PART 3
Our first experience with Finnish and Indian bureaucracy came into play rather quickly. As the two elder children were over 16, they were not eligible for child support from the Finnish Social Security but they were British nationals so could get Finnish benefits they were entitled to, such as study loans, medical benefits, etc..
When we approached the Finnish authorities for the two younger children, who were Indian nationals, Annikki was told that as they were not Finnish or European nationals they would not be eligible for the child support and iother benefits.
We were advised to apply for Finnish nationality, which we did immediately.
Within a year they were granted Finnish nationality.
Before the ink dried on the paper, the Indian Embassy got the news from the Finnish Gazette and we got a letter from the Indian Embassy asking for return of the Indian passports of the children.
Jacob was not going to give them up so willingly. He addressed a letter to the Indian President, Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma, explaining that Annikki wanted Finnish nationality for economic reasons and Jacob wanted the children to keep their heritage. He enclosed the two passports in his letter to the President.
He addressed a copy of this letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
Within two weeks he received back a reply from the PA to Rajiv Gandhi saying that dual nationality was not a possibility for the children
The President of India acknowledged the letter and said he had forwarded it to the Law Ministry.
Within a few weeks we received reply from the Law Ministry stating that the children could enjoy dual nationality till they were 18 years of age after which they could decide which nationality to adopt.
The first person to apologise to us was the then Indian Ambassador. His Excellency K. P. Fabian, and to this day our friendship has remained intact.
Over the years we established a solid foundation to introduce Indian and Findians culture, not only in Oulu and northern Finland, but also over entire Finland. These included cultural festivals, sporting activities, debates, lectures and visits of dignitaries.
In 1984, Annikki and Jacob introduced India with an exhibition and lecture to the Oulu audience via the English Club of Oulu.
Annikki wore a sari and Jacob a Munda and Jubba. Annikki and Jacob at the English Club of Oulu.
Annikki prepared a series of paintings including one of Mother Teresa and many of Indian flora, fauna and Indian landscapes.
Paintings of Indian birds by Annikki.
Jacob talked about Indian history and culture using his vast collection of Indian stamps, postcards, first day covers and old Indian coins, and the trusted Manorama Yearbook!
They also exhibited various attire and popular books and magazines read in India.
A year later in our life in Finland, Annikki taught English to Finnish children who had lived abroad and also became the Chairperson of the Club.
Jacob gave a series of lectures about India to the various Rotary Clubs and Business Groups in Oulu.
When we arrived in Finland in 1984, none of us other than Annikki had any knowledge of Finnish. The children could get by from the little Finnish they had picked up on previous visits.
Susanna went to Birmingham in England to complete her high school. She was followed by our elder son, Jaakko, although he had picked up Finnish , but preferred to study in England.
The two younger children could not move to England.
Joanna was an extrovert and quickly made friends with the neighbourhood kids. Within a few weeks she was speaking Finnish.
Our youngest son was very unhappy in Finland as there was no cricket. He refused to learn Finnish. When he was 12 he learnt chess and he mastered the Finnish language very quickly.
He won the Finnish junior chess title in Oulu and was second in the Helsinki junior championships. This overcame his resistance to the Finnish language.
Language teaching for adults was quite pathetic as the teachers followed the same playbook, trying to teach the students the highly complex grammar. This is not how children learn the language as they communicate and the grammar follows naturally.
In 1987 our son came home one day from school and told us that what they were teaching him in school about India was no way near the India he had grown up in. He showed me a Finnish text book in which there were gross inaccuracies. For instance, it said that the northeast monsoon which went over south India was a dry wind.
South India depends on that monsoon to survive.
We knew taking up this with the school was not a solution, so we sent the information to the Indian Ambassador.
Being an experienced diplomat, he intervened and asked the Finnish Education Ministry whether India could help them by editing the entries about India in the textbooks. Very positive solution in the end!
Thanks to an Indophile, Oulu photographer Martti Anttila, the first introduction of Indian dance was held in the Oulu City Hall when Kathak exponent, Daksha Seth, performed to the delight of the local audience.
