Jumping a day again to Bangalore

(Sorry no photographs till I can upload to my server in Finland!)

Although Thursday was a most intriguing day in Cochin, I will come back to it later as I jump to yesterday, Friday, in Bangalore.

Our hotel is in the most crowded part of Bangalore, but as it is on a side street, it is relatively quieter that the rest - but I emphasize, relatively. I had finished blogging last night at around 4 am so I went back to bed and was up by 7. I had asked the driver to come by 8:30, thinking I would let Mika and Annikki sleep through the morning.

But the brightness and the noise had both of them up by 7:30, and they were ready by 8:30, so we trooped off to MTR for our breakfast. Annikki was still to full from our meal at the Mainland China to have breakfast. Mika downed his masala dosai and coffee, while I enjoyed the idli and masala dosai with a mug of tea. It was just too much for me. The place was crowded as usual and the atmosphere was the same as when I had last been here. Time has stood still in many ways at MTR!

We then visited my Basavangudi home on Market Road. I cried when I saw how my mother's carefully crafted garden, our childhood home, had been destroyed by the developer. It is a tragedy caused by "greed".

As Brinda had told us she would inform the owner’s of my grandfather's home in Basavangudi to show us around, we went to "Grace Home" To enter the compound was sheer joy as not only had our old childhood paradise been kept well, it had been improved upon significantly.

The owners had left the previous day for London. When we informed the caretaker, Kamala whom we were, she allowed us to see the house. It was so wonderful to enter this home which has been preserved in all its glory and also, like the garden, improved upon. I wiped away tears of joy as I went around this home, knowing that my grandparents would have approved of all the changes. I remembered the wonderful times I had spend in this house, hiding under the staircase, running around carefree, sitting with my grandparents around the enormous dining table, playing cowboys and robbers in the lush garden. It was a joy to be here.

Next port of call was Infantry Road to see some cousins and see what had happened to my dividend cheques. We were surprised to get one handed oer to us, and find that Indian Bank had returned two cheques deposited there last year.A tidy sum was lying there for us which we had no knowledge of!

I also met the binder who is the father of one of the employees there. He promised to bind the Coffee Table Book by 7 pm. A lot of compromises, but I was sure that I would get the job done before I left for Chennai.

Off too open an account at the ICICI Bank. Annikki and I were surprised at the wonderful way we were treated at the bank at a special NRI Counter. The process was long but the experience was rewarding as we left with two accounts in the bank - a NRE and and an NRO Account.

On to Indian Bank where the atmosphere was completely different. No wonder our nationalized banks are in decline! The Manager accepted the failings as there was proof of everything we had said, and he could offer no explanations whatsoever for these.

I managed to get our accounts updated, new balance statements and new check books. i will use them to close the accounts if I see no improvement in the next few months!

Visit to my eldest cousin (George Natthan) on the Matthan side in Bangalore - Baluchachen. A wonderful feeling to meet him and enter another of our childhood haunts. We spent a couple of hours till Nirmalakochamma returned home. These two looked so young.

On to Somakochamma and Georgekuttychayan's (Mr- & Mrs. G. K. O. Philips) place which was surrounded by chaos as the roadworks extended around their home in every direction. Again a paradise in a concrete jungle, The only bit of preserved lawn where we spent a pleasant afternoon with our two eldest cousins from the Kandathil side in Bangalore. We were joined by their youngest son, Peter, whom we had not seen for over 25 years. He is such a great lad. Such a joy to be with our cousins and nephews. Georgekuttychayan is preserved and Somakochamma zips around in her little car People in our family do not age in India!

Then it was time to visit the binder (Sree Kanyaka Parameswari Power Press). He had promised a 19:30 delivery. We reached there at 18:45. I watched him work diligently is a ramshackle place, but he knew what he was doing. Chaos became the work output of a craftsman with nimble fingers as he lovingly created the hard cover for the Class of 59 Directory. He handed me the final documents at 19:40.

No time to go to the hotel to change before going tom meet our Patni friends in Electronic City. Our driver, knowing our time demands, asked whether he could drive as a "Bangalore driver" as he weaved through the traffic and got us to the wonderful hotel about 45 minutes late. i was overjoyed to see my old friends from Oulu patiently waiting for us. The dinner was simply exquisite - a buffet and as none of us had had a morsel since morning we scoffed the wonderful food with relish.

