The Farmhouse Night

Alas! The last day in Goa had arrived for the Swedish students and faculty. The day started off with the usual yoga and Zumba as one class with a highly qualified yoga instructor directing us. after our yoga session, the Swedes were given time to feshen up and were then served with the usual ndian breakfast of puri Bhaji, parathas etc. in our world famous Michellin starred college canteen. Just kidding. HAHA! As everyone finished up with their breakfast, they were then alloted a time of two hours so they could rehearse their cultural presentation which was to be presented to our exchange students and faculty! The moment for the Swedes to shine ( they were already so fair anyway) and showcase their culture and traditions all the way from Sweden had arrived. The presentation was indeed very well explained to us with the Swedes performing a traditional hymn called  "Santa Lucia" and a powerpoint presentation telling us about various Swedish traditions, rituals, weather pattern,culture and what to expect and tick off or bucket lists when we arrive in Sweden. We held a small quiz too. The program concluded with the each student sharing their own experiences along with the rest of us and making those moments really memorable ones. The Swedes are like the Master Guru at making Candy. I don't know how they do it or what they conjure , they make fine ass candy.This also very much depends on how nice your Swedish host was. The next thin we know, the Swedes had the exact Sweet surprise up their sleeves as they distributed different types of candy from tiny ass chillies covered in Licorice to really salty candy to tiny sweet gummie bears. We then proceeded towards Canteen for the lunch of the day.It was then time for us to return with our guests and prepare for the evening to come while some of us proceeded to Colva beach for some shopping.
Most of the guests got themselves sleek Sherwani's and Saree's and got all geared up and met back at the college at around 7. The theme for the Swedish for the evening was Traditional Indian while it was western(normal people clothes) for us. We then headed to Benaulim to a restaurant named '' The Farmhouse" where a dinner was set for us by Mr. Umaji Chowgule who hosted us for the evening. Everyone danced to the occasional disco tune and also the the extravagant dance called " DA PENGUIN DANCE" which was a trending song at the time( it just hapens sometimes and we do not realise why or how Sigh*) Everyone had a great time as we had our dinner and bid good night to each other. Everyone's evening did end on a pretty high note ;)

25th april 2016 Day 5

As usual the day started with the breakfast in the morning at 8 am. The schedule said that we were going to visit a home for disabled people. We all were excited about this. We all started thinking about the disabled homes in India.
After the breakfast, at 9 , the bus arranged by the swedish people was waiting for us. It took about an hour to reach our destination. The disabled home looked very small from outside. But it was really very big and very nice inside.

A lady named Anna was guiding us. When we were just taking a look at the house, we saw an old man on a wheelchair. He was not able to talk directly. But he tried to communicate with the staff in his own way.
The first thing he did was greeted us saying a 'Hello'. As in typing a Hello word on his computer. This was really surprising and impressive for all of us.
There were 6 disabled people in the house. They really had maintained the disabled house very well.
The disabled kids were sent to school for a different experience and so on.
After leaving from there, we all had lunch in tullinge gymnasium.
After lunch we all started walking to the pre school in stockholm. The school seemed to be very big. The staff gave a small talk as an introduction. After having coffee there, we were divided into two groups. Attending maths lecture or the religious lecture. In the maths lecture, the students were of 9th grade. Surprisingly they could use their mobile and a calculator for each and every calculations. Then they asked us about our way of teaching and the way of studies in india.
After that we all went for the dinner in Mc Donalds. And then returned to our hostel safely.

21st april 2016 Day1 sweden

It was our last minute in Goa, where all the instructions were given, for how to go about into our new destination that is sweden.
Goa airport-
We had to arrive on the Airport by 1.30am. All of us were so excited. We entered the airport, our luggage was checked in. We all were feared for what if something goes wrong, weight may exceed, and fear of loosing anything back. But it was a smooth route all along.
Entering the plane was a dream come true for some of us. As it would be our first time to travel by air. The plane facilities provided by Qatar airways were extremely good. We all felt comfortable. We all were asleep and when we opened our eyes, the view of Doha from air was really beautiful. Doha airport was really amazing. It was so big that to go from one end to another. Our waiting time was done. We then checked in the plane to go to sweden. It was just few more hours and then we would b in sweden. Just before landing, the view of sweden was extremely beautiful and amazing. Its trees, bare land houses,  building were so cool. Its roads were so clear and amazing.
The pilot gave us the details of the weather out. It was so cold and chilling, but the warmth of our excitement kept us warm and filled with joy. Stepping out of the airport was a suprise waiting for us. Our sweden friends were there to welcome us with open hearts. It was the first thing that brought a big smile on our faces. We all were very excited and very happy to meet them after such a long time. Then we were taken to our hostel named Zinkensdamm by bus.
Four us were given one room. We all, settled ourselves in the room and finally  our first day in sweden came to an end after the dinner at 6.30pm.

