Annikki and Jacob Matthan live in Oulu, Finland. Annikki is a Finn, Jacob an Indian. They are the founders of the Findians Movement way back in 1967. Both are now retired. They have been married for 57 years. This blog is an account of their lives and thoughts as reminiscenced through Annikki's and Jacob's eyes.
We have written a couple of earlier blogs about some of the real problems with the health care system in Finland. One recent one is: The Finnish Health Care System
But my personal experience of the last two months may be especially of interest and important to several of you.
Even though I am 80+ and with only one leg, I consider that I am extremely active.
As Annikki has severe dementia and is incapable of any action which requires the thought process, it is my task to look after everything in the household.
I do have one lady who comes once a week to vacuum the house and wash the floors.
We eat out twice a week but the rest of the week I have to manage the cooking and providing food for both of us.
Being an amateur ergonomist, I have made it a fine art of minimum effort for maximum result!
One of my tasks has been to visit the large supermarket every Sunday, where our youngest son, who lives near the supermarket, would take care of his mother while I would do the rounds and stock up our needs for the week.
About 2 months ago I started to feel tired while doing the shopping. Every week my ability to shop became problematic. Finally, I was just able to do about 50 metres walking and then had to rest. I realised there was something seriously wrong and informed the home nurse that I needed to have urgent medical attention.
She arranged for me to meet my local doctor.
I was immediately sent for an ECG.
The ECG revealed a left bundle branch block in my heart, which my daughter explained to me was an electrical problem of the heart.
“ A left bundle branch block (LBBB) is a heart condition that occurs when there is a delay or blockage along the pathway that electrical impulses travel to make the heart beat. The left bundle branch is one of the pathways that these electrical signals use to travel from the heart's upper chambers (atria) to the lower chambers (ventricles).
When there is a blockage or delay in the left bundle branch, it can disrupt the normal coordination of the heart's contractions, leading to an abnormal heart rhythm. This can be detected on an electrocardiogram (ECG) as specific changes in the pattern of electrical activity in the heart.
LBBB can be a sign of underlying heart conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, or heart failure. It can also occur in people with otherwise healthy hearts. Treatment for LBBB depends on the underlying cause and may include managing any heart conditions present or addressing other factors that could be contributing to the blockage.” (Explanation was AI Generated)
I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and after a wasted half day in the Out Patient Ward, I was admitted to the Cardio ward in the Oulu University Central Hospital. I was fitted with a telemetry device which continuously tracked all my vital data.
The next day I was taken for a chest X-ray and later the cardiologist did an ECHO examination. The following day they did an angioplasty.
The conclusion was that my problem could be treated by medication. I was duly sent home to take one prescribed tablet in the morning and one in the evening. I was also provided with a mouth spray to be taken if I was embarking on a major exercise routine.
I started this regime.
I have my own monitoring system where I take my blood pressure, test my blood sugar before and after food and keep tabs on my pulse and blood oxygen. All my data is obtained both in the morning and evening so I know exactly where my health condition stands.
I did go to have all my remaining teeth extracted as a continuation of my dental health programme. I recovered from that very quickly.
However, 9 days following my return from hospital, I realised something was still seriously wrong.
I went to bed on the Sunday afternoon and woke up late afternoon on Monday. I could hardly lift myself from my wheelchair to move about!
Poor Annikki suffered not being looked after but she is an angel and stayed by me quietly through those 26 hours.
On the following Wednesday I informed the home care visitors that I was in a terrible state and to inform my home nurse.
Nothing happened for a day so I told my daughter, who is a professor of medicine at Newcastle University (NUMED) in the UK and the Dean of the NUMED teaching facility in Malaysia.
She said just one thing: “This is not your NORMAL, Dad. See the cardiologist as soon as possible.”.
I sent an email to the cardiologist using the Oulu University email address but then I found it rejected the email. It appears that they do not entertain emails from their clients!
In desperation I managed to get to the cardiologist on the phone but she was on her rounds and said she would call me back.
She called me back in the afternoon and after listening to my version of the facts with all the relevant data she asked me to stop the medication with immediate effect.
So, now I have stopped the medication - and what is the next step as there is no next step for me except to live with my problem which is steadily weakening of my ability to do any lengthy physical exercise!
My daughter has suggested that I have a Pacermaker installed, but I am not very inclined to any operative procedure.
I wonder if the cardiologist realises that I am back at SQUARE 1 and now in limbo and I must try to find a possible solution.
I will pursue the matter with my home nurse to get the “plan”, but for now it is extreme careful behaviour and no extra physical exercise till I find the solution.
Finland’s health care system is considered to be fantastic but the bulk of the doctors are without the in-depth experience and expertise required of their profession and the pace has to be forced by the individual.
It is not important for something to be just free. The competence of all those in the system has to be of the calibre required of their job!
I have since reverted to my heritage technology.
