Tuesday, November 07, 2023

A Blast from My Past -

 While going through my ancient files, I came across this little blue notebook with my pet name on the cover.


SUSHIL is my Indian name, a tradition started by my paternal grandfather. 

In the past, we were given our official name, in which the first was the House name that you belonged to from your father’s side. Then you added your father’s name and finally your own name.

The own name would then be made Malayali and would be used by your family and family friends. Occasionally, you also got called by a “pet” name which could be associated with your standing in society, your contribuion to society or just endearment.

My eldest maternal uncle  was the late Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian (Chetpet Appachen), . He got the name Cherian as being my grandfather's eldest son, he was given his great grandfather's name - Cherian.

Padma Bhushan is the award he was given by the Indian Government for his contribution to Indian journalism and work for Indian Independence. K stood for his family House name, Kandathil. M stood for his father's name. which was  Mammen Mappillai.

Take a look at the names of all my mother's  brothers in order of birth.



1. Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian

2. K.M. Oommen

3. K.M. Eapen

4. K. M. Varghese Mappillai

5. K. M. Jacob

6. Padma Shri K. M. Philip

7. Padma Bhushan K. M. Mathew

8. Padma Shri K. M. Mammen Mappillai

The ninth member of the family was my mother, whose name should have been 




Padma Acca K. M. Mariam (Padma Acca being my personal title for her) as she held 7 fiery brothers together to help them build MRF Ltd. , Malayala Manorama, MM Rubber Co. Ltd. amongst a host of other companies. 

(Her brother, K. M. Jacob, died early and my name is Jacob as I was born shortly after he died. )

Without her strong hand  and mutual love and affection with her brothers, this family would have broken up into fragmernts a long time ago. (This story will appear in my memoirs in due course.)

So you will note that each of them has the K. M. prefix before their own name.

My paternal grandfather took another route. 


His name was Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur Maliyakal Kuriyan (Mysore) Matthan.

Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur was the title conferred on him by the Maharaja of Mysore for his services to the State of Mysore. The House name is Maliyakal, which is also my house name. His  name from his father was Kuriyan (which be also spelt as Kurian). The pet name "Mysore" was given to him by the people of Mysore for his contribution to the state. His personal name was Matthan, but he turned it to his surname name. This was because he saw it as part of the western society he had become involved with and he changed from being a Syrian Christian to a member of the Protestant Church.

So his male children were

1. M. George Matthan (Commissioner Mysore Government)

2. M. Kuriyan Matthan (CEO Tata Engineering Consultancy Services, after being the Chief Engineer of the B. E. S. T. in Bombay)

3. M. Matthan Matthan (DCM) 

4. M. John Matthan (CEO BHEL & CEO Integral Coach Factory)

5. M. Jacob Matthan (LIC Chairman)

My mother's family were all professionals and business  oriented, while my father and his brothers were all professionals, all of whom reached the pinnacles in their professional life.

Coming to my name, it should have been Maliyakal Matthan Jacob, but as my paternal grandfather turned around the system, I got the name Maliyakal Jacob Matthan, but an Indian name was also added, which is SUSHIL. (My elder sister was Nalini, my elder brother is Ranjit, and my younger sister was Thangamma.). Sushil is used by my other family members and family friends who have known me since childhood.

But this is a digression, as the reason for this blog is that I found a small notebook a couple of days ago which had an article written by me in 1975 about the potential for trade between Finland and India.

Written by me 48 years ago, when I was just 32 years old, there may not be much technology  significance today.

What interested me is not the content of the article but that I was able to write an article before my access to a computer in beautiful long hand, something which vanished when I returned to Finland in 1984, 9 years later, as my handwriting skills vanished. With the advent of the computer, and arthritis hitting me quite hard simultaneously, I resorted to using the compuiter for my writing to avoid the pain.

When I joined the University of Oulu, I was given access to IBM XT and AT computers, along with the IBM Mainframe. 

My earlier computer access was when I was working in MRF.  IBM opened their computer centre in Madras. All we had was preparing punched cards relating to the stocks in store. 

