I really had to laugh....

... when I received this email earlier today!

From: Rev Fr Luke Allan
To: lukeallan1
Date: 05-Oct-2006 23:04
Subject: Bequest of Dennis Thatcher

SS Peter & Paul Catholic Parish
7 Tetlow Lane,
Wimbome DORSET BH21 ILF
London, UK

Dearest In The Lord,

On behalf of the trustees and executor of the estate of Late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, I wish to notify you that late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling (£950,000.00) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true.

Being a widely travelled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous friends abroad that wished you good. Sir. Dennis Thatcher passed away peacefully in the Lister Hospital London, after a short illness at the age of 88 years. He was businessman and husband to Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister. He was Born May 10th 1915; died June 26th 2003, and his WILL is now ready for execution.

Sir. Dennis Thatcher, until his death was a very dedicated Christian who loved to give out. His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his lifetime. In a tribute to him at a News Conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair said:

..."Sir Dennis was a kind and generous-hearted man, a real gentleman
who had many friends here and abroad".

According to him, this money is to support your activities and to help the poor and the needy in your country. Please If I reach you as I am hopeful, endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible.

Yours In His Service,

Rev. Fr. Luke Allan

Some clues contained in this email:

1. Obviously the Rev. who wrote this did not know that Dorset is not in London!
2. He did not know how to spell the place "Winborne" as he spells it as "Winbome".
3. He did not do his homework very well as he spells "Denis" as "Dennis"!
4. It is also interesting that like with the term "Mr.", he uses a the term as "Sir.".
5. The Rev.'s English is rather poor as he states "He was businessman and husband to Margaret Thatcher,...", forgetting the article before "businessman".
6. The Rev. writes "Please If I reach you as I am...", forgetting an important comma and also that the capital "I" in "If" is not the standard English of an Englishman.
7. This Rev, obviously came from the US to his UK position, as he uses American spellings as "endeavor" instead of "endeavour".

This dear Rev. unfortunately did not check to find out about my past before giving me this gift!

I was the one who exposed the Nigerian scam on the Internet almost 10 years ago when I published the article Missile of Black Gold. This article has earned me much respect on the Internet as it saved many people from being scammed! I still remember the profuse thanks I got from a Professor in Houston, Texas, and a mother and son in Canada!

Many such scams were exposed by me over 6 to 10 years ago in our former Internet start page Your Guide To The Findians Web Complex.

My special thanks to this Rev. Fr. Luke Allan for once again making me feel like a millionaire! :-)

Just out of interest, you may like to read some of our older articles that you will find on that page:

1. Western Recycling Doomed
2. Migraine Cure
3 Face to Face - The Tiger Sanctuary
4. Horror of Transiting through Moscow Airport

Those were the good old days when Annikki and I were writing our socially provocative articles!



Yes, THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

Transformation

(Cross-posted on the Oulu Chaff Blog.)

It is not everyday that Father Christmas gets transformed. Last Sunday was different, as Omena (which is the Finnish word for "apple") decided that Pappa (grandfather) needed to be transformed.

This:



was transformed to this:



If anyone wants a good hair stylist (during the weekend only) - call and reserve time from the Pailin Thai Restaurant (08 - 311 6919) who know how to contact this competent person.



This is Omena demonstrating another one of her many talents - graceful Thai dancing.

You never can tell where....

...the next phone call is from!

(Cross-posted on my Oulu Chaff Blog.)

I was speaking on Skype with my dear friend, Ajay, in Beijing, when my land line rang. I excused myself and answered the phone.

There was someone on the line who said his name was "uncle" and he was calling from Bangalore. His voice was that of a young man.

As many youngsters in India call older people "uncle", I thought he was referring to me as "uncle", so I kept asking him what his name was.

Seeing that we were going nowhere, I asked him to ring back in half an hour as I wanted to continue my conversation with Ajay!

When I finished, I went about my other business, forgetting completely about this call from Bangalore.

A little over half anhour later the Bangalore caller was again on the line. I finally understood that his name was "Ankur".

He had quite a story to tell, but being excited that he was speaking to me he got it all topsy turvy. I managed to discern most of it, but I think that he email he then sent me a little later explains the situation better.

From: ankur debnath
To: jmatthan.....
Date: 02-Oct-2006 14:06
Subject: hi sir. Could not contact Mr. Ishtiaq and Jawad Rahman!!

Hi Sir ,

My regards to you and Annikki mam.

I hope you remember me. I am Ankur Debnath. I spoke to you on Friday (the one with the Foreigner's Act problem). I spoke to Annikki mam too on Saturday. She must have told you about it. Sir,

I could not find Mr. Ishtiaq and Jawad Rahman's (are their spellings correct) Phone number or Address from the telephone directory or any helplines available. I am now thinking of going to Karnataka Bar Council to look for their address of correspondence.

I am really worried as I want to get in touch with them as soon as possible. Could you please give a rough idea of the place they had their office in that Cantonment market area, any Landmarks nearby or their residential address, or the address of any person who know them. Any rough idea of any such person's locality will do. Do you remember their Firm's name ?

In the meanwhile I shall once again give you an account of what has been happening so far ...

To begin with, I am a BANGLADESH NATIONAL, aged 21 yrs (DOB 20/11/1985). I have been studying in India for the past 11 yrs (starting March,1996). Presently I am studying in the 7th semester of Electronics and Communication discipline at B.M.S. College of Engineering sponsored by Educational Consultants India Ltd. I have been studying with proper VISAS from the Indian govt. (high commission) all over these years .

