Joanna Teaching Fellowship

29th September 2023

Joanna Matthan

Award Winners 2023

Proud Parents

Today we received some wonderful news. 

Last week we were also proud to watch our older daughter, Susanna, graduate with her Master’s Degree in Education from the Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, England. 

One year ago our younger daughter, Joanna, got the Newcastle University Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award 2022. 

And today we got a write up that Joanna had been named National Teaching Fellow (NTF).

“Winners of prestigious teaching excellence in higher education awards

Published on: 3 August 2023

Leading educators at Newcastle University have received prestigious accolades for making an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.

Innovative teaching approaches

Dr Joanna Matthan, Dean of Academic Affairs, Newcastle University, received her NTF for excellence in teaching within her subject area, anatomy, and her innovative teaching approaches.

She has also had significant impact in the development of a range of anatomy courses during the pandemic; her work on EDI and widening participation; and for her outstanding pastoral support for all her students.

Dr Matthan’s dedication to equality, diversity and inclusion, in particular, has been recognised, both at Newcastle University and wider across the higher education sector.

She said: “I am thrilled and honoured beyond measure to be recognised as a NTF and to represent my beloved Newcastle University in a forum that shares excellent practice across institutional boundaries.

“My ethos has always been to offer positive learning experiences and compassionate encounters for students, staff, patients, and healthcare professionals – and anyone I encounter – on this journey through academia.

“It has, however, only been possible for me to even begin to put theory into practice through having been nurtured and guided by numerous wonderful educational enablers inhouse and externally – and through collaborations with the Anatomical Society and other external organisations who have so graciously given me opportunities to thrive.”

Both of our daughters have been outstanding in whatever they have done. 

They take after their mother,Annikki, who is a person extraordinaire in her life work as wife, mother, grandmother, artist in several modes from sketching and painting, photography, cake design, garden design, crochet creativity, educationist, activist, author, researcher - and a role model for everyone around her!

Our hearts are filled with thanks to our dear Lord who has blessed us so fully in our years. 

Both our daughters have inherited the very best characteristics from their great grandparents, Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan “Mysore” Matthan and his wife and the Doyen of Kerala K. C. Mammen Mappillai and  his wife. 

We are honoured to call these two daughters our own as they prove their excellence in different parts of the world. 

They are the shining light of our worldwide Findians Community.

Robbery attempt at ATM

Last week, four youngsters tried to harrass our daughter, Joanna, in Newcastle. She turned on them and pinned them down so that they then fled, scared out of their wits.

I rang Samu yesterday. He told me that someone had attempted to rob Joanna at an ATM. I got to Joanna and she told me that right in the centre of Newcastle, a guy snatched the money as she was getting it from an ATM.

Joanna is extremely fast and has learnt all there is to know about self defence, including karate! She managed to grab this guy's marauding hand and swing him around so she had him firmly locked in her grip.

Not a single person came forward to help her!

She cried for assistance and finally someone came forward and took the money the guy was clutching in his hands. The grabber tried to say the money was his and he was going to call the Police - to which Joanna quickly told him to!

Once she got her money back she let the guy go and he scooted off.

The Police Station was just a couple of doors away. She reported it to the Police. Today she will try to do an ID of the guy at the Police Station. She is sure it has been caught on the CCTV.

Joanna, and her friend, Rita, were active karate enthusiasts when she was in school in Oulu. I remember her coming home with blue marks all over as she learnt it the hard way! (Her karate teacher later became our neighbour when we lived at Kampitie - an orthopaedics doctor!)

If I remember correctly, I did get her the karate clothing on one of my visits to England. (My memory is not so good, but I seem to remember going with our son, Jaakko, to buy the stuff in Birmingham.)

Well that has paid off. Joanna intends to get her son, Samu, to join a course in self defence as soon as possible. Very important. We learnt boxing at school, but in my opinion, that is not enough.

In Finland, at ATMs, they have an red line about a metre and a half away. No one is permitted to stand nearer than that when someone is using the ATM. I have seen people telling people off if they come closer than that.

In my opinion, there should be a mirror on the ATM so one can see if someone is approaching the ATM from behind the user, as when one is busy on the machine, one will tend to forget what is going on behind. Any movement in a mirror will alert the individual.

Like father, like daughter.

I remember how I caught a cat burglar in our 2nd floor apartment in Mumbai in 1960, the year I left school. I was fit as a fiddle and brought him down with a scissor grip feet first dive from my bed while he was diving out of the bedroom window! He was greased and almost slid through my scissor grip, but I grabbed him around the neck. As I was six foot+ and this guy was no more than 5 foot, when I stood up, his feet were dangling off the ground! But he was a wily tough character.

