Achivement: Visited Sweden on student exchange programme
Merel D’Silva, daughter of Captain Savio D’Silva and bank employee turned tuition
teacher Brenda D’Silva, originally from Ghotmorrod brought up in Bombay now
settled in Culsabhat, was one of the students of Smt. Parvatibai Chowgule College
of Arts & Science to participate in the student exchange programme to visit
Sweden. She writes about her experience for chandor.org
Sweden, the land of the gods
Sweden, or Sverige as it is known to its natives, is one of the loveliest of the
Scandinavian countries. Sweden is one of the top 5 most developed countries
of the world, with the third highest HAD index. And I am one of the lucky few to
have seen it with my own two eyes.
As a pre-teen, whenever I heard or read about Sweden, it was always about bone-
chilling winters, or the vast and majestic ice covered landscape. The pictures
shown to us as children were always of pristine winters, reminding us of the
fairytale-like Christmas’ we read only in books. And hence, I could not believe
my golden (or should I say snow-topped) luck when I was chosen to be sent to
Sweden as an ambassador from India by my college Smt. Parvatibai Chowule
College of Arts and Science.
The exchange program was initiated by the Athena Exchange Program under the
European Union to promote better cultural understanding between youth of
different continents.
The Gymnasium (high schools are known as gymnasiums in Sweden) we had an
exchange with, was the Tullinge Gymnasium. My batch was the second batch
going on an exchange program. One of my seniors had gone to Sweden the year
before, bringing back pictures and stories of a highly developed place, making me
all the more determined to go there.
The selection process started off with an essay titled “why I wish to go to
Sweden”, based on which a total of 20 students from FYBSc, FYBA and 11th grade
Arts were shortlisted, keeping personality and academic performances in mind.
We were then briefed on how the final selection of just 12 students would be made.
In the last week of November 2010, the Swedish delegation arrived, consisting of
12 students and 3 faculty members. I got my first glimpse of them at the Bogmalo
beach, Mormugao, the day they arrived itself. Meeting them made me realize
that they were so different from us and yet the same. During their stay, our
college i.e. the 20 shortlisted students plus the 3 faculty members of our college,
arranged to take them around Goa, showing them whatever we could about Goa,
India, our culture, lifestyle, our outlook on life, our dreams and aspirations… their
return to Sweden was a very tearful one because at that point of time, I dint know
if I was going to get selected as all 20 of us were fighting tooth and nail to be the
chosen ones.
After a painfully long wait, the list of the 12 selected students was out and I was
literally jumping with joy to see my name there. As the days ticked by, I grew
more and more excited hearing stories about Sweden from my dad, Capt. Savio H.
D”Silva.
Then came 14 March 2011. The DAY. None of us slept the previous day out of
excitement. We took the flight from Goa to Doha and then the connecting one
to Sweden. As we were approaching Europe, our faces were plastered to the
airplane windows, drinking in the beauty of another world below us. And then
Sweden came, finally, after 8 long months and an 18 hour long flight.
The moment I got there, I knew that any trouble I had gone through to get there
was totally worth it. At the airport, we were greeted with warm clothes and an
even warmer hug by the students and teachers who had come to Goa earlier. It
was freezing outside. And I mean FREEZING! The day we arrived, the temperature
was -7 deg Celsius. The minute we stepped out of the airport, we doubled over
due to the cold. Our Swedish counterparts laughed and told us to thank our stars
that it was a warm day. Apparently their winter temperatures go up to -27 deg
Celsius. We arrived in the very beginning of spring. The official definition of spring
in Sweden is when the average daily temperature exceeds 0°C for 7 days in a row.
We were put up at the af Chappman. It is a ship, converted to a youth hostel,
docked in the Strommen, a water body, right in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden.
We used to travel in Sweden using only our two sturdy legs and the public
transport system, trains, buses, boats, and trams. During the course of our stay,
we attended few lectures on Swedish culture, cuisine, language, history and had a
firsthand experience of their method of school teaching.
We were taken to various places like the Tumba Bruk, a printing press which is
now a museum. Ice skating, where I slipped on the skating ring, well actually
everyone did, hehe. The Vasa museum, which is a museum dedicated for
preserving the warship, the Vasa. A youth clinic. Skansen, the Swedish village
for tourists, or more like Sweden’s big foot, National museum, the national
gallery of Sweden displaying art of various centuries, including modern art. The
royal armory. A home for people with acquired brain damage, aldredoende. A
dance class, Bugg, a dance form of Sweden. A visit to a protestant church, Mary
Magdalene’s church, where there was a choir which rendered a soul touching
vocal performance with the help of only a tuning bell. A visit to a mosque. A ballet
show (as a reward for our wonderful behavior). A cruise to the archipelago. The
Tradgardsstadsskolals school. Whew!
When the day of our departure arrived, all of us had tears in our eyes, and our
hearts were weeping. Sweden is like something out of this world. You cannot
understand, or even imagine it, unless you have been there.
I thank god for giving me an opportunity to see his wonderful world and I remain
hopeful that one day I will return to Sweden, or somewhere close to it.
Merel D’Silva
