An Indian man who cycled 4,000 miles (approx. 6,500 km) from his home country to Sweden in 1977, to reunite with the love of his life, is still with his sweetheart almost 50 years later. He is sharing the secret to their unbreakable bond.
“When I think about our story, I think about the former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who said, ‘Democracy is of the people, by the people, and for the people,’” PK, who serves as the Odiya Cultural Ambassador of India to Sweden, told The Epoch Times.
‘The Magic of the Stars in Heaven’
Their love story began in New Delhi, the capital city of India, on Dec. 17, 1975. Wealthy music student Lotte, having always dreamed of India, had traveled east from Sweden with friends in a Volkswagen van. She met poor art student PK under a fountain at Connaught Place in New Delhi’s Central Park, drawing portraits for passersby.PK said: “After a brief meeting, I could guess her zodiac sign, Taurus, and that she would be working with music ... I was told since childhood about my would-be wife’s personality by an Indian astrologer. It is Indian mysticism and the magic of the stars in Heaven [that] helped us to be attracted to each other!”
Lotte said: “I saw a little guy with black, curly hair sitting under a fountain making sketches of people. I felt a magnetic attraction toward him from that moment. After getting to know him, I found him [to be] a very goodhearted and spontaneous person.”
The pair struck up an immediate romance. In January 1976, they met PK’s father and brother at their family home in Odisha. Lotte decided that PK would become her husband, saying, “I made the decision from my heart.”
“They were convinced that she was the real Taurus; my wife, my soulmate,” PK said. “They arranged wedding rituals according to my own tribe, as my family belongs to an indigenous tribe of Odisha.”
When Lotte left India for Sweden in February 1976 to continue her education in music, PK was heartbroken. But he was the first art student from his state to win a scholarship to study fine arts at the Delhi School of Art and felt he had to see it through.
Lotte said: “When I told him to jump in our van to travel with me to Sweden, he refused, as he had to complete his fine art education at the University of Delhi. When I offered to send an air ticket to join me in Sweden, he politely refused my offer. He said he would come to Sweden on his own. He also openly declared and clearly said, ‘I need your love, not your money.’”
‘Do It or Die for Love’
Soon, PK began feeling lonely after their separation and swapped letters with his beloved.“I missed her very much and when longing became too much, I decided to travel as I was encouraged by many foreign tourists. My strength was my lack of knowledge in geography and I did not know how far in kilometers to her birth country. I was mixing up Sweden with Switzerland!” he said.
While naive, PK did know about the hippie trail between Asia and Europe popularized by The Beatles in the late 1960s and spoke to young travelers about their journeys on this route. When flights and even bus tickets proved too expensive, PK decided to sell some belongings and buy a second-hand bicycle.
He left New Delhi on Jan. 22, 1977, on a route that would take him through Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, and Denmark.
PK said: “I met many wonderful, helpful people who guided me, fed me, and gave sometimes shelter on the way, and in return, I did sketches of them and their loved ones. Sometimes I took [rides] on trucks, especially in Turkey, as the hippie trail was always heavily trafficked by trucks.
“[The] only challenges were my own fear and doubts, which I had to overcome through yoga, meditation, and positive thinking. Like a mantra, I was always telling myself, ‘I will do it or die for love.’”
PK told The Epoch Times that on his way through Kabul, Afghanistan, the then-editor-in-chief of The Kabul Times interviewed him and invited him to exhibit his drawings, from which PK made a little money to help him on his way. He also had the opportunity to draw a portrait of former Afghan president, Mohammad Daoud Khan.
Before leaving Afghanistan, PK upgraded his battered bicycle. Despite the intense 4,000-mile road trip through eight countries, PK never once gave up on his quest to reunite with Lotte. He arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden on May 28, 1977, four long months after leaving India. Lotte drove 70 kilometers from Borås to meet him.
Embracing Differences With Love
“When we first met we could not speak properly, but held each other and cried and cried,” PK said. “We both became very emotional, beyond words. We sat on a wooden bench near [the] botanical gardens.“Lotte’s mother had prepared a huge cake with white cream on top,” he said. “When Lotte introduced me to them, I greeted them [in the] Indian way; I fell down on their feet like the Pope kneels down when arriving or landing in a new country to show respect. There were a lot of cultural differences, but I embraced them all with love and compassion.”
In 1979, the couple got married for the second time, according to Swedish law, and the traditions of Lotte’s noble family heritage.
For Lotte, among the best memories of her long love story with PK are their first trip together to PK’s birthplace, which felt like “returning home,” and giving birth to their two children. “We feel a great gratitude being their parents in this life,” she said.
For PK, his arduous road trip and the years of loving marriage that ensued have taught him always to have faith in oneself and one’s life partner, to be aware of doubts and fears, and to trust the power of love and humanity.
“For us, every human is a drop of water, and humanity is like the ocean as we are all connected. When the feeling of separation arises, the suffering starts,” he said.
“Seven million school children will be benefitted by this project. It feels so good in my heart!” PK said.
Hollywood and Bollywood filmmakers have reached out, interested in making the book into a movie. PK and Lotte are keen to reserve the filmmaking rights for their children, who run their own production company, Kalabati Pictures.
PK said that the great secret to a longevous marriage is to keep “no secret in a relationship.”
“We are very open to each other ... and believe strongly our souls are connected and can never be separated,” he said. “We all are here on this planet for a while only, not permanently. Why not use the most valuable gift of life, which is love, in our daily life?”
Lotte said: “We spend time together in silence. That helps us to connect with our inner stillness. We believe that love is unity and is eternal. We both are very thankful that we met each other, and very quickly we trusted in each other and magically fell in love, to create a sweet home for each other and our children.”
