Brinda Somaya, Outstanding Architect

Brinda Somaya

 I have posted a tribute to a good friend Brinda (nee Chinappa) Somaya, one of India’s leading architects. 

She is a school friend of 50 years with both of our families having deep roots in Karnataka.

Findians association with Finland - 1943 to 2024 Part 1

Annikki and Jacob decided to write this series of blog entries to share some of the major highlights of our life associated with  Finland over the last 80 years. It will later be incorporated as a chapter in Jacob’s memoirs

At the outset it is important to remember this proverb:

We hope it will help some of you, and all the members of your family, as you live your life peacefully in this beautiful country.

Recently, we received an email stating that the person was “appalled” by our behaviour. 

So far, people have only referred to us as anarchist hippies! It was a shock for Annikki and Jacob to be called terrorists by a "respected member" of O-India ry.

We thought it would be better if we reviewed our over 80 years of association with Finland (in the case of Annikki, her 79 years) to see how many of our activities could be termed as terrorist oriented?

Annikki and Jacob, with their four children, moved permanently to Finland from India in April 1984. 

We had visited Finland in the summer of 1969. 

On arrival in Helsinki we stayed in Annikki’s brother’s (Erkki) University apartment in Otaniemi in Espoo. It was in a gorgeous setting overlooking the bay. We spent a day there and visited the chapel of the University located in the middle of the forest.

University chapel in Espoo.

We did some sightseeing visiting the Helsinki Open Market place on the sea front and the copper domed chapel. 

We then drove all night from Helsinki to Oulu in a rented Beetle VW, with our two small children. Destination was to Annikki’s home town.

It was Jacob’s first experience of a nightless night. He was fascinated by driving through the green forests, blue lakes, forests and more lakes.

The roads were rough as it was just after winter. The use of studded tyres in winter made them treacherous as there were two deep ruts on the road. But there was virtually no traffic.

We stopped for a cup of coffee at a motor rest. No motorways those days. 

Annikki had not spoken Finnish for almost seven years so she felt a little hurt as a Finn when the attendant in the cafeteria complimented her on her Finnish! :-)

Jacob experienced watching a gorgeous sunset and sunrise within minutes of each other over a lake in Jyväskylä near the centre of Finland. 

Sunset and sunrise in midsummer in Finland.

We arrived at 5 am on the 3rd of July 1969 to a house bathed in the morning sunshine. 

Jacob was received in that home with a great cup of coffee and as a son of the family. 

Finns are amongst the largest coffee drinkers in the World consuming a strong brew.

It was Jacob’s first experience of pouring fresh milk from a plastic bag, something not seen anywhere else in the world before then and of special interest to him as a plastics technologist. 

The bags of milk were sold with a plastic container to hold the bag upright.

Annikki and their two children, Susanna (1 year and 9 months) and Jaakko (8 months) and her mother, Hilja - July 1969 in Oulu.

After a month we set off by train and ferry to Stockholm, train to Copenhagen, where we were met by Jacob’s classmate from his Mumbai school, Viney Sethi, who was married to a Danish lady, Hanne Pederson. Viney has been a childhood friend for over 7 decades.

Finally, Copenhagen we travelled by train to Munich in West Germany and then to Venice in Italy to board the M. S. Victoria run by Lloyd Triestino Lines to  Bombay. 

As the Suez Canal was closed, the trip was of 5 weeks. Out through the Straits of Gibraltar and to the Atlantic, to Las Palmas, Dakkar  to Cape Town and then to the Arabian Sea to Mombasa, Karachi and to Bombay.

Susanna in Stockholm en route to Venice

Jaakko, Susanna and Jacob in Munich en route to Venice.

Front and back of the postcard sent by Annikki to her family in Oulu letting 

them know we had  arrived safely in Venice.

Jacob with Susanna and Jaakko on board the M. S. Victoria.

Annikki and Jacob on board the M. S. Victoria on the Atlantic Ocean between Las Palmas  and Cape Town.

The reason we travelled by ship was that Jacob had collected 10 tea chests of valuable research and technical literature which was to form the foundation of the consulting company he was establishing in Madras with his brother, also a polymer chemist.

We had a wonderful time on board the ship. Annikki, with her artistic talents, dressed the two of us as Lappish people using blue and red crepe paper and we walked away with the first prize.

