A new artist phase - Wire Mesh....

Annikki goes through phases as an artist. She has been through her chalk drawing, textile designing, ginger bread houses, edible art, rubbish recreation and many other phases in her 60+ years. Each one is ahead of its time and a few years after she has exhausted her phase it can be seen in art decor magazines.

Winner of the 1998 Ginger Bread House Competition.

Her unique cake calendar adorned many tables across the world for the whole of 2005!


The happiest face of this creative designer -
When she has ME guessing!

This year she wanted to protect the sand pit from cats in the neighbourhood who were using it as a toilet.


Cat intruder protector disguised as a wire mesh wigwam

So she created a wigwam from chicken wire mesh, but her thoughts were not just about the protection as she was already thinking artistically as to how that wire mesh would look as winter snow and frost descended on Oulu.

A few weeks later she was hunting in Oulu hardware shops for all sorts of wire mesh as she had entered a wire mesh designing phase


Cone covers for plants

Her first attempt was to create some cone covers for new plantings.



Then she created a bird which she hung on the tree in front of the garden,


Wigwam now gets clouds

Then she decided her wigwam needed some clouds hovering over it.


What is this going to turn out to be?

Many more creations have found their way into the garden. But now she has got me foxed as she has put a bundle in a wooden drum in the front of the garden and she has me guessing what this is going to turn out to be.

I will have a prize for anyone who correctly forecasts her intentions! (Honest, I have no idea what it is going to turn out to be!)

It's great fun to be married to someone who has retained her little girl character and enjoys playing with things!

Thayyil Kandathil Family Directory 2007

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



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



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

Mariam Matthan Family Tree

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

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

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

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

Bombay Mix in Oulu

Posted on Jacob's Blog, the Oulu Best Buy Blog and the Oulu CHAFF Blog.

Last Sunday, after our CHAFF get.together at the Coffee House, I dropped in to see Indu, Ashesh and little Karthik. Indu served me two varieties of Bombay Mix, one that she had brought from India and the other that Ashesh had picked up from London.

I have a great love for Bombay Mix and I had located that the Secondhand Shop on Isokatu (next to the Hai Long Chinese Restaurant) has a wide selection of nuts and other delicacies, including Bombay Mix at € 7.50 per kg, Pecan Nuts at € 25 per kg and Brazil Nuts at € 20 per kg. Annikki loves all the three, while I confine myself to the Bombay Mix.

Another shop which also has this great selection of nuts is Herkku Rosa next to the Oriental Shop on Rautatienkatu (the road on which the Oulu Railway Station is located). However, prices here are higher here. They have two types of Bombay Mix, spiced and normal, both at € 9,90 per kg, Pecan Nuts is € 29.90 per kg and Brazil Nuts at € 19.90 per kg.

Do remember that at the Secondhand Shop that whenever you buy € 15 at one time, you can get a stamp on the Customer Card so that on the 10th time you get € 15 back, an effective 10% discount on every € 150 of purchase.

As this is also being posted on the Oulu Best Buy Blog, the best buys of today are at the Tokmanni shop, one of which is at Kaijonharju Shopping Centre (near the University) and at Jukkolankuja on the south side of Oulu. Oranges are €0.89 per kg, Bravo ice cream is just € 0,50 per litre when you buy 2 packets, and Beef Mince is € 1.99 for 400 gm which works out at less than € 5 per kg.

On a sad note I have to inform CHAFF participants that the Pailin Restaurant where we used to meet with the wonderful cooking of authentic Thai food by Pornpailin Weber, has finally closed its doors on the 25th of October. We will all miss the wonderful friendship of Pornpailin and also her superb cooking.

The next CHAFF meeting will be on Sunday at 13:00 hours at the Coffee House with entrances on both Isokatu and also the Rotuari Square. Last week the bulk of the meeting was about "Arctic Syndrome" which I had written about on the blog.

87 year old great grandmothers

Yesterday evening, Annikki came running down to the cellar wanting me to rush up to the kitchen with the camera.

There I found two 87 year old great grandmothers dozing together with quiet peaceful music coming from the radio.



Hilja was 87 in March of this year. Iitu, our cat, was brought home by Joanna as a present for Annikki in March 1991. Converting cat years to human years, Iitu is also around 85 - 87 years old.

Iitu is remarkably fit and well, going out hunting every day and making sure her territory is free of intruders.

Iitu is a superbly intelligent cat. Even as a little kitten she knew how to jump on door handles, put her weight on them and push doors open.

She was taught hunting by me. Every night, as I brushed my teeth before going to bed, she would jump into bed to wait for me. There, she insisted I play a cat and mouse game, with me moving my hand under the blanket while she would pounce on it the minute I exposed even a tip of a finger even for a second. For Iitu it was not a game, as she used to keep her sharp kitten claws fully extended at each pounce! As soon as I fell asleep, she would push off.

Even these days, she trots up to bed at my side, and though she does not want to play the cat and mouse game very often, when she gets a chance, she goes for my fist! After she executes the kill she will lovingly lick the injured finger!

In the old days, the roof at Kampitie was a felt roof. Iitu could go in and out from the upstairs window using the fire escape ladder and the roof above the entrance porch to the house which was just below the window. The first rung of the ladder is almost 2 metres off the ground. This little kitten could jump up, and in one smooth movement climb up the ladder going in and out between the rungs.

In 2003 we changed the roof to a metal one. Iitu learnt fast that she could not use it the same way as the felt roof as she slid down it just once. She lets us open the front door or the cellar door to go out, calling us from whatever we may be doing. To come in, she climbs 4 metres up a tree in the neighbour's garden which is just next to the roof ridge. Then, keeping her paws on both sides of the ridge, she is able to walk on the metal roof without sliding. Iitu then uses the window to come in!

