Peacocks

My beauty, inside and outside.

I was driving on my scooter to town yesterday when, coming in the other direction, was a lady on a cycle, with green hair, heavily painted eyes and lips, and with dramatic clothes.

I wondered why such a pretty young girl needed all this paraphernalia to attract attention. Or was she trying to attract attention?

I thought of our Indian National Bird, the Peacock, which spreads its beautiful feathers to attract attention of the opposite species.

I thought, that is what nature endowed it with. It did not need any external assistance.

Then I thought of myself, of what I do before I set out in the morning. I have a bath, brush my teeth, sometimes trim my moustache (mainly so that it is not a filter for my food intake, and also trim my beard, dress with the first things I see on my clothes shelf, comb my hair (why?) and set out into the world.

I feel confident and happy, immaterial of what I am wearing. I do not look to see whether others are disgusted or appreciative of what I look like.

But what about me?

I like to see people neat and clean, well dressed, and facing the world with confidence.

Did that young girl with her peacock approach appear confident to me?

I do not think so. I thought she looked desperate - maybe I am wrong.

People are naturally attractive. I do not believe that I have seen a person who was ugly, although, I must admit, some people appear more attractive than they really are because of what they may be wearing, or their stance, etc.

However, it is really only when you meet a person and talk to him or her, you really know whether they are beautiful, ugly, attractive or disgusting. That is the inner self reveals what a person is like.

I wondered what the peahen thought of the male after the initial spread of feathers?

Some things remind me of India

Indian Mangoes

After 26 years in the wilderness, a beautiful wilderness, there are some things that remind me of India but yet are not quite Indian.

Yesterday, after dinner, Annikki offered me a Israeli mango for dessert. It was so bad in taste that I had to ask her to take it away.

This evening, when I got home, there was a fragrant smell of a ripe mango, not overripe, but just right.

I looked at the three of the mangoes on the dining table and decided I would chance having one, despite my experience of yesterday.

I cut open one. It was obvious that this was the odd one out - it was delicious reflected in the smell, totally unlike yesterday's catastrophe.

But this got me thinking about Indian mangoes.

I have grown up on a diet of different types of mango - from the polymango at the school gate to the Banganapally, Mulgova, Langada, Badami, Raspuri and what they call the King of Mangoes - the Alphonso.

When we moved to India in 1969, for about a year we stayed in a small flat in the City Centre. Much against the wishes of all our family members we found a small house on the outskirts of Madras - Nandambakkam, where the colony was situated in a Mango Grove.

We had one ancient tree in our garden. It must have been a hundred years old. The old tree had a grotto facing the children's room. There lived a friendly snake who used to pop is head out and wish us the time of the day. It was too frightened to come out if we were around.

When Annikki's brother and his wife came to India for their honeymoon, we gave them that bedroom. Annikki casually mentioned our friendly snake - which was the cause of a disaster, as her sister-in-law could not sleep all night.

But the beauty of this old tree was the mango it produced. Each fruit was between 800 gm to a kilo. They were round like the Romany but bright yellow like the Alphonso. The fruits were jucier and sweeter than any other mango I have ever tasted.

Joanna, our younger daughter, was literally brought up on this mango juice, much to the horror of my older relatives who said that mango was too heaty for young children.

Joanna and all of us thrived on this tree for the time we were there.

The similarity to the Romany and this unnamed variety was how we ate it.

My dad had taught me that the easiest way to eat a round Romany mango was to cut it round the seed in the centre. Twist and the mango halves came apart and the seed ell away. One could spoon carve the mango out of the skin.

The mango I had today was nowhere near the taste of our Velacherri mango, but the smell was very close.

Oh for a good mango!

Speed cameras - A DANGER

Yesterday, I made a quick trip to Tampere, about 500 km south of Oulu.

I chose a route which is the shortest, rather than the conventional one which is the major artery. Although it is only a few kilometres shorter, the time indicated in the Navigator was almost an hour longer than the other route.

Driving along the smaller country roads was extremely pleasant. Even moren to my surprise, was that there was not a single speed radar camera on the route. This meant that I, and other drivers, were not constantly looking out for the traps. The driving was smooth and easy.

Everyone was observing the indicated speed limits. I did see a couple of Police Vans prowling the route, but no incidents.

The time taken was actually slightly less than the Fastest Route because of the fact that we did not have to keep braking for the cameras.

