Could I refuse this request?

Yesterday was Annikki's birthday. I got home at about 6 in the evening and wished her.

She was talking to one of her sisters.

I asked her what she wanted to do. Her request for a present was to buy a pizza and go the Oulu Nallikari Beach. It was indeed a glorious Indian Summer evening!

From Jacob's Blog

From Jacob's Blog

From Jacob's Blog

It was really a glorious evening. There she was enjoying her birthday the only way she knows how!

Puzzled by darkness

Street Lights OFF?

Now that we actually do have darkness in Oulu, as our nightless nights have ended, I was greatly puzzled the other day.

I had to drop off one on my tenants at the airport at around 21:00 hours. On my way back, I decided to go to the office, pick up some papers and head for home. This was around 22:00 hours.

The highway, the E4, was well lit. When I pulled off the highway I thought it strange that not a single street light was on. All the way to the office and then through the City on my way home, I wondered why they had shut of the street lighting in Oulu. Only street lights at bridges and subways (tunnels) were on.

When I reached home I asked Annikki whether she had read anything in our local newspaper about this.

Answer: Negative.

We have a street light just in front of the house. It is extremely bright - but that night, like all the other street lights in Oulu - it was OFF!

Is Oulu City trying to save on electricity?

Living in Finland: Retrograde Steps

Retrograde Steps

The City of Oulu in Finland used to be of the very best cities in the world for pedestrians, cycles and slow moving mopos and scooters, as they had separate tracks for these apart from the roads. Only in the city centre, where all traffic is slow moving, did the scooters merge with the road traffic.

It was possible for me to go from our home to the office without once driving on the road. It was fast and safe.

Some pedestrians, quite unwarrantedly, started a campaign to take the scooters off these special tracks. Last week this was implemented.

My first reaction after driving my scooter on the roads was that the number of fatal accidents of scooter drivers is going to increase sharply. Also it will be quite impossible for scooter drivers to be on the road once the snow arrives. I used to be able to drive my scooter all through winter. albeit slowly, when I was driving on the slow moving tracks.

The reason why accidents will increase is that most scooters do not have the power to drive at the speed limits set for the roads - 40, 50, 60 and 80 kmph. 40 kmph YES. 50 kmph at a stretch, YES. But 60 and 80 kmph is quite impossible.

Hence, motorists - car and truck drivers will be impatient when they come up behind a slow moving scooter, and the impatience will make them to swing out into the centre to overtake these scooters.

This will have two effects. The oncoming traffic will be jeopardised and secondly, when these bigger vehicles overtake these light weight scooters, they will cause the scooters to wobble and be unstable.

As a result the only conclusion to expect will be a possible accident of either the larger vehicle or the scooter.

People will express concern, but it must be said that these activists who lobbied for this quite unnecessary change - will have blood on their hands!

Finland: Oligrachy?? = Democracy??

Oligarchy?? = Democracy??

Many years ago, when Annikki and I were running our fortnightly newsletter on the internet, "Findians Briefings", I had a wonderful Finnish lady called Sinikka Ikni who wrote a column for us with the title "Democracy ?? = Oligarchy??"

She used to write a short piece which really exposed what was the "real" Finland like! I would edit her English. We would then run an English and a Finnish version of her article.

We also had a young student, Ilari Sohlo, who also wrote a column for us called "Going Sohlo". In it he captured the mood of Finnish universities and the youth. Some very surprising facts were uncovered by him.

Out newsletter was read in all parts of the globe. In those days a readership of 20000 was good. However Findians Briefings had a readership going well over 80000. I used to monitor the readership virtually on a daily basis to see where our readers were coming from.

We had no advertising except our own. Still we were making a lot of money as an Amazon.com associate, one of the very first to follow that route. Our pages on books in the Findians Paradise Book Store were only about subjects that we were competent in. That included India, Finland, Plastics, Rubber, Adhesives, Microelectronics, Stamps, and many other hot topics and hobbies.

So with this new approach, we thought we would see if this FanBox was really what it claims to be. This Blog is a trial to see whether that old magic we created in the mid-Nineties still exists.

Come back to this blog and spend some time here to see whether what we were writing about a decade and a half ago can still pull in the numbers.

We think it can!

