Great difficulty....

Yesterday evening, Annikki and I had a great deal of difficulty in choosing which restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary. With so many friends in the restuarant business, we love the food of the restaurants that we frequent. The Royal Garden, New Bombay, Goreme, Pailin, Flavour Palace, Suola Aito, etc., etc...

Finally, since it was the Chinese New Year eve, the year of the Dog, we decided on Chinese. Annikki chose Michelle and Willy's restaurant, the Royal Garden, as she had not been there for quite a while (see below).

We did not pre-reserve or inform them that we were coming.

We found te restaurant quite quiet. They had a new waitress whom we had not seen before - a Punjabi girl, Ami. Her husband had been looking for a job in Oulu as a bartender, but not finding one had gone to Helsinki. Extremely pleasant girl.

We ordered Peking Soup, frittered chicken, fried beef with extra garlic and ginger, and the frittered banana with ice cream. Having determined that the cook was the Calcutta boy, Francis, we asked him to ensure that the garlic and ginger were a bit more than usual.

Annikki after a very satisfying meal

As we sat waiting for our meal, I just turned my head and saw Philip, Michelle's brother, who lives in a town in mid-Finland, Jyväskylä. It was nice to talk to him not having seen him for quite a while. He had come to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his sister, Michelle, and see his kids, who live with their mother in Oulu.

He told us that Michelle and Willy would be in soon to have the Chinese New Year's meal, and asked whether we would like to join them.

We apologised as we had ordered already. As he is a superb cook, we asked him to supervise the meal we had ordered. (Also, as Annikki does not eat prawns, pork, crab and a few other foods which are traditionally part of a grand Chinese meal, I thought it wiser to stay with the food which we had ordered!)

He, in fact, took the trouble and prepared our meal. It was really good.

As we were eating, Michelle and Willy arrived and asked us to join the Chinese New Year meal with them. We had to cry off as we had a huge meal in front of us.

Michelle sat and talked with us through the meal and gave Annikki some great news. Her youngest daughter, who is presently with her mother and father in Calcutta, would be rejoining the family shortly.

Annikki was thrilled at the news as she was virtually not on talking terms with Michelle when she had left the little baby with the grandparents the last time she had gone to see her parents. She was actually conducting a small boycott - bring back the baby campaign!!

We enjoyed our meal. Michelle offered me some delicious crab which they had made for their own meal. She had also a great tofu/meat cutlet, which Annikki and I tasted - delicious.

It is surprising that such good tasty dishes are not on the regular menu. But they maybe would not be appreciated by the traditional Finnish customer which frequents their restaurant.
'
We had a great evening with great food. Thanks to Philip and Michelle, we had a very enjoyable 39th Wedding Anniversary.

Guess what, I woke up at 10 am

Most of my adult life I have been waking up at hours between 3:30 am and 6:00 am as there are so many things to do and only 24 hours to do it in!

But this morning, our 39th wedding anniversary, I woke up ONLY at 10 am!

Being a Saturday, with both Annikki's mother, Hilja, and son, Mika, away over this weekend, my mind just stayed in slumberland.

I woke up with a feeling of what a great life I have had.

For a moment I even did not care what pResident Bush is doing to his people and the world. I missed my favourite radio programme, Mike Malloy (I will listen to it from the archives).

There have been many ups and downs in our 39 years of marriage, but always on issues outside of the two of us.

We have always been there for each other.

That was the feeling I had when I opened my eyes.

I let Annikki sleep on - she sorely needs the rest.

When I went to bed she was busy looking after the goldfish.

Iitu's morning greeting stretch & roll

We still have not decided which cusine we will choose to celebrate this wedding anniversary.

39 - Lucky Numbers 3 & 9

28th January has been a landmark day for all the last 39 years. 3 and 9 are supposedly my lucky numbers according to many numerologists who have offered their advice to me.

I hold no quarter for palmistry or numerology since 28th January has been a great day from 1 to 38 and 39 is going to be the same.

Annikki and I were married at Shrewsbury St. Mary's Church in 1967, 39 years ago.

And we have a great marriage and we are looking forward to 39 more such great years.



Viewed from our flat, where the only furniture we had was a wine barrel and a bed, is the church where we were married.

My dear wife, 39 years ago.


Myself 39 years ago


Us, 39 years on

Life has been kind on us. We have four great children, two wonderful sons-in-law, and 3 absolutely wonderful grandchildren.