More important was that my fuel consumption was considerably less.

Two days ago, the State of Arizona in the USA outlawed the use of Speed Cameras as an invasion of privacy.

I had posted a comment there which tackled some important points.

One of the most important points I raised was that while driving at around midnight before sunrise, if I had my headlights on, I was able to see all the road signs. But if there was an on-coming car and I switched to my dip lights, I was unable to see the road signs and the change of speed signs, which usually precede a speed camera, and hence it was a violation of the law to haul anyone up in the dark hours for breaking the speed limit when caught by a speed camera.

The most important aspect is that it does no good to road safety. In fact is more of a danger.

Tne only reason that these speed cameras exists is to collect revenue from the motorists.

Google is amazing

At 4:20 (16:20) today, I put up my most recent blog entry and mentioned my experience yesterday with water plaining.

I was not sure whether I had used the correct word, plaining, as it is derived NOT from the words PLAIN or PLAN, but from PLANE! And there is no such word as PLANEING! The English Language does not allow this.

I thought I would check it out on Google. At 17:45, just less than 2 hours after I had posted my entry, the No. 1 hit on Google Search was my entry!

How do they do this?

I take my hats off to Google, an amazing company.

Two more days for registration

Many of you have asked how to do the registration for access to my blogs.

(Two comments on this subject as well.)

All you have is to send me an email telling me which blogs you want to access.

When I set up my settings, I will include your email address. That will enable you to access the appropriate blogs. No password will be required. You will get an email to the effect telling you that you have been registered to read a particular blog.

As there are over 10 blogs, I will only add you to the blogs you personally request.

I had an amazing drive to Helsinki yesterday. It was blistering hot on my way down. I drank many bottles of fluids, juices and water.

There was torrential rain when I left Helsinki at 5 pm. Im learnt for the first time what was water plaining. I lost control of the car as the water was rushing down the motorway. I got away without any damage and I drove at snail's pace when I was under the downpour.

From 2010 Kampitie

From 2010 Kampitie

When driving the last 300 km between 12 midnight and 2:30 am, I watched an amazing simultaneous sunset on my left and a sunrise on my right with an almost vertical rainbow at 1 am!.

What a wonderful world!

Orbituary of a friend

I was informed by the son, Venkatesh, of a dear friend in Chennai that his father had passed away.

Last year, on our Bharat Darshan of 2 months, I took time off to go and meet one of my dearest friends in Chennai, P. V. Laxminarayan. Our paths had crossed through Rotary and a common interest in Plastics. PVL or Laxmi, as he was known, used to work for Chemplast, a large PVC resin manufacturer in Mettur a couple of hundred kilometers from Madras (Chennai). He was the plant accountant. He really understood not only the process, but the entire economics of running a large resin manufacturing facility. It was not because he was interested in Plastics resin manufacture, but because he was genuinely interested in whatever he did.

Every time he came to Madras on a work or weekend visit, as his late father-in-law ran one of the most dynamic architecural and civil engineering companies in Chennai, C.R. Narayana Rao, we would spend the time at the Rotary, and then his wife, Sita would dish up some great vegetarian dosais or vadas or rasam or.....

Finally, he moved to Chennai and started his own Auditing practice. Besides helping him to join our local Madras South Rotary Club, he also became the Auditor and financial advisor to my Consulting Company.

He was never just my Auditor. He was my friend. He used to stay with me when I lived in Bangalore. He travelled with me and ate with me, even though he was a very strict vegetarian.

He came from the ultra-orthodox Madhva Community, but he never let it interfere in his daily life. He was conservative and yet progressive.

PVL had a tremendous sense of humour. He would have all in splits of laughter for hours on end.

But yet, he could be deadly serious and accurate when he did his accounting, helping me to stay well within the law.

When we were in Chennai, his sons, Venkatesh & Ramachandran, had organised a special event to felicitate their father. He was eager that I would attend, but unfortunately our time in India was so short that it was impossible to change our schedules. But, during the time I spent with him, his mind was agile and he was trying to help another of his clients with some export orders. He never forgot where his bread was buttered and did everything humanly posible to help all his clients.

His wife, Sita, has also been a dear friend. I was able to spend a few minutes with her also during this last trip.

I know that she will miss her husband every single hour of the day, just as I am missing him even at this distance.