My problem is :

I have a case against me under the rule 7(2) of Foreigners Order,1948 r/w section 14 of Foreigners' Act, 1946, filed by the state of Karnataka for not registering in the Foreigners' Registration office within the period of 14 days of arrival of India, which I failed as my father FAILED TO SEND ME THE COLLEGE FEES in time DUE TO FINANCIAL CONSTRAINT as a result of which the college was witholding my bonafide certificate, which is required for the the registration.

I informed the previous ACP (foreigners' registration branch, Bangalore) of that time of the problem. He told me to come with the bonafide certificate and the fine of US $ 30. But when I went to register again, the ACP had changed and the new ACP ordered my prosecution.

I have a letter from my father claiming full responsibility for the delay in sending the fees. My father is a businessman in Bangladesh, regularly importing food grains, agricultural crop seeds etc., from India for the past 16 years. My younger brother too is studying in India.

I was arrested on the 21st of January, 2006 when I went to register myself in the FRO and was released on bail on the next day. I have regularised the offence now, but the case is still on .... The next date of hearing is 5th October. My present lawyer (She is my 2nd advocate, the 1st one was provided by the Police themselves. He did not know anything. He wanted me to plead guilty. It is because him that the matter went so far. The ACP would not have taken the case to the court if I went to him after getting the bail. But he did not make any such moves.) is cheating me. Her demands keep on rising every other day.

Thus I am completely helpless in this situation, as I have no relative or a guardian who can help me in this issue. My future is in such a danger. Till now the trial has not started. The next hearing is as close as 5th October, 2006.

Please help me in this. I shall be ever grateful.


Thanks , Ankur Debnath .

The reason he contacted me was that he had Google searched for cases under the Foreigners Registration Act problems and he landed up at the page Annikki, the creative gardner... and then the link to the book by Annikki "...for the hour of his judgement is come:...".

From somewhere, probably my Profile, he located my phone number and then called me.

I answered him thus:

From: Jacob Matthan
To: ankur debnath
Date: 02-Oct-2006 19:36
Subject: Re: hi sir. Could not contact Mr. Ishtiaq and Jawad Rahman!!


Hello,

I have lived outside India for over 22 years so I do not know the current situation there in Bangalore.

Jawad Rahim is a High Court Lawyer while his partner Ishtiaq was the one who handled matters in the lower court. Their office is near Russell Market. The best way I can describe it is that you walk to the end of Commercial Street. At the end, turn right and then turn first left. You should see a building on the right hand side of the road in which was the office of Jawad and Ishtiaq on the 1st Floor. However, all that area may have changed considerably, so these instructions may be quite useless today. (If you continue walking on that street, Russell Market is on the right hand side.)

If you cannot find them, immediately contact a lawyer by the name of Aditya Sondhi and tell him I (Jacob Matthan from Oulu, Finland) referred you to him. Tell him the situation and see whether he can organise someone to help you. I do not know his field of specialisation but is a highly respected lawyer in Bangalore.

--
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

Earlier this evening I had a call from him, yet again. This time his troubled voice seemed much brighter.

He had followed my instructions but did not find the office of the lawyers. So he went to a nearby shop and asked a person whom he thought was the shopkeeper for directions to the office of Jawad and Ishtiaq. The person asked him to explain why. So he unfolded his story, piece by piece, the person egging him on.

Finally in desperation, he asked the person for the directions to meet Mr. Ishtiaq, whereupon the person replied that HE was Ishtiaq and he was there as he was a close friend of the shopkeeper.

All excited, Ankur explained to Ishtiaq about the book and showed him the printed Preface which specifically thanks the lawyers.

Ishtiaq has extended his hand of friendship to this young man as he remembered Annikki's case well. He has promised to take some steps to try and sort out the situation.

I was not very confident that when I gave this young man directions to the office of the lawyers, whether the location had changed. I did a search on the Google satellite site and looked down at the location. Although not very clear at the very large magnification, it did look as if the small building which housed the office of the lawyers still seemed intact, although neighbouring buildings seemed to have become new monstrous constructions.

It was, therefore, with a tongue-in-cheek feeling that I had directed this young man to our former lawyers.

Hopefully, the problem will be resolved and Ankur has promised to update me as soon as things sort themselves out. Meanwhile, Annikki and I discussed this and felt that the purpose of putting the book on the inbternet over 12 years ago had served its purpose, at least for one young man!

So CHAFF is keeping to its character:

Chamber of Assistance of Finns and Foreigners!

An outrageous Saturday Puzzle

Lateral thinking allows your mind to really run wild.

In today's Saturday Puzzle I give you a final scenario and I would like you to think of a possible explanation of what could have happened for this situation to have occurred.

Let your mind wander and let thoughts flow. However improbable it may seem let it out.

It does not matter how wild the solution seems - but I want you to try!!

I will have a small prize for the most plausible "original" explanation that I get.

The SATURDAY PUZZLE

"Three men die.
On the pavement are pieces of ice and broken glass."

Let us see who comes up with the wildest suggestion!

Last week was as hectic as ever.



Autumn is really here - so we have a lot of yellow leaves strewn around the garden. Hard work ahead for someone. (Note: I have a bad back at convenient times!)



We had Annikki's mother going in for her interval care. She was in a good mood. We will be glad when she comes back in a short while. She usually snaps at the taxi driver of the InvaTaxi as he takes her down the front stairs in her wheelchair, but this time she was real nice to him.



I may have retired but I still went to the Vocational Guidance Exhibition held in the Oulu Sports Dome. The place was packed with kids looking at their possible future.