Nothing could make us happier than sharing this wonderful day with all of you.

Former Catholicos Mathews II passes away

KOTTAYAM: The former Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan Baselius Mar Thoma Mathews II passed away on Thursday at the Catholicate Palace here where he was leading a retired life since November last. The end came at 5.20 p.m.

He was 91.

Former Catholicos Baselius Mar Thoma Mathews II


The body of the former Catholicos will be moved to the Old Seminary here, where he was a student of theology, for the laity to pay their homage. Later, it will be moved to Mar Elia Cathedral in the heart of Kottayam town.

According to the official spokesman of the Church, the last journey from Mar Elia Cathedral will begin at 3.30 p.m. on Friday to his final resting place at the Horabe Diara in Sasthamkotta in Kollam district.

The body will be interred in a specially constructed crypt on Saturday morning.

The former head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church stepped down from the high office on October 31 after handing over his crosier to Baselius Mar Thoma Didymus I, citing old age and ill health.

Ever since, he was staying at the Catholicate Palace in Devalokam near here.

He was the sixth Catholicos of the East after the reinstatement of the Catholicate in Malankara in 1912 and the 89th successor to the Holy Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Born to an agriculturist family as the son of Idikkula and Annamma of Puthusherazhikathu Puthenveedu at Perinad (Kollam district) on January 30, 1915, Mathew had his primary education at a local school and later had his early religious training at the Old Seminary in Kottayam and Basil Diara in Pathanamthitta.

He later joined the Bishop's College in Kolkata for his Bachelor of Divinity programme and had his post-graduation from the General Theological Seminary, New York.

He was ordained as sub-deacon in 1938 by the then Catholicos of the East Baselius Geevarghese II and three years later on May 25, 1941 as a priest of the Orthodox Church.

It was during his stay at the St. George's Diara in Othara, which he helped to build, that he earned a name as a devout and able priest and endeared himself to all who came into contact with him and earning himself the pet name `Angel Achan' (Father Angel).

Under the special interest of the then Catholicos Baselius Geevarghese II, Fr. Mathew, then only 38 years old, was consecrated as Bishop in 1953 with the name Mathews Mar Coorilose, making him one of the youngest bishops in the Christendom.

Mar Coorilose was elected Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan on April 29, 1991 when his predecessor Baselius Mar Thoma Mathews I stepped down.

A widely travelled man, the former Catholicos was respected as a voice of ecumenism and moderation.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Finance Minister Vakkom Purushothaman and the former Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai are among those who condoled the demise.

Mar Joseph Powathil, Metropolitan of the Changanassery Archdiocese and chairman of the Inter-Church Council for Education, said the demise of the spiritual leader was a personal loss to him. He had the opportunity to closely enjoy his affection, fraternal relationship and friendship.

His demise will greatly move many members and several non-members of the Church. This highly learned individual has guided many people on the right path to achieve their personal peace with their inner beliefs. I have, at several weddings and other occasions, right from my childhood days, had the chance to talk at length with him. I always found him to be so simple and open-minded on views of living life that one felt very humble in front of him.

Many thanks to Satish Abraham in Kottayam for sending me this information.

60th Birthday of a sister

Annikki and I went visiting today. It was Annikki's sister's 60th birthday.

Aino (pronounced as "I Know") and Annikki set out to see the world together as friends, 44 years ago. It was I that split up the team.

Aino returned to Finland and is now married to a childhood friend, Kauko Kujala.

Aino and husband Kauko

Today, on Aino's 60th birthday, Annikki and I went over in the evening and spent some quality time with her husband and her. They had been expecting us already from mid-afternoon.


Aino on her 60th birthday

The bond between the two sisters is great. They love each other dearly as they had only themselves to depend upon when they went out into the big bad world from a protected Finnish society.

We laughed together today when Annikki and Aino recalled their visit to the London Zoo. They took a photograph of a lion at the zoo, and to their surprise, the lion turned its back on them and peed back at them!

Aino claims she still has the photograph of that incident.

Aino was so happy to share her 60th birthday with the two of us.

My new blog - CHAFF

I have started a new blog - CHAFF, which stands for Chamber of Assistance for Finns and Foreigners.

CHAFF is still not an official body. We still have not finalised our logo.

With the explosive support we are getting, it looks possible that this may soon become a full-fledged Chamber, just as a Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

I am looking to get a dynamic youthful team of individuals from a broad spectrum of countries together to run this organisation.

