Today we have launched our new blog called
We hope you enjoy this new blog and you find things that really suit you. We should have a new entry every day, so come back and look what we have to offer.
Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts
Monday, October 30, 2023
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Remembering 29th October 1960
I have posted this entry on my memoirs blog about my sister who passed away this day in 1960.
Nalini on her wedding day in Kottayam, 1959.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Thank you readers
I restarted blogging after the last visit to the rehabilitation centre put me in touch with an occupationalist therapist.
I told her my problem of using my laptopo was the distance of the screen from my eyes and my poor eysesight.
During the day I can use a large screen but using the laptop on my lap at night was very unsteady.
She brought me a pillow type laptop stand which was quite effective. It was a model from IKEA.
I tried IKEA and found this model was obsolete. But I found a better one from Amazon.com which also had a wooden flat base to the pillow underside, a wrist support and a cut out for the mobile phone and one for a tablet
I ordered it and it was with me in just a week.
I found it comfortable and I could use it conveniently sitting up on the bed and it was of course especially comfortable to use it when I was in the wheelchair.
This has made my night computer usage a great possibility
So I started my blogging which had virtually come to a standstill for the last two years after the amputation of my foot and then the amputation of my right leg.
I may have had writer's block but the comfort of the position sort of removed my writer's block.
I have over 2000 blog entries created over the last 30 years and I did get about a hundred to a couple of hundred people who would find blog entries of interesst through the various search engines.
Yesterday I found that over 1200 visits to my blogs and by midday today I had over 600 visitors
This makes me feel great as it means that my writing style and the subjects I write about still haver relevance.
In three blog entries I put out our contribution to the Findian cilture over the last 60 years.
I blogged about Annikki's 79th birthday. I blogged about a Killer Smart Watch on the loose. I blogged about my late sister who passed away 63 years ago. I blogged about the reason why we quit the Association of Indians in Oulu.
I bloggedd about leading personalities in my life as the late Ms. Anna Mani and Dr. M. V. Kurian and
Tan Sri B. C. Shekhar. And I blogged about a humble management trainee who taught me more than most people and whom I considered as a great mentor.
These three blogs highlight our life as Findians:
https://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2023/08/findians-association-with-finland-1943.html
https://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2023/08/findians-association-with-finland-1943_13.html
https://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2023/08/findians-association-with-finland-1984.html
And our first in the series was how we are very proud parents.
Now I have a whole host of subjects lined up and the excitement of writing to satisfy my audience is a new thrill.
At the same time I am now getting more active in writing my memoirs.
I am starting to write a new version of our book "Handbook for Survival in Finland".
There is excitement in the air.
The only sadness is that my partner for all these years has been Annikki. Now dementia has set in so I only tell her what I am doing. I
t excites her but her valuable contribution that I depended on all these years is no longer forthcoming.
My "Laughing Goddess" is still my inspiration.
Do let me know of any subjects you would be interested in.
I am reasearching in depth the highly topical subject of the name of the country India or Bharat.
Finland has two names Finland and Suomi. So this is not an unique situation for India.
I hope to study this subject from a historical, economical and political viewpoint and hope to tinge it with some degree of humour and sarcasam.
This subject was already started by us in 2015 when we wrote the book "The Titanic Called India”. So it is something that has not popped up yesterday.
Thank you reader readers for showing trust in us and keeping us in your minds all these years. I hope I do not disappoint you.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
New mood to Blogging
I am now renewed, in a wheelchair, and am intending to start my blogging activities. There
is still so much to be said and done.
With this post I am restarting Jacob's Blog, which is my Master Blog.
Just finished an Essay on "Finland - India, Cultural Imprint, Retrospect and Prospects".
I will shortly upload this where I take you through some of what Findians have done in this world during the last 53 years.
I will restart some of the other blogs as my vitality increases!
Thank you for visiting our Blog.
We are safely Locked In.
Stay safe and enjoy your Lock In.
is still so much to be said and done.
With this post I am restarting Jacob's Blog, which is my Master Blog.