I have increased my intake of coconut products as coconut water 8total nutrition), coconut cream, coconut milk, coconut yoghurt, and also increased my intake of ginger, tumeric, pepper in green tea with honey. I will continue my intake of my high fish (salmon) diet which is rich in Omega 3.
I will start light physical exercise which causes no stress or tiredness.
I will continue my intensive monitoring and try to get the results reviewed by my own doctor to get some action before it is too late!
Martti Ahtisaari was from Oulun Lyceo, where my daughter studied. He was the third Finnish President who went to the Oulu Lyceo.
Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg
Kyösti Kallio
The others were Presidents Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg and Kyösti Kallio
I landed in Finland in 1984. My brother-in-law, a senior Finnish bureaucrat in the Ministry of Labour, looked at my bio-data and wrote a letter to Martti Ahtisaari, who was also a senior bureaucrat, introducing me to Martti Ahtisaari. He asked me to address a lettter to Martti Ahtisaari, giving details of my background and explaining how I could play a role in the Finnish hierarchy.
That was in 1984!
I am still waiting for an acknowledgement of the communications to both these letters.
That was my first experience of how the Finnish system works.
Three reasons are given for this.
The first is that the person is least interested in extending a hand to the request. It is just ignored as being irrelevant. 99% of the action is this behaviour.
A second reason is that Finns like to do a serious evaluation of the situation before replying aletter. This is the typical answer given when one submits a job application.
When I was explaining this to a group of German journalists who were visiting Oulu Univeristy, about why they did not get reply to their letters to Finns, I gave the benefit of the doubt to this second reason. I was severely admonished by the Dean of our Electrical Engineering Department and Vice Rector of the University for denigrating Finland when holding a senior position in the University. (Not that I cared, as I believe in telling the truth as it is.)
The third is that Finns have very poor social skills. This is best explained by an incident of one of my students who went as an exchange student to Loughborough University. He was being hosted by a Professor.
After his first night at the Ptofessor's house, when he came down to breakfast, the Professor asked him a rhetorical question as to how he had fared through the night. The student was silent for several minutes as he was thinking how he should answer that question.
This was explained to me later when the Professor of English in Oulu University gave a talk about Social English, as Finns have little knowledge about that aspect of life.
When Ahtisaari was President, he behaved like Prime Minister Narendra Modi does today, flying at the drop of the hat to all corners of the world.
I used to keep track of the movement of Ahtisaari on a very popular special web page calling him the "Satellite President".
My personal assessment at that time was that he was building a base to either become nominated as the President of Europe or to get the Nobel Prize.
He got the latter!
Credit must be given, as he was a great negotiator. He negotiated quite extraordinary peace deals between warring factions.
His contribution today in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would have been priceless.
There is no-one who has stepped into this role since.
Although I did not ever meet President Ahtisaari, I did interact with his son when I was a serving member of the Ethnic Minorities Advisory Board (ETNO) representing English speaking members of Finland..
Compulsory army service in Finland for young men was considered absolutely necessary. Those who either chose to go for a stint in social service or those who opted out of it were thought to be traitors or pariahs.
This was until in 2000, when President Ahtisaari's son opted for social service rather than to do the army service! (He served as an assistant in the Labour Ministry in serving in handling ETNO issues.)
It then became acceptable to not join the army service, although many Finns, even today, hold that it is a non-Finnish character.
My father-in-law had to join the army and served on the frontline as a sharpshooter during the entire 1938-1944 wars between Finland and Russia and then in driving out the Germans from Finland. He had no optioin then as if you did not join you would be considered a traitor.
After the war he became a committed Christian and opted out of further service in the army. His back was riddled with grenade shrapnel which meant he could never sleep on his back.
When our daughter interviewed him as University project, he talked about his service to her, but refused to talk about his actions on the front line. He wanted desperately forget those terrinble moments.
Our elder grandson has completed a year of his compulsory army service. The second grandson is taking a year off from and is planning to finish his army service as soon as possible.
I advised him to complete it quickly as when one gets older, it becomes increasingly difficult to respond to "stupid" commands being shouted at you by younger people in the process.
I had one of my senior researchers in Ouklu University who went for his army service when he was over 25. He had been completing his Master's degree.
Within a month, he had to quit on psychological grounds as he could not handle the brain-washing process.
Martti Ahtisaari was probably not the best Finnish President that I have served under, although he had the background of being a bureaucrat before becoming President. In my opinion, this a dangerous combination, as the use of the bureaucratic process can result in a power hungry person misusing the Presidency.
Sauli Niinistö
I think the best Finnish President so far has been our present one, Sauli Niinistö, because he understood humanity after he and his two children escaped the tsumani in Thailand by climbing up a tree!
Having been the Finnish President, may we say sincerely to late Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari - Rest In Peace.
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.
Over many years I have been hearing about the Honesty of Finns. In a recent study Helsinki was reported as being the top of the list based on wallets being dropped in different parts of the city and the rate of return.