Indian Ambassador His Excellency K. P. Fabian was hosted by Jacob in Oulu.
His Excellency K. P. Fabian visiting the Microelectronics Laboratory.
Jacob, HE K. P. Fabian and Prof. Seppo Leppävuori
His Excellency delivered an important lecture on the “North South Dialogue” in Oulu University. (Published in full in Jacob’s book “Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University”.
During that visit, the Ambassador met with the Oulu Governor, Ahti Pehkola, former Finance Minister of Finland, with Annikki acting as the translator for them from English to Finnish and vice versa.
After that visit, the Ambassador helped to link Jacob’s Microelectronics and Material Science Laboratory with the Electronics Department of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore in 1988.
This was the first known link between a Finnish and an Indian University.
Exchange of Professors and senior research staff became a regular feature. Amongst those who came was the late Prof. B. .S. Sonde who later was appointed as Vice chancellor of the University of Goa.
Prof. Sonde was a Member of the Faculty of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore from 1964 to 1997. He occupied various positions including Professor of ECE, Chairman of the Division of Electrical Sciences, Dean-Faculty of Engineering etc. He was Vice Chancellor of Goa University from 1997 to 2002. of Goa.
Jacob introduced Prof. Sonde to the Oulu Technology Village. This then became the model for the Technology Parks in India.
Jacob, on his regular visits to Bangalore, would describe the research work being done in the Microelectronics Laboratory in Finland.
His work at Oulu University helped bring a reputation for Indians which held in good stead later. Researchers as Vamsi Krishna Palukuru, Sebastian Mailadil and Jobin Verghese enjoyed the benefits of this fallout as they were accepted into the Microelectronics Laboratory. This the led to acceptance of Indian Research workers, students for their Master’s degree, and now even for the Bachelor’s degree.
When Nokia Oy was growing, Jacob arranged a visit of the research head of Nokia, Paul Collander, and Seppo Leppävuori, the Professor of Microelectronics, to see various facilities in India. In Madras they were hosted by the Chairman and Managing Director of MRF Ltd. And in Bangalore by various close industrial friends and the Indian Institute of Science.
On return, Paul wrote a report that India was the place where Nokia should be active on the research and development side.
At that time Nokia was busy expanding in Europe and the Managing Director of Nokia, Kari Kairamo wrote on the report that Paris was too far for Nokia.
As the Europe investments started to collapse one by one, Kari Kairamo committed suicide!
So Nokia only moved to India about a decade and a half after this!
When a leading Finnish journalist, Jari Lindström, visited India and wrote a highly derogatory article in the Finnish national newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, it was Annikki that the Indian Ambassador turned to to write an appropriate reply!
When Indian children were being adopted by Finnish families, it was the Ambassador that gave Annikki and Jacob the task of monitoring the well being of the adopted children in Finland.
When President R. Venkatraman visited Finland, Annikki and Jacob were called upon by the Indian Ambassador as among the seniormost Indians in Finland to represent the Indian community to welcome him.
Annikki and Jacob delivering a dual language lecture on Christianity in India.
Other leading Indian dancers, as Padma Shri Shovana Narayan, and her troupe (including her sister who was a Supreme Court advocate) and several other dancers have performed in Oulu to packed audiences, all organised by Annikki and Jacob. 1988 - 1991.
They were able to pack Oulu University hall to watch Shovana Narayan demonstrate the real art of Kathak dancing.
Shovana with her troupe which included her sister. an Indian Supreme Court advocate.
Another great dancer, whose name we do not recollect presently (probably Malika), gave an amazing Bharatanatyam performance at a packed Pohjankartano hall in 1991. Jacob got the assistance of Oulu City cultural director Päivi to organise this performance.
In 1991, our younger daughter graduated from Oulun Lyseo and joined Oulu University to do English Philology.
In the in-between period of school to university, Jacob organised Joanna to take a group of Finnish school teachers on a Bharat Yaatra starting in Trivandrum and ending in Delhi.
The very first school she took them to was a girls school in Trivandrum where over 1000 girls welcomed the group at morning assembly.
