Gopa and Timo visit Oulu

I was very happy to have Gopa and Timo visit Kampitie in Oulu, en route to their home in Keravaa in South Finland. Gopa was so thoughtful she turned up with a lovely cake - but she admitted that she had not baked it herself.

Gopa, is the daughter of Sadhana Madhusadan (née Shah,) a 54er from Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, who is a dear friend of mine. Gopa is my foster daughter.

They had been visiting Timo's mother who lives about 100 km east of Oulu, near the town of Pudasjärvi.

Both of them looked in excellent health.

Gopa and Timo visit Kampitie, 4th December 2005

Timo had just finished attending a refresher course on instrumentation for printing equipment run by Honeywell, the old British computer and instrumentation company which had been bought over by the Finnish paper group, Ahlström Oy. The documentation that he showed me was weighty.

I am happy that I am now retired so that I do not, any longer, have to thumb through such voluminous documentation for my living.

Unfortunately, Annikki had been up till the wee hours of the morning looking after her mother. She, and her mother, slept through the visit. I told Gopa that the next time they should schedule their visit for late afternoon as then, hopefully, all three of us will be up!!

Last week in review

I have been having many problems this week. As I walk around Oulu I have hordes of little children running after me.

They think I am Father Christmas. What do you think?



Their mother's on the other hand think I am the Pied Piper of Oulu. Children dash after me!! They wave at me from across the road. Or is it my imagination....

I think a good chocolate factory should stuff my pockets with delicious goodies, half for me the other half for the children. :-)

And what is the BBC coming to these days. Here is a picture I took off the tele yesterday.



Is the "stiff upper lip" for correctness vanishing from England, or was it rather a deliberate statement and the coining of a new word?

A few rays of sunshine hit Oulu last week lighting the gloomy days.



Sunrise today was at 9:55 am and the winter sunset already was at 14:21 hours.



Both the reindeer and the squirrel that ran across the road, in front of my car, were much happier with the arrival of some snow.





During the week I passed by the now shut down cellulose factory that was designed, in part, by the famous Finnish Architect Alvar Aalto. There still stands one building of the complex. I got a shot of it for posterity. I wonder whether this will be torn down like the rest of the factory.



And yesterday, Annikki created her Northern lights in the Oulu Garden, the only place probably in Finland where you can see the this phenomena at Annikki's will. I will get better photographs later this year. She put on this show for our visitor from India, Sidharth Mazumdar.



Sidharth will study Biotechnology at Kuopio University and do Master's thesis as part of a group of 8 students, 6 from the international arena and two from Finland.

Today he is getting a taste of Finnish culture as one of his new Finnish friends has asked him to visit the city on the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi, to enjoy a "Pikkujoulu" or a "Little Christmas Party". This is the rage around Finland among work colleagues and students as many of them try to release their work tensions by having a "few beers" together.

Usually it does not stop at a few beers! Sidharth, will, however, take the train back at 18:00 hours as he travels back the 200+ km from his first visit to the "real" Arctic!

Maybe 200 km south of it does not qualify Oulu to claim it is in the Arctic and us to be Articians?

Why no entries?

Patience friends and family.

I was overwhelmed by the requests for Annikki's desktop calendar - which is a very limited printing. The 500 FREE copies offered on the web were snapped up within 2 days. I moved many over from the general requests to the family (about 200) and friends quota.

I then found I did not have the actual addresses of several who were either on that list or asked me for a calendar to be sent to them. So it has been a series of emails to either verify or obtain addresses. It would be stupid to post them from China to defunct addresses.

Setting up the database for sending to the printers in China has been a horrific process.

I have been working non-stop on this for the last few days. My eyesight cannot take more than a couple of hours at the computer at a time - so I move up from the cellar and watch the tele - very unusual for me to do that these days.

Tele has such rubbish on these days that I am not missing much. Annikki and I watch the news channels - Finnish, BBC, CNN - mainly on satellite in winter. In summer, the leaves on the trees obscure the vision to the satellite, so we only receive the local Finnish channels.

Annikki does watch several of the quasi-political documentary programmes, mainly from the Finnish channels. She also has a preference for nature programmes as well interior design and cooking programmes. With the Finnish Presidential elections looming, she is also watching the media and the male dominated Finnish political scene, cross party, trying to swift boat the incumbent Tarja Halonen.

Annikki can listen to radio and TV at the same time. She has a very sharp ear for words on both. Like this one she picked up from a TV broadcast about India. Someone said:

"Brain drain is better than the Brain in the Drain."

Wish I knew who said that!

On Saturday evenings I break my monotony by watching the absolutely stupid US detective rubbish - Monk. When you such gross stupidity you feel all your nerves relaxing as you realise that maybe some of us have some brains!

The only thing more stupid on TV than Monk is the Rupert Murdoch FOX News Channel which claims it is "Fair and Balanced"! When I am really depressed and want to laugh, I switch that on - and that is very very rarely - so you can guess I do not get THAT depressed very often.