Just finished an Essay on "Finland - India, Cultural Imprint, Retrospect and Prospects".
I will shortly upload this where I take you through some of what Findians have done in this world during the last 53 years.
I will restart some of the other blogs as my vitality increases!
Thank you for visiting our Blog.
We are safely Locked In.
Stay safe and enjoy your Lock In.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Wondering why?
There is a limit to the number of readers I can add to these blogger.com blogs.
I came across a blog host called FanBox.com which supposedly paid me for putting my posts on that blog and it had no limits to the number of readers. (I do not believe that I will get paid, but one can always try! :-) )
I started with a copy of what I had posted on this blog and have put up a few entries since then.
I do not trust the host FaxBox.com. I am not pushing anyone there to read my postings there. But if you want to take a look please do.
I heard someone was asked to join the FanBox blog, etc. Please do not do anything so radical.
I will post all that I post there here, so do not get forced in anything you are not comfortable with.
On the other hand I will certainly not post any sensitive information concerning my grandchildren on that blog.
In the meantime, Jacob's Blog will continue to be my main blogging point.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
How do I get topics for my blogs?
Many of you have emailed me as to how I can get such a constant flow of topics for my blogs, and at the same time retain the readers interest.
I can write on any subject. Unless I develop writer's block, when I cannot write even a sentence!
This skill was what my English teachers in school, especially the late Mr. R. G. Salmon, taught me. Besides showing me how to write, he also taught me how to keep the reader's interest. His correction of my essays fascinated my father, who was a keen reader from Wodehouse to Shakespeare. Our house was lined with books and books and they were open for us to read. Lots of my friends, like Ooky Elijah Elias and late Ashok Kapur, would come over and borrow books, which my dad encouraged. He did not believe that books should remain in bookshelves.
He was unlike his father, my paternal grandfather, who had an enormous collection of books but wanted us to sit and read it in his library. I could hardly finish 10 pages when we were visiting, and my interest changed by the time of my next visit, a week later!
I had already been given another lesson by my maternal grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai, in Kottayam, as he made me write (even before I was 11 years old as he died at the turn of 1953 / 1954), whenever we went to see him on holiday (which was twice or three times a year). His encouragement was infectious, as he promised to publish my childish writing in the newspaper! What greater incentive than that?
As each day progresses, several incidents occur, or telephone conversations reveal some intersting aspects. I record these in my brain. When I sit at my computer, as soon as I feel bored doing whatever I am supposed to be doing, my mind wanders to one of those topics.
I write it as soon as it comes to mind. Then I leave it as I look around for the facts to ensure that the stroy is not just a figment of my imagination, although ocasionally, the figments are just as appealing! :-)
On my daesktop I usually have half a dozen or me small pieces waiting to be published. Before I relaese a story, I usually read it and put in more relevant information. I do not work as a journalist does in trying to give the entire background to a story. I express it the way I feel I would like reading a story.
It is far more difficult running the school and college blogs as for that I have to find the facts that create nostalgia. But over the last 14 years I must say that I have somehow managed to keep my readers interest in whatever I am writing. I try not to be fixated! that would be the death of my blogs.
But a bulk of my topics come from the literally hundreds of emails that arrive in my Inbox everyday. Someone responds to one of my writings and points me in another direction. Each lead puts me on the track of another title and then another story.
Just yesterday I had published my attempt at Sudoku. There, in the comments, today, was a fascinating piece about Security Codes for Banks based on Sudoku!
Present Security Codes for Indian banks are just a joke. I could probably break into any Indian bank internet account. In Finland, I have been using internet banking since 1989, being one of the first to try and test out the system when it was launched. Simple yet effective, this system has stood the test of time.
So herein lies another possible story!
And by popular demand, you will get the story of my encounter with a "cat burglar", soon!!!
Anyway, thanks for being there. Without you, dear readers, I would feel very lonely!
I can write on any subject. Unless I develop writer's block, when I cannot write even a sentence!