Over the years, I have seen all sorts of objects dropped by someone being left at a nearby safe place for it to be found by the loser.
But today was different as it concerned me!
Every Friday, Annikki and I go to the Royal Garden Chinese restaurant to eat the Chicken Vindaloo which is part of the buffet feast. My regular taxi driver, Hassan Ahmed from Somalia (and known to us as Lee as he used to work the Chinese restaurant) takes us there.
He came at 12:30 and dropped us at the restaurant by 12:45. I took out my wallet and paid him and then walked into the restaurant . Before I sat down I realised my wallet was not in my pocket.
It was not anywhere where we had been dropped. I rang Lee who had gone for a cup of coffee at the nearby R-Kioski. He rushed back and we checked the taxi, but it was not there.
I went back to the restaurant and had our lunch, but my appetite had vanished.
I rang my bank and cancelled my credit card. This took just a couple of minutes.
Lee came and took us back home by 14:00 hours.
I was making arrangements on how to live without a credit card when my phone rang. It was a lady who comes to look after us regularly - a home helper/nurse.
She told me that my wallet was at the Cheezburger Factory, a restaurant on Asemakatu in the city centre. I rang Lee and informed him and then rang Cheezburger Factory that Lee would pick it up.
We followed the standard identification process.
Lee picked up and he delivered the wallet to me by 17:00 hours.
Here we are, in a city of a population of 180000 people, and everyone in this process acted quickly and efficiently, with utmost honesty and best interest of their fellow man, so I faced no trouble.
People wonder why Finland is the happiest country in the world for the 6th year running.
Our most popular blog entry was about my childhood hero, world champion wrestler Dara Singh, which I posted on 15th November 2005.
As a 9 year old I had sat next to him in Sampige Stadium in Bangalore and watched him crush King Kong and Flash Gordon and see the Madked Angel refuse to fight him, as he would have been
The blog had innumerable comments from “their” family members, wrestling enthusiasts, biographers, of the “two” Dara Singh’s. YES, there were of them!
This entry of 18 years ago, with its comments, is considered as one of the authoritative active sources about our Indian world champion wrestler.
In this era, where the Champion Indian women wrestlers, who have brought great laurels for our country, are fighting for their honour, and Annikki and I stand with them, we use this our blog to highlight how it is important to stand by our 10 Guiding Principles.
The hits for the Dara Singh blog crossed 19400.
Today we crossed 20000 hits in the month of September alone.
It is their criminal behaviour that we exposed in our blog that has driven this interest worldwide.
Many are shocked to see how some Indians in Finland can behave in this manner, shaming the name of our great country, INDIA.
(I am doing research into the great controversy about the name of our country, whether it should be India and/or Bharat. As it is a factual historical, financial, political check, it is taking time to prepare this blog - do stay tuned.
In the meantime I continue to say that I am pround to be sn INDIAN, so beautifully sing by the Shillong Chamber Choir.
We restarted our blogging on 3rd of August this year. We made four blog entries in August snd we had just 287 visitors.
We started regular blogging about every two days in September and the visitors to our blog have gone through the roof.
The visitors peak in September has exceeded the visitors we had in the period 2009-2010.
And it is ripping the universe now.
Today 23rd September!!!
The visitors from around the world are coming at over 2 per minute. This sortof result for the blog is truly amazing.
This statistic was seen at 2:58 am on the 23nd September morning. The bulk of them were from Android app users. They came from all corners of the globe. The search engines were directing the traffic to our blog which meant the keyword we have been using are to the readers interest. Also most readers were coming directly to our blog and not being directed by social media.
I checked with AI for possible reasons. The answer was clear. People are interested in what we are blogging, so they are coming.
It appears that the bulk of the visitors came because of the 10 Guiding Principles we applied before quitting this association.
Truth and the Sacrd Trust we abide by, seem to have hit a chord with those who visit the site. We promise that we will continue with this philosophy
Recently, we were invited to take part in an event to be organised by a member of this association. Although the person is a friend, we declined as we thought it inappropriate to share our time and space with people who behave in a manner opposed to our principles.
We wish to keep our integrity.
We thank each visitor to our blog for making our blog so popular that it has given us the incentive to blog in a manner that keeps your interests at heart while abiding by our 20 Guiding Principles.
And if you have been through the comments section on our Dara Singh blog entry and would like to add some information we have missed, please do write to me about it.
It is almost the time we may have to think like this!
The Finns believe that Finnish is the most difficult language to learn as it has a highly complex grammar structure. This is certainly true.
If you go to a normal Finnish language class you will find yourself quite frustrated as the teacher focuses on teaching the students this complex grammar.
This is not the way children learn any language. Little children communicate with others. As they build a vocabulary they learn how to structure the language.
