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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