Contemporary Authors

• The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love - 2017 Oneworld Publications, London, United Kingdom

• Amazon -

  Per J Andersson is a writer and journalist. He is the co-founder of Sweden’s most well-known traveler's magazine Vagabond, and has been visiting India for the last 30 years.

• From Publisher -

  Per J Andersson is a writer and journalist. He is the co-founder of Sweden's most well-known traveller's magazine Vagabond, and has been visiting India for the last 30 years. He lives in Stockholm.

• Vagabond - http://www.vagabond.se/bloggar/indien-bloggen/20151217/the-true-love-story-of-the-indian-who-rode-a-bicycle-al

  The true love story of the Indian who rode a bicycle all the way to Sweden
  2015-12-17 11:12 3 kommentarer

  Lotta von Schedvin and Pradyumna Kumar (PK) Mahanandia in Lody Colony in New Delhi 1976.
  My book New Delhi-Borås – with the true love story about PK who rode a bike all the way (7.000 km) from India to Sweden – has became viral on social media in India last week, when Satyanarayan Patri in Navi Mumbai, among others, published a short version of the story on Facebook. Satyanarayan's story has been liked more then 113 000 times and shared 82 000 times. Awesome!
  My inbox and my phone, as well as PK:s, has therefore during the last days been full of questions from English speaking Indians about when the English translation of the book is going to be released.
  And the answer is that this fantastic love story will be out in English during August-September 2016. The publisher will be the British Oneworld – and in India it will be distributed by PanMacmillian.
  However, while waiting for my book to be translated into English, you can here on my India blog read my short version of the book in English.
  During 2014 it was published in French, Danish and German (where it became a national bestseller with more then 140 000 sold copies in a few months) – and during 2016 it will be published, besides English, in Chinese/Mandarin, Korean, Icelandic, Polish and Norwegian.
  And watch out, next week I will publish a YouTube-film about PK:s story and my book, produced by Johannes Stålnacke Nero.
  But for know, the core of the story – in English:
  This shimmering saga tells the real-life story of Pradyumna Kumar, who was born poor and as an outcast/dalit in a small village in Orissa in eastern India. He calls himself PK and all his life he has kept a palm leaf bearing an astrologer's prophecy: "You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not from the district, not even from our country; she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox."
  The prophecy follows him throughout his life, but he suffers several difficult setbacks and is often beset by doubt.

  Me, the writer of the book, together with PK at Puri Beach in Odisha in 2007.
  At art school in New Delhi, he learns to do portraits. Every night, he stands in a park drawing people to earn his daily bread. His life is full of contrasts - one minute he is starving and sleeping on the streets, while the next he is invited to the home of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who wants him to paint her portrait.
  One evening when PK is drawing in the park as usual, a young blonde woman appears in the light beside his easel. Lotta von Schedvin has felt drawn to India ever since she was a child and has travelled there by VW bus from Borås. She was born under the sign of the ox, would like to be a music teacher and her family owns some woodland in southern Sweden.
  And so this breath-taking love story begins. The chances that these two young people will see each other again after Lotta has gone back home to Borås might seem slight - if it were not for a second-hand ladies' Raleigh bicycle. The bike takes PK overland from Asia to Europe. Despite the hardship and endless setbacks, he stubbornly makes his way westwards.
  Today PK and Lotta are married and have two children. They live together in a yellow wooden house in the woods in Sjuhäradsbygden outside Borås. PK has worked as an art teacher and Lotta still teaches music at Engelbrektsskolan in town.

  ​NEW DELHI - BORÅS teaches us that everything is possible; reality surpasses fiction and love conquers all. All that is needed is confidence, tenacity and a second-hand bike.
  Reviews:
  "This story makes me believe in the goodness of humans and the power of love."
  - LitteraturMagazinet
  "PK's life story has what it takes to make a brilliant page turner."
  - Svenska Dagbladet

• London Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/01/i-cycled-from-india-to-europe-for-love

  I cycled from India to Europe for love
  In 1975, an Indian street artist and a Swedish tourist fell in love at first sight. She had to return home alone but he refused to give up. Weeks later, he set off on a 7,000km bike trip to rejoin her

  PK and Lotta in Sweden, where they live. Photograph: Scanpix Norway/Press Association Images