Mika has been playing chess with me (usually at 04:30 am) - and that takes me off the computer for a short while at a time. Quick Chess usually takes about 15 minutes. And his chess level has been getting back to its hey day. He thrashed me two days running - something he has not done for 15 years.

While searching for a good picture of Mika I came across this one which drove me to thinking how much I am missing our grandkids and our kids who are not here. Emotional - yes!!


Joanna, Tony and Daniel

Then I came across this one.


Samu and Annikki

Here is a lovely picture of our granddaughter with her father which I stole from Susanna's blog!!


Chris and Asha


Asha just emailed me telling me she felt she had done well in her exams. She oozes the confidence that I used to have when I was a kid, even when I knew I had done really badly.

Dear Grandpa and Grandma,

I did my exam today. I know I did really well in my exam today.

I hope Grandma is making snow-models.

What are you doing at Christmas? We are going down to Newcastle for Christmas.

I am doing my Gymnastics competition on 4 of December.

What are you doing this week?

Love,

Asha

I cannot leave out daughter, Susanna, from this emotional picture circuit, so here is another picture I stole from her blog.


Susanna gets her First Responder Training Certificate

Will have pictures of the boys sometime soon.

Life is worth living just for the quality time, even virtual, we have with kids.

And finally, yesterday, when we picked up Annikki's mother from her periodic stay at the Old People's Home so that Annikki and I can have some rest from our 24 hour cycle, we got some bad bad news. Due to budget cuts affecting children and old people in Finland so that they can afford more money for the corrupt bureacrats that run this country, the City Authorities have reduced her stay each month from the average 12 days a month to just 7 days a month from January 2007 onwards.

Means that life, as Hilja and we get older, is just getting tougher.

I hate war, being a pacifist but..

I do hate all forms of violence, especially war, and also unprovoked invasion and occupation of any country. Those who read my blog, Jacob's Politics, already know that I am extremely passionate about that subject. My intention is not to bring that topic over to this blog.

Despite that, I would like to say here that I am for readiness of any country's army, remembering the days when Indian Defence Minister V. Krishna Menon was using the Indian Army facilities to make Expresso Machines and the total unpreparedness of the Indian Army when China attacked India in 1962.

So I was quite heartened to read this article in Christain Sience Monitor

Indian Air Force, in war games, gives US a run
Foreign fighter jets performed well against F-16s in recent exercises.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

"Since the cold war, there has been the general assumption that India is a third-world country with Soviet technology, and wherever the Soviet-supported equipment went, it didn't perform well," says Jasjit Singh, a retired air commodore and now director of the Center for Air Power Studies in New Delhi. "That myth has been blown out by the results" of these air exercises.

This certainly gives a different picture than has been presented around the world that India has a third rate defence system. India may not be of the preparedness as China, which started a whole totally unreported military preparedness and culture to handle any any Western provocation, which is possible in secrecy in a non-democratic country.

India certainly seems to have air preparedness. Possibly its naval preparedness is also of the same level.

Land armies are not much use in today's warfare types, except border defence, but I am sure that if the Indian military is thinking straight, it would be prepared to fight a long long underground struggle on behalf of the people of India, as is being done in Iraq presently.

Knowing the corruption prevalent in the Defence Administration, which was so exposed by the Tehelka Report - Operation West End, I certainly hope that ALL countries are armed and ready to fight against the Bush / Blair Criminal Cabal expanionist plans.

Fabulous Thai Food in Oulu

Oulu is a city which revels in great international food because of a vibrant foreigner population trying to eke out a living doing small businesses.

Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Greek, Mexican, are some of the good cuisines that are available. Even the best fast food restaurants are run by foreigners.

There has so far been one Thai restaurant run by an enterprising Vietnamese lady, providing quite good Thai dishes.

Now we have Pailin - the Blue Safir, a great new restaurant, run by a Thai couple, which dishes out really great Thai food.

Pailin, which is located in Intiö, is run by a Thai couple.

Pailin and Unnop are the owners.

It is the restaurant where the Thai residents of Oulu go to eat.

(Address: Kenttätie 9, 90240 Oulu. Tel: 08 - 311 6919).

It is advised that you ring and book and also order the food from their web page so that Pailin gets the food ready for you. She likes to give each dish her tender loving care when making it.

Pailin and Unnop, the restaurant owners

My good Chinese friend, Bill Zhang, Annikki and I decided to go there to entertain a business visitor from Gabon. Unfortunately, the Gabonese gentleman was working as per African time, so we had to ditch him.


Bill, JM, Annikki and our host Unnop


Bill, JM, Annikki and our hostess Pailin

Our starter was spicy chicken soup Thai style.

We learnt that there is no such thing as starters in Thai food as the soup is eaten alongside the main meal.

The main meal consisted of green curry with beef in coconut milk, fried chicken with cashew nut, and fried mixed vegetables.

Although it is called a curry, unlike Indian curries, there is not an overflowing of liquid. In Thai food the sauce is nice and thick. A small amount on the rice adds a lot of flavour.

