Unravelling the Mechanics: Indians’ Perspective on International Indicies

 In 2014, when Annikki and I last visited India, Delhi was reported as the most polluted city in the world. In one chapter of our book “The Titanic Called India”, we covered the report published in the international media.

Here is the relevant text two pages from our 2015 book:

Vapi, in Gujarat , was reported in 2013 as being the most polluted location in India!

These are the indicies of various human issues comparing India with Finland in 2022/2014 prepared by reputed institutes and organisations. (See our blog entry about Finland and indicies.)

The cover of our Titanic book was also a reflection of the grave situation facing India. We tried, in an apolitical way, to highlight the enormous problems facing Indians and also how these were all being ignored.

The table below shows the change in some indicies between the period 2014 and 2022. (The Modi period of Indian history.)

Does anyone care?

Annikki and I have no intention to visit India again as it would result in sure death by either one cause or another. 

Even crossing a road in Bngalore is testing fate,

Our children and grandchildren are all over the world  and none are likely to stay in India to risk their lives. They may visit the country to visit relatives and friends, but each visit will be short.

We pray daily for all those trapped in this cycle of self destruction!

No one has any intention of doing anything about this. Their personal politics are more important than the country.

Sardar Patel Statue (The Statue of Unity - Rs. 3000 crores)

The Ayodah Temple (Rs. 18000 crores)

Narendra Modi Stadium (Cost Rs. 800 crores)

New Indian Parliament (Rs. 839 Crores)

And take the cost of Modi's international trips over his first 5 years which was Rs. 254 crores. (Former Prime Minister spent Rs. 642 crores between 2004 and 2013, 9 years.)

And when India was the chair of the G20, Rs. 4100 crores was spent by the country for self-aggradisation.

What appears is important is spending huge amounts of taxpayers money on building statues, temples, stadiums, changing names of parks and cities, foreign trips and hosting conferences. 

The next priority is changing the  name of the country which will cost well over Rs. 12000 crores.

These are all more important than the well being of the Indian people.

And what is said about the tragedies that are plaguing India, taking with it the lives of innocent Indians.

Odisha train tragedy

Manipur burns

Utrakhand tunnel tragedy

Death in Gujarat hooch tragedy

Gujarat Morbi Bridge tragedy

All these tragedies are conveniently quickly forgotten as well as the major issues faced by India, so beautifully captured by my friend cartoonist, agricultural scientist from Bangalore, Bala, (Professor J. Balakrishnan).

Let us remember that 26th November is Constitution Day.

But who cares about the Indian Constitution and the “western” conspiracy against India with all these "false indicies"!

Let us, as Indians, truly believe that India is the 

most secular, educated, free, democratic, healthiest, non-misogynistic, happiest country 

in the world! 

Isn't it?

Living in Finland: Retrograde Steps

Retrograde Steps

The City of Oulu in Finland used to be of the very best cities in the world for pedestrians, cycles and slow moving mopos and scooters, as they had separate tracks for these apart from the roads. Only in the city centre, where all traffic is slow moving, did the scooters merge with the road traffic.

It was possible for me to go from our home to the office without once driving on the road. It was fast and safe.

Some pedestrians, quite unwarrantedly, started a campaign to take the scooters off these special tracks. Last week this was implemented.

My first reaction after driving my scooter on the roads was that the number of fatal accidents of scooter drivers is going to increase sharply. Also it will be quite impossible for scooter drivers to be on the road once the snow arrives. I used to be able to drive my scooter all through winter. albeit slowly, when I was driving on the slow moving tracks.

The reason why accidents will increase is that most scooters do not have the power to drive at the speed limits set for the roads - 40, 50, 60 and 80 kmph. 40 kmph YES. 50 kmph at a stretch, YES. But 60 and 80 kmph is quite impossible.

Hence, motorists - car and truck drivers will be impatient when they come up behind a slow moving scooter, and the impatience will make them to swing out into the centre to overtake these scooters.

