Returning to the present

My last few blog entries wandered into the past, so I thought I would bring you back into the present day and reality.

I received a very nice email from a friend of the Finnish Red Cross in Helsinki and a close friend of the parents of the Indian girl who needs a bone marrow transplant. She is a reader of this blog and knew that I was in touch with a wide spectrum Indian community.

She drew my attention to an adopted "Indian" girl in Finland who needs a bone marrow transplant.

Bone marrow transplant matches require someone from the family or from the same ethnic background, if a match is to be found. What the young lady wanted me to do was to try and find someone to save this little 7 year old girl's life.

Of course, without looking into the matter further, I promptly volunteered.

When I read the details, however, I found that transplant donors are ideally between the age of 20 and 40, and as a last resort they may accept donors up to the age of 55.

With me being a dozen years more than the absolute limit, my possibility of doning was ruled out.

I have asked the O-Indian Community in Oulu to find out if they can become donors. So the Oulu Red Cross has agreed to make a working visit to their premises to see if the Indian Community here could be coded, so that if a donor is required, one could be approached.

Such social responsibilities for a community of people living in a different country will only pay in the long run. What if one of the Indians or their children in Finland required a transplant? Where would they turn?

I do hope our Indian Community, not only in Oulu, but also around Finland will play a part in a society where they are living ad working, as in the long run, only they will benefit by such participation.

Oulu, a wonderful city

Many of you have asked me what attracts me to Oulu.

This is difficult to define.

Although I am an Indian, I would no longer consider it possible that I could, in my lifetime, return to live in India.

I have other options.

As three of our four kids are settled in England, maybe I would like to move there.

Having lived in England for 6 years, from 1963 to 1969, been married there in a sleepy town of Shrewsbury, and having had two children born while living there, there are many sentimental attachments to considering England as a possible home.

Given the choice of England and Oulu, with its extremes in climate, a difficult language, the high degree of corruption in all levels of life, our existence in Oulu has been a wonderful experience, and one which I am unlikely to trade in my lifetime.

Maybe I will visit India more frequently. Or maybe I will take more time to spend with our grandchildren in England.

But when one puts all the pros and cons in a balance, Oulu is still my Number One living choice!

How many of you readers think me crazy to accept living in this ultra deep freeze? As I drove to work today it was just -3 C. As I drove back this evening it was -13 C!

But the cold is not the reason for running to another place. It is the quality of life that counts. And the quality of daily life in Oulu for us will remain unmatched by any other location.