usse perfect banana padhta hai…..

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Sleepless nights

I have been meaning to write about the summer festival in Skelleftea which happened last week but have been extremely busy working, getting ready to go India and trying to catch up on the Harry Potter mania. The Potter bug caught me a little to late in life, with me finding it extremely boring and childish the first time I tried to read it. This time, it truly caught me (me thinks its just coz I haven’t read a book in a really long time). Anyways, almost all nights were spent trying to finish the books, and have finally managed to finish all the seven books (at least I hope the 7th one is the same as what’s given on the internet).

Getting back to the festival – Skelleftea has a summer fest every year for 3 days to celebrate the coming of the summer and the start of the summer semesta (vacation). We could actually notice the transformation in the city square which suddenly came to life. There were rock shows, a lot of games, shops on the roads and bungee jumping too. For the first time in the 6 months I have been here, I got to see so many people in one tiny place for an extended period of time. Malmia (the hotel I call home now) which usually has a deserted look was taken over by the neighbouring Norwegians and some others from nearby towns, there were people buzzling around just everywhere. Skelleftea underwent a complete metamorphosis – was good since it reminded me a bit of India. It was good to see some life coming into the otherwise drowsy town. Though beyond a point in the nights, I just wanted to get some sleep, which was almost impossible with all the loud music and people shouting downstairs (imagine sleeping in a pub with the loudspeaker next to your ear!!). That’s when the Potter bug caught me, and I had something to do in the nights over the weekend. Didn’t really think it would go on for the whole week. Anyways Harry potter is done with now and am on my way to India.

Yippee!!! That’s what I thought at first. But that was before I saw my itinerary to get to India. I have almost 10 hrs of waiting – 5 each in Frankfurt and Dubai airports. I am sure that by the time I finish this travel, airports and planes would feel like home to me!! Have managed to kill 30 mins at the Frankfurt airport writing this completely uncoordinated piece – I guess it’s a reflection of my tired mind….

PS: this is written sitting in the Frankfurt airport about 10 days back....managed to post it only today

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Midsummers

One of my friend asked me the big deal about midsummer since I was talking about is for quite a while. Well technically speaking – nothing, since its nothing but the sun shining for 24 hrs. But it’s the biggest celebration here in Sweden, with people talking about their midsummer plans much in advance, not that it proves anything, since the Swedes talk about all their weekends and specially long weekends a lot, anyways point being Midsummer is big here.

The Indians (as we are called here) decided to go to Happaranda and Storforsen to celebrate midsummer and do some sight seeing ourselves. Happaranda is about a 3 hr drive north of Skelleftea on the Finland border. It’s a beautiful town no doubt just that everything was shut due to midsummer, and everything basically means everything, from restaurants to supermarkets to shops – everything! When we walked around in the town hunting for food it was almost like a ghost town, with just us five Indians walking on the street, something that we don’t see even during a curfew in India. We finally dashed our hopes of finding food, and managed to find a shop which sold chips etc. That was breakfast, the only plus being that we had the chips and ice-cream beside a really beautiful river. But being here now for 6 months, have started taking clean rivers, the greenery and nature beauty for granted!!

One of the major motivating factors to make the trip to Happaranda was the IKEA store there. The IKEA store in Happaranda is one of the largest IKEA stores in Sweden, and we were quite looking forward to seeing it. But Alas, I guess they were celebrating Midsummer too, and hence will need to look for some other time and place to finally get a chance to visit the famed Swedish furniture store.

From there we left early for Storforsen so that we could make it on time for lunch. The combination of antakshri and deers on the roads made it a nice drive to Storforsen. Storforsen is a place where the river Pite forms rapids which is one of the largest in Europe. Pite is also one of the only four unharnessed rivers in Sweden. For a country which is famous for its large number of lakes and rivers, 4 unharnessed rivers is quite a small number. We decided to refuel ourselves on some food before checking out the rapids, the noise of which we could hear far away in the restaurant. After waiting for a really long time the food thankfully arrived before some of us fainted with hunger!! The patience level that the Swedes have dumbfounds me everytime. They wait patiently while driving for their turn to overtake, almost never honk, never follow up on anything, and wonder of wonders they wait in queues for a waiting ticket in shops!!

Anyways back to my trip, the disappointment of Happaranda was compensated completely by just seeing the rapids. The sheer power of the river was amazing, just felt like getting into the water and go flowing away with the river (for how long I would be alive, is a different matter altogether). The river almost has three different colors in a short span of length - the absolute white where water crashed against the rocks and formed the rapids, the green some places where it took the color of some rocks, and the sky blue when the rocks got over and the river became silent in the delta – a true haven for a nature photography lover like me.

Since it was a holiday in Sweden, the place was crowded with around 200 to 250 people there, but unlike any tourist place in India, you almost felt you were alone there, thanks to the absence of the numerous amounts of roadside shops, very large and noisy groups of people and the presence of the quiet “in my own world” Swedes. Silence – its something that takes a little getting used to in Sweden, and when you do get used to it, you wonder why people talk as much - I haven’t reached that stage yet!!!

