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!

Vem vet!!!

In Sweden, we were being taught the basics of swedish language. During one of those classes we were taught a song. A Swedish song. Here are the lyrics followed by the translation. I have also posted a link to youtube where you can listen to this song.Its really a nice song.

Du är en saga för god för att vara sann
det är en saga i sig att vi funnit varann
vi kunde lika gärna
aldrig nånsin mötts
eller var vårt möte
redan bestämt långt innan vi fötts
vem vet, inte du
vem vet. inte jag
vi vet ingenting nu
vi vet inget idag
vem vet, inte du
vem vet. inte jag
vi vet ingenting nu
vi vet inget idag

Here is the translation.

you are a saga too good to be true

its a saga that we have found each other
we might as well
never have met
or was our meeting
already determined long before we were born
who knows, not you
who knows not me
we know nothing now
we know nothing toda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42JOswXMm64

Scientific reasoning!!!!!!

On our way to SWEDEN, it took us 61/2 hours to reach Stockholm(capital of Sweden) from Doha and on our way back it took us just 51/2 hours to cover the same distance.

Isn't this something interesting???

This interesting fact is supported by a scientific reason which was brought to our notice by sir Dange and something that facinated all of us.

The reason to it is that on our way from Doha to Stockholm, the aircraft faced headwind as a result of which the groundspeed of the aircraft was lowered as there was an opposing force resisting its own force.

Headwind is a wind that blows against the direction of travel of an object. A headwind reduces the object's speed and increases the time required to reach its destination. Headwinds are commonly measured in relation to the speed of vehicles - commomnly air and watercraft - as well as running events - particularly sprints.

In aeronautics, a headwind is favourable in takeoff and landings. As a result aviators and ait traffic controllers commomly choose to takeoff or land in the direction of a runway that will provide a headwind.

The opposite wind to the headwind is the tailwind that the aircraft experienced on our way from Stockholm to Doha(that is on our way back home) which increased the speed of the aircraft as it blew in the same direction as the aircraft pushing it with a force in the forward direction.

Tailwind is a wind that blows in the direction of travel of an object. A tailwind increases the object's speed and reduces the time required to reach the destination. Tailwinds are commonly measured in relation to the sped of the vehicles - commonly air and windcraft - as well as in running events - particularly sprints.

In aeronautics, a tailwind is unfavourable in takeoff and landings. As a result, aviators and air traffic controllers commonly choose to takeoff or land in the direction of a runway that will provide a headwind.

All set to go!!!

Yesterday night, at around 9:00 p.m, we began to pack our bags. Whilst packing my friends Urvi,Divya,Vibha and me were memorising all the days that we spent in Sweden.We wasted most of our time laughing at the funny moments that took place during the trip. And then finally we started serious packing at 10:00 p.m.As we were packing, we realised that we couldnot find many of our belongings especially our Tullinge sweatshirts and the Tiger T-shirts. Vibha was going crazy searching for her gloves.Finally found them on Divya's bed. Urvi was worried about her baggage overweighing because of her chocolates and ginger cookies.Me, I was going mad looking at the mess in the room and Miss divya begins packing when we are done and are prepared to sleep.So basically she did not let us aleep till she was done. Finally we fell asleep at 1:30 a.m...... Oh we enjoyed alot!!!!!!

Friends Forever!

The last two weeks here in Sweden passed with a blink of an eye. Throughout our stay here we were accompanied by our Swedish friends whenever it was possible and as a result we were able to enjoy this trip to the fullest. Some of our Swedish friends were very kind enough to even accompany us whenever we went shopping. The time spent with them will be a memorable one for all of us. Besides they also accompanied us for our bowling trip, for our boat ride, visit to the youth clinic, Bugg dancing and so on. These are the times that we will remember all our lives. It was a real close bonding between all of us and we blended real well. Our friendship began from the time we added them on facebook till the time they arrived to India for the exchange program, right upto the time we reached to Sweden . Our trip was sure an amazing one cos we made good friends... here's to friendships that last forever! Cheers.

Every morning from Stockholm central to Tullinge

As per the schedule we had to leave our hostel at 7.00 am and catch a bus at 7.16 am . We reached the Stockholm central at 7.30 am and took the 7.42 am Sodertalje train to Tullinge . We reached Tullinge station at around 8.05am and had to catch a bus to the Tullinge Gymnasium at 8.15 am at the station .

We were provided with the travelling cards . Every time we had to catch a bus or train we had to keep the card on the detector machine and then only we could enter the bus or the station .

Travelling in the bus.................

This is just a short video of how the train arrives at the Station...

Waste Management at Tullinge Gymnasium

We had a lecture on waste management conducted by Mark. He started off by telling us of his early experience with waste as a child when he tried throwing stuff out of the moving car and his mother told him what he was doing was very wrong. Since his time at the gymnasium, he has started segregation of waste into 5 types, that is, plastic, paper, glass, metal and degradable(kitchen waste).
He spoke about the role of GreenPeace in waste management and stressed on the problems faced by people living near incinerators. The people had allergies, diseases like TB, asthama, etc....