Also the four of us were the only ones who were never sea-sick even in the roughest weather, so we appeared on time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only problem  was that being an Italian ship, they served us pasta for every meal, only the shape of the pasta changed!

We arrived in Bombay for the next stage of our life in India.

Part 2  of the blog will cover the period 1975 to 1984.

Quick trip to Helsinki

I took the Blue1 flight at 09:15 to Helsinki (€ 54 was return fare!). It was bitterly cold, -32 C, and with the slight breeze, it was about -38 C. Helsinki was like summer as the temperature was just -8 C. Finished work and got back to the airport by 15:00 hours; flight at 16:40 and home by 18:00. Temperature was still hovering around -28 C but as it was not windy, it was bearable. Hope the temperature starts to rise and we hope it is sunny bright days ahead.

How time has passed!

Ruki Family

As usual, I have several excuses why my blogs has not been updated. None of them are valid except that I have not just been on the ball as I have had problems in running my retired life business.

I am glad to say, thanks to Rukshana, the daughter of a dear friend, Yezad Kapadia, I was introduced to a young man living in Helsinki, Yogesh Kale, formerly from WIPRO Administration in Banaglore, an experienced hospitality manager and a very sincere person.

He took time off from his working life to look after his baby daughter for the last 9 months while his wife went back to work.

He and I hit it off from Day 1. He has come in as a shareholder and Director of Raantel Oy from this month. He will take charge of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and also Tampere. He has brought a new face to Raantel. I am sure we will grow in South Finland and operate on a similar model as we are doing in Oulu.

I will not blow the trumpet about Yogesh as I watch him develop Raantel into an internationally acclaimed company.

With his induction, probably life will get a little easier for me. Knowing me, whenever a gap appears in my life, I jump in with a new idea or new project. I have so many up my sleeve that I should start keeping a diary of all the projects that have just been overlooked in the last 40 years.

I have lost much of my skills, but some do remain and hopefully they will result in a few more good projects.

Visit to Helsinki

Ever since Nirmala told me that she was coming to Helsinki for a holiday, I have been planning with Annikki to go there for our holiday. Nirmala and Gulden arrived with two other couples and they stayed at a friend's service apartment as all mine were full.

As they had plans to visit Moscow, St. Petersbutrg, Stockholm and Tallin, Annikki and I timed our visit so that we could spend a couple of days with Nirmala and Gulden, as the other couples were leaving on Wednesday. We drove from Oulu and arrived there with just enough time to meet the other two couples before they left back to India.

Annikki and I introduced Nirmala and Gulden to Mr. K. S. Rao, the Western Europe Vice President of LnT Infotech, whom I had staying in the same Service Apartment complex. We all went for a Thai meal in a great Thai restaurant picked by Mr. Rao. I had my favourite dish - the Thai Papaya Salad - and it was spicy and good.

The next day we set off for a drive to Porvoo, a small town about 50 km East from Helsinki which is still quaint Finland. The church and other sites were visited.

I had decided to drive Nirmala and Gulden cross country to Iitala Glass Factory.

We stopped o at a rather wonderful Fish restaurant on the way and had some smoked Rainbow Trout in marvelous surroundings with the gurgling sound of a stream next to us.

I had a problem with the GPS navigator as when we reached "Iitala" it was the middle of nowhere. But as luck would have it, I put the GPS to take us to Tampere and within 15 minutes were at the Iitala Glass Factory and Showroom and Nirmala got just what she wanted.

The followung day I took Nirmala and Gulden to the Open Air Flea market in Helsinki and Normala, much to Gulden's anguish, went wild. She picked up tons of stuff and would have picked up more if I had decided that enough was enough.

We picked up Annikki and went by boat to the Finnish Castle on an island just outside Helsinki and had a beautiful traditional Finnish lunch. They tasted the Salmon Soup, Nirmala had the reindeer and Gulden the pork ribs, Finnish style.

We put them on the flight back to Delhi and a sense of sorrow at their leaving hit us as we drove to Annikki's sister's place in Luoma.

We were invited to dinner at Ruki and Devinder's home in Helsinki and met with Cathedralite 49er Yezad Kapadia and his wife Rati, who are on a holiday to Europe and especially Finland. (This I have reported on the Seventh Heaven Blog.)