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  Camilla Palmer
  Saturday 1 April 2017 06.30 BST
  Last modified on Friday 14 April 2017 08.40 BST
  “I
  t was the moment she kissed me in the sun temple that I thought, ‘Oh, my God, now I can touch the sky!’” says Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia, known as PK, remembering his wedding day in January 1976. PK was a street artist, from what was known as the “untouchable” caste, in New Delhi, drawing portraits of tourists, when he met a young Swedish traveller, Lotta von Schedvin, after she asked him to draw her in December 1975. Now, after more than 40 years of marriage and two children – they can still remember every tiny detail of their meeting.
  “We knew we had been together before – that this was just a reunion,” says Lotta. “A marriage like this means you are married physically and spiritually. We know our bodies will be recycled in a few years, so we believe that we’re always united in oneness.”
  PK, who is huddled in close to Lotta as we speak via Skype, holds up a fragment of palm leaf inscribed by an astrologer and given to his parents on the day he was born. “This has run like a thread throughout my life. It says that I would marry a foreign lady with white skin who was musical,” he tells me. “I knew it was Lotta as soon as I saw her.”
  A few days after they met, the couple made the journey to PK’s home village in Orissa, in the east of India, to meet his family and get married. Although his mother had died, PK’s father gave them his full blessing. But their early married bliss was shortlived. Lotta needed to get back to Sweden to continue her studies, so she climbed back into her VW campervan with her companions and began the long trek overland through Asia and Europe.
  For some youngsters, intoxicated by love, and with dreams soon to be replaced by the realities of life, this might have marked the end of the affair. Not so for PK and Lotta. Letters flew between the two, sometimes delivered by other travellers on the trail who had heard their story. Still sketching tourists in his usual spot in New Delhi – “I did Swedes for free,” he says, laughing – PK started planning the seemingly impossible, an overland journey of 7,000km to rejoin Lotta in Sweden.
  “Flying was out of the question,” he says. Eventually, he realised a pushbike might offer him salvation and bought a ladies’ Raleigh because it was half the price of the men’s model. Then he set off with his passport, a spare pair of trousers, a sleeping bag and a windbreak – and $80 sewn into his clothes. The first night he slept, somewhat soggily, in a rice paddyfield. He continued travelling through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and onwards.

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  Lotta, who had had the luxury of travelling in a vehicle and with friends, says the route was tough, but PK recalls it fondly. He says he became part of the “family” of the hippy trail. “We helped each other out. We looked after each other – I felt acceptance and love from people I met,” he says.

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  He talks of how he helped a German girl, after a car accident in Afghanistan left her badly injured and with no teeth; and of how a Belgian traveller kindly pointed out to him that Sweden was, in fact, a different country from Switzerland. “It was a bit of a blow to realise I had even further to go than I thought,” he admits ruefully.
  His talent as an artist attracted attention along the way. He managed to get past the truculent border guards into Pakistan by drawing their portraits, and eased the difficulty of an out-of-date visa by sketching a government bigwig. He earned enough money to eat and travel – Lotta says being an artist was a kind of currency for him. “He could become very close to people quickly. When you draw them, they trust you – that surpasses language.”
  PK thinks he helped people along the way, too. “In Herat, I met a man who saw me sketching. He was an artist, too, and invited me to meet his students. He was in love with one of them, and was fascinated that I was travelling so far to find my own love, when his forbidden love was sitting in his class. He told me he would be killed if he married her. I told him not to care about the system, to follow his heart.”
  Subsequently, PK found out that the couple had travelled to Russia after the invasion of Afghanistan, where they had successful careers and a happy marriage. “I was very moved when I realised I may have given them some inspiration.”
  PK ditched the old bike and bought a slightly less shonky one. He was getting there, slowly but surely, buoyed by friends he made and regular airmail letters from Lotta. Were there any doubts at all? “On the journey, I had doubts that I would die and wouldn’t be able to fulfil my meeting with Lotta,” he says. “But I knew in the next life I would find her. So, it wasn’t that I was doubting my love for her, more that I didn’t know whether I would make it alive,” he says. Lotta adds that she had no doubts. “It was just a matter of time that you would turn up,” she says. “His journey was a test for us being separated.”

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  The first photo of PK and Lotta together. Photograph: Courtesy PK and Lotta
  PK’s journey was accelerated when Linnea – the German girl he had helped after her car accident – now safely back home in Germany, sent him a train ticket to Vienna, and again when a gallery owner in the city, impressed with both his story and talent as an artist, handed over the means to the final leg of his journey – tickets to Copenhagen and on to Gothenburg.
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  About 16 months after their parting as newlyweds, PK and Lotta found each other again, outside the town’s Salvation Army guesthouse for young men. It was a moment of intense emotion. PK, overcome with excitement and tiredness, started to cry. Lotta took him for a walk in the local park, where they sat among the flowers, drinking coffee.
  “It was a great step for my parents to embrace our lives together,” says Lotta. “My mother had been initially cautious and my father was not a talkative man, but I had my willpower and strong belief that this would work.”
  Soon, the whole family moved to a farm and lived in a more communal way. “We were more a joint family – a bit like in India. That’s quite rare in Sweden, so I guess we were a little bit odd in some ways,” she says.
  They never seriously considered returning to India to live. They are sure PK’s budding political activism would have endangered them. “I escaped from India, really,” he says.
  They set up a scholarship for children in PK’s village, and have since spent much of their time involved in various charitable projects in the area.
  Their children, Emilie and Karl Siddhartha – known as Kid Sid – are now 31 and 29. “I love that they know that as soon as we met, we wanted to be with each other,” says Lotta. “They are very aware of our spiritual link, that we will never be separated. It’s an important message for everyone. We humans separate each other so much, but we’re all from the same source.”
  The couple are convinced that the analogue era of the 70s helped build their relationship, through trepidation, heightened emotion and the anticipation of reunion. “I think those things have been lost now, in a digital age where you can so easily get together,” says Lotta. “There’s no chance to tune in, to use your sixth sense about someone now,” says PK. “Bumping along on my bike, my goal was always just to get to Lotta,” he adds.
  And the secret of their long and happy marriage? “We’ve always said there is no secret,” says PK, all the time looking at Lotta, while her arm wraps around him. “I mean that literally – never have secrets. Talk to each other. Love each other. Celebrate your differences. And we find ginger tea and yoga in the morning help, too.”
  • The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled From India to Europe for Love, by Per J Andersson, translated by Anna Holmwood, is published by Oneworld, £12.99. To order a copy for £11.04, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders minimum p&p of £1.99.

