Annikki and Jacob Matthan live in Oulu, Finland. Annikki is a Finn, Jacob an Indian. They are the founders of the Findians Movement way back in 1967. Both are now retired. They have been married for 56 years. This blog is an account of their lives and thoughts as reminiscenced through Annikki's and Jacob's eyes.
Balehonnur (Balanoor), Karnataka (Photo by KZ Kuriyan)
This news report appeared on Newsmeter.in.
Photo from the Newsmeter.in article
I have been for years been telling our family in India that the Finns would love the coffee we produce in our estates as in Badra Coffee Estates, in which I am a tiny shareholder.
Finns are the real coffee connoisseurs in the world.
They appreciate a good reaonably priced coffee.
I recount an incident from 1992 when Annikki and I were visiting our daughteer, Susanna, who was studying in Exeter University in England.
As we walked down the High Street, Annikki smelt some coffee and was in the mood for a cup. There was s small kiosk on the walking street. We went in and asked the lady for the coffee which aroma Annikki had smelt.
After consuming it very slowly, she said that it was the most delicious cup of coffee that she had ever had. I told her that we could buy a kilo to take it to Finland.
I approached the lady and asked what was the price of the coffee. She told me that it was called Blue Mountain Coffee and it came from Jamaica.
The cost was Blue Mountain Coffee was €100 per kilo. (Coffee in Finland at that time cost about €5 per kg.)
I was literally coffee-shocked and opted to buy 100 gm for Annikki.
She drank it on special occasions for a year
On her 60th birthday in 2004 I found it in the Oulu Coffee shop in the Market Place and bought her 200 gms.
Annikki drank it for the next 5 years on special occasions till her 75th birthday.
(She now only drinks coffee very occasionally!)
I also recall sending a cousin of mine the tender papers for the Finnish Army as the soldiers would revolt if they did not get their four times a day quota of good coffee.
I can imagine the Finnish soldiers stopping a war so that they could enjoy their brew! :-)
Australia walked away today with the ICC World Cup today.
Before the semifinals of the tournament, Harsha Bhogle, India’s No. 1 cricket commentator, made a statement that he thought India had peaked too early. He was shot down quickly by Ravi Shastri.
Rohit, Virat and Rahul, played their roles. but Gil, Iyer, Jadeja and Suryakumar were exactly the disappointment that I knew would occur.
I was happy to see that even in a non-traditional cricketing state in India, Kerala, people had turned out to sit under the trees to watch the final, and this was beautifully covered by Manorama TV.
My grandfather, late K. C. Mammen Mappillai, would have been proud that when he translated the very first article I ever wrote, when I was just 9 years old (71 years ago), which he translated to Malayalam and had it published in the newspaper, has now resulted in Sanju Samson hitting the high spot in Indian Men’s Cricket, closely followed by Minnu Mani, in the Ladies game.
Minnu Mani
Minnu is the first Kerala lady player to play for India and was the leading wicket taker in the series against Bangladesh.
Coming back to World Cup final, the brave decision to choose to field after winning the toss was credit to Pat Cummins.
Gil never got going. This was a clear sign of what lay ahead. Rohit and Virat played their roles well, but Rohit as captain, should have shown some more maturity.
The absolutely fantastic catch by Travis Head showed that the Australians were not going to roll over.
The Australians were throwing themselves everywhere, reducing 4s to 2s and ones.
Fielding was exceptional and as I have said earlier, it is the fielding that wins games.
With Rohit going, closely followed by Iyer, it was becoming clear that India was not going to reach the par score of 300.
Thi brilliant catch by Travis Hesd to send off Rohit showed the mood of the Australians. They were playing TO WIN.
The procession that followed with the absolutely outstanding team work of the Australians. meant that the Indians could not put a foot in the door.
Restricting the Indians to just 240 meant the Australians did not have a dagger over their heads and they could go about their work with a precision that they are renowned for.
No heroics were necessary and the confidence shown by Travis Head in his batting, which earned him the Player of the Match Award, was an example of cool composure.
I am sad that India lost, but I concur fully with Harsha Bhogle who said that the Indian side had not been exposed fully and, therefore, they were unprepared for a reversal of fortunes in any game.
I do not blame the Indian bowlers, as the pitch turned in character at the innings break. Even if they could bowl at their best, they were in the sights of clever Australian batting which had sufficient depth not to be rattled by a couple of reversals, exactly the opposite to the under-exposed Indian side.
In my humble opinion, Ravichandran Ashwin, who is one of the most well-read players in Indian history, should have been in this side. Not only would he have been an asset in the batting, he would have read the pitch and adjusted his bowling better than any of his colleagues
You may have on paper the best side in the world! However, knowledge was what was lacking in today's performance by India.
