Swami Madhava Chaitanya,
Love gave a new pain to PK's life. In the past untouchability, discrimination and poverty were the cause of pain. Now love became the cause of pain. PK realized that separation can cause great pain. The only relief was the letters written by Charlotte which he received occasionally. PK's friends or relatives did not take his marriage very seriously. They thought it was just a joke of a foreign woman. They decided she would not return to India. But for PK the marriage was not like a joke. It was his life. PK wrote to Charlotte that the pain of separation is unbearable. PK wrote that he wanted to travel to the Swedish textile town Boras to meet her.
She offered a flight ticket to PK. Charlotte wrote to him to use the flight journey to Sweden. but PK refused to accept her offered flight ticket. PK informed her that he would be traveling to Sweden at his own expense. After nearly one and a half years of their separation finally, PK decided to travel to Sweden. Later PK said: "We were together 2-3 weeks and then she left. For one and a half years we didn’t meet. We kept in touch by letter but eventually, I thought it was time to take the first step". But the time apart only strengthened PK resolve to see his love again, and in January 1977 he wrote to Von Schedvin telling her of his plan to cycle to Sweden and make her his wife.
One day, PK felt like he had enough of the long-distance relationship and decided to go to Sweden to meet Charlotte. He sold everything he owned and bought a second-hand bicycle. He didn't look back and set off on a journey to Sweden, with an eighty dollar cash in hand and a second-hand bicycle he decided to travel – a mammoth 3,600 km journey spanning eight countries and taking over four months to complete.
New Delhi to Sweden by road! Pk used the same route used by Alexander the Great for the invasion of India. PK the love bird used the same route in quest of his lady love sans any sword or lethal weapons, but his canvass and painting brush. He was also not on horseback rather on his second-hand bicycle.
PK passed Amritsar- Punjab from New Delhi. He entered Pakistan and arrived in Afghanistan. From that, his route led through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, and Austria until he arrived at the border of Denmark. PK was not alone in that route at that time. At that time this route was famous for the Hippie Trail. It was a trek that saw tens of thousands of young people in an attempt to find enlightenment, inner peace, or just a rollicking good time.
These were the hippies, the overlanders; young men, and women who wanted to understand the world and their place in it. Popular from the mid-1960s to the late-1970s, the "Hippie Trail" stretched from India through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and former Yugoslavia to Europe. At that time travelers didn't need a visa, and the region was safe and stable. Colorful tour buses departed regularly from London to Goa. The 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution and December 24th, 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan would shortly terminate this popular route for nearly all travelers. This path is unimaginably dangerous in the present day in which we live. Pk's 1977 excursion was fortunately free of strife.
Though some days PK cycled up to 70km, PK admitted later he got lifts wherever possible – "Sometimes you'd get two or three hitchhiking offers and you'd have to choose!" Even being gifted a train ticket from Istanbul to Vienna. PK said later. "I bicycled for love, but I never loved biking". PK said later: "I didn’t just travel by bicycle. I got rides with trucks. I had a sleeping bag and slept under the stars. Sometimes people invited me into their homes and gave me food in exchange for sketches. I hid that $80 in my belt and never touched it. Along the way, I got letters from Charlotte: in Kandahar, Kabul, and Istanbul, which encouraged me."
PK said later, I also got lots of hippie friends, who fed me, instructed me, and guided me. I was not alone. I never met any person whom I disliked. It was a different time, a different world of love and peace and, of course, freedom. The biggest obstacle was my own thoughts, my doubts. After 4 months and 3 weeks of the back-breaking journey, PK finally reached Gothenburg, Sweden.
Upon reaching, PK was questioned by Swedish immigration officers who were amazed to see a man who had come from India riding a bicycle. But the authorities were not prepared at all to believe the words of PK even though he produced photographs of his marriage with Charlotte.
the authorities believed that Charlotte who belonged to the Swedish noble family could never have stopped down to marry a poor Indian
Fluttered, PK telephoned his wife. Until that very moment, PK had no knowledge about Charlotte’s family. This was totally unbelievable for PK. Fears of all kind gripped him. The sudden revelation made even PK skeptical whether his lady love would accept him or not.
Even may PK felt, there was no logic in their love story. but Charlotte proved through her actions that her love was not a joke, she was very serious about her love for PK.
The next part of the story will be uploaded very soon.
