Nothing inspires me to blog more than Sweden. This country is so different that you can't come away without commenting on things you see or experience! 3 years after I left, I went back to Sweden to celebrate Valborg with a friend; in the way ought to be celebrated. At Uppsala. Amongst local students.
Now before you assume that this post is going to be about an interesting episode in a train, I have to tell that it is not. The title is nothing but the (amusing) details of my reservation on a Swedish train. The post however, is about 2 people whose smiles made my day. Ya.. this post, that way, is frivolous!
So, the 2 characters involve assimilated Swedes (first one looked Indian and 2nd one looked Nepali//Indonesian kinda Asian but had a strong Swedish accent). Totally random and had nothing to do with Valborg itself!
1) Was walking down this wide street that looked like a quiet, cannot-get-busy-even-if-you-tried kinda residential colony: Array of Uni buildings to the right and student halls to the left. Its 3 days before Valborg and there's music in the air (the unimagined, coming- from-loudspeakers-types. Not crazy yet, thank you). There's no traffic on the street, so am walking all over it while a friend walks demurely on the sidewalk. So there I am singing and talking loudly, walking right in the middle of the street, when from the corner of the eye, I spot something green, huge and moving. Woo...there it was. A bus coming straight at me. 'Wahhh' goes me running from the middle of the road to the nearest sidewalk. I turn around to glare at the driver for not using the horn. And there she was, the driver, looking at me with the most beautiful smile on her face. Like the way a mother would when she sees her child prancing around happily. Involuntarily, I smiled back. Watching her nod and her smile widening melted the anger away.
2) There we were, 2 friends, sitting at the train station exhausted from running and cycling in the (surprisingly strong) sun while still nursing a post-Valborg hangover! Too tired to talk, we napped while leaning on each other. When I opened my eyes, I saw the ticket master smiling at us! That same smile the bus driver had!
Take 2. Am inside the train sitting at a random seat, inspite of holding a valid reservation. Why? Coz random gal is all settled in my seat and I couldn't be bothered waiting till she moved her arse and all the other things that she had spread out in front of her! Besides, I was feeling totally anti-social and didn't want anyone sitting next to me. And guess who comes checking for tickets. Mr. Smiley. He looked at the scribbling on the paper that I handed in for a ticket, looks at me and says in the most polite paternal voice 'You know you are not sitting in the right seat?' Yep! I know. Someone's sitting in my seat and I don't want to make her get up! He smiled again. That same smile again.
Wow! The effect of a smile. Note to self: Smile more.
Note to the rest: The exhaustion that comes out of total debauchery of the previous night is the best sort of exhaustion to be had!