Wondering why?

If you are wondering why I did not update this blog or any of the others recently, it is because I am trying a new experiment. I am always trying new experiments and that is why I am at the forefront of new technologies in web communication.

There is a limit to the number of readers I can add to these blogger.com blogs.

I came across a blog host called FanBox.com which supposedly paid me for putting my posts on that blog and it had no limits to the number of readers. (I do not believe that I will get paid, but one can always try! :-) )

I started with a copy of what I had posted on this blog and have put up a few entries since then.

I do not trust the host FaxBox.com. I am not pushing anyone there to read my postings there. But if you want to take a look please do.

I heard someone was asked to join the FanBox blog, etc. Please do not do anything so radical.

I will post all that I post there here, so do not get forced in anything you are not comfortable with.

On the other hand I will certainly not post any sensitive information concerning my grandchildren on that blog.

In the meantime, Jacob's Blog will continue to be my main blogging point.

I wonder what goes through her mind?

Zebras by Annikki - made for my mother.

 Took 7 months.

As I look out of the window, I see my better half of the last 45+ years doing many things in the garden. Moving small things here and there, and sometimes really back breaking work like moving a load of sand from one place to another so as to put a rubber sheet underneath so that the grass does not grow through the sand. She does things painstakingly, and occasionally stands back to enjoy what she has done. She seems to know exactly what should be done, when and where!

I thought to myself that all through my working life and since, I have been busy, not with the express purpose of making money, but the end result of what I did was make money. Even as I help many tens of people today in Oulu, Tampere and Espoo/Helsinki, the final result is that I am gaining some monetary benefit, however much I try to disregard that aspect of my work.

But looking at Annikki pottering around, I thought of all that she has done in the last 47 years that I have known her. Almost 99% of it has not been for money or financial return. All her paintings were for her personal pleasure.

On the page of Annikki as an Artist which I created on her 60th birthday, there are two photographs.

The first is of the only painting she has ever sold, and that too with great regret. The second photograph is of the large tapestry she created for my mother almost 30+ years ago. This hung on my mother's living room wall till her passing away and now adorns our living room wall!

The gingerbread houses and the cakes she has designed were for the pleasure of her family and friends. The gardens she has so painstakingly created and maintained have been for the pleasure of those who want to enjoy it. The food she cooks, the clothes she washes, the houses she has maintained - all for her pleasure and of her family. She does those things as her "duty" to her family members, never thinking it is a duty.

I thought to myself whether I could ever be like her! I felt I would never achieve that sort of status in my life - a person who has been so selfless in her work and who enjoys everything she does. She is happy when others are happy. She is sad when others are sad.

How many people are like that in this world?

No doubt many of you will say that their mothers and their wives are of the same mould.

I agree that the work of a woman is priceless.

I remember seeing an article in "The Times" of London, many decades ago, which valued the work of a woman, housewife, mother. The conclusion was that no man would be able to pay his better half enough for the work she does to run the family. This is more so today than it was a few decades ago.

I value Annikki for all that she has been and is - Daughter, Girlfriend, Wife, Daughter-in-law, Mother, Grandmother, Artist, Author, Educator.

I wish everyone had a person like her in their life!

First Error detected!

I have been doing Sudoku since my return from India.

Yesterday, as I was doing the one in my local newspaper, first thing in the morning, I detected for the first time, an error in the Sudoku Box.

In the top left box the 2 had been wrongly printed!

It was a feeling elation that I could find an error and solve the problem.

Good Health?

Ok! I am Type 2 Diabetic

because of my over-indulgence, real over-indulgence, in chocolates, candy bares, sweetened condensed milk and all things sweet. (You get what you pay for!)

But, in all my 26 years in Finland, I never missed a day at work or never have fallen ill.

My daughter, a doctor in Newcastle has been ill last weekend. She mentioned that as a doctor she had patients coughing at her all day! She went on to comment that "Dad, you are superhuman!"

I replied that I was in no way "superhuman"! :-)

It was my old fashioned bringing up in Bombay, where we were exposed to the real deadly infections all around us that built up my immunity.

I remember those really dirty ice lollies I used to consume after a game of hockey or football on the Oval Maidan. These were made by the old man with a cart, where he crushed the ice onto a stick with his bare hands and poured all sorts of coloured liquids on it.

