When we Follow Sva-Dharma!!

Self explanatory. Follow this photographer on social media. Has a way with words, getting popular by the day. Uses is iPhone to take pics of Delhi. Yes, just Delhi, and mostly Delhi. Also writes a blog called, 'The Delhi Walla'. now writes for magazines. Had given up on a proper life, since was not the 'engineer' material like his siblings. Now, one of the  most celebrated photographer.

Recently, had an exhibition of his pics in Europe (I think)  Here is a wiki entry on him. 

That is what happens when we follow 'Sva (self) Dharma (potential/quality--this word has no english equivalent, people have also used it for religion, etc. )  But basically it means when you follow what you are naturally good at, bounty comes....---in ways you cannot imagine. 

And another picture that i think is just beautiful!! What a caption!!

Colourful Holidays

I often get into arguments with people over religion. It is a recent phenomenon. Although I started to feel that when I first left India....but it was meeting with people who have mono-ideologies.  One--I believe or not believe (that can also include communism and atheism).  So one of the many things that I love, absolutely love about Hinduism is its diversity. Not only do we have several holidays--well more than several--but also every region has its own special flavour.  So, I found out about this holiday only a few years ago.  Celebrated in central India.  And look here at gorgeous women, driving bikes, for another festival, which comes in spring (shorter than 2 minutes).  

Following is a spring festival in Assam--the north east.  Women wear these sarees made of natural fibre....its called Bihu

And the following one is from Punjab, technically from where my grandparents came. A spring festival--harvest season.  Look at just the different outfits.  They also celebrated with different foods and there are different outfits associated with it.  I mean, even an untrained eye can see the difference. So, it is not a subtle difference that someone needs to explain to you. 

Just some of the things, that I love...color and celebrating nature. 

Swedish Traditions @sweden---Cinnamon Buns & Pizza days

The one in green that says, Fössta Tossdan i mass--is my favourite.  Its what they call a Pincess Torta---a Princess Cake.  Light sponge cake with cream filling, covered with marzipan paste!!  Absolute delight to look at and a tickle for your taste buds--well a very gentle tickle.  Its the after taste that is so filling, so refreshing and so good. 

So, the next thing they did a poll on was which cake would people like to learn about.  Guess which one won? Which one would you have like to learn about? Mine would have been the Marzipan cake day....for obvious reasons.....

There is a term called Lördag goodies!!  Meaning Saturday sweets!!  A Swedish tradition to allow children and adults to hog sweets.  But there is also the 'pizza time' which is usually the weekends. Essentially, weekends are a free pass to gorge on not so healthy foods!!

Although the following tweet gives a different story, most of my colleagues have told me that pizza became really popular only in the 1980s.  And believe it or not, there were no Malls, called Gallerias, in Sweden until 1990s!!  The same time India got them...damn that liberalisation....

Despite living here for so long, I still think I know so little about this country.  my language is much much better (I study everyday for 30-60 minutes)---and the more I learn, the more I am convinced, that I will forever remain ignorant about so many things in this country or any other country that I have lived in, including India.

Yellow in the Green

As you can see the picture was taken in June of 2017. And all you see --notice the following picture is a line of yellow in the green.  The yellow are the majs crops (corn).  Although ripen every fall --from summer onwards, one can see the line of yellow grow in the green fields---and ah, it is such a delight-----visible through my window both on train and bus rides to and fro from Stockholm. 

Here it seems like someone just drew a line.  Actually these crops are used to make majsolja --corn oil....which is used often in salads.  The grains grown the most in ancient times in Sweden were rye and barley  (click on the link to read more about it).

Anyway, these yellow lines, catch my eye every year. I also saw them in Prague's country side.  In India, it is the mustard fields, (here look at a video. Watch the whole thing, really beautiful).  These fields have been part of poetry and movie songs for ages. One has to bow to the bounty and big heart of mother earth!!

Swedish Traditions @sweden.se

So, in 2011, Sweden started this twitter account @sweden, to promote Swedish culture and help the world understand more about Sweden. 

In first week of October of 2018, that is last week, the account came to an end, having completed 7 years of continuous information on Sweden, Swedish towns, culture, history, foods and traditions.

It was supposed to be all positive, not much political but more information. For example, if elections were going on, they would report it.

I got a bit nostalgic, since I had been following the account for the last three years.  I learnt so much and had so much fun. I also participated by re-tweeting and responding to some of the comments.  Sometimes even in Swedish.

So, I saved some fun tweets from last week, and share them here with you, both to document the account, and share some swedish traditions.  Although some of them have been shared on this blog earlier, I think the curators, (there was a new one every week), added some more researched information, which could be fun for people to learn.  Btw, I have not had the time yet, but last year I started working on a website, just to present information on Sweden.  I will continue that. Right now the projects have been stalled due to several other things, including working on a new youtube channel.  But --I have a couple of websites in the works to start writing formally and sharing the information that I gather by researching countries.

So, here goes the tweets.

So here the curator asked the followers, which were --do not remember clearly but surely more than 100,000--'Which Swedish Xmas character would they like to know more about.' And the response was Julbocken--The Julbock.  The Christmas goat.  Jul is generally the term for Xmas, although it is said that Jul predates Christianity.  Is is more like festival of lights during the darkest season of the year, which today is Xmas.  I had written about it earlier....here..

Julbock--mountain goat-- was the symbol, rather than Jultomte--Santa/Christmas troll---for Christmas.  By 20th century, Jultomte had almost replaced as the main symbol. Although still used today, Julbock is a secondary Xmas symbol. 

So, the is Jultomte. Notice he is a troll and not really a Santa. he is short, and wears green, sometimes grey outfits. Red and round Santa, which is quite common now is gift of Cocalization of Christmas.  Today in Sweden, you can buy both Santas and JulTomtes, short and unpleasant looking but still friendly trolls. 

Xmas gifts were delivered by men dressed as Julbock and not Jultomte.  Both Christianzation and Americanization can be the reason for this.  The role of animals was reduced because of the former and the latter, normalised 'red suit santa' promoted by cocacola around the world. 

Saving Space: Creative Cycle Park

Been really sick for the last ten days.  So, its not going to be too exciting for sometime. Just trying to recover.  Back to work, although not feeling quite 100%. Here is a pic from New Zealand, cycle parks. I had never seen these kinds.  Yes, they are designed---obviously to save space.  It works, I guess, but the other ones --the kinds you get in long sheds, can house many more.  I heard they used to have parks for strollers as well, especially at the bus stops and train stations. 

And the cover on top prevents them from rain.....