We were then taken for a tour of the gymnasium's waste management plant. First we were taken to a shed where there were large bins to be filled with plastic and paper.
Then we were taken to the basement where Mark collects literally all the waste from the gymnasium and segregates it in large bins. There are canisters with styrofoam, metal cages with cardboard, metal scrap,etc....

Mark also mentioned recycling paper and clean plastic, that is, dirty plastic with food stains washed before disposal.

The lecture was very informative and we do hope to implement some of the wonderful ideas of Mark in Goa and make our home a cleaner place to live in.

Vi Vet Bara Lite Svenska.....

Ok....there may be like two mistakes there but roughly transalated to English it means 'we know a little Swedish'. Today we had the last lecture on Swedish language at Tullinge Gymnasiet by Ma'm Anna. She managed to teach us to speak basic Swedish in just four lectures. We learnt basic words, how to introduce ourselves, some pronouns and also how to place an order at a restaurant in Swedish. some of the words or sentences she taught us are- Jäg heter gauravi, meaning my name is Gauravi, Jäg kommer from India- i come from india, hej! hur ar det? meaning hey, how are you? to which you reply..hej! Bara bra och du...meaning hey I am good, and you? and many more basic sentences. It was really fun and interesting learning the Swedish language and the teacher made it interesting by giving us some excercises to solve, some dialogues and also some home work where we had to write something about ourselves and hand it in to her. It was a part of test and the second part of the test is yet to come! today evening , at the dinner hosted by us at hotel Indira we will have to order the dishes in Swedish!! We are all looking forward to it. Swedish language is a very musical language. It has a sing-song tone which is pleasant to hear. It always helps to know one more language and though we did not get enough time to master the language we managed to learn 'bara lite svenska'!!
tack så mycket Ma,m Anna...thank you very much. :) :)

Visit to Naturhistoriska riksmuseet

Today we were given an opportunity to visit the famous Swedish Museum of Natural History.However it was just the four of us students Divya, Vibha, Anjali and myself along with our three teachers who decided to grab this opportunity and make the best of it. Here at the museum there are exhibitions to visit, lectures to attend, guided tours, short 3D films and so on. Firstly at this museum we were lucky enough to get a chance to enjoy a stunning and immersive adventure at Swedens only IMAX theatre - Cosmonova. Here films are shown on the worlds largest format on the 760 square meter dome shaped screen. The 3D movie seeen by us was Antarctica. We got to explore the highest, driest, windiest, coldest, continent on Earth, Embark on a harrowing helicopter ride through icy crevasses and towering pinnacles; dive with the first humans to swim through a crystalline cavem submerged within a glacier, drill through centuries and join a company of penguins in a graceful underwater ballet.It truly was an amazing film that lasted for around 45 mins.

After the film we went ahead to experience some of the nine permanent exhibitions about nature and man's surroundings. Some of the exhibitions included Life in water, Diversity of life, 4.5 billion years, Swedish nature, Treasures from the earths interior, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed it and i am sure we all learnt a lot from it. Im pretty sure all those who werent present for this part of it really missed a lot.Tomorrow's going to be our last day here in Sweden, wish we dint have to go back! We thoroughly enjoying our stay over here. Tomorrow we have dinner with all our Swedish friend at hotel Indira. Will brief ull about that later. Till then see ull guys .

Visit to the "EDWARD ANDERSON CONSERVATORY"

Today we visited the botanical garden with ma'am Uma and ma'am Sonia . When ,in 1936, the will of the deceased Edward Anderson was opened ,it was found that he had left his firm to the Bergius Foundation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the creating and maintaining of "a winter garden (orangery),where only trees , shrubs , and herbs of the Mediterranean area ,and of those areas having comparable climates ,are to e cultivated". This charming wish has been fulfilled with the construction and planting of this conservatory ,which was opened for visitors in June 1995. The main hall of the conservatory is dedicated to the Mediterranean area proper, It is carefully worked out with limestone rocks and terraces spreading from a small ,rectangular arden ,flagged with Italian marble.Here are brought together attractive garden flowers and the fruit trees cultivated in southern Europe as well as the interesting indigenous flora of the regions. The four corner rooms present other areas with a Mediterranean climate. One example is the Cape Province of South Africa. The terraces representing the fynbos vegetation of the tablemountains have been planted with the exquisite ericas of that area ,flowering bulbs and members of the remarkable Proteaceae family. Then we saw the miniature desert which shows the flora of the Karoo deserts situated to the north -east of teh mountains .The plants here are marvellously adapted to stand long periods of drought. The last corner room is cool all year round .This is the high altitudes of tropical mountains of tropical mountains .Here the ferns dominate.A few brilliant orchids add to the shades of green. When planning the different areas ,rocks and stone have been chosen with care to make the separate landscapes look as authentic as possible. From the terrace and balcony above there is a view over the landscapes. At the entrance you find tables and coffee drinking facilities. On the whole we liked it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Schools in Sweden

