Yesterday I had a phone call late evening, which meant my programme for today had to be re-tuned. The call was from an old friend, Päivi Kytömäki, who introduced Smitha, one of the group of people sponsored by Rotary India to visit the Rotary District of north Finland under a Rotary Fellowship.
Smitha (Elizabeth Thomas), and a group of five others from India, had arrived in Finland more than 3 weeks ago. She had asked Tapon, the owner of the Indian Restaurant in Oulu, how she could contact Annikki and me. Tapon could not find my phone number in his mobile. She asked several Roatarians, but it seems none of them had heard of me, except one, Heino Holappa, who had taken a similar Finnish group to India.
(Smitha is married to the cousin of the wife (Vimla) of my second cousin, Satish Abraham, who lives in Kottayam. Smitha works in Kottayam in an IT company as a Content Organiser. Smitha is also the daughter of one of India's leading hematologists, now retired,who used to be associated with King's College Hospital in London.))
But Heino did not have my phone number.
Smitha arrived in Oulu back from a trip around the north of Finland on Saturday. Her stay in Oulu was being hosted by a Rotarian lady who is a member of one of the local Rotary Clubs.
When Smitha visited the office of her hostess, Päivi Kyötimäki, the head of the library at the University of Oulu, she saw the calendar of Annikki's cake designs on Päivi's table. Excited, she asked Päivi whether she knew us, and before you could say "buzz bumble bee", Päivi was on the line to me and I fixed to meet with Smitha today. (Päivi and I have been friends for over 16 years.)
Tapon had told Smitha that there were only about 5 or 6 Indians in Oulu. To disprove this, after showing her the excellent Zoology and Geology Museums in the University, I took her to meet the two Indian researchers in my old Microelectronics Laboratory. Luckily both Krishna (from Andhra Pradesh) and Dr. Sebastian (from Trivandrum) were in. (There are about 75 Indians in Oulu.)
Oulu University Microelectronics Laboratory
On our way out we met another Bangladeshi, Hallal, a researcher in Telecommunications, who was one of the first students who worked for me about 12 years ago.
We had a quiet buffet lunch at the Thai Pailin Restaurant. Then I dropped Smitha off at Kaleva, the local newspaper, where they had an official event. I picked her up after about two and half hours and then took her home. There Annikki and Smitha discussed many subjects and Smitha saw some of Annikki's art.
Then we went shopping to get some small stuff Smitha had seen in our garden.
We also took her to a Fleamarket to show her where Annikki gets some of the great things we have at home. After that we took her to the Nallikari Beach to show her yet another beauty spot of Oulu.
After a hectic day we dropped Smitha off at her hosts. We found that it really is a small world as Päivi's daughter's boyfriend is a student associated with a Computer Gaming Project in Oulu University being headed by our son-in-law, Tony. He has just submitted his thesis for his master's degree. Also, Päivi had been talking to Tony in Newcastle just today about including one of his projects on Computer Gaming in the Book Fair which is being held in Oulu in a June.
Although Annikki had spoken to Päivi about 16 years ago, she had not met her till today. Päivi recalled the advice that Annikki gave her when she had talked to her about what to do when going to India - "Go there with an empty suitcase!" And it seems Päivi has been following this advice for the ten or more visits she has made to India since then.
We are glad that we could share some quality time with Smitha. Sadly, I could not use my Malayalam which has deteriorated from bad to virtually useless over the last 5 years!
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