I helped myself rather liberally to the freshly made sliced chilli sauce in fish oil, a house speciality. It added a great deal of taste to the already delicious food.

Bill did us a favour by taking a picture of three royal couples!


JM, Annikki, Pailin,
King and Queen of Thailand, and Unnop

This is an outstanding restaurant, both for food and a fabulous couple who are the host and hostess. Annikki and I have no hesitation in recommending this for a great evening meal.

They also have a Thai buffet for lunch on weekdays.

Oh, by the way, if you are a fast food addict they also serve up good pizzas, kebabs, hamburgers, french fries, and all the different parts that make up a good fast food, at a very reasonable price.

Pailin is a trained restauranter having qualified in Germany. She is also a science teacher by education. Unnop is an arist and does all the artwork for the restaurant.

They are also great parents as their sons, Soda and Sodium. 14-year old Soda a great boy and my good friend.

When I went to pay the bill, Pailin calculated the sum and was intending to charge me substantially lower than what the meal was worth. I got rather angry and told her off for undercharging. I paid her the correct sum.

Just then a Finnish man was at the counter. He heard me complaining. He asked me what was the problem. I told him that they were undercharging us.

He came towards me and said "May I say something - Shadup!"

We roared with laughter as this gentleman was obviously hoping that Pailin would also give him his meal at half price!

Iitu watches HER TV

Annikki's table top aquarium, the only one of its kind in the world, is of great interest to our cat. Iitu. Sometimes she perches on the clear plastic cover and watches the goldfish swimming under her feet. She scrapes on the glass trying to get to them.

Of late, as three goldfish are enormous, Annikki has started to keep part of the clear plastic top slid so that there is greater air circulation over the surface. Next to the aquarium is a leather chair, and this picture reveals how Iitu has her sights set on the contents of the aquarium! One swipe and the goldfish will be devoured with no compunctions!



It is interesting to note that while the goldfish were out in the outdoor pool, we found that there were five black baby fish in the pond. We could not figure out how these fish had arrived, as none of us though that goldfish babies could be black.

When we brought the fish in for winter, we managed to bring in four, but one was killed by one of the overactive large goldfish. One died in the outside pond.

We have been watching the three baby fish grow. To our amazement we found that one was gradually changing colour, from jet black to a lighter shade, till finally, last week we discovered that the black was almost off on one fish and it was a goldfish!!

I found this piece of information on the internet.

When baby Goldfish hatch from eggs, they are shorter than 1/8th of an inch, which is about 3 millimeters. In fact, I've heard baby goldfish described as being about 2 millimeters long. If you can carefully estimate the size, when you first saw the baby fish in your pond, it might be a useful clue.

Baby Goldfish are not gold or orange colored, when they hatch. Instead they are often tan or olive colored. Sometimes they are dark, but I have not seen really black baby goldfish. Again the color of the baby fish in your pond, might be a clue.

As baby Goldfish grow, they begin to have the shape of goldfish, and when they've grown to be about 1½" long, they often begin changing color.

I never believed that goldfish could have black babies, but I have lived and learned.

Now, I really had to laugh aloud!!

It was in 1987 that I organised for one of the top managers and researchers of the Nokia Company, Paul Collander, to stop over in Madras and Bangalore, to explore the possibility of Nokia expanding activities to India.

Paul and my professor, Seppo Leppävuori, were on their way back from a conference in Singapore. At that time I was the Acting Laboratory Manager of the Microelectronics Laboratory at the University of Oulu.

Here is a picture taken by Paul, of Seppo, with my late uncle, Kochappachen (Mr. K. M. Mammen Mappillai), who was then the Chairman and Managing Director of MRF Ltd. along with his wife, Kunjukochamma, in their Madras house garden.

Kochappachen, Seppo and Kunjukochamma
in their T.Nagar house garden

They had a great visit as I had organised meetings with several leading personalities in Bangalore, both from industry and research. They were treated like royalty by my many friends.

When Paul and Seppo got back, Paul submitted a pretty forceful report of the potential for Nokia to move into India to the then CEO, Kari Kairamo.

A few weeks later he got a reply from Kari which said that Paris, France, was too far for Nokia, so any interest in India was very wishful thinking!!

Paul was indeed very disappointed, but continued to worked on the co-operation.

Thanks to two great Indian Ambassadors to Finland, His Excellency K. P. Fabian, and the one that followed him, His Excellency T. Cherpoot, both of whom became my good friends, both Nokia Research and the Microelectronics Laboratory established close research links with India's premier science and electronics research institution, The Indian Institute of Science (corrected from Technologuy to Science thanks to Anand in Bangalore, a product of IIT, Kharagpur - THANKS), in Bangalore.


Ambassador Fabian with me during his visit to the
Microelectronics Laboratory. Prof. Paavo Uronen, Dean of the
Technical Faculty and Vice Rector of the University, is also visible.
Prof. Seppo Leppävuori has his back to the camera.