This skill was what my English teachers in school, especially the late Mr. R. G. Salmon, taught me. Besides showing me how to write, he also taught me how to keep the reader's interest. His correction of my essays fascinated my father, who was a keen reader from Wodehouse to Shakespeare. Our house was lined with books and books and they were open for us to read. Lots of my friends, like Ooky Elijah Elias and late Ashok Kapur, would come over and borrow books, which my dad encouraged. He did not believe that books should remain in bookshelves.
He was unlike his father, my paternal grandfather, who had an enormous collection of books but wanted us to sit and read it in his library. I could hardly finish 10 pages when we were visiting, and my interest changed by the time of my next visit, a week later!
I had already been given another lesson by my maternal grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai, in Kottayam, as he made me write (even before I was 11 years old as he died at the turn of 1953 / 1954), whenever we went to see him on holiday (which was twice or three times a year). His encouragement was infectious, as he promised to publish my childish writing in the newspaper! What greater incentive than that?
As each day progresses, several incidents occur, or telephone conversations reveal some intersting aspects. I record these in my brain. When I sit at my computer, as soon as I feel bored doing whatever I am supposed to be doing, my mind wanders to one of those topics.
I write it as soon as it comes to mind. Then I leave it as I look around for the facts to ensure that the stroy is not just a figment of my imagination, although ocasionally, the figments are just as appealing! :-)
On my daesktop I usually have half a dozen or me small pieces waiting to be published. Before I relaese a story, I usually read it and put in more relevant information. I do not work as a journalist does in trying to give the entire background to a story. I express it the way I feel I would like reading a story.
It is far more difficult running the school and college blogs as for that I have to find the facts that create nostalgia. But over the last 14 years I must say that I have somehow managed to keep my readers interest in whatever I am writing. I try not to be fixated! that would be the death of my blogs.
But a bulk of my topics come from the literally hundreds of emails that arrive in my Inbox everyday. Someone responds to one of my writings and points me in another direction. Each lead puts me on the track of another title and then another story.
Just yesterday I had published my attempt at Sudoku. There, in the comments, today, was a fascinating piece about Security Codes for Banks based on Sudoku!
Present Security Codes for Indian banks are just a joke. I could probably break into any Indian bank internet account. In Finland, I have been using internet banking since 1989, being one of the first to try and test out the system when it was launched. Simple yet effective, this system has stood the test of time.
So herein lies another possible story!
And by popular demand, you will get the story of my encounter with a "cat burglar", soon!!!
Anyway, thanks for being there. Without you, dear readers, I would feel very lonely!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Disappointing picture about BLOGS
With so many ways to connect with friends on the internet today, such as Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo, SiliconIndia, Twitter, Geni, as well as the Yahoo and Google Groups, and now the new Buzz, it appears that blogging has taken a toll.
(There are so many new invitations I am receiving from many relatives and friends to join new social networking sites, that unfortunately I am declining any more! I already am on too many for my comfort.)
Now, some of the social networking sites have also adopted the Group thrust (such as the Stephanian "The Rez" on Facebook devoted to those who lived in the college premises), so the playing field of Blogs, Groups and social networking sites is undergoing a rapid transformation.
It is like the personal web pages transformation in 2002.
I was looking through the links to blogs on my web pages of several people who used to write nice blogs.
I found some have vanished into thin air, others have not updated their blogs, some for a year, some for two, and some of the best bloggers, have not been active for a month or more.
Yesterday, I visited a good friend who has been posted to Oulu from Bangalore. Rajesh told me that although I could not meet him in Bangalore when we passed through, he understood my dilemma as he had been reading our blogs all the while we were traversing that great country.
In my opinion, blogging is the best way to keep in touch with a widespread audience. I have about a dozen blogs, and I update the most important ones either daily, biweekly, weekly, fortnightly or the less active ones, monthly or bimonthly. There are some which I hardly update.
As I recently wrote to a friend, our fortnightly Findians Briefings and our monthly Kooler Talk and Seventh Heaven, web pages which served their purpose from 1996 to 2003, just had to be converted to blogs in 2002 - 2003. The audience demanded it.
