Coldest winter in 7 years

I had one tenant arrive at 00:40. I dropped that person off at our apartment, got a couple of hours sleep, as the next one arrived by the 06:15 train from Helsinki.

As I glanced through the Kaleva, our local newspaper, before leaving for the station, the headline was that we are having our coldest prolonged winter in the last 7 years.

The year we came to Finland, 1984, was really cold. In end January and early February we had a long spell of -30 C and lower.

Then for a long period the winters were milder. Or, was it that they appeared milder because of that first hard one?

Now, on our return from India, we have had a really long and cold winter, not just that it seems cold because we have returned from India.

But one must remember that in mid-October, when we were driving down to Helsinki to catch our flight to India, we already went through blizzard like conditions almost all the way through our 600 km journey.

I can certainly say that we have had a really long winter in Finland. And if, what the Kaleva writes is correct, we are certainly having a really cold one!

The temperature last night on the Russian border, just 200 km away, was -36.5 C last night! (We really do live just 200 km away from our mighty neighbours!!!)

We are certainly obsessed with the weather!

Angry at Police incompetence

Although I have a bee in my bonnet, at this moment I am not still riling about the most incompetent bank in the world, the ICICI Bank in India, but the total incompetence of the Finnish Police.

I received information about the killings in Espoo from Facebook friends from far and wide. They were expressing their amazement at the killings in a peaceful country, Finland.

I was unaware of the developments till about noon. Then messages and emails started to pour in asking what was the reason for this tragic situation in a peaceful country.

(My first reaction, not knowing anything about the incident at that stage, was that it was probably the work of an Open Care Psychiatric patient, as in Finland they are closing psychiatric wards and letting these patients out to fend for themselves. A stupid policy with serious repercussions.)

These killings of today were totally unnecessary. The responsibility lies totally with the Finnish Police. They were incompetent, as for generations of a Police State, have been the masters of being behind the rich and powerful - in short corrupt.

I remember how, in 1975, they were trigger happy and killed an innocent fisherman in a boat on a lake in Helsinki, just because there was an international conference (European Security Conference) to be held at the Finlandia House a mile or so away! Consequences after whitewash - NONE!

Here was the case of a man who had been convicted twice of having used firearms violently. The Police, preoccupied with their own agenda, had left him in possession of a lethal weapon.

Recently, before our trip to India, Mika, Annikki and I had visited the Sello Shopping Complex for some last minute shopping. Anneli, Annikki's sister, had been with us and we had had lunch in the Complex. Mika in the meanwhile, while window shopping, had got lost, causing him (and me) to have a terrible fright.

Location Espoo, Finland
Built 2003/2005
Architect Helin & Co Archiects
Floor space 99 000 m²
Customers in 2006 17,3 milj. v. 2006
Sales in 2006 307,0 milj. v. 2006
Parking places 2 900
Number of floors 4
Web page Sello Shopping Complex

The Shopping Complex is so enormous and totally useless (in my opinion).

Both Annikki and I had been to the PRISMA market (where the shootings took place). We needed help to buy some stuff. During the half hour we were there, we could not find a single shop assistant to help us. (To be fair, the situation in the neighbouring CITYMARKET, was equally bad!) we bought nothing!

How this gunman found four shop assistants in a few minutes and killed them will remain a mystery to me!

The gunman, a 43 year old Kosovo Albanian refugee, had broken up with his ex-girl friend who had a job in the PRISMA shop.

My reasoning is that this was a crime of revenge against someone who had been a thorn in his ego. Probably at being dumped, something which is very common in Finnish society, but not obviously a very good experience for a new Finn, a person coming from a male chauvistic alien society. (This type of social mores should be one of the most important aspects to be taught when any refugee settles here, especially when coming from a male dominant society.)

The gunman went there early morning, probably looking for his ex-girl friend, and in the process shot four of her colleagues. Then he calmly walked out, went to his ex-girl friend's home and killed her. He returned to his home and then killed himself.

In all that time, the Police were twiddling their thumbs as they could not piece together the information and save lives. They knew exactly who the person was within minutes of the shooting, and yet they had no one posted at the man's residence soon after the event.

In Finland, the Population Register System is so efficient, that if one moves house, within a week, all agencies are aware of the move!

The Police were obviously relieved that the gunman shot himself, as they would be no nasty investigation about how they let him hold on to his gun when he had been twice convicted of using the firearm unreasonably, first by the Court of Espoo and then by the Court of Helsinki.

Espoo is a neighbouring city to Helsinki with an adjoining border, very much like the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in India.

Sello Shopping Centre is situated in Leppävaara, a suburb of Espoo, where we have a number of furnished apartments for rent, as it is well connected by bus and train to Helsinki and is also a place where several IT companies and Nokia and NSN have major operational centres. Additionally, being on the Ring Road 1, it is well connected by road to all parts around Helsinki.

The first thing I did was ring our local representative in Espoo, Ganesan, to check whether he was OK. He lives and works just a few hundred metres from the Sello Shopping Complex. He assured me that he (and all our tenants) were OK as it was a working day and they would all probably have been at work.

I was worried about some of our tenants wives, who may have ventured into this large shopping complex, as it has everything under one roof. A sort of window shopping paradise for a housewife.

Then I heard that the first four victims were all members of staff of the PRISMA shop, which meant none of our tenants or their wives would be on the tragedy list.

I watched TV after that.

The Police Press Briefing was at 14:30, where they were still reporting that the gunman was on the loose, several hours after the shooting. This told me what I already knew, the incompetence of the Finnish Police force.

Call the Finnish Police for an incident, and if your opponent has "credentials", they will turn a blind eye to the situation and the law. Police Chiefs stand firm behind their corrupt underlings and their powerful friends. In our experience, there is no more corrupt force (in my humble opinion) than the Finnish!

This time they had turned a blind eye to 2 convictions.

No one but the Finnish Police must be held responsible for this tragedy, which never should have been.

Being hacked

No, not my computer, as I use a hack proof Apple Mac!

Just yesterday, I received a message from a very dear friend of mine in a language that I did not understand. I used Google translate and found it was in Portuguese.

The message had as the Subject Fotos. 15/12 and was

Cuidado com essas pessoas falsas.
Salvei essas fotos pra você ver
Olha só o que aconteçeu...

anexo.

219,5Kb Baixar

This translates as

Beware of these fake people.
I saved these pictures for you to see
Look what happened ...

Annex.

Download 219.5 Kb

.

If one clicked on the attachment, the hacker could get into a computer running Windows. On a Mac, as this is an .exe file, I got a warning about it and was able to stop the download. Although, even if I had saved it, the .exe file would not have been able to run on my Mac.

I immediately emailed my friend asking for an explanation.

He replied that the email had not been sent by him.

Exactly as he was sending me that message, I got another email from him with a repeat of the earlier message, which meant the hacker or his software was at that precise moment operating inside his account.

Also, the hacker managed to send 3 messages to our Seventh Heaven Google Group.

The minute I marked those messages as spam, my friend's email ID would have been banned from the Google Group.

I got his alternate email ID, subscribed him and then marked the messages as spam. Within seconds Google had banned the old email ID.

In the Google Gmail, at the bottom of the page you can see a note

Last account activity: 8 hours ago on this computer. Details

When you click on the word "Details" it gives the last 5 log ins along with the IP address from where you have logged in. If it is not from your computer, you know you have a hacker and from where.

I do not know whether other email providers have this facility.

As I use a Mac and have used one for the last 25 years, I do not even have to have virus protection software installed on my computer. It has saved me much hassle, time and money!!!

Now my friend has to change all his sensitive information as the hacker had access to all his emails, passwords, and probably credit card numbers, expiry dates, etc.

Fascination with weather

Annikki is passionate about the weather, whether it be the snow fall in Houston or the burning heat wave in the Antarctic causing the glaciers to melt!