Today, we were offered a place where we could have our regular Sunday Chamber Meetings.

This is a major breakthrough, much more than the founders thought when we started this informal group.

Cold days

By Thursday the temperature had dropped and it was sure we were going to have a cold weekend. With the ambient temperature of -31 C and a wind speed of 11 metres per second (light wind) the temperature, after adjusting the wind chill factor, was around -47 C.

Matti, the animation whizzzkid, sent me couple of great photos of a very cold view of the Finnish forest.





On my CHAFF blog I put out a warning about being exposed to this degree of cold. For the uninitiated it could be positively disastrous.

Our cat, Iitu, certainly decided it was better to watch her fish on her TV aquarium rather than venture out into the cold.



I went out on Saturday and grabbed us a few yummy Thai Sweet Chilli Wraps.





They are delicious, light and I devoured mine pronto.



And then I got an email from cousin Anand in Chennai, who saw a TV programme there where it was said that it is so cold in Finland that people are having cold water baths to improve their blood circulation.

What I was doing was nothing so sensational (or stupid!). I was trying to heat our home to get it warmer!! The Russians have lopped off part of the power supply to Finland. I was busy last evening adding more heat to the house using our wood furnace to complement the night storage heating system which heats the house and also provides us with running hot water all through the day. Good thing we saved that antique burner when the renovation was done a couple of years ago.

Wednesday and Thursday...

The cold weather is rapidly moving across Finland.

That we had to take Annikki's mother to the Old People's Home on Wednesday was a daunting thought, thinking of how we struggled for over an hour to bring her in the last time we brought her home.

I had been to the Disabled Person's Equipment Centre and reported our problem. They arrived yesterday morning with a wheelchair so that we could take her in and out of the house in a wheelchair rather than make her walk down the few stairs.

However, they discovered that using the wheelchair would not be so easy. They have organised for the building department experts to come in and evaluate how best to modify the stairs at the entrance into the house so that we can wheel her in and out comfortably.

Annikki had her mother ready by around 15:00 hours. We decided to try and walk her out as usual. The situation soon became one of great panic. We had to give up. We had her sit in the wheelchair and we sat down and thought. Annikki was sweating profusely and even had to change her shirt, which was something considering the ambient temperature was -20 C.

We decided we would call an Invalid Taxi to take Hilja to the Home. That sort of solved the problem as taxi drivers in Finland know exactly how to handle whheelchairs in difficult situations.

We were so tired that Annikki gave up her traditional visit to the Fleamarket after dropping her mother.

Today the temperature was around -27 C.

I posted a warning to our foreign friends in Oulu on my CHAFF blog.

In the evening today I took Annikki on her round of her favourite fleamarkets.

Usually I sit in the car and wait for her. This time it was far to cold to wait in the car. So I popped into the fleamarket and carried one of the 3 books by Alex Alexander that I had received today.

Waiting for Annikki in the Fleamarket
I read some of the short stories by Alex Alexander

I have read the first few short stories. Being Indian and knowing the context of our thinking in all sorts of situations, I really appreciate Alex's humour as well as his writing style.

I am looking forward at finishing all the three books over the weekend. Judging from what I have read so far, I feel they will all be good reads.

Someone help me...

George Chandy and C. Chandy are two children of Administrator K. Chandy, one of the two well-known Malayali families who served the Mysore Maharaja. The other was my grandfather, Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan, also known around Mysore and Kerala as Mysore Matthan.

I know quite a bit about the history of the Kuriyan Matthan family in Mysore (which became Karnataka), but someone has posed a question about the equally famous K. Chandy family of Mysore.

Both K. Chandy and Mysore Matthan graduated from Madras Christian College, K. Chandy being one year ahead of Mysore Matthan. Both sat the Indian Civil Service Examination. K. Chandy, in his year, came first and joined the Mysore Civil Service. A year later Mysore Matthan followed him into the Mysore Civil Service. Both of them excelled and set the seeds for the Malayalis to enter into various walks of like in the then Mysore State.

I received this email from someone in the US:

Hi,

I'm Yorjai Chandy.

My brother Yohann and I are sons of George Sagman Chandy.

G S Chandy and Mammen George Chandy [his brother] are sons of Mr Chandy [Mysore Electricity and Telephones] who had several siblings.