I had said that they were my guests, but they outsmarted me and paid the bill behind my back. Then just as we were leaving they brought out a gift from them. I cried at the gesture, as I was expecting no such thing as these were my children whom i loved so much and who had given me much joy when they lived in Oulu Annikki was also overjoyed at seeing them and feeling their great love and affection.

Thank you boys, and remember you are always welcome back at Oulu as my friends

The return journey did not take as long but even at this hour of around midnight the roads were throbbing with traffic.

Exhausted, we crept into our beds after midnight. I was sure i would be up early to put up my entry of another day of our visit to Incredible India.

Back blogging again

This is now a topsy turvy ride in my blog. (Sorry, no pictures as yet till I can upload to my personal server in Finland!)

I had no secure internet access for a couple of days. When I moved from our Royal residence "Windsor Castle" to the beautiful Malayala Manorama Guest House in Kottayam, I gained access to a LG screen, some 29" wide, but I lost my internet access.

Malayala Manorama has a policy of not giving unfettered internet access due to security reasons. So I had to check my email (which is gmail) at an internet cafe. There are several in Kottayam, and the charge is Rs. 10 for half an hour (roughly €0.30).

However, even though the price is cheap, the locations were not conducive for personal work, as blogging.

I concentrated the next couple of days on getting ready the Coffee Table Book for my class 50th Year reunion. The big screen connected to my Mac Mini along with the Bluetooth Mouse and the Bluetooth wireless Mac mini keyboard were just perfect.

I was able to correct most of the mistakes and take it to a small laser print centre (Copy Tiger) recommended by the Malayala Manorama.

Then started an experience which is worth recounting.

The owners of the centre (two Varghese ) put me in touch with their Desktop Publishing expert. He tried to open my NeoOffice file (Mac specific version of the Sun Open Office), but was not successful. But he was able to open my jpg image files. He asked me to convert the odt files to jpg.

I went back to the Guest house, and because of the large screen, this work was so easy. I opened the odt files, gave the PRINT command, and then asked to see the Preview, which was a pdf file. I saved that file and it was one step to convert it to a jpg file. The 97 pages took just under two hours, and I was back the Print Centre with my USB Memory Stick and the converted files.

The DTP expert then worked wonders, laying out the pages in book form using Corel Draw. He worked late, up to 8 pm, and then came back the next morning and finished setting the pages exactly to my liking. He printed one copy. To my amazement there were just a few small errors. He corrected these quickly and gave me on final print. Total cost was Rs. 1940 - just € 280.

Now we had the problem of the loose cover for the bound hard copy - my final objective. He recommended a printer in a small town 18 km away in a town called Changnacherri. I reached there by 6 pm and arrived at PRIYA Digital Colour Lab. I was surprised to see the small narrow shop full of all sorts of people. When I explained my request to the owner, he assigned me a young boy who quickly set up the job, showed me different types of papers, and then printed out a sample - which was just perfect. I got a quote of € 90 for the first 5 copies and within the next 20 minutes they had delivered to me the wonderful cover for our publication.

in the meantime I established a nice relationship with the shop owner, Thambi Thomas, who knew all my family members and showed me the utmost respect. They have established in this small town one of the most unique print units which can print posters 30” wide and of any length whatsoever, one of only two machines of this type in India. I wondered how they would get work in such a small sleepy town in a remote part of Kerala, but seeing the mela around me, I knew that these people knew exactly what they were doing. I have made some lifelong friends here.

Armed with my covers, I rushed back to my Kottayam Laser Print Centre. They started printing 4 more sets of the Coffee Table Book. This was in my hands by 10:30 the next morning making it possible for Annikki, Mika and me to embark on the next stage of our journey around India - on to Cochin.

A few words about Kottayam, my childhood holiday home, and home of my very best childhood memories. It is still a great town, the hub of Malayala Manorama, the largest circulating newspaper in India. I remember when it had a circulation of just 3000 copies when it reopened in 1948 after India got its independence. Today it is printing 1.7 million and the target of 2 million copies by 2010 will certainly be achieved. Not only is it the largest circulating newspaper, it also produces the largest circulating weekly magazine in both Malayalam and in English, The WEEK having outstripped India Today. It also produces the largest circulating women’s magazine (Vanitha) and children’s magazine (Balrama). The circulation of its multilingual Manorama Directory is unsurpassed.