I think I may have recounted this story earlier on the blog, maybe a long long time ago! Will check and if not will tell you the humourous side of it after the event occurred!

Anyway we are grateful that Joanna is safe and did not lose her money!

Serial postings!!

It is indeed a surprise to put up a series of blog postings in just a couple of days!.

From Joanna returns to Newcastle

Events however dictated such action as Joanna and the grandkids left for Newcastle early today. Annikki bade farewell at Vesaisentie.

From Joanna returns to Newcastle

From Joanna returns to Newcastle

From Joanna returns to Newcastle

I accompanied them to the airport.

From Joanna returns to Newcastle

Ani was dropped off by her parents as she went with Joanna to help out with the kids. She has become part of Joanna's family. Ani has finished her high school, and was doing nothing important till graduation day at the end of May, this was a nice chance for Joanna to get some help as all the children and Joanna really love her. Ani will also accompany the family to India in July / August of this year.

Yesterday was also a strange day in Oulu - weather-wise! (Am I using this word wrongly?)

We had bright sunshine, then cloudy skies, a fierce wind, followed by a snow blizzard, and then tiny hailstones followed by a brilliant sunny evening. The temperature fluctuated between -5 C (-15 C when the wind was blowing) to + 20 C. One does not know whether we are having winter, spring or summer!!

Surprise Party

In Finland, the 40th birthday is usually well celebrated. Tony will be 40 on the 23rd of April.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Chief mischief maker! Joanna with Maria and Tony.

As Joanna had to return by today, 19th April, Tony's company, LudoCraft Oy and Joanna organised a surprise party for his work-mates and his family.

Tony objects to such events, so the secret had to be total.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Birthday boy with Samu.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Cutting the delicious cake.

How Joanna and his work colleagues managed this, I do not know. But they lured him to the party place on Friday evening. He was surely surprised to find all his colleagues and his family assembled there for a great event.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Brother-in-law, Teemu, sister, Heidi, father, Seppo and mother, Maire.

An Indian meal (Chicken Biriyani, Vegetable Pulav, Rogan Josh, Dhal Makhani, Garlic Nan and Nan with Raita) was served up by The Royal Garden, Indian Cuisine Section. As they promised, the food never ran out although everyone ate more than enough.

The three cakes made by the Huovisen Leipomo (Bakery) with a toffee topping and especially meant for allergic eaters, was outstanding.

There was plenty of coke and orange fizzy drinks as well as fruit juices for everyone. Joanna had brought plenty of spicy Indian Bombay Mixes from Newcastle. Crisps were very popular! The alcohol flowed like water, with champagne, whiskey and beer topping the table.

There were plenty of computer games for the addicts - which is everyone in Tony's company.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Annikki and Daniel.

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Daniel.

Annikki and I made a soft exit at around 10 pm along with the two younger grandchildren. With the help of Ani, Joanna's right and left hand, we managed to get the two little ones to sleep.

Joanna, Tony and Samu returned just after 3 am, and also just about 15 minutes before little Maria woke up. Daniel obviously ate too much at the party, mainly crisp. When he got home and had a couple of slices of pizza, he had stomach pain and cried in his sleep till he threw up the excess, without waking up!

From Tony's 40th Birthday

Ildikó and Alma.

Altogether a very exciting 40th birthday celebration, and we have to wait for the next one when Joanna turns this age, about a decade from now! :-)

April snowman

The childhood spirit was reignited in Annikki the day Joanna and her kids arrived for the Easter holidays. Daniel (5 in May) was Annikki’s constant companion. They were very busy in the garden.

Many of you will remember how Annikki produced this snowman to greet me on my birthday in 2006. The childlike spirit lives on, especially when the grandchildren arrive on the scene!!!

There was a little snow on the ground.



When I came home one evening, there were a couple of snowladies (identified by the sprigs of twigs on the head) in the garden, one being pulled on a sleigh by the reindeer.



Last night, as Joanna and the grandkids are due to leave for Newcastle on Sunday morning, Annikki decided she would put some colour into her snow scenery and had a plethora of candles burning with her snow friends.

The picture does no justice to the radiant colours that we could see from the kitchen window. The candles have been burning right through the night and will do so till the family depart at 06:45 am this Sunday morning. (Unfortunately, I could not capture the true beauty of the scenery with the digital camera.)

Wow: 10 days.......

