Welcome this new day, Holi 2010

When Annikki and I left for India in mid-October, we drove the 600 kms from Oulu to Helsinki. We had snow storms for much of the day, heralding the early, very early, advent of winter.

We do not know much about the time we were away in India, but when we got back we were right in what seemed to be mid-winter. (I lost my old SIM card in the snow in Helsinki airport! But I have got the uld mobile phone number back last week, so you can call me on that number again!)

But winter in Oulu has just continued and continued. We have had the longest spell ever where the temperature has remained well below zero. Some days have been exceptionally cold because of the strong winds. The snowfall right through winter has been heavy.

The Vesaisentie and Kampitie gardens are totally and completely snow covered, with only one small foot track, each, to the garages.

From 2010 Photos February

From 2010 Photos February

Our reindeer stands deeply immersed in thought and snow. Just like Annikki, who has been wondering when it will be "snowman snow" as I think she is contemplating another unusual creation, like her mobile snowman, before the grandkids arrrive by March end!

From 2010 Photos February

From 2010 Photos February

From 2010 Photos February

The snow formations on the ladders and fretwork are reallly beautiful. The aluminium door and frame are a grewat view from the kitchen window.

Today and tomorrow are celebrated as the festival of Holi. Holi is celebrated, in many countries around the world where we have a Hindu population, and also in Bangladesh, at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March.

We certainly hope that this long hard winter in Finland, and which seems to be an unusual phenomena around the northern hemisphere this year, will draw to a close and the milder, warmer spring weather will be on us. (Friends in Dallas, Texas, reported snowstorms even at that latitude!)

Annikki and I would like to wish you a colourful and happy year ahead on this auspicious day.

(All these above photographs are by Annikki.)

Earthquake in Chile

I watched with horror as news of he 8.8 Richter Scale earthquake of the coast of Chile was unfolding. As it was 35 km below the surface, the impact on land was not as devastating as one would have expected for an earthquake of this magnitude.

However, I was first astounded by the emergency, as even Barack Obama was forced to address the American nation. I was wondering why he took such a dramatic step.

As I studied the map of the impact of this earthquake, I noted that it was likely to affect an enormous area on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Then Annikki quipped in that the reason for the panic in the US was that a large part of its firepower (including nuclear powered vessels and missiles) was located in known and secret locations in this area. It would probably be that which would be most dramatically affected.

Was Barack Obama readying the American people for some bad news?

Unlikely we will never know!

Are we really happy?

My recent post about my being so happy in Oulu and why I would not change my base for anything, certainly brought in a lot of email.

Many asked me whether I was really happy as all my family, other than my wife and youngest son, are outside Finland!

Actually, Annikki's closest family members, two of her sisters, are all in Finland. Annikki would not like to move far from them. Even while in India, she talked to her sister, who lives outside Helsinki, almost daily.

So I thought to myself that, with so many family members and friends, classmates, settled all around the world, how many are really happy to be where they are?

Some have married and settled down. They make frequent trips back to their homeland to see their friends and relatives. But on a day-to-day basis, are they happy where they are?

I had the wonderful news that Joanna and the three kids, Samu (13), Daniel (6) and Maria (2) will join us this Easter. (Hope asha was also coming with them!)

We will get a chance to look after the kids while Joanna does her studies. her finals are not many weeks away.

But the sheer pleasure of having them back "home" as this is their home we are looking after, makes me shout with unbridled joy.

Is there anyone shouting with joy when Annikki and I visit India?

Yes, everybody is nice and hospitable, but we are still outsiders there, as 26 years away from "home" has meant that we have drifted apart. The old adage "Out of sight, out of mind" certainly rings true, although the second one "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" was also demonstrated very visibly during our 2 month Bharat Darshan.

2010 Doha Debate at St. Stephen's College in Photographs

The Premises: Auditorium, St. Stephen's College, Delhi





The Moderator with the Panel

The Proposition: 'This House beleives Muslims are not getting a fair deal in India'.




The Moderator Tim Sebastian



The Speakers

Seena Mustafa



Sachin Pilot



Teesta Setalvad



M. J. Akbar



The Questioners

'
















The Audience

The Vote

Commonwealth Games and St. Stephen's College Residence?

Yesterday was an interesting article in India edunews.net that Delhi University students had been asked to vacate their rooms for delegates for the Commonwealth Games Conference.

In a world which has been changing and modernising so rapidly, the face our college presents to the delegates who may live there will the the old squatting toilets, no running hot water, rooms which are unheated - in fact, the picture of a third rate residential accommodation.

Can we state that in these modern times we are looking after our students if they are being subjected to living standards of bygone ages?