The trip back was uneventful with all of us, just absorbing the scenic beauty, got back to Skelleftea on time for dinner and to make the day perfect, had some really yummy Indian food. Or maybe I found it yummy (since I usually hate the place I went to that day) because I was really hungry and it was the first real food for the day.

With the Midsummer gone, its time for the Skelleftea festival on the weekend. Amazes me to see a country designed only around having fun!!... more about it soon

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Cravings

I crave for the sun to set and then to rise,
I crave for colours other than black, grey and white,
I crave for my morning paper and chai,
I crave to go out and eat dinner at nine,
I crave to see people just everywhere,
I crave to see more than five cars at one time,
I crave for what people here call noise,
I crave for the time when weekends were fun,
I crave for the time when days were spent with movies and friends,
I crave for when life was more than just being online,
Its funny I crave for things I never thought I'd think of anytime...

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Of cycles and carnivals

When I imagined Copenhagen, I imagined it to be a fun place, warm and sunny since it was on the coast. I visited it this weekend, and found out that for once, I was right.

Copenhagen in itself is a very beautiful city. One can almost imagine how Hans Christian Andersen was inspired to write such beautiful fairytales, The city in itself is out of the fairytales, with the sea on one side and the various lakes and the beautiful architecture on the other. The statue of the little mermaid is small as compared to what I thought it would be, but surely worth seeing for anyone who has read and loved the story as a child.

I spent the weekend roaming around Copenhagen and seeing most of what was famous. My favourite of course was the Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s old harbor where you can almost sense the old world charm. I liked it more since there was more of a festival going on there due to the soccer match between Sweden and Denmark. There were a lot of Swedes in Copenhagen on the weekend for the match, and there was quite a bit of friendly and sometimes not so friendly banter between the Swedes and the Danish fans. Sweden won with quite a bit of drama (one of the Danish fan’s hit the referee resulting in the match being suspended, and Sweden winning). The scenes after that quite reminded me of the cricket matches in India. It was a pleasant surprise to see emotion that strong from the usually reserved guys…

I also liked Tivoli a lot too, though I for the life of me cannot understand why people pay money to be on risky and completely crazy joy rides. But the whole concept of amusement parks in the 19th century left me wonder struck. It’s a little cramped, but I am guessing that since it was built long back, no one really imagined it to be as crowded coupled with the fact that’s its in the center of the city, which leaves the option of expansion out of question. It is however, really pretty and like a continuous carnival. For me , what set it apart from other amusement parks, was a sense of character that it had.

Apart from the beauty of the place, there were a few things that caught my attention. The first thing that struck me when I reached Copenhagen, was how cycles were a very normal method of commuting for people. The most amusing sight I saw was a person on the railway station, waiting for a train along with his cycle (couldn’t get a snap of that one though). I then found out that they renovated the central station at Copenhagen and made a two-storey parking place just for cycles! I tried to get a snap of some people taking their babies in the prams on cycles, didn’t manage to do that, but I did see quite a few of them. – Eco friendly and an extremely healthy way of living, You bet!

The one another thing I noticed in Copenhagen, which was different from the rest of Scandinavia was their carnival culture. The atmosphere at the city square was almost like that of a carnival with music, songs and a whole lot of people just having a really good time. The city seemed much more relaxed and less reserved as compared to the other places I have been in Scandinavia; I guess it’s the coast that’s playing its part there.

Well I surely had a great weekend, marred by the fact that my luggage along with my laptop are stuck somewhere in the middle of Copenhagen and Skelleftea (had to check in my lappy, due to the EU rules of not carrying a lot of liquids as cabin baggage and my aversion to carrying more than one bag). I need to mention this one last bit though – the conveyor belt at the airport wasn’t working and we had to go behind the airport to deposit our luggage in, along with heap of bags, almost making it certain that the bags would never reach Stockholm on the right flight. Now this has never happened to me in India, but am sure if it did, everyone including myself would crib about it being a third world country , nothing ever works here etc etc… Here no one so much so as murmured and people didn’t even complain when as predicted the bags didn’t reach Stockholm. To top it, the airport authorities took in our baggage, without any screening or anything. Am just wondering, with such amazing security, why the need to fuss about liquids!!

PS:

Got to know once I got back to Office, that Skelleftea was the warmest city/town in the whole of Europe yesterday! Cannot get over it, since have seen it being -30 degrees in the winter and sometimes colder... Yippee!! looks like the summers are finally here... more about it later

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My retirement plan Ver 100.1 :-)

One of my Swedish colleague took pity on me (I am in the south of Sweden in another plant right now) and took me boating on his speed boat in the lake nearby. He did warn me though, since it was windy and drizzling, that we might come across rough waters, and that his boat was small, so if I was scared, I needed to rethink.

My love for water, and the sense of adventure, just couldn’t stop me. The combination of the cold wind on my hair, ice cold water splashing all over my face, the waves which were small to look at but gave us a scare more than a couple of times and the fact that we didn’t have our life jackets on made it an experience I will never forget. My thoughtful colleague also brought along with him some coffee which we had on one of the islands – as the Swedish say, it was "Perfekt".