Ambassador Cherpoot signing the visitors book
in the Microelectronics Laboratory, University of Oulu

Seppo and I visited the Institute a couple of times. Both he and I gave foundation lectures on various subjects at the Institute.

Prof. B. S. Sonde, who was then the head of the Electronics Department at the Indian Institute of Science, organised tie ups with our university as well as Nokia Research. Prof. K. Satyam visited us here in Oulu.

Prof. B.S. Sonde received his B.E. (Telecom) and M.Sc (Engg) Degrees with high distinction from the University of Pune in 1958 and 1959 respectively and his Ph.D Degree from IISc, Bangalore in 1963. He was a member of the academic staff of IISc during 1964-97, occupying several positions: Professor of Electrical Communication Engineering(ECE) from 1973, Chairman, Department of ECE (1981-85), Chairman, Division of Electrical Sciences (1985-92), Dean, Faculty of Engineering (1992-94) and the Tata - Chem Chair (1994-97), until his appointment as Vice Chancellor, Goa University (1997-2002). His fields of interest covered Microelectronics, Instrumentation, Digital Technology and its Applications in Electronics and Communications, wherein he has trained scores of students for B.E., M.E., M.Sc (Engg) and Ph.D Degrees at IISc, published over 90 papers in scientific/technical journals and a series of 10 text/reference books. He was a Visiting Professor at many Institutions/Universities and also on Advisory/Review Committees/Councils of many Institutions/Industies in India and abroad. Prof. Sonde was a Member of the Electronics Commission, Government of India, Engineering Panel of the UGC, Chairman, DoE Working Group on Consumer Electronics, Founder Chairman, ISHM (India) and President, IETE (India) (1992-94). He is now Chairman, National Board of Accreditation of the All India Council for Technical Education. He has been a recipient of many awards, notably Ramlal Wadhwa Gold Medal of IETE (India) (1978), Jaya Jayant Award for Teaching Excellence of IISc (1992), Distinguished Alumnus Award of Government College of Engineering, Pune (1994), Chapter Development Award of ISHM-The Microelectronics Society, USA (1996) and Life-time Achievement Award of ISI (India) (2002). Prof. Sonde is a Distinguished Fellow of IETE (India) and SEE (India) and a Senior Member of IEEE (USA) and ISHM (now IMAPS) (India), and has been closely connected with the development of electronics education, research and industry in the country.

In 1988, Kari, Nokia's CEO, committed suicide. Kari had believed Finnish manufacturers like Nokia could ride the consumer-electronics wave into the global marketplace. He was right, but the scope of the vision needed to be narrowed. He had spent much of Nokia's capital in acquiring European companies, and could not take the heat and stress of his high non-productive investment.

On his demise, Jorma Ollila took over as head of Nokia.

By lopping off other product lines (like TV sets, cables, software and PCs) and maintaining a laser-like focus on digital phones and networks, Nokia boosted its market cap from $1.7 billion in 1988 to $71 billion in 2004, the company shot past Motorola to become the world's leading manufacturer of mobile phones.

It had quite a desperate time during the 1995-97 era, but came out of it to become the absolute number one in the field of mobile phones.

So when I read this today Nokia in US $ 140 million deal to expand mobile networks in northern India and read the accompanying text:

Nokia, a market leader in India, considers the subcontinent a natural location to meet surging demand in the Asia-Pacific region that will help push the global mobile subscriber base beyond a predicted two billion mark by the end of 2005.

In April, it announced that Chennai in southeastern India would be the site for its new mobile manufacturing plant expected to employ up to 2,000 people.

Based in Espoo just outside the Finnish capital, Nokia has sales in 130 countries and about 55,500 employees.

I simply had to laugh aloud when I remembered the 1987 reaction.

Get your FREE 2006 Desktop Calendar

As a prelude to the release of Annikki's book "Edible Art" in 2006, we are pleased to inform you that the 2006 Desktop Calendar, featuring 13 of her beautiful cake designs, will be sent, ABSOLUTELY FREE OF COST, to the first 500 readers (relatives who are in touch with us regularly need not check in) who send us their snail mail (posting) address.

FREE 2006 Desktop Calendar featuring
13 of Annikki's beautiful and artistic cake designs

As the calendar is being printed and dispatched from our printer in China, please act quickly, as I will be transferring the final database to the printer for posting purposes within the next few days.

You can email your snail mail address to:

Free Calendar Request

We get a reindeer!

There was a lonely large wooden sleigh at the bottom of the garden in Kampitie.

Annikki has been wondering what to do with it for several years.

It used to be the sleigh that her father used to go to the forest with in winter, pulling it behind his mopo, so as to collect wood to heat the house.

Knowing Annikki, when I saw it emerge from the depths to the beachside, I knew that she had something in mind.

Then, with great resolve she said that we are going to get a reindeer.

And yesterday was D-Day. After hunting high and low, she got the only one which was available in Oulu. Our cat, Iitu was thrilled to have this new companion.