I tried to guide some of my young foreign friends to visit the exhibition. Sadly, none of them or their parents understood the importance of vocational guidance. One young boy from an ethnic minority home who attended with his school group was totally clueless as to why he had been taken there.

This shows a lack of appreciation by both immigrant or ethnic minority parents into guidance of their children to suitable careers, as well as a lack of initiative by the staff of the schools to guide these students, who actually need the most help, to take advantage of such occasions.



The most popular spot was the Air Force stall where they had a flight simulator where the kids could sit in the seat a guide their plane over large tracts of territory.



Another popular one was the stand of Noptel, a company formed over 15 years ago which produces a product that enables one to practice shooting at a target using a laser attachment to a gun and no real bullets.

Does anyone else see something in this "popularity" which I do?

I am grateful to a person who bothered to find out and run after me with the right answer to a question that I had posed.

No one asked me why I wasting my time at an exhibition for young people and why I was asking these questions!

Annikki and I were looking for new flea markets. We found a relocated Red Cross Flea market, known as Kontti. But it has become a high priced antique store rather than a flea market. They have copied the Salvation Army model. Although one must congratulate the Red Cross on opening such a shop, it can hardly be called a flea market as the prices are not the ones us fleas will pay.



We went on a road where in the first time in over 20 years I saw a goods train actually using the train track and the level crossing gate actually worked with the red lights flashing.

Last week, Annikki was busy changing the curtains in the house.


1984, Annikki in the blue saree at an English Club
of Oulu event where I gave a talk about India.

She left a piece of silk, which had once been her saree, lying on the bed.



Our cat, Iitu, thought it made a nice comfortable spot to have a nap and feel the smooth silk on her woolly coat.

Get out while you can...

(Cross-posted on my Jacob's Poltics Blog and my Move The UN Blog.)

Yesterday was a dark day in the US, not only for any foreigner living in that country but also for every free-thinking American who loves his freedom and the US Constitution.

The US Constitution was shredded by the US Senate and the compliant Democrats in that house rolled over and let it happen.

Am I personally upset about what happened - well, NO.

Then why should I waste my valuable time and my valuable space writing about it.

The reason is that I have many many relatives and friends in the US who are now no more free to say or do what they want.



The Bill which passed the Senate today with a vote of 34 against and 65 for, which included 12 Democrat Senators (Joe Liebermann / Bill Nelsons type Democrats) voting for the Bill allows the US Adminstration to torture if "King George" wants to. Also, the right to "habeas corpus" (habeas corpus is the name of a legal instrument or writ by means of which detainees can seek release from unlawful imprisonment), something that has stood the test of time for 800 years, was yesterday thrown to the winds, NOT JUST for aliens in the US but for every American as well.

The Bill provides for the fascist state to hold a person in communicado till his status as an enemy combatant is determined, the fact that one is an US citizen could take 2, no, maybe 5, no, maybe 10 years, to be determined!

What was surprising that the Senate Democrats could not even mount a filibuster against what was probably the worst legislation to ever pass the House and Senate!

As was written by Taylor Marsh on today's Huffungton Post Vote Pro-Torture Republicans in '06! about one of the amendments in this Bill:

The legislation before the Senate today would ban torture, but let Bush define it; would allow the president to imprison indefinitely anyone he decides falls under a wide-ranging new definition of unlawful combatant; would suspend the Great Writ of habeas corpus; would immunize retroactively those who may have engaged in torture. And that's just for starters.

It's a red-letter day for the country. It's also a telling day for our political system.

So if you are in the US and you are an alien or married to an alien be sure you know that when you answer that knock on the door and you are carted away to oblivion - there is none in the world (not even Amnesty International) that can do anything for you!!
'
If I were you I would ask your company to be returned NOW back to your country of origin. Do your work safely out of there.

If the US wants your services, then let it be in a situation where you live within the rule of law, not the rule of an idiotic fascist dictator who believes that God talks to him as he wields his Imperial Power.

This is from an article `Road map is a life saver for us,' PM Abbas tells Hamas by Arnon Regular on Haaertz.com

.....Abbas said that at Aqaba, Bush promised to speak with Sharon about the siege on Arafat. He said nobody can speak to or pressure Sharon except the Americans.

According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

Such a man belongs in a mental institution!

The US has now become one. So stay out of it is my advice to you.

So till you get to safety, may my God look after you!

If you care to ignore this warning - then do not complain at a later day, and remember these words during your very likely unending incarceration.

Topless....

Sorry again for not updating the blog, but I have been really really busy.

I got a photo from Kannan wheich he took on his recent visit to Oulu. And I discovered I was TOPLESS!!!



Here are Isaac, Bill, Tingting and George at Kampitie and with me with my back to the camera.



And here is the crucial part of the circled part of the earlier photograph.

To be brutally honest, I did not know that I was short of a tuft. I thought my mop was the same as when I was 18, except that it had changed colour!!

Kannan brought home the truth.

Thanks Kannan. Should I get a wig? :-)

More of Kannan's photographs later on my blogs. Stay tuned.

What does it feel like....

...when you get a phone call, and on the line is your very very best friend with whom you have not spoken or heard of for the last 24 years?

(Cross-posted on my Kooler Talk Blog.)

Today, just before 10 am Finnish time, I got a call, from China. Even before the person identified himself, I knew it was Ajay!

Ajay Verma was in St. Stephen's College the same time I was. He was doing Mathematics Honours and I was doing General Science.

