Nokia Phone to the rescue!

 I have been using the iPhone for over 15 years. 

Old trusted Nokia, where the keyboard has faded!

Before that, like every Finn,had  I was a Nokia phone user. 

There were intervals where I used Jolla and then went back to a Nokia, but came back to the iPhone. 

Part of my collection of mobile phones from 1987: 2 Mobiras, Jolla, iPhone 4, Nokia clam shell, other 2 Nokia antiques, an Häger internet phone.  (My only Samsung was lost in Helsinki and my Nokia 920 was lost at Delhi Airport.)

When my iPhone 4 gave up the ghost, my friends, The Gang of 18 from around the world (Canada, India, Israel, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA)  made sure I got an iPhone as a present so I would keep in touch with all my classmates. 

It has been very reliable, till yesterday, when it refused to charge.

I was in a desperate situation, as I have several phones, right  from the original Nokia, when it was called Mobira, but the problem was all of them are in a safe place but I did not know where the charging cables were.

It was a desperate search as without a phone I am dead to the world. With our two daughters,  it is OK as they used FaceTime and we can call each other from my MacBook Air.

The problem was that to even call a taxi to go to the repair shop  is a problem without a phone, as we are both house-bound. 

I found some charging cables and played around till I found the one which matched one of my ancient Nokia phones. I got the phone charged. Then the problem was of getting my micro SIM from the iPhone to fit the Nokia. 

I knew I had a lot of adapters, but when you want one, it is impossible to find it. Annikki’s  grandfather had a saying that when one stops looking for something, it will just come to hand!

I found an old wireless adapter with an old SIM and in its old large holder frame. I fixed my mini SIM to that, and voilà, worked.

I called my taxi service. Annikki and I went right  across town to the K-Citymarket in Rusko, where I knew FONUM has a service centre working on Sinday.

The two youngsters were most helpful. 

While Annikki and I did our shopping they fixed  my iPhone. They found some dirt had got into  the charging port and they cleaned it out.

When we got back, it was working fine.

The charge was to be €25.

I asked them to change my Elisa home network connection to 5G from the present 4G, which was just €2 per month more than my present charge. I also bought a wireless INSMAT wireless charging station. No more dirt likely in the charging port! The boys did not charge me for cleaning the iPhone. I got the charging station for just €4. 

I bought a SIM card for my old trusted Nokia and now that is hanging next to my TV for hopefully another unlikely emergency..

The lesson learnt with this experience is that although I have everything to handle any situation, I have left everything disorganised after my health issues got to the foreground. 

Now is the time to reorganise as I have all these beautiful gadgets, all sitting there and I waste so much time when an emergency arises.

I am on 5G from tomorrow. I hope that will help get my blogs out faster. 

I have some great news for our blog readers as we shall concentrate on a new schedule to help you get to the blog you want to read in a more organised fashion.

I have two new blogs lined up for December and a couple of older focused ones will come back on line, completely refurbished. 

I will give you the calendar schedule shortly.

Here are the list of our blogs:

1. Collectibles By Annikki (Daily)

2. Jacob’s Blog (Weekly)

3. News (Weekly) Findians  Breaking News

4. Maliyakal Family Blog (New) (Weekly)

5. Kandathil Family Blog (New) (Weekly)

6. Seventh Heaven for Cathedralites (Fortnightly)

7. Oulu Best (Worst) Buy (Fortnightly)

8. JM Politics (Fortnightly)

9. Findians (Fortnighly)

10. Findians Editorial (Fortnighly)

11. Findians Briefings (Fortnightly)

12. Kooler Talk (Web Version) (Monthly)

13. Art of Kamutaza's Tembo (Monthly)

14. CHAFF (Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners) (Monthly)

15. Photographs from Finland and India(Monthly)

16. Last Will and Testament (Monthly)

17. Move The UN (Monthly)

18. Mobile Snowman (Winter)

19. Talk Show Ratings (When news is available!)

Do stay turned for this BREAKING NEWS which we have scheduled for the next Finnish Independence Day on 6th December 2023.

A Blast from My Past -

 While going through my ancient files, I came across this little blue notebook with my pet name on the cover.

SUSHIL is my Indian name, a tradition started by my paternal grandfather. 

In the past, we were given our official name, in which the first was the House name that you belonged to from your father’s side. Then you added your father’s name and finally your own name.

The own name would then be made Malayali and would be used by your family and family friends. Occasionally, you also got called by a “pet” name which could be associated with your standing in society, your contribuion to society or just endearment.

My eldest maternal uncle  was the late Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian (Chetpet Appachen), . He got the name Cherian as being my grandfather's eldest son, he was given his great grandfather's name - Cherian.

