Wow: 10 days.......

How time flies. It has been 10 days since my last posting. Annikki and I have been up to our necks doing all sorts of things.



Annikki’s mother went into her new Old Peopler’s Home for the first time on the 2nd. When we visited her we found that they were keeping her in bed and she was losing muscle strength. So we had to visit her everyday till we ensured that they were keeping her mobile.




Then Annikki was able to visit Joanna and her new granddaughter. We had a tough time as the little baby had no name. I started calling her Kochmol. But on Friday last, Joanna informed me that the baby is probably getting a name - the world’s most used name, but the Finnish version is not so common.

Maria is the choice of Tony, while Rebecca was the choice of Joanna. Maria (related from Mariam, Mary) seems to have won the day. Both Annikki and I think it is a lovely name.

Remember Tony and Maria in West Side Story? That was Tony’s rationale for choosing that.

We know a couple of Maria’s and they are wonderful people. First there is Shantakochamma’s and Mohanchayan’s (Dr. K. O. Mammen) daughter to whom I used to tell Noddy stories (not Enid Blyton’s but those made up by me) to in the 70s. And then there is Maria Tuominen who became a great friend of the family in the late 70s when she and her family were in India and their son, Kari, became part of our family.

I had a gruelling schedule, but a very enjoyable one. Take Samu to school every morning and bring him back in the afternoon, play hide-and-seek with Daniel, tell him two to three Jungle Boy stories (again those which are made up on the spur of the moment), look at a few nature books and then have tea and biscuits with him while Samu enjoy’s his late afternoon meal that Joanna has kept ready for him.

Besides this many of the new Indians in Oulu have been pushing me to help them in different ways. I have been doing that with some pleasure. It is so wonderful to have such a vibrant community of Indians here.

The combined CHAFF and O-India lunch meeting at the Crecian Restaurant (Sunday before last) was really wonderful as Cypriot Andreas and his Finnish wife gave us a great treat.

We have been busy designing the O-India web site and there have been many discussions in progress on the O-India Google Group. This has meant regular review meetings once or twice a week and a lot of reading the inputs and editing it to be suitable when put on site.

The routine was so hectic that last Monday I actually overslept and did not get up to get Samu to school. But Tony stepped in and took him. I really felt terrible at my lapse, but the body was speaking about my schedule.

Finally I had the eye check up at the Oulu University hospital. Cataract was ruled out. There is only mild “glittering”. However, I suffer from quite severe myopia and the doctor has prescribed that I do not use the multi-focal lenses but separate ones for reading and long distance vision. I do not know how I will get used to that after having used multifocals for over 15 years!

And since winter has been so mild, I have not been using the scooter as the roads have been quite treacherous. I used it yesterday as we had a cold spell for a couple of days so there was quite a lot of grit put on the cycle tracks where we are allowed to drive the scooter. It is still quite dangerous, but I enjoyed being on the scooter again. However, it will be good when spring arrives and I can be more mobile on the two wheeler.



And not to forget - we had the world first - Annikki and Samu's Mobile Snowman sliding down the snow-slide - and I have been trying to put together the movie about this historic event. The video was shot by one of our new Indian friends in Oulu, Vishwanath Mallabadi, who is a professional photographer.

Hopefully the next blog entry will not be in another 10 days!