An Evening to Remember

Somethings in life happen by pure coincidence. Or atleast, you may look at it that way and it seems more perfect, more delightful, more alive to me. A series of events and impulses that lead to pleasant or not-so-pleasant events...but then life truly comes alive in such moments. Sometimes you just discover such joy in a routine expected thing which just happens as it should, or because it simply doesn't happen. Sometimes, random decisions bring to you thrilling experiences that you cherish forever. Sometimes, the universe gives you energy to do some really meaningful things you had never planned on doing, but you were meant to!

Something somewhat similar, albeit not exactly, happened to me yesterday. It was a happy day, till it became happier, and eventually the nicest day I've had here so far. I had my first class, and I was naturally quite enthusiastic about it, because I really want to experience, compare and contrast education at KTH vis-a-vis IIT. Anyway, the class turned out to be nice and I find the course (Industrial Management) quite interesting. I met some NTU students, three of them Indians, so I have friends already. Then I met a Swedish guy for lunch. His name is Niclas and he's one of my three student mentors here. He's like really sweet and helpful, and yeah, quite fun to be with and talk to. So I spent like an interesting our with him, and thus it's been four dates with four Swedish guys (mentors) so far and yeah, they're all cute! (Jealous anyone? :P)

Unfortunately he had a class so he had to go, which was the end of my nice, happy day, and I was free for the day so I started getting back when I realised that the next morning (that was today!) I had a class at a place quite a distance away in the campus (It's another end really!). So it was a nice sunny afternoon and I had nothing to do, and thus I started walking towards the place equipped with a map in my hand and lots of reflections in my head, almost talking to myself. I had been walking 15 minutes when I reached an intersection and stopped to read what road I wanted, when the nicer bit happened.

A Swede, who looked quite tall and just a bit more mature to me than a teenager, walked up to me and asked if I wanted some address, and I showed him the place on the map that I wanted. He said he was walking in the same direction and could show me the place. And so we began walking and immediately he started asking me lots and lots of question about where I was from and so on. It turned out he's quite interested in India and Asia and he looked at me with a really high level of curious interest and lots and lots of questions, beginning with how soon could he learn hindi if he studied it 8 hours a day six days a week!! He really is interested in both langauges and travelling and I now know he knows at least 8-10 languages and has lived for a few months or years in many countries, just travelling. Now I felt nice talking to him and he just kept asking questions one after the other, till we stood at a place and talked for more than three and a half hours!!!

He asked me about india, about the people, about the differences from the west, about the history, about my opinions on everything under the sun, about what I do and how I have so much energy[:P], about India, Pakistan and the subcontinental terrorism(((EVERYBODY here knows about it really, and kashmir is the first thing I end up talking to a lot of Swedes on first mention of India...Views anyone?), about my impression of this place and the people, about current world affairs and governments, about imperialism and global unity today, about so many things that I can hardly recollect....but it was like I had a one on one conversation with someone after a really really long time, something like 5 months at least, and with all my blabbering energy and his amazing inquisitiveness in, i had a really heart-warming discussion and yes, I was loving it!!:D:D

So it felt soo happy and nice, and then we walked towards where I wanted to get and he actually helped me find the floor and the room I was looking for. Which reminds me an interesting thing I see in a lot of buildings here. Since the terrain is mountainous, so many times you enter a building and realise it is the fifth floor! And then you go two floors down and look out of the third floor window and in looks like the ground floor too. Know what I mean? :) So we entered from the fifth floor and exited from the second...