The only names I remember are Commisioner C Chandy, Johnny Chandy [Railways] and Aunty Susy Varghese.

Question: The names seem familiar. Is there somewhere that I fit in the family? Is this family connected with my family?

Thank you for the information,

Yorjai

Brothers Sagman and Dumbo are the sons of George Chandy and Dr. Mrs. Chandy. George Chandy was in the Mysore Electricity Department and was my dad's boss till my dad moved to Bombay. Dr. Chandy was our family doctor when we lived in Bangalore in the 50s.

Cousins of Sagman and Dumbo, Mohan and Jagan, are the sons of Police Commissioner C. Chandy. They had one sister. Mohan served in the Indian Navy and was Captain (Commander) of one of India's submarines, having been trained in Russia. When Mohan was in Bombay (he was also for a time on the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant) he used to be a frequent Sunday lunchtime visitor at our home. He spoke fluent Russian. Younger brother, Jagan's daughter, Mirai was the classmate of our daughter, Susanna, in Bishop Cotton Girl's School in Bangalore, finishing in 1983.

I have some parts of the history of these four cousins who were great family friends when I lived in Bangalore. But my memory is quite sketchy.

Can anyone out there fill me up on as much of the history of the great Mysore Chandy family so that I can help out the greatgrandson of this great personality?

Cold, Colder,....

The temperature in Oulu is dropping and dropping and ......

Yesterday, the thermometer itself was not that low - only around -15 to 17 C. But there was a strong wind which cut through even the warmest of clothing. The chill factor made the temperature feel around -22 C.

Today, the temperature is really -22 C. The temperature for tomorrow is expected to be -27 C.

Luckily, there are no important meetings scheduled in the next few days, so we do not have to go out into the harsh and bitter cold unnecessarily.

But, today we have to take Annikki's mother to the Old People's Home for her "interval care" so that Annikki and I can recharge our batteries! Both of us are dreading that trip later today.

Our new neighbours at Kampitie 6 A are in the spirit of Annikki. The young lady put up a snow rabbit in their garden.



Annikki is waiting for snowman making climate, when the snow is a bit wet and sticky, so that make her creations for this year!

The goldfish are thriving, the 2 remaining small ones born last year (out of 6) in the outside pond, now safely in their own smaller traditional aquarium. The larger ones have grown enormous as can be seen from this picture.

Kampitie Goldfish wintering in Annikki's unique Table Top Aquarium

At least they do not have to winter in the -27 C we have outside!

Annikki went out for the first time

in 3 weeks!

When Annikki's mother is at home, Annikki just does not have the opportunity to step out of the house.

But this Sunday was special.

Local Polling Station

It was election day to elect the Finnish President. Annikki is so emotional about this subject, she took 15 minutes off from her gruelling routine to go and cast her vote. It took just 15 minutes - and thank God it does not involve any fancy computer equipment. Just a piece of paper and a pen and all she had to do was write a number in a circle!!

The polls closed at 20:00 hours and the results, in this high tech country using low tech for safe voting, were out by 21:30.


Annikki leaving after casting her vote

Annikki has a particular vengance against the present Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, who engineered a coup to get rid of Finland's first elected woman Prime Minister, Anneli Jäteenmäki.

Working with the previous Prime Minister, Paavo Lipponen, who was bitter at having lost his post, Matti Vanhanen worked against his own party member to overthrow her.

Further, Annikki firmly believes that this unscrupulous man separated from his wife so that he could appear to the voters as an eligible bachelor!

Anneli Jäteenmäki and the present President, Tarja Halonen, have been firmly anti-war and anti-Bush, which made them at odds with the macho male power brokers of Finland who want to play games with their war toys.

Incumbent Tarja Halonen of the Social Democrat Party and Left Alliance took 46.3% of the vote; Sauli Niinistö of the Conservative National Coalition Party with 24.1% won the runner-up spot from Matti Vanhanen of the Centre Party, the present Prime Minister.

There will be a second round of voting to determine who becomes the next President of Finland, between incumbent Tarja Halonen (SDP, Left Alliance) and the former Finance Minister Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party).

Without doubt Tarja will walk away with the prize in the second round of voting - a well deserved victory.

Georgie celebrates his 74th

There are few people in Chennai that I look up to - and the onethat is at the top of the pack is Georgie (K. George), the former Technical Director of MRF Ltd.