• National Geographic - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/pk-mahanandia-cycle-india-sweden-love-untouchable/

  This Man Rode a Bike From India to Sweden—for Love

  Inspired by a prophecy, PK Mahanandia traveled more than 4,000 miles.

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  PK Mahanandia traveled across continents to be with his wife Charlotte Von Schedvin in Sweden. They have been married for more than 40 years.
  Photograph by Stefan Volk, laif, Redux
  By Simon Worrall
  PUBLISHED April 2, 2017
  Pradyumna Kumar "PK" Mahanandia was born an “untouchable” in a remote village in eastern India, in the region that inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. As a member of one of India’s lowest castes, he had no hope of escaping poverty and discrimination. But a chance meeting with a wealthy Swedish woman—and the epic journey he made by bicycle across continents to be with her—changed his life and fulfilled a prophecy given to him at birth. [See portraits of refugee mothers on harrowing journeys.]
  Kumar’s saga is recounted by Per J. Andersson in the book The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled From India to Europe for Love, and there’s talk of turning it into a Hollywood movie starring Dev Patel. When National Geographic caught up with Mahanandia by phone at his home in Sweden, he revealed what it was like to travel the “hippie trail” in the 1970s, whether his trip would be possible now amidst the migrant and refugee crisis, and how the secret of a happy marriage is to park your ego outside the house. [Go inside a makeshift migrant camp in Belgrade, Serbia.]
  When you were born, the village astrologer made a prophecy about you. Tell us what he said.
  My passport says December 5, 1951, but I found out later that I was actually born two years after independence, in 1949. In India, it is common for the parents to call an astrologer when a newborn child comes to the planet. According to the prophecy, my wife and I were not going to have an arranged marriage like many people in India. My parents were also told that my wife would be from a faraway land and born under the zodiac sign of Taurus, that she would be the owner of a jungle or forest, and that she would be a musician, playing the flute. I believed strongly in the prophecy and now know that everything is planned on this planet.
  I understand Rudyard Kipling lived near your village and your people’s myths inspired his classic, The Jungle Book. Tell us about your childhood. Did you grow up like Mowgli?
  We pronounced it “Mongoli,” which means the dawn, but in English they say “Mowgli.” It’s a name you won’t find in Bombay or Delhi. But it is a common tribal name. My grandfather told me a man called Valentine Ball visited my village in the 1880s and wrote a book, Jungle Life in India, which inspired Rudyard Kipling. The area I grew up was the first jungle administration under the British Raj. It’s in central Orissa and is called Angul now. My village is situated on the Mahanadi river. That’s where I was born, between the river and the mountains.

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  Mowgli was also an “untouchable,” wasn’t he? Can you tell us about this caste system and how it shaped your life?
  The caste system in India is organized racism. At home, as a child, I didn’t feel it, but when I came to school I came into contact with Hindus. There I felt I’m not the same as them. It’s like a skyscraper without the lift. You’re born on one floor and you die on the same floor.
  Bullying is a prevalent issue in today’s society and, as an untouchable, you were bullied as a child. Can you talk about those experiences—and how you dealt with bullying when you became a teacher in Sweden?
  Bullying was accepted by society under the Maharajas. But when I was born, in independent India, I was supposed to be protected by law. But it didn’t work. My grandmother was allowed to sit inside the classroom whereas I had to sit outside. I thought, “My God, it was better under the British!” Today, people are going back to the caste attitude, the old racism. I don’t blame Indians. They are warm-hearted people. It’s the system that makes them behave like this.
  When I became a teacher in Sweden, there was one very tall boy who was bullying others. I shouted very loudly in my mother tongue, “Kneel down!” He told me later he saw the fire in my eyes. I was jumping around and he got so frightened he knelt down. [Laughs] The boy is grown up now but I still see him sometimes and we laugh about the whole thing.