So we now have a reindeer pulling the sleigh in the garden.

My mind flashes back 42 years..

Here I am, sitting at my computer in a cellar in Finland, listening to US Liberal Talk Radio on the internet.

The Talk Show Host, Thom Hartmann, has been playing clips from John F. Kennedy.

My mind rolled back 42 years, a few months after I landed in London to study plastics. We had just noved in a semi cellar appartment on Eton Avenue, near the Swiss Cottage Tube Station.

It was a large room which was brrr... cold.

It was evening, and having returned from college, I tuned in to my transistor radio which I had brought with me from India.

As I started to do my studies, news flashed on the radio of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.

There was no television to watch, so it was the verbal and graphic reporting of the announcers that brought us the news.

That was 42 years ago.

Last Friday, Thom Hartmann released a 900 page book, where he is the co-author, on the latest theory of who killed John F. Kennedy.

Will the conspiracy theories never end?

Daniel with Grandma and Grandpa

Annikki and I are missing all our grandchildren, Asha, Samuel and Daniel. At least we can speak at length with Asha and Samuel, but that is not yet possible with little Daniel

Daniel was not even a year and a half when he left for Newcastle with Joanna and Samuel.

We have missing the little guy.

So I thought I would put up a few pictures of Daniel with both of us before he left for England.

Just for memories sake.

Click on image to see enlarged version


Daniel and Annikki April 2005


Daniel and Annikki May 2005


Daniel and Annikki June 2005


Daniel and Annikki July 2005


Daniel and me August 2005


Daniel and me September 2005


Daniel and Annikki September 2005

That is what memories are made of!

Birthday Cake for Harriet?

The world was celebrating the 175th birthday of the supposedly oldest living creature on this earth, Harriet, the tortoise that Darwin brought back from his travels.

National Geographic picture of Harriet,
the 175 year old tortoise

Harriet lives in Australia and there are many articles about her on the internet, probably the most complete one being Harriet, The Galapagos Tortoise. Disclosing One and a Half Centuries of History. Reptilia Number 2, March / April 1998. by Scott Thomson of the Applied Ecology Research Group. University of Canberra. P.O. Box 1. Belconnen, ACT, 2616, Australia. and Steve Irwin(2) & Terri Irwin of the Queensland Reptile & Fauna Park (Australia Zoo), Glasshouse Mountains Tourist Route, Beerwah, Queensland, 4519, Australia.

I am sure that the birthday cake that Harriet should have had was this one made a few years ago by Annikki.



This cake, completely edible, including the stones (toffee), the butterflies, fishes, shells, etc., (sweets) and other edible decorations were designed by Annikki, and the cake was made in December 2000 for the 4th birthday of Kachun, eldest son of Michelle (from India) and Willy (from Malaysia), who own the best Chinese restaurant in Oulu, The Royal Garden, opposite the local railway station.

Email us your "snail mail" address if you want a FREE desktop 2006 calendar containing 12 great pictures of Annikki's "Edible Art" cake creations. They will be posted directly from the printers.

Only the first 500 to send us their request are eligible for this limited printing of the calendar.

Pictures of this and other designer cakes will appear in Annikki's hard-bound coffee table book "Edible Art" due out in 2006. You can write now and order your copy. Expected price will be announced on the blog in a few weeks.

Dara Singh, King Kong, Flash Gordon

Many did not believe the names of the top wrestlers that I had given in a previous post. Some associated King Kong with a gorilla which was in a film that appeared much later than the actual history of this giant in the wrestling ring.

There was much interest in the three top wrestlers of the 1950's. I have located some data on the internet.

It is important to mention the referee who used to be in the ring with these wrestlers. His name was Wong Bok Lee. Some believe he is the same as Wong Bok Chong, but I had not heard this as I remember him clearly as Lee. He used the Flying Drop Kick to control wrestlers in the ring if they did not listen to him.

One of the most exciting fights I saw, the lighter Dara Singh lifted the almost 200 kg King Kong over his head and was twirling him round and round. King Kong was yelling at the referee that this was not in the rules. When the referee tried to come and stop this Dara Singh virtually threw King Kong out of the ring and he fell just a few feet from us. Was he mad. he jumped up, rushed into the ring and tried to attack the referee - who drop-kicked him out of the ring!!

