Winter morning
8:05. Light is coming up over Uppsala’s student apartments.
Parallell worlds
The party was partly held in a kindergarden (!).
Boooh!!!
Small Ganesh in Swedish kindergarden.
Is this actually their pooya room?
I guess not. But it is beautiful to see traces of India suddenly in the most unexpected place!
And the blog posts have not been so frequent since I came back. Back in Sweden, nothing was connected to my India life anymore, it felt like being transferred between worlds. And the only proof of having been there was that I could tell people who asked about my experiences, but it felt like almost telling a story that I had dreamt!
But yes, I noticed when coming back that it had all been real. It was so cold! I had told everyone that my country was not so cold! And there were so few people in the streets. And it was so easy to communicate with everyone. And what would I do all alone in one entire room, no roomies around me to watch Tamil singing contests with at night?
Parallell worlds.
Night falls over Kortedala
Surprise! I walk around in Saidapet trying to find a bus to Adyar and I stumble across Swedish pop singer Jens Lekman, his silent and content smile while having his hair cut on a poster in a corner. The wonders of this world! Night falls over Kortedala – an excellent album!
Another excellent Swedish pop song to share with the world (The Wannadies):
Always when we fight
I try to make you laugh
Til everything’s forgotten
I know you hate that
Always when we fight
I kiss you once or twice
And everything’s forgotten
I know you hate that
//
You tell me I’m a real man
and try to look impressed
Not very
convincing
You know I love it
Now we watch TV
Til we fall asleep
Not very exciting
But it’s you and…
… me will – always – be together
You and me – always – and forever
ba ba ba ba
ba ba
It was always
You and me – always – and forever
You and me – always – and forever
ba ba ba ba
ba
It was always
You and me – always – and forever
You and me – always – and forever
ba ba ba ba
babaroah
Back in Sweden
Yep. This is my room.
So I am back in Sweden and I didn’t miss any plane this time!
It is not such a great shock to be back as I thought. Except for that the weather! After having defended Swedish weather as typically un-cold in all seasons except winter I must resign. Air is fresh and autumn colours are as taken from a fantasy. But it is cold!
And as the beautiful henna tattoo on my right hand which M applied the day before I was leaving slowly is fading away, the whole India experience starts to feel like a dream, and since no one here around me experienced what I did I can only recall it from my memory to be sure that it ever happened… yaiks! Displacement is weird, especially since I felt so attached to Chennai and India and every friend and every street and every train station and every city wall painting that I had got to know during almost three months. Therefore, I will continue to upload pics to convince myself that all actually happened, and that it was wonderful!
India 