And we walked towards a shorter way to the bus to my home and to his university, when he suggested i see his university which was right there. It looked interesting and I agreed. All I knew was he's a Ph.D student in Languages and cultures from a Business perspective, and studied at the school of business management, where he took me and it was quite lovely. And then, right behind was this huge beautiful lake that I spotted and looked so excited he took me there to show me the view. It was just breathtaking! And then, from one view to the another and one path to the other we just kept talking and walking, and laughing and hiking and talking and walking along the lake for the next three hours!!!! He missed his work, but didn't seem to mind it, and I was astonished by this friendly guy (he was 44 and a bachelor, as I learnt) who took so much pains to telling a stranger like me every building, every anecdote, everything there was to see around that place. I mean had I been alone I would have enjoyed the place immensely, but since he took me along to the cliffs and we climbed to the highest point and he showed me the botanical garden and Japanese garden and he showed me other such things, I just LOVED it. I'm sorry I didn't click many pictures(next time sure) because I was so busy talking and having fun, but I shall put the few i have at flickr (link in sidebar). Oh how I loved the place! It was a breathtaking sight, and the weather was great and I just love hiking in the mountains myself! But the guy, Shell, he was quite amazing too, and then he was definitely amazed and impressed with me because according to him I knew so much and had such a perspective as a teenager. I didn't really believe him but basically I was enjoying his anecdotes so much I let it be.

There were a couple of moments that stayed with me during that walk before we finally reached another lake, then the road, and then walked through some farms and the Stockholm university till we reached the station and he dropped me in my train and left (polite and chivalrous :D:D). But the two moments were: one, when I was at that highest cliff and I saw all around and it was so beautiful and silent I could hear my heartbeat, and suddenly my heart took me to back home and I saw a beautiful dream with open eyes for a couple of minutes. It was plain passionate ecstasy. And the other was when he was telling me about his Master's days when he used to stay at a dorm nearby and run around the lake with some other guyes everyday. One of those days they were having one such race when one alcoholic who always used to sit at one particular bench, stopped them and said "Everyone has to die someday. But I would prefer to die of liver cirrhosis than of cramps and physical breakdown from over-exerted muscles!!" It was so funny, but the way Shell narrated it was funnier and we laughed aloud for a good two minutes when an old Swedish couple walking there stopped for us and said Hi and then the lady said in Swedish that the two of us looked really happy and she wished we always stayed so happy. He said thanks and both of us were equally touched when he translate that for me. It was such a nice thing to say. Wonder why we don't do it more often.

What is the price of a few kind words? And what is their value? Think about it.

I'm getting married!!!

Oh yes...you read that right.

Remember all those loads of children and poor rich husband that I used to talk of...Well, I think, or at least some people in this world think that time has really come for all that...Never mind that I'm still 19, and that I have a few years more to slog to get a degree and all that (and it may be just slightly weird to carry a little infant in my arms to class in my final year, what say?). So maybe I really should start ordering my wedding wardrobe and preparing for the show-off style wedding. After all, my would-be husband is quite a rich and well-settled guy!!! :D

OK, before this gets more confusing, let me detail out something bloody hilarious that happened to me yesterday...I got an e-mail from an uncle who is looking for a bride for his excellent well-settled son!!! The first mail I got was a weird sounding mail that didn't tell me the purpose. Somebody who calls me "dear daughter" had written telling about his great only son and a daughter. It has the name of a certain person, that's actually the name of my uncle, as a reference, but as I now know that is probably the name of the father of the girl he actually wanted to reach. But that later.

What happened was that I was slightly confused, but I gave a brief polite reply, asking how could I help him? In comes a mail that I read and couldn't stop laughing for the next hour. This father of a son and two daughters wrote to me about his family, about his handsome son who earns 160K dollars a year(wow...:D) and in settled in Tokyo, and how he would like a new daughter in his family, and that he found my profile interesting. (As I now know, there's apparently a girl with my name whose profile is on bharatmatrimony.com (!!!!) and a wrong e-mail id.....whoah...)

Once I could finish laughing, I then wrote him a reply trying to explain the situation and the confusion, and today I got his mail with more details so that now I've even searched scores of profiles of women on that site to find out "mine" [:P] (not much luck though, a lot many profiles are members-only...and I'd never ever be the member of that site I'm sorry..)

Thankfully he's understood now, and he's also given me the phone number mentioned on that profile, but I don't think I'm going to make a long-distance call from Sweden to a number that is generally unreachable acc to that uncle anyway and say that please correct the email id..

