In 1978, an Indian man travelled from India to Sweden on a bicycle to reunite with a woman he met while she was on vacation in India. Travelling through 8 different countries, the journey took him a total of 4 months. 43 years on the couple are still happily married in Sweden
The man remembers very clearly the day when prophecy became a real story. The beautiful journey began on December 17, 1975. Back then, Kumar was a street artist. A beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes, named Charlotte Von Schedvin, asked him to draw a portrait of her. “When she appeared before my easel, I felt as though I didn’t have any weight. Words are not accurate enough to express such a feeling,” he said. “Her eyes were so blue and big and round, I felt as if she was not looking at me, she was looking inside me, like an X-ray machine!” The nervous young man couldn’t properly draw a woman of his dreams the first time, so he asked Charlotte to come back another day. “She ended up coming back three times, and I did three portraits, ” he said. “After the second time, I felt, she’s the one!” It turns out the mysterious foreign woman was born under the sign of Taurus, owns a forest and plays the flute, just as the prophecy said. “You will be my wife. We were destined to meet.” Kumar told his one real love.
Charlotte, who was 19 years old at the time, wasn’t scared of this unexpected confession and decided to give the young man a change. The couple spent 2-3 weeks together before Charlotte came back home to Sweden.
The love story could’ve ended there, but young and determined Kumar decided not to let it happen. After a year and a half spent apart, the artist sold everything he had and bought a bicycle. With very little money and the help of a few kind people he met on the way, Kumar managed to travel 6,000 miles to see Charlotte. “The biggest obstacle on this long trip was my own thoughts, my doubts,” he said.
The two lovers ended up throwing a full Indian wedding and have been together for more than 40 years now. The couple has raised two children together, and their love is as strong as ever.
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.