In my own case, I was busy learning Finnish at evening classes twice a week in Pohjankartano. In the meantime, our 13 year old daughter was playing and speaking with her Finnish friends in the neighbourhood and none of them spoke any English.
So I asked my teacher why this was so?
She had no logical answer.
I decided to learn Finnish the way my daughter had learned it.
I studied the way Finnish was spoken. The first difference I noted was that the alphabet was different to the English language and the language was highly phonetic. Especially difficultb was the letter "y" as the Finnish "y" sound has no equivalent in any Indian language but because of my knowledge of French, I knew it was equivalent to the "eu" sound in French.
I first mastered the Finnish alphabet.
I then decided that I would not use the English language to study it as English the least phonetic of languages!
As my "Delhi" Hindi was reasonable, I decided to use the phonetic basis of my poor Hindi to learn Finnish.
The second aspect I noted was I understood how Finnish was spoken. The first syllable of every word is stressed, so it was easy to follow the spoken language, word by word.
Then I did a study the normal words used by a Finn. In my fields of Plastics, Rubber and Microelectronics, I found that there was a paucity of words in the Finnish language.
The Finns had added words from German, English and Swedish liberally to their dictionary, making them fit to the structure of the language. For instance, my title at Oulu University was "yli insinööri Mikroelektronikka Laboratorio". Leaving aside the first word "yli" the other three were derived from English "Engineer, Microelectronics Laboratory".
I picked up a workbook produced by BBC “List of first degree derived words from the “Technology Tomorrow Workbook””.
I found that over 90% of the words in Microelectronics were derived from English.
We had an interesting public debate at that time when we were working on Gas Sensors. There was strong views in some circles that we should not use the word sensor, as in Finnish it was supposed to relate to censoring a movie or document. The debate became quite heated as the Finns wanted us to use the word "antuuri".
I let the debate reach a climax and then I threw the grenade.
I pointed out the word "antuuri" was derived from the English word “antenna", which was a sensing device.
A hush fell over those in the debate! :-)
Some language experts say that between 3000 to 5000 words is sufficient to consider oneself well on the way to understanding a language. When I did an analysis, because of my knowledge of Gerrman, French and English, my Finnish "derived" vocabulary was well over 10000 words. Of course, the bulk of the words were in the technical field.
However, I quickly started to apply these rules to my grocery shopping. Sugar was "sokeri", coffee was "kahvi" and tea was "tee". I worked out my shopping list and started to use these first as single words and then started to create short sentences.
When I joined Oulu University, which was six months after coming to Finland, I had mastered enough of the language but I did not divulge my methodology. When I went to take part in a business meeting between our laboratory and the Finnish Oil giant, Neste Oy, a month after my joining, my professor was quite surprised as I was busy making notes at the meeting.
I knew that if they knew I was following their spoken Finnish , the more prudent ones would have dropped into good Finnish, leaving me in the dark.
I kept quiet about my method all through my life in University. I only revealerd it when Annikki and I wrote our book "Handbook For Survival in Finland" in 1994.
However, in my daily life I was able to carry on a normal life in Finland.
I did not, and still have not mastered written Finnish. I did not bother as Annikki was always there to help me out in difficult situations.
My sincere advice to all foreigners in Finland is that they should not fall into the trap that says the Finnish is a difficult language. This is especially true for those who have children.
Send your children to Finnish schools rather than International Schools as the children will make great friends in their locality and these friendships can be valuable in life, even if they move out from Finland.
Our children are now scattered around the world and yet they value their Indian and Finnish roots and traditions and are comfortable wherever they go.
In the fifties, Finland was recovering from the war . Poverty was widespread. There was no free food for children in schools, for instance.
Annikki left Finland when she was just 17 and went to work in a Hospiz caring for old people in the more prosperous Sweden which had not been ravaged by war.
She learnt Swedish quickly. Then a colleague said there were more prospects in England to learn nursing. So off she went to England, but before she got into the system, she met me and she decided that she would concentrate on her inborn skills, language and art. She mastered English quickly as she had a devoted teacher! :-)
She then thought to broaden her horizons and moved to Germany and quickly mastered the German language as she was working with children.
She returned to Finland but love was in the air so she moved back to England. Soon after I graduated and got a job, the Findian culture was born. We were just 23 and 24 years old at that time!
We moved to Madras in India in 1969. She had to manage a huge house with four children. English speaking home help was expensive. She started to learn Sanskrit. I soon convinced her it would be bettter to learn Tamil as the children were already speaking it fluently. With a cook, maid, cleaner, gardener, two watchmen, a driver, and the shopkeepers in Panagal Park Market to communicate with, she quickly learnt Tamil and also learnt to understand Malayalam, as my mother mainly spoke that at home. She could not master spoken Malayalam as we Mallus have a horrible habit of rolling our tongues!
Life was great and when we left India she was heartbroken and kept her bags packed for 5 years to go back to the land she loved so dearly, India.
