Saturday, September 26, 2020



 Per J Andersson  (1962-    )

Translator:  Anna Holmwood


This is the story of Jagat Ananda Pradyumna Kumar Mahasssandia (not his full name), PK for short.  He was born and raised in the jungle province of Orissa in the country of India.  He began drawing with bits of charcoal at the age of three, and received the prophecy at an early age, that "he will work with color when he grows up and that he will marry an alien girl who is musical and owns a jungle".  His family was of the Dalit caste, sub-caste Pan:  also known as "untouchables".  His father made a living as post-master of a local village and PK lived a free life, playing with animals, insects and cobras in the surrounding jungle until he reached school age.  The reality of being Dalit gave him a shock.  Starting school, he had to sit outside the schoolroom;  the other students literally couldn't touch him;  he had to eat by himself;  and he had to clean up after everyone else.  Still, he had a natural talent for drawing, and impressed his teachers by his art and intelligence.  His mom was known for her skill in drawing and design:  she painted gods and tutelary figures for the frequent religious holidays.  PK resented being ostracized from the other students at school, and took revenge with a sling shot.  

Meanwhile, Lotta von Schedvin was growing up in Boras, Sweden.  Her grandfather was a weaver and Lotta developed an irresistible interest in India at a young age.  She had a lot of relatives;  they owned land in a forest in Southwestern Sweden, not too far from Gothenburg, and she had a more or less normal upbringing except for her preternatural interest in India.  She played the flute and had blond hair.

Pk was sent to a boarding school and hated it.  He tried to drown himself once, but failed.  Next he was enrolled in a military academy where he broke his leg in a cyclone.  His parents entered him into a science and engineering program, but PK just felt lost, so he ran away to West Bengal and tried to get into Rabindranath's art classes, but they wanted more money than he had so he went home again.  Luckily, there was a "free school" in the area.  He began attending classes there and was delighted to find that Dalits were treated just like everyone else at this particular location.  Prejudice against untouchables was actually illegal, but there was a strong dichotomy between the state law and religious practices.  The Brahmins (the top caste) were staid and stodgy in their relations with the other castes, and their influence carried through Indian society to the effect that Federal laws governing repression were ignored, especially in the wealthier and commercial sections of the populace.

Having done well in the free school, PK received a scholarship to an art institution in New Delhi.  He traveled there on a train, and started classes while sleeping under bridges and scraping by with as little food as he could manage.  Then the scholarship money quit coming, probably because of sticky fingers in the financial distribution department.  So PK gradually quit going to school and spent his time wandering around, trying not to starve to death.  Eventually he got back in school when the money showed up again.  At this point he started drawing people for money.  He'd grab a place in the central market and advertise a portrait in ten minutes for ten rupees.  He did well, and began traveling with a friend.  He went to Nepal and a few other places and acquired a national reputation through his portraits of well-known figures.  He drew pictures of Indira Gandhi, Valentina Tereshkova (the first Soviet cosmonaut and a member of the Supreme Soviet) and others.  He was written up in newspapers.

Lotta went to London when she was of age and attended nursing school, from which she graduated.  Still interested in India, she joined a group of friends and journeyed there in a VW bus.  Meeting PK, they formed and instant bond, even though she only stayed a short time.  In 1975, Ms. Gandhi seized control of the government and instituted major reforms in an attempt to eliminate wide-spread corruption.  Lotta returned to Europe, but came back to India to see PK.  They visited his father and uncles and had an Indian wedding.  She returned to Sweden and told her family of her espousal;  they were curious about him, but not dismissive.

PK became more famous, becoming partners in a magazine which only lasted a few issues.  He graduated from art school and took a job with the India Post, a national newspaper.  But success didn't satisfy him;  he misses Lotta, so decided to go to Sweden.  Airplane tickets are 40,000 rupees, so he bought a bicycle instead for 80R and started pedaling to Pakistan.  Not being sure of the route, he took along a copy of the Mahabharata for directions.  At the border he was denied entrance, but he drew pictures of the guards and they let him through.  Later, a friendly Jain bought him a ticket to Kabul and a German traveler agreed to transport his bicycle there.  He earned money drawing in that city and used it to buy a new bike, as the old one's chain was "sluggish".  Pedaling to Kandahar, he came upon a young lady from Vienna who was hurt in a car accident, so he took her back to Kabul to a doctor.  She fell for him, but he was determined to reach Sweden.