But my diverse readers are faithful in that they visit all the active blogs regularly and the readership has been either static or climbing. I did get a bollicking from one of my closest advisors, who did not like me mixing my blogs when I was on the Bharat Darshan, as he felt that he was not really interested in my personal diaries as he was interested only in his focus.
Although I appreciated his point of view, the mixing of blogs was purely for convenience as the link speeds in India to the internet were so slow, I would have been seated in front of the computer for hours on end, trying to upload all my blogs.
The readership blip which I got has also not faded after I reverted to my old model of focus only blogs. People do check whether I am around and about if their focus blog has not been updated!
Last week, the overall readership of all my blogs had shown another jump from 135000 to 142000, and the number who reverted back to reading only their focus blogs had hardly shown a decline - just about 10 to 15 readers!
So I have 142000 on my main blog, about 3500 on the Seventh Heaven Blog, about 2300 on my Kooler Talk blog, and a smattering of people to my other blogs.
A few of you have started to follow my blogs, very much like you follow people on Twitter. That is an interesting new development, but I do not know whether it will last. It is only good and varied content that will draw a reader back to visit a blog! If one puts a series of postings on one fad continuously on a blog, the readership whi are not interested in your own pet perversion, will quickly drop away.
Although social networking is exciting and keeps you in touch, a blog has much more to it than these quick-fix sites. I am not complaining as I do keep up with my family and friends through the social networking sites, but I prefer the art of writing.
I am glad that Facebook and some other social networking sites do display my blog entries, although I do not know where and when they come up. But I do get comments about my blog entries through some of the sites.
I wish my many good friends as Ville (Oulu, Finland), Ilari (Laos), Kasia (Poland), Balu (Bangalore, India), Abe (Chennai, India), Esa (Helsinki, Finland), will step back and think again about keeping their blog sites up and running.
(I especially like Abe's Blog, which is known as "Song of the Waves" as he has a great writing style, is a wonderful photographer and you come away educated after reading his blog!)
It is also very interesting that just one blog entry can get you a whole bunch of devoted readers, who continue to read the blog, even though it is not focused on that subject. An example would be my entry about wrestling and my coverage of Dara Singh, the wrestling giant of the 50s when I was a boy. That one entry has got me a huge readership who consider me to be a guru about wrestling, which I am not. I watched wrestling as a child from the best seats in Bangalore when Dara Singh and King Kong (and the Masked Angel, Flash Gordon and his drop kick, etc.) and a few others dominated the wrestling circuit.
A huge controversy has arisen as a result of my entry with many claiming that there had been two Dara Singhs, one even 7 foot tall! If there was, I never saw him, as the Dara Singh I saw was the one who was just 6' 2", but would have looked 7' because of his dominating stature in the ring.
As I realised, it is only perseverance which builds your readership. And my experience has been that a blog reader is far more interested and interesting than those that use only the social networking sites!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Dilemma! What do I do?
I was in this dilemma when I stated blogging in December 2004. I had one blog for all my different audiences. At that time I also had web pages devoted to different sectors of readers.
There was a clamour amongst my readers of the blog that I was out of tune with them as they were reading many items that they were not interested in as they pertained to my alma maters or something specific to Oulu, etc.
It was then I started breaking up my blogs - besides my primary Blog (Jacob's Blog), I started one on Politics, another related to my association with Cathedral School (Mumbai), another about St. Stephen's College (Delhi), another about finding goods and services in Oulu, etc.
Everybody was happy!
All went well till my recent trip to India, where I stopped all my auxiliary blogs and kept only my main blog going, with just a few very specific entries to my other blogs.
My readership shot up as it appeared that many were interested in all aspects of my trip around India - which I had termed as "Incredible India".
The readership more than doubled at one point. People were referring others to my blog and it just snow-balled into a massive readerfest. Old and young, relatives and friends, school and college mates, Findians, O-Indians, my professional colleagues, past and present, were all tuned in. And many strangers from around the world were liking my style!
Wherever I went I found I needed no introduction as people had been following my blog. As I recorded, at one stage it became highly embarrassing, as people would come up to me and ask whether I knew them!