(For those interested, there over 900 blog entries by Annikki and me over the 30 years in this blog, many highlighting the wonderful past of the Indian Community in Oulu and Finland. Annikki and I have over 20 blogs and over 2000 blog entries. In addition we have a half a dozen Google Groups. Plus we have published over 10000 web pages.)
Vande Matarsm (Proud to be an Indian)
Shillong Chamber Choir (in Tallin).
Just as I am proud to be an Indian, Annikki is equally proud to be a Finn.
Annikki’s father, Matti Reinikka, fought in the front line for 6 years against Russia and then went on to drive the German army from Finland.
Like almost every Indian knows “Vande Mataram”, almost every Finnish child knows this sad marching song of the proud Finnish army which was sung when they were returning from the Balkans.
Kauan on Kärsitty.
Sharpshooter Matti Reinikka (top right) with
some of his Army Company during World War II.
Annikki and I attended the Memorial Service with Matti Reinikka in Puolanka where a Memorial Stone was unveiled in honour of all those who served and fought and many who died in World War II. (1988)
Matti and Hilja Reinikka after Matti was demobbed
from the Finnish Army after World War II
As Annikki was born in September 1944, just before the Moscow armistice was signed, Annikki’s grandfather wanted to give Annikki the name “Rauha Annettu” which means “Peace Given”. Finnish naming law for babies at that time did not permit it, so she was given the accepted name “Rauha” meaning “Peace”.
Annikki is also like me, a lover of her own country, Suomi, Finland.
Based on our mutual respect for each other, when we got married in 1967 and the FINDIANS concept was born, we set up the 10 Guiding Principles to see us through life.
The 1st principle is to always be truthful. (A few ”white lies” were to be permitted! :-) )
Principle 2 is to *Stay where your presence is appreciated*.
Principle 3 is to never claim credit for something that does not belong to you.
Principle 4 is do not violate the laws of the country you live in.
Principle 5 is to lend a helping hand to anyone who reaches out to you.
Principle 6 is to genuinely pray for anyone facing a difficult situation.
Principle 7 is do not be cowed down by aggressors, however powerful they seem to be!”
Principle 8 is do not run to find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Principle 9 is to give respect to those who deserve it.
And finally, Principle 10 is never to violate the “Sacred Trust”, set out for the Malayala Manorama newspaper and all those encompassed in its family. It was set down pre-1953 by my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.
"By God's grace, Manorama is in a position to create and garner a forceful public opinion. This may be used for the good or the bad. But, we should consider it as a public trust bestowed upon us for the selfless service of humanity.
"You will have no qualms to use Manorama as a sacred public trust or an institution God has trustingly bestowed upon us to be used without fear or favour from anyone. You should always work with this in mind. God has placed in our hands a mighty weapon. To use it for our personal, vindictive and vitriolic ends will be an unpardonable and immoral act injurious to the faith bestowed on us by a large number of people. God does not want that. Hence, our eternal vow should be to tirelessly work for the success of fairness, justice and morality. '
It remains a sacred, inviolable dictum for Malayala Manorama.”
It is also the primary Guiding Principle of Annikki and me.
Life in Oulu has been fun and constructive in many ways for both Annikki and me.
In the 80s, the early days, we were the only Indians followed closely by the Gill brothers from Punjab. We were then joined by Philip Hu (Calcutta) and he set up his great Chinese/Indian restaurant at the corner of Rotuaari, and then his sister, Michelle with her tiny Chinese restaurant on Asemakatu, the first Indian restaurant, New Bombay (with Philip as the Indian owner - not Bangladeshi as today) and then Fazila Allana, the first AISEC trainee (now she is the very successful owner of SOL productions in Mumbai and producer ofKoffeeWithKaran, KiaMastHaiLife, Mai Ka Laal, NachBaliye and Rakhi Ka Swayamwar), and so on. (Fazila’s first written piece on the Indian Economy was for us in Findians Briefings in 1994!)
We Indians in Oulu had great camaraderie and fun together!
Annikki and I enjoyed the pleasant company of all these and many other Indians who passed through Oulu, and those who later settled here. Annikki and I were their friends, guides and mentors (if they needed us)! Nobody was competing to be dominant. We were all equal and worked for the common good of our small community.
For those with some memory may I take you back to January 2008 when we had our first O-India get-together. It is recorded in my blog entry dated 18th January 2008
Sadly, some of the wonderful pictures of the event are missing from this old blog entry but it shows the real spirit in the launching of O-India in 2008!
Thanks to Nagendra Kolar I have received a couple of the photos and a video taken at that event by Vishu Mallabadi of Wipro (Today Vishu is a famous environmental artist in Bengaluru.)
Many of you may recognise some of the youngsters here as Ashwini, Bala, Nagendra, Sulochna, Sreekanth, Srikanth. and the not so young, as Annikki and myself! Vishu is standing in the back row, second from the left.