I often wondered why, we, in Finland, and also in many parts of Europe, have this fascination with weather as we watch every possible weather bulletin, or even tune into it on the radio while driving.

As I was looking out of my kitchen window this morning I saw two snow ploughs working in tandem to clear the snow from a smallish side street. This is round the clock work in Finland as not a day of work is lost because of heavy snowfall, even if the temperature is down to -40 C.

It dawned on me that I will not venture out in winter without pausing to look at the thermometer outside my bedroom window. it is a sort of natural reflex action.

Based on what I see, i will pick up the correct outdoor gear, the shoes, the sweater, the overcoat, the gloves, the scarf.

It would be foolhardy to step out without the correct trappings.

Hence the fascination with weather reports is a sort of safety self preservation method if we are to survive in the freezing temperatures.

And does our fascination with the weather of other people sort of make us feel better or worse, happy or jealous, sad or joyful.

We certainly do not feel overjoyed at seeing the disastrous consequence of bad weather in different parts of the world, but we do feel confident and safe that the roads are being maintained properly here in Finland. It is a sort of comparison that we are automatically making. When we see something that is better than our system, off will go the letters to the authorities to take steps to improve our system.

In winter the speed limit on all our roads drops by 20 kmph automatically. it is a fool who does not follow this guideline as, not only is her or she risking his or her life, but the lives of several others.

Even at low speeds there can be havoc.

Just yesterday, I took a turning right in the centre of town. The car in front of me stopped in the middle of the road to make a left turn. I sort of automatically braked, as I have not yet got used to driving on the icy roads again. The car started to slither. There was no room on the right of the car, so I had no option but to let it slide to the left of the stepped car, right into the on-coming traffic. Luckily, the car stopped sliding as I shifted gear quickly, and the on-coming car, realising my predicament went to his extreme right, avoiding me.

The mistake was that of the driver of the car in front of me, as he should have moved to the centre of the road to make his left turn, leaving enough room for me to go through on his right.

But in an accident situation who is going to look at the right and wrong.

It was wrong of me to be so close to the car ahead. It was wrong of me to swing into the on-coming traffic. What I should have done is rammed the guy in the back. But any accident where you hit someone from the back will be counted as your fault!

I thank my lucky stars that I got out of that situation unharmed.

If I had watched the weather news in the morning before I left home, I would have seen the warning sign that driving conditions in our area were dangerous. My fault!

Drones again and more American stupidity

A few weeks ago, while we were in Ahmedabad I blogged a report about Drones

Guess what. The "terrorists" have acquired software called "Sky Grabber" which enables them to watch exactly what the Americans are doing with their drones.

This is a huge embarrassment to the American military.

It is only two steps from there to be able to grab control of the drones and use them the way they like.

The Americans's are furiously working to now encrypt the data being transmitted, but anyone who has the skill can break the encrypting.

The foolishness of the American's continues to astound me.

The Soviets fought long and hard in Afghanistan. Did they win?

The Americans and NATO forces are also doing the same there. Do you honestly think they will win? And win what?

First they were fighting Al Qaida. Now they are fighting the Taliban. And they support a corrupt regime in Kabul!

Anyone heard of the support for the Shah of Iran by the Americans.

It is said that only fools commit the same mistake twice!

Americans have been committing the same mistake, again and again. Need I remind you of North and South Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the cold war against the Soviets, Pakistan, Iraq, etc., etc.

When will that country learn that they are only a banana republic. They have been unable to oust the Cuban leader Fidel Castro for many decades. Do they think they will win over the Afghan warlords even in two or three decades! Unlikely, even if they commit their entire US forces to that country.

They can never win hearts and minds through conflict, and that is all there is today in Afghanistan!.

The most sensible policy available is to move out of Afghanistan, ensure that the opium trade is unable to flourish, control all the neighbouring borders through detente, and the Afghan people will soon come to their senses and control their own destiny.

If people are so worried about Afghan women, then take them over to their country as refugees.

What society can function if there are no women to breed the fighters.

Today, the American action is only helping to breed more and more fighters. Every Afghan killed results in 10 or 100 more "freedom fighters".

As was so eloquently said by the Egyptian leader before the Iraq war, the Americans have created 1000 bin Ladens by their stupidity.

Remember, it was a Nigerian who tried to blow up the plane yesterday in Detroit. Nigeria is a far away place to Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.

And do you remember what I wrote about the stupid airport security measures just a few days ago?

Will the Americans even pause and think: WHY?

Splitting up blog entries from now

Holiday is now officially over. I am going back to splitting up my blog entries into the old system.

Just to remind you of the Blogs:

Jacob's Blog: This one is my daily routine blog for all general entries.
Seventh Heaven Blog: Specific entries related to Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, India. All generations.
Kooler Talk Web Version Blog: Specific entries related to St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India. All generations.
Jacob's Politics Blog: My views on world and local politics.
Oulu Best (Worst) Buy Blog: Reports of good offers in Oulu and Finland and also reports on good and bad services in Finland, and occasionally, internationally. To be taken seriously.
Move The UN Blog: A movement to move the UN away from New York, USA to a place more conducive to justice.

There are some other blogs on special subjects, but these are the ones that get inputs as regularly as there is something of interest to report.

You are free to comment on all the blog entries, although my blogs are not really Comment Driven Blogs. But honest discussion is always welcome and I will change my mind if I can be persuaded. But I am a bit hard-headed, so don't expect me to just nod and accept anything that may be said.

Thank you for staying with Annikki and me on our journey through India. It was your emails, phone calls, text messages, Facebook comments, that helped keep this going through the last two months.

In short, I love all my readers, even if they hold diametrically opposite opinions to mine.

Christmas morning 2009

Is there any breakfast on par with Masala Dosai?



In Finland, the best breakfast, I can think of, is salted salmon on rieska.

Rieska is a round bread, like a chapati, made from wheat flour, corn flour and potato flour. You can buy it ready made, either as small round or square pieces or as larger ones about the size of a very large chapati.

This morning I was able to enjoy this breakfast as Annikki had prepared the salted salmon a couple of days ago (It takes a few days for the flavouring to permeate into the raw fish) and had kept it in the fridge under a weight.

Besides salt, the salmon was seasoned with freshly ground home grown pepper, which had been given to us by my cousin's wife, Annammakochamma (Mrs. Mammen Varghese) in Kottayam, Kerala, when we visted them a few weeks ago. It was also seasoned with fresh herbs. I used a little vegetable oil based margerine on top of the rieska.

Sitting, in the picture, at the back on the table is the delicious pulla (Finnish sweet bread), given to us yesterday, by Ani.

So has started a great Christmas Day, where I will do precisely nothing after making this blog entry, except have some tea with the pulla and then wait for the Christmas dinner (left overs from yesterday, along with the Christmas pudding we bought in London Airport two weeks ago! No lunch today, as I am still full from our last night's stuffing! :-)

The candles, which Annikki put out in the snow last evening, are still burning brightly.

Season's Greetings to all of you from wonderful Oulu.

Christmas dinner 2009

This year, as Annikki was not well, we did not call anyone over to share in our traditional Christmas dinner.

Annikki was busy in the garden putting up her candles in the snow and decorating the garden, in between her work in the kitchen.

A grand Christmas dinner for the three of us was prepared by Annikki. Actually, at 14:00 hours Annikki did not know it was Christmas Eve. I reminded her gently as the frozen turkey was sitting in our front room (temperature -10 C). She suggested we have it tomorrow, but at my insistence, she thawed it out by immersing it for a couple of hours in warm water.

Dinner consisted of roasted potatoes, carrots, Swede, Brussels sprouts, onions, garlic, sausage and a whole small turkey, all beautifully but very gently spiced with herbs and pepper and salt, and served with a fresh green salad, rossoli (a typical Finnish Christmas salad), gravy and mint jelly. We did not take out the Christmas pudding we had bought at London Airport, as earlier in the evening, Ani and her sister brought a freshly baked pulla (Finnish sweet bread loaf) which smelled, looked and tasted really delicious. Thanks Ani for that, we all really loved it. (Annikki and I have voted this girl is our eldest granddaughter!)

