Puzzled by darkness

Street Lights OFF?

Now that we actually do have darkness in Oulu, as our nightless nights have ended, I was greatly puzzled the other day.

I had to drop off one on my tenants at the airport at around 21:00 hours. On my way back, I decided to go to the office, pick up some papers and head for home. This was around 22:00 hours.

The highway, the E4, was well lit. When I pulled off the highway I thought it strange that not a single street light was on. All the way to the office and then through the City on my way home, I wondered why they had shut of the street lighting in Oulu. Only street lights at bridges and subways (tunnels) were on.

When I reached home I asked Annikki whether she had read anything in our local newspaper about this.

Answer: Negative.

We have a street light just in front of the house. It is extremely bright - but that night, like all the other street lights in Oulu - it was OFF!

Is Oulu City trying to save on electricity?

Indian Buffet in Oulu

Yesterday, I decided to try the new Indian Buffet on offer in Oulu. I had promised the owner that I would drop in on Monday, and then Tuesday, but I just could not make it.

So yesterday, I went in a little late (after 14:00 hours).

From Indian Buffet in Oulu

The restaurant was not crowded, but it was obvious that they had had several guests in the early afternoon.

The buffet was good but not outstanding. There was a salad table, but I do not normally take salads. Rice and pakoras were on offer. The pakoras were cold. I like mine piping hot. There were three wet dishes - channa dal, chicken curry and lamb curry.

The channa dal was made for a Finnish palette, not for an Indian one. The chicken, which was cooked in curd, making it like a kurma, was a bit too sweet for me. The lamb was just about right.

The papadam's were freshly fried and great.

Being late, the nan's were cold and rather hard and crispy! I found a few soft ones.

I would have liked a dry vegetable, as we have so many wonderful dry dishes as accompaniments at all Indian tables. As I am allergic to cold or unwashed cooked rice, because of the starch, I did not try that. I stuck to cold hard nans!

Various sauces adorned the serving table, but I was not attracted to any of them.

The meal was followed by a small bowl of fruit salad served at the table. I had a Chai, after that.

The price at € 9.80, including the soft drink, is higher than what the Chinese restaurants charge (between € 7 and 8).

The Experience: Moderately good and a good starting efort. Probably a once a month visit will be what will be my schedule!

Cricket in Oulu takes a new turn

Yesterday we had a cricket tournament for local Oulu cricket lovers. For the first time we used the matting so kindly provided by Asheesh Kumar of Medipolis GMP.

There was a small problem of carting this large matting roll around and also fixing it to the ground. The use of the hammer was necessary on several occasions to keep the bowlers end firmly fixed down. Also some small adjustments will also be required to have the sides not curl up.

Three teams took part in the 10 over format. The teams were married, bachelors and University student players. The games were thrilling.

From New Album 16/05/2010 06:40

Venkat Reddy bowls while Rajesh backs up.

In the end the Bachelors walked away with a victory over the married players.

The official training session and season will start shortly. This was a good forerunner to what we can expect in the coming summer months. Some discipline as bowling less wides and no balls, etc. will have to be the outcome of the training sessions if the Oulu XI is going to make it big in Finnish National Cricket tournaments.

After the matches, we all adjourned to India House where we broke up into smaller groups, some playing carroms (on the only carrom board in Finland), others enjoying their new experience of cycling in Finland, some playing cricket, some playing shuttle, and a lot of people just gettng to know each other.

India House was in its element as we had over 40 Findians, men, women and children having a wonderful time. We ordered pizzas, kebabs and salads from Oulu's best and largest pizzeria, Goreme (owned by keen sportsmen Hasim and Kasim from Turkey) and everyone enjoyed sitting in the sunshine of 8 pm and just being friends. A few newcomers arrived to take part and generally the whole day was a rip roaring success.

Kudos to the organisers and hope we have several more just fun days this summer.

A day of Finnish “efficiency”

The Scandinavian countries conjure up the image of being super efficient, especially because of small population with highly trained professionals in every sphere.

Yesterday was a lesson in what not to believe.

I have already drawn the wrath of a few for exposing the lack of competence of Finnish doctors, who in the main are inexperienced. Yesterday proved a lesson in incompetence of the highest order.

In the morning I had my blood test and my ECG. That went OK as I did not have to see any doctor. The result will be with me on Wednesday. I will refer them to my Indian doctor before I meet with the Finnish doctor next Monday.

In the afternoon, one of the newly arrived Indian engineers called me to tell me that he had fallen on Saturday and his right hand was in pain. As it was too late to go to our local health centre, as he stays in one of our apartments close to our home, I told him that after i finished my days work I would take him to the University Research Hospital Out Patient Section, as that is the only one which functions after 5 pm.

However, I warned him to have his dinner and take his computer or something to read as the process could take 4 hours or more.

Do you think he believed me?

I picked him up after my dinner at around 19:30. After finishing a couple more house calls, we reached the hospital by 20:15. We registered and got the initial paperwork over and sat down to wait. The waiting room was quite empty with just about a dozen people, patients with their friend waiting around.