We were virtually inseperable. We spent hours together, drinking coffee, smoking, talking, joking, playing tricks on others, playing table tennis together, playing basketball (in which Ajay was superb).

When I went for my holidays to Bombay, I waited to get back to Delhi and college to meet my very dear friends - Ajay and Niranjan (who was a couple of years senior to us and was doing English Honours).

Niranjan was an East African from Tanazia but of Indian origin.

The three of us got the group nickname Heap - Little Heap, Middle Heap and Big Heap, the last being me.

After college I went to London to study.



Ajay joined the Indian Army and Niranjan joined the Indian Foreign Service.

(Niranjan became an Indian Citizen and served as Indian Ambassador in many places including te Vatican and Switzerland. He appears to be is still doing what we three specialised in doing - exposing scandals (May 2006): "How Rajiv’s India was banned".

When I returned, after my studies, to India, I met up with Ajay who related why he finally left the Indian Army.

At the time of one of the stupid Indian - Pakistani wars, he was serving on the frontline. One evening, when he was in a bunker, he decided to go out to smoke a cigarette. No sooner had he taken a couple of puffs, a shell landed on the bunker. He was the sole survivor.

That experience made him leave the army. He got a job in the Bata Shoe Company and he served in Mathura and Calcutta, but he got fed up of shoes (who wouldn't) and decided he would try his luck abroad.

He landed in Copenhagen without a dime in his pocket. But being the survivor that he is, he soon established himself and worked in the hotel industry, working long hours, earning the language and becoming a master of this trade.

Ajay and Else with Sita and Robin.
Youngest girl, Maya was not born then.

Then he met a beautiful Danish girl, Else, and they got married. They moved to a small town in Sweden, Lund, near to Malmo, which is just across the narrow straits that separates Denmark from Sweden.

Ajay set up a small import company and started to market Indian garments and handicrafts. It was tough going. That is when I visited him and met Else and two of their children, Sita and Robin.


Little Sita, was at one time a replica
of our younger daughter, Joanna.

When I was setting up a business in India, Ajay and some of his friends invested a small amount in the company.

But then we lost contact after his visit to see me in 1982.

When I moved with Annikki to Oulu in 1984 I tried on several occasions to try to contact Ajay, but to no avail. On one journey to England by bus from Oulu, I tried to get in touch with him when we passed through Malmo.

But there was no sign of Ajay and his SITA boutique in Malmo.

Annikki and I often thought of my good friend. I used to search the internet regularly, using Google, to see if I could spot him anywhere.

Then a few weeks ago he surfaced on my Kooler Talk Blog with a message. As messages posted on my blog are usually labelled Anonymous, there was no link to get back to him.

So I posted a pleading entry, asking him to contact me.

Ajay tried, using the email address in my profile - which unfortunately I had not changed. It was still showing my dead domain name and the old email address.

So, all his correspondence bounced.

Today, he found his old diary where the Finnish telephone number of my in-laws of the 70s was listed.

Ajay thought of trying it.

I had just come home as I had a busy schedule planned for the day.

I knew it was Ajay after I heard him say a couple of words, a much matured with Ajay, but with the same inflexions and the same humour that endeared him to me over 45 years ago.

We talked till he had to get back to work - and during the time we exchanged emails and got our contacts all correct.

Then he rang again and we talked and talked till Annikki also appeared and she too was thrilled to get news of Ajay.

Annikki knows that there is no one more in my mind than Ajay. The happiness of our telephonic reunion was infectious to her.



Ajay is the Manager of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Beijing, China. It is his second stint at the hotel as he was there when it was started in 1992. He has served in various locations of Radisson including Istanbul.

Now, in December, he will retire and return to Lund where he has bought a small piece of land where he may do some farming.

He gave me news of his mother who lives in the Pondicherry Ashram with his sister. She is now 90 years old. Ajay also updated me about their children and one grandchild! (Ajay, your kids have some catching up to do! We have three.)

Today has been one of the happiest days of my life to be reunited with someone I thought was lost forever. Such joy is unsurpassable.

I want all of you to know that it is such an emotional issue that I am glad that I started these web pages and blogs over 10 years ago - just to feel this emotion that I felt today.

It is all of you that have helped me keep these web pages alive through all these years - and now I feel I can redouble my efforts so that others can find their loved ones and share in that depth of feeling that I experienced today.

We will be having our personal reunion before Christmas 2006 - of that I am sure!

Pictures of Nang and the baby

Those of you who have been asking for pictures of Nang's baby, thanks to Unnop, here they are:

Monlaphat (Ulla) Torvela


Mother Kannaphat(Nang) Mahasing with Monlaphat (Ulla) Torvela


Father Sami Torvela with daughter Ulla

Parents and baby stopped by at the Pailin Restaurant on their way home from the hospital!

Apple Mac Problems

(Cross-posted on my Jacob's Politics blog.)

Posted as a comment today in the Steve Clemons Washington Note Blog entry: "The Midwest, Iran and a Great Piece on John Bolton":

Thank God, Steve, you are in a better position than me. I have 5 Macs running 24/7 online and with no virus protection software for many many years. I had a small "sound out" problem on one of my Macs last week. As I was busy I thought I would try to find a repair shop. I went to every computer repair shop in our "high tech" town and not one had a Mac technician. I finally landed up at the shop I had bought my last Mac from. The owner said, pointing around the repair shop to many tens of PCs in for repair, that he had not received a single Mac for repair for 2 years! So his Mac repair technician pushed off to another bigger town. I repaired the "sound out" problem in less than 10 minutes using online data and help! (The minimum cost of looking at a PC here is Euro 103. So you can guess who wants you to buy a PC!)