I did not stay with the IBM Computers for long as I spent most of my time trying to remember key strokes and functions and less time creating my documents.

One day, a young lady arrived at the door of my University room from a company called Systema Oy. She convinced me to look at what she was selling. It was an Apple IIC computer which had a "mouse" and the commands were simple to remember.

I took to it immediately and my productivity went up 2000% compared to that of my colleagues. 

Soon I had others working on my Apple IIC all day creating all sorts of scientific experimental stuff. 

I had to wait till they went home to get my work done, which became quite simple as it was productivity oriented. What took them 4 hours on their computers, my productivity with my Apple Macs took hardly 2 hours! (This was at the time of the cumbersome DOS system.)

Within a year, all my colleagues were clammering for their own Apple computers, but I had moved on to a Mac, the Mac Plus,  the Mac SE and then the Mac Portable and then the Mac PowerBook, my first own computer. 

There is an interesting side story when I bought my PowerBook. I claimed it as an expenses and claimed depreciation for the whole year, although I had bought it only in December. 

The Oulu Tax Office declined to give me the depreciation for the whole year. I went to Oulu Court. There I showed that I could do a whole year's work in less than three weeks. The judge ruled in my favour. 

After that the Oulu Tax Oflice never questioned me on my claims!

I was continually ahead of my colleagues who were always playing catch up with me.

I would go in on a Saturday morning and upgrade all the software on the Macs of my colleagues.

As a result, despite being a third world country intruder in Finland, I got upgraded from an ordinary researcher to the Laboratory Manager and then to the Chief Engineer.

The secret of my success was that they needed me more than I needed them! 

I do hope you will enjoy this handwritten 20 page article of mine. 

It shows my vision of 35+ years ago, even  before I moved to Finland. It also shows my commitment to promoting India and its culture, products and technology to Finland.

Remember one of our Guiding Principles:

"Go where you are appreciated!"


Appendix:


















Monday, November 06, 2023

Paddy Feeny gets challenged


His intro to himself - late Paddy Feeny

Nowadays, when I visit an Indian household in Oulu, what I notice is an enormous TV in the living room.

When we arrived in Finland. A family of 6 living in about 25 sq. m. area, I looked around and found a black and white 4” (10 cm) tv with a short wave radio. 

My in-laws had a colour tv in their living room, but we preferred to stay in our small living space. Only when Elton John or the Eurovision song contest were on, which was well after my in-laws had gone to bed, would we go down and watch the larger tv.

During the day Mika and I would be glued to a short wave Sony radio listening in the main to BBC World Service while Annikki tuned in to her small kitchen Grumdig Radio listening to the Finnish radio service. 

Only in the evening would we all crowd around the tiny tv to watch Finnish news and programs.


Being a sports addict, Saturday afternoons, Mika and I would tune into Saturday Special, BBC’s sports round up hosted by their top sports commentator Paddy Feeny.

Paddy Feeny was going upwards, and was also given the job to host the Write On programme which was to air readers views.

There was no internet those days so I wrote my letter to Paddy Feeny.




Two page letter to Paddy Feeny

I was not happy with the way the programmes were hosted, so I addressed my complaints to Write On (again Paddy Feeny).

Personal reply to me from Paddy Feeny.

Within 2 weeks, I received this short reply from Paddy Feeny.


My letter thanking Paddy Feeny for the corrections made!

My minute by minute analysis showing 
the benefits of the changes!

I wrote to Paddy after watching the progress for three weeks.  I was glad to report that my views had been taken into account and Paddy and the producers had made modifications to the programme to take into the criticisms submitted by me.

The moral of this post is that if you have a problem, express your views and make the constructive suggestions. 

If the person receiving this information is intelligent, he will assess it and make the amendments and corrections and acknowledge them publicly. 

If the person is insecure and insincere, and surrounded by sycophants and those drunk on personal power, what will happen is that the situation will never be addressed and all sorts of subterfuges will be adopted to cover their insecurity and incompetence.

35 years later in life, we find that human behaviour has not changed.

Maybe some people in Oulu should think about the morality of this story!

