Closing down

The stay at the Malayala Manorama Guest House has been perfect. The atmosphere inside and outside is serene.

The garden in front of the Golf Links Guest House.

Thank God I checked my flight plan yesterday. I was under the impression that we were leaving Delhi on Saturday morning. I thought I had my last crucial appointment in Mumbai on Saturday evening. When I checked my diary yesterday, I found that the appointment in Mumbai was on Friday evening and our flight booking was for noon on Friday.

I had lots of programmes scheduled in Delhi for Friday, which I had to cancel or rearrange. Navin Behl, my friend and travel mate from our 1964 trip from London to St. Tropez (before Brigette Bardot made it famous) and back in an old Bedford van, along with friends Ashok Kapur, Ajit Mehra, Noel Ezekiel and Viney Sethi, was scheduled for lunch on Friday at the Golf Club. That has been brought forward to a meeting at his office in Gurgaon on Thursday afternoon. I was to meet my nephew (Ashwin Thomas) and his wife in town on Friday evening, as they live far out of town in Gurgaon. I will also meet them on Thursday evening at Gurgaon, saving them a long hike into town.

Annikki and I had been invited to take part in the Philosophy session at St. Stephen's College to give our view of life in Finland vis-á-vis India - that programme had to be dropped. Also, I had planned to attend the Carol Service on Friday evening at the College - that had to be dropped.

With the sudden change of programme, I was worried that the glasses we had ordered for Mika would not be obtained. They were promised for delivery on Friday evening. Yesterday evening I took a chance to go there to ask them how we should proceed. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the glasses had already been received. So that was one more headache not created! Thanks guys.

Many friends could not be met because of the lack of time, and not, as in Bangalore, the inability to move around. Delhi transportation, although bad, is much superior to Bangalore. I was able to keep all my appointments within a couple of minutes of the scheduled time!

Annikki has been unwell for a few days, so our trips to Agra and Chandigarh were also dropped. She would not have been able to stand the strain of a drive there and back.

I am not reporting on my meeting with my cousins, as much water has to flow under the bridge before I can comment on the discussions, if at all. We had a wonderful get together and laughed our guts out over lunch at the India International Centre. We joked and pulled each others leg as only we can. It was a wonderful afternoon of three cousins and one nephew (but bracketed with us cousins) and Annikki. Before we realised it, it was time for them to take off to their respective destinations.

Annikki set off on her own to a couple of shops she had seen advertised in the newspaper. She had a traumatic time as nothing they offered in their ads was available and the shopkeepers, as they did not have her size in the clothes she wanted, kept trying to sell her men's clothing. She came back, traumatised, after a couple of hours. I was glad that Salegram, our driver, stayed at her side throughout! Oh for the wonders of dear friends.

Yesterday, I also managed to meet some of the Technical Team (Project Coordinator S. C. Jain and PCS/ Unit Manager V. D. Dubey) at the AFPRO (Action for Food Production) NGO programme and had a very valuable discussion about their work on Check Dams, Gobbar Gas Plants, as well as their entire rural development programme. Maybe there is still some hope for our Rural Urbanisation programme as such organisations know how to get the Government Funding mobilised, and when they have honest and competent people manning the different levels of their organisation, they can still be effective. I hope to be doing more with AFPRO, especially in some of the work we are planning in Zambia.

The trauma with ICICI Bank sees no end. They have goofed, big time, yet again and again. It is a tragi-comedy of enormous proportions and it grows bigger by the hour! Today I will meet the Regional Manager in New Delhi and see what explanations he can come up with, what worthwhile apologies can be obtained. I will explore whether it is at all worth looking at this bank as a partner, especially as there are several large investments to be made or realigned over the next few months. I doubt that it will turn out positive, knowing the mindset of such persons in authority.


Transformed. Do I keep this image on returning to Finland?

Those who know me, know that this is NOT me! I am the carefree type, not the suited, booted one. The real question is whether I should stay transformed on my return to Finland? :-)

I am also going for my check up this morning in a diagnostic clinic to see whether there has been any improvement since I have been on medication since Chennai. Hopefully, once I get back to Annikki's dietary control in Finland and my stricter daily schedules there, the blips that we are seeing will vanish. But today will tell me whether I should continue the medication that has been prescribed - which is a nuisance, taking 7 pills a day!! That is for a person who has never taken any pills in his adult life!