Lots of left overs for the next two days.

Tomorrow morning I will have the salted salmon (prepared by Annikki), which we did not even touch today, with Christmas bread (with molasses added). There was much too much for the three of us.

Spoke with Jaakko and Joy early in the evening. They will have Christmas lunch with Joy's father who will celebrate his 80th birthday tomorrow, Christmas Day.

Will try to speak with Joanna (in Newcastle) and Susanna (in Portugal) and their families later.

As you may have guessed, the garden and the kitchen are not my domains of activity, but I did baste the turkey when Annikki was not looking. :-)

Season's Greetings to all our Findians, Chaff, LinkedIn, Orkut, Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook, Cathedral and John Connon School, St. Stephen's College and Oulu University friends, relatives, professional colleagues and alumni.

A nice warm sauna and bath now and then I hit the sack. Annikki will watch the Christmas service from Rome.

Am I anti-Indian or anti-Finnish?

I had a conversation with a dear friend from Delhi, yesterday morning, after he had read my blog entry, who asked me not to give up hope about India.

He mentioned that, just yesterday, that someone had actually stopped to give him way to turn from the main road into his colony! Also he told me that he had been driving behind a DTU bus which was hogging the centre lane. He overtook it, stopped and asked the driver whether he knew what wrong was being done, to which the driver asked for an apology!

How many people have that much time to spare to correct the mistakes of others on an hour by hour basis. On the highway from Delhi to Jaipur, if one has to follow this principle, one would have to stop every minute as every truck and bus and slow moving vehicle uses the fast lane!

What people see on this blog is only mine or Annikki's personal expressions. It is a personal log - a blog! And we are in unison in almost 99.9% of the cases we talk about.

It is neither anti-Indian, anti-Finnish or anti-anything else.

Anyone who really knows Annikki or me, will know that we are the ONLY ONES in Finland who publicly stand up and criticise the Finnish Police, Judiciary, Bureaucrats, Lawyers, etc. in the OPEN on Free Speech Day as well as in our media of choice, the internet.

Anyone who has read either of our books "Handbook for Survival in Finland" or "Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University", know exactly how outspoken we have been about the ills of Finnish society and parts of the system which are broken. And such ills can only be measured against systems that are better! (And what is coming in our next book "Inheritance Nightmare" is probably the biggest shocker from our arsenal!)

Does that mean we are anti-Finnish?

One should be able to express one's opinion on any subject and not get rudely condemned for saying what one believes. If something is wrong in India or Finland, or the USA or England, one should be able to say it.

In the USA, I am probably on the FBI list as an undesirable alien. Anyone who has read my email CORRESPONDENCE WITH AN "EDUCATED" AMERICAN [CHRISTIAN(?) & WHITE] in 2001, well before BEFORE the Iraq Shock and Awe attack, will understand why my correspondent went to the extent of reporting me to the FBI!

Was I anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-White, or did I believe in what I stood for?

How many of you will put your money where your mouths are?

I had a lucrative contract to write the handbook of Extrusion Coating (a special process used in plastics manufacture to make continuous lengths materials of two or more film materials) with the largest English Research Association which is also a noted publisher. That contract was with me well before the Iraq War. When, Britain joined that war, I had already finished my manuscript. Rather than earn the money and pay taxes in the UK, part of which would be used to fund the illegal war, I withdrew from the contract, at a huge personal financial loss!

So when I criticise something, someone, somewhere - it is because I believe in what I stand for.

My criticism of India is because the country had the solutions well before the present crisis, but the politicians and industrialists chose to ignore the warnings.

May I remind you of that wonderful book I had referred to earlier in one of my blog entries, "The Affluence Machine" by Abraham Thomas the former Managing Director of Southern Investments which was published in 1975. It was ignored!

As Annikki noted, the problems in India are exactly where the IT boom has hit.

Is it a coincidence or is it because of the personal greed of those at the helm of the IT industry.

I think the latter! They may be knowledgeable about IT but have not the slightest concept about city planning and development, civic services, and a whole host of technologies required to set up and run a growth area. Hence the chaos!

Will I compare one society with another?

Yes, I will, as if one cannot learn from what is good and works, then one is blind. If as a chemical engineer i can scale from 5 litres to 5 oo litres, then an experienced planner can scale from 5 million to 50 million! And are there not successfully planned cities of 10 and 15 million around the world?

I am not driven by patriotism to any nation as I owe loyalty to only one person, the Lord God above me. If I stand condemned in His eyes, then I am guilty.

As I had mentioned on an earlier blog that someone had written to me that India is a democracy and it has a population of 1 billion people.

May I remind all of you that when I was a child the population of India was BELOW 350 million and we were a democracy. It the problem today better or worse than then?

As I had asked ten and ask again now: What is the reaction going to be when India is a democracy with 1.5 billion people?

As was pointed out by several during my visit to India, including the Home Secretary, Mr. G. K. Pillai at this year's The General K. S. Thimayya Memorial Lecture Series at Bishop Cotton School in Bangalore, the national security problem has three major issues to be considered:

(i) Externally sponsored threats,
(ii) Secessionist and ethnic identity issues,
(iii) Internal armed movements.

Anyone interested in the lecture by an old school colleague can visit this site, INDIA’S INTERNAL SECURITY :
CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES BY SHRI GOPAL K. PILLAI UNION HOME SECRETARY AND SECRETARY (JUSTICE) for the transcript.

Or you may recall my attending the lecture by the famed Norwegian Peace Negotiator and Activist, Professor John Galtung at the Ahmedabad Institute of Management who talked about the Gandhian way to approach the problem of terrorism.

The Naxalite problem is not so far away, and if, as at present, greed and lack of concern for one's fellow man continues to expand in India at the rate that I have witnessed, the effects will be rather sooner than later!

One small incident will show why I am concerned.

I walked to a nearby shop in Ahmedabad. After making the purchase, I was provided with a bill. I did not need the bill, so I crumpled it in my hand on my way back home, but I held on tightly to it, not wanting to litter the streets. Annikki laughed at me, as we were walking literally through muck and paper all around us, and there was I, reluctant to throw that little ball of paper in with the existing mess.

Am I a fool or am I a concerned human being?

1989 revisited

Annikki and I, along with my professor, visited India on a trip that took us to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and then Delhi, where we took part in a conference on Physics of Semiconductor Devices.

As I told my friends in New Delhi this year, when we checked in at this conference, I entered our residential address in New Delhi as the MRF Guest House in Sunder Nagar. When the lady at the registration desk saw that, and asked my relationship to MRF, she quickly called a couple of the organisers. They refused to take our registration fees.

Reason: They were so proud of the way my late cousin Ravi Mammen, and his team of professionals, Ratnam, Krish Veerapan, Balan, and co., had organised the Cricket World Cup, which had brought great fame and fortune to India as a whole!

I sent my professor home after the conference while Annikki and I decided to visit the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh. (After that, we had to spend Christmas Day at Nagpur airport, just reaching Mumbai for our 30th year class of 59 reunion at the Wilingdon Club.)

We started our holiday at Nagpur (Maharashtra), in the very centre of India, from where we hired a car and drove to Kanha, stopping at an interesting forest hotel on the way. It was December 19th when we arrived at Kanha. A freezing drive in the forest in an open jeep took the toll on Anniiki. So, we decided, in future, to use our covered car for the trips into the sanctuary.

On the very next day we saw two tigers, one walking straight along the road to our car. An unbelievable experience. The second encounter was a sort of put up job of a tiger and her cubs who were being held in place by a steady stream of visitors on elephant back.

We returned to our quite deserted hotel. I had my small portable radio on which I could pick up BBC World service.

The next morning we woke up to the news of the overthrow of the Romanian Preident Ceausescu.



