The man who cycled from India to Europe for love

PK Mahanandia’s epic story of cycling from India to Sweden to find his lady love in the ’70s is now fodder for bestsellers and movie scripts

When PK Mahanandia was born in a remote forest near Athmallik in Orissa, a rainbow appeared in the sky. The village astrologer predicted that he would “work with colour when he grows up”. After a one-week-old PK survived a cobra attack, the astrologer returned and scribbled the baby’s future on a palm leaf. It read: He will marry a girl from far, far away, from outside the village, the district, the province, the state and even the country. He also whispered that PK “needn’t go looking for her, she will come to him”.

PK and Lotta in Kroksjöås, Sweden

The first photo of PK and Lotta together, taken in New Delhi in 1976

Author Per J Andersson; the book cover

PK and Lotta with their kids, Emelie and Karl-Siddharta