The Guru in Gothenburg.

"The great saint Chaitanya has said that the praise of Lord Krishna would be sung in every corner of the world. And it is true."

Well these are not my words.. But the words of a very affable and friendly Krishna Bhakth I ran into here in Gothenburg. I was indulging in my favorite pastime, walking around Nordstan and observing people , when this bearded chap flagged me down and asked if he could have some of my time. I had expected him to be a salesman or a person handing out feedback forms or something of that sort. Since I had been a sales guy for a year, have this sort of brotherly affection towards salesmen and so I make it a point to lend a ear or two to them. But imagine my surprise when he whips out a book of the Ishtopanishad or something rhyming with that and start talking of Indian mythology.

He had guessed that I was from India and the first question he asked me was if I had heard of the Gita. I told him curtly that I was from the land of the Gita , upon which, to my shock and surprise ,he proceeded to compliment me for knowing about the Gita. I thought I had seen it all, but now here I was in Gothenburg getting compliments from a blonde , blue eyed Swede for knowing - just being aware - of the Bhagavad-Gita- the holy book of Hinduism.

What followed was ten eye-openening minutes where he explained a few concepts of the saint Chaitanya , about the power of Krishna and also that there existed right here in Gothenburg a sort of Ashram where they had regular bhajans ,discourses by some Guruji and also handing out of Prashads. I was cordially invited to attend one of the bhajan sessions and discover the beauty of Krishna Bhakthi( devotion) When I expressed my surprise at hearing about a Hindu ashram right here , he replied with the lines that I have used as the starting lines of this post. And mind you, he told those lines in Sanskrit, he recited a verse , which he then had to translate to me , since I don’t know Sanskrit. Man, wasn’t I impressed. Sanskirt lessons in Gothenburg. Deep.

Talk of strange happenings. I had observed some blogs ago that very few Indians were to be seen around and here you have an Ashram itself , with Gurujis and bhajans to boot.

By the way,all the vernacular words used above are what the Krishna devotee used and I should say he pronounced them really well. He was a volunteer who collects donations for the Krishna society, sells books about Hinduism and generally does his duty of spreading the word.

God bless him and his work.

Gothenburg diary - more stories.

Continuing with the Gothenburg diary. There was a delay in updating the new stories , as among other things I took a few days break and traveled to Belgium and Holland. That was an exciting trip ,with the highlight being I getting stranded in Copenhagen airport for 20 hours due to a raging snow storm and the airport shutting down. Now no one wants to travel with me by air anywhere. Being stranded for 20 hours due to snow and flights getting diverted due to snowstorms is not a good track record I guess.

Getting back to good old Gothenburg, one of the common questions that I get from family and friends back home is about Indian food. Since they know that I don’t know to cook Indian food or any food for that matter , they were keen to know if there was any Indian restaurants around where I could cure my home food sickness. And the answer is , there are not one or two but many. On last count I have seen about 9 of them. Located all over town. There is one right next to my current apartment. It is called Mother India.

When you have Mother India , isn’t it but natural that we have its offspring also. Yes, I have seen Indian restaurants named Delhi, Bombay and Madras. These are three different restaurants in three different parts of town. Guess there must also be a Calcutta in some part of town. I have not gone to the other side of town across the river yet. And then you have the ones that play up the Indian cliché . Taj rasoi, Taj Mahal , Maharaja and I think I also saw a Maharani. I can offer a few more names, Elephanta , magic carpet, snake charms and you can firmly reinforce the Indian stereotype.

All said and done , the mystery that I talked of in the previous post is this. When I see so many Indian restaurants it is but natural to assume that there must be a substantial Indian population about town , that needs to be catered by these restaurants. But that’s where I draw a blank. I hardly see any Indians on the roads, the trams, the malls and parks of Gothenburg. Finding them here is as rare as finding an auto rickshaw with a working meter in Chennai. I have come to believe that the only Indians about town are the ones working at the restaurants and then a few idiots like me who blog about them.

Nordstan is the biggest mall in town. Some say it is the biggest in Sweden, though I find that hard to believe. But this is the premier shopping centre in town , housing major brands and all kind of shops. During peak hours this place is jam packed with office goers, tourists, students and the like. But at night this is the place for the homeless, the jobless and the weirdoes. I live next door to Nordstan and so I have ventured out many a time at night for a stroll or to buy food and I have come across these weird characters who look straight out of a comic strip - the X men variety. Ridiculously colored hairs, piercing on all the wrong places of the human face, dressed typically in biker or rock star leather jackets and trench coats , lots of silver and iron adorning them and generally strutting about the place making their presence felt. I never understand for what reason they go about disfiguring themselves and coloring themselves silly. If it is about having their own identity then I would say its more of an identity crisis. I enquired around with some of my local friends here and they attributed the weirdoes presence to Gothenburg being some sort of centre for Gothic bands and that you have frequent congregations of them. Hmm.. So all of them are wannabe rock stars,. Wonder if I should get autographs from some of them and keep it.

You never know , I could sell it on eBay someday and make money.

The cuious case of the silent kids has has been somewhat diluted by conflicting reports. But still the case is like this. There seems to be an absolute baby boom in Gothenburg . Take a peak hour in Nordstan , stand in the middle of the square and turn to any direction. Nine out of ten times , you will see a perambulator being wheeled around. Kids here , there and everywhere. On the trams, in MacDonald’s, inside Hemskop, at the central station, on the Avenyn , at the parks, just about anywhere. But .. What struck me as curious was the silence. Kids or babies are supposed to wail, scream, and generally make life miserable for the ones around. But the ones here are quiet, happily ensconced in their warm carriages and having the time of their life. But then as I have said there have been reports from other friends about wailing kids next door and tantrum throwing ones on the roads and so I believe this case is not so curious after all….