This was a shock to the Finnish teachers who had been telling their Finnish students that girls did not go to school in India!
Joanna took the group to all sorts of schools, as village schools to posh schools in Bangalore .
As a token of their gratitude the teachers gave Annikki, Joanna and Jacob a holiday in Lapland. 
When the Head of the University Library, Paivi Kytömäki, was planning a trip to India with her family, she came to Jacob worried about her husband, children and the trip they were planning to Goa India. Jacob invited her home and Annikki told her about her wonderful life of 15 years in India that she loved so dearly. Jacob also gave them the contacts of the main personnel in MRF Goa factory in case they needed help.
They had a wonderful time and they went again the next year with her parents, the following year with her husband’s parents and they went for the next several years as an annual winter outing!
In 1992, Annikki and Jacob attended the Veterans Olympics in Turku. They were horrified to see how the Indians team were treated where they were put in a school without even the basic facilities.
We were staying in a hotel and all the teams from the developed countries were being hosted there!
But the Indian team did well with the only 100 year old participant, Joginder Singh from Punjab, winning all the medals in his category and 95 year old Narayanmurthy from Bangalore winning all gold medals in his category.
What was a real promotion of Indian culture was when one old competitor fell near the finishing post, it was our 100 year old Joginder Singh who ran onto the track to help him up!
Confidence is built brick by brick and each Indian, of every age, is an Ambassador in that process!
However, Jacob who reached the pinnacle of his career in Oulu University, being appointed Chief Engineer in just 5 short years, resigned his post on principle when he found senior people including professors in Oulu University were misusing their powers.
In short, he could not tolerate corruption.
The book about Oulu University, which exposed all these misdoings, was released in 1994 was a best seller and ensured these dubious acts of Professors were exposed to the Finnish public. (The first major act of terrorism?)
The same year, Annikki and Jacob, after 10 years of living in Finland, released their second book for foreigners living in Finland and also as a guide for those planning to visit Finland.
Annikki, with her typical sarcastic humour, put a Red Label explicit warning on the cover.
 
The book covered all the important aspects of coming to Finland and living here.
At that time, a major company as Nokia, did not have a Human Resources Division, so Jacob and Annikki were doing this work on the internet.
In 1994 Jacob was contacted by Professor Ajeet Mathur who had transferred from IIM Calcutta to the Helsinki School of Business Administration and Tampere University.
Although much younger to Jacob, they had been to the same school in Bombay and also to St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University.
Ajeet used Annikki and Jacob as the sounding board for his many writings about Finland. Ajeet and Jacob jointly authored a paper on E-Commerce which was presented in a Delhi Conference and drew the special attention of President Abdul Kalam.
His latest book has reference to Annikki and Jacob’s pioneering work in Finland!
When Ajeet started his own company in Finland, he requested Annikki to serve on the Board!
Finns believed that the Finnish language was the most difficult, but the chapter “Learning the Finnish Language” debunks this notion.The book has a serious yet humorous overtones. It suggests that Finland is not the best place to die considering the cost of burial!
The end of the era in the University heralded a new chapter in the lives of Annikki and Jacob as they set up their own company calling it “Findians Oy”.
The work as Scientific Editor for the Electrical Engineering Department, the Physics and Theoretical Physics Departments and the Biology Department spilled over to regular work for the new company.
Also, as many of those working in Nokia Oy and the electrical and electronic engineering industry in Oulu had been students and colleagues in the university, Jacob was the only approved editor for the scientific publications from Nokia Oy, the State Research Centre in Oulu and high technology companies in Oulu.
Jacob has edited over a dozen doctoral theses, over two dozen Master’s theses and over 200 research papers, with not one ever having been rejected by referees or conference organisers.
He gave two major conference lectures, one in Paris and the second as a plenary lecture at the First European Conference on Polymers in Lyon, France..
Simultaneously, Findians Oy started a newsletter to introduce Indian resources to Finnish companies and Finnish high technology to Indian companies. Delegations of Finnish companies were taken to India.
The growth in readership of the newsletter was astronomic and it was quickly converted to an internet monthly newsletter and then to a fortnightly one.