  For Afghanistan’s Women, Empowerment Comes on Two Wheels In Afghanistan, a woman on a bicycle is viewed as controversial and provocative. National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Shannon Galpin is committed to changing that view by seeking out young women who have the desire to ride.
  After you left your village, you became a street artist in Delhi. You were befriended by many famous people, including Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, and prime minister Indira Gandhi. Take us back to that time.
  I was told when I was born that I would be working with the colors and art. I was quick in drawing things. I eventually got a scholarship from Orissa to attend the College of Art, which was started by the British in 1942.
  I was not supposed to paint pictures on the street, so the police used to take me down to the station. It was actually quite nice. I used to sleep there and they used to give me food. I was like a vagabond living between hope and despair. But for three years I learned the lessons of life. I started thinking in a different way after I met these people.
  Valentina Tereshkova was invited to India by Indira Gandhi. I saw her one day in the road, where they were escorting her. Somehow, I managed to sneak through the crowd and came face to face with her. She smiled at me and I was invited to the Parliamentary Club by the Indo-Soviet Society. I ended up doing 10 portraits of Valentina and appeared on TV. Overnight, I became famous in Delhi.
  Of course, the most important person you met as a street artist was your future wife, Charlotte Von Schedvin. Take us back in time and describe the moment she appeared in front of you.
  I remember clearly: It was December 17, 1975. A woman with long beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes approached me. It was evening. When she appeared before my easel, I felt as though I didn’t have any weight. Words are not accurate enough to express such a feeling.
  Her eyes were so blue and big and round, I felt as if she was not looking at me, she was looking inside me, like an X-ray machine! I thought I must do justice to her beauty. But I couldn’t do it the first time. I was nervous, my hand was shaking. So I said, “Is it possible for you to come back tomorrow?” She ended up coming back three times and I did three portraits. Each time I asked her for 10 rupees, but she gave me 20. I said, “No! You are not supposed to give more because you are so beautiful and I never take double payment from a beautiful woman like you. Only from men with bald heads.” [Laughs]

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  Mahatma Gandhi meets with "untouchables," members of India's lowest castes, in 1926. Despite Gandhi's efforts, Mahanandia and other "untouchables" still faced discrimination many years later.
  Photogrpah by Alamy
  Did you think about the prophecy?
  Yes! After the second time, I felt, she’s the one! She was from a faraway land. I asked her if she was born under the sign of Taurus. “Yes,” she said. Then I asked, “Are you are the owner of a jungle?” She said, “Yes, I’m the owner of a forest.” “Do you play flute?” “Yes, I love playing flute and piano.”
  “This is decided in the heavens,” I said in broken English. “We were destined to meet.” I got so nervous she didn’t understand at first. She was looking to the sky, holding my hand and she said, “What is decided in the heavens?” I said, “We are destined to meet and there are more things decided.” “How do you know that?” she said. “If you don’t believe me,” I said. “I can give you my horoscope. You will be my wife.”
  We are lucky to have Charlotte with us, too. So, Charlotte, tell us your side of the story.
  [Laughs] I had a longing since I was a child to go to India. When I was about 11, I had a teacher who showed us black and white films about India, like Elephant Boy. Later, I went to work in London, where I got in touch with many Indian people and with Indian culture. I went to a concert at Albert Hall with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. I also went to see a tribal dance performance from Orissa, PK’s state, and was hypnotized.
  Fast forward: We got a hold of a VW bus, four grownups and a one-year-old child. We traveled all the way from Sweden to India and parked close to Connaught Place, where PK was making his portraits. It was dark and I saw a curly-haired little boy sitting there making portraits. I was immediately drawn to that spot. I walked up and said, “Can I have my portrait made?” It was a close, very warm feeling from the start, seeing him there with his curly hair, smiling face, and white teeth. [Laughs]
  You go back three times, and then on the third day he says, “You’re going to be my wife.” You must have thought he was crazy!
  [Laughs] I calmed him down a little bit. I didn’t say we’d get married. I said we’d go to his home village. I followed my heart. There, I met his father, brothers, and sister. I liked them and they liked me. It was like coming home. If you believe in reincarnation, I felt very strongly—and still do—that I had lived in India before.
  We had a tribal ceremony. His elder brother went into his puja room and sat there meditating for some time. Then he came out with a broad smile and said, “Yes, this is the woman you’re going to get married to. Follow her footsteps.”