Annikki took umbrage with the authorities who organised the Veterans Olympics in 1991 when our Indian delegation was humiliated by being given third rate accommodation is a school premises where they had to sleep on the floor, dormitory style, while participants from other countries got five star hotel treatment!

This is what she wrote in 1991:

Veterans Olympics in Finland
by Annikki Matthan

The World Veterans Athletic Championship which was held in Turku, South Finland a few years ago (1991), is cause enough to deny Finland the right to host any international sporting event in which third world participants may wish to take part. It would be best if intending participants from these countries are informed of the heartless treatment that is likely to be meted out to them if they choose to come to this country for international sporting events.

It would also be wise if the Olympic Athletics Committees of developing countries discussed the matter with the veteran athletes that took part in these games and made an official complaint to the International Olympic Athletics Committee. The International Committee should be requested to fully investigate their findings. The IOC, based on their independent conclusions, should take steps to deny any country that behaves inhumanely towards athletes, like Finland did, the right to host any international sporting event.

Finland - the most expensive country in the world

It is without doubt that Finland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe and probably the world. The proof is the hotel bill I paid (special summer reduced rate of Rs. 4000 for one night!) when I stayed at a three star hotel during my visit to Turku where I had gone to see the Championships.

In this expensive hotel, as in all the five, four and three star hotels in Turku, were the participants from the richer countries and officials from all the participating countries enjoying hearty five and six course nutritious buffet breakfasts of their choice (fruit juice, tea, coffee or milk, corn flakes, yoghurt, a wide variety of vegetarian salads, preserved fish and meat, bread, toast, or rolls with butter and jam, and finally a fresh fruit as a large juicy orange). They had just descended to the plush breakfast room from their beautiful and tastefully decorated hotel rooms (equipped with telephone, radio, television sets, private shower and bath) after their early morning gratis sauna and swim in the hotel pool. In fact, anything that their money could buy was available to these contestants from the richer countries.

What about the contestants from India and the financially poorer world countries taking part, whose athletes did not have pockets lined with gold. Where were they?

Rude shock

There was a rude shock when I visited the large contingent of men and women from different parts of India.





They had been crowded into a couple of school rooms with mattresses spread out on the floor, twenty or more to a room. There were not even the basic facilities like cupboards to keep their clothes and sporting equipment. They had to queue to use the common toilets facilities. There were not even proper food facilities in line with their limited financial means (Rs. 200 for a most unappetising meal). They had to pay extravagant amounts to get anything and even had to pay an exorbitant bus fare for the seven kilometre trip between the two stadiums where the meet was being held. They had paid extremely high fees to take part in the events and were even made to pay high charges for use of these rudimentary facilities. These poor cousins were herded and treated like animals and fleeced like goats.



The caretaker of the school, taking pity on these poorly looked after athletes, gave his personal cooker to the Indian participants to prepare their own food. The participants, instead of training and resting, had to scour the ultra-expensive Finnish supermarkets for cheap products like milk (Rs. 35 per litre), rice (Rs. 85 per kilo) and vegetables (Rs. 160 per kilo of tomatoes) to meet their basic dietary requirements. Meat eaters would have had to pay anywhere from Rs. 250 to Rs. 800 for a kilo - so that was best avoided. Fruits and other basic ingredients of a healthy diet were totally financially inaccessible to these athletes, many of whom have owed their long life to their strict dietary habits.

Less enterprising participants from the neighbouring socialist countries, who shared the same school premises with the Indians, were considerably worse off than the Indians. They took to selling their watches and cameras to the slightly better off participants so as to afford to live.

Was the Olympics between equals

Is any contest between the richer and poorer nations held under these conditions equal in any respect? What was the meaning of the Olympic Motto under which this sporting event was supposed to be Hosted in Finland?

Moaned one Indian participant who had taken part in the Asian Veterans Championships at Kuala Lumpur earlier that year - "The Malaysians looked after our every need and made us feel welcome. If the Finns came to take part in any event in India they would be properly hosted - not treated like this - worse than animals!!"

Indians show the way

It was indeed a great achievement that two over-nineties from India, despite these adverse conditions they were subjected too, dominated their age-group events and ran their way to glory capturing all the medals that they could lay their hands on.



Athletic ninety year Narayanamurthy from Bull Temple Road, Basavangudi, Bangalore, born on 12th December 1900, was indeed oblivious to the problems around him.

His colleagues shared their humble food and drink with the sprightly gentleman. Full of beans (metaphorically speaking only) he was!! He captured the hearts of the sparse audience as his sprinted away a full 50 metres ahead of his rival in the 200 metres, as indeed in all the events he took part in. He more than justified the trust placed in him by the Karnataka Chief Minister who had, in his personal capacity, given Narayanamurthy a helping hand to take part.