We took Finnish products and software and Finnish companies as Acta Systems, QPR, Buscom, Idesco to introduce them to Indian markets.
The Findians website, established in the early days of the internet, started from a two page photocopied sheet into an internet audience of over 80000 people around the globe.
 
First issue of “Findians Briefings”, 1992.
In 1996, Annikki and Jacob became among the first associates of Amazon, hosting over 5000 web pages and earning a substantial income.
When Jacob took over the “Alakko Nää Mua” Project as part of the Oulu City and the northern Finland sports federation (PoPLi) , the work carried out by Jacob was shortlisted for the coveted Laureus Award (which was won by Lionel Messi last year).

 
Contents pages describing the work done by Jacob between 1999 snd 2001 for the “Alakko Nää Mua” Project.
Jacob organising events for the “Alamo nää mua” project. He led by example!
Before 1996 no foreign workers were permitted to work in Finland to even dismantle obsolete production machinery. Negotiations with Finnish Labour Unions resulted in Indian labour being permitted to dismantle the ammonia plant in the KEMIRA Oulu premises for shipment out of Finland.
Then came the demand for software engineers. From 2006 to 2015 Annikki and Jacob looked after over 10000 Indian software engineers in our furnished apartments in Oulu, Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa, Tampere, Kuopio, Kajaani and Raahe.
Jacob served as the representative of Northern Finland in the Finnish Sports Federation and also on the Tolerance Committee headed by Atlanta Javelin Gold Medallist Tapio Korjus.
Jacob served as the person representing all English speakers in Finland on the Ethnic Minorities Advisory Board.
He was the advisor to the National Equal Opportunities Network (NEON) to ensure ethnic minorities were given equal opportunities in the job market.
He organised the Ethics 2000 International conference to show the importance of Cultural and Sporting activities to help integrate ethnic minorities in Finland.
He established with colleagues in Espoo, Jyvaskyla, Turku and Oulu the first Multicultural Sports Federation, FIMA, in Finland.
Besides this Annikki and Jacob were at the forefront of fighting for Freedom of Speech in Finland.
Jacob speaking about the corruption in Finland by politicians , judiciary, police, bureaucrats, lawyers at Freedom of Speech Days in Oulu. (Another act of terrorism?)
He then was Vice Chairperson for the “Same Law for All” Association to fight for human rights. (Another act of terrorism?)
He founded the group called CHAFF (Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners) to help those in distress! (Another act of terrorism?)
Jacob speaking at a regular CHAFF Buffet Sunday lunch meeting.
Annikki and Jacob mentored several Indians and other foreigners in Finland.
Probably the best example is a very experienced Civil Engineer from Pondicheri, Kannan Balaram, who came to do a Business Administration course in Oulu. He then got a job in the nuclear power plant in Olkiluoto near Pori and then was Project Engineer for Fenovoima nuclear power plant to come up near Oulu. With the Ukraine war that plant was cancelled and is now working as Project Manager in an international engineering company.
Another person who Annikki and Jacob mentored was Malathi Khembhavi, from Bombay who had volunteered to help look after a disabled individual in a small village, Konevesi.
During her stay they helped Malathi to organise an Indian festival with a dance troupe from India and a food festival.
In 2022, Malathi and her husband, Ashok, known more famously as the Slum Doctor of Dharavi, visited them in Oulu.
Through Malathi, Jacob was introduced to a brilliant engineer from Bangalore who made the first electric scooters by putting his father’s car engine to his bicycle. Anil Ananthakrishnan developed one of the the first electric scooters and fabricated it in China. He sent a gift to Jacob, making it the first electric scooter the reach Europe.
Jacob tied Anil up with a well known rally driver and ice motorcycling World Chsmpion Jussi Kynsilehto to produce the electric scooters in Finland, but because of modality difference the project was shelved.
When Annikki and Jacob dealt the new IT engineer influx into Oulu, besides providing them with a roof over their heads, orienting them to life in Finland, he even provided them with the first carrom board in Finland.
It was also the centre for reintroduction of cricket to Oulu.
And Ahmatie became the meeting point for many things including practicing for the Dandia festival.
