Exploring Sweden- my way!

Religion – Hanna gave us the insight on the religion in Sweden It was Bishop Angsor of Bremen who came with a zeal of converting Swedes to Christianity. When King Stenkil ascended to the throne in 1060 Christianity was firmly established throughout most of Sweden. Until 1996 all Swedes were born into the Lutheran faith - doctrine of the Church of Sweden. Swedes are characterized by a general confidence in values of liberty and a positive view of frankness, tolerance, trust, and respect for other people, according to a study carried out by Uppsala University. Sweden also shows the strongest support in the world for a democratic form of government. On the other hand, Swedes show weak support for values relating to religion, family, and national identity. But this is not to say that Swedes lack faith. They do visit Church on four occasions like baptism, confirmation, wedding(s) and funeral. Another reason Hanna felt for less interest of present generation in the religion is that it is invisible unlike in India, which is colorful and lively with rituals and festivals, which can be seen, felt and experience.

So the Churches are stuggling here to attract the crowd and now conduct programmes like concerts, which we were fortunate to experience. Vibha Algundgi has already given details about it in her blog.

Education- Our host arranged a school visit to Trädgårdsstadsskolals in Bortryka Municipality about which Kaushik Dessai wrote in his blog. Some more background about education in Sweden. Education Act, passed by the Swedish parliament includes basic goals and guidelines for preschool activities, childcare for schoolchildren, and compulsory and non- compulsory education. In 1991, the government handed over much of the responsibility for schools to the Municipal governments, which is based on the Swedish commitment to self-government and democracy. Citizens are close to the decision making process, giving them the opportunity to influence schools and adapt them to local needs. The Swedish Education Act states that all children and young people are to have equal access to education regardless of gender and origin. Schooling is free except for nursery and higher education. Children between six and twelve are offered daycare before and after school hours. Swedish law makes sure children are well protected and defends their rights. In 1979 Sweden became the first country to forbid beating or spanking children making it a criminal offence.

Senior high school or Gymnasium is non compulsory and also free of charge and runs for three years. Students can choose from 17 national programs (subjects) leading to study at colleges and universities comprising of eight core subjects like Swedish, English, math’s, science, social studies, religious studies, arts and crafts, physical education and health. Other subjects are child and recreation, electrical engineering, vehicle engineering, business and administration, handicrafts, industry, foods, media. Each child is allocated a comfortable ‘student salary’ as an outright grant regardless of the parents income. Every school/ gymnasium has its own canteen providing free unlimited lunch to the students.

Exploring Sweden - my way!!!!

Well I must, must thank my stars (and then Principal who thought of choosing me... from 70 or so odd faculty) for being one of the members of Athena Project of Sweden. Though I had to miss my hubby’s birthday it was worth - an experience of a lifetime. More so because this was a project designed - having clear-cut objectives, by like-minded faculties of Tullinge Gymnasium Mr. Tony Mc Carrick, Eva Lundberg and Marie Lundin. I experienced so much of passion and dedication not only among them but also in the other faculties, which we came across during our stay there. Municipality official Mr. Antonio Gomes guided this idea and thus Tullinge- Chowgule’s student faculty exchange program happened. This was not the first of its kind as I was told they had similar program with other country but they were more than happy and satisfied for having tied it up with Chowgule’s.

Eva a faculty from Health Care (and takes pride in telling that she is a nurse!) who teaches Culture also, said that she wanted her students to know about other cultures so that they understand their own culture in a better way. And this is what exactly happened when she conducted group discussion among the students on

1. Experiences of our culture meeting. What have I learned about Swedish/ Indian culture so far?

2. In what ways my own culture has become visible to me?

While doing this she asked students to elaborate on terms like Culture, Socialization, Swedishness, Communication, Racism and xenophobia, Gender, Ethnocentrism and Prejudices. I was really impressed by this experiment.

In 15 days we got to understand different facets of Sweden as the schedule was planned in such way that we get overall understanding of its culture, systems, work ethics etc.

Peter Berlin author of Xenophobe’s guide to the Swedes says that the Swedes culture evolved over time as a means to survive their environment and get along with each other. Harsh climate turned them into an introvert who believes that one is company and two is a crowd. But we had an entirely opposite experience. We always felt comfortable to communicate with all of them, as they were eager to help people.

