Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Kodin Kuvalehti carries story about Kampitie Garden

Kodin Kuvalehti is Finland's largest circulating women's magazine. Malayala Manorama's women's magazine, Vanitha, although it has a circulation of almost 0.6 million copies fortnightly, can certainly learn a lot from the quality of this Finnish publication.

About a year and a half ago, Annikki wrote a small piece and submitted a couple of photographs for a reader's contest organised by the magazine. Annikki wrote about how she had designed the garden at her mother's home around an old metal bath tub which did not find its way into the skips when we were clearing and renovating the house, and how she had created almost everything by recycling materials found in the compound.

Bath tub around which the Kampitie Garden was created

Bath tub around which the Kampitie Garden was created


The Garden Editor of the magazine, Sinikka Sarrola, liked Annikki's article. This submission was shortlisted for a further stage. This involved Sinikka, accompanied by a professional photographer, Pirjo Sillanpää, visiting the garden at the height of last summer, interviewing Annikki and taking photographs, maybe around a 100 or more shots.

Kodin Kuvalehti Garden Editor Sinikka Sarrola, Annikki and Samuel

Kodin Kuvalehti Garden Editor Sinikka Sarrola, Annikki and Samuel


Annikki and Kodin Kuvalehti Garden Editor Sinikka Sarrola

Annikki and Kodin Kuvalehti Garden Editor Sinikka Sarrola


Based on this Sinikka wrote an article about the garden and about Annikki and our family.

Three gardens are featured in the latest issue of the magazine, which is due out in the news stands tomorrow morning. The feature is entitled "Three Readers, beautiful, special gardens".

And one of the stories, with absolutely glorious photographs, is about Annikki and our family and her tribute to her mother in creating the garden for her.

The text is hilarious. Some of the last lines symbolises Annikki's character "She can create anything from anything"!

Thank you Kodin Kuvalehti, Sinnika and Pirjo for such a beautiful presentation in a great magazine. (My photographs are nowhere near the quality of the professional, Pirjo.)

If you are interested in a copy of the magazine with the English translation of the text, please send me an email.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Congratulations Tanya Matthan

Tanya is the daughter Arun and Yasmin (née Shah) Matthan.

Arun is the youngest in the Matthan Martthan (Babyappapen) family.

I received information today of a truly outstanding performance by this Shah-Matthan prodigy.

Tanya got 95,55% in her ISC 12th Standard Board Examamination. Tanya stood 1st in her school. She is also in the first 15 in the country.

Tanya will be trying for an Honours course in Lady Shree Ram College, Delhi.

Congratulations Tanya and hope you do well in the next phase of your education programme.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

More news on the Bangalore tragedy

I do not want to put the graphic details of this gruesome event on the blog so I give a link to the newspaper article on line

News -- Bangalore: Two Brutally Murdered in Broad Daylight - One of Mangalore Origin, Daijiworld News Network - Bangalore (GA), Bangalore, May 17 2005


I am still in a state of shock to think that just a few minutes before he was to leave to reach our home in Finland, this horrific event could have taken place.

Two family demises

Dear Maliyakal and Kandathil family members,

I have, with great regret, to announce the demise of two very dear members of our family.

On Wednesday May 11th 2005, Dr. M. V. Kurian (Thambichayan), husband of Graciekochamma (Accahi), father of Padmini and Mohan, left us to await his meeting with our Maker. Son, Mohan, in Canada, who attended the funeral, sent me the news on his return to Canada.

Thambichyan was "one of us" when we were children. I will miss him dearly.

On Sunday May 15th 2005, Babykochamma, wife of K. O. Kuriyan (Vellichayan), mother of Ashok, Rajeev and Pratheep, also left us to await her union with her Maker. Georgie in Madras updated me on this information.

I was a little boy when I attended the wedding of Vellichayan and Babykochamma. I always considered her as one of our most beautiful sisters-in-law. Quiet in word, she had an enormous sense of humour which was ever-present with that slight smile on her face. And she always had a kind word for anyone that crossed her threshhold.

I have conveyed our condolences to all family members via the appropiate channels.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Tragic news

Late this evening, just around 11 pm, I was expecting a guest from Bangalore, India. "Tiny" S. Mazumdar, formerly of Hindustan Lever, a friend of Ashok Kunte, who is a IIT classmate of Cathedralite 59er Elijah Elias (Ooky), my long-standing family friend from my Bombay days.

Tiny must have been just planning to leave his Bangalore office en route to the airport to fly in to Helsinki. He would then have proceeded to the Helsinki Railway Station to enjoy the train trip to Oulu.

His visit to Finland was to see for himself conditions here as his son has been admitted to Kuopio University in Eastern Finland to do a course in biotechnology.

Tiny's stopover in Oulu was to meet me and see what my opinion was about his son's stay in Finland, and to possibly help Tiny get a leverage into the Gherkin market as he is a large exporter to Russia. I had organised lunch at a friend's restaurant along with other friends of mine in his line of business.

This morning, just as I visited my email site, there was a message from Ashok Kunte in Thane telling me that Tiny had been murdered in his office yesterday afternoon.

I had just had an email yesterday from Tiny that he had managed to get me some home-made Kerala papadams.

Over the last few weeks we had become quite close friends as we had spoken on many issues for many hours using Skype Voice Over Internet. He had become an avid reader of all my blogs.

