Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook341 pages4 hours
The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Pradyumna Kumar, known as PK, was born into a poor, untouchable family in a small village in eastern India. All his life he has kept a palm leaf bearing an astrologer’s prophecy: You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not from the district, not even from our country; she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox.” But not until PK attends art school in New Delhi do his stars begin to align. One evening, while drawing portraits in a park, he meets a young Swedish woman, Lotta von Schendin and this brief meeting will change the courses of their lives forever.
This is the remarkable true story of how a young Indian man armed with nothing more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand Raleigh bicycle made his way across Asia and Europe in search of the woman he loves.
This is the remarkable true story of how a young Indian man armed with nothing more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand Raleigh bicycle made his way across Asia and Europe in search of the woman he loves.
Unavailable
Author
Per J Andersson
Per J Andersson is a writer and journalist. He is the co-founder of Sweden’s most well-known traveller’s magazine Vagabond, and has been visiting India for the last 30 years. He lives in Stockholm.
Related to The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love
Related ebooks
Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love: 'You won't find any other love story that is so beautiful' Grazia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Man of Green Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tongue-Cut Sparrow: A Japanese Folktale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winter Witch: Season of the Witch, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Silhouettes of Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Norristown Chronicles: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNarrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle Wolves: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fruit Thieves Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWoodland Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesiderium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe End of a Beginning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Purpose of Life: An Essay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYani and the Knapper - The Journey: Saga of Yani, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThere’S Always Tomorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Issue 95: The Dark, #95 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemory of Water: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bozuk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe River's Daughter (The Soul Survivors Series, Book 4) Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Moonlight: Tales of Stardust, #0.5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRenditions of My Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Am Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReengineers, The Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret of the Oracle: An Ancient Greek Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCircus of the Queens: The Fortune Teller's Fate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Lands: Camberdice and Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beast That Never Was Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Serendipity Road: between heaven and hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLand of Love and Ruins Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5They Thirst Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solutions and Other Problems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bad Mormon: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love
Rating: 3.328125125 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
32 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In writing you want the reader to be grabbed within the first few sentences so they want to keep reading. It's pretty impressive when that intrigue happens with the title of the book before the reader even gets the cover open. A man rode a bicycle from India to Europe for love? Now that's a story I'd like to read. Unfortunately that's not exactly the bulk of the story told in Per J. Andersson's piece of long form travel journalism/history/biography here. Instead it's a blend of Indian history with a heavy emphasis on the caste system and the plight of the Dalits (untouchables) through the eyes of one man who eventually followed the woman he loved to Sweden.Padyumna Kumar (known as PK) was born in a small village in India. His family were Dalits and this fact colored every day of his life, from school to worship to others' treatment of him in general. Despite the many, many road blocks placed in his path, PK was intelligent, artistic, and determined so he moved to New Delhi in search of a better life and perhaps also in search of the woman mentioned in the prophecy made when he was just a baby that declared he would marry a woman from far away, outside the country. Andersson tells of PK's life in the capital, occasionally veering from it to tell of a young Swedish girl, Lotta, who had a fascination with and a pull towards India. The bulk of the story, however, is not Lotta's life, it is PK's, which weaves in the injustice and inequity in the social system in India but also shows the incredible experiences and helping hands that PK found in progressive and friendly people as he eked out a living in New Delhi and as he eventually sets off on his bicycle to reunite with Lotta.The book has a long, slow build-up that made it unfortunately easy to put aside in lieu of other reading. It also seems to be unable to decide if it is the story of a poor Dalit artist in a slowly changing India or a love story or a history or a travelogue. It has elements of all of these, leaving the book to feel unfocused and clumsy. Perhaps this is a function of the translation but I suspect not. This is a true story and should have all the nuance of a good non-fiction work but it doesn't really. PK is the best fleshed out while Lotta lacks the depth to be the real person she is and their love is presented as almost fait accompli simply because it's fated. It is supposed to be such a strong love that PK chooses to hop on his bicycle to find her many thousands of miles away and yet there's little given to the reader to actually show how that love came about. There is a lot of the book to get through before PK starts out on his crazy journey but the actual journey and his life in Sweden with Lotta are given fairly short shrift in the end. I don't know whether I wanted a more sweeping love story or a deeper history or a more detailed travelogue but that is perhaps the biggest problem with the book: it gives you just a tiny bit of each and none of them stand on their own as complete in the end.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very interesting book that tells the story of Pradyumna Kumar, an artist from an oppressed untouchable community in Orissa, India who followed his prophecy to live in a new world, never dreamt of before. The book is simply written and very easy to read. It is a good way to learn about all the implicit and explicit ways a person's caste is perceived and treated in India. It doesn't hold back any details. Although initially, it sounds more like a third person narrative, by the middle of the book you start relating with PK. His adventures are extraordinary but believable. You learn about the lives of the westerners on the hippie trail in the 1970s. It's real and genuine, because of the successes and failures we see in PKs life. My favorite parts are understanding the naivete of the main character, his honest and true love for his Lotta. I would definitely recommend this book to someone keen to learn about the caste system in India, from the perspective of someone growing up in a rapidly 'developing' and 'modern' country and yet facing the systemic challenges that have plagued society for millennia. It doesn't romanticize it or commercialize it like movies such as Slumdog Millionaire.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I received a free copy of the ARC of this book through the LTER members give-away. I therefore can only base my opinion on the ARC I read. The first thing to note is that I really missed having a map of the location and traveling route that is set mainly in India. I also noted that at the end of the book is a long section for a "photo album" - this was also blank in the ARC. I wish publishers would try to include these items in the previews that the want rated.The book itself wasn't too bad, but also not very exciting. The fact that it is based on a true story is very nice. However, it was more than halfway through the book before the main character (PK) actually started his travels on his bike (which he only used part of the way!) from India to Sweden. That was not what I expected from a book with the above title! Would I buy it? Probably not! Would I watch the movie? Probably!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good book but too easy to put down. It took a long time to complete.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Simple beach read
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book gave valuable insights into the life of a typical Indian boy. The information about the caste system was fascinating, and how it influences the choices available for education and life.I would have liked more information about the woman and why he was so in love with her, as he hardly knew her; or his other motives for going to such ends to get to her.