India is called Land of Love because most of the unforgettable love stories born here. In those love stories someone went against their family (Salim and Anarkali), Someone inspired to built world's wonder like TajMahal. Most of us heard those love stories at least once in our life time. But there are lot more hidden love stories to know in Indian land. One of those love stories written below.
Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia
The story of the love between Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia and Charlotte Von Schedvin began way before their first meeting.
Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia was born an “Untouchable” in a remote village of India in 1949. As per tradition, the parents of Dr P. K. Mahanandia invited an astrologer at the birth of their son. According to prophecy, told by an astrologer after Kumar’s birth, he was meant to marry a musician woman from a faraway country, who is born under the zodiac sign of Taurus and owns a forest.
Pradyumna had a difficult childhood as he belonged to the lowest caste of Un-touchability of Indian society.
"He was treated worse than stray dogs and cattle." Pradyumna remembers, "When he passed by a temple, people threw rocks at him."
He did his schooling at Mahendra High School, Athmalik and then joined Visva-Bharati to study at art, despite his selection at the art school, it became impossible to pay fee and he had to return home. He later joined Govt college of Art and crafts to study arts and crafts.Later In 1971, he joined College of Arts in New Delhi to satisfy his quest and their he gained popularity for making portraits. Slowly, he became famous and went on to draw sketches of Indira Gandhi, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, B D Jatti among others. He got an amazing capability to paint the picture of any person on a canvass.
The man remembers very clearly the day when prophecy became a real story. The beautiful journey began on December 17, 1975. Back then, Kumar was a street artist. A beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes, named Charlotte Von Schedvin, asked him to draw a portrait of her. “When she appeared before his easel, he felt as though he didn’t have any weight. Words are not accurate enough to express such a feeling, he said that Her eyes were so blue and big and round, he felt as if she was not looking at him, she was looking inside him, like an X-ray machine!”.
The nervous young man couldn’t properly draw a woman of his dreams the first time, so he asked Charlotte to come back another day. “She ended up coming back three times, and he did three portraits, After the second time, he felt, she’s the one!”. It turns out the mysterious foreign woman was born under the sign of Taurus, owns a forest and plays the flute, just as the prophecy said.
“You will be my wife. We were destined to meet.” Kumar told his one real love. Charlotte, who was 19 years old at the time, wasn’t scared of this unexpected confession and decided to give the young man a chance. The couple spent 2-3 weeks together before Charlotte came back home to Sweden.
The love story could’ve ended there, but young and determined Kumar decided not to let it happen. The two wrote letters for about a year. He wanted to go but did not have money to buy air tickets. So, He decided to sell everything and brought a bicycle and His journey began on January 22, 1977 peddled for five months covered 45 miles every day through Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria and Denmark. Iran and Turkey to reach Europe.
He also hitchhiked and travelled by train in between.
Finally, Kumar managed to travel 6,000 miles to he meet Charlotte and Charlotte's parents and the two got officially married 1979 in Sweden. In those days, there was a tradition in Europe. According to that tradition, White people should not marry non-white people. But her parents accepted Pradyumna as a part of their family by breaking the royal tradition.
After 40 years of marriage, Dr PK Mahanandia serves as the Odiya Cultural Ambassador of India to Sweden and lives with his wife Charlotte and 2 children in Sweden. And Finally, Once his village insulted him as an untouchable. But now the same village gives a wonderful
welcome every time he makes a visit.
"If Two hearts meant for each other, no distance is too far, no time is too long and no other love can break them apart".
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