We visited a school in Sweden. The Trädgårdsstadsskolals started in 2002, is a very wonderful school. We were shown around the school and given a talk about the school by the Deputy head of the school. He told us that there is different syllabus in higher education. It is a bit of traditional and quite different. He also said that their school tries honestly to aim for a new kind of education. I was surprised to see that the classes there have wide glass doors and windows. The Deputy head explained that it was so for that the Head could see what is going all in all classing by taking a round around. He can have an insight into how lessons are taken in class. The deputy Head also appreciated the founder of the school and said that she wanted teachers teaching on her terms. He said that though other schools might have long legacy and traditions, this school had a lot of concern for their students. Like almost all Swedish schools, students get lunch in the school. In this school, all subjects are mixed into one and called as 'Projekt'. Students are given tasks to solve by applying knowledge of various subjects taught in school. There is also na subject called 'Life Knowledge' which is taught in school. They have I to IX grades in the school. The school even has subjects like carpentry, music, painting etc for students.

The cruise that we cruised

Hello ! This is our last weekend in Sweden and it was lovely for the fact that we went shopping ! The seven of us went shopping and the rest along with our teachers visited a science museum and a botanical garden.The things purchased ranged from watches to ear rings and finger rings to shoes and clothes and loads and loads and loads of chocolates ! On saturday we went cruising along the stockholm archipelago ! the cruise was from Stockholm to Vaxholm.The archipelago was picturesque,with small little islands that had lovely summer houses perched on top of them.these summer houses ranges in their architectural designs ranging from tiny little cottages to majestic castles and some modern swanky homes.Some of the islands here are Lidingö,Skurusudet,Telegrafberget etc.An exotic brunch was served onboard.The dishes ranged from Salmon to Herring and beef and an array of desserts.The desserts were a huge hit ! all of us going in for a second serving.Some of the dishes were marshmallows with chocolates,chocolate brownies,apple pie,fruit salad,chocolate mouse etc.The island that we reached was Vaxholm,ts a summer town and its a centre of the Vaxholm municipality.There is a massive fortress here that was massive. Our cruise along the acrhipelago was rather eventful and soothing.A big thank you to Tullinge gymnasium for organising this trip. Heres me signing off and hoping to get all my things packed and take in as many memories as i can in my last few hours ! cheers

Final Groupwise Project Conclusion

As I had mentioned earlier about the Swedish culture lecture by Eva, we finally finished with our group wise presentations and put them in front of the class. Each of the five groups discussed about the differences and similarities in the culture of the two countries and also the experiences of each of the two groups that visited each other.Our observations noted down included the differences in the lifestyle which mainly includes the general difference in the way we converse and appreciate others, the food habits, punctual nature of the Swedes, etc. On the whole we were given a chance to share our thoughts as well as ideas so as to know our culture better and point out the unique features of India.This lecture by Eva was a real eye opener to all of us as it gave us a chance to know more about others as well as improve our communicating ability with the Swedes. It also gave us a chance to make new friends who were a part of our groups whom were unknown to us before. Well that wasn't the end of it . We all promised Eva to discuss further about our cultural diversities whenever it was possible . Hopefully by the time of the end of our stay here in Sweden we will learn a lot from it and spread it to our fellow friends here in Goa.

Reward for our excellency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a reward for our successful programme on India Day which was held on 17th March ,Sir Dange promised us a advanced form of ballet show .
On Wednesday, 22 nd March at 7 pm ,Sir took us to the show. Only two people were performing. They started with a song and then there were comedy scenes in between . The lady in the show narrated us the story and the boy acted on the narration she did.

The concept of the programme couldn't be understood much because some parts of it were in Swedish language, but we could understand some parts like the boy was found in the deep forest and was adopted by a lady. The boy wanted to be fearless ,grow up into a man and show his step mother his capabilities .He in the end kills his step mother and becomes free from darkness.

It was amazing to see that only two performed continuously for 70 minutes .The stage setup was well planned and very well organised . The soung and light effects were well controlled .The entire auditorium was filled .Though the show had a story , it was funny in the start and took a serious mode at the end . The show ended up at 8.10pm .We enjoyed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a visit by a swedish cop