This has all been achieved by the style of management of three brothers, Rajen (Mammen Mathew), Thambi (Philip Mathew) and Chacko (Jacob Mathew) aided by their 93 year old father, Mathukuttychayan (K. M. Mathew) who still sits in at the daily editorial meeting in his office at 10:30 am! Each one of the cousins is different but they totally complement the others. Various nephews and nieces are involved, and each one of them is professionally qualified for the post they hold. They are backed by a team of devoted officers and workers of the company, who are not just names of numbers, but each is an individual with a face, a family and a lifelong association with this 121 year old publication.

A word about the Guest House where we stayed. It has a British Standards Institution (BSI) UK Quality Management accreditation for the quality of the accommodation and the food. The food team is led by Vasu, who has been a loyal member of the team for over 50 years. He is now 75 but is active and has a personal touch to all the preparations he serves up.

He asks the guests what they like in particular and then serves up the exact preparations which will remain unsurpassed in their memory. He knew I liked pomfret fry. He made me two exclusive versions. He dished up a sweet dish - tender coconut soufflé, which is absolutely unique.

I have decided to give this Guest House my International Best Buy accreditation, but unfortunately, it is not something open to the general public!

Before we left Kottayam, I dropped in at Mathukuttychayan’s office to say goodbye. This 93 year old was just about to start his daily editorial conference, but he stopped long enough to say goodbye to both Mika and me. As Mika shook hands with him and I hugged and kissed him, tears welled in my eyes and I cried as I was leaving. As each day passes he becomes more and more like my mother. I vowed I would come back soon to see him again.

Annikki did not come out to see him as she had a bad cold and was afraid of passing it on to my uncle. Mathukuttychayan expressed more than once that he was sad he was unable to come out to say goodbye to her!

This entire experience in Kottayam taught me that some members of my family still uphold the values set by my grandfather. For that I am happy and proud to be a member of this wonderful Kandathil family whose hospitality and generosity to one and all shows no bounds.

I would be doing a great injustice if I did not add that the spouses of all my cousins are also of the same mould as them and give more to the world than they take. Thank you Prema, Bina and Amu. You are truly Kandathils. I would again be doing a great injustice if I did not mention the sister of my gentlemen cousins, Thangam, and her husband, Jayan, both of whom are again carrying on the good work of the late Annammakochamma (Mrs. K.M. Mathew) and Mathukuttychayan.

would be doing a further injustice if I did not pay my compliments to KI James, the Personal Assistant to Rajen. He is an extraordinary person, and around him revolves the absolute efficiency shown by Rajen to all and sundry. Even after a hospitalisation on the Thursday, he was at his table on Friday to look after details about my travel arrangements, etc. Thank you, James. You are even more efficient than Jeeves!

I will be back in Kottayam in my lifetime and I expect to the see the Malayala Manorama, under such able leadership, still at the top and far far ahead of any and all of their rivals!

India is truly Incredible and it is because of the people like the Mathew family, James, the Varghese brothers and Thambi Thomas! They respect people above money. and power.

Now on to Cochin....

The next day

The wedding continued on Day 2 with a photograph session at the grooms house followed by the blessing and prayers and on to the church service and a reception in the grounds of the new Malayala Manorama printing press. The evening was the final reception at the groom's house. Radhika Mammen sang a song - what a powerful and superb voice. I remember her as a small girl in her grandmother's room being coaxed to sing for us, which she did. If I manage to track down that video I will be come a millionaire overnight! (Her father, Jayan, told me that he had been trying to persuade Radhika to keep her voice trained - so I guess he does not know she is singing in the bath every day! Great voice and great personality at so young an age - she can go as far as she wants.)

I have photographs galore and I will upload them when my server on Finland responds.

The people who attended were the ordinary folk, the mass of the 6000 guests being workers from all the units of the Malayala Manorama enterprise. No doubt many leaders from media, industry, commerce and education were there, but they were all part of the crowd. A couple of Ministers dropped in but they were not any special guests.