1st Outing in Sweden

The morning of 23rd April was full of surprises and excitement. It was our first outing in Sweden. Our hosts had planned a lot of interesting stuff for us. We all basically wanted to go for shopping so we exchanged money and walked through the streets of Central Stockholm. We first came across the  St. Klara's Church. This is a huge monument with beautiful architectural designs reflecting back to the 16th century. This is one of the oldest churches of Sweden located in central Stockholm.

 

The St. Klara's Church

 

 

      We then paid a visit to the king's garden, kungstradgarden as it is locally called. This was breathtaking. The beautiful pink cherry blossoms covered the sky like a carpet.

                                                                                                                                                                   

 We did a lot of purchasing from the shops in old town (Gamla Stan). We walked across the bridge to get a view of the whole city.

 

 

The trip was just not limited to shopping. We got a wonderful experience and I completely agree with a quote by Martin Buber that " All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware".

       Wherever you go, selfie is a must 😜

   The amazing academic exchange family.

Nasta Gamla Stan

 Gamla Stan (The Old Town)

Day 3 started off really well, we took a train by ourselves to Kungshallen to see the flea market but unfortunately it wasn't there on a Saturday, so we did the next best thing, SHOPPING!!. The group scattered away to explore the new place. We hit Sweden's and one of the world's biggest clothing brand H&M. We moved from one shop to another buying even the most unnecessary things on the way because ..well..let's face it who doesn't love an arm full of shopping bags.

Other than the materialistic shopping, a few of us ended up buying luscious strawberries as well.

We obviously got a little delayed, snacked really quick at the Kungshallen food court and rushed to catch a train to Gamla Stan.

Gamla Stan, the Old Town, is one of the largest and best preserved medieval city centers in Europe, and one of the foremost attractions in Stockholm. This is where Stockholm was founded in 1252. The town dates back to the 13th century, and consists of medieval alleyways, cobbles streets, and archaic architecture.
Just as we started moving around with out guide it started raining. Chilly rain but that didn't stop us.

We walked for a good 2 hours, but each lane or house was better than the previous one. We walked on their cobble stone leg aching paths but hey, no pain no gain right?.  It just happened to be Sweden's Cultural Day that meant, we got to enter museum and art galleries ..FOR FREE!. The entire group made it till the Cherry Blossoms after which my room mates and I decided to stay back and explore further. We halted a bit to warm ourselves with hot tea and proceeded to see the place. We went into art galleries and saw their perspective of life and art. We made is to the Opera House and juuuust missed the Alice in Wonderland Opera by a minute. The architecture in the Opera House caught my breath.
We left Gamla Stan around 18:30 and had our dinner at the most homey little Italian pizzeria.

Art Galleries in Gamla Stan

Ducks we tried to play with

Inside the Opera House

Gamla Stan, Outside the Opera house

 

We took a train by ourselves and the 3 of us returned back to the hostel with our stomachs very full and hearts very content, we got back around 20:30 and it was 3 degrees, but the cold never bothered us anyway.

Gamla Stan

The narrowest alley

Cherry Blossoms

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Day 4 was just as remarkable as all of the other days, if not a bit more exciting. Why, you may ask? Oh let's just say we were blessed with the temperature hitting a mind-blowing -2°c and snow coming down on us! You can just imagine the excitement as some of the students experienced snowfall for the very first time! Following is a short clip taken from the inside of a candy shop in 'Hotorget'. 

Come morning, the Athena group, along with members of faculty, went to 'Hotorget' where we visited a flea market that displayed on sale all the local produce, along with apparel and other items. 

If heaven was a dish, this would be it.
-Thai lunch at Kungshallen Food Court.

After a quick Thai lunch at the Kungshallen Food Court, we proceeded to visit the Natural Science Museum and later, the Botanical gardens along with the Natural Science students. 

