Hindu Astrology - Author: Late Dr. Anthony Stone

This blog entry is in two parts, the first on the book "Hindu Astrology" by my late friend Dr. Anthony Stone (Tony) and the second part of the blog is the inauguration of the Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22nd January 2024.

The first part is being cross-posted on all my major blogs while the second part is only being posted on my main blog - Jacob’s Blog.

Late Dr. Anthony Stone

Tony was my teacher of Mathematics in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and my good friend. His book on Hindu astrology is to be shortly released as a paperback and I wanted to give you a look into the facts behind Indophile, Tony, and our relationship pre the release oif the paperback edition.

I was sent the details of this book by the publisher, another dear friend and alumni of St. Stephen’s College, Professor Prabhu Guptara.  

Tony was the teacher of Mathematics in St. Stephen’s College in 1962-63, my final year. He took over the duties of Principal S. C. Sircar in the Mathematics Department and joined Professors S.R. Nagpaul, S. B. Mathur,  and Ranjit Bhatia (Rhodes Scholar and of Indian Olympic fame) in the college Mathematics Department.

I lost touch with Tony till he turned up on my Kooler Talk Blog in the late 1990s. We established a close  relationship. When his wife Bertha was hospitalised and he had a short holiday in 2000, as he was then caring for Bertha, he decided to visit Annikki and me in Oulu, Finland. He stayed with us for a week and we had wonderful reunion, and discussed many of his projects.

He was well versed in Indian culture and he was working on a few projects, one of which was Hindu Astrology.

He was also working on a special area of mathematical research which coincided with the interest of a Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, friend of mine, Bhupinder Singh Anand (Bhupi).

Bhupi was a couple of years senior to me but stayed on in School to do the 12th standard HSC qualification. He was also from Savage House and in our final year, he was the Head Boy of the school while I was the Savage House Captain.  

Bhupi, the School Captain is sitting third from the left, while I am sitting second from the right.

I did keep in touch with Bhupi as he joined my “Seventh Heaven” Cathedralite Heaven Google Group although he was not technically a 59er. I had great respect for dear Bhupi as he was a sincere individual and a true Cathedralite.

The publisher of this book on Hindu astrology is Professor. Prabhu Guptara, from St. Stephen’s College, junior to me but also a good friend now living in Cambridge in the UK.

Prabhu had done an chapter in the book "Malayali Diaspora" several years ago about the oldest Malayali in Continental Europe (not the UK), which was about me. 

Frank Raj was the editor of "The International Indian till 2017".

Frank Raj (Picture from LinkedIn)

This was later published in his magazine with pictures of us and our family in the Dubai publication “The Indian International” edited by Frank Raj.

In 2014, when for several reason, I was stranded in New Delhi, which is explained in Annikki and my book “The Titanic Called India”, Prabhu put me in touch with Ivan and Silvia Kostka.

Ivan and Dr.Silvia Kostka (Picture from LinkedIN)

I had the pleasure of dining with them and a couple of friends. Just a couple of months after they were harassed by the Hindutava faction because they were practicing Christians devoting their their life to uplifting the OBC Community. They were raided by the Delhi Police in October 2014 for supposedly saying derogatory statements about Goddess Durga. Their publication FORWARD Press was being targeted by the Hindutava faction of Narendra Modi’s BJP/RSS wing claiming that Ivan and Silvia were converting Indians to Christianity.

Here I must make a point that I went to Christian schools in Mysore, Bangalore and Mumbai. In my class in Mumbai we were just 4 Christian’s while the rest of the students were Hindus, Jews, Muslims Parsi, Sindhis and Sikhs, from all parts of the world, not just India. I did not even know or even care, what religion the students in my class were.

60 years later, I am still the fulcrum of keeping the surviving classmates together and there is not one single student who has changed his/her religion. They all subscribe too a secular education which has broadened their attitude to life and there is no discrimination on any grounds whatsoever. 

Christians lead by example of the two principles laid down by Christ. . 

There is only one God (different names: Jehovah, Allah, Brahma). Secondly, we must love our neighbour as ourselves. 

