History repeating itself?

Annikki and I were enjoying our regular Friday buffet lunch (with a speacial spicey chicken vindaloo) at The Royal Garden restaurant in Oulu when a young couple walked in. 

Michelle showed them around and they settled at a table. (Obviously they were new!)

MG University, Kottayam (School of Chemical Sciences)

(Photo from Mahatma Gandhi University website.)

As they came to the buffet table I asked the young gentleman where he was from. He was from India, then Bangalore. 

Having established our primary connection I dug a little deeper and found out he was a Polymer Chemist, and then came the shocker, when he said that he did his degree from Kottayam.

I had to travel 7000 km to do my studies in Polymers. At that time only London and Akron, Ohio, USA had reputed courses in polymer science and technology in the English speaking world. Although there were excellent courses in Germany, France and Italy, those were not an option for me.

As my brother was already in London, the choice was automatic, as Ohio seemed to be a little too distant for me.

When I did a little digging I found that the director of the Dept of Chemical Sciences at the Mahatma Gandhi University is a Prof. Dr. Anitha C. Kumar. She had done her Polymer Science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with which I was actively cooperating with in the early seventies when Prof. Guenter Menig from Germany was there to start the department. 

Prof. Menig and I had worked on similar research areas, especially the use of the Brabender Pladtograph to characterise the processing behaviour of polymers.

When Prof. Menig left back to Germany, we took his maid, Susheela, to look after the children as she spoke English. Annikki was at that time just starting to learn Tamil.

I hope to share a few evenings with Anupam, just to catch up on what is happening in the polymer field. I have more or less stopped reading stuff in my primary area of work for almost 15 years!

The only subject I do keep abreast of these days is the controversial topic about Polymers and Recycling technology.

Welcome Anupan and Juyel to a great city, Oulu, Annikki and my  home for the last 40 years

This is indeed a very small world!