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  Mahanandia grew up alongside a river in the state of Orissa in India. Here a temple pokes out of the vegetation in the capital city of Bhubaneswar.
  Photograph by The Print Collector, Print Collector, Getty Images  
  PK, the route you took from India to Sweden was called the “hippie trail.” You had $80 and a few hundred rupees. Put us on the ground— and talk about some of the obstacles you had to overcome.
  We were together 2-3 weeks and then she left. For one and a half years we didn’t meet. We kept in touch by letter but eventually I thought it was time to take the first step. So I sold everything I owned and bought a bicycle.
  I didn’t just travel by bicycle. I got rides with trucks. I had a sleeping bag and slept under the stars. Sometimes people invited me into their homes and gave me food in exchange for sketches. I hid that $80 in my belt and never touched it. Along the way, I got letters from Charlotte: in Kandahar, Kabul, and Istanbul, which encouraged me.
  I also had lots of hippie friends, who fed me, instructed me, and guided me. I was not alone. I never met any person whom I disliked. It was a different time, a different world of love and peace and, of course, freedom. The biggest obstacle was my own thoughts, my doubts.
  Today, there is a wave of migration from poorer nations to Europe. Do you think your journey would be possible now?
  Yes. If there is a will there is a way. Everything’s possible! It depends on how you think. It’s harder today, for sure. But it’s still possible. Fear and doubt are our two worst enemies. That’s what makes life difficult.
  You've been happily married to Charlotte for more than 40 years. Please share with us your secret for a happy marriage.
  I have one secret. There is no secret! [Laughs] Marriage is a union not only physically but also spiritually. Recognizing that allows love to grow like ripples on water.
  When I enter the house, I park my ego outside. Ego is connected to the mind. I call my human mind a mad monkey. But when you park your ego outside, on the inside of the house there is only openness.
  This interview was edited for length and clarity.
  Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.com.

• BBC - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35299608

  The man who cycled from India to Europe for love
  By Vikas Pandey
  BBC News, Delhi
  16 January 2016
  From the section
  India

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  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  PK Mahanandia met Charlotte Von Schedvin in Delhi for the first time in 1975
  Indian artist PK Mahanandia met Charlotte Von Schedvin on a winter evening in Delhi in 1975 when she asked him to draw her portrait.
  What eventually followed was an epic bicycle journey from India to Europe - all for love.
  Ms Von Schedvin was visiting India as a tourist when she spotted Mr Mahanandia in Delhi's Connaught Place district.
  He had made a name for himself as a sketch artist and enjoyed a good reputation in the local press.
  Intrigued by his claim of "making a portrait in 10 minutes", she decided to give it a try.
  But she wasn't impressed with the result and decided to come back the next day.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahnandia
  Image caption
  Mr Mahanandia had already made a name for himself through his sketches
  The next day sadly, proved no better.
  In his defence, Mr Mahanandia says he had been preoccupied with a prediction his mother had made several years ago.
  As a schoolboy growing up in a village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, he often faced discrimination from upper-caste students because he was a Dalit - considered to be at the bottom of India's caste hierarchy.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  Several newspapers wrote about his art in the 1970s
  Whenever he felt sad, his mother would tell him that according to his horoscope, he would someday marry a woman "whose zodiac sign would be Taurus, she would come from a far away land, she would be musical and would own a jungle".
  So when he met Ms Von Schedvin, he immediately remembered his mother's predictions and asked her if she owned a jungle.
  Ms Von Schedvin, whose family comes from Swedish nobility, replied that she did own a forest and added that not only was she "musical" (she liked to play the piano) her zodiac sign was also Taurus.
  "It was an inner voice that said to me that she was the one. During our first meeting we were drawn to each other like magnets. It was love at first sight," Mr Mahanandia told the BBC.
  "I still don't know what made me ask her the questions and then invite her for tea. I thought she would complain to the police."
  But her reaction turned out to be quite the opposite.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  Charlotte Von Schedvin loved the Indian countryside
  "I thought he was honest and wanted to know why he had asked me those questions," Ms Von Schedvin told the BBC.
  After several conversations, she agreed to visit Orissa with him.
  The first monument she saw there was the famous Konark temple.
  "I became emotional when PK showed me the Konark. I had this image of the temple stone wheel framed in my student room back in London, but I had no idea where this place actually was. And here I was standing in front of it."
  The two fell in love and returned to Delhi after spending a few days in his village.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  He also made portraits of politicians, including this one of acting Indian President BD Jatti
  "She wore a sari when she met my father for the first time. I still don't know how she managed. With blessings from my father and family, we got married according to tribal tradition," he said.
  Ms Von Schedvin had driven to Delhi with her friends from Sweden along the famous hippie trail - crossing Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - to reach India in 22 days.
  She said goodbye to him to start her return journey, but made him promise that he would follow her to her home in the Swedish textile town of Boras.
  More than a year passed and the two kept in touch through letters.
  Mr Mahanandia however, did not have enough money to buy a plane ticket.
  So, he sold everything he owned, bought a bicycle and followed her along the same hippie trail.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  PK Mahanandia says he faced no difficulties in Afghanistan during his journey
  His journey started on 22 January 1977 and he would cycle for around 70km (44 miles) every day.
  "Art came to my rescue. I made portraits of people and some gave me money, while others gave me food and shelter," he said.
  Mr Mahanandia remembers the world as being very different in the 1970s. For instance, he did not need a visa to enter most countries.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  He made portraits of fellow artists, students and common people during his journey in Afghanistan
  "Afghanistan was such a different country. It was calm and beautiful. People loved arts. And vast parts of the country were not populated," he said.
  He said that people understood Hindi in Afghanistan, but communication became a problem once he entered Iran.
  "Again art came to my rescue. I think love is the universal language and people understand that."