Jacob and Annikki organised the first weekend trips to Nordkapp in Norway to view the midnight sun!
At the same time Jacob and Annikki were working across many cultural groups and held an Indian food festival at the Myllytulli School attended by all the major ethnic communities in Oulu.
Jacob with a Thai girl and a Finnish boy, both now graduating from Finnish high schools.
Annikki was progressing simultaneously in many other directions.
Whenever she saw an injustice in Finland, she would write to the local newspaper about the issue.
Then came the advent of 140 character text messages on the mobile phone.
Annikki, with her truly sarcastic control of the Finnish language, started her text messages to the local newspaper, Kaleva.
If she wrote that the sun was shining, her text message would be published. The minute she criticised an authority, her text message would not even be acknowledged.
With a clever strategy to show up the hypocrisy in Finland, she then put together a book called “Freedom of Speech - Whose?”, publishing the text messages rejected by the newspaper!
Cover of the second edition of the book “Freedom of Speech - Whose?”
On the art front she was going great guns winning every annual ginger bread house contest in Oulu till they finally gave up the annual contest.
Award winning Gingerbread house of 1997.
With the help of a friend IT worker from Nokia Ltd, Bangalore, Sriradhakrishnan Polsetti, she published her coffee table book “Edible Art”.
She completed her studies on Montessori Education securing final marks of 99%! She authored the book about Montessori education for children from zero to 6 years. Her personal collection of books includes almost all the books written about the Montessori system.
Cover of her book on “Raising a Child the Montessori Way” featuring granddaughter Maria being taught how to design a cakes,
She was working night and day to create fabulous gardens which got good coverage in Finnish Design magazines!
Here is one of her creations from her garden, the snow moonrise!
The most famous was her birthday greetings to Jacob for his 60th birthday when he woke up at 4 am!
Also she was the first to create“a moving snowman” which is there for all to see on YouTube
This is known as the O-India Google group with no chairperson, secretary, treasurer but purely allowing people to communicate with each other when they arrived and settled in Oulu.
This group is still in existence with over 300 participants.
In 2008, the first meeting of the Indians in Oulu for Pongal was organised in the Oulu City Centre attended by over 70 participants, many of them still around in Oulu.
In 2010, in close association with Mani Shsnkar Bhowmik, Feel India in Oulu, was organised in the YMCA premises in Oulu.
Many celebrations were held there at no cost to any Indians because Jacob’s maternal uncle, Padma Shri K. M. Philip, had been the World President of the YMCA movement covering almost every country in the world.
Many years later (2012), when child prodigy flautist Shashank Subramanyam visited Helsinki, he came to Oulu and performed for the local audience as a personal gift to Annikki and Jacob.
In 2014, at the Helsinki Book Fair, Jacob was requested to interview Prof. James Tooley of Newcastle University, who had written a very revealing book, The Beautiful Tree: a personal journey into how the world's poorest people are educating themselves (Penguin, New Delhi, and Cato Institute, 2009), about poor private schooling in India and developing countries.
When President Pranab Mukerji visited Finland, at the request of Indian Ambassador HE Ashok Sharma, Annikki and Jacob led a delegation from Oulu to meet our President and his daughter, Sharmila, an alumni of Jacob’s alma mater, St.Stephen’s College, Delhi.
The life of Annikki was one which could motivate the older generation so a professioinal institute in Espoo produced a video to be shown to audiences around Finland. The narration and Annikki’s words are in Finnish.
The work of Annikki and Jacob continued right upto Jacob’s heart failure and he was advised to cut his hectic schedule in 2016 right after he published their last book, ”The Titanic Called India”.
Review of the book “The Titanic Called India” by Prof. K. R. Ganesan from Coimbatore, India.
This period also brought to an end their travelling days.
Tie courtesy and respect shown to Annikki and Jacob from all the communities in Oulu, also around Finland and the world are unparalleled.
Onam at Espoo with Ambassador HE Ashok Sharma 2014.
Jacob has been invited to attend various festivals around Finland, such as Onam in Espoo which was graced by the Indian Ambassador.