On returning to Finland, I went back to my old system.
Now I am having a spate of complaints. Many say that I should only blog at one point.
That would be great for me but not fair on my diverse audience. For instance the Cathedral School Alumni Association have especially complimented me on my sustained effort to keep the school spirit at its height by my blogging.
That is definitely not possible as my Seventh Heaven and Kooler Talk Blogs have very specific readerships. And not everyone likes my Politics. To burden all my regular readers with MY political views would be unfair. And my Oulu Best (Worst) Buy Blog is very specific to my Oulu Readers. Who in India or USA wants to read about the price of eggs in Oulu?
Is there any single solution, which is outside my very limited knowledge, which will help keep all my readers happy?
One way is that you could become a "Follower" of a specific blog. Whenever the one you are interested is updated, you will get a message from Google. No infringement of your privacy. You can always stop the "Follower" program whenever you want.
That way, it would stop my having to post important blog entries on my multiple blogs. (Possibly - as I have not yet looked into the ramifications of this alternative.)
If you have any suggestions, please email me or leave me a COMMENT. (Although my blogs are not exactly "Comment" blogs, I do read all the comments and reply them appropriately - also knocking off the spam that does come in.
This entry is being posted on all my major blogs, as it concerns all my readers in all categories.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Splitting up blog entries from now
Holiday is now officially over. I am going back to splitting up my blog entries into the old system.
Just to remind you of the Blogs:
Jacob's Blog: This one is my daily routine blog for all general entries.
Seventh Heaven Blog: Specific entries related to Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, India. All generations.
Kooler Talk Web Version Blog: Specific entries related to St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India. All generations.
Jacob's Politics Blog: My views on world and local politics.
Oulu Best (Worst) Buy Blog: Reports of good offers in Oulu and Finland and also reports on good and bad services in Finland, and occasionally, internationally. To be taken seriously.
Move The UN Blog: A movement to move the UN away from New York, USA to a place more conducive to justice.
There are some other blogs on special subjects, but these are the ones that get inputs as regularly as there is something of interest to report.
You are free to comment on all the blog entries, although my blogs are not really Comment Driven Blogs. But honest discussion is always welcome and I will change my mind if I can be persuaded. But I am a bit hard-headed, so don't expect me to just nod and accept anything that may be said.
Thank you for staying with Annikki and me on our journey through India. It was your emails, phone calls, text messages, Facebook comments, that helped keep this going through the last two months.
In short, I love all my readers, even if they hold diametrically opposite opinions to mine.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Annikki launches her new blog
I have been off blogging because of a problem with my ethernet connection, making me use my 56 kps internal modem rather than my 100 Mps ethernet.
No fault with my Mac.
The fault lies with my Internet Service Provider, and hopefully this will be resolved this week.
I have the proud privilege to announce a new blog by my better half, Annikki.
It is a world's first - The Mobile Snowman / Liikuva Lumiukko.
Her site is devoted to her winter passion, creating objects out of snow and ice. This has led her to a new art form - Snowmen that movee.
Her partner in this venture is our grandson, Samuel (11) who has had the passion to promote the idea and help Annikki develop it.
I had featured a few stills of her idea on this blog. Now it has bloomed into a site of its own, including a video clip which has been posted on YouTube.
The quality of the video taken by me is not ideal. I hope I can improve the quality and produce a movie of this concept.
My thanks to Vishwanath Mallabadi, a professional photographer here in Oulu, who has taken some better videos, which I am using to create a movie.
Congratulations Annikki and Samu. This is a truly unique development in art and play which children and adults all around the world (where they have access tto "snowman snow") will truly enjoy.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Maliyakal Stories Blog
I had a chain email from one of my second cousins, Sarasu.
Sarasu is Olivet Babychayan's daughter and lives in the US.
Olivet Babychayan is Mathen George, third son of Maliyakal Kurian George, one of the younger brothers of my grandfather, Mysore Matthan. He got the name Olivet as he used to run a company called Olivet Textiles and Olivet Handloom Products in Trivandrum.
