NathanA Beautiful Life
They have been blissfully married for 40 years now and reside in Sweden. Together they help underprivileged Indians to get cultural scholarships. In 2012, Mahanandia received an honorary degree from the Utkal University of Culture in Odisha. The couple also won the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards because of their remarkable love story. Mahanandia still remembers his roots though.
The Wounds Of The Past
Mahanandia visited his school in 1997 and had to be helicoptered to get to the school’s field because of heavy floods. “Love had given me the power to forgive the people throwing stones at me,” he stated. He even told a tall student to ‘kneel down’ in his mother tongue because he was bullying another student. This boy has grown up and laughs about the incident and remembers his teacher’s eyes that filled up with fright.
Inspiring Others
Mahanandia’s incredible life story resulted in the publication of a book called The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love written by Per J. Andersson in 2017. this was translated into 15 different languages even winning the Marco Polo Outstanding General Travel Themed Book of the Year award. The book may be adapted into a film starring Dev Patel and there are speculations that this is currently in the works in Hollywood.