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  Several hotels provided facilities like washing rooms and bicycle repairing on the hippie trail in Afghanistan
  "Those were different days. I think people had more free time then to entertain a wanderer like me."
  But did he ever feel tired?
  "Yes, very often. My legs would hurt. But the excitement of meeting Charlotte and seeing new places kept me going," he said.
  He finally reached Europe on 28 May - via Istanbul and Vienna, and then travelled to Gothenburg by train.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  PK Mahanandia continues to work as an artist in Sweden
  After several cultural shocks and difficulties in impressing Ms Von Schedvin's parents, the two finally got officially married in Sweden.
  "I had no idea about European culture. It was all new to me, but she supported me in every step. She is just a special person. I am still in love just as I was in 1975," he says.
  The 64-year-old now lives with Charlotte and their two children in Sweden and continues to work as an artist.

  Image copyright
  PK Mahanandia
  Image caption
  PK and Charlotte Mahanandia in 2014
  But he still doesn't understand "why people think it was a big deal to cycle to Europe".
  "I did what I had to, I had no money but I had to meet her. I was cycling for love, but never loved cycling. It's simple."

The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love

Andie Paloutzian
113.12 (Feb. 15, 2017): p12.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
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The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love. By Per J. Andersson. Tr. by Anna Holmwood. Mar. 2017. 304p. Oneworld, paper, $19.99 (9781786070333). 709.2.
Swedish travel-journalist Andersson tells a story of adventure, transcendence, and, best of all, uncompromising love. Born under a rainbow, Pradyumna Kumar, known as PK, grew up poor but was prophesied for greatness in spite of the limitations of his caste. An astrologer foretold that PK would study, work with color, marry a girl not from the village, not even from India; that she would also be an artist, and would, improbably, own a jungle. Before beginning school, PK had no understanding of the caste system that both defined and excluded him. He and his family were Dalit, the so-called untouchables. After surviving many years of prejudice, PK attends art school in the 1970s, always pushed along by the prophecy. He earns acclaim drawing portraits in a park, which is where he meets a Swedish woman, Charlotte von Schendin. Love blooms quickly, but Lotta must return home. With nothing but his meager art supplies and his secondhand bicycle, PK sets out across Asia, bound for Sweden and the woman he loves. A beautiful, epic tale of love and perseverance.--Andie Paloutzian
Paloutzian, Andie
Source Citation   (MLA 8th Edition)
Paloutzian, Andie. "The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 12+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485442454&it=r&asid=d2a269aab64b0cabde43450ea0e790cd. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A485442454

Andersson, Per J.: The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love

Beth Dalton
142.3 (Feb. 15, 2017): p95.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Andersson, Per J. The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love. One World. Mar. 2017. 272p. tr. from Swedish by Anna Holmwood. photos. ISBN 9781786070333. pap. $19.99; ebk. ISBN 9781786070340. BIOG
Positive thinking is a power that Pradyumna Kumar harnesses at an early age. Born into the Harijan (untouchable) caste in a small town in eastern India, Kumar faces discrimination yet rises above the harassment. He receives an art scholarship to a prestigious school in Delhi, but his money is siphoned off by a corrupt bureaucrat, leaving him hungry and homeless. Kumar supports himself during art school by drawing portraits of people in a public square. Befriending everyone he meets, including the police, a Russian cosmonaut, and Western hippies, Kumar develops an extensive network of friends. Eventually, he paints Lotta, a serious young woman from Sweden, and falls instantly in love. They have a monthlong romance before Lotta returns to Sweden on a VW bus. A few months later, Kumar embarks on a bicycle journey from India to Sweden to rejoin Lotta. Journalist Andersson (cofounder of Swedish travel magazine Vagabond) and translator Holmwood explain how Kumar relies on his connections and his art to find his one true love. VERDICT Part biography, part travelog, and part love story, this book will appeal to the optimistic, the romantic, and the armchair traveler. This is a story of human connection that spans continents, class, and race.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO
Source Citation   (MLA 8th Edition)
Dalton, Beth. "Andersson, Per J.: The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love." Library Journal, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 95. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481649137&it=r&asid=83fbb1b146d19e1a3d606aedeb8aebcf. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A481649137

Paloutzian, Andie. "The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 12+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA485442454&asid=d2a269aab64b0cabde43450ea0e790cd. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017. Dalton, Beth. "Andersson, Per J.: The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love." Library Journal, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 95. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA481649137&asid=83fbb1b146d19e1a3d606aedeb8aebcf. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