While Annikki and Anneli went to church on Saturday, i went about my work and finalised three more houses in the region, thanks to my associate, Levy. We ended our visit by celebrating Annerli's birthday at a Chinese Restaurant in Espoo.

When we left Anneli at home it was almost 10:30 pm, and we drove to Oulu and reached back at around 09:30 am. It was a tough and tiring drive as I had really expended a lot of energy driving around Helsinki.

Many thanks to Nirmala and Gulden, Rati and Yezad and Ruki and Devinder for a giving us a great holiday.

Driving to Helsinki and back

Yesterday's 1300 km drive was one with a difference.

A very strange storm hit mid Finland and I was amazed to see trees just pushed down as if the palm of a hand was just striking them down.

A power downsurge they called it as cold air was drawn down and crushed the trees.

Driving down to Helsinki I was caught in an enormous thunderburst in mid Finland. Driving at just 30 kms per hour I got through that and reached a sun-bathed Helsinki at midday. I left Helinki at 16:00 hours and went to Tampere - beautiful sunshine.

I left Tampere at around 18:00 hours and it was just a perfect drive except I saw this destruction which had been caused by a storm possibly just an hour before I went through. Got home around midnight.

Sadly I was not carrying my camera.

Annikki was worried stiff as she knew that i would be driving through that area just about then. Phone contact did not exist.

These trips are getting to be more exciting.

Next week, we will make that trip together to meet a cousin and her husband in Helsinki, so it won't be a day trip.

Back in Oulu, and What! Oh! What!

The first picture is the absolutely delightful gift given to us by the Patni team in Bangalore after they hosted us for a great dinner.



Now, in its proper location in Oulu in our living room. The birds and the background lighting, in a special place chosen by Annikki for this work of art, makes it truly magnificent.

Thank you boys - Uncle Jacob cannot thank you enough for this stupendous gift which made it BACK in one piece back to Finland.

It was late on Wednesday evening when we hit Oulu. I drove the 600 km rather slowly and carefully as I was really tired. The roads were clear, and while the sun was up, it was brilliant and a beautiful clear blue sky. The temperature during the journey was hovering between -15 and - 18 C, but the car heating was perfect.

We saw the sun set at 14:30 when we were passing through Jyväskyla, about halfway through our journey from Helsinki to Oulu.

What a difference, when just 6 months ago I stopped at 02:30 am to see the sun rise at Jyväskylä!

Today afternoon, Annikki gave me a shopping list of urgent provisions to obtain so that we did not starve! I went to our local supermarket. As I was coming out I bumped into one of Joanna's friends, Terhi-Liisa. She stopped to say hello.

The first thing she said was that she had read most of our experiences I had blogged of our trip around India. She asked how Annikki's cough was faring! So she was really reading the blog. (Terhi-Liisa told me that just recently lost her dad, so I conveyed condolences from our family.)

I decided to check through my readership statistics. Normally I have about 60000 to 80000 readers for all my 10 active blogs put together. From what I was able to gather, I had a possible 130000 to 135000 readers from all over the world who were reading of our Indian exploits on Jacob's Blog.

Phenomenal as it may seem, considering that many of the readers sent me email (such as Shilpa from the Middle East) and one (Ebbi) actually took up the phone in California to ring and speak at length to me, shows how much the blogging was appreciated.

I was happy that several of the older members of my immediate family, who know nothing about computers and blogging, actually got people to print out my entries so that they could keep track of this journey through this Incredible India.

Cathedralites, Stephanians, Findians, Facebook friends, Twitterers, LinkedIn professional friends, Orkut friends, Plaxo companions, Oulu University staff and students, O-Indians, Chaff friends, Kandathil and Maliyakal relatives, and stray readers searching on Google for keywords - what a cosmopolitan mix of readers.

And what is wonderful is that I was able to hold them together for the last seven weeks!

Many thanks to the younger generation for activating a readership which I thought I would never reach!

Does Salegram look like my chauffeur or my dear friend?

But I am jumping the gun again. Let us go back to Delhi when we were leaving last Friday. It was a very emotional farewell for me to say goodbye to my friend from my adolescent days, Salegram. He looked after Annikki and me so well. He is such a lovely man who has given devoted service to our family and family companies, that it shows above all that some of my family members in India have retained the principles espoused by my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.