This will have two effects. The oncoming traffic will be jeopardised and secondly, when these bigger vehicles overtake these light weight scooters, they will cause the scooters to wobble and be unstable.

As a result the only conclusion to expect will be a possible accident of either the larger vehicle or the scooter.

People will express concern, but it must be said that these activists who lobbied for this quite unnecessary change - will have blood on their hands!

Fascination with weather

Annikki is passionate about the weather, whether it be the snow fall in Houston or the burning heat wave in the Antarctic causing the glaciers to melt!

I often wondered why, we, in Finland, and also in many parts of Europe, have this fascination with weather as we watch every possible weather bulletin, or even tune into it on the radio while driving.

As I was looking out of my kitchen window this morning I saw two snow ploughs working in tandem to clear the snow from a smallish side street. This is round the clock work in Finland as not a day of work is lost because of heavy snowfall, even if the temperature is down to -40 C.

It dawned on me that I will not venture out in winter without pausing to look at the thermometer outside my bedroom window. it is a sort of natural reflex action.

Based on what I see, i will pick up the correct outdoor gear, the shoes, the sweater, the overcoat, the gloves, the scarf.

It would be foolhardy to step out without the correct trappings.

Hence the fascination with weather reports is a sort of safety self preservation method if we are to survive in the freezing temperatures.

And does our fascination with the weather of other people sort of make us feel better or worse, happy or jealous, sad or joyful.

We certainly do not feel overjoyed at seeing the disastrous consequence of bad weather in different parts of the world, but we do feel confident and safe that the roads are being maintained properly here in Finland. It is a sort of comparison that we are automatically making. When we see something that is better than our system, off will go the letters to the authorities to take steps to improve our system.

In winter the speed limit on all our roads drops by 20 kmph automatically. it is a fool who does not follow this guideline as, not only is her or she risking his or her life, but the lives of several others.

Even at low speeds there can be havoc.

Just yesterday, I took a turning right in the centre of town. The car in front of me stopped in the middle of the road to make a left turn. I sort of automatically braked, as I have not yet got used to driving on the icy roads again. The car started to slither. There was no room on the right of the car, so I had no option but to let it slide to the left of the stepped car, right into the on-coming traffic. Luckily, the car stopped sliding as I shifted gear quickly, and the on-coming car, realising my predicament went to his extreme right, avoiding me.

The mistake was that of the driver of the car in front of me, as he should have moved to the centre of the road to make his left turn, leaving enough room for me to go through on his right.

But in an accident situation who is going to look at the right and wrong.

It was wrong of me to be so close to the car ahead. It was wrong of me to swing into the on-coming traffic. What I should have done is rammed the guy in the back. But any accident where you hit someone from the back will be counted as your fault!

I thank my lucky stars that I got out of that situation unharmed.

If I had watched the weather news in the morning before I left home, I would have seen the warning sign that driving conditions in our area were dangerous. My fault!

Tragedy at Välivainio

Last week, three young people, one youngster born in 1984, one young lady and one young man born in 1988 (the driver) died tragically in an accident at Välivainio, about 200 metres from my office. The doctor's report later showed that the driver had 1.5 promil of alcohol in his blood, the legal limit being 1.2 promil.



The pictures tell the story of how the accident happened.

There is a gentle curve on Sirtolantie, requiring a driver to slow down a few kilometres per hour to take it safely. The driver of the accident vehicle probably came in too fast and was trying to reduce speed to navigate the curve. He missed the brake and slammed his foot on the accelerator, by mistake. This increased the speed and in a couple of seconds the car hit the high curb. This meant that the driver's hands were thrown off the wheel and his foot went harder on the accelerator, causing the car to jump and be thrown against the tree in front of them.



The end must have come instantly judging from the state of the car.

It is possible to pontificate on this and the effect of alcohol. But when I look back on my life, 27 years ago I used to kill a bottle of rum and still drive my car. The foolishness of my actions now stares me in my face as I had a wife and four children to look after.