Today he celebrates his 74th birthday after retiring from a glorious career in the company that he built alongside his brother-in-law, K. M. Mammen Mappillai (Kochappachen).

He appears to be a calm and sedate fellow, but he has always been a great fun and frolic maker.

After we left India we did not hear much of him.

Suddenly, out of the blue, after his retirement from MRF, he appeared in our email, and since then he has been the constant source of information as to what is happening around the scenes in India.

Georgie's association with me was from the 50's when he was studying in Bangalore and stayed at the St. Joseph's College Hostel on Lalbagh Road, just opposite where we lived. I had numerous friends in the hostel where I used to go to eat Masala Dosai in the college canteen.

When Kochappachen started to build the tyre factory, he brought in Georgie as the Plant Engineer, and with his quiet diplomacy and hard work he built the great team that allowed MRF to become the Nro. 1 tyre company in India and the 7th largest tyre company in the world.

In addition to seeing him regularly at MRF, I also used to meet up with him at the Rotary meetings - he was in another Madras Club to mine, so we used to meet at different clubs when trying to ensure our weekly attendance.

I wish I had a picture of him to put on the blog. He has avoided being in my camera frame as he has always been the quiet person in the background.

Please join me in wishing this wonderful person, a good friend, a VERY VERY HAPPY 74th Birthday.

CHAFF

Here is the proposed name for the Sunday Club organisation.



Can anyone work on a nice logo for this. I am not much of a designer.

CHAFF has no rules so far, no organisation structure. It is just a set of people in Oulu who want to help others with no stringsd attached.

Suggestions welcome.

Hundreds of Season's Greetings...

There have been many hundreds of Season's Greetings that reached us in many different forms, online cards, emails, greeting cards, telephone greetings, Christmas letters, letters.

It is difficult to say thank you to all of you for the outpouring of love seen in the greetings received.

We usually pick up one greeting as the one that touches us, Annikki and me, most. This year the one we have picked is the one from our former driver in India, Mr. K. Narayanan.



He, and his family were part of our family for the years that we lived in Madras (now Chennai). He used to work for the firm that my father was the CEO of, Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE).

TCE closed their office in Chennai, My dad told me that he was very happy with a driver who was courteous, spoke a little English, and above all was an exceptionally good driver.



K. Narayanan arrived at our door in 1970 and was our personal driver for the time we lived in Chennai between 1970 and 1975. He has remained a family friend since and we have seen his family grow up, and now they are married. His son is a computer engineer and doing well.

Only those who know India know how important it is to have a good driver in your employment. You may leave thousands of rupees in his custody by way of what is in the car, as well as the car itself. Above all, you leave the life of your children and your loved ones, as well as your own, in his hands.

Mr. Narayanan was someone we trusted implicitly. He never ever violated our trust in him.

Now that he is retired and settled in his home area near where his son works, we chose his greeting as the one we most appreciated this year, not in any way demoting the significance of all the others who sent us greetings.

Season's Greetings Mr. K. Narayanan and convey the same to all your family.

CHAFF - what is it?

Over the last six months a small group of foreigners have been meeting together to try to help other foreigners who have problems. Slowly, this group has expanded and the help has been offered, not only to foreigners in Oulu but also to many Finns.

Finns travelling to various parts of the world have been given guidance by experienced members of the group.

China and India are some of the hot destinations that Finns have wanted information about. Finns have wanted interpretation services and advice about culture and customs of the places they want to travel to.

This group has been able through its network to find suitable help for the people who have come to it.

The group has been searching for a name to depict the work it is doing. After much sould searching one name has been thrown up.

"Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners"

Abbreviated, this can be read as

"CHAFF"

.

The word CHAFF has many meanings. One of this is that it is name of husk from grain when it is polished. This is usually considered as waste and used as animal feed.

However, health conscious people know that CHAFF is full of nutritional value.

CHAFF is Valuable Rubbish.

In Finland, the views of foreigners are generally considererd to be of not much value. It was considered most appropriate that our CHAFF is us, the valuable rubbish in Finland.

A second meaning of CHAFF is light-hearted joking. Our group, which is not a formal organisation, is certainly very light-hearted.

At today's meeting, the name CHAFF was proposed and it was accepted by all.

What sort of organisation CHAFF will become cannot be predicted today. However, at least there is an appropriate name for the work being done.

Today, was a meeting at the Pailin Thai Restaurant which was attended by many Indians (8), Finns (5), Chinese (2), Thais (2) and Zambian (1). Many regulars could not attend as they have not yet returned from their winter holidays.