All the other laws are man-made derivatives of these two fundamental principles.

Thefollowing year, I had the good fortune to get an email from Silvia (a noted plastic surgeon) that she and Ivan were likely to transit through Helsinki and they were likely to be delayed in their return trip to India. She was interested in meeting up with me.

I did offer to put them up in one of the apartments that Annikki and I had in Helsinki during their stay but we lost contact after that.

Ivan was the Founding Editor of FORWARD Press and it was likely to be shut down by the intolerant society which had spread its wings under Narendra Modi. Silvia had told me then that the last edition of FORWARD Press was likely to be in March of that year (2015).

However, FORWARD Press has survived and is thriving even today under Anil Varghese who is the current editor-in-chief.

So that is my personal background to the book on Hindu Astrology penned by Tony.

Until a few years ago, interest in astrology was widespread - but thin. 

Now the astrology market is growing by leaps and bounds.

In the US, over the four years to 2019, revenue from the top 10 astrology apps market saw an astonishing  compound growth rate of 72.8 percent per year! In India, ten astrology firms in 2021 raised INR 1300  million -300% the combined amount raised by ALL such start-ups over the previous five years!!

No figures for the UK are available, but here is a BBC report:

 https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210205-why-astrology-is-so-popular-now

Into this burgeoning international demand, Prabhu Guptara’s “Pippa Rann Books” imprint is publishing the paperback version of Tony’s book, Hindu Astrology.

The hardback came out some decades ago, but only in India.

The author, late Tony, was an Oxford PhD in Mathematics who went as a university teacher to India, where he was so intrigued at finding most highly-educated people allowing their lives to be ruled by astrology that he learned Sanskrit for the specific purpose of reading the texts in the original language, and writing an adequate history of Indian astrology as well as evaluation of it. 

Brief information on the book is attached below, in form of the full cover the book.

But of course the field is highly contested!  

The honourable Supreme Court of India proclaimed in 2004 that astrology is a SCIENCE.

On the other hand, Madhavankutty Pillai argued in OPEN magazine (2011) that astrology is a HOAX - 

openthemagazine.com/features/living/the-scientific-case-against-astrology/

In a 2018 article in The Guardian, “I was an astrologer”, Felicity Carter concludes that astrology is a form of ENTERTAINMENT.

And here is a recent article arguing that astrology is a SCAM: Digital ‘Vedic Astrology’: The $40 Billion Scam | Madras Courier

Naturally not with reference to the articles mentioned immediately above but, in general, Tony concludes: “…it is a pity that many critics of astrology argue at a very superficial level. My purpose in this book is to shed some genuine light on the subject.  I hope the book will stimulate serious discussion about astrology.”

Do we need to start more knowledgeable debates and discussions on astrology?

Read the book and come to your own conclusions.

Indian Arabica Coffee comes to Finland

 

Balehonnur (Balanoor), Karnataka (Photo by KZ Kuriyan)

This news report appeared on Newsmeter.in.

Photo from the Newsmeter.in article

I have been for years been  telling our family  in India that the Finns would love the coffee we produce in our estates as in Badra Coffee Estates, in which I am a tiny shareholder.

Finns are the real  coffee connoisseurs in the world. 

They appreciate a good reaonably priced coffee. 

I recount an incident from 1992 when Annikki and I were visiting our daughteer, Susanna, who was studying in Exeter University in England.

As we walked down the High Street, Annikki smelt some coffee and was in the mood for a cup. There was s small kiosk on the walking street. We went in and asked the lady for the coffee which aroma Annikki had smelt.

After consuming it very slowly, she said that it was the most delicious cup of coffee that she had ever had. I told her that we could buy a kilo to take it to Finland.

I approached the lady and asked what was the price of the coffee. She told me that it was called Blue Mountain Coffee  and it came from Jamaica. 

The cost was  Blue Mountain Coffee was €100 per kilo. (Coffee in Finland at that time cost about €5 per kg.)

I was literally coffee-shocked and opted to buy 100 gm for Annikki. 

She drank it on special occasions for a year

On her 60th birthday in 2004 I found it in the Oulu Coffee shop in the Market Place and bought her 200 gms. 