So also was the case with fit-as-a-fiddle ninety-nine year old Joginder Singh from Patiala in Punjab. Narayanamurthy and Joginder Singh certainly did India proud at this occasion.

Indian hospitality

What was even more surprising was that when we visited the Indian contingent, never having met a single one of them before, friendship and hospitality, even under the conditions that they had been forced into, oozed out of them. They made us at home on the three wooden stools that were available for them to be shared between the couple of hundred athletes that were staying in the school. Even with their meagre resources, some of the lady athletes from Kerala produced piping hot cups of coffee for us strangers who had landed in their midst.

This was a mark of good culture, upbringing and sportsmanship - not what my country, Finland, had forced on these eager contestants who had spent fortunes from their own pockets to come to this country to participate in this event.

Finnish mismanagement

Who was to blame for this shambles? Was it the Sports and Cultural Ministries of Finland who had obviously ignored the event. Was it the City of Turku who had not taken steps to ensure that the event was organised as defined by rules of fair competition in sporting events.

Or, was it the officials of these Third World Participating Committees who did not raise a single voice in protest at the inhumane conditions that their participants were forced to live with or the gross inequality of the contest? Was it that the officials from these countries were wined and dined by the Finnish organisers so that they would not raise any noise about the arrangements, or rather the lack of them?

Is it any surprise that the medals in the more contested age groups were shared among the richer countries which could pay their way to victory? Is this the spirit of the fair sporting competition or the Olympic Movement!!

No first aid for injured

The numerous organisers and officials visible everywhere at the athletics stadium sported expensive bright new green uniforms, were picked and dropped in expensive cars and vans, and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, at the expense of the athletes, in posh restaurants and hotels, obviously taking care to host the Committee Members from the participating countries but ignoring the starving third world athletes.

However, when a 85 year old participant stumbled and fell two yards away from the finishing post, not a single games official was on hand to rush to his aid.



It was the oldest participant of the competition, 99 year old Indian, Joginder Singh, who was talking to us just at the moment, who rushed onto the track to lift up the poor injured participant. No first aid was even offered by the officials to the injured man who, crestfallen and bleeding at the nose, angrily hobbled away into the centre of the stadium.

Sensational journalism

What about Press, Radio and Television coverage of the event? This meet was virtually ignored by the Finnish Press, except for sensational journalism. The results of the penultimate day were not even reported in the leading Finnish papers. On the other hand, the Finns started off their own National Athletics Championships in Helsinki on the concluding day of this international event with massive press, radio and television coverage and totally ignored the large contingent of foreign athletes, numbering close to 5000, who had assembled in their country for the international event. A strange sign of hospitality indeed!!

Is this the correct cultural way to host and promote an event which is designed to enthuse middle-aged and elderly people around the world to live better lives by keeping up their activity level?

Is any contest between the richer and poorer nations held under these condition equal in any respect? What was the meaning of the Olympic Motto under which this sporting event was supposed to be Hosted in Finland?

Atlanta Olympics - July 1996

The Olympics in Atlanta, USA, will certainly be organised so that all contestants are treated equally and participants from the poorer nations are accorded the same hospitality rather than as shown by these indifferent and inhumane Finnish organisers, aided by officials from the poorer nations who only looked after their own interests rather than the interests of the people they represented.

All these amateur participants at future Veterans Olympics should be given the same level of hospitality by hosting countries. They are a finer example to the people of today than the commercialised superstars of the modern day Olympics who can well afford to pay for their comforts.

Now it is my turn to point out that India needs to wake up when hosting an international event like the Commonwealth Games and ensure that all the delegates get equal treatment!

I hope our College Authorities as well as the Indian Sports Authorities will take note of this!

Stockmann's gaffes continue

Annikki and I went to Stockmann the other day as she had a gift coupon from her sister and she decided to buy a spring coat from there.

After we finished that, we had some grocery shopping. If you buy € 30 worth of groceries, one and a half hours parking charges of € 2, are refunded.



As we walked around, I saw some Findus vegetable bags in the freezer.

There was a sign showing that they were on special offer, except that the sign writer mixed his F's and W's! :-) (The inset shows the correct spelling!)

Artist or Health freak?

When I woke up this morning and went to the dining room to read the newspaper and have my breakfast, which is four slices of toasted brown bread, coated with margerine, honey and cinnamon powder (Naval- Kindly note!), I noticed that the tomatoes, cucumber, ginger, grapes and cherries in the plastic bowl, and walnuts and almonds in the small glass jars, were laid out on the sideboard so:



In the dim morning light it looked rather like a very beautiful painting!