When Iitu was a kitten, Annikki's father was so amazed by the agility of this kitten and her intelligence, he built a small ledge outside the upstairs window so that Iitu could use it as her perch to see the world and also to make it easier for her to come in or go out.



Iitu had only one litter - when she was 2 years old. She was a good mother, but when the kittens were a few weeks old, she made it clear that they had to fend for themselves, just as she had done! She was glad to get the home for herself after we found good homes for her kittens.

We let the great grandmothers enjoy their restful evening together!

Remembering two important people in my life

Last night, as the clock ticked past midnight, Annikki and I remembered two people, both of whom Annikki did not have the chance to know as they passed away before we met. But she knew them through me and others whom she had met in later life.



Today is the 130th birth centenary of Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan, also known as Mysore Matthan, my paternal grandfather. He is survived by four of his 11 children, Mrs. T. Thomas (Elizabeth, Chinchaya, my godmother, standing second from left), Mr. Jacob Matthan (Kochuppapen, the youngest son who at his retirement was the Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation, standing on far right) and the two youngest children, Mrs. M. V, Kurian (Grace, Accahi, sitting far right) and Mrs. G. T. Verghese (Susan, Papachi, sitting third from right). All of the surviving members, including grandson George Matthan Jr.. sitting on the floor, now reside in Bangalore, although Accachi does spend time with her daughter in Ernakulam.

At one point of my life, Annikki and I did live in Mandya District in Karnataka. It was only then that I discovered how Mysore Matthan was loved by so many people in that part of Karnataka, as he had changed the lives of many people by his wisdom and concern for the ordinary people that he had governed when he was an Administrator in the service of the Mysore Maharaja.

The second person that I remember today is my elder sister, Nalini, who tragically passed away on this day 47 years ago.

Nalini, as a baby - with the beautiful smile
that she carried through her entire life.

I remember, vividly, how she returned to India to have her baby in Bombay. I was at the Santa Cruz airport to receive her, as I was on holiday from college in Delhi.

It was a wonderful holiday, as it included a family weekend of living in a shack in Juhu Beach, Bombay, as my mother's brother's family, Mr. K. M. Philip (Peelukuttychayan, former World Y. M. C. A. President and now 95 and still active), his wife, Chinnamakochamma, and children, Sen and Suresh, were also with us.

During that wonderful weekend where we swam in the sea, played games on the beach, played cards in the shack, and in general had a really great time, we enjoyed having my sister back from her time in England where she had been living with her husband.

Nalini, although eight months pregnant, was so full of life. She was really close to all of us that weekend.

But then, it was time for Suresh and me to return to College. Despite her condition, Nalini insisted on coming to the station to see us off on the Air-Conditioned Deluxe train. She met all my other friends who were travelling with us and walked the long walk down thee Bombay Central Station platform to say goodbye at the door of our compartment. She stayed there to wave goodbye to us as the train pulled away.

Just 2 weeks later, the news of the birth of my first nephew was relayed to me in Delhi. I was able to ring the hospital and speak with her at the joy of the arrival, albeit, just for less than 3 minutes.

But that joy did not last for long as just 4 days later I was told that I should return to Bombay as Nalini had a problem. As I flew from Delhi to Bombay I was told that she had contracted tetanus, a fatal infection, especially in her weak state after childbirth.

When I reached Bombay and went directly to the hospital, she was already in deep sedation as the lock jaw was excruciatingly painful and the body would be put into spasms, which were so strong it could crack the spine.

Although under sedation, she knew when family members were in the room, as when I clasped her hand, she reacted almost immediately to tell me that she knew that I was there.

The next 10 days were nightmarish, as each day we hoped for better news, but each day the news was not good. There were no signs of any improvement and the pain was getting worse by the hour, till at one point we all prayed that God relieve her of this terrible suffering.

And on 29th October 1960, the end came and we all were deeply moved by the passing of a wonderful human being, my dearly beloved sister, who had meant so much to me as also many other people.

The funeral was the next day. Her husband had arrived from the UK. When we said goodbye to Nalini at the Sewri Cemetery, there were tears streaming on faces the many tens of mourners who were there, which included, besides relatives, many of her dear friends from her college days in Bombay and their families, all of whom had been touched by the gentleness and kindness of this human being.

So today, I honour, with a feeling of humbleness, these two wonderful people on this our blog.

Indian contingent due in Oulu

Posted on Jacob's Blog and the Oulu CHAFF Blog.

November 2007 will see a large increase of the Indian engineer population in Oulu. There is a contingent of 20 Indians some with wives and children due to arrive in Oulu during the month.

The first group of 5 are already scheduled to arrive on the 1st of November. The others are waiting for their visas and other papers to arrive.

They are looking for houses, furnished if possible, to rent.

If any of you have any offers to make, please get in touch with me and let me know, as I can put you in direct touch with those arriving.

If they are unable to get furnished appartments, they may need furniture and other household equipment. If you have any, please let me know as I am compiling a list of stuff required against what is available.

Kamu just informed me that he has a good dining table with 4 chairs available for under € 100. We were able to provide a tv, coffee maker, toaster to a young student last week from our existing stock. We still have lots of cups, saucers, glasses, from the summer flea market remains.

This week's CHAFF meeting will be at the Coffee Shop, entrance on Isokatu as well as from the Rotuari Square. Those attending will probably be there after 13:00 hours.