I quote the last para of that blog entry:
”Already calls are coming in for more such events. And we are sure that will be many such events in the coming years as the people who are running the O-India Group are YOU, and all of you are enthusiastic and energetic youngsters.”
There have been 4 decades of association for Annikki and me with over 3000 Indians in Oulu!
About 4 weeks ago we terminated our membership to O-India Ry with immediate effect.
It was a sad but decisive moment as we could see what lay ahead! Big trouble!!!
O-India Ry had been spun out of the O-India Google Group started by Kiran Kumar Nataraj, Atul Mahajan and myself in December 2007.
Kiran returned to India and left the Administration of the Group.
Annikki, joined as a Moderator when I was ill, followed by Mani Shankar Bhowmik and then Pushpa Dhundwal.
The Google Group has run without any problem for 16 years and has 300+ people worldwide who get the postings.
About four years ago, a few Indians in Oulu came to me and asked whether I had any objection (not that it would have mattered) to O-India being formalised into a Finnish Association. I had certain misgivings but gave their plan my blessings as the persons involved were sincere in their intentions. However, I said the original O-India Google Group would remain alive and intact!
O-India Ry was formed and they started their own Google Group. (Reasons unknown?)
They also started a WhatsApp Group (Reasons unknown?)!
To us it seemed the start of POWER POLITICS!
Annikki and I joined their Google Group, but not their WhatsApp Group.
The Association ran for three years, but unfortunately, the first two years were under a chairperson who had no vision and ability to plan a clear goal for it. He could not conduct any large event successfully!
There were many hiccups during that time which were passed off as teething troubles.
In the third year, the Chairperson changed to Avinash Bhaker. He had a largely indolent Board. Even with that handicap, he made O-India Ry a vibrant viable organisation.
The AGM for 2023 was chaired by Suresh Kodukula..
The Annual and Financial Report for the period 2022-2023 were outstanding presentations highlighting the numerous achievements of the year. I made this observation during the AGM. I asked Avinash who had prepared this presentation.
Avinash told me that the Annual Report was compiled by him, the xls sheets were prepared by Abhishek Sinha and the comprehensive treasurer’s report, logo and beautiful photographic inputs were done by Viney Shekar. He did not try to take the credit for himself!
The Secretary of the then Board, Suresh Kodukula, played no part in preparing what should have been his task!
The 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of O-India Ry was a chaotic affair. There was absolute bedlam as Suresh was clueless on how to conduct this meeting. Suresh’s objective seemed to be to get elected as the next Chairperson of the association. He did not check the list of members present, conducted elections with proxy voting of people not present or people who were not members and who were being given a vote. The voting itself was chaotic.
I objected strongly to the proceedings and there was a decision to hold a continuation AGM to regularise all the illegalities.
Again Suresh took the chair at the continuation AGM but the meeting could not even get off the ground. IT was only after Vinoth Selvaraj stepped in and took over the Chair and ran the meeting, it went as it should!
The only thing evident from this meeting to Annikki and me was the incompetence of Suresh!
Again I drew attention, privately, to the past chairperson, Avinash Bhaker, for information, and Suresh, who had been elected as a new Chairperson of the association.to the “Minutes” and actions not following the rules laid down for Finnish Associations. What was circulated were not minutes but one person’s perception of what took place!
Principle 1: Truthfulness and the present O-India Ry Board cannot be found on the same page or even in the same dictionary. Lie followed lie, starting with the Chairperson Suresh assisted by his ally, Asheesh Nigam!
Principle 2 of our 10 guiding principles is - “Stay where your presence is appreciated.”
The reaction of the O-India Board and the members to the onslaught on Annikki and me for pointing out formalities that should be followed in any Finnish Association, told us it was time to leave these people behind to their own devices!
Our decision to terminate our membership of O-India Ry with immediate effect was thus absolutely correct as our presence and thoughts were not appreciated. We were just an unnecessary nuisance to the Board and a majority of the members, especially those who had no history of life in Finland.
Most of the people, even those who have seen us work for the Indian community in Finland during their time in Finland, have shown us that most of them have no backbone to stand up for what is right.
So long as we were useful to them they would try to touch our feet. This is a one practice which Annikki and I dislike, as my parents taught me that everyone is equal!
Pushpa’s point that Indian culture respects the elderly does not stand popular among the majority of this Oulu Indian Community.
Why should Pushpa Dhundwal, an ordinary O-India Ry member, apologise to Annikki and me? We cannot accept her apology as she has never put a foot wrong to the two of us in over a decade of interaction.
Like many other Indians, Avinash and Pushpa started their lives in our furnished apartments in Oulu. We know their characters intimately and have remained friends. They remain an part of our extended family, as many other Indians around the world!
Any apology, which some may think is required, is certainly not likely to be forthcoming from O-India Ry Board or the members! And it is totally unnecessary! What would be the purpose of such an apology?