Wrestler: Dasho Dara Singh

Dara Singh from a film poster
Real Name: Dara Singh Randhawa
Hometown: Village Dharmuchak, Distt. Amritsar (Punjab)
Marital Status: Surjit Kaur Randhawa (1961)
Height & Weight: 188 cm (6' 2") and over 130 kg
Debut: 1951
Finishing Move: Body slam
Favorite Moves: Overhead whirl
Notable Feuds: Professional Indian Wrestling Championship in 1953,
Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in 1959 by defeating Canadian Champion “Flash Gordon” George Godianko
World Wrestling Championship in 1968 by defeating Lou Theze of America;
Birthday: 19 November 1928

Wrestler: "King Kong"

King Kong at his prime
Real name: Emile Czaja (pronounced shya)
Hometown: Sydney Australia
Marital Status: Married to Ellie (1956)
Height & Weight: 183 cm (6') - over 182 kg (400lbs)
Debut: 1937 in India
Gimmicks: Brute behaviour, Evil man, ...
Notable Feuds: Dara Singh, "Sheik" Wadi Ayoub
Died: 1970 (Car crash)

Wrestler: Flash Gordon" (also known as Wonder Boy, Firpo Zyzbsko)

Flash Gordon was in several battles with King Kong and Dara Singh
Real name: George Gordienko
Hometown: Winnipeg, Canada
Height and weight: Over 182 cm (6') and over 130 kg
Famous for: Flying drop kick, even when being held by opponent!
Notable fueds: Dara Singh, Bhu Pinder
Born: 1904
Died: 1974 (Melonama cancer)

We used to go outside the hotels where they use to live just to see the food being served to these enormous men, who, to us small kids, looked like giants.

King Kong used to swallow chickens by the dozens. Dara Singh used to eat an enormous number of chapatis.

The myths that were told us by the press agents made them seem to be invincible men, so to see them fighting in the ring was like watching two invincibles trying to destroy each other.

Of course, we did not know, then, that the fights were all fixed!

Welcome to Oulu, Isaac

I got a nice shock this morning when I picked up our local newspaper, Kaleva.

There was a great story about a new CEO for an Oulu headquartered company called Codenomicon Ltd.

The name is Isaac Sundarajan.



This picture of Isaac which appeared in today's Kaleva was taken by Pekka Ala-Aho. Pekka is an outstanding photographer in Oulu and his wife Tarja, a senior journalist at the Kaleva, sold their house to our daughter Joanna and her husband Tony. Tarja used to be our neighbour in Kampitie back in the 80's and has seen Joanna grow up as a little girl. They have their own photo art gallery in Nallikari.

I tried to get him on the phone, but as there was no answer, I sent an email.

Issac rang me back straight away as he was free from the meeting.

A product of Christian College, and then Guindy Engineering College, in Chennai (Madras) this brilliant engineer has got a top post in an up and coming Oulu company Codenomicon Ltd.. The company develops and markets state-of-the-art software testing tools for proactive elimination and prevention of security vulnerabilities.

Isaac's background has included executive management roles in leading software, EDA, and systems companies CoWare, Cadence, and Intel. During his eight years in CoWare, he played key roles in helping CoWare grow into a leading provider of systems-level design tools and a company with significant revenue. In the last several years at CoWare, Sundarajan managed sales, services, marketing and engineering functions. He also played an active role in the companys M&A strategy and was instrumental in acquiring a DSP software product line. He was the General Manager of the acquired business unit that grew in revenue and proved successful.

Isaac also held senior management positions in sales, marketing, business development and services in Cadence. In Intel he was an engineer and manager in design, CAD and test engineering. Isaac has a MS in electrical and computer engineering and an MBA.

Isaac works with Ari Takanen, the founder of this company, who is from the same department in Oulu University that I spent many years in (different laboratory).

Much after my time, Ari and his colleague, Marko Laakso, were the two guys who the discoverers of the e-mail security hole that had the computer world tizzy during the 1998 era. I covered this in great detail in one of my now defunct Findians Briefings issues way back then. If my memory serves me right, I think I may have even interviewed one of these guys.

And I was right, as I discovered this from my personal archives of Findians Briefings Volume No: 06 Issue No. 01 - - 14th August 1998!!

Findians Exclusive 1: Virus Email

BBC, Yahoo and all the major internet news providers last week were shouting their head off about a story that the University of Oulu had reported a bug in the Windows Operating system relating to email.

Being from Oulu, many readers have asked us to provide a background of the group and the people behind this research.

Oulu University is unique in that it has a a technical faculty, a medical faculty besides as well as the pure arts and science faculties.

The Secure Programming Group is part of the Technical Faculty. Their work is being carried out in the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Computer Engineering Laboratory.

The other sections in the Electrical Engineering Department include the Microelectronics (which works on laser assisted testing and micro-manufacturing, thick and thin film and sensor technologies as well as on high temperature superconductors), the Electronics (including measurement technology) and the Telecommunications Laboratories. The Department also has its own Applied Mathematics Division.

We are pleased to give you the exclusive answers provided by the Secure Programming Group to our questions:

Q. What is the background of your group doing this research into bugs in computers?
A. You can find a short introductory report about the Oulu University Secure Programming Group on the internet.

Q. Why was this group started, when, who all are involved, any significant papers published by the group at conferences, etc.
A. This is a long story and we would prefer not to get into these. The group members include

Juha Röning (associate professor, Computer Engineering Laboratory),
Marko Laakso (researcher, Department of Electrical Engineering), and
Ari Takanen (researcher, Computer Engineering Laboratory)

Q. Why has there been no report directly from the group about this bug?
A. Until the dust has settled we do not want to say anything. Our position is not to make any statements about the problem, we just simply don't have all the facts necessary. We will try to help in a coordinated technical response by the vendor independent security organizations.