How time flies. It has been 10 days since my last posting. Annikki and I have been up to our necks doing all sorts of things.



Annikki’s mother went into her new Old Peopler’s Home for the first time on the 2nd. When we visited her we found that they were keeping her in bed and she was losing muscle strength. So we had to visit her everyday till we ensured that they were keeping her mobile.




Then Annikki was able to visit Joanna and her new granddaughter. We had a tough time as the little baby had no name. I started calling her Kochmol. But on Friday last, Joanna informed me that the baby is probably getting a name - the world’s most used name, but the Finnish version is not so common.

Maria is the choice of Tony, while Rebecca was the choice of Joanna. Maria (related from Mariam, Mary) seems to have won the day. Both Annikki and I think it is a lovely name.

Remember Tony and Maria in West Side Story? That was Tony’s rationale for choosing that.

We know a couple of Maria’s and they are wonderful people. First there is Shantakochamma’s and Mohanchayan’s (Dr. K. O. Mammen) daughter to whom I used to tell Noddy stories (not Enid Blyton’s but those made up by me) to in the 70s. And then there is Maria Tuominen who became a great friend of the family in the late 70s when she and her family were in India and their son, Kari, became part of our family.

I had a gruelling schedule, but a very enjoyable one. Take Samu to school every morning and bring him back in the afternoon, play hide-and-seek with Daniel, tell him two to three Jungle Boy stories (again those which are made up on the spur of the moment), look at a few nature books and then have tea and biscuits with him while Samu enjoy’s his late afternoon meal that Joanna has kept ready for him.

Besides this many of the new Indians in Oulu have been pushing me to help them in different ways. I have been doing that with some pleasure. It is so wonderful to have such a vibrant community of Indians here.

The combined CHAFF and O-India lunch meeting at the Crecian Restaurant (Sunday before last) was really wonderful as Cypriot Andreas and his Finnish wife gave us a great treat.

We have been busy designing the O-India web site and there have been many discussions in progress on the O-India Google Group. This has meant regular review meetings once or twice a week and a lot of reading the inputs and editing it to be suitable when put on site.

The routine was so hectic that last Monday I actually overslept and did not get up to get Samu to school. But Tony stepped in and took him. I really felt terrible at my lapse, but the body was speaking about my schedule.

Finally I had the eye check up at the Oulu University hospital. Cataract was ruled out. There is only mild “glittering”. However, I suffer from quite severe myopia and the doctor has prescribed that I do not use the multi-focal lenses but separate ones for reading and long distance vision. I do not know how I will get used to that after having used multifocals for over 15 years!

And since winter has been so mild, I have not been using the scooter as the roads have been quite treacherous. I used it yesterday as we had a cold spell for a couple of days so there was quite a lot of grit put on the cycle tracks where we are allowed to drive the scooter. It is still quite dangerous, but I enjoyed being on the scooter again. However, it will be good when spring arrives and I can be more mobile on the two wheeler.



And not to forget - we had the world first - Annikki and Samu's Mobile Snowman sliding down the snow-slide - and I have been trying to put together the movie about this historic event. The video was shot by one of our new Indian friends in Oulu, Vishwanath Mallabadi, who is a professional photographer.

Hopefully the next blog entry will not be in another 10 days!

The seamier side of my life

Yesterday, I told you of my first love - my Miss Universe who has been at my side for 44 years and as my partner for 41 years.

But alas, man is weak, and there have been several women, besides my wife, who have shaped my life.

My latest love affair is just 9 days old, and is a girl who has not yet got a name. She is a great bundle of joy. I call her "Kochmol", which means "Little Girl".

She is the latest addition to our family, born on Sunday, the 20th of January (9 days ago) here in Oulu.

Our new granddaughter, whom I am calling Kochmol,
till her parents decide on a name for her!

She joins a beautiful young lady, Asha, who has been a great joy in my life for the last 10 and a half years.


Asha in 1998 (Photo by Susanna).


Asha in Newcastle in 2008. (Photo by Susanna.)

Asha entered my life 10 and a half years ago, and there is not a day when I do not think of this beautiful baby who has grown to be a poised young and highly talented lady and, above all, a loving granddaughter.

When I think of my grandchildren, I must say that the two ladies, my gorgeous daughters, who have "ruled" my life started as similar beautiful babies:


Susanna 1968.


Joanna 1971.


Joanna 1989.


Susanna 2006.

Although one of them describes me as an "anarchist hippie" and the other as a "workaholic", I still love both of them dearly. If they love me even 10% of how much I love them, they remain the apples in my eyes. (Fact: I have not ever been and am not an anarchist, hippie or a workaholic!)