My daughters would be horrified to allow any of their kids to have any of that!

But it is that and the Polymango and street roasted corn on the cob with chilli powder and salt, Bhel Puri, Chat and Pani Puri in the back streets of Bombay that built up the inbuilt immunity in me that has lasted half a century.

Living in a sterile country, like Finland, only makes us nambi-pambies! I am glad to say that all my kids are only half nambi-pammies! But as time goes on me and they are becoming full fledged nambi-pambies!

Is it a lazy Saturday?

Very often, when I am working, I get a feeling that it has been a lazy day!

I thought about it and realised that I was not being lazy at all. I was probably more active than ever. But the work was enjoyable and time passed quickly, giving me an impression that I was not doing very much.

So on this "lazy" Saturday I have done a lot of work and even had a short nap, midday!

It is difficult to find a day on which I have been really lazy.

Maybe soon!

Is Finland the BEST country to LIVE IN?

Is Finland the best country in the world to live in?

That is what a recent Newsweek report said.

It is obvious that none of the Newsweek Team have never lived in Finland!

Finns are the “Masters of Spin”. The country is controlled by an oligarchy of about 50 powerful families (It used to be 5 but the base has widened slightly during the three decades.)

The Oligarchy control the Media. That is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.

The judiciary, police, bureaucracy, lawyers, and politicians are primarily corrupt. The laws of the country are written to run such a system, so the word corruption does not exist in their little world.

How else can the proportional system of Government exist. In one election it may be a coalition of right and centre, while in the next it may be left and centre, while in the next it could be right and left! The promises made in any election campaign are just words for the masses to consume. The real wheeler dealing occurs in the chambers of power after the election where the poor are sacrificed at the expense of the rich!

The politicians do what the Oligarchy tells them. In the process they throw a few crumbs to the Finnish Public!

The schooling system is a joke in that the students are not permitted to question their teachers. This takes the student to adolescence where the Finnish male is forced into compulsory military service which makes them into zombies. (Exceptions do occur, but they are exceptions!)

To not take part in the army service was considered traitorous till one son of a Finnish sitting President decided he world not join the army. A dilemma but it gave relief to some who were not the zombies of Finland.

The country has been run by a cartel system. There is no maximum retail price law. The Finns are fleeced. The Oligarchy convinced the Finnish Public that just because they paid highest prices, they had the “Highest Standard of Living”. Whereas the Finns just had the “Highest Cost of Living”.

As a result Finns have been the top “Economic Migrants” to every corner of the globe, starting with their neighbour Sweden.

On the other hand Finns do not tolerate migration into Finland, except when it serves their purpose as allowing prostitutes from third world countries to enter freely!

Even the word for migrant - immigrant or emigrant, was demonized in Finland!

Every country has its good and bad points and so to Finland. Finland is a good country to live in, but certainly not the BEST! The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence. The Newsweek team should live in Finland for a short while and then they will realise the error of their conclusions.

Visit to Helsinki

Ever since Nirmala told me that she was coming to Helsinki for a holiday, I have been planning with Annikki to go there for our holiday. Nirmala and Gulden arrived with two other couples and they stayed at a friend's service apartment as all mine were full.

As they had plans to visit Moscow, St. Petersbutrg, Stockholm and Tallin, Annikki and I timed our visit so that we could spend a couple of days with Nirmala and Gulden, as the other couples were leaving on Wednesday. We drove from Oulu and arrived there with just enough time to meet the other two couples before they left back to India.

Annikki and I introduced Nirmala and Gulden to Mr. K. S. Rao, the Western Europe Vice President of LnT Infotech, whom I had staying in the same Service Apartment complex. We all went for a Thai meal in a great Thai restaurant picked by Mr. Rao. I had my favourite dish - the Thai Papaya Salad - and it was spicy and good.

The next day we set off for a drive to Porvoo, a small town about 50 km East from Helsinki which is still quaint Finland. The church and other sites were visited.

I had decided to drive Nirmala and Gulden cross country to Iitala Glass Factory.

We stopped o at a rather wonderful Fish restaurant on the way and had some smoked Rainbow Trout in marvelous surroundings with the gurgling sound of a stream next to us.

