Bicycle Ride From India To Sweden to meet his Love
Born just after two years of Independence, as an “untouchable” in a remote village of Odisha,the region which inspired RudyardKipling’s Jungle Book, Pradyumna Kumar “PK” Mahanandia knew no continental boundaries when it came to chase the love of his life.
Just like any other Indian family, an astrologer was called upon PK’s birth who read out a prophecy for him. A prophecy that said, PK would work with colours& art, that he was not going to have an arranged marriage and his wife would be from some faroff land born under the zodiac sign Taurus. It also said thatshe would own a jungle or a forest and would be a flutist.
Born in the beds of Mahanadi, PK defines the caste system in India as a “Skyscraper without a lift- you are born on one floor and you die on the same floor.” Though PK was born after Independence, he must be protected by the law against discriminations based on caste system. But it didn’t work that way. He had gone through some of the caste based discrimination himself, PK said that he doesn’t blame the Indians and that it is the system that makes them behave like this.
After attending the College of Arts under the scholarship that he got from Odisha, PK started painting pictures in the streets of Delhi, which he was not supposed to. The police took him down to the station. He actually found it quite nice since they feed him and he got a place to sleep. He called himself “the vagabond living between hope and despair.”It was during his time on the streets of Delhi, that he came across the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, on the road where he managed to come face to face with her. They exchanged a smile and that is when he got invited to theParliamentary Club where he met the famous Russian astrologer, ValentinaTereshkova, and drew 10 portraits of him, came on TV and got famous overnight.
But it was on the 17th of December 1975, that PK met the most important person he could have ever met as a street artist, his wife Charlotte Van Schedvin. It was this woman with long beautiful blonde hair and blue eyeswho came to him to get her portrait done. She came back twice after their first meet and he did three portraits of her in total. They shared a few laughs here & there and that is when the prophecy hit him. He asked her a bunch of questions to cross check whether the prophecy fulfilled with her, and the respond was positive. He said to Charlotte that they were destined to meet, which got her confused for a moment.She calmed PK down and asked him to take her to his village first. PK and Charlotte then went to PK’s village, where Charlotte met his father, brothers and sisters. She felt at home spending time with them.
They were together for 2-3 weeks and then she had to leave. They communicated for a year and a half through letters but it was then when PK decided it was time for him to take a bigger step up. He sold whatever he had and bought a bicycle. With some $80 and a few hundred rupees, PK got on his bicycle and took the hippie route to make his way all the way from Odisha to Sweden. He got rides on trucks, slept in a sleeping bag under the stars, met people who guided him on the route and he exchanged his sketches for food.
It was a very difficult ride to take up but he did not let his fears or doubts come in the way and it was all worth it in the end. PK and Charlotte have been happily married for 43 years now, and when asked about the secret of their marriage, PK had only one thing to say, “one must park their ego outside before entering the house.”
His faith on the prophecy and his dedication towards his love is what helped Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia to overcome his own thoughts and doubts and reunite with the love of his life.