Week in review

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

This is getting to be a habit as I just do not seem to get any time during the week to update my blogs. So here again I try to review past events. You will have to wait another week to get to see the saturday Puzzle!

Nang is the lady on the right holding the child.

First, I give news of our latest addition to our Oulu community. Nang and Sami had a baby girl on Saturday evening. The possible name will be Hilla, as that was yesterday's name for the day and also because Nang and Sami want a real old fashioned name. However, the baby will have 3 names, including possibly Sami's mother's name.

The baby is 50 cm long and weghed 3.8 kg when born. Labour was long but at the end of it, when I spoke to Nang, she was happy to hold the baby. Sami gave me the details when he arrived at the Pailin Restaurant to pick up some Thai food for Nang!

Congrats to both of you from all our CHAFF community.



Last week Soda had a football match which was played in almost impossible conditions. Heavy mist made visibility almost zero. Soda was tried in a new place and he played extremely well. The Oulu Blacks won quite easily 3-1.

Yesterday was the last game for the football team that Soda plays for. They had lost a game at Tornio, but the coach of the Oulu Blacks discovered hat the Tornio team had used overage players and not paid the required fees to the organisers. So the result was overturned and the game was awarded to the Oulu Blacks 3-0.

So they went to their last game waith a 8 straight wins. And the minute the game ended, Soda sent me a text message and then called to say that they had won 3-0 and that he had scored a goal - with the left foot.

That was stupendous news, as Soda has played in many different positions, most of them hampering his style of play. He needs place to move and it was in the last week's game that he was played in a position, outside left, which game him a chance to show his real skill. He had several shots at the goal and was unlucky not to score, so yesterday's goal was one long overdue.

Great work Soda.

On Wednesday evening I was called to the Walda Youth Centre as Ilmi had got a new music mixer for the Centre and he had asked the Thai Boys, Kim. Soda and Yut, to give a performance of their style of Thai music. The music was superb and the small Walda audience was stomping. As the window was open, I saw several passers-by stopping to listen to this unusal rhythm and sound.

(Photos from my evening at Walda are not yet ready. This one is from a report I still hacve to publish!)



The only problem is that the boys have not learnt stage body language. Soda is a natural performer, but the other two were not making the important eye contact with the audience. They were expressionless. That is not what a hit group does. But the group is so young that there is tremendous potential to develop a great group out of them.



Saturday was also Rugby day. I missed last week where they turned the tables on the Helsinki side who had whipped them just a couple of weeks before. This time Oulu won and won comfortably.

But this week the story was different as injuries cramped the Oulu side again and they were not up to the mark against the side from Tampere. There were occasional flashes of brilliance as a long run try by the Oulu Captain.

I got a shock this last week when I went to the Wholesale shop and saw this kilo price for mangoes.



Euro 2630 for a kilo of tinned mangoes - but closer inspection found it was an error!

Ildi and Ilari are back and I am glad to say that Ildi has connected with Gina. Already as she was driving in from Jyväskylä, Ildi was on the line to me to get Gina's phone number. I am sure the two of them will do some great work in Monika.

Let us hope you do not have to wait till next week to get an update of this blog!

Finally it is done...

Many hundreds of you have been asking me to email you whenever I make a new entry on my blogs.

Now I have taken steps to ensure that every time I update my blogs, you will get an email.

However, you have to do something IF you want this to happen.

You will find on each blog page a small box just below the link to view my profile.

You have to enter your email address (where you want to be informed) into that box and send it so that Change Monitor can do the necessary entries.

Only enter this information for the pages that you really want to monitor.

I do not want your email Inbox filled with these update messages!

Sisko means "sister"

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

I had the good fortune to visit the home of Sisko and Pentti Paakki to convey birthday greetings to Sisko, who was 65 today.



The meaning of the word "Sisko" is "sister". And Sisko is a real sister to everyone, including her 13 children and the 25+ grandchildren.

Both of them have been active supporters of CHAFF, but Sisko has been unable to attend regularly as she works at the Haukipudas Health Centre and is either on night duty or on duty before or during many CHAFF meetings.



Their son Tuomas and his wife Mirja with their new four month old baby, Oko and their two other children were there to help celebrate this occasion. They live in Vantaa. I had had the pleasure of meeting them just over a year ago at the wedding of Sisko and Pentti's daughter Hanna who was married to Jouni.

I did have a problem recognising Mirja as she had changed her hair style. Why do women have to be so difficult? :-)

Happy birthday Sisko and we wish you many many more.

Orbituary today...

As I opened the local newspaper today I noted the Orbituary Notice of one Jaakko Pöyry.



Many of you around the world would never have heard of this person. However, if you have been in the Forestry, Pulp and Paper industries, without doubt you would certainly have heard his name.

Why do I bring him up on my blog?

Many of you in India do not know of his catastrophic venture into the Indian Forestry, Pulp and Paper industry and the small part I played in saving the reputation of this International Giant.

I felt that now he has passed on, it is time to tell this story dating back to 1979.



Those were really the days when Annikki and me were young and highly motivated! (Nothing wrong with our motivation these days, but the focus is a little different!)

But first a little history about this outstanding individual - Jaakko Pöyry...

As the major part of my professional life was spent building a Consultancy Company, I probably appreciate the endeavours of Jaakko Pöyry more than others.