Nalini as a baby in 1938.


Nalini with the British Queen Mother in 1960,
at the Opening of the new wing YMCA in Fitzroy Square, London,
just a few months before her demise.

Another lady, who has by her very absence, been a lasting influence on my life is my late elder sister, Nalini, who died after childbirth in 1960. I know her spirit in my heart has been watching and looking after me all through these last 48 years.

The lady who has most influenced my life was one so simple and kind and yet so powerful that no one realised her shrewdness. An only daughter and the only sister to 8 brothers who loved their sister dearly, she held them together to control them to build the huge family publishing and industrial empire from the time her parents passed away in the early 1950s till her own demise in 2000.


Ammachi in 1934 when she graduated from
the Women's Christian College, Madras.


Ammachi with her dog, Tippu, in 1976,
after returning to Bangalore.

My mother, Ammachi, inherited her kindness and gentleness from her mother, Valliammachi, my grandmother, and her shrewdness and business acumen were from her father, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.



One personal example will show you the nature of my maternal grandmother.

In 1950, when we were visiting Kottayam, the family of uncles and cousins, several tens of us, decided to go on a trip to Periyar, the Elephant Sanctuary. The day before, I ate too many jackfruit causing me severe colic pains. I was really ill. It was decided by the powers at the top that I should be left behind as it would be too dangerous to take me on such a long trip.

I was heartbroken as only a child of 7 could be. I was left in the custody of Vallammachi. I was feeling as fine, but was really feeling emotionally upset. Valliammachi had been instructed to keep me on a total light liquids diet.

In Kottayam, in her home, such an atrocity was just not possible.

Within minutes of the family members leaving for the elephant sanctuary, I was treated like a little Prince and given every delicacy she could summon, including a healthy dose of the offending jackfruit which had caused the colic problem initially.

I could not have had a better day in my life than that in the company of such a grand lady!

And this remained a secret between us till today!



The last lady who played an immense effect on my life was my paternal grandmother. A tiny woman, no one would have suspected the powerhouse that she was.

She brought up her 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls with a whip hand to make all of them outstanding students and the 5 boys became top professionals during their life time. (One was a senior administrator in the Mysore Government, the second headed Tata Consultancy Engineering Services, another worked for the Shri Ram Group as their senior Administrator, one headed various sections of Indian Railways and also the Intergral Coach Factory in Perambur, and the last ended his career as the Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India!

As the wife of one of the Mysore Maharaja's senior administrative officers, she was formal enough to run her household in accordance to all the rules laid down by the aristocracy. She ruled her dining table with such firmness that children knew they were children to be seen and not heard.

Yet she was a mellow as a lamb outside of her hours of duty. In her later years she was a loving character who could not have enough of the company of her grandchildren. She outlived her famous husband, Dewan Bahadur Mysore Matthan by over 20 years.

During that time she was respected and adored by all her grandchildren.

My love affairs with these 9 women are what made me what I am TODAY:

They say that behind every man is a woman.

I am proud to say that behind this poor human being there have been 9 outstandingly great ladies.

Pleased as punch?

Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Oulu CHAFF Blog, the Mumbai Cathedralites Seventh Heaven Blog and the Delhi Stephanians Kooler Talk Blog.

Does the term "pleased as punch" refer to the condition after drinking an ample amount out of the Punch Bowl (remember Annikki and I are teetotallers) or is it some condition of Punch in the "Punch and Judy" Show?

However, Annikki and I were pleased as punch yesterday, whatever the origins of this phrase.

As was conveyed to most of you by "Manorama JM" yesterday, our younger daughter, Joanna and her husband, Tony, have produced their 3rd child, 3.49 kg in weight, 52 cm in length, at 15:35 on Sunday 20th January 2008.

Samuel and Daniel are very happy with their new baby sister, who is our second granddaughter, and just as beautiful as lovely Asha in England.

Our new granddaughter.

Daniel with his sister.

Samuel and Daniel with their sister.

Samuel with his sister.

Joanna watches her brood after the proceedings of the day.

I took these pictures (with my camera which is held together by sticky tape) at the hospital for Annikki, who cannot leave the house as she is looking after her mother. Grandmom was so pleased to be part of the event! And greatgrandmom was also quite thrilled to hear the news.

Annikki is the only one, who from the time she saw Joanna in mid-December, has been saying that the baby would be a girl!

Knowing Samuel and Daniel, this little girl is likely to grow up as a tomboy!