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 15th 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 18th century- the age of liberty, he explained how their parliament had members of four estate like church, peasants, noble and artisans. 19th century was marked by industrialization and 20th 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 15th to 20th 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…
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