9:15, 10:15, 11:15. 11:45 and we were called in to see a doctor. The young lady showed her inexperience in the way she felt the injured area. Of course, she came to no conclusion, so decided to get an X-ray.

So, of I took him to the X-ray section. As I know my way around that department because of my recent injury to my finger, I was able to complete that process within half an hour. The X-ray was on its way to the doctor.

Back we were at the waiting hall.

We waited till 2:45 to be called in by a doctor who confessed that he could not read the X-ray with any certainty and advised that I call the nurses in the morning so that we could get an opinion of a qualified radiologist!

Six and a half hours, and my young friend was sent away with no diagnosis but with the comforting thought that he had been given one free pain killer tablet. He said he would savour with great relish his free tablet! :-)

The total time spent with each doctor was not more that 5 minutes. The X-ray took 5 minutes. For 15 minutes patient contact, we waited 6 hours and a half.

When I reached home, Annikki was amazed that it had not taken 9 hours. :-)

My friend is likely to drumbeat his experience with all his other colleagues working in Oulu. I do not think many will want to visit the Out Patients Department in Oulu University Research Hospital!

A true indication of the professionalism of Oulu Doctors!

Back in Oulu, and What! Oh! What!

The first picture is the absolutely delightful gift given to us by the Patni team in Bangalore after they hosted us for a great dinner.



Now, in its proper location in Oulu in our living room. The birds and the background lighting, in a special place chosen by Annikki for this work of art, makes it truly magnificent.

Thank you boys - Uncle Jacob cannot thank you enough for this stupendous gift which made it BACK in one piece back to Finland.

It was late on Wednesday evening when we hit Oulu. I drove the 600 km rather slowly and carefully as I was really tired. The roads were clear, and while the sun was up, it was brilliant and a beautiful clear blue sky. The temperature during the journey was hovering between -15 and - 18 C, but the car heating was perfect.

We saw the sun set at 14:30 when we were passing through Jyväskyla, about halfway through our journey from Helsinki to Oulu.

What a difference, when just 6 months ago I stopped at 02:30 am to see the sun rise at Jyväskylä!

Today afternoon, Annikki gave me a shopping list of urgent provisions to obtain so that we did not starve! I went to our local supermarket. As I was coming out I bumped into one of Joanna's friends, Terhi-Liisa. She stopped to say hello.

The first thing she said was that she had read most of our experiences I had blogged of our trip around India. She asked how Annikki's cough was faring! So she was really reading the blog. (Terhi-Liisa told me that just recently lost her dad, so I conveyed condolences from our family.)

I decided to check through my readership statistics. Normally I have about 60000 to 80000 readers for all my 10 active blogs put together. From what I was able to gather, I had a possible 130000 to 135000 readers from all over the world who were reading of our Indian exploits on Jacob's Blog.

Phenomenal as it may seem, considering that many of the readers sent me email (such as Shilpa from the Middle East) and one (Ebbi) actually took up the phone in California to ring and speak at length to me, shows how much the blogging was appreciated.

I was happy that several of the older members of my immediate family, who know nothing about computers and blogging, actually got people to print out my entries so that they could keep track of this journey through this Incredible India.

Cathedralites, Stephanians, Findians, Facebook friends, Twitterers, LinkedIn professional friends, Orkut friends, Plaxo companions, Oulu University staff and students, O-Indians, Chaff friends, Kandathil and Maliyakal relatives, and stray readers searching on Google for keywords - what a cosmopolitan mix of readers.

And what is wonderful is that I was able to hold them together for the last seven weeks!

Many thanks to the younger generation for activating a readership which I thought I would never reach!

Does Salegram look like my chauffeur or my dear friend?

But I am jumping the gun again. Let us go back to Delhi when we were leaving last Friday. It was a very emotional farewell for me to say goodbye to my friend from my adolescent days, Salegram. He looked after Annikki and me so well. He is such a lovely man who has given devoted service to our family and family companies, that it shows above all that some of my family members in India have retained the principles espoused by my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.

My problems with the ICICI Bank went on till the very last minute of my stay in India. When I left Delhi, they had assured me that everything would be just perfect from then on. They gave me two debit cards saying that I could use them in Mumbai.

Boy, were they sadly mistaken.

They said that another debit card would be delivered to me on Saturday morning.

What, oh, what do you think happened?

I had a terrible amount of shopping to complete in Mumbai. I went to Akbaraly's in Flora Fountain and bought a lot of stuff! When I was about to pay using this brand new debit card provided that morning by the Delhi Regional Manager of the ICICI Bank, the cashier told me that I could not use that debit card for paying - all I could use it for was to draw money out of an ATM!!!

Luckily I had cash with me so I was saved another devastating embarrassment.

I went promptly to an ATM, only to find that the cards were not usable - I had not been provided with the PIN numbers!

What competence, what efficiency, what in-depth knowledge by a Regional Manager and his staff of smart goons!

