LAPLAND TO HOMELAND!

Yashika Subba*

From the movies I watched and stories I read as a youngster, I grew up believing in Santa Claus. Every year on December 24th, I wrote a letter to Santa Claus about my wishes with a profound conviction that it came true every year. When I received an invitation letter from the Arctic Centre for the mobility tour and learned that the city I would be going is Rovaniemi, I was fascinated because it’s known as the official home of Santa Claus. The adventure to find Santa begins here.

I was disheartened that I couldn't meet the official Santa when visiting the Santa village, however Rovaniemi had something else planned for me. Lapland is well-known for its authentic items, which range from candy to Kuksa. In the heart of the town, there is a souvenir shop that I frequented. The shop's owner is an intriguing man who is probably in his fifties or sixties. His enthusiasm is to meet people from all around the world, listen to their tales, and tell them his own. The shop is warmly lighted and filled with a range of Lappish options ranging from reindeer horn, knitted socks, distinctive Finnish tools, attractive post cards and fridge magnets that capture the essence of Lapland in miniature form. Tourists from all around the world visits his shop to purchase special charms for their loved ones and well-wishers back home. I am one of those tourist who wants to bring a bit of Finland back home with the hope that when I look at those items after a long time, I will remember all the fond moments I have of Finland. Meanwhile, he would tell me about his stories of sailing across different seas, and I would share mine with him.

Considering I was out of the euros I have exchanged in India and needed some of the items as gifts, he offered me some items to take and asked if I needed any money, which I could repay him once I return back to India. When I asked him why he was helping a stranger like me, he smiled and said, "It's okay, you can engrave some souvenirs for me." He once told me how he was travelling in Europe, and quite often hitchhiking, and how people he met gave him shelter and food on his travel, and how he may never meet those people again to return the favour, but when he meets new people every day in his shop, he has his chance to reciprocate by helping them. But what are the odds of me paying him the money from a country thousands of miles away? It's true that Finnish society is built on mutual trust and social solidarity. One thing I know for certain is that I received gifts for friends and family, and another is that my wish to meet Santa Claus in the Nordic is accomplished here. Perhaps one of the numerous reasons why Finland is the happiest country in the world is because you can walk into any common place in Finland and the people seem as they are overjoyed to see you. I can't recall the last time I felt so welcomed.

During this project, I have been in the most sophisticated restaurant in Lapland where we were offered three course meal prepared by the top notch chef and served by the graceful professionals (which I could never be on board 😂), or the home cooked delicious Bengali dinner at the pHD associate and Project leader's home, or the reindeer soup at Sami Education Institute or at the yak stable in Singalila National Park, the Indo-Nepal border, where we were offered a Kheer and fried potatoes, or Sherpa Top Homestay in Srikhola village, where we were served Changu and Momo. Sharing, giving sometimes what they have and often times more than what they have is what runs deep in both cultures in a far wide world. This is the one aspect that connects both of these Nordic Sami and Eastern Himalayan tribes as well as the multiple cultures of the people who joined the project. We enjoy giving and sharing in whatever wayS we can, and to my understanding, this is the fundamental culture of humankind.

* The original text has been published in: https://bichardharaa.blogspot.com/2022/06/we-live-under-same-sky.html#more