It had only been a few months since I moved to Stockholm from Bangalore, along with my husband. Autumn had just ended and it was the onset of the ruthless winters, as they call it, what with the temperatures dropping to -20 degrees on certain days while the standard temperature locked between -10 and -15 degrees Celcius. We were thankful if the temperature reached anywhere between -2 and -5, it felt warmer. Anything above -2 is an almost impossibility between December and February. But I am deviating…
So it was on one of these freezing wintry
mornings in December that I randomly saw a post on Facebook which said a group
of students from Lund University are working on an assignment on Bridgerton
(the book-turned-Netflix series) and would like to interview a few South Asian women
on their take on the colourblindness portrayed in the second season of
Bridgerton. Naturally, I was interested and volunteered myself for the
interview.
A few days later, a certain girl drops me a
message for an interview and I accept. We have an interesting and long interview
followed by a chat about the series in question. Over the course of our
conversation, I found out that she was also from my hometown, Odisha. And of
course, the joy of finding a person from back home, so far away from home, in
an alien land is unparalleled! We exchanged numbers and promised to catch up
when we were in the other’s town. (FYI: She lives 5 hours away from
Stockholm).
Months later, in July, she sends me a text
saying she is in town and would be glad if we could meet. I was excited! It
seemed like ages since I had been out with a friend who I have not met through
my husband. We decided on a day and I could hardly wait in anticipation!
On D-day, I met her at a certain point and we
went to shop for some second-hand books. While we were browsing, a Swedish guy
comes up to us and started saying something to my friend in Swedish, like he is
pointing at something. She asks if he wanted one of the books she was holding,
but no! He had just walked up to us to give a shy compliment to the top she
wearing, “Nice colour. I like the flowers on it”, he said coyly and then
quietly walked off, leaving us staring at each other in shock. Come to think of
it, as Indians, such a gesture never happens back home, somebody walking up to
simply compliment you, that is. But once we were out of the initial shock, we
smiled at each other saying how sweet the gesture was. It certainly made our
day and, more so, hers!
Happily, we
purchased our books, had an Indian chicken roll, and since it was a bright sunny day, I took her
to this lovely place by the lake to enjoy the view and a good walk. Not
everyone is a nature person but this girl is a nature’s baby through and
through. It was charming to watch her go gaga over a lonely cottage in the
distance, the ducks swimming in the water, the wildflowers around us and all the tiny details that the majority of us would have missed.
Normally, I am a semi-introvert and can get quite worked up before meeting someone alone, especially a new person, and I felt the same about this meeting. But, upon meeting her, I realized she instantly puts you at ease and shares almost the same interests in life. I made a good friend that day, and in what way! Glad to have all the experiences that life is throwing my way, almost every day.