A Delicious Gujarathi Evening

A tribute to Mrs. K M. Mathew (Annammakochamma) written by her husband, the late Padma Bhushan Mr. K. M. Mathew (former Chief Editor of Malayala Manorama and one of my mother’s younger brothers). 

Annikki and I had the good fortune to be hosted to a Gujarathi dinner evening in Oulu on Saturday.





Besides enjoying the camaraderie, we were amazed by the assortment of dishes served up by the hosts. There were over 15 different preparations including 5 different types of roti, including my absolute favourite, the Gujarathi sweet roti. 

Such amazing talent was on display. 

It took me back to the days when I would visit Anand and Baroda and stay with my Gujarathi friends.

I enjoyed every dish, all vegetarian and spiced to perfection by our hosts. A truly amazing experience in Oulu. 

How we wish there would be someone with the courage to start a vegetarian restaurant featuring not only Gujarathi dishes, but also the vast variety of true Indian vegetarian cuisine, such as from Andhra, Chetinad,  Kerala, Maratha,  Rajasthani, Telengana and Udipi, vegetarian food that I am very familiar with and which is a distance apart from the North Indian food served up by the majority of Indian and Nepalese restaurants in Finland today.

I am the nephew of the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew, who every Malayali lady knows because of her many decades of culinary expertise she used to share in the Malayala Manorama and the Vanitha ladies magazine, which is also now published in Hindi from Delhi. 

I was fortunate to be taught, in 1963, the elements of cooking by Mrs. K. M. Mathew before I set off to England for my studies. She taught me a few crucial dishes to survive and even hand-wrote some of the recipes (which I have preserved all these years).

"Life fragrant" by Mrs. K. M. Mathew.



An endorsement to Annikki and me written by her son, Chacko, in the book "Annamma" on his mother written by his father.


List of books on cooking written by Mrs. K. M. Mathew.


Modern Kerala Dishes

Flavours of the Spice Coast


The Family Cook Book,

Modern Kerala Dishes.


An endorsement by Mrs. K. M. Mathew to Annikki  in her book on Kerala Cookery.

Kerala Cookery 

A revised version of the Family Cook Book.

A revised versiion of Modern Kerala Dishes.

When we lived in Shawbury, England, Mrs. Mathew came to our remote village home to meet Annikki and our first born daughter, Susanna.


Annikki with Mr. & Mrs. K. M. Mathew who hosted us at their residence in Kottayam (1991).

After we returned to India in 1969, we visited Mrs. Mathew regularly when we went to Kottayam. When she came to Chennai, she would make it a point to visit Annikki. Although a generation apart, it was a mutual admiration society as they shared many common interests, art, cooking, education, music, fashion, upliftment of people, to name just a few.

Mrs. K.M .Mathew examines the White Chocolate wedding cake Annikki made for her niece's wedding (Chennai, 1999).

Mrs. Mathew had a regular column in  the Malayala Manorama, the largest circulating regional newspaper in India. Every Kerala lady waited eagerly every morning  her next tested recipe. (The way to a husband's heart is through his stomach!)

She would wake up at 4 am and work with her assistant to create the next recipe which would then be published in the newspaper. Her first assistant, Vasu, now retired, was awarded the EU Certification for his cooking!

We would tease her husband and children that their newspaper circulation was not based on their expertise in publishing but rather on what new recipe Mrs. Mathew turned up for the day.

We eat at Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant in Oulu run  by Michelle Hu from Kolkotta, two days a week, every week. The buffet table is unique and a feast. The salad spread is delicious, the sushi selection is truly scrumptious, the hors d'oeuvres spread of vegetarian dumplings and spring rolls, onion rings, papadams, Chinese crackers, Chinese cooked vegetables, fried fish or Chinese fish, the mushroom or fish soup, fried rice and noodles, and the main food selection, which on Thursday's is a beef curry and Friday's a chicken vindaloo, make the experience for us to go through the week satisfied, waiting for the next Thursday and Friday to arrive. And the price is very reasonable as is evidenced by the crowd of regulars every week. Michelle is an excellent cook and hostess and the entire kitchen staff and serving staff are very professional.

