Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Pondicherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
Dashing through the snow...
|
Snowfall in Stockholm, where the old and new co-exist
|
Photo: Nitin chaudhary
Snow, snow everywhere In Stockholm
I would have simply
walked inside the closed
walls of my hotel room in
Stockholm, but I stood
staring . Far away, a few particles
dusted the spotless
grey European skies.
The shadow of the buildings
provided the perfect
backdrop for the white particles
that speckled the
darkness behind. Gradually,
the thought seeped in that
these particles might be
more than just droplets of
rain. And, I witnessed my
first-ever snowfall - white,
feather light particles
danced in the mild wind in a
Brownian motion.
The flakes descended . I
reached out to gather a few
on my palms, but all that
was left was a small pool of
water where the flakes had
fallen.
They say you can never
chase snowfall; it bestows
itself on you. In India, I have
travelled to the mountains
in the hope of watching a
shower of snow, but in vain.
The closest I came to it was
seeing permafrost near the
Kanchendzonga base camp
in Sikkim, and on the way to
Ladakh.
And in Stockholm now, I
saw it when I least expected
to - it was the start of the
summer season and it had
not snowed the whole winter.
This was a cherished gift. .
This has been quite an
unusual European season.
The winters were comparatively
warmer and
snow-less.
"Global warming!" we exclaimed.
Just when summer
knocked, came the sparkling
white snow. "Global
warming!" we exclaimed
again.
Carpet of snow
I decided to take a walk to
the centre of the city and to
the Old City, Gamla Stan.
The centre, like every
other part of the city, was
coated in white. Grabbing a
cup of coffee, I walked on.
The snowfall had stopped,
but its beauty lingered.
I passed the splendid
King's Palace, a piece of
quintessential Swedish architecture.
An acquaintance once
told me that to build a house
in Sweden, you follow a set
of parameters - colour, angle
of the roof, distance
from the other houses, and
so forth, all with the good
intention of retaining the
distinct image of a town.
The wreck
A brisk walk later
through the Old City and its
numerous souvenir shops, I
headed to the other part of
the city.
Stockholm is justifiably
proud of its majestic possession
- the Vasa museum.
Vasa was a ship that
drowned in 1628, with its 64
cannons, only 300 meters
from Stockholm city.
One of the biggest ships
of that time, made to showcase
the might of the Vikings,
fell with just a gust of
the wind.
The faulty design of the
ship was less the chief engineer's
fault and more the
King's, who ordered them
to build an additional storey
to accommodate more cannons.
The drowned ship sat on
the ocean floor, forgotten
for years before it was rediscovered,
raised and then
put on display.
Stockholm, surrounded
by water, stands at the edge
of the old and the new.
It is one of those places
where nature and society
have, over the years, learnt
to live in harmony.
NITIN CHAUDHARY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Pondicherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