That to me, as Polymerist (a word coined by me in 1988 describing a chemist/physicist and technologist specialising in Polymers) was quite a personal experience.

The Finnish establishment had been sycophantic supporters of the Ceausescu regime to the extent of even publishing a translation of a book "authored" by Elena Ceausescu: "Polymer Chemistry and Technology Developments".

Considering that Elena was a third grade chemist and she was named as the first author of all the 39 publications in this translation, showed how sick some people in Finland (and Romania) were.

They had a similar practice in some universities in Finland.

My explosive book "Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University" published in 1994 and the most pirated book in Finland that year, took the lid off the scam in my University. To a large extent, students in Oulu, as an indirect result of my writings and the subsequent investigation, got back their power of owning their research results and writings.

Yesterday, as the world celebrated the demise of the Ceausescu regime, to relive those days 20 years on, just as we return again from India to Finland, was quite a moving feeling for me!

I know I am back in Finland

Today is the shortest day in Oulu, the Winter Solstice.

Date: 21 Dec 2009
Sunrise: 10:17
Sunset: 13:51
Day length: 3h 34m 01s

Had to go our shopping.

Two incidents of today, in particular, stood out to remind me that I am back in a society that cares for its members. I am not talking about the government or the bureaucracy, but ordinary people.

Outside every large shop in Finland, during the 2 weeks before Christmas, the Salvation Army, a charitable organisation, places a tripod at which people can leave gifts of things they may no longer need to be handed over to the less fortunate in our society, especially at this time of the year when we are spending millions on new things.

As I was reversing my car, I saw a little girl of about 4 years, carrying a very heavy shopping bag, filled to the brim and running very determinedly towards the gift tripod outside the shop. She stopped in front of the tripod, and with a very lovely smile of satisfaction, put the bag at the foot of the tripod where a lot of other people had already left their parcels.

She was genuinely happy that she could give something to the less fortunate.

This sense of giving, which we call Christmas, instills in little children the sense of sharing. I watched her happily run back to her parents after her task had been completed.

As I was driving out of the large car park, there were a string of cars who had right of way streaming in front of me. It was dark, and I could not see the faces of the people in the cars that passed.

Suddenly, one car stopped. I could see a hand waving me to join in front of him.

The gesture showed me that there are people in this world who have concern for others, even on the roads, where everyone is always in a hurry.

Considering what we have been through in Indian traffic, where to gain an inch ahead of someone else is the primary objective, this incident gave me faith in the human being again.

Yes, I know I am back in a society and community which cares for its fellowmen.

Not only that, the first thing on Annikki's shopping list was sunflower seeds, not the type we humans eat, and bird seeds. Her intention is to keep it in the several bird houses in our garden, so that in this harsh winter, the birds that frequent our garden, will have their share of our Christmas.

Not only do people care for other people, but they show their love and affection even towards those little creatures that give us so much joy by just being there.

Flying back to Finland

Before I take you through to our last phase of our journey, I wanted to share with you the last breakfast I had in New Delhi. I was joined by someone I admire from the bottom of my heart, a man who has worked tirelessly for "Integration" in India, and has been appointed by the President of India on this Task Force. A few years younger than me, a man of such dedication and drive is hard to find. A Stephanian, he holds his principles above all.

I speak of none other than John Dayal.

Many love him, others hate him, all for what he stands for - equality of all men and women on this universe.

Unfortunately, during my entire stay in New Delhi, John had been working on the front line in Orissa. He returned the day before I was to leave. As I was driving back, late in the evening from Gurgaon, John called to say he was back. I offered to see him the next day, but he held age above seniority and said he would come to see me on Friday morning.

He arrived while I was just starting my breakfast. He joined me and we chatted about what was right and what was wrong in this universe. John has all the taps turned on the correct way and his analysis of where the church, the administrators, the bureaucracy are going was spot on. I felt sorry that I could not be there to help him in his endeavours to make India a truly just and secular society.

I asked him to say a prayer before he left, but he insisted that I do so. I prayed with all sincerity for John and his work, which to me is one of the most important jobs being done in India. Good luck, John, and thank you for seeing me before I left back to Finland. Each moment that we had together will be treasured.

Now to the joys of international travel! :-)

We arrived at Mumbai airport on Sunday night well over two hours before our plane was to depart. As we entered the airport, a guy came up asked whether I wanted our baggage plastic wrapped. I first thought that this was a requirement, but when he mentioned he wanted Rs. 200 (€ 3) per bag, I realised that this was just a money making step and not one legally required.

This draws me to the point that we found different rules in almost every airport we went through, both international or Indian domestic. This shows that the "security" community is disorganized and does not really know what they want to do. They have stupid rules about not taking a bottle of drinking water through a security checkpoint. They even tried to stop Annikki finishing her bottle of water before she went through. In another instance, when the security guard saw her drinking the water, she let her take the bottle through.

The ways the bags are checked at each airport showed, to me, at least, that these dedicated men and women are just pawns in a game. They really do not know what they are doing. All they are doing is trying to do things in the guidebook that they have been given and they remember at that point of time!

Any terrorist would break through this "so-called" security system with the simplest of ease after watching how the guards operate. In my opinion, with all the present systems they are following, as rigid as they may seem, we are less safe now than we were before 9/11!

One of the steps in the British Airways check-in process is to measure the size of the carry-on bag. One of ours was larger than permitted, but a BA staff member waved us through when the junior at the machine was just about to start a bureaucratic storm. The guy who waved us through knew that it was us that would suffer by taking this larger bag through, as he knew it would not fit in the overhead locker and we would have to sit with it under our legs for the next 9 hours. He simply taught us a lesson!

Next was the checking in of our baggage. I had bought a bigger bag and loaded all the light weight stuff in it till it was bulging at the seams. The other two bags were standard size and weighed 15 kg and 19 kg, a total of 34 kg. But the large bag weighed 32 kg, making us 6 kg overweight, but more importantly there is a rule that no bag must weigh more than 23 kg or else you have to pay a “heavy bag” surcharge of US Sterling 30.

The check-in officer offered me the option to reassign the stuff in the large bag. When I opened it, I found I had my laptop bag in this bag. As everyone is allowed one hand baggage plus a laptop bag, I took out my laptop and, lo and behold, my bag was well inside the limit! Saved £ 30 but had the headache to carry one more bag through all the security checkpoints and especially, being a laptop bag, it meant taking it out at every point!

Check-in finished we moved on with our hand baggage in trolleys to Immigration. Just before Immigration we were stopped by a rather officious looking slip of a girl who told us that we could not take our trolley past her desk! We had to fill up some Immigration Cards, so I promptly parked the trolley at her desk and started to fill up our forms just there. She tried to shoo us away, to which my retort was, either you allow us to proceed with our trolleys to where we find a place to sit and fill up the forms or she would have to suffer me filling up the forms on her desk! I filled out the forms, took our luggage and went through Immigration. Then it was Security, and although it was a hassle, we were not stopped or hindered, just giving us room to think that how stupid all this process was, even if it was for own safety. There are so many simpler ways to carry out this process, but a lot of people are making money following this routine, so why change it?

On board the plane one thing really annoyed me. When the announcements were made asking everyone to switch off their mobiles, the guy sitting in row behind us continued to speak on his mobile. When the steward came and told him to switch it off, he sort of started an argument with the steward. The steward told him that a video telling him to switch of the mobile had just been played - but this guy continued to be difficult. Finally, the steward, in the most polite and firm way told him to switch it off. He pretended to do so, but as soon as the steward was on his way, I heard his phone ring. I turned back in my seat and glared at him, which sort of made him switch it off. If he had not, I would have told him that even if he was not concerned about his safety, I was concerned with mine, and that the mobile had to be switched off.

How stupid can people be as they think that ONLY THEY are above the law!

The BA flight from Mumbai to London was uncomfortable and the morning snack was atrocious. I wonder why BA even offers such a tasteless serving on their flight.