Many Stephanians of my generation (Abe Tharakan, George Vergese, Col. Jose Vellikappan, Rajen, Thambi, Suresh, myself) to the present (Anu, etc., etc., - many many Mathews) were there. Many of the groom's cousins and their wives / husbands, who were Stephanians were there, so much so that Abe Tharakan, a Stephanian of my era 1960 - 1963, commented to me that St. Stephen's was intending to change its name. They were planning to call it St. Mathews - as it was being dominated by this family! :-)

My "Grow Fat Cheaply" theme got a lot of people shying away from my camera, as who could resist the wonderful food on offer. The lunch was simple - a Mutton Biryani - and it was superb. Tables were laid for 12 people with papads, a tamarind plum sauce, a lime pickle, Boli (famous from Mrs. K.M. Mathew days) and the rice paysam prepacked. The large serving dishes with piping hot mutton biryani arrived and it was consumed with gusto. One of the finest biryanis I have tasted.

Most people went on to greet the bride and groom. And then it was to have a rest and get ready for the evening session,

The food in the evening was catered by the Taj group. Again an outstanding spread and I had to hold myself back as the biryani was still lingering around. I was pleased that the soft drinks on offer were tender coconut juice and lychee juice. Both most refreshing.

We got back at midnight and try as I might to upload the photographs to my Finnish server, I just could not. This typing table is too low, so I cannot sit for long to write this, but I promise when I move from Windsor Castle to a more comonn address, I will describe the occasions in greater detail and also try different techniques to get the fabulous photographs of my wonderful, extended, simple family, uploaded somewhere where they will be accessible.

Today I have started my work programme with two meetings scheduled through the day. I am having problems getting credit to my mobile phone. I paid the operator Rs. 1000, as I have already run through the first thousand, but they have not been able to upload a cent. I am down to the last few rupees, so I expect to be out of credit in a few hours.

Fast forwarding to now

(Due to the fact that I do not use a credit card, and Google wants you to use one to buy image storage, I am unable to upload pictures to my blogs. I will give you a link where you can see the pictures.)

I am fast forwarding to today, Friday, as we are in Kottayam, and many have written to hear of the wedding of the year! of c ourse this is one part of my story of "How to get Fat CHEAPLY"!

We were looked after so well by Dinesh and Raghu at the Cochin City Guest House of Malayala Manorama.

All the Malayala Manorama Kottayam and Cochin Guest Houses are famed for good food. The two caretakers did not disappoint us and served up a great dinner - soup, fried promfet, and chappatis for me (Annikki's strict instructions that I am not to touch rice) and a great vegetable curry with fried chicken. Sweet was seedless red papaya and a delicious desert. This morning they turned out Masala Dosai with coconut chutney and a curry, steamed sweet banana with tea. Even as I think of it my mouth waters.

We left Cochin at 10 am and stopped to see one of my father's s sister Accachi (Mrs. Grace Kurian) who lives with her daughter, Padmini, in Cochin. Padmini left for Bangalore on Thursday evening, so we will meet up with her in Bangalore. Padmini's husband, Babu was there to greet us.



The 75 km between Cochin and Kottayam really reflected the terrible malaise in the Indian road system. A journey, which in Europe should take just less than an hour, took us almost 2 hours. We left at 11 am and arrived at 1 pm.

What a waste of valuable time and energy. If the Kerala Government would only maintain the roads properly, maybe they would get many more tourists pass through their state, generate more jobs and revenue and have less accidents on their roads. Each a compelling arguement - but is anyone listening.

We went straight to the family lunch served by chef Vasu - student of Annammakochamma (Mrs. K.Mathew) and his team. The liuch was outstanding - Kerala Cusine.

It was such an emotional experience to meet our closest of relations, mainly cousins and their wives or husbands and their children whom we had not seen, most for over 10 years, but many for as many as 20 years.

We hugged each other and I was emotionally affected as I met each of my relatives. What a wonderful feeling.






















































While I was in Cochin I had interacted with an old childhood friend who told me that I was going to meet the elite of Kerala who were attending this much talked about wedding. If these were the elite, we have nothing to worry about as they were all dressed in the simplest of clothes and each was more internally radiant than the clothes they wore. The closest we got to Royalty was our address in Kottayam : WINDSOR CASTLE!