He was born in 1924 in the small village of Sodankylä in the very north of Finland to a pastor named Edvard Pöyry and his wife Fanny (née Salminen). He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University and graduated in 1948. He started his career as a Design Engineer in the company Wärtsilä Oy. In 1958 he founded a consulting company with Jaakko Murto which was named Murto and Pöyry Oy. The name was changed in 1961 to Engineering Office Jaakko Pöyry and Co.
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His consulting firm became the lead firm in the Jaakko Pöyry Group and was called as the Jaakko Pöyry Consulting Co. Ltd. He received many awards and titles and he was given an Honorary Professorship in 1985. The firm presently has a turnover in excess of Euro 600 million and the expert staff on the rolls probably are in the region of 6000.

He was married twice, first in 1947 to Gunnel Helander and then in 1983 to Helena Niku. He had a total of four children and he enjoyed playing golf and tennis.

However, his life's work around the globe was as a Consultant to the Forestry, Pulp and Paper Indiústries.

Now to the link to India and Annikki and me.

Mysore Paper Mills was started in 1936, under the guidance of my late grandfather Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan who was the First Member of the Privy Council (or now known as Prime Minister) in the State of Mysore ruled by one of the best Maharajas India has known, as a small paper factory producing writing paper.

In 1975-76, the then Director of Industries of the State of Karnataka, born out of the State of Mysore, Zaffar Saifullah had a grandoise scheme of establishing a factory to produce newsprint, which was in short supply in India.

In 1978, Jaakko Pöyry signed a contract to be the prime consultant to conduct the huge Mysore Paper Mills expansion at Bhadravathi. Several reports were prepared and the concept was based on the forestry of the area, mainly the high quality bamboo which was prevelant in the area, and the possibility of growing eucalyptus as an additional resource. The idea was to buy pulp from Australia till the forestry resources were established.

Bhadravathi is a town in the Shimoga District of Karnataka State, India. It is situated at a distance of about 255 kilometres from the state capital, Bangalore, and at about 20 kilometres from the district headquarters, Shimoga. It is also the headquarters of the Bhadravathi Taluk.

At the edge of Baba Bhudan Hills stands the town of Bhadravathi. Its population is estimated to be about 150000. The hills of Bhadravathi are an important source of iron-ore. In 1923, the Mysore Iron and Steel company set up a plant here. As a side process it had the wood distillation plants which is one of Asia's biggest. It presently produces nearly 136000 litres of distillate every day, the source of formaldehyde, methyl alcohol and calcium acetate. The plant with time has expanded its production, which includes iron castings and pipes, steel ingots, ferro manganese and tar products.

This area is also one of the major coffee growing region, here coffee was first grown in 1670 A.D. Our family coffee estates are situated in this region.

Through the Finnish Embassy, the engineers of Jaakko Pöyry Consulting Company assigned to india found that Annikki, a Finn, was living in Bangalore. When the team arrived there, about 10 engineers and their wives, some with their small children, they rang Annikki from the hotel where they were staying.

Immediately a bond was established between a few of those who were there. All of them turned to Annikki for guidance on how to live comfortably in India. They were located in Bhadravathi and used to travel for their major shopping to Bangalore once every few weeks. Annikki and I drove once to Bhadravathi to see that they were well settled in. Annikki also helped them get the best medical advice and services from my cousin and his colleagues who ran their own hospital.

One of the families, Yrjö and Maria Tuominen, had their young 12 year old son with them. There was no school for him in Bhadravathi. Annikki offered for young Kari to stay with us and to go to school with our son, Jaakko, at the Bishop Cotton's Boys School. The offer was accepted and young Kari became a member of our family in every way. We got him the school uniform and we soon had a young Finnish boy along with Jaakko at the school.

At that time we were between residences and lived in a tiny little outhouse near the centre of Bangalore. Despite the cramped conditions, Kari settled in and soon became a little Indian boy in almost all respects.

Antti Sorsa and his wife on one side and Irene (?) Friman
(a Greek of the famed Halwa family) on the other.



Every time the engineers and their wives came to Bangalore, Annikki and I used to host them at the Bangalore Club for an evening of merriment. Food and drink flowed and they enjoyed their respite from the harshness of Bhadravathi.

I introduced the engineers to Tata Consulting Engineers in Bangalore where my father was the Advisor, after his retirement as head of that company in Bombay. The Jaakko Pöyry group were surprised to see the enormity of the Bangalore operations of this consulting company, which was just a shawdow of the operations in Bombay!

On one trip, Maria expressed to Annikki that everything seemed to be going wrong in Bhadravathi. She wanted me to talk to her husband and some senior members of the team about this. Some of them were very hesitant as they were scared to talk about some issues.

The Project Leader was a man named Alf Wichmann, Vice President, Indian Operations. He was willing to talk to me.

The story I heard shocked me. The entire project was based on there being adequate forest raw material resources, especially bamboo and eucalyptus for pulping.

Alf had chanced upon a report in the Paper Mills Guest House which implied that the Jaakko Pöyry Consulting Company had stated that there were adequate resources, whereas, in fact, they had said the opposite.

When confronted by Alf about a report which had stated the opposite, the people in charge of the project denied ever having receiving that report. They hid behind a clause that all documents had to be sent by registered post, and they claimed that this one had not.

Alf was shocked, as in Finland a letter sent is taken as one delivered.

The Pöyry team in India knew that they were building a huge white elephant and several senior government officers were making a whole lot of money on the side out of this project.

I studied the report and was convinced that the Jaakko Pöyry Group had been compromised in this operation.

Knowing my strong political and bureaucratic connections both in Bangalore and at the Centre in Delhi, Alf contacted Jaakko Pöyry directly, who asked him to determine from me what they should do.

