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.

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.

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.