On the streets of Stockholm

Last Saturday, I was out with some friends at the Underbar in Söder, with some friends. It was a nice cozy place with good food. It had everything I love about Stockholm’s pubs, the ambience and crowd. Around 8.30 PM, I left for home as I had some shopping to do, early next morning. I was walking up the Götgatan towards Slussen. I like walking on Götgatan, since it is always full of life and it is such a contrast to the side roads that cross Götgatan. The side roads are usually completely empty, barring the occasional polis vehicles securing the area or some hugging their friends on the way home. So, I usually stop on the cross roads and look around before starting to walk again.

That day, as usual, I was standing on the crossing of Hökens gata, looking at nothing in particular. I looked to the left there was the apparel shopping mall with the night club with people dancing and having fun. On the right, Hökens gata looked darker and narrower than usual. Except for a few street lights hanging from the threads between the buildings, there was not much lighting. Even in the dark, I could make out a couple walking up towards Södra Teatern with their kid on the pram.

There was nothing special about this couple, but I stopped involuntarily and kept looking towards them.  Though, I could not see their faces, I think they seemed to be in their early forties. The man was pushing the pram and the woman seemed to be having some trouble walking even at a normal pace. There were only about 25 meters up the street from where I stood, so I could hear them. They were discussing about where to go after the show at Södra Teatern. The woman was not able to make up her mind where to go, she was confused whether to go to some place quiet to have dinner and wine, or to some of the local family pubs down near Mosbacke. Or maybe, just go back home and have pizza.

Then the kid in the pram began to cry, who had been almost silent, since I had started watching them. The man got out a water bottle and gave it to the kid, but it threw it away and began to cry louder. He then played with some of the toys hanging from the pram. The kid was quiet for a minute, but then began to cry again. The woman decided it was enough, and took matters into her own hands. She bent forward to pick up the kid. That’s when I noticed the woman was pregnant. Anyways, the kid became quiet as soon as she touched the kid. She seemed to have some kind of magic hands.

After a couple of minutes, the woman put the kid back in to the pram, back they went to discussing about their evening plan. I slowly started walking up behind them without my knowledge. Finally they decided to go to Indian Garden restaurant on Hornsgatan after the show. Then, the woman asked about the show tickets to the Södra Teatern, that’s when the man realized he had missed it at home. J I really did not want to see or hear what happened after that. But before I could stop and turn back towards Slussen, the woman stopped and looked at the man with some kind of anger. But she suddenly cooled down and managed to handle the situation by calling the Teatern reception.

That was when I had the opportunity to look at the woman’s face. She looked very much like my dear colleague and scrum master, only about 10 years older. She was still as beautiful, probably a bit more than now, with the added responsibility and caring. Most importantly, the radiant and heart warming smile was very much still there.

The real M - part 1

Even before I saw “Judi” Dench as the head of SIS (MI6) in Golden Eye, I had seen an equally potent, clever and decisive woman closer to home, the real M. I always thought she had an air of authority, capable of silencing all my protests to doing something impulsive.

It was a beautiful warm Saturday morning, I was having a nice dream, before I woke up to the scream of “Sriram, Sriram, Sriram!” from my mother. Actually, I think I heard this chanting of my name even towards the end of my dream. I think this chanting/screaming must have gone on for 15 mins before I stirred and sat up. That morning I woke up knowing I only had 3 hours of school to endure, before I could go home and play cricket the whole afternoon. Yes, any extra time that life gave me, I gave it to cricket.

It was one of those days when you wake up and see a surprise gift from your parents, you feel on top of the world. That Saturday I woke up to see something shining outside my window in the garage of my home. I instantly ran out and opened the door to the garage. There it was, in all its glory, a red Atlas all terrain bike. I was happy beyond limits. I went back home and hugged my father and mother as hard as I could and went out to try my new bike. I was in my final months of eighth grade and for us, middle class Indian kids, in our early teens, having a bike was something of a pride. I went out for about an hour trying all the usual stunts and impressing friends in my neighbourhood.

After a couple of months the bike excitement had considerably died down. On one Monday, after having hot Idlis and Chutney that mother had made for breakfast, I took my bike out to go to school. There she was, M, standing outside my gate watching me on my bike. I always believed she had premonition of any stupid thing I was about to indulge in. I smiled at her and came to stop in front of her. She smiled back and just said, “Don’t try any of your stupid tricks in today, its Monday, have a great week”. I nodded and started, thinking of which way to take to school.

It would take me just 10 mins of riding to get to school on the shortest route through the village roads. But I decided to take the high road of tar roads, though it would take me 20 mins, because I wanted to keep my bike in good condition. This route consisted of a steep ascent for about 200m, a straight flat terrain for about 600m, then the ultimate slight descent for about 250m, and then the final 100m of village roads to school. This 250m stretch of slight descent was about 25m wide with a barred white line in the middle. This barred line is meant to separate the traffic going either ways, up/down the street. But for me, I considered the whole width of the road as my territory when I went down the road.

