This makes me happy today

I don’t know has anyone wrote about this already. But i’ll write anyway. Yesterday i was searching something over internet and i found this story and it made me smile.

This is the story of a man who cycled from India to Europe for love.

He was 24 years old curly haired sketch artist from Orissa/Odisha India, and she was 20 year old tourist from Sweden with blond hair and blue eyes.

In December 1975 Ms Charlotte Von Schedvin came to India with friends and one fateful day she decide to explore the area and went out to shop in Delhi's Connaught Place, a shopping and business hub and saw Mr P.K. Mahanandia sitting under a fountain in Connaught Place and decided to test out his claim of "a portrait in 10 minutes" for 10 rupees. Charlotte stopped to get a sketch of herself by P.K. Mahanandia.

Mr Mahanandia with his sketching

Mr Mahanandia was studying fine arts at Delhi College of Arts and he was trying to earn some money doing this with his free time. When he saw this lady he felt like he saw a beautiful angel. His felt nerves as he remembered a "prophecy" by an astrologer that his wife would belong to the sun sign of Taurus, come from a faraway land and would own a jungle.

So before asking her name he asked “Whether she had born in may? Taurus sign? does own a jungle? and to his surprise she said yes to all these question. He thought she will go complain in nearby police station because he suddenly asked these question to a unknown girl, But she was not offended and answered his questions.

In less than 3 weeks they got married in his house in tribal tradition. for her it felt like she was coming home somehow. She wrote to her parents that she had found her soulmate.

Just as she came to India from Europe to India via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan she returned home. After 1 year of separation and exchange of letters Mr Mahanandia decides to go to Sweden.

He refused to take money from her. He sold his belongings, bought a second-hand bicycle for 60 rupees and decided to hit the hippie trail after hearing how people had made their way to Europe by motorcycle. With 80 dollars and paint brushes he began his journey on Jan 22 1977.

He used his artistic skills and earned money, sometimes food, shelter. But in Kabul, Afghanistan he had to sell blood at a hospital to get money for food. Fortunately a local paper published his story and many people came searching him and gave him work and thus he made bit money for his journey.

(Though he was on the road, he continued to receive letters of encouragement from VCharlette via the poste restante service, where a post office holds mail until the recipient calls for it).

It took 4 months and 11,000 KM to reach his destination and finally he reunited with his Wife on May 28.

Mahanandia became an art teacher - his paintings have been exhibited in Sweden and Europe - while his wife taught music.

They have two children - Emelie, 31, a textile economist, and Karl-Siddhartha, 28, a helicopter pilot.

Mr and Mrs P.K. Mahanandia now aged 65 and 61 are still greatly in love with each other after 40 yrs of marriage. Ms Charlotte found Mr Mahanandia very warm, and nice boy and liked his wide smile and curly hair. They live in Boras, Sweden in their large estate which has four lakes and a forest.

PS- The English translation of a bestseller about their remarkable story - The Amazing Story Of The Man Who Cycled From India To Europe For Love - by Swedish author Per J. Andersson that was published in 2013, was released in Feb 2017.