Annikki drank it for the next 5 years on special occasions till her 75th birthday. 

(She now only drinks coffee very occasionally!)

I also recall sending a cousin of mine the tender papers for the Finnish Army as the soldiers would revolt if they did not get their four times a day quota of good coffee.

 I can imagine the Finnish soldiers stopping a war so that they could enjoy their brew! :-)

Has O-India Ry been involved with Tax Fraud?

Annikki and I are not members of O-India Ry as we terminated our membership with immediate effect when we witnessed criminal behaviour towards us by Board Members of the Association. 

Just a few days ago, after the visit of our friend Shashank Subramanyam to Oulu, which we did not attend, we were sent a copy of the accounts of the performance by some friend as he wanted our comments. 

The accounts appear to have been circulated to the Association members.

These accounts make hilarious reading!

How can an Association give a grant to itself? 😂

If that was the extent of the problem, that could be passed off as just ignorance.

There is a more serious problem with these accounts.

Tickets were sold for this performance, directly and through the ticket sales service.  

When any tickets are sold in Finland for a public performance, there is an important aspect that value added tax (ALV) has to be collected and remitted to the tax authorities. 

Withholding of such tax is tax fraud.

Where is this liability shown in these accounts?

Additionally, when an entertainer performs in Finland and is paid a remuneration, income tax has to be deducted and remitted to the tax authorities. 

Why is this liability not shown in the accounts?

This can also be a case of  tax  fraud!

Recently, one prominent O-India Ry member posted a Facebook post which is very interesting!

Certainly, we too would wish this, but luckily being pensioners, we have paid our taxes while working and are thus enjoying the benefits of having paid our taxes in full, and quite in excess of what we paid!

In May 1988, the Indian Ambassador HE  K. P. Fabian called me and said that a well known Kathak dancer would be visiting Finland. He asked whether would I be interested in organising a performance in Oulu. 

As we already had a performance by Daksha Seth organised by Martti Antila,  a well known photographer in Oulu, the previous year and the Oulu City Hall was packed to the brim with an appreciative audience, I said I would take on the challenge.

The first problem was to get a suitable auditorium. As the City programme for the year had already been finalised, no regular auditorium was available. 

I looked around and found that if we did some adjustments, the main lecture hall L1 in Oulu University could be used. It had a capacity of around 500 - 600 seats.

Annikki and I set about the task of meeting all the right people and organising the budget. 

With the cooperation of all the appropriate people we decided that we would not charge any entrance fee, because of the tax implications, and as we felt we could underwrite the expenses as the lecture room was free for me and I could get the appropriate sound system from my local friends in the business. Also I got three furnished guest room apartments in the University for them to stay.

Shovana Narayan and her troupe of 5, including her singer sister, Ranjana Narayan, a Supreme Court Advocate, arrived in Oulu. I made sure they met all the important people of Oulu when they arrived.

Shovana Narayan

Shovana Narayan is one of the outstanding classical dancers of India. For her incomparable contribution to the Kathak style of classical dance, she has been decorated with several awards, including Government of India's coveted Padmashri and Sangeet Natak Akademi awards. She has bestowed Kathak with dignity and enriched it with a deeper and wider canvas of expression and dimensions. She is at once, an explorer, a performer, a choreographer and an artiste par excellence, with values and a cause. The explorer and researcher within her have seen her author six books on Indian dance, which bespeak of intensity, depth and gravity. She has also worked closely with nationally and internationally acclaimed Indian and western dancers and musicians from various streams of art. Shovana's palette contains other media, including films and operas as well as being a dedicated guru whose disciples are creating their niche in the world of Kathak that once again bears testimony to the intensive training being imparted by her. She is also a senior serving civil servant belonging to the Indian Audits and Accounts Service (1976 batch). Married to Dr. Herbert Traxl, Austrian Ambassador, the two have a son, Erwin Ishan Traxl. Her younger sister, Ranjana Narayan, is a lawyer and a classical singer. Other books by the author: ˜Kathak: Rhythmics Echoes and Reflectioin- (Roly Publication); ˜Dance Legacy of Patliputra' (Publications Division, govt. of India); ˜Indian Theatre and Dance Traditions" (Harman Publications); ˜Performing Arts: A Policy Perspective" (Kanishka Publications); "Kathak" "A Handbook (Wisdom Tree Publication); "Indian Classical Dance" "A Handbook (Sterling Publication).

