Indian Twins to the North Pole

Recently, I read a request for the loan of an Indian Flag as someone wanted to take it to the North Pole.

As Atul had brought 2 Indian Flags during his last visit to India, I asked him to loan it to this guy.

Venkat is part of a pair of identical twins from Hyderabad. His twin (Lakshman) is a cosmetic skin care scientist working in Denmark since 2001. Venkat came to Finland in 2003.

The only difference is that they have chosen different fields in their career paths. Venkat is into engineering and Lakshman is into microbiology.

They both talk, look, walk, eat, travel..the same.

Their main hobbies are travelling....around the globe in their free time.

These three photos taken when they took the flag from Oulu at the northernmost land point in Norway (Svalbard) prove that these two boys are identical.







[Photos courtesy Venkat (copyright).]

Thank you boys for carrying the flag from Oulu to the North Pole. And a special thanks to Atul for his generosity!

Online Spice Shop from Oulu

Posted on Oulu Best Buy, Oulu Chaff and Jacob's Blog.

About six months ago a long standing Indian resident of Oulu, Atul, informed me that he was planning a Spice Centre in Oulu. There were a couple of physical Spice Centres in Oulu in the late eighties and early nineties, but Indian food was not so popular then and there were just a handful of clients as us.

Sadly, Atul did not let me know about the progress.

Findian couple Helena and Atul, who are behind Maustekauppa.fi

Last night, when we had a meeting to set up a new Indian Group in Oulu, Atul mentioned that his Spice Centre was up and running and that it was on the internet.



The online shopping experience, which is offered in both Finnish and English, is simple as Atul has the alternate option of using a post or bank account besides a credit card.

I, for one, do not use credit cards, so this means I can happily shop online using my direct online banking facility.

The pages are clean and neat and quite unusual in the way the spices are offered. Atul is also attempting to promote Indian cooking as he has started a recipe page, but at the moment there are only two recipes online.

I tried to log in, but found all buttons related to this process inactive. But it is not necessary to log in to shop!

Hope you have a great shopping experience in Maustekauppa.fi.

Let us wish Helena and Atul all the very best in this venture.