I thought for myself, "Is this an art show?"

Then I realised it was my dear wife who had laid out her morning breakfast.

As I have said earlier, every detail has to be perfect - even her breakfast layouts.

Back to the freeze...

Tonight's weather forecast said that we are in for a very cold spell to round off our longest winter yet. As many of you would have noted, winter set in as we were driving to Helsinki in mid-October when a snow blizzard kept us company most of the 600 km.

Thankfully, we were in India through the months of half of October, the whole of November and right until the middle of December.

Annikki, Mika and me in Alibaug in Madhu Kapur's fabulous retreat.
(Photo by Hasnain Chinwala.)

We landed back in Finland in a snow storm and I lost my old SIM card in the snow at Helsinki Airport, when my phone shot of my frozen hands.

And it has been winter all the way since then with not even a short spell of above zero temperatures.

It has been the longest coldest winter in my living memory (26 years of my 67 ) and Annikki's (44 years of her 66) here in Oulu.

So when we watched today's weather forecast, they said that night temperatures are going below -30 C and this cold spell is going to last a few more days after which we will have a bout of heavy snowfall.

In about an hour, 00:30, I have to be on my way to Oulu airport to pick up three engineers from Poland and distribute hem to three apartments around Oulu. This is a process which will take about an hour - if their baggage arrives along with them. Recent history has been that baggage has been lost, which means another half an hour at the airport.

Well, it looks as if I am going to enjoy the coldest part of the night trekking around our lovely snow bound city!

Good night, all of you tucked into warm beds or lounging in air-conditioned bedrooms, and spare a thought for this Christmas Goat trekking around in his red-nosed snowcar! :-)

Why I cried yesterday

Yesterday, I sent a text message, mid-morning, to Gopa (daughter of Cathedralite 54er Sadhana (née Shah) in Keravaa, that Annikki and I were looking forward to receiving the CD / DVD sent from India.

She replied me in a flash that she had sent it the previous day.

When I was leaving home for the office, after lunch, I looked in the post box. There was an envelope, prominently marked that the CD and DVD were inside.

As I tore the cover open, two wonderful group photos, of our class and another with our spouses, at the Cathedral Church before the Founders' Day Service, fell out. I could hardly contain myself.

I had my portable LG DVD player at the office. I set it up and ran the DVD.

From the very first shot to the end, I was an emotional wreck. The DVD had recaptured almost all of the wonderful moments that we had experienced at the 50th Reunion of our Class of 59 in November 2009.

Viki giving me the T-Shirt and Cap as a token of appreciation.

I was deeply touched by the few words spoken by Viki Savara just before he handed me a cap and T-Shirt with our class logo printed on it. I wear it proudly and take it off when Annikki tears it off my back!

And even more moving was when Jangoo proposed the period of silence to honour those who were no longer with us.

Yes, I have been nagging, I was persistent, I was shockingly forthright, in getting as many of our class to be at this historic reunion.

My failure was that I could not get so many of them to attend, as personal issues had denied us the chance to meet many of our classmates. The loss is ours!

Besides those who have moved on to a better life above, we especially missed these 59ers, amongst others, Bobby, Biju, Deepak, Delbar, Geeta, Jeanette, John, Mario, Mark, Matilda, Narayanan, Narsys, Nergish, Pravin, Sigrun, Sujit, Trevor, Vikram, Wabhi, and the many spouses who could not make it.

Some of my tenants joined me to watch this as I played it through a couple of times, before I loaded the CD into my computer and watched the 350+ pictures so painstakingly put together by Hasnain (Chinnie).


A classic shot by Hasnain of Annikki and me.

After finishing a few chores I rushed home. Annikki was pleasantly surprised when she sat down and watched the DVD. As I watched it for the umpteenth time, I openly wept. (I got up twice at night and watched it again!)

I knew then what tears of joy really mean. The heart was filled with a great outpouring of love for all my wonderful friends who had made it to our reunion, as well as those who could not.

There has never been a Golden Reunion like this in the history of our school. It will be a long time before there will be another Golden Reunion to match that of the Class of 59!



Thank you Shivi, Piloo, Viney, Ooky, Vijay, Geeta, Madhu (w/o our late Ashok), Ashok, Anil, Armeane, Adi, Ratan, Anjali, Arun, Arvind, Asha, Atul, Bulsara, David, Farhana, Harmo, Inderjit, Jangoo, Ketty, Naubir, Noel, Parvin, Percy, Peter, Ramesh, Renuka, Robert, Saroj, Seeta, Sheryn, Venkat, Viki, Vikram, Vinay, Ellis, Zarin, Zenobia, and all the wonderful spouses, those staff members who made it a point to attend - John Billington, Bill and Pushpa Shiri, Jo D'Souza, Mehta, plus, above all, Chinnie, who, together, made this such a memorable event happen and helped preserve it in our hearts and minds for posterity.