One of the questions that we may discuss this week is the setting up of a Kindergarten, especially for the children who may have to go back to the Indian Education System, which can never be from a Finnish run Play Schools.

This is an enormous social issue and one which needs to be taken very seriously. If there are enough people interested, then we should take it up with the companies, especially the Indian companies, who are deputing their personnel to Oulu.

My recent discussion with the Oulu City Manager for International Affairs was rather disappointing on this front concerning one child, who, because of the pressure we put, will now get admission into an English Platy School by January 2008, after having had to languish in a Finnush language Play School for over a year.

Let it be understood that Oulu, although it claims to be an International City, is far from being International, and the City Authorities neither have the resources or the will to help out those who need their help. They may write nice letters, but that is just not enough!

As was so correctly put by one family (to the City Manager of Oulu International Affairs) which has gone through misery and from pillar to post:

"Thanks you for your understanding.

Teachers in xxxxxxxx Kindergarten asked us to give an application to the yyyyyyyyyy kindergarten.  We gave the application. It was in fact the same application which my wife gave to yyyyyyyyyy in Nov 2006.

They told us that there may be openings in 2008 only.

I think this is too late for us.

We have severe problems with Language issues already now.

Since our native language is not Finnish and our stay in Finland is not confirmed to be permanent, we want to pursue our daughter's studies in English. We are unable to help her with her simple questions due to the language issue. This is getting worse day by day.

May you please expedite this matter and help us in getting some place in yyyyyyyyyy sooner than 2008.

Thanks again for your time."

To solve these problems, yet to be able to meet the requirements of a short stay in Finland, it is imperative that the Indian Style Kindergarten has to be started in Oulu. Annikki and I are willing to help, but the onus must lie on the Indian Companies who are deputing their staff to live and work in Oulu. Expect nothing but lip service and a lot of red tape from local authorities who are just not in the know of what an international environment demands!

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Arctic Syndrome

A young student from a country far south of Finland expressed to me yesterday that she was suffering from a seasonal illness. On further questioning she told me that she could feel her heart pounding and it was almost as if she was having a heart attack. She had been advised by doctors that this was because of the darkness, and that she should have more lights in her room.

With lots of Indians now coming to live in these northern latitudes, I felt that maybe I should share some of the thoughts I have on some of my experiences of living in Finland, as it may help some of the newcomers.

What this young student is gong through is what I have labelled many years ago as "Arctic Syndrome". This is not to be confused with "Arctic Hysteria" which is also known as "Piblokto", which  is a condition exclusively appearing in Inuit societies living within the Arctic Circle. This appears most prevalently in winter and is considered to be a form of a culture-specific disorder. The symptoms could include intense "hysteria" (screaming, uncontrolled wild behavior), depression, coprophagia, insensitivity to extreme cold and more. This condition is most often seen in dogs and Eskimo women.

The forms of Arctic Syndrome that I have experienced and is common to men and women as far south as Oulu, about 150 km south of the Arctic Circle, is similar to the extent that it causes rapid increase of the heartbeat, but the hysteria is almost as if the person has become claustrophobic.

I first felt this the very first winter I faced in Finland in 1984. I realised that what was affecting me was the lack of sunshine, and probably the lack of Vitamin D. This may have been part of the reason. I knew I had to overcome this. Nobody I talked to had any explanation and there was no easy access to internet databases those days to tell me what I was experiencing.

My own remedy, which was what my body told me to do,  was that I went to work very early, before the sun rose, and I stayed at work, in a warm bright environment till well after what would have been my normal sunset - after 7 pm, whereas the sun was actually setting before 5 pm. My body told me that my mental clock was out of rhythm with the daylight clock around me. I felt that if I could immunise myself from the actually time clock and fool my mental clock to think I was still in a time zone it felt comfortable with, my body could be fooled into thinking that my mental clock was functioning normally.

The atmosphere where I worked, inside the University, was such that I was able to do this quite well. I found that my mental clock believed that I was in the time zone which I was used to. I had problems on weekends, as I was usually the only one at work and if I happened to look out of my window, I could see the darkness coming down. So I pulled down the shutters of my office room to allow myself the isolation from the darkness outside of my brightly lit room.

It took me about 3 years to get over this and after that I found I was not bothered by this problem.

Annikki also has a similar version of this Syndrome in that she cannot sleep at night till exhaustion puts her to sleep. But she does not have the other side effects as the feeling of being shut in. That is probably because is born in this environment and her mental clock is able to run into the new darkness routine. However, even after the last 20+ years after her return to Finland after living in India, she still finds it difficult to get to sleep in winter.

I have not used any artificial aids to get over this syndrome, but it is likely that extra dosages of Vitamin D could help. Bbut then, I am not a doctor and also not a quack to give any prescription to anyone!

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Autumn sales

Posted on the Oulu Best Buy Blog and also on Jacob's Blog.

This weekend has lots of great offers as the autumn sale season has started. And this is not just on clothes.

Stockman, the big department store in Oulu, has 30% discount on many items. PRISMA, which has many outlets in Oulu has a 15% discount on many non-food items.