We usually ¨leave our boat hostel at 7am in the morning but yesterday we had to wake up earlier and leave the hostel at 6.25am so as to meet the police officer as per the meeting time fixed at 8.15am. The officer introduced himself as john and said that he was 28 year old. He said he is a native columbian but came to Sweden at the age of ten. Initially he was a basket coach but he wanted to be a role model to the immigrants in Sweden so he decided to be a police officer.The police officer basically explained the way local police stations operate in Sweden. Every police officer has a pepper spray, a baton and a gun which they are supposed to have only for the purpose of self defense. he said that he preferred using the pepper spray the most as it causes temporary pain. the baton or gun can inflict more pain then the pepper spray. The local police uniform in black in colour. When questioned about the crimes happening in Sweden he said that there are all kinds of crimes happening but mostly it is overspeeding that causes a problem. He said that rape and murder are not frequent crimes and most of the murder cases found are murders of people involved in the world of crime. He also mentioned that dealing with domestic crime is on the priority list of Swedish police. There are special homes provided for women who complain against domestic violence. These places are confidential places as they do not want the husbands to seek for the wives before the case has been dealt with. He also talked about the treatment given to the prisoners. they are kept in seperate rooms with proper food, given good change of cothes, required warm clothes, have doctors to treat them if they have some illness for instance diabetes. The Swedish law system does not grant bail to any prisoner what so ever the crime may be. there are about eight police stations in stockholm. He said that the media plays a big role in influencing the public opinion of police officers so they try to get in the least number of controversies.
All of us found the talk very interesting and though we were initially grumbling as we had to wake up early it was worth it!!

Finally some chemical creativity !!

Today we went to the chemistry class (my favorite) where we met Sir Christer. It was forensics today....He taught us fingerprinting...carbon fingerprinting. We learned what the different type of fingerprints were, how to pick up printd from different material...
We used Carbon powder for plain paper...dusting it with a special brush and all that and used Iron Oxide (magnetic powder) with a magnetic brush. It was an awesome sight to see...
Although we learned theory, it was more of practical stuff...we took our own prints...and finally, we had a small test...some what of an investigation. We identified different print samples into different types.
The class was so exciting that at the end everyone was fighting for the chance to write about it !!...but i managed to get here first :P woohoooo !!!....

more updates as they happen :)
Cheers...

Piology ;)

A Visit to the Mosque

Today our group of students and staff members from Chowgule college accompanied by teachers Eva and Marie and 2 student from the Tullinge Gymnasium,including Badal, paid a visit to a Turkish mosque. We arrived there in cabs and the teachers’ cars. On arrival, we were greeted by a religious leader. After taking off our shoes, as per custom, we were joined by the Imam of the mosque who escorted us to the main prayer hall. We were then provided some insight into the past or rather the history of the founder and construction of the mosque.

Then we had a very fruitful interactive question answer session about the cultural integration of the Muslim community in the Swedish society. A few of the questions asked were as follows:
What was the mosque doing in order to draw the youth to it?....they had sessions where they youth could come and speak to the Imam if they had problems.

Did they face a problem of disintegration of their culture due to the Swedish/western culture?.....kind of, when the first generation of Muslims came to Sweden, they did face problems but eventually the second and third generation assimilated into the Swedish culture and the elders accepted it.

Did they have cases of religion converts from and/or to Islam?....yes, infact one of the lady leaders of one of their groups is a Finnish lady converted from Christianity.

What did the mosque do in order to integrate their youth into the Swedish society?...they preached to them the importance of accepting the Swedish way of living as they were living in Sweden for a long time and had to continue to do so.

Did they still impose restrictions on women living in Sweden?......no it was upto the women themselves to choose to follow the traditional rules or not, but they did pray separately.

The religious mindset of people and their feeling towards religion today….....if they choose not to pray, it was entirely their concern and the mosque could do nothing about it and if they chose to deviate from their faith,that also was the individual's concern.

After our interactive session, we ended our visit on a happy and joyous note with a group photograph taken by our very own Mr. Dange.

Sweden . . Culturally 'hatke' !!

Truly, the exchange programme is helping us to unfold so many unknown things that sometimes I'm left out wondering about the way the Swedish people live & carry out thier lives so nicely, even if they are stressed about each minute, each second of time. Truly appriciable.. :)
On 18th of March, we had a class on Swedish religiosity and culture by Ma'am Hanna. She talked about Martin Luther's contribution to the promotion of the Protestantism. Then she had a conclusion saying that Swedish people, most of them, separate their lifestyle from the religion, because of the industrialisation and urbanisation. As a result, there is a substancial decrease in the people's belief in God. Hence it is found that only a few people go to the church. Having said this, she showed us with the help of a video clip, that how, with the help of various musical concerts the youth is encouraged to visit the churches all over again. Following this, she adviced us to visit a church and attend a concert just to have an idea. Thus, it was decided that we would plan to visit the same.

Sunday was the day of visit. In the evening we visited 'Mary Magdelene's Church.' To hear a concert first of all, was an unknown thing to me, since I'd never attended such a thing before. But the minute it started.. the first tone of the chorus, really touched my heart. The concert was basically a group of people and.. that was it. They didn't have any additional intrument other than the tuning bell which is normally used for identifying the base tone, in Western Classical music. The whole of their strength was their voice toning, voice modulation, and that urge of putting forth the thought behind each composition performed... For each composition they shifted themselves according to the demand of the voice required. This group was headed by one single man, who directed with his hands and the group followed and sang. I was basically mesmorised with the way it was presented. Some people in the group had such a superb base voice whereas the others were touching everyone's heart with their high pitch of the voices. They presented around 8 to 10 compositions. All worth listening, worth enjoying.