Our Hungarian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Gambian, Dutch, etc. nationals could not join us today.

Amongst those prsent was one Finn who will leave next week on a trip to Kerala and South Tamilnadu in India as part of a Rotary District Exchange programme.

The discussions today centered on three topics.

1. How to legitimately pay less taxes in Finland.
2. The imporatance of joining a Union in Finland.
3. An introduction to Kerala through the life of Mrs. K. C. Mammen Mappillai, the humble wife of the doyen of Kerala, as seen through a video about her life set in the Backwaters of Kerala.


CHAFF group enjoying Pailin food

This was followed by a sumptuous meal with the choice of a regular Thai meal, Pizzas and the Pailin Thai Sweet Chilli Wrap, the hit fast food of 2006.






Kamu and Paneer discuss Gobar Gas


My thanks to all for participating.

CHAFF has an exciting future ahead of it.

I give up...

Being attacked from all sides, Superdog won the day!

Superdog Samuel show me his tail

History buffs from all corners of the globe weighed in on the side of the 8 year old Superdog Samuel about Elizabeth I being a Tudor and not a Stuart. It was as if he got me vulnerble to Krypton and not the other way around!

Among the first of those who emailed me was Shalu from Chennai:

Hi Sushil,

Samuel, your grandson, I think is right in saying your Encyclopaedia is not correct.

From what I know Queen Elizabeth the 1st, was the last of the Tudors as she was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

She had no children.

When she died issueless, James the 1st (son of Mary Queen of Scots) came to the throne and, for the first time, England and Scotland were ruled together by a single king.

He began the Stuart line.

Many more of our blog readers came through with the same views proving that the Hutchinson Encylopedia was wrong.

I am toying with the idea of writing a stinker to the Editor of the Encyclopedia, as no Grandpa likes to be put to shame by his 8 year old grandson!

Saturday, and I went to watch Soda play football for his Tervarit Junior's side.

The Tervarit side played as if they were a bunch of novices. The defence was wide open. They virtually gave the opposing team all the five goals as gifts, including a penalty. They managed to salvage one goal from a free kick.

If the team plays in such a lethargic fashion, there is no hope for them.

The opposing side were well trained and played hard from start to finish. They chased the ball and in 99% cases they reached the ball before the Tervarit player. Their No. 8, in particular, played a super game along the left wing, running hard and controlling the ball with a long stride.

Most of the Tervarit players walked about the field waiting for the ball to come to them. They also used diastrous tactics of playing the ball across their own goal in the defnce area, time and time again, giving up valuable ground and playing into the hands of the attackers.

As I told Soda, unless each Tervarit player, including in particular, Soda, improves their stamina and their own personal games, there is no point in playing as a team. Personal fitness is above all importmant, as each member of the side has to been seen to play hard, instead of ambling along the pitch as if the rest of the team should pass the ball to them.

That is no way to play football.

In football the players have to be constantly on the move, constantly positioning themselves so that the ball can be safely passed to them. That needs a huge amount of energy on the part of the players. I did not see this today in the Tervarit Junior's side.

Morning reading...

(This entry has been cross-posted in all the three blogs today.)

We recieved this very beautiful email from a very valued dear friend, Cynthia, from Canada:

Your Blog has become part of my morning routine and I love reading all your entries and how wonderful it is that so many ex-students are in touch via your tremendous efforts. Keep up your good work.

It is unfortunate that you had 'a negative response', - there is always someone out there ready to criticize but would not take on what you have done all these many years.

I am sure you must have more positive comments than negative ones, so don't ever feel guilty about the past ... what's done is done ... learn from any mistakes you might have made and continue with your great Blog entries.

We have been astounded that how many of you have virtually made our three main blog pages as a daily stopover. The daily viewing figures have inspired us no end.

Let us assure all those who received our New Year's letter to alma maters, that quite the diametrically opposite happened when we received that negative mail, the only single one in 10 years, and that was 7 years ago.

It drove us to be better. In the subsequent years we have not received any negative comments.

As our correspondent said, the most important thing about life is to learn from one's mistakes and not commit the same mistake twice.

In 99.9 instances, we have been able to do just that. But there is one mistake Annikki and I have made time and time again. And for that we have no regrets.

Whenever we see people in trouble, we remember our "Christian" values - "love thy naighbour as thyself" and "anyone in trouble is our most IMMEDIATE neighbour."