I had a problem with the GPS navigator as when we reached "Iitala" it was the middle of nowhere. But as luck would have it, I put the GPS to take us to Tampere and within 15 minutes were at the Iitala Glass Factory and Showroom and Nirmala got just what she wanted.

The followung day I took Nirmala and Gulden to the Open Air Flea market in Helsinki and Normala, much to Gulden's anguish, went wild. She picked up tons of stuff and would have picked up more if I had decided that enough was enough.

We picked up Annikki and went by boat to the Finnish Castle on an island just outside Helsinki and had a beautiful traditional Finnish lunch. They tasted the Salmon Soup, Nirmala had the reindeer and Gulden the pork ribs, Finnish style.

We put them on the flight back to Delhi and a sense of sorrow at their leaving hit us as we drove to Annikki's sister's place in Luoma.

We were invited to dinner at Ruki and Devinder's home in Helsinki and met with Cathedralite 49er Yezad Kapadia and his wife Rati, who are on a holiday to Europe and especially Finland. (This I have reported on the Seventh Heaven Blog.)

While Annikki and Anneli went to church on Saturday, i went about my work and finalised three more houses in the region, thanks to my associate, Levy. We ended our visit by celebrating Annerli's birthday at a Chinese Restaurant in Espoo.

When we left Anneli at home it was almost 10:30 pm, and we drove to Oulu and reached back at around 09:30 am. It was a tough and tiring drive as I had really expended a lot of energy driving around Helsinki.

Many thanks to Nirmala and Gulden, Rati and Yezad and Ruki and Devinder for a giving us a great holiday.

Sadly Unused

Grandson Dsniel in the traffic park in Oulu

I was driving on the back streets of some of Oulu's residential colonies during the last couple of days. I saw many beautiful children's playgrounds.

I felt very dejected as I did not see a single child using these wonderful facilities.

On the other hand I visited the high street, and there I saw many mothers and fathers all sitting in bars and pubs happily enjoying themselves.

I do not begrudge them their enjoyment, but when their children cannot be in the parks on our Indian summer days, it left a very sad and lonely feeling in me.

I know that when my grandkids came to Finland, their greatest enjoyment was being taken to the parks by me so that they could shout and play in gay abandon with all the different equipment in the parks.

I had many "secret" parks all over the city to take them to, and they simply loved to be there, not for 5 or 10 minutes, but right up till the time I would get a bollicking at home!

Driving to Helsinki and back

Yesterday's 1300 km drive was one with a difference.

A very strange storm hit mid Finland and I was amazed to see trees just pushed down as if the palm of a hand was just striking them down.

A power downsurge they called it as cold air was drawn down and crushed the trees.

Driving down to Helsinki I was caught in an enormous thunderburst in mid Finland. Driving at just 30 kms per hour I got through that and reached a sun-bathed Helsinki at midday. I left Helinki at 16:00 hours and went to Tampere - beautiful sunshine.

I left Tampere at around 18:00 hours and it was just a perfect drive except I saw this destruction which had been caused by a storm possibly just an hour before I went through. Got home around midnight.

Sadly I was not carrying my camera.

Annikki was worried stiff as she knew that i would be driving through that area just about then. Phone contact did not exist.

These trips are getting to be more exciting.

Next week, we will make that trip together to meet a cousin and her husband in Helsinki, so it won't be a day trip.

Another Kerala doyen passes away

Postage stamp of Padma Shri K. M. Mathew

On Sunday morning, I woke up and received information from many sources, relatives and friends, the sad news of the passing of Mr. K. M. Mathew, (Mathukuttychayan), one of the two younger brothers of my late mother. (The youngest, Mr. K. M. Mammon Mappillai (Kochappachen), the late Chairman and Managing Director of MRF Ltd. passed away in 2003.)

Many people who read my blog took the trouble to send condolences on the passing of man who, with his three amazingly brilliant sons, changed the face of Malayalam journalism over the course of the 55 years he was associated with the newspaper at the grass roots level.

There are many very personal stories I could share with you about this outstanding human being, to show you how much of an ordinary lovable man he was. Some of them are already on the blog. As I devote this entry to his memory, I do repeat some of them as a tribute.