Over many years I have been hearing about the Honesty of Finns. In a recent study Helsinki was reported as being the top of the list based on wallets being dropped in different parts of the city and the rate of return.
Over the years, I have seen all sorts of objects dropped by someone being left at a nearby safe place for it to be found by the loser.
But today was different as it concerned me!
Every Friday, Annikki and I go to the Royal Garden Chinese restaurant to eat the Chicken Vindaloo which is part of the buffet feast. My regular taxi driver, Hassan Ahmed from Somalia (and known to us as Lee as he used to work the Chinese restaurant) takes us there.
He came at 12:30 and dropped us at the restaurant by 12:45. I took out my wallet and paid him and then walked into the restaurant . Before I sat down I realised my wallet was not in my pocket.
It was not anywhere where we had been dropped. I rang Lee who had gone for a cup of coffee at the nearby R-Kioski. He rushed back and we checked the taxi, but it was not there.
I went back to the restaurant and had our lunch, but my appetite had vanished.
I rang my bank and cancelled my credit card. This took just a couple of minutes.
Lee came and took us back home by 14:00 hours.
I was making arrangements on how to live without a credit card when my phone rang. It was a lady who comes to look after us regularly - a home helper/nurse.
She told me that my wallet was at the Cheezburger Factory, a restaurant on Asemakatu in the city centre. I rang Lee and informed him and then rang Cheezburger Factory that Lee would pick it up.
We followed the standard identification process.
Lee picked up and he delivered the wallet to me by 17:00 hours.
Here we are, in a city of a population of 180000 people, and everyone in this process acted quickly and efficiently, with utmost honesty and best interest of their fellow man, so I faced no trouble.
People wonder why Finland is the happiest country in the world for the 6th year running.
Here I am, sitting in Finland watching the opening game of the 2023 Cricket World Cup being played in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India.
Looking at a sparsely populated stadium and an opening ceremony which was totally lack lustre, for the starting point of an event of this magnitude, which takes place only once in 4 years, it is difficult to believe that Indians are cricket loving and also whether the Indian Cticket Board has any competence to host an international event of this significance.
The opening ceremony was Sachin Tendulkar walking out with two Quatari Air Hostesses to place the World Cup on a stand.
End of opening ceremony.
Shots of the stadium which is supposed to hold 110000 people was hardly a third full!
Does that speak of a country which loves cricket or one which just loves itself and the money which may be lining the pockets of the administrators?
As I watch the cricket on one of six 20 streams available to me, the streams are breaking up every two minutes!
The match goes on but I am sorely disappointed with the Indian organisers and the Indian cricket fans who are just partisans who love nothing but themselves.
I return to theWorld Cup which was held in 1987 and was run by my family owned company, MRF Ltd.
It went like clockwork and there was not a single hitch.
MRF took on the task by telling the Indian Organisers that that would not accept any interference in the organisation. It was tun totally professionally with my two cousins, Vinoo and the late Ravi Mammen, and my good friend S. Rama Ratnam, himself an ardent sports lover, putting together a team of professionals to run the event.
In 1989 I attended a International Semiconductor Conference in Delhi. When I went to the registration counter with my Professor, the lady asked my local address. I told her we were staying at the MRF Guest House in Sundernagar. On hearing this she asked for my relationship to MRF. When I told her of my roots, she did not take any money to register us and we were given pride of place at the conference, much to the amazement of my colleague!
She told me that MRF had brought great credit to our country in the way they had organised the World Cup!
Shame today on my country.
I am ashamed on the organisation of the present Wotld Cup, an insult to sports loving cricket fans around the world. .
Our most popular blog entry was about my childhood hero, world champion wrestler Dara Singh, which I posted on 15th November 2005.
As a 9 year old I had sat next to him in Sampige Stadium in Bangalore and watched him crush King Kong and Flash Gordon and see the Madked Angel refuse to fight him, as he would have been
The blog had innumerable comments from “their” family members, wrestling enthusiasts, biographers, of the “two” Dara Singh’s. YES, there were of them!
This entry of 18 years ago, with its comments, is considered as one of the authoritative active sources about our Indian world champion wrestler.
In this era, where the Champion Indian women wrestlers, who have brought great laurels for our country, are fighting for their honour, and Annikki and I stand with them, we use this our blog to highlight how it is important to stand by our 10 Guiding Principles.
The hits for the Dara Singh blog crossed 19400.
Today we crossed 20000 hits in the month of September alone.
It is their criminal behaviour that we exposed in our blog that has driven this interest worldwide.
Many are shocked to see how some Indians in Finland can behave in this manner, shaming the name of our great country, INDIA.
(I am doing research into the great controversy about the name of our country, whether it should be India and/or Bharat. As it is a factual historical, financial, political check, it is taking time to prepare this blog - do stay tuned.