Annikki and I convey our deepest condolences to Sita and her two sons, Venkatesh and Ramachandran, on behalf of all our children and ourselves for a dear family friend for over 3 and a half decades.

You will be missed PVL.

We remember you fondly with all your gaiety.

Let your soul rest in peace.

An important request to ALL our readers

Dear Readers of all our blogs,

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that we will now have to make all our major blogs accessible only to those who register with us.

The subjects we have covered over the years include the wrestler Dara Singh (probably the most popular and controversial blog entries, ever), St. Stephen's College, Delhi, Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, Bishop Cotton School, Bangalore, the UN, talk Shows in the USA, politics, the Kandathil and Maliyakal families, Kampitie, Vesaisentie, Annikki's creative art, achievements of our children and grandchildren, CHAFF (Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners), Findians, our numerous friends, relatives, our travels, recipes, and life in general. Above all, t they contained the nostalgia the people love.

Due to circumstances far beyond our control, which affect the lives of many of our loved ones, we have to create the SETTINGS of our blogs so that only those whom we invite can read them. This is very sad as our blogs have reunited many friends across the continents.

With over 120000 readers around the world, some reading more than one of our blogs, for a decrepit old blogger and his wife sitting near the North Pole, this will prove to be a Herculean task, but one which has to be done for the safety, security and well being of many of our loved ones.

Please take the time and effort to send us an email telling us which of our blogs you want to be added to so that you can access them freely.

Our sincere apologies to each and every one of you lovely readers who have kept us going for almost a decade and a half by your readership, your inputs and your outputs!

Yours in great sadness as technology besides being a positive aspect of life can also be a very negative one.

Annikki and Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

This makes me MAD!!!

On Friday afternoon, one of our Indian engineers called me at about half past two and said he was not feeling well. I rushed to his workplace and took him to his local health centre in Tuira, only to find it closed for the summer. I tried the main City Health Centre at Kontinkangas, but found it closed already by 14:00 hours because it was a Friday.

Reluctantly, I had to take him to the Oulu University Central Hospital (OYKS) Out Patients Section as that was the only place available. I warned my dear friend what was likely to happen as has been recorded in an earlier blog entry.

He was told to have some laboratory tests done and then wait to see the doctor. After a wait of about 45 minutes, we got to get blood and urine samples taken. At this point, the nurse was kind enough to tell us the results would not be ready for a couple of hours. She told us that we should inform the office that we would be back at 18:30!

We returned at 18:30 and informed the office we were back. Not much good as it took another two hours before we saw the doctor who prescribed an antibiotic and a mild pain killer. I was told to organise to take him to the Oulu City Out Patient Department on Monday for further investigations.

We went to Yliopisto Apteeki, the only Pharmacy open so late in the evening, picked up the medicines, and I then dropped off the young lad at his apartment. He was not looking comfortable, but I hoped that maybe he would get better by the morning.

Saturday was a very busy day as I was scrapping my Audi and adding a Opel Vectra to my rental fleet. The customer had arrived in Oulu from Amsterdam and was anxious to get the car. I always ensure that my cars are in good mechanical condition, so I after my morning work at the office I was in the garage supervising the car servicing. In the meantime I brought the lady and her beautiful 2 month old baby, Arvind, to the office to finish the rental paperwork. The lady is Finnish from Oulu, her husband is from india and they live in Amsterdam.

After that, we went back to the garage, but the car was still being serviced as my mechanic decided to change the timing belt - usually done after 60000 km. As little Arvind was getting restless, I gave my car to the lady to go home and I said that I would bring the Vectra to her when it was ready. Just when the car was getting ready to hit the road, I had a call from our engineer, who said the pain had increased considerably and was almost unbearable. I promised I would be there as soon as possible. I took the Vectra to the lady's home on the outskirts of Oulu, only to find, that like me, she has a problem about remembering to switch off the lights. The battery was dead in my VW Vento. So I rushed back to Ahmatie, picked up my battery power loader, rushed to pick up the engineer and his friend, took them to the hospital, checked him in, telling the nurse that he had to see a doctor immediately.

The stupid nurse did not want to understand why I was desperate and she was trying to send the boy back home. However, because I insisted, she finally gave in and asked him to wait.

I knew it would take an hour or so, so I rushed off, exchanged the cars and got back to OYKS.