That paid dividends as the auditorium was full, as Finns turned up for the performance. 

We were even able to have the University restaurant open during the intermission. We had a children’s play area for those who came with small children. We had a Red Cross facility on hand for any emergency.

Shovana performing with Rev. Patrick Dickson 

during the performance.

Shovana’s troupe.

Shovana’s accompanists

(All above photographs by Jacob Matthan.)

Picture from Kaleva newspaper reporting on 

Shovana Narayan’s performance.

Report from Kaleva which covered 

Shovana Narayan’s performance.

The whole event was a success. It was duly reported by Kaleva. 

Although the costs were minimal, we had important sponsorships in kind for the group, as we were not an official organisation, but whomsoever we asked put their hands out, generously, to help us. 

Our Finnish friends took care of all the formalities so we stayed within Finnish law!

Four years of groundwork by Annikki and me amongst the community had paid off. 

From there onwards, whatever we arranged were successful events, always involving the whole of Oulu, which at that time covered just under 100000 people. 

Every ethnic community joined us in making this and all other events successful, fostering the multicultural  attitude we were promoting. 

And remember, at that time the only Indians in Oulu were my two children, aged 17 and 15, and myself!

That comfortable situation prevailed for many years as no one was seeking glory. We were all working for our communities to be integrated into Oulu society.

The performance of our friend and international superstar, Shashank Subramanyam, in August 2011 was to a packed audience in Valve in the Oulu City Centre, where the hall of 175 was filled with even people standing at the doorway to hear him play.

Shashank Subramanyam 

Shashank Subramanyam (born October 14, 1978) is an accomplished flutist from India, specializing in Indian classical music. Having displayed exceptional musical talent from a young age, Shashank began performing at the age of 6 in 1984 and has continued to showcase his artistry for over three decades.

In recognition of his contributions to the arts, the Government of France honored him with the prestigious title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for the year 2022.

Shashank is also noteworthy for being the youngest recipient of the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi's senior award for the year 2017, and bestowed by the President of India at an investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

We had active participation from not only O-India Google Group (not O-India Ry, which did not exist then) participants and wonderful suggestions from the local Indians to make the event appeal to the Finnish audience.

Yrjö Mikkonen (from the Finnish music academy) and his wife, Shahnaz (Head of the organisation looking after migrants to Oulu), made sure that all the technical and organisational arrangements were perfect.

Oulu City officials cooperated with us fully as they realised an international superstar had agreed to come to Oulu. 

We even had the cooperation of the airline to ensure everything was perfect with no cost to our small community. 

And the cooperation of our Indian Embassy was of paramount importance, although we did not request any financial assistance as we were not a registered society at that time.

We were all working for one goal to ensure that we had a perfect performance in Oulu. 

No one was working to further himself or herself. 

We had an Organising Committee headed by a Finn and composed primarily of Finns, those mainly in the Oulu music business. We had the cooperation of all the media, print and radio,.

The success of the event was evident.

After that, the series of problems with my health from 2014 onwards caused Annikki and me to quietly withdraw from the organisational  scene, but we continued to take part and help  the organisers to conduct successful events.

But things changed!

In our post “Why we terminated our membership to O-India Ry" speaks for itself.

 

The doom we predicted has hit the Indian Community of Oulu faster than we thought, and it has been brought on by itself. 

It was decided to bring Shashank Subramanyam again to perform in Oulu. 

As we did not want to associate with O-India Ry, we opted out of taking part in the event and informed Shashank the reasons, so our absence would not be misunderstood by our friend!

After pressurising every Indian in Oulu, night and day, less than 100 Indians (out of 500) turned up for the Shashank performance. The auditorium was less than a quarter full.

And out of 180000 Finns in the Oulu region, not even 30 turned out for this show!