His ultimate goal is to reach Lotta, so he's not concerned about accepting rides from other vehicles.  He gets lots of rides from truck drivers and hippies.  Upon arriving at the Caspian Sea, he  discovers that Linnea, the girl he'd rescued near Kabul, has sent him a train ticket to Vienna.  So he goes there only to find that she's left to go back to India only two days before.  Her mother makes him take a bath and an appreciative gallery owner, in admiration of his talent, donates a ticket to Sweden.  He has a hard time at the German border because of hard-case guards who want to arrest him because of his poverty-stricken status, but a nice lady loans him 3,000 Kroner to show them, and they let him pass.  He returns the money forthwith.  Lotta picks him up at the railroad station in Gothenburg and takes him home.

PK learns the language and gets a good job teaching art and he and Lotta have a happy life, with two children.  He retires 35 years later with an honorary doctor's degree from Utkal university in Bhubusserwar back in Orissa.  They travel back to his home town, Athmalik, build a house, and live there.

I started this book because i thought it was a bicycle adventure, but it turned out to be more than that.  Following PK's checkered life and reading the author's descriptions of India and its cultural and governmental problems was enlightening as well as entertaining.  Andersson is a good writer and has the gift of bringing the reader along in his disquisitions.  He's quite obviously a devotee of Eastern religions, a practicer of Yoga, and a bit surreal in his assumptions about why and how events occur, but he comes across as a warm, intelligent person and I enjoyed reading his book...

note:  PK made his trip in 1977...  he was born in 1949

17 comments:

  1. Super review Mudpuddle.

    Biographies can be so enlightening. This one sounds interesting too. India is such a diverse and downright incredible place. Learning about places through biography is actually a great way to go.

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    1. i studied India a lot of years ago and this brought back some of the things i learned then, plus new stuff that i didn't know... in general, the book was a pretty good short intro to the subject...

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  2. This sounds like a pretty fascinating story. Thanks!

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    1. it did keep my interest even tho it seemed a bit outlandish sometimes... not sure it was all historically accurate, but that didn't inhibit the enjoyment...

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  3. The whole idea of the caste system is something I want to read and know more about, because my knowledge is limited as to how it came about. I can't imagine what it was like to experience that as a child, to literally be untouchable. Though, it is not as though the US didn't/doesn't have its own form of such a terrible system...

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    1. that struck me while reading the book: that certain negative behaviors seem ingrained in the human psyche: rather tribal, in fact, the desire to dominate and subdue others while aggrandizing one's own position... it seems so contrary to rational conduct, but the realization comes crashing in: that humans are not necessarily rational creatures...

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    2. Yes, some are so ingrained and it seems impossible to dismantle those thoughts and biases but we have to!

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    3. i agree, but it may be a pretty hopeless endeavour...

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    4. I do have some hope for the future though, seeing how active people continue to be in the protests against police brutality. If we can continue to sustain that level of commitment, I do think there is hope.

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  4. This is an inspiring story. I take my hat off to people like P.K.

    Sarah says we have the same system here. Does she mind pointing out what "untouchable" class she knows about? People having racist attitudes and practicing racist attitudes in the workplace or public life are two different things. I don't know where she lives but the NAACP has quite a powerful presence in my neck of the woods.

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    1. my reading of her reply was that there were certain similarities, which i think has some merit...

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  5. I meant to comment about your kids. I'm glad your son (Josh?) is back home. Praying for your daughter! Speaking of grit. Bike riding after the fires. Wow!

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    1. tx for asking, Sharon... they're both back in their houses, with perhaps an enhanced appreciation of all that that means...

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  6. What a great story! Who does not love a tale of someone rising up against adversity? I like that he did it through his art.

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    1. probably would have been a different story if he hadn't been an excellent artist... i've never seen any of his work, but the reactions of his models suggested that he had an unusual knack for catching people's personalities...

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  7. Excellent review! PK is quite famous as an icon here both for his art, an unique blend of East Indian style with elements of European touches and of course for his bicycle story. Caste is a blemish on a generally benevolent religion of Hinduisim. It was never supposed to be what it became; originally it was only meant to be a way of dividing the work force within a society so that people knew who was incharge of what. But somewhere that interpretation got lost and it became a hard coded tool of power and control. We have come a long way since then; the fact that PK's Dad could work in a Post Office instead of some menial job that was traditionally associated with that group is a testimony to it; but like everything else, it is a slow process and the fact that there was discrimination in the school shows that. That was in 1950s and since then more progress has been made, but again we are complex nation and some things take time. p.s. this is cirtnecce. your blogpost only allows signing via Google :(

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    1. tx for making the effort to comment! much appreciated, as are your informative and enlightening observations. i try to write a blog every weekend, or so, but not all of them may be of interest to you... i wonder how i could make the comments section more available... maybe an act of Congress, haha...

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