Annikki and Jacob decided to write this series of blog entries to share some of the major highlights of our life associated with Finland over the last 80 years. It will later be incorporated as a chapter in Jacob’s memoirs
At the outset it is important to remember this proverb:
We hope it will help some of you, and all the members of your family, as you live your life peacefully in this beautiful country.
Recently, we received an email stating that the person was “appalled” by our behaviour.
So far, people have only referred to us as anarchist hippies! It was a shock for Annikki and Jacob to be called terrorists by a "respected member" of O-India ry.
We thought it would be better if we reviewed our over 80 years of association with Finland (in the case of Annikki, her 79 years) to see how many of our activities could be termed as terrorist oriented?
Annikki and Jacob, with their four children, moved permanently to Finland from India in April 1984.
We had visited Finland in the summer of 1969.
On arrival in Helsinki we stayed in Annikki’s brother’s (Erkki) University apartment in Otaniemi in Espoo. It was in a gorgeous setting overlooking the bay. We spent a day there and visited the chapel of the University located in the middle of the forest.
University chapel in Espoo.
We did some sightseeing visiting the Helsinki Open Market place on the sea front and the copper domed chapel.
We then drove all night from Helsinki to Oulu in a rented Beetle VW, with our two small children. Destination was to Annikki’s home town.
It was Jacob’s first experience of a nightless night. He was fascinated by driving through the green forests, blue lakes, forests and more lakes.
The roads were rough as it was just after winter. The use of studded tyres in winter made them treacherous as there were two deep ruts on the road. But there was virtually no traffic.
We stopped for a cup of coffee at a motor rest. No motorways those days.
Annikki had not spoken Finnish for almost seven years so she felt a little hurt as a Finn when the attendant in the cafeteria complimented her on her Finnish! :-)
Jacob experienced watching a gorgeous sunset and sunrise within minutes of each other over a lake in Jyväskylä near the centre of Finland.
Sunset and sunrise in midsummer in Finland.
We arrived at 5 am on the 3rd of July 1969 to a house bathed in the morning sunshine.
Jacob was received in that home with a great cup of coffee and as a son of the family.
Finns are amongst the largest coffee drinkers in the World consuming a strong brew.
It was Jacob’s first experience of pouring fresh milk from a plastic bag, something not seen anywhere else in the world before then and of special interest to him as a plastics technologist.
The bags of milk were sold with a plastic container to hold the bag upright.
Annikki and their two children, Susanna (1 year and 9 months) and Jaakko (8 months) and her mother, Hilja - July 1969 in Oulu.
After a month we set off by train and ferry to Stockholm, train to Copenhagen, where we were met by Jacob’s classmate from his Mumbai school, Viney Sethi, who was married to a Danish lady, Hanne Pederson. Viney has been a childhood friend for over 7 decades.
Finally, Copenhagen we travelled by train to Munich in West Germany and then to Venice in Italy to board the M. S. Victoria run by Lloyd Triestino Lines to Bombay.
As the Suez Canal was closed, the trip was of 5 weeks. Out through the Straits of Gibraltar and to the Atlantic, to Las Palmas, Dakkar to Cape Town and then to the Arabian Sea to Mombasa, Karachi and to Bombay.
Susanna in Stockholm en route to Venice
Jacob with Susanna and Jaakko on board the M. S. Victoria.
Annikki and Jacob on board the M. S. Victoria on the Atlantic Ocean between Las Palmas and Cape Town.
The reason we travelled by ship was that Jacob had collected 10 tea chests of valuable research and technical literature which was to form the foundation of the consulting company he was establishing in Madras with his brother, also a polymer chemist.
We had a wonderful time on board the ship. Annikki, with her artistic talents, dressed the two of us as Lappish people using blue and red crepe paper and we walked away with the first prize.
Also the four of us were the only ones who were never sea-sick even in the roughest weather, so we appeared on time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only problem was that being an Italian ship, they served us pasta for every meal, only the shape of the pasta changed!
We arrived in Bombay for the next stage of our life in India.
Part 2 of the blog will cover the period 1975 to 1984.