These are some other great offers for this weekend:

K - Supermarket:
Carrots, Beetroot, € 0.99 for 2 kg
Onions € 0.99 for kg
Leaf Salad € 0.69 for a bunch

K - Citymarket:
Clementine, Honey Melon. Green Paprika € 0.99 per kg
Arctic Salad € 0.79 for a bunch
Whole Rainbow Trout Fish € 3.99 per kg (these fish are usually 4 to 6 kg)

Euromareket:
Polish Apples € 0.99 per kg
Tyrnävä Potatoes € 2.99 for 10 kg
First Price Jam € 0.99 for a 900 g, container

Säästö-kouppa in Haukipudas (about 20 km north of Oulu):
16 rolls of Serla Toilet paper and 8 Rolls of Household Paper Rolls € 7.90 (and you also get a free Hand Tissue box of value € 1.00 when you buy this)
Brazilian watermelon € 0.99 per kg

PRISMA:
Bananas € 0.99 per kg

Tokmanni:
Sea salmon € 3.98 per kg (these fish are between 4 and 6 kg)

American stupidity or insanity?

There is this news item in the American media

7-year-old suspended over stick-figure drawing

Complaint about image depicting 'water pistol' leads to disciplinary action

about a 7 year old who had drawn a stick figure image of a person with a gun pointing at another stick figure.

He gave the drawing to a another child on a schoolbus who gave it to his parents. The parents complained about the image and the 7 year old was suspended from school for day.

The mother of the child who had drawn the image told the newspaper that the picture was a drawing of a water pistol.

I always knew that many Americans are downright stupid.

However, this episode shows that many of them are just insane.

When are they going to ban violent computer games?

Are they going to ban American movie and tv directors using weapons in their films?

Some school children playing cops and robbers were admonished because they were shooting at each other using their fingers as guns!

Wonder whether they will also ban the children from playing cowboys and Indians!

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Sports on TV this last weekend

Now that the leaves are fallen and the satellite antenna is providing us with some 200 channels, I am able to watch many sports channels, which is not possible on Finnish channels unless you pay to watch the sports, live. (I dislike watching recorded sports, especially if I already know the result.)

This last weekend was full of "sport" with many unusual results. Here are some personal observations about what I witnessed.

First the Madrid ATP Tennis Championship, where I saw the unranked David Nalbandian of Argentina first whip the No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain on Friday, Serbian Novak Djokovic in the semifinal on Saturday, and this afternoon he showed phenomenal form to beat the World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland. David Nalbandian became third man to beat world's three top players en route to a title.

I can understand Nalbandian beating Rafael Nadal, as Nadal had a tough match against Andy Murray of England. I could see that this unbelievably fit human being, nadal, was tiring, but his quality tennis pulled him through against Murray.

Against Nalbandian, Nadal was overpowered by this stronger fitter individual as the signs of the strain of the week showed through. Nalbandian then beat Djokovic in the semifinal.

But the win against Federer, who is such a superb tennis player, probably the greatest I have seen in my lifetime, was quite difficult to understand. It seemed to me that Federer was giving up in the second set.

Then to Cricket, where India beat Australia in the Twenty20 match on Saturday. Although I was not able to see the match live, using CricInfo text commentary and YouTube rapid uploads by some dedicated cricket lovers, I was able to see this exciting win by India, almost live.

Then there was the World Rugby Union Championships. First Argentina whipped France for the third place. Yesterday, I watch South Africa beat England without a single try being scored in this game.

I have watched a lot of Rugby in my life. I always have thought it was a rough sport. But when I watched this final on tv, the realisation was this was probably the most violent of all field sports dawned on me. There were bleeding faces, cut eyes, dislocated shoulders and almost every minute of the 80 minutes was brutal. The tv conveyed this brutality right into the living room. I was in the centre of all this violence. I really wondered how these grown men could subject themselves and others to this degree of sheer physical torture.

It was interesting to see that when a player was ordered off the field by the referee, with blood streaming from both his eyes, he was back on the field at the first opportunity to take further part in this gladiatorial sport.

And finally, I watched the Formula 1 Championship which was held at Interlagos, Brazil. There were 3 people with a chance of winning the World Championship, and the one with the least chance was the Finn, Kimi Raikkonen, known as the "Ice Man" as he hardly displays any emotion on his face or in his voice, driving the Ferrari.

But win the Brazil race he did, and with  Fernando Alonso of McLaren in 3rd place and Lewis Hamilton, also of McLaren, in 7th place, the World Championship went to Kimi, with Alonso and Hamilton getting joint second place, each with 109 points against Kimi's 110.

Almost every tv in Finland was probably tuned to seeing this race. As Finland celebrates this victory, my weekend of sports viewing taught me much!

The finesse of great tennis, the fantastic action of Twenty20 Cricket, the endurance and skill of great driving of Formula 1 cars and the intolerable physical violence of Rugby.

I did watch some football and handball over the weekend, but give me Twenty20 cricket and tennis as the two best sports to watch to pass the time away as we grow older.

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Can anyone explain this?

The 1984 Ford Escort, more widely known among my friends as THE RABBIT, was painted and done up by my friend, Nassar, who has a garage on the outskirts of Oulu. One of the things he did was replace the badly frayed safety belt on the driver's side. As he could not find an original, he used another make very similar to the original.

When I went to pick up the car, as I was intending to drive away, I found I could not pull out the belt.

I asked Nassar. Try as he and his mechanic could, for almost half an hour, the belt refused to come out.

We agreed that I would go and order a belt from the Ford Dealer as this was such an old car and none could be found anywhere.

I drove to the nearby petrol station and after filling gas,  I started the car, and as I was driving out, I tried the safety belt, and it reeled out beautifully.

I stopped at another friend's place to get a replacement battery, as the one in the car was fully discharged. After doing that, I got in the car and before starting, I pulled on the safety belt. It refused to budge. I started to drive, and even before I changed gear, I tried the belt and it reeled out smoothly.

Since then, I have tried the belt over 50 times. If the car is stationary, the belt refuses to budge. Start the car and drive about 15 to 20 metres, and the belt reels out smoothly.