I would say, if such methods are used to attract more and more people to the church, the religiosity here has a wonderful future. :)

Philosophically 'entertaining' day!!

The day was quite usual, we got up ready, assembled at the stop, boarded a bus, then a train, then again a bus to the school. But today at the Tullinge bus stop, we met a staff member of the school who teaches Italian language in the school. Having her company, we reached at the school, and headed towards the school canteen for our breakfast. The special part began after we were done with the breakfast. We headed towards our classroom where we had a session with Adam, Juliana, and the group about the school newspaper that they have.. The Tullinge Times ! The newspaper is exactly the same like how we have our departmental newsletters, The only difference is that we have news'letters' from the different departments, and they have a common news'paper' of the school. It comes once in a month, it is also uploaded on the school website from which all the students have an access, the matter of the newspaper is edited and contributed by students, also to motivate the students to write in the newspaper, the editorial board, (as we would say) provides incentives like, a free meal at their cafetaria and so on. After having a look at their newspaper, Ma'am Sonia showed some of our departmental newsletters too. After the session, we were divided into 3 groups of 4 students and a teacher each, for an interview to publish on their upcoming newspaper. They asked us about the different experiences which we had ( and also are having) during our stay in Sweden.
Following the interview, we had a visit in their classrooms for the first time. The science students chose to go to their respective science classes, whereas I, Anjali, Gretchen and Megann, the arts students, got to attend a class in Philosophy. Urvi being a science student still came with us for the lesson since she didn't have any choice.. but, it was fun! The moment we entered the class we felt so excited because of the exciting environment, the enthusiasm and the informality (of course in a positive way) . The classroom was a small one, with a seating arrangement entirely different from ours. The classroom consisted of around 15 to 20 students, with 6 students on each of the last rows and a few of them in the middle row facing each other. At the starting when we entered, the teacher had written some questions in Swedish. After we arrived, she explained to us the questions in English. The questions were to be discussed by us in groups nd a conclusion was drawn. In the discussion, we had to describe about our morning and then explain the relationship between the things around us and our own self. Learning in such a setup was entirely a different and a pleasant experience I must say !

fun bugging!!

After visiting the hospital we went to a dancing studio in bredäng.Our ambush of tigers was accompanied by Badal, Martin and sir Tonny. We travelled by train,bus and walked a bit to reach the studio. The whole place had been decorated with paw marks which we first thought was done especially for us till we realised that it had always been like that. As soon as we reached there we started with our dance training. Sir Torgny and teacher Ulrika welcomed us and we soon hit the dance floor to dance. We were supposed to be trained for "bugg" which is a dance style of Sweden. We started by learning the beats of the dance and then gradually the dance moves got more and more complicated. We were told that the male dancer is called the leader as he is the one who makes the lady dance or leads the dance moves. Since we had only few males in our group some of the girls had to become leaders.

We started with a dance move that resembles a normal walk, but with a specific beat, rhythm, energy, and elegance.The dance steps got more and more complex and elegant as we moved from one step to the other. After we had learnt a few dance moves we saw a bugg performance by Martin who is a dancer and teacher Ulrika. It was an amazing performance everyone was stunned. Then they asked us if we could perform some Indian dance and we agreed to give a bharatnatyam performance. Urvi and myself, we danced Bharatnatyam and they appreciated our performance. It was a lovely day. It was nice to see some of our so called the non dancers dance so wonderfully.

IT at Tullinge Gymnasium

In all there are approximately 700 students in this school and there are 25 different classes held for them. Students here mainly learn natural science which is divided into 3 modules and each module further is divided to a certain number of classes. Module 1 includes pure natural science, module 2 includes programming and module 3 includes health care classes. The strength of each class is 30. As of now there are 9 class in which each student has a computer of their own provided to them by the school. They started off with this type of facility just for one class as an experiment to check out whether this facility helped improve learning or went waste. As they got better results they moved on and as Tony sir says they expect every student to get a computer of their own by the end of 2 more years.

The school has a website of its own which is https//www.vklass.se just as we do in our college. But their site is technically more like facebook wherein the students have their own profiles with the basic information. They can blog, post comments, upload pictures and even chat via this website. This website is also integrated with Microsoft, Skydrive as well as Facebook. Here the students and teachers even have an opportunity of sending messages through the guestbook which can even be personalised whenever necessary. Similar to the SMS facility available in our college, the students as well as teachers here get notifications about the recent happenings via their email ids. This website also has a link through which the teachers upload the notes of the lessons in advance, before they begin with the particular lesson so that the students come prepared for the class. Besides it also provides the students who are absent or unable to attend the lecture the ability to access the notes and get a good insight in it. Students also have the benefit of getting their attendance records, marksheets as well as their time table on this site. Besides this the parents also have certain abilities like they can acesss a separate site providing the necessary details of their ward and thereby can also be in touch with the teachers about the progress of their children.