Padma Bhushan is the award he was given by the Indian Government for his contribution to Indian journalism and work for Indian Independence. K stood for his family House name, Kandathil. M stood for his father's name. which was  Mammen Mappillai.

Take a look at the names of all my mother's  brothers in order of birth.

1. Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian

2. K.M. Oommen

3. K.M. Eapen

4. K. M. Varghese Mappillai

5. K. M. Jacob

6. Padma Shri K. M. Philip

7. Padma Bhushan K. M. Mathew

8. Padma Shri K. M. Mammen Mappillai

The ninth member of the family was my mother, whose name should have been 

Padma Acca K. M. Mariam (Padma Acca being my personal title for her) as she held 7 fiery brothers together to help them build MRF Ltd. , Malayala Manorama, MM Rubber Co. Ltd. amongst a host of other companies. 

(Her brother, K. M. Jacob, died early and my name is Jacob as I was born shortly after he died. )

Without her strong hand  and mutual love and affection with her brothers, this family would have broken up into fragmernts a long time ago. (This story will appear in my memoirs in due course.)

So you will note that each of them has the K. M. prefix before their own name.

My paternal grandfather took another route. 

His name was Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur Maliyakal Kuriyan (Mysore) Matthan.

Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur was the title conferred on him by the Maharaja of Mysore for his services to the State of Mysore. The House name is Maliyakal, which is also my house name. His  name from his father was Kuriyan (which be also spelt as Kurian). The pet name "Mysore" was given to him by the people of Mysore for his contribution to the state. His personal name was Matthan, but he turned it to his surname name. This was because he saw it as part of the western society he had become involved with and he changed from being a Syrian Christian to a member of the Protestant Church.

So his male children were

1. M. George Matthan (Commissioner Mysore Government)

2. M. Kuriyan Matthan (CEO Tata Engineering Consultancy Services, after being the Chief Engineer of the B. E. S. T. in Bombay)

3. M. Matthan Matthan (DCM) 

4. M. John Matthan (CEO BHEL & CEO Integral Coach Factory)

5. M. Jacob Matthan (LIC Chairman)

My mother's family were all professionals and business  oriented, while my father and his brothers were all professionals, all of whom reached the pinnacles in their professional life.

Coming to my name, it should have been Maliyakal Matthan Jacob, but as my paternal grandfather turned around the system, I got the name Maliyakal Jacob Matthan, but an Indian name was also added, which is SUSHIL. (My elder sister was Nalini, my elder brother is Ranjit, and my younger sister was Thangamma.). Sushil is used by my other family members and family friends who have known me since childhood.

But this is a digression, as the reason for this blog is that I found a small notebook a couple of days ago which had an article written by me in 1975 about the potential for trade between Finland and India.

Written by me 48 years ago, when I was just 32 years old, there may not be much technology  significance today.

What interested me is not the content of the article but that I was able to write an article before my access to a computer in beautiful long hand, something which vanished when I returned to Finland in 1984, 9 years later, as my handwriting skills vanished. With the advent of the computer, and arthritis hitting me quite hard simultaneously, I resorted to using the compuiter for my writing to avoid the pain.

When I joined the University of Oulu, I was given access to IBM XT and AT computers, along with the IBM Mainframe. 

My earlier computer access was when I was working in MRF.  IBM opened their computer centre in Madras. All we had was preparing punched cards relating to the stocks in store. 

I did not stay with the IBM Computers for long as I spent most of my time trying to remember key strokes and functions and less time creating my documents.

One day, a young lady arrived at the door of my University room from a company called Systema Oy. She convinced me to look at what she was selling. It was an Apple IIC computer which had a "mouse" and the commands were simple to remember.

I took to it immediately and my productivity went up 2000% compared to that of my colleagues. 

Soon I had others working on my Apple IIC all day creating all sorts of scientific experimental stuff. 

I had to wait till they went home to get my work done, which became quite simple as it was productivity oriented. What took them 4 hours on their computers, my productivity with my Apple Macs took hardly 2 hours! (This was at the time of the cumbersome DOS system.)

Within a year, all my colleagues were clammering for their own Apple computers, but I had moved on to a Mac, the Mac Plus,  the Mac SE and then the Mac Portable and then the Mac PowerBook, my first own computer. 

There is an interesting side story when I bought my PowerBook. I claimed it as an expenses and claimed depreciation for the whole year, although I had bought it only in December. 

The Oulu Tax Office declined to give me the depreciation for the whole year. I went to Oulu Court. There I showed that I could do a whole year's work in less than three weeks. The judge ruled in my favour. 