People have exploited this trait in both of us. But it is something we do not regret, as for every person who misuses this and exploits our values, there are 999 who do become our dear friends for life.

That has what has made our life so full and personally rewarding.

Our friends are stretched out to all corners of this globe. Although we may not be rich and famous, we have REAL friends who are worth more to us than all the money in the bank, our mansions or luxurious cars!



Our 20 year old jalopy, also known as our "little rabbit", will never be touched by any car thief. He/she maybe will even donate a few bob so that we get ourselves a better looking one. But it is valuable to us as it does the job on hand.

Today, the last day of the Christmas season, which is a holiday in Finland, when we opened the local newspaper, we got a most pleasant surprise. The powerful short letter (which I featured the Finnish version in day-before-yesterday's blog entry) that Annikki wrote in response to the idiotic letter which had appeared in the newspaper saying that Finland should be an unicultural society, was published in today's letter's page.

We may soon be shouting "seven in one blow" if this newspaper keeps publishing all that Annikki writes. (We are sure all of you know the story about the tailor and how he killed seven flies when he brought down the fly-swatter and how his poweress of killing seven in one blow spread far and wide. Our grandchildren know the story, so we have assumed that all your grandparents did tell it to you.)

And finally, we spoke for an hour with 8 year old grandson, Samuel, in Newcastle, last night.


2000: Samuel's T-shirt caption says "I am small but dangerous"
and we can vouch for that!

He is, now-a-days, accompanying his mother to the library, as she goes there to study for her exams. This 8 year old rascal is gobbling up children's history books for 5 to 6 hours a day.

And then, every evening, he wants to test OUR knowledge of history!

We have a slight problem. One of you historians out there may be able to help us.

In our Encyclopedia, the British Queen Elizabeth I is shown as the first member from the House of Stuart. However, her father, Henry VIII, is shown as from the House of Tudor. It is known that Elizabeth I did not marry. So how did this change of Royal House take place?.

Samuel claims our Encyclopedia is wrong. Please help us resolve this grave problem. Otherwise we may be the victims of his "dangerous" blow! :-)

Chamber of Assistance for Foreigners

What started as the 4 person chit chat group of four foreigners in Oulu is expanding so rapidly that the Chamber of Assistance for Foreigners is now taking final shape.

But, we seem to be also helping many Finns plann their visit other countries as China, Thailand and India.

So we may to drop the "for Foreigners" from our proposed name.

Our next meeting this Sunday, 8th January 2006, promises to be a blockbuster. As so many are planning to go to Kerala in te next few days I have decided to play the very personal Video CD about my grandmother, which shows the beautiful scenery of the "Backwaters of Kerala".

Backwaters of Kerala

The star of the movie is this lady.


Valliammachi

Since Kannan, our quite outstanding Civil Engineer from Pondicherry, has got a great job at the Fifth Nuclear Power Plant to be built in Finland as the Site Engineer, I thought we could help several of you (and him) by talking about how to legitimately save on your income tax payments - which are quite high in case you do not take the correct steps as Finns do.

With some Finns going to India, I also thought we could help them with some of their travel plans, finding interpreters, etc.

So it appears this is going to be a great meeting with good food served up at the Pailin Restaurant. Choice of Thai, Pizzas and Kebabs as well as traditional Fast Foods.

Life is not moving to the slow lane

As each day of 2006 dawns, I find I am getting to a more and more hectic schedule. Today I had an early morning call from Pondicherryite Kannan from Rauma (south western Finland), where he was negotiating his new work contract as Site Engineer at the 5th Nuclear Power Plant to be built in Finland. He was also going to go to the Police Station to get his Residence and Work Permit ratified. (In the evening I caught him in the train on his way back to Oulu - SUCCESS.)

I had a meeting at the University at 07:30 and then another at 08:30. By 09:30 I picked up Paneer, our visitor to Oulu from Villipuram, Tamilnadu, and we met Kati Hjerp, the Chairperson of the Swallows of Nothern Finland who is also a Board Member of the Finnish Association of World Shops.

Kati is on her way to India on Monday - and so I rushed out an SOS to Malathi Khembhavi to meet up with her when she passes through Mumbai.

Finnophile Malathi Khembhavi, Oulu, 2004

Kati and her friend are going to Machlipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. I was able to inform her of the work of the late Aune Hyny who passed away in 2004. She had run an orphanage and school in Machlipatnam with the help of the Pentecostal Church.