I owe much to this human being. He was the one who taught me how to relax and expanded my world when I was just a naughty and mischievous little boy entering my teens. At the double wedding of two of my cousins in Madras in 1956 or 1957, I was making a terrible nuisance of myself when everyone was trying to get an afternoon nap.

Mathukuttychayan enticingly called me to where he was lying down and told me he would teach me some magic.

He asked me to lie down next to him. In the most interesting series of soothing words he asked me to tense my toes very tight. Then he asked me to let them loose. I repeated this a few times. He urged and coaxed me to repeat this process with all my main muscles. Before I realised it I was in a deep sleep, obviously to the relief of all the others in that house!

This technique, he later told me, would make me outstanding as I could get more done in my life than any other human being. My success as a power-house of energy today at the age of 67 is due entirely to this technique. I can drop into deep sleep at the drop of a hat and wake up in 10 minutes, fully relaxed and able to go that extra distance to complete whatever lies before me.

Whenever I do the marathon driving trips, like the one to Amsterdam earlier this year, during the 4500 km 2 day up and down drive, I stopped at a few lay-bys and napped for just 5 to 10 minutes, whenever I felt tired, which made it possible for me to reach back to Oulu in one piece and still raring to do another 4500 km!

Mathukuttychayan was a great teaser in the nicest possible way.

When I appeared at my sister, Naiini's wedding in Kottayam in 1959, wearing the newly released Hawai chappal, not seen anywhere but in Bombay, he was greatly intrigued by this rubbery contraption on my feet. He tried it on and found it most relaxing. So he started to tease me in a manner that I would hand over my prized possession to him.

I thought for a time that he was going to cross the line, but he kept his humour, assisted by my father, at a level that had me in splits of laughter, till finally, before I left back for Bombay, as I had my final Senior Cambridge exams just around the corner, I gave him my white blue strap Hawai Chappals, more in jest than as a gift. I teased him about this for several years. He loved that little joke between us!

When we went to Bombay in 1954, Mathukuttychayan was living in Byculla with his wife and their three children, Rajen, Thambi and little baby 3 year old Chacko (Daughter Thangam was born after they shifted from Mumbai to Kottayam in 1955).

Mathukuttychayan used to drop into see his sister almost every single evening. He loved her and depended on her for advice, although there was just two years separating them in ages.

When he was called to return to Kottayam to aid his eldest brother, the late Mr. K. M. Cherian (Chetpetappachen), who was running the newspaper after the death of my grandfather, it was a big blow as he had got used to Bombay life and especially the early evening in our home where my mom would give a shot of whiskey! (I do not know where she acquired the stuff as there was prohibition in Bombay during that time!)

The only evening he would not turn up was on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, all of us (including elder brother Mr. K. M. Philip, Peelukuttychayan, and his family, cousin Susykochamma and her husband (Mr. T. Thomas), would all drive as a family to Juhu Beach to enjoy delicacies mixed with sand on the beach, a swim and a lot of laughter.

It was a truly amazing time as it helped me in particular forget my great life in Bangalore and learn to enjoy the big city of Bombay.

We kids used to love his presence as he always came through the door with a great big smile on his face.

Later, whenever he came to Bombay on work from Kottayam, he used to stay at our house. He used to share the bedroom with me. He always checked whether I used his technique to relax. I was so adept at it by then that when I got up in the morning, I was usually an hour ahead of him and rushing to read the newspaper before him and complete the crossword before my father got a chance to do it.

His eldest son, Rajen, who was just a year younger to me has been the closest of all my cousins, getting into all sorts of mischief together, many of which have been described in blog entries. I owe my Presidentship of the JCR in St. Stephen’s College to the untiring efforts of him and his crazy gan of friends.

His two other sons, Thambi and Chacko, were also very close to us as the years rolled by.

All of them, including their sister Thangam, are shrouded in the love and affection that both their parents showed to the rest of the world.

Although we did not visit Kottayam with the regularity as when my grandfather was alive, every visit subsequently was such that we stayed at Mathukuttychayan’s house.