My problems with the ICICI Bank went on till the very last minute of my stay in India. When I left Delhi, they had assured me that everything would be just perfect from then on. They gave me two debit cards saying that I could use them in Mumbai.

Boy, were they sadly mistaken.

They said that another debit card would be delivered to me on Saturday morning.

What, oh, what do you think happened?

I had a terrible amount of shopping to complete in Mumbai. I went to Akbaraly's in Flora Fountain and bought a lot of stuff! When I was about to pay using this brand new debit card provided that morning by the Delhi Regional Manager of the ICICI Bank, the cashier told me that I could not use that debit card for paying - all I could use it for was to draw money out of an ATM!!!

Luckily I had cash with me so I was saved another devastating embarrassment.

I went promptly to an ATM, only to find that the cards were not usable - I had not been provided with the PIN numbers!

What competence, what efficiency, what in-depth knowledge by a Regional Manager and his staff of smart goons!

The next morning at precisely 9 am, I rang the Customer Service Manager who had organised the debit cards I told her that I could not use the card and the reasons. She confirmed that the cards they had provided me were only ATM withdrawal cards.

She then said I could call Customer Care and generate my own PIN!

Of course, the Regional Manager was most apologetic and assured me that the PIN would be generated from the phone number they would give me.

About half an hour later, I received a Bombay phone number and went through the entire rigmarole of generating a PIN, only to be told by the human being at the end of this long winded process, that as I was an NRI, the PIN could only be sent to my communication address IN FINLAND!

I rang the Regional Manager and he assured me that the PIN would be delivered to me. That was at 10:42.

In the meantime, the other debit card which was to be delivered by 12 noon had not arrived. Then I got a call from the Mumbai Branch stating that the man had gone back to the office as he could not enter my building, or he had found some other address, or....!

It transpired that he had come to the gate of my building and instead of ringing me, as my phone number was on the delivery slip, he had just gone away as the Security Guard did not believe his story. He appeared at about 11:30 and gave me the so-called debit card. When I opened the packet I found there was no PIN to use that card and it was an International Debit Card, which was no use to access my Indian Rupees in my NRI account!

I was in a rage as all my money was locked out.

When the Customer Care phoned me, I threw my fit at him, telling him what a nin-com-poop bank he worked for. I slammed down the phone as I had had enough of this nonsense.

Promptly I got a call from the Delhi branch telling me that if I waited another hour or so, the PIN numbers would be delivered to me.

I had other plans and asked them to stuff the PIN where you think it should be stuffed. I had wasted half a day and was at a position worse than my starting state.

At least at that point I had hope.

I went to the largest ICICI Bank and drew out 80% of the money in my rupee account, leaving just enough to see what would happen and as I had no chance of stopping the dividend cheques that would be deposited this week!

With cash in my hands I was able to do some of what I had planned to do, but communicating with my suppliers in Kottayam and Cochin late on a Saturday afternoon just was impossible, leaving most critical parts of my tasks undone.

Of course, when I reached home, there appeared the messenger from the ICICI bank, bearing the PIN numbers.

Later that evening I decided to give a try to the PIN received - and do you know what was the result - The ATM spewed out a receipt which said

Transaction Declined
Unable to Process

Does this bank even understand the chaos that they caused in my life, the embarrassments that I had faced, the humiliation that I was forced to undergo?

I do not think so.

They are immune from the realities of the banking world.

When one looks at their online banking page, this is more than obvious. It is a confused presentation showing that they expect their customers to do everything out of one page, and that is why their online banking is doomed to be a complete and total failure.

I am so sorry to bore you with this experience, but we have almost 40000 to 50000 NRI readers of this blog, many trusting their money with this bank.

They could ask for no worse experience in their life than what I was forced to undergo in my 7 weeks with ICICI Bank!

Let us move on to more delightful things.



Dinner was to be with Malathi and her husband, the Dr. of Dharavi, Ashok, and also Malathi's brother from Bangalore, Chandu. Malathi and Ashok's younger son Dishan, joined us later in the evening.

Annikki was not well. heer cough having become chronic, that I advised her to stay at home. But she would have none of it and undertook the arduous long journey to the finest fish restaurant in Mumbai.



I had fried fish, crab, tandoori fish and finished with one of the best prawn biriyani that I have ever tasted. Annikki managed to eat a morsel or two, but she was very very poorly.