Sarasu is the eldest daughter of Babychayan and is an IT Trainer. Her husband, Bijoy Isaac, works for the Government of Columbia in Washington DC and is Chief of Design and Engineering. Sarasu and Bijoy have two girls - Tameen and Zareen.
At the bottom of the email I noted a blog link.
Sarasu has started blogging and her blog is called Maliyakal Stories.
She has only made one entry so far, but I am sure more will come.
I am adding a regular link to her blog in my "Blogs & Web Pages of Relatives / Friends" list.
Please do check it out, put a small comment against the entry and encourage Sarasu to keep blogging as she has many readers like me out in the wide open spaces.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Ignore or reply?
Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Mumbai Cathedral School Seventh Heaven Blog and the Delhi Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog.
Although the bulk of this posting relates to my alma mater, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, the moral and rationale that I talk about here applies to all my alma maters and also to my many readers on my primary blog.
It has been quite a while since the exchange of views on the Kooler Talk Blog about the appointment of Rev. Valson Thambu as Acting Principal of St. Stephen's College and then his radical new Dalit Christian oriented admission policy to the College.
I was greatly honoured when John Dayal, Member of the National Integration Council, Secretary General of the All India Christian Council and President of the All India
Catholic Union, asked me to contribute to a book which would consider the aspect of admission of Dalit Christians to minority educational institutions.
Then came those couple of Anonymous postings in the Comments section of the Kooler Talk Blog which accused me of being a fundamentalist Christian.
That made me sit back for more than a moment and search through my 11 years of writing on the internet to see whether I had ever given cause to be considered as a fundamentalist Christian.
There was a time when I took part in a fundamentalist Hindu web discussion site where I came out strongly against Hindu Fundamentalism and Muslim extremism in the wake of the Gujarat massacre. It left a very bad taste in me to get into a discussion with a set of rabid and illiterate Hindu fundamentalists located all over the world who were foaming at the mouth when challenged about their fundamentalism.
Then there was a time when, thanks to Stephanian Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan, Professor of Journalism at Columbia university, New York,I was looking in on the South Asian Journalists (SAJA) Discussion Forum where, again, a few well-educated Hindu Fundamentalist "journalists" were putting forward all sorts of arguments to prove "their" theories of the Indus Valley Civilisation to demonise other religious groups in India.
There was no limit to the twisting of the truth, very much as George Bush continues to use his "Christian Fundamentalist" values to kill innocent Afghanis and Iraqis to achieve his ends.
As a result I had decided not to be drawn again into such arguments as they only leave me with wanting to use a new mouthwash!
When I decided to wish Rev. Thambu well on his appointment as the Officiating Principal of St. Stephen's College, I had no idea that I was being drawn into a major controversy which is raging there.
I am 7000 km away from India. I have not visited India since the year 2000. I am not an expert on anything Indian. I have only my nostalgia of a time long gone by and that does not make me competent to even write a line in support or defense of policies of education, religious fundamentalism or any other matter related to what is taking place in India.
After much deliberation with my friends and my main confidante, I felt that I would only be adding fuel to the fire if I wrote about the controversies. After 8 weeks of much thought and prayer, my wife and I decided that we should not be embroiled in a battle of which we knew nothing about.
We have a reputation, which has been stated by many of our regular readers, that we have never done anything or written anything which violated the trust of all the different religious and ethnic groups that read our many blog pages.
When I went through the Indian Press Reports that I get daily, yesterday there was this one in the Times of India "Exclusive quota for backward Christians and Muslims in Tamil Nadu". This is for the second time that DMK Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has sought to provide exclusive reservation for specific castes in the backward classes catagory. In 1989, he had carved out 20 per cent of the 50 per cent reservation for Backward Classes for the Most Backward classes.
This has been Karunanidhi's vote gathering politics.
Rev. Valson Thambu's strategy was to divert the attention from his controversial appointment to a more amenable to improve his public ratings. In that he succeeded admirably by focusing on the concept of social justice.