On one such visit, Annammakochamma was away. She had left Mathukuttychayan in charge of looking after us. He ordered the servants to prepare what he considered the finest meal he could serve up for our family. The table was laid out traditional Kerala style. The goodies arrived. We all tucked in, using our fingers, but one of the kids asked for a "fork".

There was a perplexed look on the faces of the servant, as the request for a fork was repeated.

The servant approached Mathukuttychayan and said something to him. He too was quite disturbed and apologized to me that he had ordered mutton, chicken, beef and fish to be served but did not know that we liked "pork".

When he caught the joke, he was rolling in raucous laughter, as were the servants!

The only time we crossed swords was on a matter of etiquette. He sent me a letter discussing many personal and completely private matters. I was greatly disturbed that this letter had been dictated to and typed by his personal secretary. In my reply I told him off. He sent a hand written personal note, which he later told me that he had gone to the post office by hmself to post it, apologising for his indiscretion.

On our last visit to Kottayam in 2009for his grandson's wedding, on the very first evening, before going to the wedding house for the family dinner, Annikki, Mika and I went directly to Mathukuttychayan's home on Mount Wardha. We had to wait a few minutes before we met him in his home office as he was having a bath. He was most apologetic about having kept us waiting.

He talked to us about all our children and how he was so happy that our daughter, Joanna, and her three children had come to see him in late summer. Especially touching was his conversation with our son, Mika, who broke all his personal rules and taboos of many years, and hugged his granduncle.

We spent almostan hour with him and had it not been for the dinner we would have spent more time with him.

I promised to visit him again before we left as he had said that he may not find it possible to be at the wedding.

But. on the wedding day, at the prayer ceremony, before the groom set out for the church, we found that he had made it possible to be there despite the great suffering he was going through.

From Jacob's Blog

He was photographed with all his family and especially insisted on taking a photograph with Annikki, Mika and me.

The day we were leaving Kottayam, I visited him in the office where he was just getting ready to be in the 10 am editorial meeting. At the age of 93 his mind was so sharp.

As Annikki was suffering from a cold she opted not to go in to see him as she was afraid she would pass on the infection. He was unhappy at not being able to say goodbye to her but was happy that both Mika and I had stopped just to say goodbye. Both of us knew that we would not see each other again and there were tears swelling in my eyes as we bade him farewell.

In an act so typical of him, he handed me an envelope as a gift. He had done the same when he was in Delhi to say goodbye to us in 1984. He told me as I left that anything I wanted was at my command. That was his way of showing his love for his sister's son and his wife.

This media mogul was a humble family man who loved his entire extended family and cared for them.

Our heart bleeds for this wonderful personality. He cared little for the various titles he had been awarded and powerful positions he had held, and hardly ever spoke of them.

His inner heart can be seen in the touching book he wrote about his wife after she left for her heavenly abode.

The deep loving and generous character of this individual has rubbed off on all his children.

I mourn you, dearest Mathukuttychayan. May your soul rest in peace.

When do you know you are OUT OF TOUCH?

One of the greatest thrills when driving in Mumbai was to drive towards Nariman Point on Marine Drive and see the latest Amul Ad flying at the corner of Veer nariman Road. I think the restaurant there has changed its name a few times.

The humour was raw and yet suttle. The banner always brought a smile to my face.

This morning I received a forward from a Cathedralite friend. It was a series of the latest Amul ads!

They flew straight over my head. I did not understand them or the humour that was intended to be conveyed.

I thought to myself of how much out of touch I must be with not only mainstream India but just India as the common folk see it!

Either Amul advertising agents have lost it or I have! ? :-)

Finland's hotest days

Forest fires are raging in Russia as temperatures crossed 40 C. The forests are like tinderboxes.

Finland was no worse yesterday, knowing the hotest day in this century from 1914 with the thermometer rising to 38 C.

Today it is both hot and humid, worse than the worst you get in Mumbai post-monsoon.

The Finns are reveling in the heat. Many may not go back to work on 2nd August if this weather continues.

That brings me to the basis of the one month's extra salary a Finn receives as "Holiday Money".

In the old days, after the war, almost all Finns took the month of July as holiday. The industrial activity would ground to a standstill.

If the sunny weather continued till the end of July, many many Finns would not report back for work in August.

