I remember some great moments in Chennai

I received an email from a young student from Pondicherry who is studying here in Oulu. He had been asked to speak about India to a group of Finnish students who are about to embark on a trip to Tamilnadu and Kerala, sponsored by one of the local Rotary Clubs.

Kannan thought that I would do some justice to introducing the students to these areas, so he asked me to join them.

It revived some thoughts of our days in Madras during the 1970's and I embarked on a Google Search to find if there were any pages of the Rotary Club that I had belonged to during the period 1970 - 1976.

I was really thrilled to find the web pages of the Rotary Club of Madras South. It prompted me to write this letter to the Webmaster, Rotarian A. G. Shankar:

Dear Rotarian Shankar,

It was with great pleasure I discovered such a really superb set of web pages of the Rotary Club that I had the pleasure of being a member in the early 1970's.

I certainly recall many great names as the Charter Secretary Rtn. Ramakrishna Raja and Rtn. C.V.George, both outstanding human beings that I had great honour of rubbing shoulders with.

I was inducted by President B. Ugamraj Mootha, being introduced by the brilliant but highly eccentric engineer, Mr. Krishnaswamy.

My classification - Polymers.

I do not think that I was dynamic enough to be remembered by anyone in the Club - and I moved to Bangalore in 1976 and then to Finland in 1984.

I did not ever join Rotary again as I found that no Rotary Club that I visited had such great Fellowship and Projects that as were associated with Madras South.

I do not know how many of the members of Club from those days are still around. Maybe if you publish a members list, it would jog my memory.

Please convey to all the members of the Club my very best regards. May I wish the Club continued success. I will blog the picture of your present Board and the link to your web pages on my Jacob's Blog.

I, on my part, can now watch with great pleasure the activities of the Club through the excellent web pages that you have created.

I am now retired and live with my wife, Annikki, who was also an Inner Wheeler at that time, in this near Arctic town of Oulu in Finland, home of much of the developments in Microelectronics which led to the growth of Nokia as an international giant in mobile phones. I was the Acting Chief Engineer at the University of Oulu, Microelectronics Laboratory.

In particular, we fondly remember one incident which took place at a Club get-together in the gardens of our home in Velacherri.

On arrival, Rotarian Karpur asked our 4-year old daughter:

"How is your pop?"

He got a reply that startled him

"He has tape worm!" said Joanna .

Little Joanna was more interested in her "pup" than her "pop"!


Yours most sincerely


Annikki & Jacob Matthan

I never heard the end of that from Rtn Karpur.

It was Annikki that jogged my brain with the details of the story!

Age is certainly telling! :-)

Here is a picture of the Office Bearers for the year 2005-06 of the Club:



The President, Mr. Rajesh Sahi, is the Managing Director of Antrieb Technik, engaged in the manufacture of electrical actuators for valves used in various industries.

Certainly revived some memories that I will share with these Finnish students this Friday. Maybe they will have the opportunity to meet up with the Club when they are in Chennai!