I also pointed out that Machlipatnam was the home of another Oulu-ite, Tuulikki Teppo, whom Annikki and I took out to India in 1991. She too runs a small orphanage in Machlipatnam.


Indophile Tuulikki Teppo at Mother Theresa's Home for
abandoned children in Hyderabad in 1993, Copyright Jacob Matthan, 1993

Vamsi Krishna Palukuru, whom I had found on Monday sitting in my former laboratory in Oulu University, the Microelectronics and Material Science Laboratory, is from that area. At my request he is trying to find an interpreter for Kati and her friend when they visit that area. Vamsi is doing his doctorate under Professor Heli Juntunen.

Paneer had his heart set on buying a digital camera. His budget was Euro 200 and he had located a Canon at that price. I took him to the store and found that the one he had chosen was just a 4 Megapixel camera with ordinary batteries. There was a better one, 5.3 megapixels, with a Lithium Ion rechargable battery capable of being directly mains charged at the same price - knocked down from Euro 319 to Euro 199.

So he bought that. I was so happy to see the feeling of glee of a small boy getting what he had wanted to possess all his life. Paneer will now be able to record the rest of his visit to Finland using that camera!!

The afternoon was spent going through the legal and financial problems of another foreign couple in Oulu. I hope we can help them pull out of their disastrous route where they had been cheated by a Finnish businessman.

And finally, there was a recent letter to the Editor of our local paper about how Multiculturalism was all rubbish and Finland should be an unicultural nation. Annikki was furious with that article. She wrote a powerful short rebuttal which I sent off to the newspaper by the afternoon.

i am sure the newspaper will not publish Annikki's letter as they are prejudiced. The real complaint that Annikki and I have is not about the fool who wrote that letter but that a national newspaper like the Kaleva could publish such rubbish.

For those that can read Finnish, here is Annikki's letter to the Editor of Kaleva. to get the English version, please contact me.

Yksi yhteinen maailmamme

Esa Holappa (Kaleva 30.12.2005) sohaisi väitteillään monikulttuurista "muurahaiskekoa", joka on koko maailma. Meillä on vain tämä yksi maailma. Se on monikulttuurinen, elävä ja alati muuttuva ja ollut aikojen alusta. Se pitää sisällään elämän eri alueet, kuten kielet, tieteet taiteet ja suuret keksinnöt. Aika on hävittänyt monet ikivanhat kulttuurit. Ne ovat jättäneet jalkeensä merkittävät jäljet ja toimineet perustana muille maailman kulttuureille. Ilman niitä monikulttuurisia perintöjä, ei olisi nykyisen kaltaista maailmaa.

Suomi on aina ollut ja on monikulttuurinen maa. Yksikulttuurista maata ei todella ole olemassakaan. Sellainen on täysi mahdottomuus. Ainoastaan diktatuurit ja hirmuhallitukset pyrkivät siihen pakkokeinoin.

Suomalaiset ovat taustoiltaan ja tavoiltaan alunperin täysin muukalaisia täällä. Pyrkimällä keinotekoiseen yhtenäisyyteen jakamalla kansa, kuka tänne jää jäljelle? Ehkäpä edes alueellinen maisema, metsät ja järvet.

Suomalaiset ovat perimältään ja tavoiltaan maailman kansojen sekoitus.

Eurooppa on aina ollut eri aikoina kukoistava monikulttuurinen alue, mikä vaikuttaa vahvasti tämän päivän Suomeen. Eurooppa sisältää koko maailman kulttuuria ammoista ajoista.

Suomi kuuluu maailmaan ja on kansoihin nähden pieni vähemmistö. Eikö sellainen vähemmistö kansa saisi olla olemassa, näkyä ja kuulua?

Esa Holapan ihannemallin mukaisesti näin pienellä vähemmistö kansalla ja maalla ei ole oikeutta kuulua osana samaan yhteiseen maailmaan. Hänhän vastustaa juuri erilaisia vähemmistöjä.

Huomioimalla myönteisesti jokaisen ihmisen olemassaolon oikeudet rakennamme myöskin itsellemme parempaa Suomea ja koko maailmaa.

Annikki Matthan

And so on....

Have WE really retired?

Happy New Year

Annikki and I would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

A warm room awaits you here
Photo by Kannan