In the meantime I continue to say that I am pround to be sn INDIAN, so beautifully sing by the Shillong Chamber Choir.
We restarted our blogging on 3rd of August this year. We made four blog entries in August snd we had just 287 visitors.
We started regular blogging about every two days in September and the visitors to our blog have gone through the roof.
The visitors peak in September has exceeded the visitors we had in the period 2009-2010.
And it is ripping the universe now.
Today 23rd September!!!
The visitors from around the world are coming at over 2 per minute. This sortof result for the blog is truly amazing.
This statistic was seen at 2:58 am on the 23nd September morning. The bulk of them were from Android app users. They came from all corners of the globe. The search engines were directing the traffic to our blog which meant the keyword we have been using are to the readers interest. Also most readers were coming directly to our blog and not being directed by social media.
I checked with AI for possible reasons. The answer was clear. People are interested in what we are blogging, so they are coming.
It appears that the bulk of the visitors came because of the 10 Guiding Principles we applied before quitting this association.
Truth and the Sacrd Trust we abide by, seem to have hit a chord with those who visit the site. We promise that we will continue with this philosophy
Recently, we were invited to take part in an event to be organised by a member of this association. Although the person is a friend, we declined as we thought it inappropriate to share our time and space with people who behave in a manner opposed to our principles.
We wish to keep our integrity.
We thank each visitor to our blog for making our blog so popular that it has given us the incentive to blog in a manner that keeps your interests at heart while abiding by our 20 Guiding Principles.
And if you have been through the comments section on our Dara Singh blog entry and would like to add some information we have missed, please do write to me about it.
It is almost the time we may have to think like this!
It is with great sadness that my childhood hero, Dara Singh, wrestler, actor, director, parliamentarian, passed away this morning (12th July 2012) at 07:30 am at his Juhu residence in Mumbai. He was born on 19th November 1928. He was 84.
He suffered a cardiac arrest a few days ago and was on a ventilator at the Dirubhai Ambani Hospital.
Respecting his wish, he was moved back to his home where he passed away surrounded by his family and friends.
The last rites will be performed at 14:00 hours Indian Standard Time.
He is survived by his wife and two children.
Dara never lost a fight in the ring. He was the undisputed world champion. A very gentle personality but a towering fighter, he gave all when he was in the ring.
He served the nation in the Rajya Sabha and will be remembered by all who ever saw him fight in the ring.
Yesterday was a strange day. Joanna rang me early morning to tell me that I should take Samu to school as he was going downhill skiing and would I look after Daniel at our home as she had to go to town?
She was over before noon to leave Daniel.
Daniel, Annikki an I did several things including taking Daniel to the City dump to get rid an old TV and to the Tropical Spa to make sure the arrangements for one of our Indian Groups in Oulu were OK for the company party. When I came out of the Spa I found I had a flat tyre. As usual, my good friend, Kamu, in the spirit of CHAFF rushed to help me as I was not carrying my silicone foam repair kit.
Joanna rang me to tell me that she was very tired and would I keep Daniel till we picked up Samuel from the school and then came over so that we could go out for dinner to celebrate my birthday.
I passed by her house at about half past five and I was surprised to see Ildikó and Ilari's car parked in the driveway, but thinking that they were off for a holiday, they may have dropped in to say goodbye, it did not register. When I dropped in at the International Centre (Ville Victor) I was puzzled when Shahnaz said she would see me in the evening! Again, that did not register!
Well, the email I sent out today below explains it all and the composite picture made out of photographs taken by grandson Samu show some of the the people who made it such a great day for me.
Dear Findians, O-Indians, Chaff Participants, 59er Cathedralites, Other Cathedralites, Stephanians and many other friends all around the world,
Yesterday, I was given a great lesson - knowing how it feels to be LOVED.
As I reached the turning point to my senior years, the outpouring of love from all corners of this globe gave me a lesson which made me feel that a new era of my life is opening.
Thank you to all of you, some on the groups, others directly, others by text message, who took the trouble to communicate with me on my 65th birthday.
Ashok, as I took early retirement to help her look after Annikki's mother, I have been enjoying all the benefits and now move from half to full pension. So, I was already enjoying all the free benefits of a social security system I was taxed into the earth for when I was working!
From our daughter's family in England, Susanna, Chris and Asha, Hasnain and Willie in Toronto, Bill Patel in ???, Barbara from Italy, Ellis in New York, Ashok, Percy, Ooky and Rivca, etc., etc, etc., in Mumbai, friends from Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Chennai, Bangalore, Tokyo, London, New York, and of course Oulu, I received personal greetings. (Sorry I am not mentioning all of you as I still have not had the time to go through all the messages.)
It will take me some time to respond personally to all of you, but respond I will.