While sipping our cups of coffee, amidst all that beauty, we decided to go try and see some moose. So after the sailing adventure, we drove a little away into the woods, to see if we could get lucky. Didn’t get lucky with the moose, but saw a deer, and witnessed the country side, which was good enough for me. The respect and love that the Swedes have for the environment is something that I am still getting used to. In anything they do, they take into account the effect of it on the environment. No wonder this place is breathtakingly beautiful (not forgetting that there are far less people here).

After experiencing a little bit of the Swedish adventure, I plan to quit working when I am 40, buy a cottage on one of the islands here and spend the rest of my life pursuing wildlife photography. That way I guess I’ll have enough food for my never ending appetite of the nature, good photographs added with a lot of fun!

What’s the harm in dreaming!!....

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Billiards anyone?

I still remember the day I landed here in Sweden sometime in February, to a small place called Skellefteå( pronounced as Shell-ef-teo). Everything I saw was white, from the ground to the trees to even the sea and the rivers!! I couldn't’ imagine as much snow anywhere and what amazed me more is people going outdoors to have fun in all that snow. I remember while driving to Bodo (North of Norway), where all I could see were mountains covered with snow, and amidst all that snow, far away, I would find a tiny “thing” moving, and would discover it’s a person skiing, fishing or simply taking a walk! At first I did think they were crazy! But then I realized that it was simply a way of life...

The Swedes are sports, nature and outdoor lovers, and six months of winter gives them no other option but to welcome the winters and the snow with open arms. And that’s precisely what they do – skiing, ice hockey, snow mobiles, dog sledging, curling, you name it and they have it. I didn’t even know of the existence of a game called curling, let alone there being an Olympic championship for it. Coming from a country where cricket is (or should I say was after the world cup debacle) an obsession and where Rediff till very recently had different sections for sports and cricket, how could I be blamed for my ignorance!

It’s a different experience to be among people, who give sports and outdoors as much importance as the Swedes do. It’s amazing to see how children are encouraged by their parents to be a part of at least one sport along with their studies. I guess it’s the fact that the parents know that the children do not need to worry about their future and that the government will take care of him, and the fact that the child will not be looked down upon, if he is not as good in studies but plays ice hockey, or soccer or something else. I am sure that there are exceptions in India as well, but they sure are few and far, and that too in very few sports. I guess its all a matter of security and what the future holds for people in sports, especially when the media of the country goes ballistic over the highs and the lows of the Indian Cricket team, and is obsessed with Sania Mirza’s T-Shirts, but doesn’t really bother about the likes of Viswanathan Anand, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Joshna Chinappa (does anyone even know where Geet Sethi is??).

Yet while I am here I cannot help but wonder and feel despondent, on why amongst a population of over a billion, we cannot consistently produce a world class team or a sportsman, be it in cricket, soccer, hockey or anything else.

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I got my ears pierced today (second one, the first doesn't count since it was done when I was a baby and I have no memory of it) !!! Landmark in my life!! For the people who don’t know me, my fear of needles and pain of any kind is legendary. From the time I remember, the stories of my visits to doctors of all kinds have been a great source of entertainment to my family and friends. And for a person like me, to voluntary inflict pain on myself was sort of a surprise – for me!

I don’t know what made me do it, maybe was the boredom (most of the radical decisions I make in life are out of boredom, but lets save that for another day) or maybe it was seeing the Swedes with piercings everywhere – if they can have it at the weirdest places, why can’t I, or maybe just my never ending quest to try just about everything. Whatever the reason was, I am glad I went through it, not because I look any different from what I did, or that I have changed from the person who cries so much as sitting in front of a dentist, but because I have overcome my fear. And that for me is a sense of achievement.

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From Chai to Kaffe

Being from an army family and having traveled to different places in India, I always prided myself on being able to adjust quickly to any place. After all I shifted from Goa to Mathura and was equally happy in both places (people who have stayed in both these places would appreciate my sense of achievement better). So when I decided to go to Sweden that’s what I thought - How different could it be from India?

And well that was what struck me first when I landed here in Sweden – How different it is from India!! There is not one similarity between India and Sweden. Well no similarity is an understatement. It is safe to say that the two countries are opposite of each other in every possible way.

My life has changed in every possible way - from drinking strong, milky tea to having strong black coffee; from the various vibrant colours in India to the white, grey and black of Sweden; from people just about everywhere to actually hunting for people; from all the traffic jams to not crossing a single car for an hour while driving; from cursing yourself for being a pedestrian while trying to cross roads for nearly an hour to just walking across and making the car wait for you; from the famous summers of India to the harsh winters of Sweden, from the sun rising and setting on time to it either never rising or never setting; from the chatty, emotional, loud, inquisitive Indians to the reserved, calm, “we mind our own business” Swedes (except for when they are drunk); from “I have no time to eat because I have work”, to “ I need an hour for lunch, the world’s not going to end”, the list just goes on and on.

I have been here for almost three months now, and somehow this place still surprises me. I can safely say that I am still getting acclimatized and maybe I will continue to do so till the day I get back!

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