Man Cycles 6,000 Miles to Sweden for Love on $2 Bike

In 1977, Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia faced an impossible choice: abandon the woman he loved or find another way to reach her, 6,000 miles away in Sweden.

He chose the bicycle.

PK, as he's known, was a 26-year-old art student from Odisha when he met Lotta, a 20-year-old Swedish woman traveling through Delhi in 1975. She came to have her portrait drawn at the fountain where he worked. The attraction was instant, but PK believed something deeper was at play.

An astrologer had once told his father that PK would marry a woman from a distant land who was musical, born under Taurus, and "owned a jungle." Lotta checked every box. She was born in May, played piano and sang, and her grandfather owned forest land near Gothenburg.

They married in his village in Odisha, where his family welcomed her warmly. But Lotta had to return to Sweden to continue her studies.

A plane ticket cost 40,000 rupees, about 18 times India's average annual income at the time. PK didn't have it. So in January 1977, he bought a second-hand ladies' Raleigh bicycle for 60 rupees, packed a sleeping bag and tent, and started pedaling west.

He didn't even know exactly where he was going at first. PK thought Lotta lived in Switzerland until a Belgian traveler corrected him with a map. The journey would be even longer than he'd imagined.

At the India-Pakistan border, officials denied him passage. In Amritsar, an acquaintance moved by his story bought him a flight to Kabul. A German couple transported his bicycle there in a van.

From Afghanistan onward, PK relied on strangers. He drew portraits for food and shelter, just as he had in Delhi. People fed him, housed him, and kept him going.

One encounter changed everything. PK found a young Austrian woman named Leanna unconscious beside a crashed car in Afghanistan. He flagged down a truck, got her to a hospital in Kabul, and stayed until she recovered. Though she couldn't speak, she wrote down her address in Vienna.

When PK reached Austria months later, Leanna welcomed him into her home for two weeks. She gave him money and warm clothes for the final stretch to Sweden.

On May 28, 1977, after 133 days and nearly 6,000 miles, PK arrived in Borås. Lotta was waiting.

Sunny's Take

Nearly 50 years later, PK and Lotta are still married with two children. Their story has become "The Cycle of Love," a documentary by filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel that celebrates how determination and human kindness can bridge any distance.

PK never planned an epic journey; he simply knew he had to reach the woman he loved, and strangers across continents helped make it possible.