Can anyone explain this phenomena?

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Risto Uimonen: Raise your blinds!

The other day, the Oulu local newspaper, Kaleva, carried a small news item covering a book by Professor Heikki Patomäki of Helsinki University on neoliberalism. The contents of this book follows rather closely that of David Henry’s book “A Brief History of NeoLiberalism”, which can also be referred to as Reagan Conservative Economics.




“The freedom of neoliberalism is the glory of unfettered, free market economics and the rights of corporations and financial institutions over individuals and governments. It's the freedom to fully exploit resources and workers.”

A couple of days later, the Chief Editor of the Kaleva, Risto Uimonen, wrote a scathing attack on the book, its contents, and also Professor Patomäki. Risto Uimonen was of the opinion that there was no evidence of neoliberalism in Finland and that Professor Patomäki was jousting with ghosts.

It is our opinion that Risto Uimonen is sitting in his Kaleva office room with his blinds drawn down. All he has to draw up those blinds that overlook the Höyhtyä Shopping Center on the other side of the road. If he looks out of the window he will see the backs of two offices, one which is closed while the other which is thriving by taking over the work of the office which has been closed.

There was no major outcry when that office was closed. It was the former Post Office which served a very large area in our neighbourhood as it had inherited much territory since Post Offices in various local areas had been closed.

It is strange that not even the Unions representing the workers of the Post Office were allowed to raise concerns about the handing over of their jobs to a private organisation, the R-Kioski, which is one of the cartels which skins the backs of ordinary citizens with its ridiculously high prices for day-to-day commodities.

This is one of the first steps in the dismantling of the Postal Services from a service into the neoliberal agenda of privatisation, which was the agenda formulated by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and then to Tony Blair.

"How many column centimetres of your newspaper did you give for your readers to discuss the closure of the Höyhtyä Post Office, Mr. Uimonen?"

People think that Bill Clinton was a Democrat. But the way he dismantled the media corporations in the US by getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine has been the primary reason for the concentration of the American mainstream media in the hands of 7 major corporations, whose agenda is on the opposite side of the citizens.

The neoliberalism steps in Finland have been going slowly and steadily in the hands of corrupt politicians right from the days of President Mauno Koivisto (Left 1981 - 1994) and through other Presidents, Marttti Ahtisaari (Left 1994 - 2000) and Tarja Halonen (Left 2000 - ).

There are many skeletons iin the cupboard here in Finland!

It has not mattered which coalition Government has been in power, as all of them have been equally corrupt. Barring Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Centre 2003 for a few months) who was removed from power by a bloodless coup engineered by all three major parties (supported by people such as Risto Uimonen) as she would not have permitted the growth of neoliberalism, Kalevi Sorsa (Left 1982-87), Harri Holkeri (Right 1987-91), Esko Aho (Centre 1991-95), Paavo Lipponen (Left 1995-2003), and Matti Vanhanen (Centre 2003 -) have all been part of the corrupt neoliberal agenda.

The Valko Scandal was the legacy of Kalevi Sorsa, but yet many years after that horrendous corruption issue, he was able to be appointed as Prime Minister. Harri Holkeri continued that neoliberal agenda and that was followed with great show by Esko Aho and Paavo Lipponen, who completely sidelined the people of Finland in handing over the family silver to the hands of the corporate giants.

One need only look at the Post and Telephone Department which was split into Posts and Sonera, the latter of which was handed over to the Swedes with lots of Government officials making a whole lot of money in that deal. Anyone remember the "optio" scandal surrounding Sonera?

Look at the corrupt practices in Neste (the Finnish State Oil and Polymer giant run by a third rate Diploma Engineer just because he was the son of a politician), or the corruption scandal of the Chairman of the Social Democrat Party, Ulf Sundqvist who was left scot-free after his swindling of a whole lot of money, and one realises that the neoliberal agenda which is scoffed at as being "visions of a professor" by a compliant and cooperating media editor, and one sees the cooperation between the Big Brothers in Finland walking their countrymen to the noose of neoliberalism as they undercut the power of the unions and therefore the power of the people.

Risto Uimonen - raise those blinds in your room and look out of the window to see what you choose to now ignore in the interests of your corporate colleagues!

A Mallu feast ends with tears

We have a delighful Mallu couple in Oulu. They are both electronics engineers.

They invited Annikki and me over for dinner. This was one of the very rare weekends that Annikki and I can actually go out together.

Isaac Sundarajan and I always get together for a meal when he arrives from the US, so I asked our hosts whether he could join in.

Nisha and Sunil worked hard (as a team - Sunil did the chopping, Nisha did the cooking) to turn out a wonderful Mallu feast for us.

Mango juice followed by vegetable spring rolls and kappa (tapioca) with super spicey chilli / onion chutney and garlic pickle for starters. Fried rice, tofu in garlic bean sauce, egg curry and cubed turkey for the main meal followed by delicious ice cream to end. And all this was served with mora (beaten yoghurt laced with onion, chilli flavouring).

Annikki was stuffed to gills, almost the feeling of attending the Egyptian meal we went through in the early seventies.

All three of us thoroughly enjoyed the great evening in the company of this lovely young couple.

We had much more in common than we thought, but that is another story.

But all good things must have a nasty end.

Nisha and Sunil have a beautiful daughter, Hannah, who is just four. She was also having a great evening and troubled no one during the entire evening.

As I got up to leave there was a nasty cracking sound as I stepped on one of her lovely plastic golden Christmas bells.

I knew I had really put my foot in it.

