50 years relationship with Finnish and Indian Ambassadors

Our first interaction with the Finnish Ambassador to India was when Her Excellency Riitta Örö took over as Finnish Ambassador to India in 1974. One of her first visits out of New Delhi was to visit her only subject in Madras, Annikki, in 1974.

Ambassador Her Excellency Riitta Örö

Ambassador HE Örö was a beautiful and imposing personality, from Rovaniemi, graduate of economics and political science. She was a close friend of the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen and his wife Sylvi, as she had served in the Finnish Presidential office.

At that time there was a British elderly gentleman who was the Finnish Consul in Madras and he was due  to retire soon.

Ambassador HE Örö called us to lunch to the Madras Club and asked Annikki whether she would consider taking over as the Consul for Finland in Madras. She explained that the main task would be to look after the interests of Finnish sailors who had problems in Madras.

I had to inform Ambassador HE Örö that, unfortunately, Annikki would not be able to take on that responsibility as we had already made our decision to move our residence to Bangalore in early 1976. 

(Cricketer C. D . Gopinath, who was the CEO of International Services, later took over this task of Consul. C. D. Gopinath is probably the oldest living Indian cricketer today.)

A few years later Annikki received a letter from the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi asking her to register her personal details so that in case of any turmoil, she could be evacuated

Annikki’s reaction was immediate. She told the Embassy that in such situation she was not likely to leave her Indian husband, two British national children and two Indian national children behind to seek safe sanctuary in Finland!

The reply was immediate that in case of an emergency the whole family would be able to travel to Finland as a unit.

I regularly visited the Finnish Embassy to meet the commercial attaché to discuss business propositions. Ambassador HE Örö always made it possible to spend a few moments with me to ask after Annikki and the children.

Once we moved to Finland, Annikki and I have had the good fortune to interact with many of the Indian diplomats who have been posted as Ambassadors to Finland. 

Our initial contact was quite negative. 

On arriving in Finland, Annikki found that our two Indian children were not entitled to the basic social  benefits that Finnish children were entitled to, such as the child benefit. Annikki was asked to apply for Finnish nationality for them.

They were granted Finnish citizenship almost immediately. The reaction of the Indian Embassy was immediate as they read about it in the Finnish Gazette. They asked me to immediately return the childrens passports as dual nationality was not permitted for Indian citizens.

I addressed a letter to the President of India, Zail Singh, and explained my wife was looking after the interests of our children while I was making the decision to retain the cultural roots of the children. 

I sent a copy to the Prime Mimister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi's secretary sent me an immediate reply saying that dual nationality was not permitted for Indian citizens.

The President, however, sent my letter to the Ministry of External Affairs.

I got a reply from the Ministry of Extetnal Affairs stating that our children could retain their Indian citizenship till the age of 18 while also enjoying their Finnish citizenship.

This was followed by an apology from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The then Indian Ambassador, His Excellency K. P. Fabian, was quick to apologies to me and then started a long friendship which exists even till today.

New Ambassadors to Finland are taken to visit the Finnish ice breakers  which are stationed in Kemi not far from Oulu. Ambassador HE Fabian made it a point to stop over in Oulu so as to meet me.

Indian Ambassador HE K.Fabian visits the Microelectronics and Material Physics Laboratories in Oulu University and was hosted by Professor Seppo Leppävuori and me.

Ambassador  Fabian with the Vice Rector and Dean of the Electrical Engineering Faculty, Professor Paavo Uronen, and me during his visit to Oulu University.

I then organised his official visit to Oulu to see the University, address the University with a talk about the North-South dialogue  (this was published in full in my book about Oulu University in 1994) and to have dinner with the Oulu Governor, the former Finance Minister of Finland, Ahti Pehkala. Annikki was asked to act as the official translator between these two economic stalwarts.

Over the years we had some interesting encounters including having had the most expensive cup of tea with Ambassador HE K. P. Fabian. He always asked me to spend time with him whenever I visited Helsinki. On one occasion we got involved with a long discussion and on returning to my car parked outside the Embassy, I found I had an expensive parking ticket. :-)

Every time a leading Indian artiste visited Helsinki, the Ambassador would arrange for their visit to Oulu. Outstanding dancers (as Padma Shri Shovana Narayan) and musicians were brought to entertain the Oulu audience. I had the cooperation of all the Oulu authorities to have full houses for them. 

On one occasion, it was at very short notice, and all the normal venues were booked. I organised the event in the largest lecture hall in Oulu University. Shovana danced to a packed audience.

Shovana Narayan's troupe taking a bow in Oulu.

Shovana Narayan performing in Oulu.

Our  interaction was not only on the cultural front. The first agreement between a Finnish University, Oulu, and an Indian University, the Indian Institute of Science, Banaglore, was forged during Ambassador HE Fabian's tenure. We had a continuous exchange of students and professors. I had the good fortrune to address the IISc during my visits to India.

The last in the series was when Professor B. S. Sonde visited our University. I was able to show him how the Technology Parks in Finland functioned. He then modelled the Indian Technology Parks on the same pattern. Professor Sonde later became the Vice Chancellor of Goa University.

Ambassador HE Fabian used to use Annikki and me as persons to look after Indian interests in Finland. He appointed us as the responsible persons to look after the interests of Indian children adopted by Finnish families.

When articles which were derogatory and misleading about India appeared in the Finnish media, Ambassador HE Fabian would ask Annikki to reply to them knowing she knew Indian and Finnish culture to give a fitting reply.

