Dorothee heat’s Weblog

Biography

My name is Sven Langstrøm and I am 29 years old. I grew up in a small town in southern Sweden and had 3 siblings. Until I was 13 years old my life was not particularly spectacular. I went to Primary School and transfered to the local High School at the age of 12. In the afternoon I played soccer with my brothers as often as possible, that was my passion. My father supported me with my ambition to become a professional soccer player and even payed the high fees for my everyday training.

One day in March, I remember it was a rainy, stormy day, there was a knock on our door. I was alone at home and when I opened I had to discover a woman with a more than serious facial expression. She told me she was working for child services and I had 15 minutes to pack some personal belongings and then had to leave with her. When I told her that I would not be going but would be waiting for my family, she told me my family was not coming back. Of course I knew what it meant, I was petrified. My thoughts were spinning around whereas my body completely refused to move. I tried to figur out the best way to proceed and came to the conclusion that I need to take off and RUN AWAY!!! I ran for miles and miles until I reached a deserted barack, my refuge. I stayed there for a really long time, I cannot tell for how long exactly but it must have been some years. Without my family, especially without my father, I didn’t feel like an outright person.

At a certain point I discovered there was only one way for me to recover from the traumatic event..and that was to spout heroin, really take the edge off. With the drugs I also got involved with the ‘right’ people. Some of them were really messed up but one guy, Aditya, turned out to be a pretty good friend. He always told me stories about his home country India. Those stories were so passionate and energetic that he convinced me that India was the world’s best country to be free. Thus, we went so far to agree on an oath. At the age of 25 we would have saved some money and would be able to move to India.

There was one thing that was always a matter of course for me: Stick to my word. It wasn’t different this time. I did some low-paid jobs for awhile until I had enough money to fulfill my dream. Aditya and I hitch-hiked all the way to India. It took as some months and it wasn’t easy at all. One day we got in a fight and no one of us was able to admit his fault or apologize. So from that moment on we went on on our own. After having crossed a large part of the country I finally settled down in Bombay. Due to my elixir, the heroin, I quickly found some good mates in Bombay. Now I don’t have any plans for the future anymore. I like India, you can just wake up and live into the day. There are less people here who judge you by your appearance or look at you contemtuously. Sometimes I even get presents or money by strangers. The constant hunger got me dizzy at first but I think the body gets used to it. Since I didn’t finish my education I don’t think I will be able to get a decent job one day. Doesn’t this depress me? No. I’m convinced that human beings are capable of accepting any living conditions, as bad as they may be. They just have to stop struggeling against it.