Q. Why are comments or interviews not given over the phone?
A. Security issues are considered sensitive matters by us. Due to a language barrier (Ed: All of them speak perfect English!!), comments made over the phone about these matters may be easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. That is not what we want.

Q. What is the BUG significance?
A. We, as OUSPG, have not made any public statement about the significance of the bug. It is our job to stick to hardcore and verified facts. We do not want to escalate the seriousness of this problem by speculations. Due to our involvement with this, we believe that statements made by the vendors, security organizations and independent experts are a better channel for the impact evaluation. Otherwise, we are glad to help you in anyway we can, and here are a list of important documents that have appeared on the web in this connection:

List of links on documents related to the mime-bug

---------------------------------------------------------

Information
---------------------------------------------------------
Editorial by Russ Cooper, maintainer of NTBugtraq
Information Bulletin by CIAC
Netscape Security Notes
Netscape Security Update
Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS98-008)
Microsoft Press Release
Media Alert ... Media Alert ...Media Alert: E-Mail Security Issue

Publications by the media
---------------------------------------------------------
ABCNEWS.com
BBC - Invasion of the killer e-mail viruses
CNN (Reuters)
CNET News.Com
InfoWorld
MacWeek
New York Times
PC Week
PC World
San Jose Mercury news
San Jose Mercury news
Star Tribune
Time
TechWeb (Reuters)
USA Today
Wired

Examples
---------------------------------------------------------
BUGTRAQ: One of the Outlook overflows

Other documents related to the subject, in the internet
---------------------------------------------------------
The Tao of Windows Buffer Overflow" by DilDog
Smashing the stack for fun and profit" by Aleph One
About the Internet Worm of 1988: RFC 1135: The Helminthiasis of the Internet

Our special thanks to Marko for giving us this exclusive background.

I have invited Isaac to join Annikki and me at our home at his convenience. His family is still in the US, but no doubt, when he settles in, he may have some time to drop in and have a chat with us old folk and to share some of our common experiences from our days in Madras. Maybe Annikki and Isaac can even have a chat in Tamil! (I speak just a smattering of Tamil as I mainly speak Malayalam and Hindi of the Indian languages.) I know daughter, Madras-born Joanna, would just love that when she gets back from Newcastle.

Isaac must have been studying at the Guindy Engineering College just at the time we were living down the road from there at our Velacheri house!


The JM family at the Velacheri Road house in 1974
Photo by Mathew Varghese, Helsinki

I wonder whether he attended any of the lectures I gave at his college at that time - though hardly likely as I was lecturing about Polymers, and he is a computer's guy!! I knew very little about computers in those days.

I am sure son-in-law, Professor Tony Manninen, and Isaac may have a lot in common, although I may not, as I use only Apple Macs and computer security is one subject I have never ever had to worry about in my 22 years of computing!

Superb Political Cartoonists

Publication of a couple of cartoons has a great impact on my blog readers around the world. They just loved it.

However, in this post, I am not being egoistic.

There are several superb political cartoonists in the world.

When in India, I would never miss the cartoons of Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman, the equally famous brother of the late R. K. Narayan, the superb writer born in Madras (Chennai) in 1906, who died a short while ago in his home, in Mysore. Their father was the headmaster of a school in Mysore.

Laxman's cartoon series called "The Common Man" has been around for over 50 years. When I lived in India, they were on the front page daily in the Times of India. It was usually just amall rectangle, while once a week he had a larger sized one. They were powerful statements. It was the first thing I used to get to in the newspaper when I woke up, even before I turned to the sport's page.

The picture below is of the main hero of the cartoon, The Common Man, who would be standing in the corner of the cartoon, just observing the situation and saying nothing.



This ancient cartoon by Laxman is one which is timeless. With the present tragedies of the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina and right to the present earthquake tragedy in the Kashmir, it still tells us much about the politics behind disasters.



I really missed the political cartoons when I first came to Finland. Then I discovered that our local newspaper, Kaleva, had a political cartoonist which ranks among the best in the world, despite the fact that his language of communication may be Finnish with a limited audience.

I thought that this cartoon, which has a very simple caption, translated as "Bush's Nose", which appeared last week was one of his best:.



And this one from Jari, which I saved from December 2002, is probably one which is as topical today as it was when it was first published:



Life would be boring without political cartoonists.

Viva les Cartoonists!

Samuel is just going to love this!!

In the 50's, when we lived in Bangalore, we had the international wrestlers who used to come there. The show was held in the Sampagie Stadium, quite close to where we lived on Lalbagh Road, near Richmond Circle.

As Appachen, my father, was in charge of providing safe lighting for the stadium, we used to get free tickets to see these heroes.