The descent provided me with the opportunity to perfect the art of riding the bike without holding the handle bars and both hands in the air. I had been trying this for a week since, but with little success. But, I decided that today was the day when I learnt it for good. So, there I was on the top of this stretch, thinking of what I was about to achieve today. Fortunately, there was no vehicles on that stretching baring the lone vegetable vendor and his push cart to the right, somewhere in the middle of the stretch. He and his cart would not be a detterent to my goal, we drive on the left in India.

Finally, I would be the cool guy at school, who knew how to ride the bike without hands on the handle bar. Who knew what was in store for me at the end of this stretch. But for that moment, I felt on top of the world, at a higher altitude, than when I saw my new bike in my garage. I would be talk of the school. So, I started down the stretch, with my hands still on the bar for about 20m, then I slowly left my hands and started to realize my dream. Initially it was difficult to control the direction of the bike because I was going a bit slow. I started pedalling faster, and the gravity pull down the descent gave me descent speed. With the increased speed I was able to steer my bike in the direction I wanted, and started doing a ‘S’ type motion on the road hand high up in the air. How I wish, there was somebody videographing that epic moment in my life, with all the broad smile in my face and pride (haughtiness, you could call it too) in my heart.

Well, there was somebody watching me at least. I could make out it was a woman crossing the street at the fag end of the road. She turned and stood looking up towards me. I thought, this is cool, I have some audience atleast. Somebody would live to tell my story long after this day. The story of teenage boy who could ride his bike without using his hands. Little did I know or wanted to know, that there were thousands, if not lakhs, of boys and girls who could do this without all the fuss and haughtiness. Anyways, I had now passed the vegetable vendor and his cart, waving at him, as he was shouting for me to look at the road. As I neared the end of the road, I realized that I knew this woman looking at me. It was M! Well, how would she know, what was she doing there, how would she be right there, exactly at the place and time where I was supposed to finally fulfil my dream.

It confirmed my suspicions that M had some kind of power of finding out when boys were upto something. I stopped in front of her, face, both happy with excitement and red with embrassment. She repeated, “I told you not to try any stupid tricks today”. Its one thing if there is someone in your neighborhood concerned about you and providing all the unncessary advice, you can just listen and ignore it. Its another thing if that someone is your mother. It will have far reaching consequences, like cut in daily pocket money, food that you don’t like eating, no morning drink while sitting on the sofa, no smile in the morning when you get up, no smile when you leave for school, and no smile whatsoever when you get back from school. Those would be the hardest days of my life. So, I decided not to take on M without proper planning. More about my plans for real M will continue.

Google saves me from yet another scam!

I am in the midst of my apartment search in Stockholm, and we all know how difficult it is to find an apartment to rent. Today, I saw an advertisement on blocket.se about this incredibly beautiful apartment in the midst of the city, somewhere near Odenplan. And that too at a price so low, that I pounced upon this opportunity and mailed the advertiser. But then I thought, this stuff is tooo good to be true.
So, I used the all pervasive google search to find phrases in the AD, and as I thought this was another scam. Though, I would not have been fooled to paying any money because of this, but it did make me think about it for a moment atleast. Thanks to internet and google. Below is the mail I got.

"Hej,
Jag hoppas att engelska inte är ett problem eftersom min svenska är mycket dålig!My name is Angelle Peters, and I am an engineer on the Dunbar Oil platform in the Northern Sea. My husband and I purchased the Swedish apartment that you are interested to rent because we love Sweden culture and it's landscapes. In June, my husband has been deployed to Iraq and I will be working hard for the next year so we will not be able to use our apartment and we decided to rent it, we hope to find a good and responsible tenant for it. If you are planning to rent for more then one year, it's not a problem, because we can give it for rent for as long as you need.
Because we are unable to show you the apartment in person we decided to use a multinational rent service, provided by MSN Real Estate, like we did with our last tenant - I am using their services since 2007 and I am very pleased with what they offer to their customers (In Scandinavia, MSN Services are recommended by Aftenposten, FINN.no, Blocket.se and Aftonbladet). Using MSN Services you will have a 10 days period when you can inspect the apartment and then decide if you want to rent it or not (Just like you are renting from someone local - If you will not like the apartment you will receive your money back with no questions asked). This seems to be the best option considering our situation, I am pleased to know that the rent money will be in their possession.
The apartment: It's fully furnished (can be rented unfurnished also, you can deposit my furniture and everything you will not use in the building storage area), fully accessorized. You have dishes, towels, sheets, Flat Screen tv, DVD + sound system, toaster, coffee maker, micro wave oven, oven, washing machine + dryer, air cond. , iron, radio. 90% of the stuff is brand new, unused, and also everything is insured as I told you.
The rent is 6700 SEK / Month with everything included (electricity, water, heating, Internet tv + 2 parking spaces). I want to receive 3 months in advance (20100 SEK total, as first deposit (this will cover the fist 2 months of the rent and 1 month refundable deposit). We will use the standard Swedish contract that's provided by the Swedish federation of house owners, that 99% of Swedish people use. The rent will not be raised or lowered. You will not be bothered with anything as long as the rent is paid on time.
If you are still interested, please give me more information about you, your job, references (if available). I am waiting for your reply and to give you more information about the whole rental process.

Thank you,Angelle!"