Not having touched a drop of alcohol for the last 27 years (80 Charminar roasted tobacco cigarettes, 20 cups of coffee, half a dozen bottles of beer and a bottle of rum were my daily consumption), I can honestly say that I have had a great life since and not missed any of these pleasures.

Many have asked why I gave up.

It was not because I saw such a tragedy, as this acciedent, ahead of me, but because I realised my brain was being affected. My super memory was being steadily destroyed.

I have recovered almost 90% of the brain cells which were destroyed because of my heavy drinking. That has taken the best part of these 27 years and a lot of help from my friends who helped me fill in different damaged areas of my brain and its memory!

Do I miss any of these pleasures?
Not really, as a soft drink and a cup of tea are equally refreshing and socially acceptable.
Was it easy to give up all these pleasure?
Not really, as I knew the alternate outcome.
Am I glad that I am not history like these young kids at Välivainio?
You bet, as otherwise I would never have been able to enjoy my children and my grandchildren.
Do I begrudge anybody else drinking?
Not on your life, so long as it is their life and not mine that is at stake.

Another accident

This time of the year I am usually on my scooter.

Today, just to save a few minutes, I decided to go to the office in the car!

I did not get very far. At the first roundabout near our home, I slowed down and then, as I entered the circle, I was blinded by the ultra-bright sun straight in my eyes. Before I realised it I had hit a car which was in the circle.

The fault is mine, but there were mitigating circumstances. I called the Police and they wrote the report. Although I am the guilty party, they did not charge me.

I needed to report the accident so that my insurance will cover the damage to the other car. There was virtually no damage to mine.

The main outcome is that I will lose some more of my no claim bonus which I had built up over the last 25 years. Sad, but it is true that old age is creeping in and I am no longer very safe on the roads.

Using a helmet when riding a cycle or scooter

Many think it is a bother to use a helmet when riding a cycle or scooter.

This year, for the first time, I understood the significance as I clocked up a couple of thousand kilometres on the scooter.

Strike 1: I was going to a football match in early summer with my young friend, Soda, sitting behind me. I was not driving very fast when I turned right to go into a tunnel to cross the main road. As I turned the corner I saw three cyclists straight in front of me. They were riding abreast. Even as I braked I knew I would hit one of them. I chose the one in the centre as I knew that if I hit the ones nearer the sides, they could be thrown in a manner that they would hit the walls of the tunnel.

As both Soda and I had on our helmets, we both got away with some scrapes. It was lucky that cyclist, a young South Korean student in Oulu University, got away unscathed as he was not wearing a helmet!

Strike 2: I was driving along the scooter path to town, not very fast, when suddenly a driver turned sharply right into a side path, completely ignoring the cycle, pedestrian and scooter traffic which had right of way. The path of the car crossed the pedestrian/scooter road.

I reacted quickly turning my scooter perpendicular to the car. I was thrown off the scooter. The scooter crashed to the ground.

The driver was a lady with a baby strapped in the front passenger seat.

I just could not believe myself as to the bad driving by this lady who had swung across the cycle path without verifying if any traffic was on the path.

I was lucky that I had my helmet on as the scooter was thrown hard to the ground because of my evasive action. I can still remember how my helmet bounced on the ground three times as I hit the road!

Strike 3: I was driving back home from town when I decided to take a short cut which has no traffic. It involved driving up a steep incline and making a sharp left turn. Although my speed was really slow, as I turned left, there was a lot of fine sand on the road and the scooter tyres just lost their grip and I was thrown away from the scooter with my helmeted head crashing against the ground.

A bad bruise on the knee but no other damage.

In all three cases, if I did not have my helmet on the situation could have been catastrophic. If Soda had not been wearing a helmet when riding as my passenger, he too could have had a traumatic experience!

Accidents do happen. Many times for no fault of anyone. If you are not properly equipped the result could be tragic.

I am glad that I have always been properly attired when riding the scooter this year. It has saved my life.

Please follow the rules as there are many people who love you and want to have you around!