The Board and members can remain in their stupor.
2023 Onam celebrations in Oulu where over 70 Malayalis took part. (August 2023)
We specifically exclude the Oulu Malayali community who have not shown us any disrespect at any time, but only love and affection to which Annikki and I have suitably responded!
Ladies cricket comes to Oulu with Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans organising a wonderful event in Lintula (August 2023)
Also the multicultural Cricket Clubs of Oulu are other exceptions! They have welcomed Annikki and me with open arms, even though we now have nothing to offer them in return!
I must recall the starting of cricket in Oulu which are recorded in two of our earlier blog entries.
We disregard the words of the dandiprat, Mr. Deepak Singla, whose knowledge of English and Finland can be written on the nail of my little toe! I give no credence to his words as even knowledge of Class 10 English is too much to expect for him to understand. Let him be duly “apalled”.
The present O-India Ry Board and the members are not willing to confront the blatant lies being promulgated by its Chairperson, Suresh, and a person without portfolio, Asheesh Nigam.
They are ably supported by Social Coordinator, Ms. Kalyani Mukherjee, a “volunteer” Board member with “NO responsibility” (her words)! Obviously Ms. Kalyani does not know what is the meaning of the word “social” or “liability”!
The Board continues in the traditional Trumpian way, one lie is followed by another bigger one. That brings them applause!
Suresh’s lie as to why my email to the O-India Ry members was rejected was ascribed to an extra “dot” in an email address.
This claim can be checked on AI. Here is the response that I got from AI:
“- robot: Hello, How can I assist you?
- user: If there are extra dots in an email address will Google still try to find the recipient?
- robot: Yes, Google will still try to find the recipient even if there are extra dots in the email address. The extra dots in the email address are ignored by Google's email service. For example, if the correct email address is example@gmail.com, Google will still deliver the email even if it is sent to e.x.a.m.p.l.e@gmail.com.”
However, even if we had composed an email with an extra dot - “.”, as stated by Suresh, before the email was sent, gmail would have opened the dialog shown below telling me that the email id did not exist and asking whether I still wanted to send the email.
Possibly the O-India Ry Board and members thinks that Annikki and I are mentally compromised persons who would have sent out an email in such a case.
It is important to clarify one small point as many members think that Annikki and I are nuisances.
Our first email drawing attention to serious legal issues, was NOT sent to all the members of O-India Ry but privately to the Past Chairperson, Avinash Bhakar, for information, and to the current Chairperson, Suresh Kodukula, for action!
When Suresh did not bother to acknowledge or reply our email in a reasonable time frame, only then did we address our email to the members of O-India Ry.
As Pushpa correctly pointed out in her email to the members, there is the important issue of liability which encompasses all the members of the association.
Suresh raised the “dot” bogey BECAUSE he could not answer a single one of the 6 points we had brought attention to in our email!
“ 1 . Fabrication of false evidence by the Board of the O-India ry.
“Deliberate falsification of evidence is considered a form of gross fraud. It involves intentionally misrepresenting or altering evidence with the intention to deceive others and manipulate the outcome of a legal or investigative process. This is a serious offense that undermines the integrity of the justice system and can have severe consequences for those involved.”
2. Violation of Finnish Data Privacy Laws by a Board Member of O-India ry.
In Finland, sharing private information without consent is punishable under the Personal Data Act (1050/2018). According to the act, the maximum penalty for such an offense can be imprisonment for up to two years and/or a fine of up to 240 daily fines.
3. Incompetence in handling routine membership matters of maintaining the O-India Ry membership lists.
4. In probability, giving the members false information about actions supposedly taken by the Board.
5. Failure to correct the violation of the Finnish Law on Data Privacy within a reasonable time frame.
6. Setting precedents in the Annual General Meeting which makes it impossible to run this association in a proper manner according to laws governing Finnish Associations.”
To this day these points have not been answered by the O-India Ry Board!
The distraction technique adopted by Suresh works well on a set of zombies but it cannot work on ANYONE with an iota of brains.
In these 3 blogs we have highlighted the work Annikki and I have done for the Findians community over 54 years. We did not need anyone’s help to have done what we did! We did not do it for glory for ourselves or credit from anyone.
For the earlier part, till 1998 not one Indian was around here in Oulu (other than the Gill brothers, Philip Hu and his sister Michelle Hu and Sulochana) actively working on cultural issues!
I challenge anyone to find one falsehood in any of our blogs. (We have many - maybe over 20 blogs covering aspects of life in India, Finland, cost of living, politics, human rights, freedom of speech, etc.) We built a worldwide network of like-minded people with interests in Finland and India.
The present day Indian engineer and university student, and his/her family who have recently moved to Oulu, Finland, are mainly concerned with showing the world and themselves how great they are by reaching here! The ladies, especially those who have no jobs, behave like expat spouses everywhere, holding their gossip coffee club meetings!