Tomorrow, even though it is Sunday, my task is to find her a string of bells that she will enjoy and forget about that one I broke!

A broken heart of a child is something I cannot live with!

Dawn of a new winter

We are now half way through October, but yesterday we saw the footsteps of winter fast approaching.





The ponds are freezing over during the night.



The bridge has frost all over it.

A gardener's work in such circumstances is never over. Annikki has slowly but surely been getting ready for winter, moving plants to their ideal locations and putting the summer stuff away while slowly bringing out all the stuff required for winter.

On Tuesday, she was going into a state of panic as temperatures below zero were being forecast. She was worried about our 14 goldfish in the outside pond.

On Wednesday, she made a concerted effort to catch the fish to bring them in to the indoor aquariums. She netted 12 out of the 13, the last one diving deep into the water to avoid capture.

The next morning the pond was frozen over. She had to break the ice, and a relieved goldfish was happy to be netted and taken in to the comfort of the warm water in the aquarium!

A lot more work to be done to ensure we are safe and secure through winter while continuing to enjoy the creations Annikki makes during the course of winter to warm our cockles!

25 years on

Posted on my Jacob's Blog and the Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog.

On Tuesday, I went Oulu Airport to receive a friend, a very dear friend. In fact, my very best friend when I was in College between 1960 and 1963. He was my inseparable friend of those years.

Ajay arrives in Oulu.

Ajay Verma did Mathematics Honours between 1960 and 1963. Like me, he lived in Mukerji Court. There was only one Mukerji Building block those days. He was in T Block while I was in S Block. We went together for breakfast and dinner. Spent the evening hours after college together going for some scrambled egg on toast for tea and later, after dinner again went to the Cafe to have coffee and a smoke.

We played table tennis together in the JCR or played chess, draughts (checkers) or bridge. He was my bridge partner and together we almost won the first JCR Bridge Championship, except to beaten on the very last hand by the twins, the Rai brothers, Suraj and Chander, who bid an unbelievable 7 spades against our bid of 7 clubs and made that hand. Only the intertwined thinking of identical twins snatched certain victory out of our hands!

Ajay came to College from Pondicherry, where his mother lived in the Arubindo Village. He completed his pre-university from Loyala College, Madras before joining College, although he would have preferred to do engineering at one of the IITs.

Ajay left college and joined the Indian Army by going to the Officer School at Dehra Dun. From there he went into the artillery at Deolali near Nasik and then to Cooch Behar in West Bengal. He was sent to the front line in the war against Pakistan and had the narrowest of escapes when the shelter he was in was blown up just a couple of minutes after he had stepped outside for a cigarette. (So I hardly blame him for continuing this habit!)

He left the army after the war and joined Bata's as a trainee and worked in Calcutta and Faridabad. Ajay did not see much future then and set off to Canada to make his fortune. He stopped at Copenhagen, met his life partner, Else, and settled down in Lund, Sweden. He started work in the Hotel industry and worked for SAS Hotels and then in Airline catering till he finished his career with a series of jobs in SAS Radisson, ending at the Beijing hotel till his retirement late last year. He now consults but is enjoying himself in retirement dabbling in the Swedish stock exchange, more for fun than profit.

He has bought an apartment in Pondicherry and is off in a few days to winter there, away fron the dark and cold winters in Scandinavia. Unfortunately, before he could enjoy his time there, he got news last Friday that his 91 year old mother had passed away.


Ajay talks to Else in Lund.

In his "busy" travel schedule, he has done 15 long haul flights this year, he took a few days off to drop in on Annikki and me. I was wild with him when he told me that when we were meeting after 25 years, he was off in just 3 days. But things were happening in Lund, so I had to let him go.


Ajay sees a windy blustery autumn sunset in Oulu.


Annikki at the Nallikari beach.


Ajay at a windy Nallikari.

During the time in Oulu we had a rip roaring time that only dear friends can enjoy together. We shared news about our past lives and careers, laughed incessantly at all our past pranks, I showed him my small town and with Annikki enjoyed the bitterly cold wind and amazing autumn sunset of the Oulu Nallikari beach.

Like me, he is an early riser, being up ay 5 am, so we enjoyed long days together. It was with great sadness that I bid farewell to him on Friday morning and it was as if a void had descended on Kampitie after his departure.


It is already time for Ajay to leave.

The real spirit of Stephania prevailed in our residence for the short time he was here, urging me to give serious thought to organising a reunion of 1960-1963 Stephanians in Delhi in 2009, when Annikki and I are scheduled to make our next visit to India.

Antiques and Migrating Birds

Posted on my Jacob's Blog and the Oulu Best Buy Blog.

Sunday before last I met Ilari's aunt, Lizzy, at the CHAFF meeting.

Victor and Lizzy

Lizzy told me that she and her Dutch / English husband, Victor Glazer, had moved from Pudasjarvi to a neighbouring county south of Oulu, Liminka, and they had opened an Antique Shop, Viliga Oy (Address: Kauppakatu 6, 91900 Limika; Mobile: 050 5566069; 040 7608503; Fax: 08 3113151).

Ilari Sohlo was Joanna's colleague when studying for their Masters in English Philology at Oulu University. Ilari then became a close friend of Jaakko, our elder son. Subsequently, Ilari and his now wife, Ildikó and Annikki and myself have become good friends, bridging the generations!

Annikki and I are looking for some old fashioned chairs for our old fashioned dining table. Our present set does not have all the characteristics we desire.

Last Sunday, after the CHAFF meeting, we headed out to Liminka, for a dual purpose. To see the new antique shop and then to visit the reputed Liminka Bird Park where migrating birds are said to stop over on their way south.