Tomorrow will be another day when the fashionable elite of Kerala may show their faces - but I am sure that as per the legacy of my grandfather, K. C. Mammen Mappillai, Doyen of Kerala no one of my family consider themselves to be part of that aristocracy!

Mumbai landing

Before we landed at Mumbai, we were given two forms to fill in. The first was a statement to be filled and signed by us about our possible contact with Swine Flu. the second was the Immigration landing form.

It really showed that I was completely out of touch with India as I filled up the Immigration form. There was a point about "ECR" to be filled in by Indians. For the life of me I had no idea what was an "ECR". After racking my brains, I thought it best if I asked on of the Indian youngsters who was sitting in the row in front of me.

I tapped on his shoulder and asked him what was an "ECR". He looked at me incredulously, thinking where this old goofy guy had come from and something in an American accent, which I could hardly understand. Then the guy sitting next to him said it stood for "Emmigration Clearance Required".

I was so naive, I asked what that meant - when he told me to look in my Passport. Sure enough, there it was stamped that I did not require emmigration clearance!

We landed on time at Mumbai International Airport at 25 minutes past midnight on 19th November. As the aircraft doors opened, the feeling was exactly like being in a sauna, the temperature being around + 30 C. We were pouring with sweat as we walked a long long walk from the aircraft to the Health Registration counter where we were expected to give up that form we had filled on the aircraft. Along the way I read a placard that said that Finland was one of the countries on the list where there was swine flu, and our ear temperature would be taken.

Obviously the guys and girls at the counter did not have much faith in such placards placed on the way from the aircraft, so as soon as the took our forms, they waved us on to immigration - which was another long walk.

As we were walking slowly, we were among the last at the counter. I handed all three forms, Annikki's, Mika's and mine, to the officer. He asked me to stand in front of him. Then he went through my passport, issued in 2004, which was pristine clean with only one entry, my Finnish residence permit. Not a single other entry - except the stamp showing I had left Finland on this journey.

The officer looked at me and asked how long I had lived in Finland. when I told him it had been my home for 25 years, he said he was proud of me as I had kept my Indian nationality.

(I wondered which other country would give a dumbass like me their citizenship!)

We finished immigration and we were waved through customs to again make a long long walk to the terminal exit where we hoped our car and driver would be waiting for us. It was past 1:30 when we reached the exit!

Our journey to India

We left Oulu only by 1 pm on Friday afternoon as there were so many loose ends to tie up. It snowed heavily most of the 600km. I was glad I had got the winter tyres on and the drive was uneventful. Couple of stops for Mika to smoke his cigarrettes..

We stayed at one of Raantel's apartments in Helsinki. Although we have had it for a month we have not had any residents in it. Annikki, Mika and I were the first to stay there. It was not yet ready, so our friends, Ganesan and Levi, must have had have a tough task on Sunday making it ready for the two Indian software engineers who were to arrive on Sunday.

On Saturday I met with Christian, had lunch with him at the FORUM while Annikki and her sister, Anneli went to church. Then we went to Sello, the huge shopping complex in Leppavaara. It is just too big to be convenient. We found nothing we wanted there. There was no service in either PRISMA of the K-Citymarket, which were both so huge that all the Prisma's and Citymarkets in Oulu would fit into these! Later I had time to visit Ajith and discuss a possible visit to his Ayurvedic Rest Centre on the Kabini River on the border of Karnataka and Kerala.

We had to leave at 5:30 am for the airport so I ordered an Airport Taxi, leaving the car parked outside our apartment for Levi to park at one of other apartments. the Taxi came right on time and for € 32, we had a convenient ride to the airport. Certainly a service to be recommended.

Despite my telling Annikki, she insisted on taking some tubes of hand cream etc., which were larger than the allowed size. Sure enough she had to give them up quite unwillingly at the security. All the soft drinks and juices Annikki had saved for the air journey had to be thrown away! (Hope she has learnt the lesson!)

The Finnair flight to London was not very comfortable as the space between the seats was so small. We certainly hoped for larger seats and more leg room on the British airways flight from London to Mumbai.