Not being an expert in this field, I was not very keen to get involved. But Alf pushed me and asked me to meet his immediate boss from Finland, one Mr. Palmrooth.

When Mr. Palmrooth arrived in Bangalore, I had a long and detailed meeting with him. I suggested that the best strategy was to put the cards, confidentially, in front of the largest public financier of this project, which was the Life Insurance Coirporation of India (LIC). At that juncture my father's youngest brother, bearing the same name as me, was the Chairman of the Corporation.

I agreed to organise the confidential meeting.

One person within Pöyry, Finland, seemed to be opposed to this action. I learnt his name was one Heikinheimo. I never met the individual and never heard his reasons for opposing the move I had suggested.

However, Alf seemed to have a direct link to Jaakko Pöyry himself and went with me to explain the situation to my uncle who listened patiently to the status report presented by Alf.

At that time Alf appeared to become partially paranoiac as he sensed that some of the Indians were going to do him some personal harm. So, he and his wife decided to quit the operation and return to their office in London. I advised him to seek immediate legal opinion in London (as the location in the arbitration clause was London) as the situation could turn rather nasty in case Pöyry walked out of the project.

Once Jaakko Pöyry was properly briefed on the subject and when he knew that his firm had been very badly compromised, he decided to pull out of the project recalling all his engineers.

At that time I did offer my advice to my uncle that maybe the project could be saved by shifting the emphasis from bamboo and eucalyptus as the major resource to using bagasse, a by-product of the sugar industry, and which was in plenty around that area.

Jaakko Pöyry at that time did not have any solid expereince in the use of bagasse as a raw material for fine paper production and chose to quit, making all the correct legal moves.

What went on subsequently I do not know but the project was changed from being based on bamboo and eucalyptus to bagasse and other consultants were brought in to complete the project.

When packing up to go back Annikki and I helped the Pöyry team members to buy several interesting and valuable things to take back to Finland, getting them solid discounts on the prices rather than the inflated prices that foreigners are normally charged.

We were very sad to see young Kari go as he had become our fifth child and was as much Indian as all our other children. At school, despite his then lack of knowledge of fluent English, he soon mastered the language and was progressing at an unbelieveable rate. I predicted then that young Kari would be one of the very top in any profession he chose to go into!

We did meet the Tuominen's when we came to Finland for a holiday in 1979. Since then, as Yrjö was posted around the world, we only had sporadic contact with them. Now Yrjö has retired and lives with Maria in Helsinki. The others of the Indian team have faded from our memory, but not young Kari, whom I always will regard as a member of our family. I believe Kari did meet Mika in the Helsinki railway Station about 18 years ago - and recognised him (a good 8 years after their last meeting).

Kari has lived all around the world (India, Australia, South Africa, etc.) and after completing his studies joined Jaakko Pöyry. Today, he is one of the senior mechanical engineers in that company, probably following in his father's footsteps.

Jaakko Pöyry sent me a personal letter of thanks for helping out his team in India. As a result, I met Jaakko Pöyry in May 1979 when I came to Finland for a visit to organise the supplies of equipment for a project, but the meeting was brief. Besides expressing his gratitude, there was not much else that transpired. He gave me permission to use the contents of his thank you letter when I promoted my services to Finnish companies. But, later, when I did, someone in his organisation objected and I promptly withdrew that promotional material.

I never met up with him again and as my life in Finland since 1984 was in a completely different sphere, I never had the opportunity to establish contact with him or his company.

Another hectic week...

The last week has again been hectic.





On Saturday evening we went to climb to the top of the water tower at Puolivälikangas in North Oulu. Fellow Thai food lover, Miika Peltonen, had alerted me that the City of Oulu was opening this site as part of their move to educate and entertain the population.

I did not remember ever having climbing this 50 metre high tower. But Annikki did. She reminded me that in July 1969 when we were on our way back to India with our two small kids, Susanna and Jaakko, Annikki's uncle had taken us to the top of the tower which had been completed in May of that year.

Once at the top the memories flooded back.

The view had changed substantially as 37 years when it was forest, forest and more forest with a sprinkling of small lakes. The City was just a speck in one direction.





The picture today was quite different. Oulu was the hub of developments on all sides. Although plenty of forestry and lakes were visible, the encroachment was clearly visible.





The cloud formations as the evening progressed were truly exciting. We took snaps with both our cameras, this quite useless digital and our old and trusted Canon film camera. But we have to have the energy to send the film for developing - there are about half a dozen waiting to be developed!!



The University Observatory is now situated atop this tower.



Coming down from over the evergreens was truly a great feeling as we looked down at the tree tops.

We then went to Nallikari Beach and sat on the empty seashore and enjoyed a quiet moment and a nice pleasant evening.



Soda asked me to attend the Parents-Teachers Meeting on Turésday evening to listen to him playing in the music fest. I borrowed a digital video camera and taped the entire practice session and the live performance by the three Thai Boys - Yut, Khim and Soda.

They were really good and had the audience joining in.

Soda is a natural performer on the stage.

Wednesday was Annikki's birthday. At half past midnight Pailin, Soda and Unnop were at Kampitie bearing a lovely birthday gift for her, despite my trying to convince them that we have everything possible!

There were lots of phone calls from family and friends with Susanna, Joanna and Jaakko checking in from England and all the grandchildren wishing their grandmother. Annikki was happy.

We celebrated by getting some spicy Chinese food from the Hai Long restaurant which Tingting has introduced us to.

No cake this year!!