STUDENTS' COUNCIL OF TULLINGE GYMNASIUM

Today we had an interaction session with Mr.Johalles Yayo,the President of the student council of Tullinge Gymnasium.The students' council in Tulllinge Gymnasium consists of 50 members.These members are elected from the classes.Two students from each class are elected.The students' council here brings the information from the class to the Head of the school.So basically it works for the Headmaster.In Tullinge Gymnasium, the council has 7 students as the Head, namely:
(1)President
(2)Vice President
(3)Secretary
(4)Vice Secretary
(5)Financial pesrson
(6)Vice Financial person
(7)Member
Their responsibility is to perform all the actions and carry out the entire system.The elections for the council are conducted once in a year.They have a separate sports council which has its own head.But the student council does help it financially.They have meetings with the whole council to talk on issues like environment,teachers,classes,Principal,traditional activities.They have meetings with the Head of the council and with the Head of the school as well to discuss on major issues like smoking,selling coca cola etc.The council here has various departments like
(a)The Environment department.
(b)The Examination depatment.
These are independent departments which consists of students alone, no teachers are involved.The Examination department decides the exam dates, as in they are given the right to choose a date from the given dates.Here,all the programmes are decided by the Principal.An organisation named SEKU,supports the council by providing 40 Kr to each member of the council and the school provides 7000 Kr. Out of this entire money, one third is given to the Examination department and the remaining money is used to buy presents like stationery, to put up games in the cafeteria and for decorations.The types of events that are organised by the students' council here are:
(a)Haloween
(b)Hat day - on this day, every student brings his\her own hat or can buy it since they are sold by the council members especially on that day and wear it for the whole day.
(c)Hip hop trousers day-on this day the students wear the hip hop pants.
(d)Christmas
(e)Valentine's day
(f)Programme exchange day where in each student exchanges his\her subject with the other student.
The lectures are not called off during the events except for the Programme exchange day.Therefore they conduct events which do not let the students miss classes.

A thousand reasons to live life...happily!!!!

hey guys!!! its me again!!!
well today, we were all divided into 4 groups. and we visited different social care centres.each group consisted of 3 students accompanied by a teacher.Eva, Merel, Pio,and myself comprised one of the 4 groups. And we visited 'Hja"rnskadeenheten' ......a activity centre for those with acquired brain damage. we were eager to meet the people there-
The moment we entered the place, we were greeted by the sweet lady incharge(sadly i cannot remember her name) .We had a warm welcome by a some of the few people here. And spoke about loads of stuff , while enjoying delicious freshly cooked cinamon buns and sipping hot tea. We shared a lot of stuff, regardin´g social centres in india, educational systems¨and so much.
After that showed she us around. we came across the different ways in which the people there spend their time in positive way ....and that includes some work, some music for the soul and some time shared with each other.
She showed us the music room where there were provisions for a specially abled person to play the drums ánd other instruments, the music part here is considered very important since , the institution and the incharge people there believe that music can sooth their mind which in turn enhances their thinking capacity. And it has shown some really positive effects.
Also she showed us around the working areas . There was glasswork room where i saw one of the person and the incharge there helping him out ....what caught my eye was the smile and the serene grace that flowed between the two...a bond of understanding.
And we also came ácross the sewing room and the wooden handicraft making room....it gave u a feeling that there are so many ways in which you can utilise your time , believe in your talents and ´create something really beautiful!!!
And finally we enetered the shop! and my oh my!"!!!! with all due respects, this shop was better than any of the souvenir and other top notch shops i visitetd in sweden, and i have a reason to support this......i found sincerity , creativity and the stuff there was so cute!!! so cute!!! i hope my pictures of this stuff tells you what i mean to say.
Merel , Pio and myself got a lot of stuff! !! A lot!!!! Merel says that the shopping she did there is enough for the whole trip! yeah lol!!! I guess it was!! I picked up some cute stuff too!!! And it was really generous of the lady there(sorry! still cant remember the name!) , to give us one item each for free...she said it would remind us of the time we came here!!! how sweet is that!!!
Oh and , the number of people working there is quite limited...9 employees and 22 clients...but that small number is the main reason why there is so much affection and togetherness among the people there...
And thaT´´s the beauty of it!!!
Honestly this ´was one of the best visits i'v had so far!!!
And not forgetting my crazy pals , merel and pio....had a blast with you guys!!
And eva , ´really happy to have you with us!!! always a pleasure!!!
Thats it for todaý!!!
Adios....until the next post!!!

