Contrasts

It was my first time abroad and it reminded me of the many Bollywood movies shot on foreign land. I had a feeling of uneasy excitement. I wasnt able to sleep through a really long flight because I was so excited. When I landed, I took a stroll with my friend through the city center. It was a Sunday afternoon and cool and breezy and I felt as if there were absolutely no people. There was no crowded street, no honking on the road, one could easily sit along the main road and read a book. Though I had lived in a village when I was working in India, this took time getting used to.

Subway journeys in Stockholm are also really different from those in Bombay. One could see this happening on an Indian Local Train for example, but anyone who knows the Stockholm subway would be absolutely shocked to imagine this happen here! 

It is really rare to strike up a conversation with a stranger on a Stockholm Subway. In Bombay it is almost unavoidable! People also avoid eye contact in Stockholm while in Bombay you WILL find people staring at you! In fact in Stockholm, people often do not know how to react when they see people they know or have met before on the Subway.. My typical thought process goes like this now “should I go say a Hi? But he is listening to music, maybe getting into a routine before work, would I be disturbing him, plus just 2 mins for my stop, that would mean an awkward hi and an awkward bye with nothing in between, so No, just let him be!”

I have become Swedish. Now gimme a job! haha 😀