Six years ago in Gothenburg, documentary filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel was approached with an unusual proposal by a brother and sister, Carl and Emily von Schedvin. They handed the director a book telling the story of their parents and suggested that he turn it into a film.
At first, the filmmaker politely agreed. However, it was only later, while he was going on vacation, that he finally opened the book on an airplane and began reading it.
Before long, he realized that he was holding an extraordinarily powerful story in his hands. That moment marked the beginning of work on the documentary film The Cycle of Love.
As The Telegraph reports, the film tells one of the most remarkable love stories of the 20th century, a story that crossed continents, social classes, cultures and even the enormous distance between India and Sweden.
A horoscope prediction and a fateful meeting in Delhi
At the end of 1975, 26-year-old Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia, known to his friends as P.K., was a student artist living in Delhi. He belonged to the Dalit caste and had experienced cruel discrimination from childhood. Despite the obstacles he faced, he managed to receive a scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts.
To support himself, P.K. earned money by drawing portraits of passers-by on the streets of Delhi. His artistic talent eventually brought him into contact with people from many different backgrounds.
But years earlier, when P.K. was still a child, his father had taken him to an astrologer. The astrologer made a remarkable prediction about his future wife. He said that she would come from a distant northern country, would be born under the sign of Taurus, would have a strong connection with music and would be a girl who had “her own jungle.”
At the time, the prediction seemed almost impossible to understand. Yet years later, every detail would appear to fall perfectly into place.
One day, while P.K. was working near some fountains in Delhi, he was approached by a young Swedish woman named Lotta, who was traveling through India with friends. P.K. immediately sensed something unusual about her and began asking her questions.
First, he asked about her birthday. She told him that she had been born in May, making her a Taurus.
Then he asked about her connection to music. Lotta sang and played the piano.
Finally, he asked about the “jungle.” With a smile, Lotta explained that her grandfather was a Swedish aristocrat and that the family owned land and forests not far from Gothenburg.
For P.K., everything suddenly made sense. The details matched the astrologer’s prediction almost perfectly.
He told Lotta on the spot that she would become his wife.
Later, the two visited the famous Konark Sun Temple in India. Remarkably, Lotta had a photograph of the temple at her home in London, even though she had apparently never consciously planned such a connection. For both of them, the coincidence seemed like another sign that their meeting had been destined.
The couple eventually married in P.K.’s home village in India in a traditional Hindu ceremony. Their happiness, however, was soon interrupted by distance. Lotta had to return to Sweden to continue her studies.
6,000 miles on a battered bicycle
Being separated from each other was almost unbearable. But in those days, international air travel was extraordinarily expensive. A plane ticket reportedly cost around 40,000 rupees, a sum equivalent to approximately 18 years of an average Indian salary.
P.K. had no realistic way of paying for such a journey.
So he came up with another solution.
In January 1977, he spent just 60 rupees on an old Raleigh women’s bicycle. He packed a sleeping bag, a tent, his paintbrushes and paints, and set off from India on an extraordinary journey toward Sweden.
He did not even have a proper map.
All he knew was that the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
Ahead of him lay approximately 6,000 miles, or around 9,600 kilometers, of difficult travel across several countries and borders.
What followed became a genuine odyssey, filled with unexpected encounters and acts of kindness from complete strangers.
Because of problems obtaining a visa for Pakistan, charitable people helped P.K. buy a ticket to Kabul. His bicycle was transported by truck, allowing him to continue his journey.
Along the way, he encountered an injured Austrian tourist named Leana who had been involved in an accident and was bleeding. P.K. stopped to help her and took her to a hospital.
His act of kindness was later repaid in an equally extraordinary way. Leana’s family eventually sent him a train ticket to Vienna and helped him sell some of his paintings.
As P.K. continued through Europe, strangers repeatedly offered him financial assistance and helped him cross borders.
The journey lasted 133 days.
Finally, on May 23, 1977, P.K. arrived in Gothenburg.
The first thing he did was call Lotta.
“It was a very emotional moment,” Lotta later recalled. “I went to meet him. For a moment, neither of us could speak. He hugged me and cried.”
After traveling thousands of miles on a battered bicycle, P.K. had finally reached the woman he had crossed a continent to be with.
Half a century together: peace in the Swedish forests and a fight against prejudice
Nearly 50 years after those extraordinary events, P.K. and Lotta are still together.
They live in an old wooden house surrounded by forests near the Swedish city of Borås. In a remarkable twist of fate, these forests are the very “jungle” that the astrologer had predicted decades earlier.
The couple have two adult children, Emily and Carl, who eventually brought their parents’ incredible story to the attention of filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel.
Their journey became the foundation for the documentary The Cycle of Love, which explores not only a romantic relationship but also the barriers that once seemed impossible to overcome.
For the family, the film carries a much broader message about love, prejudice, social divisions and the possibility of bringing people together despite their differences.
“We met as East and West,” Lotta explained. “He came from the caste of the ‘untouchables,’ while I came from an aristocratic family. He was ashamed of the caste system, and I was ashamed of my aristocratic background.”
Yet their differences did not prevent them from building a life together.
Instead, love became the bridge between two completely different worlds.
“We want to bring a simple idea to the world,” Lotta said. “Despite all the differences and divisions, most people in the world are infinitely kind.”
Their story began with an astrologer’s prediction in India, continued with a chance meeting in Delhi and then stretched across thousands of miles of roads, borders and cultures.
A young artist who could not afford a plane ticket chose a battered bicycle instead. He crossed countries, faced uncertainty and depended on the kindness of strangers, all because he wanted to reunite with the woman he loved.
Nearly half a century later, their story continues to resonate as a remarkable reminder that love can sometimes inspire people to do things that seem almost impossible.
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