Life, Laughter and Everything Else

Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. For most people, this was yet another pop song that lingered in the Top 40's about two and a half years back. When I first heard it, it had a catchy anthem like melody and like every novel tune, it too would have faded into obscurity after days of continuous listening had it not been for one place. Sweden. It happened, by chance, that I caught onto the tune at a time when I flew over to Sweden for my exchange and it was the first song I plugged into listen when I had settled myself comfortably in the warm Swedish hostel. From that point onwards, the song to me became Sweden. The freezing winter, the quiet breakfasts, the dark afternoons, the anxiety as I tugged my luggage into my accommodation, the awe as I explored a city so strikingly different and beautiful, the excitement of just finally reaching there and wondering what the country held for me. All those feelings just comes flooding back when I hear that one song. Makes me want to ret

It was amusing, the two of them together, asking to take pictures at every corner of the street, at every sight they felt was interesting or eye catching, that they did not want to erase from their memory and wanted to show proudly to their friends and family when they went back home. They would wear their sun glasses and stand prominently next to their object of interest and smile. The 38 degree weather had clearly exhausted them, but when it came to photos, there was no stopping them.  The frustration and helpless in my friend was even funnier, him trying to coax the two older women to stop taking pictures, to move them along so that they could move onto the next destination. "Mummy, why do you want to take so many pictures?", he would implore. "Chottu, it is very pretty know?", his mum would respond sheepishly. He would grit his teeth. She would keep the ipad. And the whole process would start 10 minutes later.  And I would just laugh. So