When President R. Venkataraman visited Finland, Ambassadir HE Fabian asked me (and Professor Brig Sharma) to lead the reception for the President. The President was well known to our family as he had been Industries Minister in Tamilnadu where he had given MRF Ltd. all support to fight against the foreign tyre companies who had a cartel against our Indian effort.

Ambassador HE Thangkima Cherpoot with Professor Seppo Leppävuori and me in the Microelectronics and Material Physics Laboratories

The next Indian Ambassador to Finland was HE Thangkima Cherpoot. He too was my guest to Oulu. He visited  the University, lunched with the Vice Rector of our University and attended a dual language lecture given by Annikki and me about Christianity in India.

Ambassador HE Cherpoot signing the Microelectronics Laboratory Guest Book.

Ambassador HE Cherpoot attends a lecture by Annikki and me about Indian Christianity in the Oulu Seventh Day Adventist Church.

He also organised cultural visits to Oulu by Indian artistes, so we in Oulu were fully exposed to the culture of India. 

We were fortunate to be able to fill the venues with Indian culture lovers because of the cooperation of the Oulu Administration.

Once I left thhe University, my interaction with the Embassy was on a different plane, mainly being business oriented. 

With the help of the Ambassadors, I organised visits of leading Oulu technology companies as QPR, Acta Systems, Buscom, Noptel to Bombay and Bangalore.

When I worked for the Oulu City Sports Department and the Northern Finland Sports Federation (PoPLi) heading the Alakko Nää Mua? (Will You Play With Me?) Project from 1999 on integration of ethnic minorities, and was involved in organising International Events in Oulu I had the good fortune to host Ambassador HE C. R. Balacahandra, who gave an interesting lecture in Oulu about Buddhism in India as part of the 1999 International Days.

When I organised the ETHICS 2000 conference in Oulu, with the help of the Ambassador, the opening ceremony had a reading of the translation of the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, in Sanskrit prepared by  Professor Gopalakrishnan of Calicut University who was holding a tenure at  Helsinki University at the invitation of the Indian Embassy.

The visit of Ambassador HE Om Prakash to Oulu in 2010 is covered in my blog entry on his visit.  Ambassador HE Om Prakash was from my alma mater, Delhi University (Hindu College), though considerably junior to me.

Many of these relationships with the Ambassadors and many senior Embassy staff have continued over these 50 years. 

(When I visited India several years later, HE Fabian arranged for me to visit the NGO he was heading. We share many common interests. I still keep up reading his many insightful publications on diplomatic affairs.)

Onam celebration in Espoo with Ambassador HE Ashok Sharma and me.

Ambassador HE Ashok Sharma and me at the Oulu International School.

I was quite taken aback when Ambassador HE Sharma paid me a huge compliment at his inaugural speech to all the business executives in Oulu. I was no longer active as I had officially retired from all activitiers, only going to events when invited to by the organisers

When Indian President Pranab Mukherjee visited Helsinki in 2014, Ambassador HE Sharma asked me to bring a delegation from Oulu to meet our President.

Annikki and me (with Raji Rawat, wife of Dhanpal Rawat at the official engagement in Helsinki to meet President Pranab Mukherjee. I was surprised to find my junior Stephanian alumni, Sharmistha Mukherjee (a very talented Kathak dancer), was the President's daughter.

Ambassador HE Sharma was also from my alma mater Delhi University. 

When Annikki and I visited Helsinki, I was surprised that he rushed over to the Indian Grocery shop in Hakaniemi to meet us and have a cup of tea with us at a cafe opposite the grocery store. 

He talked at length about his student days when he was quite an activist and he knew of our history of activism in Finland to fight for the rights of ethnic minorities.

When Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä visited Bombay, Ambassador HE Sharma asked me to make arrangements so that he had a successful visit.

This was the email we received from Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s office after his visit to Mumbai:

Dear Mrs and Mr Matthan,

 

Many thanks for the kind message you sent to Prime Minister Sipilä prior to his visit to India! We had a memorable and successful trip – and do hope it will lead to many more contacts between Finnish and Indian businesses, educational institutes and other walks of life. Mumbai was buzzing in the spirit of Make in India.

 

It was heart-warming to read about your remarkable contribution to the Indo-Finnish relations, too!

 

Wishing you all the very best,

Kind regards,

 

Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen

Special Adviser to the Prime Minister (International Affairs)

Prime Minister's Office

Annikki and I were invited to attend a dinner with Ambassador Her Excellency Vani Rao when she visited Oulu.

Ambassador HE Raveesh Kumar and me in Oulu.

When Ambassador HE Raveesh Kumar visited Oulu, I (but not Annikki) was invited to attend the reception to meet the Ambassador. On this occasion I was a little surprised as a newcomer to Oulu was asked to give the introductory welcome speech to the Ambassador. There was no mention of how much Oulu had contributed during the last 50 years in Indo-Finnish relations.

I share the same alma mater eith Ambassador HE Raveesh Kumar, Delhi university. He studied in Hansraj College. He is much junior to me.

I later did send a link to Ambassador HE Raveesh Kumar of the work done in Oulu and in Finland. He was kind enough to send me a reply which read as follows:

“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.” 

Now, at the age of 80 and Annikki at 79, we have done our share of work for the Indian Community in Finland. 

We only hope that the groupism that we tried to keep away from our community in Oulu will not invade our culture and destroy the longstanding results of the hard work we have established here in Oulu. 

United we will succeed but divided we will soon be in ruin!