To continue to stay away from the personal glare, yet another step was undertaken to undo anything controversial that previous Collge Principal had done. Rev. Thambu took steps to end the open ended permission that Principal Anil Wilson had given to the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS), run by the Mathematical Sciences Foundation (MSF), by asking them to move out of the Stephania campus, causing a section of senior teachers at the college to protest.
What is happening in Stephania today is not based on the ideals that I imbibed in the educational institutions that I attended in India.
Principal Anil Wilson was obviously wrong to have made such an agreement with the MSF. The Bishop of North India was wrong to appoint his son onto the Supreme Council of the College. Principal Wilson was wrong to have continued to hold his position as Principal when he went forward as Vice Chancellor of another University. The Supreme Council was wrong to appoint Rev. Thambu as Officiating Principal when they had not resolved the issue with Principal Wilson. Principal Wilson was wrong to publicise his dissent. Rev. Thambu was wrong to start his tenure with moves meant to divert attention away from his appointment. Principal Thambu was wrong to cause the still waters of campus life to be stirred so violently.
And, all this is being done in the name of "education" and "Christ".
To me none of this stands up as promoting "Christian values".
I know there are many senior and outstandingly intellectual and honest alumni, before and of my era, in and around Delhi like B. G. Verghese, Rahul Bajaj, Ashok Jaitly, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Mani Shankar Ayar, Shanker Menon, John Dayal, etc., who have the depth of vision to tackle these issues rather than someone as uneducated as me who is so far away from home base to contribute anything worthwhile to resolving them.
All I can do is to tell my audience of all alma maters that what is happening in St. Stephen's College will happen in all minority institutions when internal and personal politics supersedes the values which we should adhere to.
I do not appreciate anonymous input. One should have the courage of convictions to put a name and identity to what one believes. Have the courage to call a spade a spade. As otherwise the spade is being called a bucket to hold the nightsoil!
Do I approve of the actions of the Bishop of North India, his son, former Principal Anil Wilson, or present Acting Principal Rav. Valson Thambu in what is happening in the college?
The answer, from this distance is - NO.
That is because it is not in keeping with the values which were imbibed by me from all my Indian alma maters - Good Shepherd Convent, Mysore, Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai and St. Stephen's College, Delhi.
These values have nothing to do with any religion. It has to do with Fair Play.
I request the alumni in all these institutions who are nearer to the home bases to get actively involved in the institutions that they love to ensure that what is happening in St. Stephen's College is not repeated elsewhere.
Although the bulk of this posting relates to my alma mater, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, the moral and rationale that I talk about here applies to all my alma maters and also to my many readers on my primary blog.
It has been quite a while since the exchange of views on the Kooler Talk Blog about the appointment of Rev. Valson Thambu as Acting Principal of St. Stephen's College and then his radical new Dalit Christian oriented admission policy to the College.
I was greatly honoured when John Dayal, Member of the National Integration Council, Secretary General of the All India Christian Council and President of the All India
Catholic Union, asked me to contribute to a book which would consider the aspect of admission of Dalit Christians to minority educational institutions.
Then came those couple of Anonymous postings in the Comments section of the Kooler Talk Blog which accused me of being a fundamentalist Christian.
That made me sit back for more than a moment and search through my 11 years of writing on the internet to see whether I had ever given cause to be considered as a fundamentalist Christian.
There was a time when I took part in a fundamentalist Hindu web discussion site where I came out strongly against Hindu Fundamentalism and Muslim extremism in the wake of the Gujarat massacre. It left a very bad taste in me to get into a discussion with a set of rabid and illiterate Hindu fundamentalists located all over the world who were foaming at the mouth when challenged about their fundamentalism.
Then there was a time when, thanks to Stephanian Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan, Professor of Journalism at Columbia university, New York,I was looking in on the South Asian Journalists (SAJA) Discussion Forum where, again, a few well-educated Hindu Fundamentalist "journalists" were putting forward all sorts of arguments to prove "their" theories of the Indus Valley Civilisation to demonise other religious groups in India.
There was no limit to the twisting of the truth, very much as George Bush continues to use his "Christian Fundamentalist" values to kill innocent Afghanis and Iraqis to achieve his ends.