But still, I actually came so close to getting married, at 19!!!!

And yeah, the guy looks alright [wink wink] but what the ......

This world can be a weird place really....

Come to think of it, a "mrs." in front of my name...yuck...it even sounds creepy...I think I can stay single forever...

Cheers to bharatmatrimony.com though.

lolz

Swedish Bulletin

I wish I had something interesting to write, but there're very few things I find interesting all of a sudden. I felt like being lazy all day today, so havent stepped out still and am still trying to finish the huge pizza I made for lunch bit by bit. [OK, it was medium by india standards, and that's about the smallest in europe, but I can never finish a medium at once...]

But yeah I'm pretty pissed with myself for weird reasons. Like I had planned to go boating today, but didn't feel like, so made an excuse that I had a headache, and voila, a headache actually comes and hasn't left me for eight hours.

Is my tongue black or something? Lemme check...Naah, doesn't look like that...

Then I wanted to write and settled in a comfortable place with all equipment and coffee and all, and did not progress behind a few words. Tried sleeping, but will sleep ever come if you want it. Tried going for a walk, someone buzzed and I got busy for forty minutes and then I lost all enthu to go. Decided to read, and read about 9 and a half pages. Then tried to find someone online to talk to, but no, if you want someone, everyone's busy....and now, I can't even write a post straight. Huh!

Complete joblessness and freedom to do anything can be quite taxing. I have even watched a trash called KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA to punish myself for being so irritable to self hehe...

Which reminds me, yesterday I went towards old, central stockholm on a sight seeing trip and looked around the place, the sea and explored the Royal Palace where the king lives in quite detail. At that time, looking through huge apartments for each person in the palace to enter which you pass through four huge halls meand for the guards that protect the Prince's palace, we wondered what all did these king-types do when they got bored, and realised it must be pretty irritating to get to one's own bedroom itself is it is 300 feet inside the home. Don't think I envy that despite all the luxury and those pretty dresses...

Waise, the mix of people i encounter here is pretty cool...as in i share a corridor with an indian, a south korean, a chinese, a swedish, a french...and i dont know many people yet. And swedish people are generally sweet too. Maybe that's why "swedish" the word itself sounds like a dessert..:P

Oh by the way, I've put a few pics up. Follow the link in the sidebar if you wish...

Of woods and wooden floors

I have woken up the fourth time in this country already, which tells me that some time has now passed for me in Sweden, and I begin by asking myself if I've got used to this place. Like most questions these days, I'm unable to find a clear answer and everything is a mixed mess.

Except my room which still looks pretty neat, but then the room doesn't have to find tough answers. Especially to tough why questions like why am I here? It's all in the mind!

I'm engulfed with thoughts of all kind. And it is a luxury really, that I can afford because I've lots of time and nothing concrete to do yet. But there's one thing I've come to decide over time now. I'm NOT a tourist here, and though all this looks just like a vacation yet that'll end soon, I know it's not that soon either, and therefore I'm gonna live here like I 'live' here and not like I'm visiting. Which means I take things slow and easy, rather than trying to see a new place and experience new stuff everyday, which is what tourists do, and which is what almost everyone expects me to do. I talk to people back home and they're surprised if I'm home in the evening instead of exploring something all the time, or being to a party or something. But I don't feel like getting into too much activity. One of the most attractive things about coming on exchange to me was the peace, the slowed down pace of life and the solitary time for myself, which someone like me doesn't get a lot of in IIT, what with the frentic pace of life I lead there. I want to relax now, and sure I'd have fun, but I'd do it my way. I like meeting people, and I'll do that but I wanna do that slower instead of in a rush. I'm alone, not lonely and I'm enjoying it this way.

There is a huge forest right behind my apartment, and I just LOVE it. The road through the woods is just sooo beautiful, but the fun in walking down perpendicular to the track into the woods is out-of-the-world. Yesterday I wandered like that for nearly an hour getting wet in the rain and went pretty far till I realise I had got lost, and then turned back to retrace my way home. It was an elevating feeling, walking with yourself and just nobody else in sight.