The Kampitie garden is still flooded with beautiful flowers. Every day I take a small walk around it to enjoy the colours and flowers! The autumn leaves are sprinkled on the ground, but the weather remains summer-like with Annikki still sitting in the sun for a few hours everyday covered with sun tan lotion.

Tingting has been having some problems with her driving. I spent a couple of mornings with her in a deserted car park going through some of the things she had not been taught in the driving school. The Emergency Stop, the 3-point turn, reversing in a straight line and reversing into a parking spot with a left or a right swerve are important steps in the process of learning to drive and control a car. The correct use of the handbrake and the understanding of engine sound to car speed should be natural subjects in a driving course. I was surprised to find that none of these had been taught in her course.

Hopefully Tingting will soon get her licence and then it will be legitimate for some of us to take her around on the roads to give her some real practical on-road experience and advice.

(More about the week in the next blog entry.)

Laughter is the best medicine - and I am in splits

As I browsed through the online Finnish national daily Helsinki Sanomat, I came across an article about a British professor David Kirby British professor takes on Finnish national myths: Professor David Kirby says Finnish is an easy language, and women are eager to prepare coffee.

I spat out my tea all over the computer when I doubled up in laughter (which was not prepared by my "emancipated" Finnish wife!).

The newspaper columnist, Annamari Sipilä in London, writes that Professor David Kirby speaks excellent Finnish.

"Professor David Kirby speaks excellent Finnish.

Best not to praise him much, though, and it's certainly not a good idea to wonder how a Brit has managed to master such a difficult language.

"Finnish is fairly easy. The grammar has clear rules. It is much more difficult to learn Swedish", Kirby confides."

I thought back to 1984 when we moved to Finland and our then Indian daughter, who was just 11 years at that time, was speaking excellent Finnish (besides excellent English and also Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam) in just less than six months.

Not a professor, she was!!

Then I thought of all the one and two year old Finns who speak fluent Finnish.

Then I thought of our two grandchildren, Samuel (9) and Daniel (2) who have been fluent in both English and Finnish (including various dialects) since they were just one year old.

Joanna implemented the Immersion Method of language education with her children which has contributed to their fluency in both these languages.

And in 1994, when Annikki and I wrote in our book "Hankbook for Survival in Finland", we wrote a chapter about learning Finnish where we said that Finnish was an easy language to learn to understand - but for different reasons than what the "professor" thinks.

Soda (15) from Thailand came to Finland just over a year ago. When I was at his school yesterday for the Parents - Teachers meeting, he and his friends did a special session of a medley of Thai music - and Soda was confiident enough to make a public speech in Finnish!

Finnish is not a difficult langauge - it is the method of teaching Finnish by some unimaginative teachers in Finnish schools and universities that has promoted the myth that Finnish is a difficult language.

Also the Finns want to believe this myth to given them some "Standing and Talking Points" in their self-promotion!!

What really shook me was David Kirby stating that former Finnish Prime Minister, Kalevi Sorsa, was a reluctant leader.

Maybe Professaor Kirby should look a little more carefully into the "Valko Scandal" and other similar corrupt issues that former Prime Minister Sorsa and his friends were involved in to understand how much he was there to grab power and wealth for himself!

Professor Kirby also states that the present Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, is another releuctant leader.

I think my Finnish wife of 62 (it is her birthday today, - God Bless Her) will strongly disagree as Vanhanen (of the Centre Party) engineered a bloodless coup of his own party leader (with the aid of male chauvinists Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democrat Party and Sauli Niinistö of the Conservative Party) to grab power from a woman whom they could not tolerate to be in that high office.

And for the last three years Vanhanen has been trying to undermine the work of the Finnish woman President, Tarja Halonen, in an effort to grab that power also!

Professor Kirby says he does not see Finnish women as particularly emancipated. He states: "Finnish women rarely take part in discussions as equal partners with men - not even in academia. Women have voluntarily taken on the role of preparing the coffee."

In my experience the only people with whom you can carry out an intelligent conversation in Finland are Finnish women as most Finnish men are the products of "an indoctrinated compulsory army service" which mentally castrates them to think as Finnish nationalists!

I think I lost all respect for Professor Kirby because if the views expressed.

His opinions can be put at the top of Finnish myths!

And yet one more....

(Cross-posted on the CHAFF Blog.)

This morning at 06:30 am as I was about to set out on my daily rounds I felt a strong desire to look at Ville Suomi's blog.



And loaded just probably a few hours earlier was the great news of our newest addition to cosmopolitan Oulu - Mari Suomi, a beautiful baby born at 16:00 hours yesterday to Fumi and Ville Suomi, 4.550 kg in weight and 54 cm long!

Fumi (right) and Anais a few months ago at a CHAFF get-together.

Ville visited India as part of a Rotary Exchange programme and visited the Malayala Manorama (meeting cousins Rajan and Chacko) and also joined cousin Satish Abraham in Kottayam for a get-together at the Boat Club.


Ville is the second from the right.

I took it upon myself to visit the hospital to drop off a small gift, a beautifully carved soap in the shape of a flower by top Finnish-Thai artist Ann, and also drop of a greeting card on behalf of all CHAFF participants.

As I approached the ward, I saw Fumi casually walking around, so I took the opportunity to greet her personally. She allowed me the privilege of seeing their beautiful daughter. (I did not have my camera, so I stole the picture above from Ville's blog!)

I am loading this item on both the Chaff Blog as well as my Jacob's Blog as there are several outside of Chaff who read my blog who know this wonderful couple.

Congratulations and all of us hope to see you both with the baby at one of our CHAFF meetings SOON.