As a result I had decided not to be drawn again into such arguments as they only leave me with wanting to use a new mouthwash!
When I decided to wish Rev. Thambu well on his appointment as the Officiating Principal of St. Stephen's College, I had no idea that I was being drawn into a major controversy which is raging there.
I am 7000 km away from India. I have not visited India since the year 2000. I am not an expert on anything Indian. I have only my nostalgia of a time long gone by and that does not make me competent to even write a line in support or defense of policies of education, religious fundamentalism or any other matter related to what is taking place in India.
After much deliberation with my friends and my main confidante, I felt that I would only be adding fuel to the fire if I wrote about the controversies. After 8 weeks of much thought and prayer, my wife and I decided that we should not be embroiled in a battle of which we knew nothing about.
We have a reputation, which has been stated by many of our regular readers, that we have never done anything or written anything which violated the trust of all the different religious and ethnic groups that read our many blog pages.
When I went through the Indian Press Reports that I get daily, yesterday there was this one in the Times of India "Exclusive quota for backward Christians and Muslims in Tamil Nadu". This is for the second time that DMK Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has sought to provide exclusive reservation for specific castes in the backward classes catagory. In 1989, he had carved out 20 per cent of the 50 per cent reservation for Backward Classes for the Most Backward classes.
This has been Karunanidhi's vote gathering politics.
Rev. Valson Thambu's strategy was to divert the attention from his controversial appointment to a more amenable to improve his public ratings. In that he succeeded admirably by focusing on the concept of social justice.
To continue to stay away from the personal glare, yet another step was undertaken to undo anything controversial that previous Collge Principal had done. Rev. Thambu took steps to end the open ended permission that Principal Anil Wilson had given to the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS), run by the Mathematical Sciences Foundation (MSF), by asking them to move out of the Stephania campus, causing a section of senior teachers at the college to protest.
What is happening in Stephania today is not based on the ideals that I imbibed in the educational institutions that I attended in India.
Principal Anil Wilson was obviously wrong to have made such an agreement with the MSF. The Bishop of North India was wrong to appoint his son onto the Supreme Council of the College. Principal Wilson was wrong to have continued to hold his position as Principal when he went forward as Vice Chancellor of another University. The Supreme Council was wrong to appoint Rev. Thambu as Officiating Principal when they had not resolved the issue with Principal Wilson. Principal Wilson was wrong to publicise his dissent. Rev. Thambu was wrong to start his tenure with moves meant to divert attention away from his appointment. Principal Thambu was wrong to cause the still waters of campus life to be stirred so violently.
And, all this is being done in the name of "education" and "Christ".
To me none of this stands up as promoting "Christian values".
I know there are many senior and outstandingly intellectual and honest alumni, before and of my era, in and around Delhi like B. G. Verghese, Rahul Bajaj, Ashok Jaitly, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Mani Shankar Ayar, Shanker Menon, John Dayal, etc., who have the depth of vision to tackle these issues rather than someone as uneducated as me who is so far away from home base to contribute anything worthwhile to resolving them.
All I can do is to tell my audience of all alma maters that what is happening in St. Stephen's College will happen in all minority institutions when internal and personal politics supersedes the values which we should adhere to.
I do not appreciate anonymous input. One should have the courage of convictions to put a name and identity to what one believes. Have the courage to call a spade a spade. As otherwise the spade is being called a bucket to hold the nightsoil!
Do I approve of the actions of the Bishop of North India, his son, former Principal Anil Wilson, or present Acting Principal Rav. Valson Thambu in what is happening in the college?
The answer, from this distance is - NO.
That is because it is not in keeping with the values which were imbibed by me from all my Indian alma maters - Good Shepherd Convent, Mysore, Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai and St. Stephen's College, Delhi.
These values have nothing to do with any religion. It has to do with Fair Play.
I request the alumni in all these institutions who are nearer to the home bases to get actively involved in the institutions that they love to ensure that what is happening in St. Stephen's College is not repeated elsewhere.
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