• Words without Borders
  https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/book-review/the-amazing-story-of-the-man-who-cycled-from-india-to-europe-for-love-by-pe
  Word count: 976

  from the March 2017 issue
  “The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love” by Per J. Andersson
  Reviewed by Camila M. Santos

  Translated from the Swedish by Anna Holmwood
  Oneworld Publications, 2017
  Per J. Andersson’s The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love is not only a love story, as its title suggests—it is also a biography and a travelogue. Andersson is a Swedish journalist who has traveled in and written extensively about India. In his latest book, he explores the true story of Pradyumna Kumar, or PK, a Dalit artist who grew up “untouchable” in 1950s India. Wonderfully translated from the Swedish to English by Anna Holmwood, The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love was a best-seller in Germany and translation rights have been bought in a dozen languages, including Thai and Icelandic.
  With its simple tone, linear plot structure and rich descriptions of Indian rural and city life, Andersson carefully builds PK’s internal and external worlds. He also balances complex information about India's caste system.
  The book opens with PK’s birth in Athmallik, a small village in the Eastern state of Orissa. His family is gathered around a wicker basket holding the infant and as in a fairy-tale, the village astrologer delivers a most unusual prophecy about the child.
  You will marry a girl who is not from the village, she will own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox.
  With those words, PK’s fate is sealed. The astrologer’s predictions follow PK throughout his life and her words do indeed come true. But not before PK battles with the discrimination, poverty, and depression of belonging to India’s lowest caste. 
  Growing up Dalit in the village of Athmallik is not easy. PK cannot enter the village temple and the Brahmin priests, who belong to the highest caste, throw rocks at him. When he finally begins school, he is made to sit in a veranda outside, away from the other children. He longs to play with them but is deterred by his teacher. PK’s childhood pain and confusion are captured beautifully as he plays by the pond behind the school and gazes down at his own reflection in the water.
  He searched the rippled image for the features, the colour perhaps, that made him different from the others. Maybe his nose was too flat, his complexion too dark, his hair too curly? Sometimes he thought he looked more like the forest creatures that played on the dark surface of the water. Other times, he concluded that, in fact, he looked just like all the other children.
  As a young man in a new boarding school, the few times PK dares to speak up about the injustices he endures, he is told that his caste is a karma from his past life and that he must accept it. He tries to tame his anger and find justification. 
  It’s not their fault, he would explain to himself, they have been indoctrinated, taught to treat untouchables like lepers. 
  But because the caste system is PK’s greatest source of pain, no amount of rationalization will control his sense of injustice and his anger is uncomfortable. But anger is also PK’s greatest motivator. In 1971, when he is twenty years old, he wins a scholarship to the College of Art in New Delhi, one of the top art schools in India. 
  The anonymity of city life is a positive force in PK’s life. At the art school, his teachers and fellow students alike oppose the caste system and he is finally treated like any other student, his caste a mere afterthought. But while his art flourishes, money is scarce and he sleeps in the railway station, telephone booths, and under city bridges. Homelessness and hunger do not deter him, and he never stops drawing.
  He began to draw people on the verge of starvation, expressionistic depictions of poverty that frightened people he showed them to. 
  He nearly dies of starvation himself, but a friend from the art school helps him, and PK spends over three months sleeping on this friend’s bedroom floor. Later, on a trip to Nepal, PK finds a solution for his money problems: he decides to draw people’s portraits and sets up shop in Cannaught Place, a large square in the heart of New Delhi. As he draws European tourists on their way to and from the Hippie Trail, he meets and falls in love with his future wife, a Swedish tourist named Lotta. She goes back to Europe and they are separated for over a year, when PK decides to go after her on his bicycle, pedaling nearly seven thousand miles miles to Sweden.   
  PK’s story is interspersed with mini chapters about Lotta—her childhood fascination with the East, her aristocratic background, a year spent in London studying nursing and finally, her decision to travel to India. Despite these and other details, Lotta’s character feels underdeveloped and readers may be left wanting a fuller picture of the woman PK fell so madly in love with.   
  Andersson’s direct and simple language beautifully captures India’s setting: its markets, busy streets and vegetation. At times however, the book’s pacing is uneven, particularly in its last two sections, which race to describe PK’s journey to Europe and assimilation to life in Sweden. Overall, The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love is an uplifting book that successfully captures PK’s biography and his power to forgive those who had denied him his humanity.  