Despite the late hour we went to Malathi's beautiful home in Powai and they showered us with gifts.

We finally got home around midnight.

On Sunday morning I had an early lunch with my uncle Peelukuttychatan (97, Mr. K. M. Philip), my aunt Chinnammakochamma (91) and my cousin Suresh (Peter Philip) and his wife, Meera. (Fear of passing on whatever infection she may have to Peelukutychayan and Chinnammakochamma prevented her from joining us.

I rushed home to see Annikki was OK and then rushed to second appointment with a few of my 59ers, as we were celebrating Noel's birthday with a chocolate cake before he left for the USA. I was so happy to meet Ranju Lalwani (58er) and his wife, Anju. Piloo, Ooky, Rivca, Suchita and Vijay were there for the occasion to say farewell to us two 59ers. It was an emotional parting.

Annikki still had some urgent shopping to do, so we made an attempt to reach Phoenix High Street in the early evening. About 100 metres from our Guest House I realised that this was a foolhardy attempt - we would probably miss our flight at 2 in the morning if I decided to get this shopping done. The traffic was abominable.

So we returned home. As I was going to buy some medicines from the nearby pharmacy, Annikki, accompanying me, spotted a hole in the wall shop, maybe 1.5 metre wide and 5 metres deep. In it she found all that she had intended to buy! Cotton vests, nightdresses, etc., etc. Incredible Mumbai, where one even has a bookstore at every traffic light, in between the cars!

We set off for the airport by around 22:45.

I think I should leave the next part of our trip for my next blog entry.

Our journey to India

We left Oulu only by 1 pm on Friday afternoon as there were so many loose ends to tie up. It snowed heavily most of the 600km. I was glad I had got the winter tyres on and the drive was uneventful. Couple of stops for Mika to smoke his cigarrettes..

We stayed at one of Raantel's apartments in Helsinki. Although we have had it for a month we have not had any residents in it. Annikki, Mika and I were the first to stay there. It was not yet ready, so our friends, Ganesan and Levi, must have had have a tough task on Sunday making it ready for the two Indian software engineers who were to arrive on Sunday.

On Saturday I met with Christian, had lunch with him at the FORUM while Annikki and her sister, Anneli went to church. Then we went to Sello, the huge shopping complex in Leppavaara. It is just too big to be convenient. We found nothing we wanted there. There was no service in either PRISMA of the K-Citymarket, which were both so huge that all the Prisma's and Citymarkets in Oulu would fit into these! Later I had time to visit Ajith and discuss a possible visit to his Ayurvedic Rest Centre on the Kabini River on the border of Karnataka and Kerala.

We had to leave at 5:30 am for the airport so I ordered an Airport Taxi, leaving the car parked outside our apartment for Levi to park at one of other apartments. the Taxi came right on time and for € 32, we had a convenient ride to the airport. Certainly a service to be recommended.

Despite my telling Annikki, she insisted on taking some tubes of hand cream etc., which were larger than the allowed size. Sure enough she had to give them up quite unwillingly at the security. All the soft drinks and juices Annikki had saved for the air journey had to be thrown away! (Hope she has learnt the lesson!)

The Finnair flight to London was not very comfortable as the space between the seats was so small. We certainly hoped for larger seats and more leg room on the British airways flight from London to Mumbai.

London Airport is HUGE. We had to take a bus from Terminal 2 where we arrived to Terminal 5, where the international and domestic British Airways flights depart. The coach journey was 10 minutes.

We had to go through another security before entering Terminal 5. Really terrible. Just because I left my watch on, I had to encounter a full public body search.

We wondered what benefit all this was as a determined terrorist would know HOW to beat this security process. We were amazed to see a little 10 year old girl having to undergo a body search! A complete sham.

The departure gate for our flight needed yet another journey in a fast train from one part of Terminal 5 to another. There we waited for our flight which was a another full one. To our dismay the seats were narrower than the last flight and the leg room between the seats was even tighter.

Luckily the in-flight TV had some great British and American comedy programmes and a couple of drama TV presentations, plus we were served two meals and time went fast -the eight hours flew away and we were in Mumbai. Annikki enjoyed herself watching the flight path on the TV all the way from London to Mumbai! To each his / her own.

It was 20 past midnight on 19th October 2009 when we disembarked. More on that in my next blog posting.