The poor boy was in great agony. Unable to stand seeing him writhing I made a fervent plea to the nurse to get the doctor to see him immediately. When we had reached, this poor youngster hardly had any fever, but now he was boiling. The temperature had reached 102 F (39 C). I made a second plea to the office and this time after another 15 minutes (about 2 hours since we had originally checked in) the doctor saw him. She decided to run the tests again, but my engineer friend was quite adamant that he could not wait sitting there as the pain was above the bearable threshold.

So we got a bed for him, they gave him a infusion pain killer and they brought the lab equipment to get his tests done again.

At that point it was decided to admit him into the hospital for observation. We left the engineer in the care of the hospital for the night.

I was there at 8 am to see him. He was feeling better as he was being given antibiotics by infusion and also he was having the pain killer. It was nice to see him smiling.

What infuriates me is the inability of Finnish doctor's to make any diagonis without a full set of results. They have absolutely no deductive skills. They are inexperienced as they just do not see enough patients to make a holistic assumption.

Further to have an Out Patient Department where the priority is for ambulance patients and then for children is just plain stupid. They should do the first assessment as a patient enters the hospital and make sure the priorities are fixed based on the condition of the patient.

If action had been taken immediately, this young engineer would not have to go through hell before he was to get the primary assistance!

All of you know that Annikki and I have written about this, sometimes even in jest - but this is past jesting. But the experiences with an 85 year old lady has certainly made us mad.

If you are an Indian working in Oulu, please check with your company that you can be treated in a private hospital - as I do not like seeing my young friends being subjected to this form of Finnish torture!

By the way, this is how Raantel Oy in Oulu looks after is tenants! :-)

The background to "Loma raha"

Many of you have been asking me as to the background to the "lomaraha" that many Finns receive. It is equal to a month's extra salary (but taxed at 50%). The translation means "Holiday Money".

In the old days, Finns would take the whole month of July of from work, to recover from a hard winter and to enjoy the summer sunshine. Work in the entire country would drag to an almost full stop as the Finns pushed off to their holiday homes, etc.

If the summer had been great and the look of August being an Indian Summer was a prospect, many Finns would not turn up for work on the 1st of August.

The Finnish companies had a real problem as this is a small country and every person's input counted.

To counteract this trend, the employers started an incentive called "Holiday Money".

If the people came back from their holiday on the 1st of August, they got a bonus of a month's salary.

This practice continued till finally it became enshrined as a worker's right.

Soon, everyone was getting an extra month's salary as "Lomaraha".

For 11 month's work the Finns got 13 month's salary.

I do not know if this system is still prevalent, but all through my working life I did enjoy the extra month's salary.

In my case, as I did not take my annual holiday in July, I got an extra week's holiday in December. Instead of 4 weeks paid annual holiday, I got 5 weeks. With one week off for Christmas and New Year, that made it 6 weeks. As I planned to give some lectures in India or UK, I got one week extra as a working week off from work - making it 7 weeks. 13 months salary for 10 months and 1 week work!!!!

Of course, this old man is now on a perpetual holiday! :-)

Midsummer Rose Blooms again

Every year, without fail, the Midsummer Rose at Kampitie, at least one, opens up and blooms. This year was no exception.

From 2010 Kampitie

There has been a dramatic change in the front garden at Vesaisentie, where Annikki has used a novel concept of placing wooden pavings, to complement her stone ones.

From 2010 Kampitie

They look unusual and great.

What a cosmopilitan mix

My Nordkapp Mini Bus trips are proving to be popular and quite a cosmopolitan mix.

Last week we had 3 Finns, 2 Indians, 1 Romanian and 1 Zambian (4 ladies and 3 gents). This week, we have 3 Chinese, 3 Indians, 2 Sri Lankans and 1 Sudanese (5 ladies and 4 gents). Next week....??

I was planning to make the trip this week with two friends. But, we had a last minute request from one of my Chinese tenants in Raantel Oy Furnished Apartments to accommodate her and two friends, so we moved aside to give them the chance to see the sight of a lifetime.

The route is the same as on the first trip. The pictures from Sandra are amazing. I am supposed to indicate my top 10, which has proved impossible at the moment. Each of her compositions is like a picture postcard.

I have, however, chosen one so far....