Visit to day care center - Vaxtrum

After a wonderful class on Swedish language with Ma'am Anna and Sir Antonio, we were divided into groups of three each during our lunch break. We got quite curious about the whole thing as to why were we divided suddenly out of no where, into small groups like these.. but then, never mind! We came to know that once we got into the class. Basically we were visiting three separate day care centers spread over Stockholm. And our group, which comprised of Dorothy ,Vibha and myself and our Swedish friend Badal Hossain went with Tove Virtanen to Vaxtrum Day Care Center which is situated right in front of Tullinge Gymnasium campus. This day care center is approximately 7 years old and comprises of 11 employees and 17 clients. Easily it seems like it is a part of the Gymnasium, but it's not. As we entered inside, Tove guided us to the first floor of the center. The floor consisted of the personal rooms of the clients who were physically and mentally disabled. The day care center basically looks after and takes care of clients who are very low at their intellectual level . We were told that these clients have a difficulty in carrying out even basic motor skills like sorting items, counting, etc. The main objective of the day care center thus follows to make them able to conduct themselves with the basic motor activities till the age of 65. The age factor comes here just because of a wonderful system which they follow. The clients here join at the age of 20, that is, just after they finish their school, and they can be there till the age of 65, the actual retiring age for a normal citizen in Sweden. Thus, this becomes as a workplace for such clients. Even such, that some of the rare clients, who can talk, say that they go to work in the center.She showed us different rooms having setups according to the requirements of each client such as they have weaving machine , paper shreading machine ,paints, etc . At the end of the day there is a special bus which drops these clients to their respective homes . At homes they are given similar treatment wherein they have personnel to see to their needs.
We had a lovely time knowing about the facilities provided for the clients and the way the employees work for them with a fun loving ,warm and non judgemental attitude.

Social Care in Botkyrka Municipality

Today,Ma'am Tove Virtanen and Sir krister Nilsson introduced to us the Law on special support and service which states that
(1) people with intellectual disabilities,autism or autistic spectrum disorders
(2)people with brain damage(acquired as an adult)
(3)people with permanent physcial or intellectual disabilities that are not caused by ageing are provided with special support and services.
This law provides
(a)specially adapted accommodation
(b)day centre
(c)an attendant who is employed to accompany them.
We were divided into four groups of three each and our group comprised of Kaushik ,Urvi and Anjali guided by Ma'am Uma Masur and our Swedish friend Sana Alia Rehman.We got an opportunity to visit THE HALLUNDA DAY CARE CENTRE .This is an activity centre for those with a medium and small need of care.The type of work here includes Chocolate making,painting and working with ceramic,music,theatre,working with recycled paper,making bags,accessories,stitching and gardening.There are 18 employes and 30 clients here.There are professional dramatists who come here once in month to work with the clients there and the drama is telecasted on the television.Recently they went to Finland for their latest drama based on Faries.The paintings are put up for an exhibition and are sold for a good price.The special artists were interviewed by national level journalists.Annually they have their concert. The most amazing part of this day care centre is that the special people do not need an attendant.They move out of the centre and come back on their own.There are some other small jobs that the people do here like ironing, collecting the mails for the centre and sometimes washing their own dishes.We've seen special people between the age group of 22-65.And we've got to know that these people can go back to their home after the age of 65 but oy wish only if they to.The main objective of this day care centre is to make the people here independent and live a normal life.The goodies that are made here are sold at the store which is a part of the centre.the centre gives care taking training as well.This centre has a cafeteria.The employes here prepare pastries to be sold at the cafeteria.As a token of love,the care centre gave us some chocolates.

uploaded by: ANJALI MEHTA and URVI KHANDEPARKER

The cuisine so far !!

Hej hej
firstly let me say that our stay in sweden had been awesome ! its the best thing that we have ever done ! I am part of the culture ambush and i am quite keen to know more about the swedish cuisine and hence i have been asked to focus more on the Swedish cuisine.Pretty soon I will be interviewing the head of the cooking staff and a couple of others to know more about the cuisine and the traditional dishes.
We start our day with a rather fullfilling breakfast consisting of ham,turkey,cheese,tomatoes,cucumbers,bellpeppers,boiled eggs(hard boiled or soft boiled),cereals with yogurt or milk and dry friuts,juices,a varity of jams and breads,coffee or tea.The breakfast here is filling and nutritious and provides us energy to hit the streets stockholm,we walk a lot here say roughly nothing less then 8 kilometers a day !The swedish cuisine has incorporated variuos aspects from the diverse people living here.hence our lunch is varied.we usually have our lunch at the gymnasium,some of the dishes here are pasta with sauce,risotto,a kind of chicken saute etc .we usually have dinner at around 6.30-7.00 at Kungshallen,which is a food court that serves cuisines from around world like Lebanese,Thai,Indian,Mexican,Chinese,Italian etc.the Thai food court is a favourite amongst our clan!
On our second night here in Sweden we were invited to a dinner hosted by Tullinge gymnasium.This dinner consisted of authentic swedish food like raw salomon and smoked salmon,but what set my taste buds ablaze was the variety of herrings served ! the food not only looked pleasing to our eyes but they equally pleased our taste buds.There were hard boiled eggs topped with shrimps and some cheese.Another interesting dish was the parmesan cheese salad with some seasoning.I was quite fascinated by the variety of breads offered at th gymnasium,a Turkish bread called pitta was lovely.
When we visited Skansen,an open air museum that showed a little bit of the architecture from different parts of sweden we had an oppurtunity to relish on typical Swedish MEATBALLS ! lucky aren't we ? this is a dish I have eagerly been looking forward to.It consists of meatballs made from both beef and pork accompanied by boiled potatoes,a creamy sauce and lingonberry jam with some garnish.the vegetarian option contained of typical swedish pancakes......