An interesting signboard

Room filled with antiques

Annikki browses for her interests

Dolls galore

More antiques

The antique shop rambles through three large rooms and some connecting spaces. You look and you may find what you want. There is no one pressuring you. There is no one making a hard sales pitch. If you want clarification, ask Victor, who will tell you what he knows.

As this building was also used to serve as a bank, it has an enormous safe vault. Victor is using it to store some antique deactivated guns.

The concept of Lizzy and Victor is not just to have the run of the mill antique shop. They intend to make it a cultural centre which will host the work of artists, have performances by musicians and make the experience of visiting their centre a real experience.

Lizzy and Victor are visionaries. Annikki was taken by this effervescent couple. They could bring much character to the County of Liminka.

If the County authorities can stretch out their hand to help them develop their unusual ideas, we can predict that this small venture could make history. For instance, the dairy opposite the shop is lying unused. They want to use this for their cultural centre.

Annikki suggested to Lizzy that it may be interesting to leave all the dairy machinery intact, putting the exhibits in that setting, making the atmosphere unique and unusual!

The shop was well filled with customers on this Sunday afternoon. What was surprising was that people were also ringing in to ask about various antiques they have.

The shop has its own web page. Victor told me that this is undergoing a major upheaval.

Beautiful metal candle holders find their place at Kampitie.

Annikki found these really beautiful metal candle holders and they were quickly in their right place at Kampitie when we returned home!

Well done Lizzy and Victor.

Annikki and I wish you very well and we give it high marks on our Oulu Best Buy Blog.

After the visit to the antique shop we set out to visit the Bird Park. We found a large signboard pointing to the Bird Park. I drove in that direction. About 5 minutes later, we turned up at the main road again, where there was a sign for the Bird Park pointing back along the road we had come.

We thought we must have missed the turning to the Bird Park.

On this road there were two side roads, but both turned up blank - no Bird Park to be found.

Finally, after about a half hour of driving around we came across a young lady out for a brisk afternoon walk. Annikki told her our dilemma that we were looking for 200 swans who were supposedly in the Bird Park and we could not find this Bird Park despite the signs.

I do not know whether this young lady thought we were drunk.

She said we were driving in the Bird Park which is a residential colony and some migratory birds do settle down somewhere in this area. However, she had never seen any swans around here!

We gave up our attempt to find the Bird Park and swans and laughed all the way back to Oulu thinking about what that lady would be thinking about us!

Philip Mathew hits 60

Philip Mathew (known to me as Thambi) was a Stephanian a few years after me.



Younger brother to 64er Mammen Mathew (Rajen), Thambi is also the father of a couple of Stephanian boys of the 90s. His sons are married to daughters of a Stephanian of my era, 63er Abe Tharakan, who is the sea food mogul of India.

Thambi manages the Cochin office of the Malayala Manorama. I also think he is managing the English publication of Manorama Group, The WEEK.

Among his interviews I think has been one of Nelson Mandela.

Please join me in wishing him a great 60th.

Spreading like wildfire

The article which appeared in the Readers Digest Living Green: Ranking the best (and worst) countries: By Matthew E. Kahn, PhD, and Fran Lostys has been spreading like wildfire as Reuters carried it in all their language distributions.

Sunset Splatter

Western Sunset Sky

Jacob's ladder of Clouds

Sunset in the Southern Skyline

To calm our nerves we again went to enjoy the great autumn sunset.

Contemplation forced us to send this comment to the Editors of Readers Digest and also post a similar comment on one of their country editions (Australia).

As current residents in Finland, we (authors of "Handbook for Survival in Finland) disagree with ranking of Finland as No. 1.

It is far from reality.

It is a great country viewed from outside.

It polishes its image like an apple.

Peel the skin.

You see a core filled with worms.

Public sources used are those which only show the polished outside. See our blog entry at

http://jmatthan.blogspot.com/2007/10/finland-best-for-living.html

Annikki & Jacob

The sources used are given here:

We analyzed data from two top sources covering 141 nations to rank the planet's greenest, most livable places. Our analysis delved into social factors (income and education, for instance) and environmental measures (see our chart for who scores highest and lowest for some of them, and how the United States, the best overall, and the worst overall stack up)......

.....The World's Greenest, Most Livable Cities
Using different data, we analyzed 72 major international cities and ranked them in terms of being green and livable. The sources included The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport (2001) by Jeff Kenworthy and Felix Laube of Australia's Murdoch University, the World Bank's Development Economic Research Group Estimates, and our own reporting on local environmental laws, energy prices, garbage production and disposal, and parkland.

Paul Wolfowitz's, the creator of a beautiful Green Zone in Baghdad, World Bank as a source - a laughable idea!

Was there any consideration of the ghastly smell that covers many cities in Finland from the pulp production chimney stacks. One professor could not even stay a full day in Oulu as he would break out with a rash!

And here is a totally ridiculous statement:

To get greener, countries must do more to capitalize on national strengths. Finland, among the world's largest exporters of wind-power technology, produces less than 1 percent of its own electricity via wind power, despite average coastal wind speeds of 15 mph, 50 percent stronger than those in Chicago.

Finland has one major wind-power technology producer making 1 - 3 MW units and it is owned by an Indian company!

A look at the cities rankings shows only one Finnish city, Helsinki ranked at No. 21, and we would not like to live in Helsinki. Having lived in three other ranked cities, London (27) Chennai (65) and Mumbai (70), none of them could be ranked even close to another city where Jacob lived, Delhi and New Delhi, which is not even in the rankings!