At London the change from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 was another process of security checks, another set of rules. In this case I was stopped because my LG monitor, with no batteries or attached power source, was a cause for their alarm. I had to take it out and they reran it through their X-Ray machine, wasting everyone's time!

Then it as a long wait in the BA lounge till our flight to Helsinki was called.

We had slightly more room on this flight. We arrived to a snow-bound Helsinki at 16:30. By the time we cleared Immigration and Customs, it was just past 17:00 hours.

Levi was at the airport with our car. As it had been parked in the open in one of our Raantel rental apartments, the boot was frozen solid as the temperature was near -17 C. Annikki was not clad properly, so I told her to wait in the airport with Mika while I found a solution to opening the boot.

My first thought was to find a heated parking place and wait for 15 minutes while the lock thawed through. Then I remembered that we would have to take Levi back to where his car was parked, about a 20 minute drive from the airport. So I told Levi that if we drove there and back, the boot would open. So we went through that process and sure enough, the boot was openable when we got back.

I parked in a parking place near to where Annikki and Mika were sitting. I called Levi on my mobile. It was so cold that, as I was speaking, the mobile jumped out of my hands and flew quite a distance, such that the battery compartment opened and the battery came out. I managed to put the battery in but when I tried to start the mobile it reported that the SIM card was missing - the SIM had flown off in another direction. Even after much searching by Levi and myself - we could not find it.

It was after 8 pm when me managed to drive to a nice warm apartment. I went and bought another SIM and some dinner from the nearest Mac outlet - the first Mac since we had left Finland 2 months ago. Then was the process of trying to find phone numbers, as I had not saved my phone numbers on the phone but on the SIM itself.

We managed to find Annikki's sister’s phone number and Levi sent my new number to a couple of people who called me.

Now I am in the process of building up my phone directory again, but that is going to take time.

So if you want me to put your phone number on my new phone, do email it to me or send a text to +358 41 720 2850!

And so ended our holiday to India - Helsinki and back. My last entry on this subject will be to pay our tributes to the wonderful people who made this holiday possible. So stay tuned for that before I split back my blogging into the different streams, as earlier.

Back in Oulu, and What! Oh! What!

The first picture is the absolutely delightful gift given to us by the Patni team in Bangalore after they hosted us for a great dinner.



Now, in its proper location in Oulu in our living room. The birds and the background lighting, in a special place chosen by Annikki for this work of art, makes it truly magnificent.

Thank you boys - Uncle Jacob cannot thank you enough for this stupendous gift which made it BACK in one piece back to Finland.

It was late on Wednesday evening when we hit Oulu. I drove the 600 km rather slowly and carefully as I was really tired. The roads were clear, and while the sun was up, it was brilliant and a beautiful clear blue sky. The temperature during the journey was hovering between -15 and - 18 C, but the car heating was perfect.

We saw the sun set at 14:30 when we were passing through Jyväskyla, about halfway through our journey from Helsinki to Oulu.

What a difference, when just 6 months ago I stopped at 02:30 am to see the sun rise at Jyväskylä!

Today afternoon, Annikki gave me a shopping list of urgent provisions to obtain so that we did not starve! I went to our local supermarket. As I was coming out I bumped into one of Joanna's friends, Terhi-Liisa. She stopped to say hello.

The first thing she said was that she had read most of our experiences I had blogged of our trip around India. She asked how Annikki's cough was faring! So she was really reading the blog. (Terhi-Liisa told me that just recently lost her dad, so I conveyed condolences from our family.)

I decided to check through my readership statistics. Normally I have about 60000 to 80000 readers for all my 10 active blogs put together. From what I was able to gather, I had a possible 130000 to 135000 readers from all over the world who were reading of our Indian exploits on Jacob's Blog.

Phenomenal as it may seem, considering that many of the readers sent me email (such as Shilpa from the Middle East) and one (Ebbi) actually took up the phone in California to ring and speak at length to me, shows how much the blogging was appreciated.

I was happy that several of the older members of my immediate family, who know nothing about computers and blogging, actually got people to print out my entries so that they could keep track of this journey through this Incredible India.

Cathedralites, Stephanians, Findians, Facebook friends, Twitterers, LinkedIn professional friends, Orkut friends, Plaxo companions, Oulu University staff and students, O-Indians, Chaff friends, Kandathil and Maliyakal relatives, and stray readers searching on Google for keywords - what a cosmopolitan mix of readers.

And what is wonderful is that I was able to hold them together for the last seven weeks!

Many thanks to the younger generation for activating a readership which I thought I would never reach!

Does Salegram look like my chauffeur or my dear friend?

But I am jumping the gun again. Let us go back to Delhi when we were leaving last Friday. It was a very emotional farewell for me to say goodbye to my friend from my adolescent days, Salegram. He looked after Annikki and me so well. He is such a lovely man who has given devoted service to our family and family companies, that it shows above all that some of my family members in India have retained the principles espoused by my grandfather, the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai.

My problems with the ICICI Bank went on till the very last minute of my stay in India. When I left Delhi, they had assured me that everything would be just perfect from then on. They gave me two debit cards saying that I could use them in Mumbai.

Boy, were they sadly mistaken.

They said that another debit card would be delivered to me on Saturday morning.

What, oh, what do you think happened?

I had a terrible amount of shopping to complete in Mumbai. I went to Akbaraly's in Flora Fountain and bought a lot of stuff! When I was about to pay using this brand new debit card provided that morning by the Delhi Regional Manager of the ICICI Bank, the cashier told me that I could not use that debit card for paying - all I could use it for was to draw money out of an ATM!!!

Luckily I had cash with me so I was saved another devastating embarrassment.

I went promptly to an ATM, only to find that the cards were not usable - I had not been provided with the PIN numbers!

What competence, what efficiency, what in-depth knowledge by a Regional Manager and his staff of smart goons!

The next morning at precisely 9 am, I rang the Customer Service Manager who had organised the debit cards I told her that I could not use the card and the reasons. She confirmed that the cards they had provided me were only ATM withdrawal cards.

She then said I could call Customer Care and generate my own PIN!

Of course, the Regional Manager was most apologetic and assured me that the PIN would be generated from the phone number they would give me.

About half an hour later, I received a Bombay phone number and went through the entire rigmarole of generating a PIN, only to be told by the human being at the end of this long winded process, that as I was an NRI, the PIN could only be sent to my communication address IN FINLAND!

I rang the Regional Manager and he assured me that the PIN would be delivered to me. That was at 10:42.

In the meantime, the other debit card which was to be delivered by 12 noon had not arrived. Then I got a call from the Mumbai Branch stating that the man had gone back to the office as he could not enter my building, or he had found some other address, or....!

It transpired that he had come to the gate of my building and instead of ringing me, as my phone number was on the delivery slip, he had just gone away as the Security Guard did not believe his story. He appeared at about 11:30 and gave me the so-called debit card. When I opened the packet I found there was no PIN to use that card and it was an International Debit Card, which was no use to access my Indian Rupees in my NRI account!

I was in a rage as all my money was locked out.

When the Customer Care phoned me, I threw my fit at him, telling him what a nin-com-poop bank he worked for. I slammed down the phone as I had had enough of this nonsense.

Promptly I got a call from the Delhi branch telling me that if I waited another hour or so, the PIN numbers would be delivered to me.

I had other plans and asked them to stuff the PIN where you think it should be stuffed. I had wasted half a day and was at a position worse than my starting state.

At least at that point I had hope.

I went to the largest ICICI Bank and drew out 80% of the money in my rupee account, leaving just enough to see what would happen and as I had no chance of stopping the dividend cheques that would be deposited this week!

With cash in my hands I was able to do some of what I had planned to do, but communicating with my suppliers in Kottayam and Cochin late on a Saturday afternoon just was impossible, leaving most critical parts of my tasks undone.