And then, last night was a party...welcome party for international students. Lots of drinking and dancing, and yeah loads and loads of people. Everyone stuffed in the room- dancing, drinking, taking their clothes off, or just making out- and it was a charged atmosphere. And yeah, people did actually dance with almost all their clothes off. Maybe because of the heat in the room. Quite a sight. But the best part was to observe and meet people from across the world. 4.5 feet chinkys and 7 feet Europeans. People who dance kathakali steps to kungfu actions to bhangra freestyle to hoppers to seduction-dancing to mini michael jacksons irrespective of the music! Made a few freinds and met some Indians, so it was cool.

And now, it's a long weekend and I don't plan to do too much....just enjoy and soak it in.

And eat. Should make some breakfast now. So bbye!

The Other Side of Paradise

Good morning.

Although it's 11 p.m. local time, which is certainly not morning. And yes, local time is now GMT+02:00, rather than being GMT+05:30, which I have always been used to. And all this simply means that yes, my flight didn't crash or get hijacked, that I'm alive, and that home is now Stockholm. For 130 days.

A long flight brought me here yesterday afternoon, and the best part about that was that I got to see the really big Frankfurt airport. And of course the sight of Europe from a few thousand feet above is pretty spectacualr. I don't know if I loved the pollutionlessness more or the cloud castles, but I pretty much spent a lot of time gazing out of the window, even if it meant staring in the darkness...

It STILL hasn't sunk in completely that I'm actually in another country where I need to stay and study and live for so many months, but yeah, I look out of the huge window of my huge room and all I see identifiable is the rainy cloud in the sky.

Scandinavia IS beautiful. This country sometimes looks a bit like a hill-station in India, but the similarity ends at the mountainous terrain, and perhaps the current weather. You don't have these buildings and infrastructure in India. You don't have so many open spaces in India. You have FAR more people in India. I have a feeling this place can survive so well primarily because there are such few people.

About pics, I don't think cluttering this blog with them is a good idea. Maybe I'd put them on flickr or something and give a link if anybody's interested.

I've spent some time settling down, in a week everything should be ok, but the long shopping trip today was as much fun as travelling anywhere here is, in neat public transportation that takes you to non-pronouncable places! Not cooked too much yet either, but doesn't appear a tough ask. I have a couple of Indians in nearby flats too, so that's pleasing. Basically it means it's all good, and I think I'm now waiting to experience life here at the routine level.

Some things feel weird though. Or at least strange because of the unfamiliarity.

Like travelling in buses 20 feet long that arrive exactly at mentioned time schedules.

Like getting used to traffic since everything is right-handed unlike India.

Like not being able to read road signs and posters because you don't understand the language. Feels like an illiterate.

Like people wearing sweaters with minis and stilettos(nice legs, for the record!), or three half-sleeve T-shirts one above the other.

Like people making out with their girlfriend in full public view without being stared at.(Shit! that's like AWESOME fun. )

Like everybody being nearly twice your height and volume.

Like buying a banana for Indian equivalent of 20 bucks per piece.

Like meeting people who smile and say "Hej" all the time and "tack (thanks!)" every second sentence.

Anyway, should get used to it in some time. Once it sinks in that all this is real.

Things look good as such, and yes I'm having my share of fun. I love the peace, the solitude, the beauty, but I do miss home. Home as in India, IIT. And my people. Rest, everything is uncertain. But that's life right...full of uncertainties. (Heisenberg is God!) Let's see what the next morning has in store.

My mind has plenty of random thoughts, andI expect to have a lot of time too, so expect more posts frequently.

Till then, adios.

Watch this space

It's gonna be morning soon...which means I could be waking up soon, like good civilized people who wake up in the morning itself ;-)
OK, so since I leave tonight for Sweden, if this blog doesn't see an update in the next 3-4 days, assume that my plane crashed/was hijacked/I got lost and all those good adventurous possibilities. Meanwhile, wait for me and watch this space.

Good Morning.