I have no doubt that Garam Masala, the only real Indian Restaurant in Oulu, serves excellent food, but it is too spiced for our elderly palettes. 

Both Annikki and I feel that to eat there is difficult for us as I have to take along my bulky walker. The restaurant is small and it would be inconvenient for other guests as the restaurant is popular and always full.

But I digress, as yesterday's Gujarathi dinner  experience was truly marvellous. A gourmet's delight.

How we wish some these experienced talented ladies would take the plunge to put up a different type of Indian restaurant than what we see all around in Finland. 

I have heard that there is one such restaurant in Helsinki set up by a former Oulu based Indian, but our travelling days are over, so that is only a dream. 

We know the talent exists across the board, as the Malayali gentlemen dish out a true Kerala traditional meal every Onam, which we are always happy to join and enjoy.

We have such untapped talent in the ladies and gents who have come from all parts of India to Oulu. Annikki and I would have, in our younger days, been at the centre of promoting this type of cultural exchange. 

Many years ago, Annikki did teach Indian cooking to the polytechnic in Ylivieska, and it was greatly appreciated by the students. She specialised in using easily available Finnish ingredients to create Indian dishes. 

When she produced "her" Masala Dosas, we had a queue of people lined up in our house waiting to enjoy the preparation. She even had a large  powerful coffee grinder to make the rice and urad dal powder! 

Michelle told me that recently a  restaurant was opened by a Michelin Star  Chef in the centre of Oulu which had queues of people waiting to get in. Her critical review was that it was not of any superior quality.

Running a restaurant is, however, not just serving good food but also good management and marketing.  The ambience must be perfect.

With an immediate market spectrum of over 200000 inhabitants, we are confident that a good Indian vegetarian restaurant in Oulu would draw in the crowds. 

Surely a much better draw than the 50 plus pizzerias scattered around Oulu, 

As I have had to take charge of our home kitchen, I worked out a ergonomic cooking schedule as we are just two people. Working from a wheelchair is difficult. 

Also, when we got married in 1967, my dear wife tolerated me in the kitchen for exactly one week, not because I was not a good cook, but because I was extremely messy!

If good food is available, like in Royal Garden, we would be dining out all weekdays. We have the benefit of 18 free taxi trips every month without any cost. 

Also, I am fortunate to have many Oulu taxi drivers from various communities, Ethiopians, Somalians, Sudanese, Zambian, and also many of my former Finnish  engineering students who have retired and who drive taxis. These would help us get to the restaurant economically.

Come on, dear Indians, please take on the challenge and get to produce an exclusive new "Indian" vegetarian restaurant for the people of Oulu. 

Annikki and I will be the first to help you break into this area.


Saturday, November 04, 2023

In memory of Nobel Laureate Sir Charles K. Kao



2009 Nobel Laureate for Physics late Sir Charles K. Kao
(Picture from Wikipedia)


An optoelectronic keyboard is a type of keyboard that uses light sensors to detect key presses. Instead of using traditional mechanical switches, the keys of an optoelectronic keyboard contain light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodetectors. When a key is pressed, the photodetector detects the interruption of light caused by the key, and the corresponding keypress is registered. 

Optoelectronic keyboards are often used in environments where durability and resistance to liquid spills are important, as they have no moving parts and can be sealed to protect it from damage.

The first “optoelectronic keyboard” was developed by Hewlett-Packard in the 1960s.


Fibre optics was discovered in the 19th century, but its full potential as a means of transmitting data was only realised in the 1960s. 


In 1966, Charles K. Kao discovered the potential of glass fibres for transmitting light signals, which later led to the development of practical optical fibre cables.


Sir  Charles Kao was a renowned physicist and engineer. He was born on November 4, 1933, in Shanghai, China, and passed away on September 23, 2018. 

Sir Charles Kao is most famously known for his groundbreaking work on the practicality of using optical fibres for long-distance telecommunications. In the 1960s, he foresaw the potential of optical fibre cables as a viable solution for transmitting large amounts of information over long distances. At the time, copper wires were the standard for communication, but they suffered from limited bandwidth and significant signal loss.