After that the Oulu Tax Oflice never questioned me on my claims!

I was continually ahead of my colleagues who were always playing catch up with me.

I would go in on a Saturday morning and upgrade all the software on the Macs of my colleagues.

As a result, despite being a third world country intruder in Finland, I got upgraded from an ordinary researcher to the Laboratory Manager and then to the Chief Engineer.

The secret of my success was that they needed me more than I needed them! 

I do hope you will enjoy this handwritten 20 page article of mine. 

It shows my vision of 35+ years ago, even  before I moved to Finland. It also shows my commitment to promoting India and its culture, products and technology to Finland.

Remember one of our Guiding Principles:

"Go where you are appreciated!"

Appendix:

We are welcomed...

The North East monsoon is here in Madras, a steady and welcome rain. Our driver, Thirumeni, who is store of history at every street corner and at every politicians house, said the Gods had welcomed our visit to Chennai with wonderful rains which had considerably cooled Chennai for our visit. He has a great sense of humour and although my Tamil is virtually non-existent, he speaks in a dialect that my Malayalam makes it easy to follow. He works for a company called Ganesh Travels and as he is not the regular driver for my other family members, does not know the addresses and locations of my numerous relatives in the city. But he is resourceful enough to find out fast!

On Friday morning I devoted myself to meet my two cousins and their husbands who were my guardians when I was studying at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Mammikochamma and and husband, Kuttachayan, (Mrs. and Wing Commander (rtd.) A. G. Mathews) live in the Defence Officers Colony in Nandambakkam.

I first visited the house where Annikki and I had stayed in 1970-1971 in that colony. It was still lush and beautiful but the grass that Annikki had laid in the midday sun was no longer there.

My cousins were as sprightly as ever, even though they are late 70s and mid eighties. Mammikochamma produced her old albums of photographs, so much so that I vowed to return on my next visit with an efficient scanner and to scan her glorious collection. It is a goldmine of history and something to be treasured. Unfortunately, due to damp, many pictures have been damaged.

Their house is magnificent and designed very cleverly to accommodate children and grandchildren when they come. We laughed over many of our past memories together and they remain so dear to me.

On to my other Delhi guardians. This time I did see Chennai traffic in rush hour. With the rain having cut away almost two lanes on the major roads due to water logging, the traffic still moved, albeit slowly. There was no massive tangle we had witnessed in Bangalore.

We reached Ashwathykochamma and Thambichayan’s (Mrs. & Mr. K. M. Jacob) new house on the Thirvanmuyur outskirts of Chennai to be greeted by them and their daughter-in-law, Mich. Ranjeet and Mich are building a house nearby.

We laughed about how when Annikki had insisted on living on the city outskirts when we lived in Madras, we were scolded by everyone about living away from the city. At that time we were no more than 7 minutes from the city centre! Now the same journey takes between 15 to 30 minutes and no one complains!

We relived our wonderful times in Delhi, where my cousins Suresh and Rajen and myself would go and spend wonderful weekends in their home. It was so tiny but there was space for everyone and the food was glorious. Those were the days, but what is important none of us have forgotten the bond that was created during our childhood years.

When I reached home I got the news that Sashank’s father, Dr. Subramanyam, had invited us as his guest to a concert at the Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2009 to be given by Sashank. Could anything be more wonderful than that. Sashank has been invited many times in the last 25 years when he was a child prodigy, to this festival, the best in Carnatic music, but his international tour schedules never gave him the opportunity to take part. And we were given pride of place to be invited by him to witness his poweress.

Lunch at the Kabul where we tasted some authentic Afghani food, and while Annikki rushed to the shopping Mall City Centre to do some financial mischief, I caught up on my email. She was back in time for us to join Sashank and his father to go to the auditorium.

The performance was spell binding. Sashank and his friends were simply outstanding, and the music was electric. I have never been to a concert of Indian Classic Music, but it was worth every minute. The audience cheered as Sashank asked them what they wanted to hear and rendered each item with a gusto and precision that becomes only a maestro. His young years are not a hindrance. Later in the evening when I asked him how he managed to retain the compositions in his brain, he quickly responded that he had performed with ferocious regularity over the last 25 years, the music was imprinted in his brain.

There was no sheet music in front of any of the artists, but they blended so beautifully that I was amazed at the skill of these artists!

We rushed back home to get dressed and go off to our Kanadthil family dinner at the home of Kunjukochamma (Mrs. K. M. Mammen Mappillai) wife of the late K. M. Mappillai, the founder of MRF Ltd. over 70 years ago. He was my mother’s youngest brother and they were so close that much of his strength was derived from the brother-sister relationship. She had held the family together when it went through many of the major crisis which would have split the family.