I am looking forward to sharing the DVD and the photographs with our children and grandchildren as they too will treasure the moments captured here.

And now only one more step needs to be completed - the mailing of the 59ers Golden Directory!

Permanently Cured of Migraine in 1982

Someone asked me in the "Comments" as to how I was cured of Migraine in 1982.

I was a very chronic migraine sufferer, resulting in almost total paralysis and excruciating pain.

The simple village lady, a Muslim, who cured me of Migraine almost 30 years ago.

Since 1982 I have been completely and totally cured.

Annikki wrote this article in Findians Briefings sometime in the early 1990s.

I am reproducing this here as a service for migraine sufferers.

Migraine Cure
Free from India
by Annikki Matthan

Migraine from Mesopotamia to Scandinavia

The ancient cure in Mesopotamia for migraine involved drilling the head. Present day treatment, not a cure, in Scandinavia, requires the use of an expensive medicine, about $40 a time, which is reputed to be active even if it is taken at any stage during an attack, unlike earlier drugs which had to be taken before the onset of an attack.

There are over a couple of million sufferers of migraine in Scandinavia and all of them should be able to get rid of this terrible ailment if they desired without resorting to this temporary relief at high cost. Would you like to try and get rid of your migraine problem?

Jacob - paralyzed

Jacob was an acute sufferer. The attacks used to come on several times a year rendering him immobile. After hospitalisation and observation by experts, almost every known allopathic medicine was tried including caffeine tablets. Nothing worked.

The attacks would start and continue for a couple of weeks. They did not necessarily follow a pattern - when they came, they just came one after another.

Help from a non-medic

Our cook, seeing Jacob suffer, mentioned that her mother had suffered the same malady and had been relieved by a herbal medicine. Jacob was willing to try anything. The next day she brought a small bottle containing a brownish fluid. This was duly administered through the nostrils. The liquid was pungent and seemed to work.

For the next few days, till the next dose of the medicine, no attacks developed, although Jacob knew that they were still lurking in the background. This treatment went on for three doses, after which Jacob was fit and well and able to get back to work.

The cook told us that this was not the permanent cure but only a temporary one. A particular ingredient was not available at that time to administer the permanent cure.

Free for two years

Jacob was then free from migraine for close to two years. For various reasons he never got around to getting the permanent cure. We moved and lost track of our cook, hence we were not able to get the medicine.

Migraine restarts

The migraine attacks restarted, after two years, with the same intense intensity as earlier, rendering Jacob totally immobile. A factory worker, seeing his boss in such suffering, mentioned that there was a lady in his village who could cure Jacob. Jacob was again prepared to try anything as the caffeine tablets had absolutely no effect in stopping these attacks.

Village visit

Jacob went to a small village to the hut of an elderly lady. She offered him tea and biscuits. After the social chit-chat the lady asked Jacob to lie down on the bed. She went into the garden for a couple of minutes. When she returned she was rubbing the palms of her hand together in the process of crushing some leaves. After about a minute she squeezed her hands together over a spoon on the table and a green liquid oozed out onto the spoon. There was about half a teaspoonful of the liquid. She slowly poured it into the right nostril as Jacob suffered one-sided migraine, which was on the left side of the head.

The effect

Jacob recalls the next few seconds very vividly. It was if some searing hot lava had been poured into his nostril. He felt wretched and wanted to throw up. He jumped from the bed and ran outside to get rid of the terrible sensation that was grasping his throat. When he spat out his saliva there was a dark green colouration.

The onlookers laughed as they watched these antics which probably lasted about a minute or two. Then the searing feeling rapidly subsided. The lady offered him a cup of tea, which was most gratefully accepted. She indicated that although another dose would be worthwhile she felt as the reaction had been so strong, it was unlikely that the migraine would ever return again. This was in 1982.

Fifteen years on

Now it is fifteen years on and Jacob has not suffered a single attack of migraine nor even felt that there was an attack lurking in the background.

The cost

The cost for this treatment - absolutely nothing, no, not even $1, no presents, no grateful gifts in thanks. Jacob returned to ask the lady whether she would give him the name of the leaf that she had used. She explained that this art had been passed down from mother to daughter over several generations and it was strictly against her philosophy to pass on the information to anybody other than her daughters.