Saana Mountain, Kilpisjärvi, Finland. (Copyright Sandra Rugina, 2010)

This surrealistic picture of Saana Mountain, the sacred mountain of the Lappish people, the original nomadic inhabitants of northern Scandinaviaa and Finland, near Kilpisjärvi, is just one of her photos from the trip.

What composition, what detail, what an effect it has on you!

I will upload Sandra's 10 top photographs over the course of summer as I report on each visit to Nordkapp.

In the meantime, may I invite you to make this experience this summer!

Is this THE Dara Singh?

As many of you may have noted, my blog entry about Dara Singh and the other wrestler's of the 1950s are some of the hotest pages that I have. The controversy rages, and even as I try to put it out, it flares up again.

Now I have an email from Mahabir. He has sent me some photographs of a person whom he says is the Dara Singh.

From Dara Singh

From Dara Singh

From Dara Singh

I cannot think that it is the Dara Singh that I watched!

First Nordkapp trip travellers return

It was at about 00:30 am on Monday morning when I got the call from Hannah, the tour guide of our Nordkapp trip, that the Mini Bus was just leaving Kemi. I told her I would be at the office to meet them.

From Nordkapp Tours

 The Ford Transit 9 Seater which took the travellers to Nordkapp and back.

The tired group of travellers, 3 Finns, 2 Indians, 1 Romanian and 1 Zambian arrived at India House at 01:30.

Their journey, which had started on Friday afternoon at 14:00 hours, had been arduous, but as I understood, quite exciting. Although the cloudy skies prevented them from witnessing the Midnight Sun at the horizon, they certainly got a glimpse of the beauty of Northern Finland and Northern Norway. Two of the Finns were so experienced that our Tour Guide only had to translate what the two were saying!!!

I quickly glanced through the 300+ photographs that trip photographer, Sandra Rugina, had taken. There are some really great ones in the collection. She is a truly outstanding photographer. She can capture that moment that counts.

I will put up the best ones as soon as Sandra gets the top 10 to me.

Am I a crazy dosai lover?

Many of you have asked me why I get so excited when I am served Masala Dosai in Oulu. You can get a reasonable dosai in every street corner in India. To an average Indian, my excitement will seem foolish.

Unfortunately, the availability of a dosai in many parts of the world is strictly limited. When one is served one, and after a lengthy period of not having even seen one on the horizon, the excitement knows no bounds as the juices start their work even before the first morsel is in the mouth.

From Annikki's Oulu Masala Dosai

From Annikki's Oulu Masala Dosai

From Annikki's Oulu Masala Dosai

Yesterday, Annikki produced a superb dosai meal for me with a tasty tomato curry. The filling was a spicy potato mix. I enjoyed three of them in one go.

The reason for the arrival on the table was that Annikki found that a good small coffee grinder can churn the Urad Dal into the right powdery consistency, something she could only do before with a heavy duty coffee grinder which we have left behind in our old home. Too heavy!

I hear that Nushrat and Arindamof the Indian Cuisine Restaurant are still in the planning stage of launching the Oulu Masala Dosai after they get a good South Indian cook. 

Sorry, can't wait for that. My wife certainly learnt the right things from her 15 year sojourn in India - which shows all over me! :-)

Thanks, Annikki, for the Dosai. Thanks to you people out there for taking time to read this entry dictated by my pot belly!

Our joy knows no bounds

It was on Wednesday that i reluctantly rang Joanna as soon as I reached home. Samu, as usual, picked up the phone and I asked to speak to Joanna.

Joanna was aggressive as she wanted to know where we both had been. She had been ringing to speak to us, but no one had picked up the phone.

Then she asked me whether I had seen Facebook. I told her I had been busy and I had not. Then she dropped the bombshell.

SHE HAD PASSED WITH MERIT! She was now a full DOCTOR.

10 years had passed. (She thought it was only 9. She had forgotten that first year where she studied the fundamentals!) It has now culminated into her being what has been her ambition from childhood.

Not satisfied with her Master's Degree in English Philology, and her cushy jobs with Nokia Mobile and Nokia Networks, she had become a single mother in Newcastle, had two more children along the way and struggled through all what a person can face, so ably assisted by a few wonderful people, especially her dear friend Ulla and a lovely young girl, Anni, to achieve her ambition.

She has paid a heavy price but the final result has made it worthwhile.