There was utter confusion in ticket pricing (Euro 21, 23 and 28?), and also who could or could not attend. 

Finns are cost conscious and not fools. They know when one is being cheated! 

And advertising in Flea Markets and in Oulu University showed total absence of sanity in the organisers. 

People who go to Flea Markets go to save money! 

Two Indian Oulu University students who visited us told us that they could eat pizzas for three days for that amount of money!

The poster they produced for the event was fine but how many Finns know the meaning of Raaga Murali? 

Is it a common term as Classical, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rap or Rock?

This was a true case of the blind leading the blind!

Such an event flop may have destroyed all the good work that has been put in for 40 years to get our Indian Community appreciated in Oulu. 

Did Kaleva or any media even cover this event, (pre- or post) of an international artist.

Shashank, an international superstar,  performed to an empty hall. 

I was told that the sound equipment was sub-standard or the people handling it were not able to understand the demands of this type of music.

Who takes the blame for such shambles?

Anyone of O-India Ry willing to stand up?

We noted that some were patting their own backs on social media trying to avoid telling the world the truth and what a mess they had made of this event!

These people have been ready to take glory for someone else's work but when it came to failure, everyone is running the 100 metres backwards at twice Usain Bolt's record.

In our case the behaviour of O-India Ry was criminal by the Board Members of O-India Ry. That made Annikki and me to take the drastic step of terminating our membership with immediate effect.

In the case of the Shashank performance, 

O-India Ry appears to have gone a step further in possibly committing tax fraud in Oulu.

Is worse still to come?

Was it prudent on Annikki and my part 

to distance ourself from O-India Ry?

Remembering our loved ones

 Dateline 28th November 2023

(Posted on Jacob's Blog, Seventh Heaven Blog for Cathedralites and Kooler Talk (Web Version) Blog for St. Stephen's College alumni.

Cathedral & John Connon School 59ers have lost many of our ones in the last few years. 

Here is a partial list of those from our 2969class who have passed on. 

(I do not have any information about our lady classmates except dear Farhana. I hope someone will update me on this.)

Ashok Ruia

Bala Parasursman

Dossu Pagdiwalla

Fali Dhondy

Farhana (Kably) Poonawala

Farukh Kanga

Flicky Shroff

Hasnain Chinwala

Indrajit Shah

Jacob Eapen 

Jack Haskell

 Jaswant Ghatge

Kurshed Balsata

Michael Colaco

Murali Balani

Naubir Mohindar

Pradeep Bhakar

Prem Goel

Ramesh Mirchandani

Virat Gidwani

Trevor Newnes

I have deliberately left out from this list, one of our dearest, who was tragically lost  15 years ago, Ashok Kapur.

59erGolden Reunion Directory

Our Mumbai 59ers met as a memoriam to Ashok

At our 2009 Golden  Reunion of 59ers,  Annikki and I dedicated our Reunion Directory to Ashok with these pages:

But besides Ashok, we lost many others during those fateful days, which has been brought to mind by Rajiv Bhatia on his Facebook page.

26/11

Remembering the late - Ajit & Monica Chhabria, Sunil & Reshma Parikh, Sanjay & Rita Agarwal, Rohinton Maloo, Mohit Harjani, Lavina Harjani, Anand Bhatt, Pankaj Shah, Vishnidas-Nilam-Gunjan Narang, Neeti-Uday-Samar-Kang, Rupinder Randhawa, Ashok Kamte, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Tukaram Omble

I also remember one of my other alumni from St. Stephen’s College with this post from our alumni Facebook page. 

None other than the heroic Ashok Kamte:

Ashish Joshi , the Moderator of our alumni Facebook   page posted this.

LEST WE FORGET

This is what my friend & college senior, Gary (Justice Anupinder Grewal), wrote in the memory of late Ashok Kamte (Gary's batchmate) a brilliant police officer who attained martyrdom on 26/11. Late Kamte was a friend & one year senior to me in the College .

ASHOK KAMTE

I have been attending the annual St. Stephen's College, Reunion very frequently ever since I passed out of college in 1987. However, this year on 14th December, it was drastically different as it turned into memorial service for Ashok Kamte and I was entrusted the painful task of paying tribute to Ashok. 