I will miss a good friend I made in the recent weeks and it will take some time for me to recover from this shock. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Visitor from India

Jitendra Sachdev is an old friend from Bangalore. I was a Director in one of his companies. Although I have been speaking to him, on and off, on the phone, and visited him on our infrequent visits to India, I had not met him for the last 13 years.

He decided to make a visit to Finland. He is here for a week. He is staying at the beautiful Beach Cottage camp, but unfortunately, due to very heavy booking I could not get him one of the self-contained cottages. We meet daily and I have been able to show him around. I drop him back around sunset, which these days is around 11 pm. He has been able to get a few colourful sunset shots at that time.

Last week was the Great School Children's Exhibition in Oulu where over 40,000 children from all over Finland have been entertained to the best that Oulu could offer them. In our Oulu Sports Dome there were several booths with all sorts of handicrafts and ultra-modern technological events for the children to take part in.

Son-in-law, Tony, had a set up where his team has designed an interactive game where each participant is given his own avatar and they play an interactive game centered around the Oulu Castle. 30 children, each with their own computer station equipped with sound are able to interact and play this game which including the introduction time, takes about 2 hours. They see on the computer screen exactly what their avatar would see.

Grandson Samuel was anxious to take Grandpa around the exhibition. He had a pass, which he was very proud about, but we had to get the assistance from Tony to get in to see the insides of what was happening in the Sports Dome. Samuel had great pleasure in taking Jittu and me around the exhibition to show us what all the children were up to. It was extremely interesting see children using not just computers but using all forms of traditional equipment, as leather stitching machines, etc.

Jittu and Samu, May 2005

Jittu and Samu, May 2005


This is a picture of Samu and Jittu relaxing at the exhibition. The poster in the background is about "Ludocraft" which is the Game Design Center in Oulu University under Tony in the Information Processing Department of Oulu University.

LudoCraft in Brief

LudoCraft studies games and applies the theoretical knowledge into game design. The approach combines theoretical, technical and artistic expertise in serving both the academic and the practitioner communities. The mission of LudoCraft is to distribute the knowledge of analytical gamers and game designers for the benefit of wider audience.
Ludo - Theories of game and play
Craft - Art of game design and development
LudoCraft = The Art of Designing and Creating Games and Play

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Mother's Day 2005

Sunday was Mother's Day in Finland.

Here, in Oulu, we had a get together of four generation - Hilja, Annikki's mother, Annikki, Joanna and Joanna's two children - Samuel and Daniel.

Hilja, Annikki's mother on Mother's Day 2005

Hilja, Annikki's mother on Mother's Day 2005


Annikki with grandson Daniel on Mother's Day 2005

Annikki with grandson Daniel on Mother's Day 2005


I went to buy flowers on behalf of Annikki and her sister, Anneli, who lives in South Finland, for their mother. The flower shop was packed solid with people on the Sunday morning. As I watched the people walk in, I suddenly realised how important Mother's Day is in instilling some values in children, as the largest group of the shoppers were children with their fathers choosing some pretty flowers for their mothers.

The afternoon was a good sports day for Finland with a great performance by Finnish Formula 1 driver, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren - Mercedes, leading the race from start to finish in what was a great display of his driving skills given a car which will last the race. Narain Karthikeyan (India) Jordan-Toyota, did not do so badly in that he managed to finish the race yet again, even though it was 3 laps behind the Finn.

Finland also managed a draw in the Ice Hockey group match against the Canadian team. They should have won but the Canadians made a spirited come back in the last session when the Finns were up 3-1.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Grandson Daniel's birthday today

There was a small get together on 23rd April to celebrate son-in-law, Tony's birthday.

Tony on his birthday - 23rd April 2005

Tony on his birthday - 23rd April 2005
Photo by Samuel


Daniel with his brother, Samuel - 23rd April 2005

Daniel with his brother, Samuel - 23rd April 2005
Photo by JM


Daniel with grandma, Annikki - 23rd April 2005

Daniel with grandma, Annikki - 23rd April 2005
Photo by Samuel


Grandson Daniel is celebrating his 1st birthday here in Oulu. I have been there twice today, first before my 13 km walk (2 hours and 23 minutes) and once afterwards as grandson Samuel wanted me to tell him the story of the Bubble Journey from the Enchanted Forest of Gurva to Namibia and down the Zambesi spring to save the people from the naughty lady who was washing her hands in the spring source way way underground!!

Daniel following his father's footsteps as a drummer boy

Daniel following his father's footsteps as a drummer boy,
Photo by Samuel

Sunday, May 01, 2005

93 today and going strong

Dearest Pappa, Mr. K. M. Philip, oldest surving son of the late K. C. Mammen Mappillai, is 93 today.

Please join Annikki and me in wishing him a very very happy birthday and many many more.

Here is a recent picture of Pappa in Chennai addressing the gathering at the 70th birthday of Mammen Eapen (Kunjumonchayan).

Pappa 2005

Pappa 2005 Chennai at Kunjumonchayan's 70th birthday;
Photo supplied by Shilpa


I am sorry I have not been blogging on this channel for a few days. I have been busy getting fit, redoing our upstairs kitchen, looking after Daniel and Samuel, getting our car fixed, etc.

Will catch up on the news, especially a birthday, wedding, etc, in the family. Susanna has been active on her blog so do not forget to check it out at

http://smatthan.blogspot.com

Lots of great pictures, especially from Nitya's wedding.