Dara Singh, King Kong, Flash Gordon, The Masked Angel, are some of the names that I remember. Dara Singh was the good guy while King Kong was the evil guy. The drop kick, the scissor grip, and a whole lot of wrestling manoeuvres that we all became familar with due to these great entertaining evening sessions. It was great fun, much better than watching stuff of TV.

We followed the stories of these wrestlers and how they consumed 50 chickens for a meal or 100 eggs in a gulp.

I have, during the last year been sharing these stories, on a first person basis with grandson, Samuel. Samuel would insist for more and more - and it was difficult to get all those fabulous evenings out of my memory into words. But I certainly did.

In the light of that, I think that this cartoon will have Samuel, and hopefully you, greatly amused!

Pond cleaning mainly over

The pond at Kampitie had not been cleaned all through summer. So after the fish came in, Annikki got around to cleaning the pond to make it ready for her winter plans.

It was a real Herculean task. She worked late late into the night scrubbing it clean, taking out all that had settled at the bottom. These two pictures show how she worked getting it just the way she wanted.





Having got it clean, she has put the new water in and it looks great. Then she wanted to put some underwater lights.

Thanks to a suggestion from Susanna, we had a set of string neon Christmas lights. Again, with my McGyver spirit, I have rigged it up so that it can work on or under water, even in sub-zero temperatures.





Annikki is planning some major design issues once the pond freezes over. Wait for some interesting artistic developments on the pond front.

A lighter entry about my walking habits!

My walking habit!

Bug in Blogger software

Many of you have reported to me that you are sometimes unable to reach links that I give.

I have found a bug in the Blogger software, which I hope will be corrected.

When you click on some links, an error page opens. You will find that my URL, http://jmatthan.blogspot.com, has been added BEFORE the link URL.

Please remove my URL from the URL box and click the RETURN button so as to reach the link.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but it is outside of my capability to solve this.

Malayala Manorama going into TV?

Hot of the press is the news that Malayala Manorama may be planning to go into the TV arena.

I am sure brothers Rajen, Thambi, Chacko, and nephew, Apu, who are now at the helm of Malayala Manorama will certainly relish this challenge.

Knowing them intimately, they will probably plan it with great precision and make it an outstanding success.

Malayala Manorama is over 117 years old. It has changed from being a small and influential local newspaper to a national and international powerhouse [second only to us "findians" :-)]

With a report in IndianTelevision.com Malayala Manorama plans to launch news channel in 2006, this speculation has come to the fore.

MUMBAI: Malayala Manorama Limited is planning to launch a news channel, strengthening the growing trend of print media companies expanding into television business.

Malayala Manorama's top brass is still tight-lipped about the channel's genre. But according to sources close to the company, Manorama will be launching a news channel, MM TV, coinciding with the Kerala assembly polls which are due in April-May 2006. Manorama might enter the entertainment space at a later stage.

There are two factors that make industry observers believe that Malayala Manorama will play the news channel card first. It would like to leverage its strength as a print medium powerhouse. The group controls 21 publications, including the English-language magazine The Week and need not worry much about infrastructure facilities as well.

The other most crucial driver is the upcoming assembly elections in the state of Kerala, which is expected to take place during April-May 2006. Any news channel in India would salivate at the prospect of debuting ahead of elections that gives the channel enough political fodder to whip up for the audience. The same formula was executed recently by the Malayalam channel Kairali TV as it launched its news channel People TV during the local elections in September.

Manorama has already done its ground work in the programming and infrastructure areas. It runs a television software division called Manorama Vision, which has already established itself in the business by catering to all the major channels, including Asianet and Surya TV. Second, it has built a state-of-the-art studio in Kochi. Additionally, according to some reports, the company has initiated talks with leading foreign channels for sharing content.

Malayala Manorama has been working on its television project for the last two years. It is learnt that the company is still waiting for its news channel uplinking licence from the I&B Ministry. In October-November last, it had carried out a recruitment drive for the administrative and human resources divisions. Now, slightly opening the lid, Manorama has kicked off another recruitment drive for journalists and technical staff.

2005 is the year Malayalam television market saw the birth of five channels, taking the total number of television channels in that space to 12, including DD Malayalam. The total market offers an advertising pie of Rs 1.8 billion and the news channels command approximately 20 per cent (on the upper side) of the total ad pie, according to industry estimates. Asianet News, Indiavision and People TV constitute the market's news channel community presently.

Industry observers feel that irrespective of the clutter factor, Malayalam television still offers opportunities to new players.

"The Malayalam television programming hasn't evolved on par with the Indian television standards yet. What is still lacking is a clear understanding of the TG and a certain USP to offer. If the new channels (including news channels) are able to better the standards, they have better chances to survive," points out a senior executive of Asianet.

With the large number of influential Malayalees settled all around the world, here is the opportunity for the Malayala Manorama to have a worldwide network of programmes and also capitalise on this huge international Mallu audience. However, a new vision will have to be part of the plan, as the old model is failing.

Malayala Manorama certainly has the leadership to go the new route.