As we reached Tullinge gymnasium on 15^th March morning we were totally taken back as we saw our Indian flag flying over the flag post. They also had posters of India day celebration displayed on the doors of every house (having photos of our Bharatnatyam dance girls). I was really touched by this kind of welcome. There was lots of laughter and giggle as we would listen Mr. Tony always trying to pull legs of Mr. Dange over something or other. It was a treat to listen to their jugal- bandi.

Erik’s lecture on History was very interesting. Known as one of the finest academicians in the campus he made us aware of Sweden’s “Bloody History”. Taking us through Viking era, Middle ages, Vasa empire and finally 18^th century- the age of liberty, he explained how their parliament had members of four estate like church, peasants, noble and artisans. 19^th century was marked by industrialization and 20^th century by Socialists who created the Swedish welfare state.

As said by Peter Berlin they took from rich and gave to the poor until everyone was on the welfare. Moderation is the word, which permeates Swedish life, and this has enabled the nation to find the middle ground between the Capitalism and Socialism i.e. between progress and humanity.

Sweden had different Royal Dynasty’s ruling from 15^th to 20^th century. Gustav Vasa, Gustav II Adolf, his daughter Queen Kristina, Karl X and Karl XII. Queen Kristina inherited the throne when she was only six after her father’s death. She was brilliant at her work but later got bored, quarreled and was reluctant to marry. Her response was: Men can never admire, never approve a deed, which they themselves are incapable of performing.

The most common greetings in Sweden is hej (hay) which they say twice and is used both as a greeting and as a farewell. In shops and other places they greet customers first and then start the conversation.

The modern Swedish marriage is based on a formula involving mutual respect and independence. Here couples are usually not married and half of the adult population leaves alone. Men and woman here are equal and claim are first in the world to achieve this. Men here also know how to push a pram and change a baby. Whereas woman take a man’s job and do it to the perfection. We had a lady driver who picked and dropped us at the airport in her big Volvo bus. She also picked our huge 20-25 kg luggage bags single handedly and put it in the bus!

To be continued…

"Till we meet Again"- a small dedication to all my Tulllinge-Tiger buddies !!

The trip has now come to an end

And we've gone our seperate way

We made a promise to meet again

Somewhere, somehow, someday

Though time din't wait for us at all

The memories are here to stay

So i write this down for all you guys

Here's something i'd like to say

We're back at home and days go by

But i miss the boat, bus and the train

And the food, different yet delicious

As good as France, Italy or Spain

But most of all i miss my friends

Leaving you caused such a pain

But i'm not so sad because i know

It's not good-bye, it's "till we meet again"

You guys were so cool with us

We truly had lots of fun

And not to forget how warm you were

We never even missed the Sun

If there was a road from here to there

I would leave everything and run

It would be great to have another chance

To do the things that we had done

Now when i look back at those days

I know they were not in vain

Each day we learned something new

Each moment we had something to gain

We wish we could do it once morre

Just once, if it is not a strain

Just to keep the promise that we made

That it's not good-bye, just "till we meet again"

Miss you guys :)

Pio :* <3

Farvä´l! Hej då! Goodbye!

Our memorable trip to Sweden ended on the 28^th of March with a dinner hosted by us at hotel Indira. All our Swedish friends who had visited us in India, along with the teachers and others who hosted us so well, attended this dinner.

At dinner, us Indians showed off our knowledge of the newly learned language, by ordering in Swedish. The Swedes had the opportunity of trying out Indian cuisine in Sweden itself! We ordered dishes like the spicy Chicken Tikka Masala, Malai Chicken Sizzler, which even for our seasoned Indian taste buds was a tad hot; I pitied the Swedes, lucky for us, the Raita and drinks saved us all!

We then celebrated Sir Tony’s birthday, with him cutting a delicious Trio Cake, and all of us relishing it! With wished him luck and all good things! God Bless you sir!

We then exchanged gifts and posed for photographs, hoping all the while that we could freeze time! Not able to do that, we chose to cherish the memories of the fortnight spent full of new experiences, friendship and interaction. And what a better memento of our time here than the lovely photo frame with a photo of all of us Swedes and Indians standing side-by-side smiles all around gifted to us! We will truly cherish it. As a token of our love and appreciation our college gave each Swede a small bag of goodies.

We bade goodbye to each other and returned back to the hostel, sad to leave, yet happy to soon return home to India. Our time in Sweden passed so quickly, yet our memories and friendships will last a lifetime! This is Dorothy Furtado saying Hej då! Goodbye Sweden!