From Doctor Joanna

My mind flashed back to when she had been a bundle of joy for us in 1971. She was a quiet baby and gave us no trouble. (Not trhat our other kids gave us any trouble when they were kids!)

From Doctor Joanna

Joanna had been an outstanding student all through her school life. I used to enjoy reading her half yearly and annual school reports. She really enjoyed life the way I had wanted her too. Her friends and her hobbies were equally of great satisfaction to me. She was no bookworm, but yet she was always doing well in her studies.

From Doctor Joanna

When she finished her High School, both Annikki and I were thrilled to bits by her performance

From Doctor Joanna

And with all her burdens of single parenthood and 3 small beautiful children, Samu (13), Daniel (6) and Maria (2), she had achieved her life's first ambition - to be a Doctor!

I shouted with joy as she broke the news to me. Annikki grabbed the phone to hear the words from her daughter. We both were in shock with joy. I cried at the thought of all this poor girl has been through to reach this.

Well done, Joanna. Thank you Ulla and Anni.

I never had a doubt what Joanna would achieve. And I never had a doubt that she would reach there with nothing but MERIT.

Why was I quiet? Feeling India at Oulu!!!

It is quite common people that email me when I am quiet on the blogs. Late last week, I got a call asking about my health. I assured the caller that I was in peak condition, despite all what the doctors are saying. My blood sugar is raging high, my cholesterol is over the top... ...... But I feel fine as a fettle.

 I did want some time to digest the event that was held last Saturday. In my short posting to the participants I expressed Annikki´s comment that this show was outstanding in that it was "from the people, by the people, for the people".

I thought to give you an insight about how this event actually developed.

Mani wrote an email to a few people asking whether they thought it was a good idea for our O-India Group to do something. Many, including myself, thought it was about time that we did.

Masterfully, Mani organised a brain-storming session. We had plenty of ideas. This was very cleverly filtered during the course of a few sessions into a "programme" which everyone thought was do-able.

Then started the hard work of writing the script, editing it (in which I contributed a very small part), and then organising a bunch of common people to bring out their hidden talent.

And talent we found in plentiful.

I am glad to say that India House was throbbing with activity. I was able to offer first the office and then an apartment which was free for a couple of days, as the practice venue. This was when Ville Victor was not available. Our special thanks to Shahnaz, Hassan and Tapsa who made it possible to enjoy those facilities to the fullest. Aruna chipped in by offering the Setlementti premises in the City Centre and Tuira when they were free.

But the over-crowded rooms of India House were humming with activity and the strains of music of all ages from all parts of India, as a group of youngsters took their own parts so seriously.

As the show developed, I was able to secure the YMCA Hall at a reasonable cost for the event and also get their powerful audio equipment for the show along with a excellent microphone input.

Mani was a gentle but hard task master. Starting with weekly practices, he then put the screws on till they were virtually every other day. Driving a group of people who have never done any professional acting in front of a huge audience certainly needs the skill of a "Slum Dog" Director - and we had that in Mani.

I know I am going to earn the wrath of both Pooja and Mani, as they shun publicity - but I feel credit has to go where credit is due - and it was this superb husband and wife team that made us be this GROUP.

Just as we thought we had it all organised, Arindam rang me and said he had a discovery, a dancer from Sri Lanka. This young and talented girl was injected into the group. It really gave the group an extra layer of gold polish.

Each participant became adept at what he or she was going to do. Nonchalance was driven away by the need to work as a team. And as a team they worked, husbands and wives, even to the point of their children being left to watch Walt Disney movies in the care of Karteek at India House.

From Fieel India

The poster created by Mani was simply superb. It had a touch and feel  of professionalism, which even amazed the creator.  I managed to blow it up and create fliers which were then strategically placed in points where we could generate an audience, especially the Findians amongst us.

The first full practice session was on the 12th morning. I saw the production through for the first time, and I was really overjoyed to see the outcome. The music had been put together masterfully. the script was full of meaning and the diction was perfect. The dances were superb and the skits were done magnificently. We had a bunch of really talented actors on stage.

With the help of the younger crew, the hall was made ready and the performance which was to start at 17:45 and run for about 45 minutes.

Then we waited with baited breath to see how many people would turn up. By 17:30 we had "HOUSE FULL"!