London Airport is HUGE. We had to take a bus from Terminal 2 where we arrived to Terminal 5, where the international and domestic British Airways flights depart. The coach journey was 10 minutes.

We had to go through another security before entering Terminal 5. Really terrible. Just because I left my watch on, I had to encounter a full public body search.

We wondered what benefit all this was as a determined terrorist would know HOW to beat this security process. We were amazed to see a little 10 year old girl having to undergo a body search! A complete sham.

The departure gate for our flight needed yet another journey in a fast train from one part of Terminal 5 to another. There we waited for our flight which was a another full one. To our dismay the seats were narrower than the last flight and the leg room between the seats was even tighter.

Luckily the in-flight TV had some great British and American comedy programmes and a couple of drama TV presentations, plus we were served two meals and time went fast -the eight hours flew away and we were in Mumbai. Annikki enjoyed herself watching the flight path on the TV all the way from London to Mumbai! To each his / her own.

It was 20 past midnight on 19th October 2009 when we disembarked. More on that in my next blog posting.

Time to catch up

As I am posting on my other blogs, only this one will be active during this Indian trip. All my readers to my many blogs will have to come here and read our experiences, whether whether they are my school or college friends, my Oulu friends, our Findians community, our CHAFF friends, our O-India friends, etc.

We landed at 00:25 on Monday morning. Monday was a full day of getting acclimatised and above all meeting my uncle, Mr. K. M. Philip (97, Peelukuttychayan, Pappa) and Chinnammakochamma (Mummy). I will update you from the time we left Oulu till this morning in subsequent posts.

It was so good to see my uncle who even walked to the lift to see us off. He is looking forward to playing golf again this week as he had been banned from playing golf for six months as he had a pacemaker installed. 97 years and looking forward to a round of golf!

It is now Tuesday morning. I am sitting in the wonderful Guest House of Malayala Manorama in Mumbai. Budiram from Nepal is the caretaker. A fine person always at your service. He has been with the company for many years.

It overlooks the sea. Annikki and I are fascinated with the view of watching the waves coming in. It is the start of our visit and holiday in India.

There are three bedrooms, all beautifully furnished and maintained. Bedclothes and towels are changed everyday. Better and more intimate personal service than a hotel. This should be our aim in Raantel Oy.

Annikki and I are in one bedroom. Mika is in another. The third is for Manorama persons. Last night, a second cousin once removed (an Indian way of saying a cousin through marriage relationships) arrived. We had a long chat. It was wonderful to meet Raju who looks after the Company Affairs of the Malayala Manorama.

This Guest House is what we term in Oulu as a shared apartment, but it is totally non intrusive. There is no cooking by the residents. Breakfast is served. Other meals are not offered and one can order the food in from any of the many restaurants in the vicinity.

Yesterday evening, Annikki, Mika and I went to a clean and neat vegetarian restaurant next door. Mika had a masala dosai and a pineapple milk shake. Annikki had a paneer palak with a methi paratha and I had a channa bathura. We also had two extra nans and a couple of Sprites. The damage was less than € 5!! We would have paid € 5 for just the Sprites in Oulu!

Raju's cousin, Apu, studied at the same time as me in London. He did Rubber Technology and went on to be Head of the Research and Laboratory group at MRF Ltd. His late father was a wonderful eye doctor. I was so pleased to hear that Apu's mother, Sosammakochamma is still doing well at the age of 90+. Apu's father passed away many years ago. They used to live quite near us in Bangalore several years ago.

Raju's aunt's (Kunjattykochamma) husband was my Godfather, Mr. K. M. Eapen (Eapachayan), one of my mother's elder brothers. Also known as Vakil Eapenachen, as he handled all the legal matters regarding our family businesses.

I just learnt from Raju that he is my mother's second cousin - so making him my uncle!

Sadly we are lacking a camera as the one I received on my 65th birthday fell and does not take snaps. It will be given for repairs today.

I now have a local Indian mobile. The phone number is

+91 9619621265

Unfortunately my Finnish Mobile is not locating an operator for some reason. So please use the Indian number to send me text messages.

More later. I am already sure that this is going to be an Incredible India visit.