One Oulu guest, Praveen, made this collage and gave it to Jacob, a treasured possession.
When Indian Ambassafor HE Ashok Sharma visited Oulu, in his introductory talk at the Technology Village, he gave credit to Annikki and Jacob for their pioneering work for India and Finland. We had not met him before then! Jacob took him to the International School, Business Oulu facilities and to the Nokia Oy plant in Oulu, where he was hosted by Mani Shankar Bhomik.
Annikki and Jacob have been indefatigable during their life in Finland. He would drive up and down from Helsinki many times a month so that he looked after the numerous Indians who were coming to work in Finland
This was summarised by the Editorial in The WEEK magazine of 23rd April 2023 which issue was about Finland being the happiest country in the world for the sixth year in a row!
The O-India concept was promoted in 2007 when some of the Indians as Prabhu, Prasad, Kiran and-a few others.
They approached Jacob with that idea. A meeting was called at the Ville Victor facility in Heinäpää and there was much enthusiasm. The crowd wanted to set up a website and Atul and Jacob agreed to fund that operation.
But from his long experience, Jacob knew it was a fruitless exercise as it needs selfless commitment to run a website.
Jacob had already discovered the benefits of the Google Group concept as he was running half a dozen Google Groups for his Indian School, College, Findians, and CHAFF!
He convinced Kiran and Atul, and thus was born the O-India Google Group.
As was predicted the website could not even see the light of day.
This Google Group has been running seamlessly for the last 16 years with Jacob and Atul as the Owners after Kiran returned to India.
When Jacob had heart failure and survived, he brought in Annikki as a Moderator. Mani was then added as a Modetator.
As Annikki wanted to retire, Pushpa Dhundwal, a very forward thinking young lady who had been here for almost 7 years and knew the pulse of Indians in Oulu. was added to be Moderator.
About 4 years ago some of the Indians felt it was the right time to establish an association for people who had an interest in India to do more constructive organised work and take the load of this ageing couple.
Although having serious misgivings, as Indians from different parts of India seem to segregate to their own groups, Annikki and Jacob told those interested to go ahead and register an association, O-India Ry.
The first couple of years were listless as the Chairperson was only concerned about his CV entry.
But in the following year it became a vibrant organisation reaching financial and organisational maturity, due primarily to the selfless work of the new Chairperson, Avinash Bhakar. Most of the Board Members were indolent!
The Annual Report for the association that Avinash and his associates prepared for the year 2022-2023 was one of the finest that we have seen in our long history as members of various Finnish Associations. At the last AGM Jacob publicly said as much!
Come 2023 the factionalism started and this association is now going down the drain faster than saying “Jack Robinson”.
The last Annual General Meeting was a shambles as groups lobbied to gain power.
It is now run by a group which do not follow the principles that are the foundation of FINDIANS.
A word of truth is difficult to get from them..
It will soon go into self destruct mode.
They violate Finnish law, in their effort to hang on to power, regardless of the consequences.
Annikki and Jacob seeing the writing on the wall terminated their membership of this organisation with immediate effect as the long term outcome they saw would be catastrophic.
*Stay where your presence is appreciated*
This statement is a piece of advice that suggests a person should stay in places or situations where they are appreciated or valued, rather than wasting their time and energy in places where they are not respected.
It take a long time to build a good reputation but it takes just a few minutes to bulldoze it to rubble.
It may be necessary to explain the tragic events of 2023 in some detail.
Annikki and Jacob have nothing whatsoever to gain or lose from being members of O-India ry. They have done their duty to all the ethnic communities in Finland as this document tries to illustrate.
But they are concerned that the reputation of India in Finland, which has been built over the years with loving care. They hope it is not dragged down by actions within this association.
Let us study the issues in detail. There are many that we would like to bring to your attention.
The most immoral, disgusting and despicsble act took place just last week. It is not in any way concerned with but the behaviour of certain members of the association. But it helped justify the reason why Annikki and Jacob left the association.
Please read the sequel to this in Part 4 “Why we terminated our membership of the O-India Ry Google Group which will be due out shortly.