This is a true case of "the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence".

How we wish the authors had stepped across that fence to check their facts with some ground level investigation!

As they say, a little knowledge is dangerous.

It is sad as this article will be quoted a million times around the world for a publicity hungry small country as Finland. The myth will be propagated while the truth is left far far behind!

The Rabbit has a shiny nose

All through spring, summer and autumn, I have been using the scooter and occasionally the SAAB I bought from Kannan to help him out financially. It gave me a chance to get the Rabbit reconditioned.

The 1984 Ford Escort Farmer has done yeoman service since I got it, thanks to Kamu, in 2000. It has pulled many a car out of trouble, especially in winter. It has towed several cars twice its size and half its age, rushed to start up stranded cars, and it has hardly cost a penny to upkeep.

Of course, I kept it in peak condition, changing whatever was necessary before any troubles came to a head. All the MOTs that it went through were clean sailing.

But Annikki and both daughters did not very much like the look of the car as part of the paint had faded!

So this summer I gave it to my dear friend Nassar, who has a Garage and Paint Shop in Haukipudas. I gave him carte blanche to do up the car. The colours - football fans Samu and me chose red and golden orange (which were my team colours in Oulu when I bought the car).

Earlier today, I drove out the 20+ kilometres on the scooter to Nassar's garage to see the progress.



Standing in the compound, gleaming in the beautiful autumn sunshine, stood the new look Rabbit. Not only had the outside been done, but Nassar had changed the air filter, changed the oil, done some welding work and also got it MOTeed!

I can put the SAAB to hibernation after a thorough service. Although the SAAB is a great car with a lot of power, and it is a super safe car, I will be glad to get back to driving the nippy and powerful Rabbit once autumn is over and I put the scooter away!

Now that the Rabbit is back with a shiny nose and a great tail, I may even think of selling the SAAB if I get a reasonable price. It will be sad to sell such a good car as, on occasions, we do need a larger car for our travels.

Finland best for living?

Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Cathedral School Seventh Heaven Blog and the St. Stephen's College Kooler Talk Blog.

In a Readers Digest report just released titled Study says Finland best for living and which was covered by Reuters, caused Annikki and me to think about our combined life in India, Finland, Sweden, Germany and England over the last 60+ years.



This evening, we went to the Nallikari beach for Annikki to collect stones. (I just walk around doing some photography with my lousy camera) and help her carry the collection to the car!




The yellow, gold and red autumn leaves were strewn all around, truly beautiful.




The autumn sunset was glorious. It felt as if we were lifting off into space!

Looking at these photographs of today and the peacefulness that surrounded us on this beautiful autumn evening, maybe you and we can agree with what has been claimed in the report!

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The Nordic countries are the world's greenest and, despite the cold winters, Finland is the best country to live in, according to a Reader's Digest study released on Friday.

Finland was followed by Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Austria.

"Finland wins high marks for air and water quality, a low incidence of infant disease and how well it protects citizens from water pollution and natural disasters," the study said.

My having lived here for the last 23+ years (of course, Annikki was born here and lived the first 18 years of her life here) makes it difficult for us to either agree or disagree with even this specific conclusion.

Annikki said that when we came to Finland there were several reports saying how unhealthy the tap water was in Finland as it was over-chlorinated. In her opinion, things have not improved since then.

She queries the validity of this report as the source of the data is not known to us. If it came from Government sources, then both of us agree that it is a load of bull!

Finns are great at creating a golden image like a beautiful polished apple, but remove the skin and we will find many worms gnawing away inside.

Many environmental activists also may not agree with this study done by U.S. environmental economist Matthew Kahn, who looked at issues such as quality of drinking water and greenhouse gas emissions as well as factors such as education (totally stereotyped) and income (low after high taxes without corresponding benefits).

When we look at education in Finland, there is nothing even coming close to the level of "education" provided by my alma maters, Bishop Cotton School (Bangalore), which had 7 playing fields for its student in its town centre campus, Cathedral and John Connon School (Mumbai) and St. Stephen's College (Delhi).

Incomes are certainly not high. Retained income is low. Savings are virtually non-existent.

But people feel they are rich because of the easy accessibility to long term low interest loans that enable them to enjoy their "own" homes and new cars and other material benefits!

But that is certainly not a reflection of the income standard in Finland.

Certainly, I do not drink anything but tap water. Annikki and many others tend to buy bottled water. Many go to bore well taps located around the city to collect their drinking water as they do not think the tap water is healthy.

My philosophy has always been that tap water contains all the germs and bacteria that our bodies require to build resistance to the local environment. Avoiding that diminishes our natural resistance.

It used to be said that India had the greatest advantage with regard to germ warfare as all the Indian Government had to do was export water from Calcutta!

My health over the last 23 years compared to most others I know in Finland proves my point of view. I have had no major or even minor illness during that time and never lost a day of work during my working life.

Mathew Kahn obviously did not meet the many thousands of Finns who suffer terrible allergies to dust, pollen, cat fur, dogs and many edible items as nuts, milk, etc. etc. Our grandson, Samuel, is a typical example - allergic to tens of things!

This is a direct consequence of a bad environment and living practices, so this would contradict his conclusions.



Finland is a great place to live if you follow the rules we have laid out in the book "Handbook For Survival in Finland" written by Annikki and me which was published in 1994.

But for others - life can be very very difficult on all fronts.

Our new Findians Google Group, which should go online in a few weeks, will tell you many of the pros and cons of working and living in Finland and the changes that have occurred during the last two decades.

So stay tuned!