• Hindustan Times
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/the-man-who-cycled-from-india-to-europe-for-love/story-nHQlS7pCK6Jl8zA18FsJoL.html
  Word count: 1222

  The man who cycled from India to Europe for love
  PK Mahanandia’s epic story of cycling from India to Sweden to find his lady love in the ’70s is now fodder for bestsellers and movie scripts
  brunch Updated: Mar 27, 2017 14:38 IST

  Shikha Kumar
  Hindustan Times

  PK and Lotta in Kroksjöås, Sweden

  When PK Mahanandia was born in a remote forest near Athmallik in Orissa, a rainbow appeared in the sky. The village astrologer predicted that he would “work with colour when he grows up”. After a one-week-old PK survived a cobra attack, the astrologer returned and scribbled the baby’s future on a palm leaf. It read: He will marry a girl from far, far away, from outside the village, the district, the province, the state and even the country. He also whispered that PK “needn’t go looking for her, she will come to him”.
  The astrologer’s prophecies came true. PK is an artist, and love came to him.
  You gotta have faith
  I have many questions for PK, but he also has one for me. “Are you married?” he asks. And when I say no, he says: “You don’t have to find it. Love will come to you. Just believe in it.”
  Listening to his story, I can’t help but believe in it. PK had every circumstance against him when he was born in 1949, an ‘untouchable’ and poor. He was made to sit outside the classroom at school, and was pelted with stones if he dared to go near a temple. While pragmatism demanded dismissing the prophecy – after all, how could an untouchable from a remote village find a ‘casteless’ soul mate like him, let alone a complete foreigner – PK held on and the prophecy became his only hope. “I believed in it since the beginning. There’s a perfect plan for everyone. You just have to believe in it and it happens,” says PK.

  The first photo of PK and Lotta together, taken in New Delhi in 1976
  As time passed, PK became an artist in Delhi, and on a winter evening in December 1975, as he took down his paintings from his usual spot in Connaught Place, he laid his eyes on Swedish tourist Charlotte (Lotta) Von Schedvin for the first time. They met a second time. And then a third. “I had long, hippie hair at the time, and it was flying though there was no wind,” he recalls. “I felt weightless. She was staring at me with her big blue eyes and I felt she was taking a photo of my soul.”
  Lotta belongs to Swedish nobility. In caste-riddled India, PK is on the lowest rung. But their love was strong. “Love is the most powerful force on this planet,” says PK. “We come from love, we are proceeding towards love and must be conscious of that. It’s what binds us.”
  But Lotta had to return to Sweden, and PK? Well, PK decided he would not give her up, so he cycled 7,000 miles to be with her forever.
  Such a long journey
  PK’s life is the subject of Swedish author Per J Andersson’s recently released book The Amazing Story of The Man Who Cycled from India to Europe For Love. The book is an English translation of the original Swedish work New Delhi-Boras, published in 2013. In addition, there are rumours that Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Warner Bros are interested in giving a reel spin to his story.
  Andersson, who has been writing about India for over three decades, says that he was enthralled by PK’s story when he first met him. “I had written a lot of stories about India in the Swedish media, and PK contacted me one day, 20 years ago. He was curious to know who the person behind these stories was, with such an interest in his home country.” A week after the phone call, the author was on his way to PK’s forest home in West Sweden, to interview him. While the resulting story was published in travel magazine Vagabond, which Andersson still edits, it was also the beginning of a long-standing friendship.

  Author Per J Andersson; the book cover
  The book, an ode to PK’s incredible journey over four months (he travelled through Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Austria and Denmark to reach Sweden in May 1977) also captures his personal struggles and the despair he had to overcome in life. While PK managed to get into school, his untouchability meant he was ridiculed all the way through. His misery found temporary respite when he got through an art course at the College of Art in Delhi, and left his village for the Capital. There, sketching portraits for Rs 10, he spent many nights hungry, and slept on railway platforms.
  India was a popular stop on the hippie trail in the 1970s, and PK was exposed to many cultures when he met tourists at the India Coffee House. “The world was a different place then, and it was a happy time, of freedom, peace and love,” says PK, who was recently in New York with his family and Andersson to launch the book at UN Publications on the International Day of Happiness (March 20). Though his talent was recognised, and he was invited to the homes of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, it was only after meeting Lotta that he really saw meaning in his life.
  Ignorance is bliss
  After Lotta left for Sweden, PK knew he had to follow. Though he didn’t even know Sweden was different from Switzerland, he set off on his bicycle from Delhi. “I had no knowledge of geography, of how big Europe was,” he says. “I didn’t even know the distance in kilometres. If I had known how far it was, I don’t think I would have dared. It’s good that I didn’t know.”
  For Andersson, it was a challenge to write a story that wasn’t just about the pursuit of romance. “It wasn’t just a romantic story, but also about the underlying psychological levels... someone who had to fight against so many obstacles. His story makes you believe that the world, despite its flaws and injustices, is a beautiful place. And that almost anything is possible if, like PK, you love the people who surround you and have respect and empathy even for your enemies.”

  PK and Lotta with their kids, Emelie and Karl-Siddharta
  In Sweden, PK established a life with Lotta, teaching art and even yoga. Back home, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Utkal University of Culture in Bhubaneshwar. Today, the couple runs a number of programmes, one of which sees 25,000 tribal children in high school. It’s a strange sort of redemption for the man who was once stoned and kicked into the dirt. “I used those stones as stepping stones, and built my home with them. And my home is very strong now,” he says.
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  From HT Brunch, March 26, 2017
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