Of course, when I reached home, there appeared the messenger from the ICICI bank, bearing the PIN numbers.

Later that evening I decided to give a try to the PIN received - and do you know what was the result - The ATM spewed out a receipt which said

Transaction Declined
Unable to Process

Does this bank even understand the chaos that they caused in my life, the embarrassments that I had faced, the humiliation that I was forced to undergo?

I do not think so.

They are immune from the realities of the banking world.

When one looks at their online banking page, this is more than obvious. It is a confused presentation showing that they expect their customers to do everything out of one page, and that is why their online banking is doomed to be a complete and total failure.

I am so sorry to bore you with this experience, but we have almost 40000 to 50000 NRI readers of this blog, many trusting their money with this bank.

They could ask for no worse experience in their life than what I was forced to undergo in my 7 weeks with ICICI Bank!

Let us move on to more delightful things.



Dinner was to be with Malathi and her husband, the Dr. of Dharavi, Ashok, and also Malathi's brother from Bangalore, Chandu. Malathi and Ashok's younger son Dishan, joined us later in the evening.

Annikki was not well. heer cough having become chronic, that I advised her to stay at home. But she would have none of it and undertook the arduous long journey to the finest fish restaurant in Mumbai.



I had fried fish, crab, tandoori fish and finished with one of the best prawn biriyani that I have ever tasted. Annikki managed to eat a morsel or two, but she was very very poorly.

Despite the late hour we went to Malathi's beautiful home in Powai and they showered us with gifts.

We finally got home around midnight.

On Sunday morning I had an early lunch with my uncle Peelukuttychatan (97, Mr. K. M. Philip), my aunt Chinnammakochamma (91) and my cousin Suresh (Peter Philip) and his wife, Meera. (Fear of passing on whatever infection she may have to Peelukutychayan and Chinnammakochamma prevented her from joining us.

I rushed home to see Annikki was OK and then rushed to second appointment with a few of my 59ers, as we were celebrating Noel's birthday with a chocolate cake before he left for the USA. I was so happy to meet Ranju Lalwani (58er) and his wife, Anju. Piloo, Ooky, Rivca, Suchita and Vijay were there for the occasion to say farewell to us two 59ers. It was an emotional parting.

Annikki still had some urgent shopping to do, so we made an attempt to reach Phoenix High Street in the early evening. About 100 metres from our Guest House I realised that this was a foolhardy attempt - we would probably miss our flight at 2 in the morning if I decided to get this shopping done. The traffic was abominable.

So we returned home. As I was going to buy some medicines from the nearby pharmacy, Annikki, accompanying me, spotted a hole in the wall shop, maybe 1.5 metre wide and 5 metres deep. In it she found all that she had intended to buy! Cotton vests, nightdresses, etc., etc. Incredible Mumbai, where one even has a bookstore at every traffic light, in between the cars!

We set off for the airport by around 22:45.

I think I should leave the next part of our trip for my next blog entry.

Last day in Delhi

I set out at 07:30 to go to the diagnostics centre to do my blood test. I had to return home and go there again after two hours after my breakfast for the second part. I will get my results today, and hopefully the one month of medication and little stricter diet would have helped improve the situation than what it was a month ago.

I went to see the Regional Manager of ICICI Bank. He had no explanations for the chaos and no solution to my problem. They had even clobbered me for debit cards they claim to have issued, whereas all they had done was freeze the only debit card I had been issued with, completely shutting me out of the banking process. And there was no explanation for this fiasco!

I managed to get them to pay the binder in Bangalore and hopefully this morning I will get my transaction password and also my debit cards to try to get hold of some of my money! I later had a call that the debit card in Annikki's name would be delivered in Mumbai! What's your guess on that?

NRIs - My advice stays unchanged as of date. If you want to safeguard your hard-earned money and live sane - get out of the ICICI association as it will only lead to misery!

Lunch was with Ambassador K. P. Fabian at the Indian International Centre where I met some of the senior most retired IFS and IAS officers who were scattered around as grains of rice in a paddy field. Over lunch we touched on many topics and hopefully something will come out of this association as KP is a person with immense knowledge, a bowlful of sweet contacts of the most senior level and the capacity to get things done. Our association of 25 years can now take shape as we are in a position to help each other currently at a level which neither is interested in the material benefits of such an association.

After a quick cup of coffee and it was off to Gurgaon to meet a friend of 25 years past, Navin Bahl. And what a reunion. It was so wonderful to tie up with someone whoh I had holidayed with in 1964 in St. Tropez. we had lived in a tent together, gone through the hardship of driving through France in a run down Bedford van held together with underwear, and shared many experiences together, which we recalled with such gusto.

It was a shock to know that Navin is the Chairman of a company, Noorjehan, which supplies some of the most exquisite home furnishings to the topmost company in Finland - Stockman, which is the Harrods of Finland. I went around his two factory buildings and witnessed the dedication with which he and his son have built this enterprise. And now they are about to make a grand entry into the flagship of Finnish textiles and home furnishings, but more about that later. Suffice to say that his product may be on the lips of every Finn in a short while!

Before I realised it the time was already 6 pm and I wanted to visit my nephew in Gurgaon.



Ashwin Thomas is the son of my cousin Gita (née Matthan, daughter of my father's younger brother, the late Matthan Matthan). He lived in another sector in Gurgaon.

Driving there was a nightmare as the traffic and pollution is so intense that it makes one sick. But thanks to the excellence of Salegram, we reached there and I was able to spend a short time with Ashwini and his wonderful wife, Mac-fan Meghan (hope I got that right; the name, not the Mac-fan bit!) and their frisky Golden Retriever. A couple of bhajias, a cup of tea and I had to be off, although they were trying to persuade me to stay for dinner. But Salegram had had a long day. I knew the drive back was going to be rough. But Salegram knew the back roads and got me back in record time. I had to do my packing and be ready for a series of appointments in the morning as we had to leave for the airport by 10 am!

And my good internet and Stephanian friend, and one of the persons I most admire on this planet, John Dayal, is dropping in at 8 am! (Of course, I also do have an appointment at the ICICI bank, if it will do any good!)

Closing down

The stay at the Malayala Manorama Guest House has been perfect. The atmosphere inside and outside is serene.

The garden in front of the Golf Links Guest House.

Thank God I checked my flight plan yesterday. I was under the impression that we were leaving Delhi on Saturday morning. I thought I had my last crucial appointment in Mumbai on Saturday evening. When I checked my diary yesterday, I found that the appointment in Mumbai was on Friday evening and our flight booking was for noon on Friday.

I had lots of programmes scheduled in Delhi for Friday, which I had to cancel or rearrange. Navin Behl, my friend and travel mate from our 1964 trip from London to St. Tropez (before Brigette Bardot made it famous) and back in an old Bedford van, along with friends Ashok Kapur, Ajit Mehra, Noel Ezekiel and Viney Sethi, was scheduled for lunch on Friday at the Golf Club. That has been brought forward to a meeting at his office in Gurgaon on Thursday afternoon. I was to meet my nephew (Ashwin Thomas) and his wife in town on Friday evening, as they live far out of town in Gurgaon. I will also meet them on Thursday evening at Gurgaon, saving them a long hike into town.

Annikki and I had been invited to take part in the Philosophy session at St. Stephen's College to give our view of life in Finland vis-á-vis India - that programme had to be dropped. Also, I had planned to attend the Carol Service on Friday evening at the College - that had to be dropped.

With the sudden change of programme, I was worried that the glasses we had ordered for Mika would not be obtained. They were promised for delivery on Friday evening. Yesterday evening I took a chance to go there to ask them how we should proceed. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the glasses had already been received. So that was one more headache not created! Thanks guys.

Many friends could not be met because of the lack of time, and not, as in Bangalore, the inability to move around. Delhi transportation, although bad, is much superior to Bangalore. I was able to keep all my appointments within a couple of minutes of the scheduled time!

