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.

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.