To get them back to work, the companies started a bonus of paying a onth's salary to all those who did get back to work. It was called "LOMA RAHA". Although this was subject to 50% taxation, it was quite an incentive to get many Finns back to work.

However, over the years this became a worker's right and it got built into the system

That meant companies were paying 13 month's wages for 11 months work. This was specially hard at the time of the 1990 recession which was probably the longest and deepest in Europe.

Hence the sytem changed and now many companies do not offer this "Holiday Money" incentive and this is one reason why Finland uses a lot of outsourced workers in many different fields as they are not able to get this incentive in their pay packet.

When I was working in the University of Oulu, I was a double beneficiary. I never took my annual hlidays inJuly. that meant I got my holiday money and i was entitled to an extra week's holiday in winter. This meant I enjoyed 5 weeks holiday and as I could one week off for Christmas and New Year, I got 6 weeks instead of 4 plus an extra month's wages! Not bad!

I think much of this has changed today!

Crisps - Your favourite flavour?

Yesterday was another up and down drive to Helsinki - left at 4 am from Oulu and returned at 5 am today.

One of the things I do to keep awake while driving is I eat Crisps - one at a time. I finish a couple of packets on my way up and down. The roughness of the crisp cuts into the palette and I can stay awake!!

There are so many flavour varieties of crisps available these days. In Finland they sell them in 200 or 300 gm packets. The most common flavours are Cheese and Onion, Cheese and Sour Cream, Paprika, Barbecue, Garlic and Onion, Salt and Vinegar.

Recently they launched one with a Tomato flavour. I thought it would reduce the need to dip the crisps in tomato sauce, but I did not like it. Not that I use tomato sauce°

Which flavour do you like? Which is your favourite and why?

I like some of the flavours better than others, but I discovered that the plain unflavoured crisps is what I like best.

This raise many childhood memories at the back of my head of visiting a small hole in the wall shop in Colaba, called Victory Wafers, where they were churning out the stuff reeking with oil. We used to but large packets of them in brown paper bags and even before we reached home the paper was soaking with oil. (Wonder what oil they used then and what they use these days - sine I like them, they must be dangerous for my health!!)

Or my mom would brng them home on her way back from shopping and there would be a mad scramble of all the kids and my dad to get to them.

They were hot and crispy and I always wondered how they cut them so fine. Anyone know if Victory Wafers is still in existence?

These days, I stick to the plain variety. If I really have to buy another, I buy them in turns!

Swamiji's in Oulu

Staying at the Guest House in Oulu were two very learned Swamiji's from Palghat, Kerala. They have travelled extensively in Europe, and also Finland, over the last decade.

This was their first visit to Oulu as my personal guests.

The conducted 4 sessions. They were free.

I had opened their sessions especially to the Indians of Oulu as part of my intention to bring Indian culture here.

20 people responded, but the good weather, cricket practice and rainy weather kept them away. Only one turned up on each day.

There is usually a clamouring to do something for the community. But when I do, it usually gets ignored for other priorities.

But I do not give up, do I? Should I plan something for Independence Day?

Willis Conover and Jazz Hour

Willis Conover Host of Jazz Hour on VOA

I posted an entry on my Seventh Heaven Blog about Voice of America's Jazz Hour. I had replies telling me the name of the host and other details that had completely skipped my mind.

So I did some Google Searching and came up with some amazing facts.

Jazz Hour was stated in 1955 and was hosted by a guy with a deep baritone voice whose name was Willis Conover. The programme was not broadcast in the USA but it had over 100 million listeners world wide with about 30 million in the Communist countries. His way of handling the programme resulted in the Special English News Broadcasts that started in 1959!

Willis never mixed politics in his broadcasts, and as far as I can remember, it was an amazing programme of the best of American Jazz.

I was introduced to this programme by my dear friend 59er Ooky (Elias Elijah) in 1958 and listened to it as long as I could pick it up on my world band radio.

Willis Conover died in 1998 and the programme continued to 2003.

I am not a fan of "present day" music that passes as "Jazz". But that is Jazz - as it is non-structured but yet extremely structured.

One of the greatest pieces of jazz that I have heard is André Previn playing Bach accompanied by, I think, Shelly Manne, on the drums. My love for classical and Jazz merged with that!

Those were some days!

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?