Jacob accepted the explanation for he knew that if he took the remedy and commercialised it, the love, affection and dedicated service of this lady to the people in the surrounding communities would be destroyed. A multinational would probably only think of the profits that could be generated for its shareholders by the drug.

Other alternative medicine cures

There are probably several types of alternative medicines out there for migraine, as also for many other ailments, if one looks for them. Jaundice is an ideal example where at least 10 different treatments are available in India.

It is strange that in some western countries they frown upon alternative medicine as if it is some hocus-pocus, untried form of treatment. They refer to allopathy as the scientific tested medical approach, scoffing at alternative forms of medicine. Surely these are really the illiterate as they do not realise that this hocus-pocus of alternative medicine has been around for many thousands of years. None of them has resulted in a phthalidomide type case.

It is better to realise that western allopathy drug treatment is the untested and untried medical technique. No doubt the analytical and surgical techniques used in allopathy are outstanding, but be very vary of the drugs - most of them do not cure, they only suppress the symptoms.

It is more likely that a remedy for an ailment, without harmful side effects, can be found in many of the alternative medical techniques that abound amongst the indigenous people around the world, including the African, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian and Maya Indians, especially amongst those who have preserved their heritage and not lost contact with nature and become a part of this commercial world.

Return visit in 1993

In 1993 Jacob paid a visit to the village to see if the lady was still around. She was very happy to see him. She would not accept any gift so Jacob bought a few night-dresses that her son was stitching as his trade as a tailor. Everyday he gives thanks for the kindness shown by this woman who cured him from his misery.

However, on our recent visit to India (2009) we tried to find the small village where the lady in question lived. We were so overpowered by the chaos, that we did not try very hard.

I had made my penance to her almost 15 years ago.

Oulu, a wonderful city

Many of you have asked me what attracts me to Oulu.

This is difficult to define.

Although I am an Indian, I would no longer consider it possible that I could, in my lifetime, return to live in India.

I have other options.

As three of our four kids are settled in England, maybe I would like to move there.

Having lived in England for 6 years, from 1963 to 1969, been married there in a sleepy town of Shrewsbury, and having had two children born while living there, there are many sentimental attachments to considering England as a possible home.

Given the choice of England and Oulu, with its extremes in climate, a difficult language, the high degree of corruption in all levels of life, our existence in Oulu has been a wonderful experience, and one which I am unlikely to trade in my lifetime.

Maybe I will visit India more frequently. Or maybe I will take more time to spend with our grandchildren in England.

But when one puts all the pros and cons in a balance, Oulu is still my Number One living choice!

How many of you readers think me crazy to accept living in this ultra deep freeze? As I drove to work today it was just -3 C. As I drove back this evening it was -13 C!

But the cold is not the reason for running to another place. It is the quality of life that counts. And the quality of daily life in Oulu for us will remain unmatched by any other location.

Findians Briefings - First Issue 1992

Our first issue of Findians Briefings was launched in 1992. I just came across a copy in my study and thought how perceptive we had been in our writing of that time.

Front page of 1st Issue of Findians Briefings.

Many have asked me how I came to call it Briefings.

It was named after my very favourite newsletter which I was then receiving called "communications briefings". I do not remember the frequency as some kind soul stole the entire past issues a few years ago.

It was a superb manager oriented publication with tonnes of fantastic advice in its 8 pages.

I had left the University in April 1992. My editorial work was going great guns. Thanks to my colleague, Professor Vilho Lantto of the Microelectronics Laboratory, I was given an interesting Consultancy job. By the time of the first issue, I had completed it successfully. My work as a supplier of Single Crystals from a British Company to many laboratories was also moving well.

Above all, Pertti Huuskonen, who was the Administrator of the Technology Village, where I had my office, had welcomed us into the Village. It had just about 100 companies at that time. I seriously believe that he followed the advice we had included in the issues of Briefings.

Since then, he has, with great vision, taken Technopolis to great heights with over 1000 companies now located in it. Oulu Technopolis is now an international institution.

My idea is to publish all the interesting contents of the Briefings on a separate blog, which I have started but not yet launched. The target will be 2012, to celebrate 20 years of historic existence.

Is it worth it?

Google announced its entry into the social networking by adding another bit to its Gmail web presence. They are trying to fight Twitter and Facebook - but it is my humble opinion that they are overstepping the mark with the introduction of their new "Buzz".

As it is, even with my 20 MBps site which is usually running at about 11 MBps, Google Gmail is SLOOOOW. I usually have to run it in the Basic format so as to get anything to load in a reasonable time.

That was the reason why I moved away most of my computing from from Yahoo to Google.