The next morning at precisely 9 am, I rang the Customer Service Manager who had organised the debit cards I told her that I could not use the card and the reasons. She confirmed that the cards they had provided me were only ATM withdrawal cards.

She then said I could call Customer Care and generate my own PIN!

Of course, the Regional Manager was most apologetic and assured me that the PIN would be generated from the phone number they would give me.

About half an hour later, I received a Bombay phone number and went through the entire rigmarole of generating a PIN, only to be told by the human being at the end of this long winded process, that as I was an NRI, the PIN could only be sent to my communication address IN FINLAND!

I rang the Regional Manager and he assured me that the PIN would be delivered to me. That was at 10:42.

In the meantime, the other debit card which was to be delivered by 12 noon had not arrived. Then I got a call from the Mumbai Branch stating that the man had gone back to the office as he could not enter my building, or he had found some other address, or....!

It transpired that he had come to the gate of my building and instead of ringing me, as my phone number was on the delivery slip, he had just gone away as the Security Guard did not believe his story. He appeared at about 11:30 and gave me the so-called debit card. When I opened the packet I found there was no PIN to use that card and it was an International Debit Card, which was no use to access my Indian Rupees in my NRI account!

I was in a rage as all my money was locked out.

When the Customer Care phoned me, I threw my fit at him, telling him what a nin-com-poop bank he worked for. I slammed down the phone as I had had enough of this nonsense.

Promptly I got a call from the Delhi branch telling me that if I waited another hour or so, the PIN numbers would be delivered to me.

I had other plans and asked them to stuff the PIN where you think it should be stuffed. I had wasted half a day and was at a position worse than my starting state.

At least at that point I had hope.

I went to the largest ICICI Bank and drew out 80% of the money in my rupee account, leaving just enough to see what would happen and as I had no chance of stopping the dividend cheques that would be deposited this week!

With cash in my hands I was able to do some of what I had planned to do, but communicating with my suppliers in Kottayam and Cochin late on a Saturday afternoon just was impossible, leaving most critical parts of my tasks undone.

Of course, when I reached home, there appeared the messenger from the ICICI bank, bearing the PIN numbers.

Later that evening I decided to give a try to the PIN received - and do you know what was the result - The ATM spewed out a receipt which said

Transaction Declined
Unable to Process

Does this bank even understand the chaos that they caused in my life, the embarrassments that I had faced, the humiliation that I was forced to undergo?

I do not think so.

They are immune from the realities of the banking world.

When one looks at their online banking page, this is more than obvious. It is a confused presentation showing that they expect their customers to do everything out of one page, and that is why their online banking is doomed to be a complete and total failure.

I am so sorry to bore you with this experience, but we have almost 40000 to 50000 NRI readers of this blog, many trusting their money with this bank.

They could ask for no worse experience in their life than what I was forced to undergo in my 7 weeks with ICICI Bank!

Let us move on to more delightful things.



Dinner was to be with Malathi and her husband, the Dr. of Dharavi, Ashok, and also Malathi's brother from Bangalore, Chandu. Malathi and Ashok's younger son Dishan, joined us later in the evening.

Annikki was not well. heer cough having become chronic, that I advised her to stay at home. But she would have none of it and undertook the arduous long journey to the finest fish restaurant in Mumbai.



I had fried fish, crab, tandoori fish and finished with one of the best prawn biriyani that I have ever tasted. Annikki managed to eat a morsel or two, but she was very very poorly.

Despite the late hour we went to Malathi's beautiful home in Powai and they showered us with gifts.

We finally got home around midnight.

On Sunday morning I had an early lunch with my uncle Peelukuttychatan (97, Mr. K. M. Philip), my aunt Chinnammakochamma (91) and my cousin Suresh (Peter Philip) and his wife, Meera. (Fear of passing on whatever infection she may have to Peelukutychayan and Chinnammakochamma prevented her from joining us.

I rushed home to see Annikki was OK and then rushed to second appointment with a few of my 59ers, as we were celebrating Noel's birthday with a chocolate cake before he left for the USA. I was so happy to meet Ranju Lalwani (58er) and his wife, Anju. Piloo, Ooky, Rivca, Suchita and Vijay were there for the occasion to say farewell to us two 59ers. It was an emotional parting.

Annikki still had some urgent shopping to do, so we made an attempt to reach Phoenix High Street in the early evening. About 100 metres from our Guest House I realised that this was a foolhardy attempt - we would probably miss our flight at 2 in the morning if I decided to get this shopping done. The traffic was abominable.

So we returned home. As I was going to buy some medicines from the nearby pharmacy, Annikki, accompanying me, spotted a hole in the wall shop, maybe 1.5 metre wide and 5 metres deep. In it she found all that she had intended to buy! Cotton vests, nightdresses, etc., etc. Incredible Mumbai, where one even has a bookstore at every traffic light, in between the cars!

We set off for the airport by around 22:45.

I think I should leave the next part of our trip for my next blog entry.