It was a tragic personal loss as besides being my classmate in college and a friend, I had the privilege of living with Ashok and his family at his mother’s Flat in Hira Mahal on the Amrita Shergill Marg for about year while studying law. 

Ashok had joined us at St. Stephen's College for his Post Graduation after he had Graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. What stood him apart from the rest of the Stephanians was the enormity of his physical stature, which alongwith his quest for academic excellence was a rather unique combination. What surprised many was why is the National Power Lifting Champion pursuing Post Graduation at St. Stephen's. There is no preference for sports persons for admission in M.A. Little did they realize then that Ashok always strove for excellence, whether in the classroom or the playing field. He had single minded commitment to succeed. He was very happy when he was selected to the I.P.S. He used to say that he was meant for action and disliked other civil services for their bureaucratic file work.

While training for the Power Lifting Championship, he would not compromise on his diet. As his mother would not allow him to have more than two eggs, due to its high cholesterol content he would buy a dozen eggs from the market, cook and eat them at his neighbour's house. He had broken three national records in Power Lifting and won half a dozen Gold and Silver Medals. He had also won the Bronze Medal in Junior World Power Lifting Championship. Power Lifting is one of the toughest sport and Ashok would train for hours in complete solitude. Despite his powerful build, he was extremely agile and could sprint quite fast. Besides his love for swimming and squash he would generate amazing pace and bounce while bowling on the rather placid College Cricket pitch at Morigate. He had played an important role in the victory of our team. 

Ashok was proud of the fact that he had the blood of two Martial Races the Maratha’s and the Sikhs. While his father is a retired Colonel settled in Pune, his grand-father was in the Imperial Police. His mother Mrs. Paramjit Kamte,, who now lives in Gulmohar Park is from the well known Bawa Family of Goindwal Sahib and is grand-daughter of Late Bawa Budh Singh of the Indian Service of Engineers. Bawa Budh Singh was the 14th descendent of the Third Sikh Guru, Guru Amar Dass. When I called on Mrs. Kamte, she said that though she is proud of the fact that Ashok has become a National Hero yet at times she cannot comprehend that he is no more. He was the only male member in the family whom she could look forward in times of need. He had perhaps inherited his very fair features from his maternal grandmother Mrs.Surinder Bawa (maiden name Violet) an English Lady. His sister, Sharmila, a well known model and a ballet dancer, now runs her famous Dance Academy in Dubai. His wife, Vinita, stays at Pune alongwith his sons, Rahul and Arjun. Besides serving the U.N. Force in Bosnia, Ashok had also trained in Punjab for some time. 

Ashok was known for his high integrity and efficiency which was evident in his earlier stints in Maharashtra especially in Solapur, where he had brought an inflammable communal situation under control within a few hours. I had spoken to Ashok sometime back when as Commissioner of Police, Solapur, was in the news for bringing to book the local M.L.A who was flouting the law for noise pollution. Ashok had personally gone and arrested the M.L.A. from his residence at mid-night after the M.L.A. had earlier roughed up police officials. I had asked him whether he had really beaten up the M.L.A. He replied that if he had done so, the man would not have survived as though he no longer competed in power lifting but maintained regular exercise regime. It was his conscientiousness, patriotism and devotion to duty which made him the target of the terrorist attack at Mumbai. He was the Additional Commissioner, (East) and even though the area around the Cama Hospital(South) did not fall within his jurisdiction, he had reached there as he had undergone specialized training to handle terrorism and hostage situation. He would lead from the front and was not the kind to send subordinates to do risky jobs. He lived for others and had a proactive approach. He made the supreme sacrifice and attained martyrdom in the battle field and made his family, friends and the nation proud. "

Anupinder Grewal

Additional Advocate General, Punjab (Now Judge, Punjab High Court)

Let us each keep a moment’s silence, wherever we are, to honour of all our alumni. Founder’s Day for the school was November 14th. That for our college is 7th December. 

May all these dear ones friends 

Rest In Peace.