Last week, we were sent a photograph which appeared on the Indian Embassy website which we can only describe as disgusting, immoral and shameless!
Suresh Kodukula and Asheesh Nigam collecting an award meant for the 2022-2023 performance of O-India Ry from the Indian Ambassador to Finland, His Excellency Shri Raveesh Kumar.
Does any member of O-India Ry know why we use these adjectives ?
It is a direct violation of Principle 3 of our guidelines, claiming credit for someone else’s work.
Was turning up at the Indian Embassy to collect an award not belonging to either of the two people, be described as “accidentally” being in the India Embassy to collect this award?
Avinash Bhakar, as the past Chairperson of O-India ry, was responsible for the Indian Embassy awarding an honour to O-India Ry. Suresh going to collect this award was claiming credit for the absolutely wonderful AGM and treasurer’s report presented at the last AGM. Suresh did not contribute one bit to its creation. Now he was stealing the credit for great year under the previous Chairperson, not even informing him of the award before the event, and thenclaiming that he and Asheesh Nigam (dressed appropriately in a kurta pyjama for the event) were just there in the vicinity of Helsinki Embassy.
This exposes the shamelessness of these two individuals.
And what of the behaviour of the present Board in condoning and consorting with this behaviour?
Not once in our lives have we claimed credit for work we did not do ourselves.
How many of you O-India Ry members know how Annikki and I were atrociously accosted by Asheesh Nigam in the Royal Garden restaurant a couple of weeks ago after Suresh’s attempt to lie his way to evade answeringour questions. Asheesh asked me whether he could talk to me in the restaurant, to which I said ”NO”!
I know that Asheesh has a habit of turning verbal words around, so I told him anything he had to ask or say should be in writing. He continued to trouble us standing beside our table. Four times I told him that he was a Foodara delivery boy and if the food delivery was delayed the blame would fall on the restaurant. But he continued to stay and amplify on Suresh's lie about the mysterious "dot", showing is that he was probably the person behind the original lie!
His intrusion into our meal became so embarrassing that the owner of the restaurant came to our table to ask Asheesh to leave the premises. How many O-India Ry members condone such behaviour?
Anyone who can trouble you in a public place, so much so that the restaurant personnel had to ask the person to leave, is simply shameless.
Only the intervention of Avinash and Vinoth Selvaraj, both of whom Annikki and I greatly respect, stopped me from starting legal. proceedings against O-India Ry Board member Ms. Kalyani Mukherjee for disclosing private information about me on the WhatsApp O-India Ry group that we are not even members of, and not removing it in violation of the express orders by the Chairperson of the continuation AGM (Vinoth).
It was from Pushpa’s recent email to O-India Ry that I learnt that Ms. Kalyani had been informed to take down the private information about me before the deadline which has been specified by WhatsApp, but Ms. Kalyani probably “deliberately” chose not to do so!
Arrogance?
Our decision to not proceed presently against Suresh for fabrication and falsification of data was based on the fact that we wanted nothing more to do with these people of ill repute.
Both of these actions, the first by Ms. Kalyani and then by Suresh, are criminal offences under Finnish law. Our Principle 4 states clearly that we stay within the boundary of laws of the country.
Do we want to stay in the company of persistent lawbreakers?
Maybe Mr. Singla, when he comes out of his appalled state, can reply!
Are these the people who you members of O-India Ry want representing Indian culture and values in Oulu?
It was our so ”unprofessional” character that we ran our promotion of Indian culture in Oulu and Finland for 50+ years before the arrival in Finland of Mr. Singla! We have hosted 5 Indian Ambassadors to Oulu as well as many international artistes and professionals. Close to 10000 Indians have been looked after by Annikki and me during this time in Espoo, Helsinki, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu, Raahe, and Kajaani!
What a sad state of affairs it must have been here in Finland before Mr. Singla arrived here! :-)
So glad, Mr. Singla, for your candid observation about our lack of professionalism!
Maybe our brilliant Mr. Singla could give some valuable advice to our present Indian Ambassador, who last week sent me an email which contained this snippet:
“You, along with others who came to Finland, a few decades ago, have indeed made valuable contributions towards building a positive narrative about India in this country.”
Just a few days ago I was sent a beautiful poster designed by Mani Shankar Bhowmik to prepare for the performance in Oulu by Shashank Subramanyam, the world famous flautist from Chennai. (Shashank had earlier performed in Oulu in 2013 at the personal invitation of Annikki and myself.)
In the first line of the poster it said the program was being organised in coordination between the Indian Embassy and O-India Ry.
Without blinking an eyelid, I wished Mani all success with the event, but that we had no intention of taking any part in any event organised under the banner of this O-India Ry Board.
I did not want to comment on the legality of such an event being organised by O-India Ry as I think Mani should find that out for himself.
The last line in our termination letter to O-India Ry was:
“Please continue with your games and incompetence with others - not us.”