I generally appreciate the many Google products that I use. They include, beside the Search Engine, Gmail, Documents, Blogger, Translate, Groups.

They are all independent and work quite well as stand alone.

However, once you try to link them up, it really slows down the whole operation.

Gmail after 15 minutes of trying to upload a profile in Buzz!
Note the "Still working" dialog in yellow at the top.

Today, when I started to use Buzz, which can only be used in the Standard Mode of Gmail, it was more than Slow - it just hung my Gmail. The only way to regain control was to Reload the page and move to the basic format!

What is the point of adding another social networking site when I am quite happy with Orkut.

This appears to be a desperate and frantic cry from Google that they are unable to keep pace with Twitter and Facebook with Orkut, so they have launched Buzz as an antidote.

I think they are making a serious mistake. If they continue down this line, not only will they lose Orkut, but also Gmail to anyone who comes along with a reasonable amount of storage and a good search engine built in.

Picasa is not much use to me any longer as I have reached the end of my free uploads level. Google has not updated its payment method to include those that do not have credit cards. That is now becoming not much use.

My advice, as a Google early adopter, is to forget BUZZ, and concentrate on making Orkut much more international than it is presently. Trim Gmail to mail essentials. Increase the capacity in Picasa, and start a sectional approach instead of trying to be everything to everybody.

Competition is good and allowing some other players as Facebook and Twitter to coexist, only makes Google more interesting. Cutting the competition is never a good sign or a good strategy. It shows weak and shifting leadership at the top.

At the moment I am quite happy working with Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, SiliconIndia, Plaxo, Pulse, Geni, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and a few more.

BUZZ is a wrong move in this equation!

Gaffes in choise ingredients and and and

Yesterday, I visited the top Department Store in Oulu, known as Stockmann. They have a restaurant on the top floor called Vintti and they advertise their Finnish / English daily menu at different points all over the store.

I just thought this one to be interesting:



One would certainly hope that a leading department store would have the resources to employ competent English speakers.

But their "choise" seems to have beeen rather poor. I hope the "ingredients" in their dishes are better chosen "and and and...." :-)

A day of Finnish “efficiency”

The Scandinavian countries conjure up the image of being super efficient, especially because of small population with highly trained professionals in every sphere.

Yesterday was a lesson in what not to believe.

I have already drawn the wrath of a few for exposing the lack of competence of Finnish doctors, who in the main are inexperienced. Yesterday proved a lesson in incompetence of the highest order.

In the morning I had my blood test and my ECG. That went OK as I did not have to see any doctor. The result will be with me on Wednesday. I will refer them to my Indian doctor before I meet with the Finnish doctor next Monday.

In the afternoon, one of the newly arrived Indian engineers called me to tell me that he had fallen on Saturday and his right hand was in pain. As it was too late to go to our local health centre, as he stays in one of our apartments close to our home, I told him that after i finished my days work I would take him to the University Research Hospital Out Patient Section, as that is the only one which functions after 5 pm.

However, I warned him to have his dinner and take his computer or something to read as the process could take 4 hours or more.

Do you think he believed me?

I picked him up after my dinner at around 19:30. After finishing a couple more house calls, we reached the hospital by 20:15. We registered and got the initial paperwork over and sat down to wait. The waiting room was quite empty with just about a dozen people, patients with their friend waiting around.

9:15, 10:15, 11:15. 11:45 and we were called in to see a doctor. The young lady showed her inexperience in the way she felt the injured area. Of course, she came to no conclusion, so decided to get an X-ray.

So, of I took him to the X-ray section. As I know my way around that department because of my recent injury to my finger, I was able to complete that process within half an hour. The X-ray was on its way to the doctor.

Back we were at the waiting hall.

We waited till 2:45 to be called in by a doctor who confessed that he could not read the X-ray with any certainty and advised that I call the nurses in the morning so that we could get an opinion of a qualified radiologist!

Six and a half hours, and my young friend was sent away with no diagnosis but with the comforting thought that he had been given one free pain killer tablet. He said he would savour with great relish his free tablet! :-)

The total time spent with each doctor was not more that 5 minutes. The X-ray took 5 minutes. For 15 minutes patient contact, we waited 6 hours and a half.

When I reached home, Annikki was amazed that it had not taken 9 hours. :-)

My friend is likely to drumbeat his experience with all his other colleagues working in Oulu. I do not think many will want to visit the Out Patients Department in Oulu University Research Hospital!

A true indication of the professionalism of Oulu Doctors!

Why this joy at eating masala dosais?

My blog readers in India must think me crazy by talking so incessantly when I get a masala dosai to eat here in Finland.

