Sweden Journey

So I’ve been in Sweden for more than 2 years now. Many of my firneds ask about the country and its free culture so I thought why not to write something on this front after all I have spend precious 2 years of my life. It’s a beautiful country sparsely populated with reserved, yet friendly and extremely helpful people. As with every new place, there’s a tendency to form somewhat of a love-hate relationship with the surroundings as you adjust to all the differences. As an Indian in Sweden, there are a couple of things that really stick out to me as distinct differences. Below I will try and present (in a completely objective way) the more outstanding points. Many of my friends ask about my city so for them I have uploaded the video about my city Gothenburg “we love you”.

1. Alcohol and Swedes

Everyone knows that alcohol is ridiculously expensive in Sweden due to high tax. The more widely experienced of you may also know that to buy alcohol in Sweden (for anything over 3.5 %) you must take yourself down to the government controlled monopoly Systembolaget (fondly known as Systema).

Hmmm interesting!! Swedes will simply become a bit vague, shuffle their feet and repeat that it really is for the good of everyone. So, then is every Swede an alcohol-aware tea-totalling bore? No, quite on the contrary…

2. Socailism

- Sweden has a very good social system. For residents, health care is very cheap and comprehensive. Support for the underprivileged in society also appears to be very good. Gender equality has been tackled so intensely in Sweden that it could be argued to favour women. Sweden also probably has the worlds most comprehensive maternal support program. To the foreign visitor, this is best evidenced through birth rates. I don’t know the figures, but from walking around, Swedish couples appear to have their children young, and have at least two of them. Prams (baby sitter) and gorgeous young mothers abound. And not just your normal runs of the mill simple pram. Swedes opt for high-tech, sturdy, all weather, all terrain option. The pram in Sweden almost appears to be somewhat of a status symbol. Cruise past any cafe on a Sunday morning and you will see it filled with young parents and their respective prams. Fighting your way to find a table through the pram-based obstacle course can be tricky business, so in some cafes you must leave your pram outside. Not a problem! The modern Swedish pram is equipped with locks more sophisticated than I’ve seen on expensive mountain bikes.

- You can also equip your pram with custom made number plates! Cute!

- Just because you have a baby in Sweden, it shouldn’t limit you to going anywhere. On a sunny January day (-11°C and clear) don’t be surprised to see parents pushing prams through fresh snow along country lanes.

- If you have a pram, you can travel for free on public transport in Stockholm. This may be why it is possible to see children approaching 4 still being pushed around in a pram.

Seriously, if I had to live in Stockholm, adopting baby seems to be quite a reasonable idea.

Enough said.

3. Work ethic

- Sweden is truly a wonderful place to work. As an Indian, I am familiar with being branded ‘relaxed’. To be honest, I have never seen anything as relaxed as the Swedish work place. In Sweden, relaxation, spending time with family and having fun is held equal to, if not more important than working life. It’s an interesting concept. Sometimes I wonder how things ever get done here, but amazingly they always do. Maybe it takes a little more time, but eventually the goods are delivered. It is entirely possible that trolls, Sweden’s mythical little people, are actually secretly running the country at night when everyone has gone home for the day.
- One word: meetings. Swedes *love* to have meetings. It is totally acceptable to spend a whole day doing nothing other than drift from one meeting to the next. Sometimes it is necessary to have a meeting to decide when you should next have a meeting. Or to have a meeting to decide what to discuss at the next meeting. It is important, as a Swede in the workplace, to have a healthy fervour for meetings, and making all decisions in a group based and democratic way. No item is too trivial to discuss at a meeting, and of course no meeting is complete without coffee.

So how come I continue to write my views without a coffee!! Till then you enjoy the movie!!