Mika, Annikki and I were the first to arrive (Finnish style - on time) and only my aunt was there. It was good to renew our association after 10 long years which had seen the demise of my mother and her husband. She is still the wonderful personality she has been since I attended her wedding in the late 1940s when this home had been our family home. Although modernised it was still a home that generated most pleasant me mores of our past. A fitting place for a family reunion.

Almost everyone of the family of my generation and the one after and their children attended. The only major omissions were my siblings and their spouses. They did not have the courage to show their faces as the hypocrisy and their behaviour as criminals would have not have been missed by all those present. They would have to answer just one question “My father died in 1993 and my mother in 2000. Where are their wills and assets?”

The only inheritance that I received was the magnificent zebra cloth hand-stitched art piece that Annikki had made for my mother and which had hung as a centrepiece in her home for all her life in both Bangalore and Madras. It now hangs in our home.

All the assets of my parents as well as the personal possessions Annikki and myself, and my personal assets which we had had left behind in India, had been carved up between my brother, my sister and my nephew in Australia. I cared a damn as these ill-gotten gains would haunt them through eternity!

The evening, thanks to their absence, was something which I can never forget. The love and affection showed by my cousins, their children and grandchildren who attended, was a tribute to my grandfather and grandmother, whose memory lived in all of those of my generation.

From the Oommen family we had three sisters, Accakuttykochamma, Mammikochamma and Ashwathykochamma and many from the generations after. From the Eapen family we had Kunjumonchayan and also many from the generations after. From the Varghese family, no members from my generation but a grand attendance from the generations after. The Philip family was represented by Senchayan. And from the Mammen Mappillai family, besides our hostess, Vinoo and Arunm and late Ravi’s wife, Meera, and many of the subsequent generations including one who will next August become a member of the family, attended. Two Stephanians in the lot. There was no one from the Cherian, Jacob and Mathew families in Chennai to attend.

The dinner was typical Kerala and was catered by one of the leading restaurant groups in Chennai. The food was superb and the atmosphere was so beautiful. And Vinoo (K. M. Mammen who is presently the Chairman and Managing Director of MRF Ltd.), Meera (wife of Ravi, Mrs. Meera Mammen, who looks after the real Human relations of MRF Ltd. staff and workers), and Arun (Arun Mammen, who is the Joint Managing Director of MRF Ltd.), who were the organisers of this event should be proud that, if they want they can bring together the family in a spirit of their grandfather. Although Annikki and I will not be here to partake in such events, as was expressed by Vinoo’s wife, Ambika, they need such events where family can be family.

I remember my family home in Mumbai and Bangalore, and finally in Chennai, was the meeting point of many generations, spurred by my mother. I hoped that a lesson was learned and understood that without family unity, no one would have been where they are today.

Thayyil Kandathil Family Directory 2007

Yesterday's post brought me much joy as there was a small package from my uncle, Mr. K. M. Mathew, now 90 but still quite active. It contained 2 copies of the Thayyil Kandathil Family Directory 2007.



The cover features a picture of the Thayyil Tharavadu, the original Thayyil family House, which now rests in the compound of the Kodimatha Unit of the Malayala Manorama newspaper.



As I thumbed through the directory, many old names and faces which had been erased from my memory as a child came flooding back, those long gone, those who have similarly aged with me, and those younger ones whom I have seen growing up.

Mariam Matthan Family Tree

It was interesting to read from our family tree that our son-in-law, a hardened Finn, had been given a traditional Malayali name, Manninen being transformed to Mammen!

These mistakes are not to be taken seriously, as this compilation by Mr. P. T. Elias is truly historic. Our thanks go out to him for his dedicated and wonderful work.

It will now give me a chance to complete a lot of my online web pages about the Thayyil Kandathil family tree which was something I put up for the first time in 1994 as a tribute to my grandfather, K. C. Mammen Mappillai, the doyen of Kerala.

So stay tuned for some exciting news on this blog as this basic ground work is transformed into a glorious online work of Kerala Culture.

Half done

I had been wanting to update the K. C. Mammen Mappillai



and the Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan



Web Pages for a long time.

Today, I managed to update the K. C. Mammen Mappillai page and added some new pictures of the family.

Like in the case of the Maliyakal web pages, I shall try to breakdown each family and put up relevant details with appropriate pictures.

I have not yet put up pictures on the Maliyakal pages, except on Dewan Bahadur's web page, but I will do that when I get some time.

Please submit any data and pictures you want to go up on your family tree unique page.

These are not a genealogy pages or sites but tributes to great men who taught me my fundamental values.