Nokia Phone to the rescue!

 I have been using the iPhone for over 15 years. 

Old trusted Nokia, where the keyboard has faded!

Before that, like every Finn,had  I was a Nokia phone user. 

There were intervals where I used Jolla and then went back to a Nokia, but came back to the iPhone. 

Part of my collection of mobile phones from 1987: 2 Mobiras, Jolla, iPhone 4, Nokia clam shell, other 2 Nokia antiques, an Häger internet phone.  (My only Samsung was lost in Helsinki and my Nokia 920 was lost at Delhi Airport.)

When my iPhone 4 gave up the ghost, my friends, The Gang of 18 from around the world (Canada, India, Israel, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA)  made sure I got an iPhone as a present so I would keep in touch with all my classmates. 

It has been very reliable, till yesterday, when it refused to charge.

I was in a desperate situation, as I have several phones, right  from the original Nokia, when it was called Mobira, but the problem was all of them are in a safe place but I did not know where the charging cables were.

It was a desperate search as without a phone I am dead to the world. With our two daughters,  it is OK as they used FaceTime and we can call each other from my MacBook Air.

The problem was that to even call a taxi to go to the repair shop  is a problem without a phone, as we are both house-bound. 

I found some charging cables and played around till I found the one which matched one of my ancient Nokia phones. I got the phone charged. Then the problem was of getting my micro SIM from the iPhone to fit the Nokia. 

I knew I had a lot of adapters, but when you want one, it is impossible to find it. Annikki’s  grandfather had a saying that when one stops looking for something, it will just come to hand!

I found an old wireless adapter with an old SIM and in its old large holder frame. I fixed my mini SIM to that, and voilà, worked.

I called my taxi service. Annikki and I went right  across town to the K-Citymarket in Rusko, where I knew FONUM has a service centre working on Sinday.

The two youngsters were most helpful. 

While Annikki and I did our shopping they fixed  my iPhone. They found some dirt had got into  the charging port and they cleaned it out.

When we got back, it was working fine.

The charge was to be €25.

I asked them to change my Elisa home network connection to 5G from the present 4G, which was just €2 per month more than my present charge. I also bought a wireless INSMAT wireless charging station. No more dirt likely in the charging port! The boys did not charge me for cleaning the iPhone. I got the charging station for just €4. 

I bought a SIM card for my old trusted Nokia and now that is hanging next to my TV for hopefully another unlikely emergency..

The lesson learnt with this experience is that although I have everything to handle any situation, I have left everything disorganised after my health issues got to the foreground. 

Now is the time to reorganise as I have all these beautiful gadgets, all sitting there and I waste so much time when an emergency arises.

I am on 5G from tomorrow. I hope that will help get my blogs out faster. 

I have some great news for our blog readers as we shall concentrate on a new schedule to help you get to the blog you want to read in a more organised fashion.

I have two new blogs lined up for December and a couple of older focused ones will come back on line, completely refurbished. 

I will give you the calendar schedule shortly.

Here are the list of our blogs:

1. Collectibles By Annikki (Daily)

2. Jacob’s Blog (Weekly)

3. News (Weekly) Findians  Breaking News

4. Maliyakal Family Blog (New) (Weekly)

5. Kandathil Family Blog (New) (Weekly)

6. Seventh Heaven for Cathedralites (Fortnightly)

7. Oulu Best (Worst) Buy (Fortnightly)

8. JM Politics (Fortnightly)

9. Findians (Fortnighly)

10. Findians Editorial (Fortnighly)

11. Findians Briefings (Fortnightly)

12. Kooler Talk (Web Version) (Monthly)

13. Art of Kamutaza's Tembo (Monthly)

14. CHAFF (Chamber for Assistance of Finns and Foreigners) (Monthly)

15. Photographs from Finland and India(Monthly)

16. Last Will and Testament (Monthly)

17. Move The UN (Monthly)

18. Mobile Snowman (Winter)

19. Talk Show Ratings (When news is available!)

Do stay turned for this BREAKING NEWS which we have scheduled for the next Finnish Independence Day on 6th December 2023.