Paint the town yellow!
-One of the many beautiful views at the Botanical Gardens.

We then returned to the hotel, only to freshen up so that we could visit 'Sofia Church' in order to experience the soothing and marvelous singing by Åsa and her group. After that, we walked to the nearest food court, gobbled up a scrumptious dinner and headed back to the hotel. All in all, day 4 was hectic yet fun-filled!

'Exquisite' doesn't do justice while describing just how beautiful this Church was!
The magnificent Sofia Church.

ASSISTED LIVING in Sweden - an exchange of ideas

ASSISTED LIVING in Sweden

|from an exchange of ideas|

On one of our very first study visits during our sojourn in Stockholm, we were welcomed into a well maintained house with immaculate decor in a suburb of the Botkyrka commune. This was one of the many units set up for “Assisted Living” for Persons with Disabilities, as the revolutionary new system adapted by Sweden is named. Starting with a pilot project in ’87, this grew to be an incredibly well managed system to normalise, to whatever extent possible, the lives of the differently abled. With an extensive mention in the Social Services act and the LSS (Act for persons with Certain Functional Impairments), there seems to be a great amount of research and expertise that has gone into the formulation of this policy. The guiding idea behind assisted living was that it should promote equality in living conditions and full participation in community life for those (with significant and permanent impairments). The objective is to make it possible for the individual in question to live as others do. This is based on respect for an individual’s right to self-determination and privacy.

The residence we visited housed six persons, with three assistants, not all of whom work every day. They spoke to us about how they go about assisting the residents, and the things they do to help them be as independent as they can. Sweden, unlike our own country, has a highly individualistic society – with great importance being placed on independence and self-sufficiency. Children move out by 18-23 years of age, but for persons with disability, this would not be practically possible before. And consequently, most would have no choice but to be institutionalised, or if the family continued to house them, they’d invariably feel like an immense burden. They did not, then, feel respected by the community, leaving them continuously conscious of contempt from the apparently more capable counterparts. This was a vicious cycle which researchers and policy makers seemed to have realised, and very effectively overturned. We also got to know that just like everyone else, the persons with disabilities go to work daily. There are ‘daily activity centres’ set up for this, where the persons with relatively severe disabilities receive therapy and sensory-motor training, and the ones who can, work on making a variety of items and so on. The ‘work’ is thus what they can do to the best of their ability, and self-improvement is considered work too. Thoughtful, is it not?

However, as intelligent as it is, it seems as though the emergence of a similar setup is not even close in the line of vision for our own country, for more reasons than one. Firstly, it is a huge cost on the economy. In Sweden, it is estimated to come upto 5 billion USD per annum, and together with the benefits and social services for these individuals, it takes up about 1% of the GNP and 2% of public expenditure. Definitely not feasible for a country in an awkward, off-balance middle-stage of developing that ours is. It also requires quite a lot of technological support, and well-trained staff. In Sweden, cuurently, about 20,000 people receive personal assistance, and this is 0.2% of their fairly low population. In India, if the criteria to provide it were maintained, the number of beneficiaries would shoot up exponentially, further extending the financial requirements. But one thing to remember is that the concept grew out of their societal and cultural norms, to allow persons with disabilities to live the same way as other adults. Indian society is nowhere near as individualistic. For most part, anyway. Notwithstanding the new age metropolitan lifestyle among younger urban circles, much of the Indian population lives with very collective, community-based values. Moving out at twenty is not a norm here as it is in Sweden – where, failing to do so would definitely cause someone to be extremely conscious of their incapacity to construct and sustain their own separate life, making them feel like a burden on their parents. All the same, that does not imply that it is not required here, it simply means that its implementation and structural details would have to be a little different here. It simply would need to be tweaked in places, modified to suit the Indian style of living and the group-based culture typical of the eastern countries.

As of now, Goa too is working hard for persons with disabilities. We have specialised units, mostly private, providing guidance and assistance and catering to a variety of therapeutic needs, but this is focused on persons still in the developmental age. The state, as of now, seems to be concentrating its efforts mostly on the education of children with special needs, and on general disability-friendly measures that would reduce the obstacles in day-to-day public life of the disabled. For the adult side, the state has reservations in public employment, lifetime pension benefits and such, but we are a long way off from building a uniform, national framework for independent living of these adult individuals with state support. 

SWEDEN EXCHANGE PROGRAMME-2016 (20th April -04th May)