heres me signing off and hoping to taste some more amazing food when in Sweden...

titbits about our temporary abode in Sweden.......:)

Havent you,ll found something missing on the blog?? We,ve been in Sweden for a week and yet there is no description of the lovely boat hostel we live in!! we live in a youth hostel named Chapman which is situated at a lake-side..the view from the hostel is amazing and breathtaking. there are snow white swans and ducks swimming in the sparkling clear water and the the city is studded with ancient style buildings. the view is really a treat to the eye.There are three types of rooms here. ones which can accomodate six people, ones which can accomodate four people and ones which can accomodat two people. all the rooms have cute bunk beds and a table and chairs and a basin. the funny part is, we thought the basin is for freshening up but actually the water is mostly used for drinking purpose. that is one thing we have noticed here. the washroom waters are also considered drinkable! to such an extent that i actually noticed plastic cups next to the washroom basin at the national museum of art. anyway, coming back to the hostel......the level of ceanliness and hygiene and order here is amazing. the hostel has seperate toilets and bathrooms. there are some bathroomms which are only for girls, some only for boys and some for boys and girls. the same goes for toilets too. the hostel has a reception which is situated in a seperate building which is not a part of the ship. it is also a cafeteria with wifi facility and three computers in the vicinity.All the guests can avail for the wifi facility on their personal laptops and all you blog readers must thank the hostel owner for that as we are able to upload blogs frequently only ´because of the convenient wifi facility. we also had breakfast at the hostel this weekend. The system is amazing. One needs to buy a coupon and the breakfast is kept in a buffet form. The Dishes usually kept for breakfast are three different types of cereal, two berry jams, boiled eggs, ham, turkey, butter, cheese,cucumber, tomato, capsicum, raisins, yogurt and bread. The beverages served are coffee, tea, orange or apple juice and milk too. You just have to serve yourself and then segregate your own crockery and cutlery and glasses in stacks and then it washed hygienically in a dish wahser. The same system is followed at tullinge gymnasium and also at almost all the restaurants in Sweden. All in all this hostel is nothing less then a paradise for us and the ambience around here has definitely added towards making our experience a truly unforgettable one.

Our visit to the Royal Armoury..

We reached the Royal Armoury after walking along the beautiful lake with swans and other ducks.The Royal Armoury shows five centuries of Swedish Royal history.Most of the exibits were made for and belonged to the Swedish royal family from Gustav Vasa to the present king Carl XVI Gustaf.Let me mention some of the most amazing things we saw in each room of this museum.

The 1st room i.e. room A had Charles XII's uniform in it.The 1 which he wore when he died in Norway.The fatal bullet hole can be seen on the left side of the hat and one can see blood stains on da gloves.In room B we had a lool at the Count Bielke's early 18th century armoury at Tureholm Castle.
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Room C was just so photogenic! It had armours of both men as well as horses and weapons.A showcase on the wall containing ornamental time pieces belonging to the royalty.CharIles XII's gold watch grabbed everyone's attention!This watch was made in london in 1700.It wa sstolen from the royal Armouryin 1968 anf vanished for over 30 years. Then it was bought by this musems when it came up for sale.

Room D had crown princess Victoria's gown and Gustav III's costume.The royal nursery contained toys and clothing of the princes and the princesses which were exibited in Room E.
Room F had some head gears and some similar clothes. We took pictues in all the possible poses withem thoseclothes.

truely enjoyed todays day!

Saturday,19th of March

This weekend we did not go to school as usual instead in the morning we visited Skansen which is the first open museum and zoo in Sweden and is located on the island Djurgarden in Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius (1833-1901) to show the way of life in different parts of Sweden before the industrial era. On entering the park,there is an Aquarium, the park leads to a children's carousel area and then to the Swedish living part of history buildings and Scandinavian animals. Within houses and farmstead buildings, historical interpreters dressed in period clothing demonstrate and explain to visitors the traditional Swedish activities, such as spinning wool, weaving, pottery, bread- making and crafts. We had a lovely experience all the way through getting a view of all the traditions, cultures and life in Sweden. Later on for lunch we had the traditional swedish lip smacking food- Meat balls with cream sauce and lingonberry jam. We all had a lovely change to the tempting swedish food.

Later on after our tour through most part of Skansen we went to visit the famous national museum that is pretty close to the place we live. Sweden's leading museum of art and design has collections of contemporary paintings, sculptures,drawings and graphics plus applied art and design right up to present day.It was a lovely evening, where we also had a good glance of history and architecture of the museum itself. It truly was a lovely experience for all of us.

This saturday ended on a high note wherein all of us were taken to 'Food Court' and we were given a chance to choose from a variety of cuisines including Swedish, Thai, Mexes.ican, Indian, etc. We all ate to our hearts content and returned back to the ship all tired and sleepy awaiting the next days visit to Gamla Sthan. C ull soon with some further updates.