The show commenced and ran without a hitch. It was as if I was sitting in an Indian movie theatre as the whistling and clapping at each performance showed as that it was being appreciated. There was everything - colour, beauty, brawn, and amazing talent plus humour. The show ended on a real high of the comparison of our Bharatanatyam with Michael Jackson! Who won? The audience rocked and laughed!

From Fieel India

The cheers at the final curtain call showed the appreciation.

The event was followed by Nushrat and Arindam serving tea and coffee and some Indian food at a very affordable price. This helped people to mingle and meet and show their appreciation to the actors and all the people behind the production. 

Then the team cleaned up and left the hall the way we should. 

Thanks girls and guys for this. People are waiting for your next production!

The secret of my NORDKAPP Trip

The reason why I am pushing my Nordkapp trip is that you may witness something that no one alive may never again see in their lifetime - TWO - YES, TWO SUNS.

The whole world is waiting for 21st June 2010 to witness a wonderful
vision which may appear next time this close, is in 2287 only.

From 2010 Two Suns

21st June 2010 - TWO SUNS?


STAR ADEROID will be the brightest in the sky, starting 10th June.

It will look as large as the sun from naked eye.

This will culminate on 21st June 2010 when the star comes within
34.65M miles of the earth.

Be sure to watch the sky between 18th and  27th June 2010.

On 21st June at 12:30 pm it will look as if the earth has 2 suns.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again. Don't miss it.

I cannot predict what it will look like at Nordkapp.

If you are one of the lucky ones to be there, you may have a set of
photographs which may be worth a small fortune.

That is why top photographers are going on my Nordkapp trip.

I will have copyright access to each of their top 10 photographs!

Don´t say I did not tell you! :-)

Most pleasantly surprised

Yesterday, I visited an Indian software engineer who has not been very long in Finland, maybe a month and a half. Along came his friend who lives next door.

I was most pleasantly surprised to hear the conversation between them.

One told the other that eggs were only € 0.49 in one shop, but that when he went there, he did not find it. Then the other responded that tomatoes were just € 0.89 in another shop.

I asked them where they had got the information. They brought out a copy of the twice a week newspaper, FORUM, and they pointed to two advertisements, both from K-Sopermarket.

The information they had had gleaned was partially correct, but the niceties of their finds were missing because of their lack of knowledge of Finnish.

The two shops were differen. The dates on which these special offers were also restricted. There was also a restriction on the number of packets of eggs that could be bought at this price.

But it was a real eye opener to me that the guys had actually bothered to go through the newspaper.

Considering how I started the "Survival" system in 1984, I was really happy to see our cost conscious Indian software engineers using this approach.

Wish I could give a copy of the "Handbook for Survival" to each person who arrives. Sadly, it is out of date, having been published in 1994. Also, one has to have the energy to go through the entire printing and publishing process again.

Who in their right senses would...

I read with great interest how billions were being promised as new investment in Bangalore and how the Chief Minister had rode rough shod on the protesters.

Those of whom have been following this blog when Annikki and I were travelling through India, and especially when we were in Bangalore, would certainly be wondering what I thought of this!

Being a Bangalorean by birth and a lover of Bangalore when it was a "Garden City", what I saw was a unplanned, unmanaged growth where only the power of money ruled the streets. A filthy, unkept Bangalore where kids and garbage were brought up side by side, as the "investors" have no time for such niceties of keeping a clean healthy city, as it would affect their bottom line if they did anything about this.

I am unlikely to visit Bangalore again, unless I have to. It is "dead" city to me.

I refer to my many posts on this blog about Rural Urbanisation.

I wish those investors planning to invest their billions would show some sense before the "oil catastrophe" symptom of the Gulf of Mexico, in its land form, hits and destroys.

As I have said a couple of times - the only salvation will be when Bangalore dies and sees rebirth!

Dandia brings alive India House

Last Sunday, India House in Oulu was throbbing with the sound of Indian Music and Dances. The cultural group planning and preparing for the programme for Saturday the 12th of June in Oulu was busy, practicing.

As one apartment was free, I was able to allow them to use it for the practice.

But the ladies found they needed more space.

From India House Garden

They moved to forecourt to practice the Dandia dance.

The sound of the the sticks and the rythym of the dance certainly had all the onlookers hearts throbbing. If it was any indication of what is to come on the 12th evening, it is going to be just great. We have so much beauty, brawn and talent in Oulu.

Yes, India house was really alive.

Thanks, ladies!