Annikki has been unwell for a few days, so our trips to Agra and Chandigarh were also dropped. She would not have been able to stand the strain of a drive there and back.

I am not reporting on my meeting with my cousins, as much water has to flow under the bridge before I can comment on the discussions, if at all. We had a wonderful get together and laughed our guts out over lunch at the India International Centre. We joked and pulled each others leg as only we can. It was a wonderful afternoon of three cousins and one nephew (but bracketed with us cousins) and Annikki. Before we realised it, it was time for them to take off to their respective destinations.

Annikki set off on her own to a couple of shops she had seen advertised in the newspaper. She had a traumatic time as nothing they offered in their ads was available and the shopkeepers, as they did not have her size in the clothes she wanted, kept trying to sell her men's clothing. She came back, traumatised, after a couple of hours. I was glad that Salegram, our driver, stayed at her side throughout! Oh for the wonders of dear friends.

Yesterday, I also managed to meet some of the Technical Team (Project Coordinator S. C. Jain and PCS/ Unit Manager V. D. Dubey) at the AFPRO (Action for Food Production) NGO programme and had a very valuable discussion about their work on Check Dams, Gobbar Gas Plants, as well as their entire rural development programme. Maybe there is still some hope for our Rural Urbanisation programme as such organisations know how to get the Government Funding mobilised, and when they have honest and competent people manning the different levels of their organisation, they can still be effective. I hope to be doing more with AFPRO, especially in some of the work we are planning in Zambia.

The trauma with ICICI Bank sees no end. They have goofed, big time, yet again and again. It is a tragi-comedy of enormous proportions and it grows bigger by the hour! Today I will meet the Regional Manager in New Delhi and see what explanations he can come up with, what worthwhile apologies can be obtained. I will explore whether it is at all worth looking at this bank as a partner, especially as there are several large investments to be made or realigned over the next few months. I doubt that it will turn out positive, knowing the mindset of such persons in authority.


Transformed. Do I keep this image on returning to Finland?

Those who know me, know that this is NOT me! I am the carefree type, not the suited, booted one. The real question is whether I should stay transformed on my return to Finland? :-)

I am also going for my check up this morning in a diagnostic clinic to see whether there has been any improvement since I have been on medication since Chennai. Hopefully, once I get back to Annikki's dietary control in Finland and my stricter daily schedules there, the blips that we are seeing will vanish. But today will tell me whether I should continue the medication that has been prescribed - which is a nuisance, taking 7 pills a day!! That is for a person who has never taken any pills in his adult life!

I finally got it

(Also posted on the Kooler Talk Blog!)

I have been waiting almost three years to get my hands on this. I had asked several friends passing through Delhi to try and pick it up. with no success.

The very day I arrived in Delhi, I went to the nearby store and asked if it was available.

First they said it was, but after a search, they said it wasn't.

They promised that they would order it for me. They did it straight away. They told me it would come immediately.

That was on the Monday the 30th of November. I have been going almost every day to check whether it had arrived.

Imagine my joy when I went in this evening and found it had come.



I quickly thumbed through it and found where my Kooler Talk Web Version was mentioned. On page 85.

Sadly, probably the only spelling mistake in the book is the name of the town where I live - it has been spelt as Ouli whereas it should be Oulu!



Not that it matters. Unfortunately the URL

http://koolertalk.blogspot.com

has not been given, so many will not know how to reach the longest surviving version of Kooler Talk!

The book "St. Stephen's College : A History" was written by Ashok (Tony) Jaitly. Tony was three years ahead of me in school in Mumbai and also the same in college. He was a great sportsman, much like his brother, Ravi. He is also a wonderful friend as are all the Jaitly family.

As I went through this book, I found it very readable.

I think I am going to enjoy my flight to London from Mumbai on Sunday night as I get through this book. It will provide me much material for the blog as I recall many of the incidents recounted therein!

Unfortunately, things are getting worse as far as the College is concerned.

Such immature childishness is hard to understand. It was reported in today's newspaper that the Bishop has now filed a show cause notice against the College Chaplain for being outside his house with some protesters.

Does it not as if he is behaving like the Pharisees and Sadducee's when the went after Jesus Christ?

Delhi Roundup....

St. Stephen's College Founders' Day being Sunday, the official programme was put over to Monday. The Communion Service in the College Chapel was scheduled for 08:30 am. I was already at the College by 07:45 am.



I walked around the Chapel and took some photographs. Compared to a few days ago, the grounds looked clean and tidy, with lots of flowers, etc.

It reminded me of a story my dad used to tell me that some friends of his, a husband and wife, were the model of a great relationship on the surface to the outside world, but once they were on their own, they were bitter enemies.

It is not enough to put on a show for the neighbours. That is not the genuine thing!

I waited in the Chapel as people started to roll in. The Chairman of St Stephen’s College’s Supreme Council and Governing Body, Bishop Reverend Sunil Kumar Singh went in through the vestry door. The Principal, Reverend Valson Thampu, showed his colours by coming in through the Chapel main door.

That the atmosphere between them was at the lowest of lowest ebbs was visible to me as they each silently fought to show that each was in control of events.

It was a regular communion service. The sermon by the Bishop was not a very moving piece. I think I could have written a more inspiring one for the assembled gathering.

The service was followed by coffee / tea and some snacks on the Chapel lawn. A far cry from the breakfasts that used to be hosted in our day by the Principal.



I managed to speak to a few of the assembled gathering including the pastor who had been the one in St. James Cathedral in Kashmeri Gate when I was around. Surprisingly, he looked quite young considering his 59 years in service to the Church in India.



There were a couple of Alumni who attended the service, but in the main, it was the students, and predominantly girls.

There was about an hour to spend before the Chief Guest for the Founders' Day commemoration programme in the Assembly Hall was due. The former Indian President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was to address the gathering.







I spent time roaming the gardens and the building taking photographs.

I sat in the seating meant for Guests, just behind the Teachers, who had streamed in, in their colourful robes denoting their status, followed by the Bishop, Principal and the former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam.

Here, again the bitter feud between the Principal and the Bishop was more than evident to those assembled.

In this day and age, to honour the Founding Fathers, there are far better ways than doing a physical read out, totally incomplete, of their names. But Principal Rev. Valson Thambu wanted to hold centre stage and show he was in charge of proceedings. He used this opportunity to show his position - sadly the approach of one lacking in knowledge about the ways of the world.

What a world of difference between Founders' Day in Mumbai for our school, where the entire St. Thomas Cathedral was packed to the brim with the alumni and a moving tribute was made to our Founders, and this today, where there were just a handful of alumni present.

Give me the Mumbai celebration any day as a strong alumni means a strong institution. There has been criticism of senior alumni who do not show any interest in the affairs of the college. This was expressed to me during this Founders' Day.

Is that because of their indifference or the indifference of the college to the alumni? In my opinion it is the latter. The alma mater should instill a sense of belonging to its alumni, whereupon, the alumni will respond. I know that I get that response on my Kooler Talk Blog, as everyone loves nostalgia!

In his attempt to make this a solemn occasion, Rev. Thambu advised the audience not to clap during the proceedings.

When the Chief Guest was introduced, the clapping of the audience was instantaneous. When he finished his speech, it was again a sound of appreciation!



Did President APJ Abdul Kalam say something stirring and moving. In my opinion - No! He talked about some of the teachers who had inspired him by their concern for him, but that is hardly anything soul moving. For instance, he talked of the kindergarten teacher who came to his house because he missed a day of school! Presideent Kalam spoke as if he was speaking to bunch of kindergarten kids! He pushed his own web site more than once!



There was a samosa, gulab jamuun, tea and coffee serving on the lawn outside the Assembly Hall. I did manage to meet a few former Stephanians, including a 55er. It sort of reminded me of tea we had offered (thanks to Principal Sircar) after the first ever JCR Evening we had held in 1961-62 when I was the President!