But the height of my birthday was a surprise party organised by my daughter and her husband in her home in Oulu. Neither Annikki nor I had a clue till we arrived at her home and found a string of cars parked outside. As I walked in, there was a steady stream of friends, a veritable United Nations, Australia, China, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Peru (in spirit), Turkey, Venezuela, trooping out to greet me.
Ilari gave a profoundly moving speech which had me in tears and Ildikó gave me the gift on behalf all the persons from so many organisations that I felt overwhelmed. I was in shock and was hit even harder by giving me a birthday present that I really love and need - a Canon Digital camera - so that the photographs on my blog and groups will improve! Burcu, Bala and Sameer gave me their own presents. Thank you all.
It was a bring your stuff party so we had some really great grub and the spread was enormous, so much so that Joanna forgot to take out the delicious chicken salad from the fridge!
Top Row: Joanna, Samu, Daniel; Second Row: Ilari & Tony, Kiran & me, Andy; Third Row: Shahnaz & Yrjö, Benjamin, Sreekanth, Ani with Maria; Bottom Row: Elina & Ildiko; Burcu, Bill. Missing: Annikki, Bala, Pooja, Mani and Anusha, Mathias, Sameer, Vishu, Esa, Manuel, Osku
My sincere thanks to Joanna and Tony, Ildikó and Ilari, Pooja, Mani and Anusha (who drove down all the way from Raahe (80 km away), Shahnaz and Yrjo, Andy, Ani, Bala, Benjamin, Bill, Burcu, Elina, Esa, Kiran, Manuel, Osku, Sameer, Sreekanth, Vishu, nephew Mathias who just happened to be in Oulu, grandchildren Samuel, Daniel, Maria and above all my dearest of dearest, Annikki for making it such a wonderful birthday.
Now that the leaves are fallen and the satellite antenna is providing us with some 200 channels, I am able to watch many sports channels, which is not possible on Finnish channels unless you pay to watch the sports, live. (I dislike watching recorded sports, especially if I already know the result.)
This last weekend was full of "sport" with many unusual results. Here are some personal observations about what I witnessed.
First the Madrid ATP Tennis Championship, where I saw the unranked David Nalbandian of Argentina first whip the No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain on Friday, Serbian Novak Djokovic in the semifinal on Saturday, and this afternoon he showed phenomenal form to beat the World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland. David Nalbandian became third man to beat world's three top players en route to a title.
I can understand Nalbandian beating Rafael Nadal, as Nadal had a tough match against Andy Murray of England. I could see that this unbelievably fit human being, nadal, was tiring, but his quality tennis pulled him through against Murray.
Against Nalbandian, Nadal was overpowered by this stronger fitter individual as the signs of the strain of the week showed through. Nalbandian then beat Djokovic in the semifinal.
But the win against Federer, who is such a superb tennis player, probably the greatest I have seen in my lifetime, was quite difficult to understand. It seemed to me that Federer was giving up in the second set.
Then to Cricket, where India beat Australia in the Twenty20 match on Saturday. Although I was not able to see the match live, using CricInfo text commentary and YouTube rapid uploads by some dedicated cricket lovers, I was able to see this exciting win by India, almost live.
Then there was the World Rugby Union Championships. First Argentina whipped France for the third place. Yesterday, I watch South Africa beat England without a single try being scored in this game.
I have watched a lot of Rugby in my life. I always have thought it was a rough sport. But when I watched this final on tv, the realisation was this was probably the most violent of all field sports dawned on me. There were bleeding faces, cut eyes, dislocated shoulders and almost every minute of the 80 minutes was brutal. The tv conveyed this brutality right into the living room. I was in the centre of all this violence. I really wondered how these grown men could subject themselves and others to this degree of sheer physical torture.
It was interesting to see that when a player was ordered off the field by the referee, with blood streaming from both his eyes, he was back on the field at the first opportunity to take further part in this gladiatorial sport.
And finally, I watched the Formula 1 Championship which was held at Interlagos, Brazil. There were 3 people with a chance of winning the World Championship, and the one with the least chance was the Finn, Kimi Raikkonen, known as the "Ice Man" as he hardly displays any emotion on his face or in his voice, driving the Ferrari.
But win the Brazil race he did, and with Fernando Alonso of McLaren in 3rd place and Lewis Hamilton, also of McLaren, in 7th place, the World Championship went to Kimi, with Alonso and Hamilton getting joint second place, each with 109 points against Kimi's 110.
Almost every tv in Finland was probably tuned to seeing this race. As Finland celebrates this victory, my weekend of sports viewing taught me much!
The finesse of great tennis, the fantastic action of Twenty20 Cricket, the endurance and skill of great driving of Formula 1 cars and the intolerable physical violence of Rugby.
I did watch some football and handball over the weekend, but give me Twenty20 cricket and tennis as the two best sports to watch to pass the time away as we grow older.
Photo from the Newsmeter.in article