Any corner shop in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala (or for that matter anywhere in India), will offer a masala dosai and all these vegetarian dishes as common fare on their daily menu, so why this excitement when I am served a masala dosai here in Oulu?

The sad part is that we cannot walk into a corner shop in our town or in a radius of 600 km (or even 1000 km) to get hold of a dosai.

Some kind heart, like my wife, has to take the trouble to make it. That means, unlike in India, the heart and the stomach, and especially the taste buds, yearn to eat what is not so freely available.

I certainly had my fill of masala dosais,



vadas,



idlis,



gulab jamuns,



sweet curd, and other Indian delicacies, when I was in India for 2 months last year.

Almost two months have passed and the taste buds are yearning for all of them one more time.

My suggestion on our local O-India Google Group, which caters as a discussion forum for the 100+ Indians in Oulu, certainly got buzzing when I suggested I was intending to start a South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant in Oulu.

The local Indian Restaurant owner was quick to come back to say that he would start one if I could find him a suitable spot for a Take Away counter. He promised to bring a great Chef from India.

My suggestion to have the restaurant on wheels to take this nearby to where the Indians are working, also got a very favourable reception. They work in about four locations around the city of Oulu.

Now it is time to strike while the iron is hot.

Anyone interested to join me in this venture as a financial / working partner, is most welcome as, like me, all the Indians (and many Finns and Findians), who love Indian cuisine would be crazy over this idea.

(Why not make it a joint effort as a public limited company with the lovers of South Indian vegetarian food as the shareholders?)

I intend keep the prices within reason and serve up fresh food with freshly made spices and with fresh vegetable, as otherwise this would be doomed!

Yes, I yearn for a dosai, a vada, an idli, a gulab jamun,... as well as a K. C. Das sweet curd, a Gujarati Thali with sweet chapati, an Andhra Thali served with spicey gun powder, ..... yum yum! :-)

Your help sought - Findian missing in India / Nepal

This could happen to the wives or children of any one of us. So I am acting in our self-interest.

This is a request I got:

Pranita Shrestha missing person

Description:
Please help find my cousin's wife. We are especially looking to spread the word in India, so if you have any contacts there, please tell them about our search. Your support is greatly appreciated!

See Blog: http://findpranita.blogspot.com/

**********



Pranita Shrestha reported missing in India

Pranita Shrestha, a citizen of Nepal, has gone missing during a trip to visit her family in India. Pranita is 38 years old and married to a Finnish man. They live in Espoo, Finland (Europe).

Pranita travelled alone from Helsinki to Delhi on Tuesday 19 January 2010. The next day (20 January) at around 10pm Indian local time, her Finnish husband called her on her mobile phone. She was at New Delhi Railway Station waiting for a train. She told him she had bought a ticket and had been waiting for hours because the train was at least 9 hours late.

Pranita was planning to travel by train to either Jalpaiguri or Shiliguri in the north-east of India. From there, she intended by continue by jeep to Kalimpong to visit her parents. No-one has heard from Pranita since the phone call. Phone records show that her mobile phone was briefly switched on at 10.59am Indian local time on Friday 22 January.

Pranita Shrestha is 150 cm / 5 ft tall, weighs 51 kg / 8 st with brown eyes and black hair.

She was wearing navy jeans, a black jacket and ankle-length brown Puma shoes. She had a green upright, fabric trolley suitcase and a smaller, black and white bag also with a trolley system. In her left ring finger, she wears a thin, white gold diamond ring.

Pranita Shrestha trained as a staff nurse in Mumbai, India, and she speaks English, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Newari, Urdu and a little Finnish.

Until June 2009, she lived in the Maiti Devi district of Kathmandu, Nepal. She then moved with her son to live with her Finnish husband in Espoo, Finland.



Interpol and Indian police are investigating the disappearance of Pranita Shrestha.

A reward will be paid for any information that will lead to the return of 38-year-old Pranita Shrestha.

If you have any information, please contact:

1. Embassy of Finland in Delhi, E-3, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, sanomat.nde@formin.fi, tel. +91-11-4149 7500 or
+9198111 16843

2. Embassy of Finland in Nepal, Bishalnagar, Kathmandu, sanomat.ket@formin.fi, tel. +977-1-4416 636, 4417 221

3. Mrs Arja Talonen arja.talonen@kuvalehdet.fi tel.+358-50-3662748 (English, German, Swedish, Finnish)

4. Mr. Ville Talonen, moroville@hotmail.com , tel. +358-45-6316 119 (English, Finnish)

5. Mrs. Byoma Tamrakar byoma.tamrakar@gmail.com tel. +358-41 5100864 (Hindi, English, Nepali)

6. Indian Police