I rushed back for lunch with some dear old friends including Balan, the professor of economics in Hansraj College (and a wizard about cricket politics) and my old and dear friend, Krish Veerappan, formerly of MRF and now CEO of OSS, an MNC company marketing helicopters.

It was Balan and Krish, who with my late cousin, Ravi Mammen, and Ratnam in Madras, who had put together and successfully run the 1989 Cricket World Cup and also put together the MRF Pace Foundation.

Balan reminded me that the first choice to be the coach at the Pace Foundation had been Madan Lal. Madan Lal had said he wanted to operate out of New Delhi, where he would fly out to Madras when required. Ravi had countered this by telling him that he would have a permanent flight ticket between Madras and Delhi, but it was necessary to operate out of Madras. MRF used to have 5 seats blocked on every Madras - Delhi flight those days. As luck would have it, the negotiations fell through, and the job was given to T. A. Sekhar, who with Ratnam, did a phenomenal job for the MRF Cricket Division and the Pace Foundation through the next two decades along with Dennis Lillee. In the background Balan and Krish kept the atmosphere going in New Delhi!

Although I was in Finland at that time, my close friendships with many of those involved kept me briefed on almost all the major developments during that time. Those were indeed exciting days!!

Gossip has it that Sekhar who was drawing a very nominal salary in MRF has now moved to Reliance at 50 times his previous earnings. He certainly deserves it as besides his job as the coach, he was a person who could pick up the phone and speak to any top cricketer, world wide, and Reliance intend to use him just for that!

It was Cathedralite 64er Deepak and his business partner, Kuki Chawla, cousin of my dear Stephanian 63er friend Ajay Verma, who organised this reunion of old friends.

We had a solid gup shup session where we got to renew our old friendships.

Amazing how we are intertwined at the hips in spite of all of us being poles apart in our regular life! The bond is so deep as if we are one family. I always consider Krish as a younger brother, and he has always treated me as his elder brother, showing deep respect for our friendship. Krish and Nair (and Guptaji) have contributed so much to the success of MRF during the days of licence Raj, so much so that till my uncle (Kochappachen, K. M. Mammen Mappillai) passed away, Krish did not leave his post as the one running the Corporate Office in MRF, Delhi. Nair, had to come twice to the Guest House where I am staying in an attempt to see me. Such is the depth of friendships that has existed between us that time and distance cannot change them. Personal loyalties far exceeded the demands of personal goals, something which is rare in professionals.

Then it was time for me to hit the wayward ICICI Bank. Despite their apologies, nothing has worked. Maybe tomorrow will see some progress as I have asked them to give me a concrete solution as to how THEY intend to solve my problem!

In the evening it was time to meet my cousins, Suresh (Peter Philip) from Mumbai and Ashok (Kuriyan) from Bangalore, as we intended to get together today, to thrash out some issues. More about that, possibly, in another update.

We tried to go to Karim's in Nizzamuddin for dinner, but found it shut, as it was Monday. So we went to our old college day haunt, Pindi Restaurant in Pandara Road Market.

And so ended another exciting day in the Indian Capital!

Running behind schedule...

My spat with the ICICI Bank, now rated as the worst bank in India, has delayed my overall programme and also my blogging. I have been sitting for hours in the bank, trying to solve this enormous problem.

I was able to quote the Rs. 50 lakh fine slapped onto their Delhi Branch by the Delhi Consumer Commission as an example of how bad a bank they really are.

This is a comment from my Facebook page:

The Delhi Consumer Commission fined ICICI Bank a whopping fine of Rs 50 lakh for employing "goons" to recover a loan and deplored the practice of banks intimidating consumers to pay installments.

The Branch Manager kept trying to tell me that this was a one off case. I assured her it certainly was not as from the correspondence and Facebook comments I have been receiving ever since the story hit my blog, I know differently.

Yesterday, I spent more than a hour and a half with the Branch Manager of the Pragati Vihar Branch giving her a bit of my mind, which was not for very long, as I am a man of few words, but then waiting over 40 minutes just to get a cheque book to make one payment.

The new password given to me failed to function yet again.

This exercise was done in the bank in the presence of the Bank Manager.

Now they are trying to get me another password - another month down the tube?

I think ICICI should give up trying to be a online bank. They are clueless on how such a system should operate and they have no idea how to solve the problems of online banking. The use big words as back end, etc., but they have not got their front ends or their back sides, which needs a kick in the pants, working!

Of course, their normal banking operations are also in a mess if it takes 40 minutes to get hold of a cheque book!

To them, the time of the banker is important, forgetting that chaos they cause in the lives of their customers because of their incompetence and inefficiency.

Absolutely no prizes for guessing whether I have changed my mind.

Sunday was a great day as we had been invited by my niece, Shilpa Pookkatt (née Eapen, daughter of Mammen Eapen, aka Kunjumonchayan), to a party at the Indian International Centre Annexe. She had said she was just calling a few friends over for lunch.

We were, of course, among the first to arrive with our Finnish Time Module, where only an old-school ICS Officer and his wife being there before us. We were greeted by Shilpa and Joseph and the co-hosts, his partner in the law business and his wife. I still did not guess the reason for the event, but I recognised that this was no small event.

My computer throws up the birthdays of all my main friends and relatives on the morning of the day. It was no wonder I did not recognise it was Joseph's birthday, as it was being celebrated a day ahead of schedule.


The birthday boy and my gorgeous niece.

A young man of 40, and now with a fabulous reputation as a Supreme Court lawyer, his wife, Shilpa (also a very competent lawyer but now spending time bringing up her children), had called his many friends in the legal profession and also many from the colony where they live, for this occasion. A large cake with 40 candles, the singing of Happy Birthday, and a fantastic spread of food, personally chosen by Shilpa, was the order of the afternoon.

Both Annikki and I had a whale of a time, meeting many old friends like former Indian Ambassador to Finland, K. P. Fabian and his wife and their most interesting son, who is now working for the UN and settling down in Bangalore!?! We met several senior retired IAS and IFS Officers and even an ICS Officer, plus many lawyers and their wives, which made for a great deal of fun and discussion on topics which we have been writing about.

We did not find a single soul who disagreed with us on all the topics we have touched upon: the demise of Bangalore, the lack of civic sense among Indian citizens, the hypocrisy of the Indian top leaders starting with the President and Prime Minister of India, the absurdity of the planning of cities, and also the rating of ICICI as the worst bank in India. (So it was not only the common man who holds this opinion, as we had thought earlier.)


Joseph, Shilpa and Ilyaan


Yohaan.

Shilpa was gracious and her two children are adorable.

I recalled my close association with Shilpa's dad, who was in fact my closest cousin for the formative days of my life in Banaglore when he was virtually my next door neighbour.

We spent the evening with another niece, Ayesha. She is the daughter of my cousin from my father's side, Arun Matthan, and his wife, Yasmin, who hails fronm Hyderabad. Sadly, we had not been able to meet Yasmin during our visit to Bangalore, so Ayesha updated us on the family as we enjoyed a nice Thai meal at Khan Market in a restaurant called The Kitchen.

She had not slept for three nights as she had been completing her assignments. Yet she looked so radiant and so full of confidfence. Great spirit. We were greatly honoured that she came to meet us despite her schedule.


Ayesha, another stunning niece. (This picture is from her Facebook page, as I was not carrying my camera - and she really does look like this picture itself!)

Ayesha is a graceful young lady and with a great brain. She has one important characteristic - she thinks before speaking. In my humble opinion, she is one of my nieces who is going to make it big in the world that lies ahead of her. She only needs to focus on what she really wants to achieve and it will be there for her taking.

She has the talent and drive of her maternal grandfather (and also her mother), whom I had known during his career in Vazir Sultan of which he became Finance Director, and is still doing well at the age of 91 in Hyderabad.

On the whole it was a delightful Sunday, only overshadowed by my depressing banking problems!