#to an outrageous illogical inexplicable extent

[youandthemountains]

"I did what I had to, I had no money but I had to meet her. I was cycling for love, but never loved cycling. It's simple."

Whenever he felt sad, his mother would tell him that according to his horoscope, he would someday marry a woman "whose zodiac sign would be Taurus, she would come from a far away land, she would be musical and would own a jungle".

So when he met Ms Von Schedvin, he immediately remembered his mother's predictions and asked her if she owned a jungle.

Ms Von Schedvin, whose family comes from Swedish nobility, replied that she did own a forest and added that not only was she "musical" (she liked to play the piano) her zodiac sign was also Taurus.

[...]

After several conversations, she agreed to visit Orissa with him.

The first monument she saw there was the famous Konark temple.

"I became emotional when PK showed me the Konark. I had this image of the temple stone wheel framed in my student room back in London, but I had no idea where this place actually was. And here I was standing in front of it."

[...]

Ms Von Schedvin had driven to Delhi with her friends from Sweden along the famous hippie trail - crossing Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - to reach India in 22 days.

[...]

More than a year passed and the two kept in touch through letters.

Mr Mahanandia however, did not have enough money to buy a plane ticket.

So, he sold everything he owned, bought a bicycle and followed her along the same hippie trail.

[...]

"Art came to my rescue. I made portraits of people and some gave me money, while others gave me food and shelter," he said.

Mr Mahanandia remembers the world as being very different in the 1970s. For instance, he did not need a visa to enter most countries.

"Afghanistan was such a different country. It was calm and beautiful. People loved arts. And vast parts of the country were not populated," he said.

He said that people understood Hindi in Afghanistan, but communication became a problem once he entered Iran.

"Again art came to my rescue. I think love is the universal language and people understand that."

"Those were different days. I think people had more free time then to entertain a wanderer like me."