Sir Charles Kao's research and experiments in the late 1960s led him to demonstrate that the attenuation (loss of signal) within an optical fibre could be significantly reduced if the fibre’s impurities were minimized. This discovery paved the way for the development and commercialization of fibre-optic communication systems, which revolutionized global telecommunications.


In recognition of his pioneering work, Sir Charles Kao, along with Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. This prestigious honor solidified his status as a key figure in the advancement of modern telecommunication technology.


Aside from his contributions to the field of fibre optics, Sir Charles Kao held various academic and industry positions throughout his career. 


He obtained his Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of London and later pursued a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Imperial College London. 


Our paths crossed here in London as he was simultaneously working at the research centre of Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in Harlow. This research centre of STC was affiliated with the research centre where I was working, the Rubber and  Plastics Research Association of Great Britain (RAPRA) in Shawbury. 


My work was on durability of polymeric materials, including the alternate material for fibre optics, acrylics.


Sir Charles Kao's work continues to be highly regarded and has profoundly impacted the telecommunications industry, facilitating the fast and efficient transmission of data around the world. His contributions to the development of optical fibre cables have revolutionized long-distance communication and laid the foundation for the digital age we live in today.


The potential of acrylic fibres as a fibre optic medium was discovered by a team of researchers at Bell Laboratories in the United States.


Engineers at Bell Laboratories discovered the potential of acrylic fibres as an optical fibre cable in 1970.

 

The first company to produce acrylic fiber for fibre optic cables was DuPont.


I am releasing this entry about Sir. Charles Kao and fibre optics, as in 1996 I wrote a confidential paper on my thoughts on “optoelectronic keyboards” which was not about the use of optoelectronic switches but on keyboards which would actually consist of mini screens as keys!


This concept arose out of the problems associated with original mobile phone numeric keyboards. 


Although IBM had already developed a touch keyboard for its mobile phone,  Signal, in 1994, it was nowhere near the possible potential.


When I exchanged my ideas and views with Steve Jobs in 1997 when he had returned to Apple from NEXT, it was well received, but it was only taken more seriously when Apple iPhone was released  in 2007, but only taking a very small part of my keyboard concept into consideration.


QWERTY keyboard

AZERTY Keyboard

DVORAK Keyboard

Here are the four pages of the text of my original paper “Optoelectronic Keyboards - Basic Concept, User Friendliness and Technology Shift” written  in 1996. 


It was first shared confidentially with my then son-in-law, Tony Manninen.


After doing a patent search, which showed that my concept was unique, I shared it with Steve Jobs. 


Unfortunately, the email exchange with Steve Jobs was through my now defunct internet account findians@findians.com as my service provider in Canada went bust and I lost my domain name. 


However, if someone is able to search Steve Jobs’s archives, it may be possible to retrieve our correspondence.






Sir Charles Kao developed Alzheimer’s in 2003. But he could still recall people and names and still carried on his research work. 


As I care for Annikki, stricken with Alzheimers, I still have hope that, like Sir Charles Kao, Annikki will continue to contribute to society, as she has done for the last 50 years, just by the sheer joy she conveys daily to all of us around her. 


Sir Charles Kao used most of his Nobel Prize money to set up a foundation to help those suffering from Alzeihmers.


I thought to release this blog today, 4th November 2023 as it is the 90th birthday of the late Sir Charles Kao, who influenced some of my work on acrylic polymer optoelectronics fibres in the late 1960s.

Wednesday, November 01, 2023

Brinda Somaya, Outstanding Architect


Brinda Somaya

 I have posted a tribute to a good friend Brinda (nee Chinappa) Somaya, one of India’s leading architects. 

She is a school friend of 50 years with both of our families having deep roots in Karnataka.


Monday, October 30, 2023

New Blog from today

 



Today we have launched our new blog called 

Collectibles By Annikki


We hope you enjoy this new blog and you find things that really suit you. We should have a new entry every day, so come back and look what we have to offer.