Bluetooth gives me a red eye

We reached New Delhi on Sunday about noon. Meeting us at the airport were two cars. As soon as the driver saw me, he called out my name. I recognized him.

He had joined MRF, Delhi, as a young boy potential driver in 1963, my last year in St. Stephens College. He served MRF and one of MRF's top executives in Delhi for 42 years till his retirement. Since his retirement he has been driving his own tourist taxi and he had been sent to pick us up. The last time I had seen him was when he had dropped Annikki, the family and me at the airport when we had left for Finland in 1984.

We renewed our old friendship of the last 46 years as he drove us to the Guest House

Although there was internet connectivity at the Guest House, I was unable to enter my computer as for some reason both the Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard gave up the ghost. So I was unable to reach my readers in the morning.

I went to visit Deepak, who has become such a good friend over the last year. He organised to get me a USB keyboard. But I think he deliberately told his office manager to be slow about it as it gave us the time to really have a chat. -)

And we found that besides our Cathedral connection we had so many common friends. His partner is the first cousin of my dearest of friends, Ajay Verma, who lives in Lund , Sweden and is presently in Pondicherry.

We had another common friend in Balan, who was the brains behind the setting up of the MRF Pace Foundation. And through him I got to two more of my very dear Delhi friends, Krish Veerappen and Nair, both former MRF employees who have started a great company on their own, selling helicopters! these twoguys are so enterprising, and dont I know it!

I am really looking forward to meeting this side of my family!

Deepak and I spent more than 3 hours together.

The life story of Deepak and his time since school was most fascinating. He had me enthralled with my ears glued open till he finished recounting a history of great adventure, worthy of a book in itself!

New Delhi, or at least South Delhi, is as if you are in another country.

So before we give you an assessment of this Indian Capital, let me look at all the facets of this city.

Lunch yesterday was at Pandara Road market, our college days haunt. Evening included a visit to Khan Market. I am getting a feel of Delhi.

Amanpour and the Drones

As we were now finished with all the official work in Ahmedabad, Annikki decided to attend her Sabbath Day church service.



On the way we crossed the mighty Sabarmati river, on which stands 12 bridges from one end of Ahmedabad to the other. Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, the commercial and political capitals of Gujarat, were established on the banks of Sabarmati river. The legend is that Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat, resting on the bank of Sabarmati, got inspired with the courage of a rabbit to chase a bully dog to establish Ahmedabad in 1411. During India's independence struggle, Mahatma Gandhi established Sabarmati Ashram as his home on the banks of this river. (Wikipedia)



The church was located at the other end of Ahmedabad and it was packed. I had to sit outside in the compound.



On our way back, we stopped for Annikki to have a cup of coffee in the now famous Coffee Day, a chain of Cafes started by the present Indian Foreign Minister, S. M. Krishna's son-in-law, who hails from a coffee growing family in Chickmaglur District in Karnataka, a place which has very pleasant childhood memories for me. S. M. Krishna, is of course from Sommanhalli in Mandya District, a place much remembered by Annikki, the children and me!

Then it was time to relax at the service apartment. We decided to watch some TV. Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, was talking about the drones, which the American's are using for "targeted killings" or shall we use a mundane group of words - "murder of innocents"!



Whenever the Americans war machine does something, they justify it as if they have the right to do it. I remember the huge fuss when they made when it was suggested that Saddam Hussain intended to use this technology to attack America - I think they called it "a weapon of mass destruction"!

Remember what they found?

The Americans are so stupid, as they have developed another $100 technology which is going to bite them. Based on originally sophisticated, but now common computer game and model aircraft technology, and some common-place solar powered technology, these toys that the Americans have developed as robotic killing machines will, in the not so distant future, be making the rounds attacking Americans on their own soil. Targeted killings, their invisible enemies will shout. Murder, the Americans will yell.

But, of course, when the Americans use it and kill innocent civilians, it is just unfortunate collateral damage.

It is rather unfortunate that in what was otherwise a comprehensive interview, that Christiane Amanpour did not raise this aspect of what would happen when others use this technology.

Just one such drone has to fall into the hands of the enemy. This is not much of a problem, as now these drones are operating out of Pakistan, where security is probably as sound as having this WMD placed in a refugee camp of dissidents!

In July 2009 William Saletan wrote in The Slate, in an article entitled "Troops Out, Drones In - Policing the world with remote-controlled aircraft":

Drones, as I've said before, are the future of warfare. The tactical reason is that they don't bleed. They let us hunt enemies abroad at no risk to ourselves. The political reason is slightly different: They spare us the difficulties of an official troop presence. Pakistan's government doesn't have to approve or explain our incursion into northwest Pakistan on Sunday night, because, strictly speaking, we weren't there.

So when America's enemies use this on Americans - what is going to be the woeful cry, Mr. Saletan, Ms. Amanpour?

Does anyone now remember who bred and armed the Taliban and Al Qaida?

Annikki finally got rid of the biscuit crumbs she has been carrying around since we left Finland. She found a stray dog to feed it to. The dog decided to follow its chums around for the rest of the evening.

When we went for a walk last night, we had an ice cream each at a local ice cream parlour. There was a little child and his father, who was selling balloons, looking hungrily at all the rich enjoying their ice creams and dinner in the pizza parlour next door. At Annikki's bidding, I bought a cup ice cream and gave it to the child's father. First, he told me that the child did not like it. When I insisted he feed it to the little boy, who stood no taller than half the cycle wheel, the child kept opening his mouth for more.

However, before long, the poor man was the target of attack of the waiters of the Pizza place next door as they did not want to have him feeding his child "on the public road" in front of their restaurant! As we left, the waiter came running after us to suggest that maybe we had lost a pocketbook to these poor people!

An act of kindness from Annikki towards a poor hungry little boy - but probably to the poor twosome, a whole heap of trouble! What a world we live in!

Indian Cricket and fitness

I had the opportunity to see a little of Indian cricket with the second test against Sri Lanka. Mostly watched the highlights. Some superb batting by Sehwag, Gambhir and Dravid. And some outstanding bowling by Sreesanth.

Watched comments by Mohindar Amarnath, who used to be one of my favourites. His father Lala Amarnath was an absolute favourite of mine in the 50s.

Mohindar is very reserved, but so knowledgeable about the game and also has an excellent English vocabulary, unlike Kapil Dev, who kept using words like fantastic, and other superlatives, but without much feeling. I do not take credit away from Kapil for knowledge about the game!

It was indeed a good performance by India. I do give Dhoni much of the credit for the win, for he handled his bowling and also his field placings superbly.

The only problem is that most Indian players are not physically fit.

I watched part of the One Day International between England and South Africa last night. The players, every single one of them, are physically fit.

Did not stay up to watch the end, however.

Will probably see some more cricket when I am in Delhi, as I do not have much of an official programme there.

Paras Optic in Ahmedabad

Yesterday, when we were driving back from the City, Annikki noted a shop with the name PARAS Optic.



Paras, in Finnish, means "The Best".

As I had forgotten my glasses in Finland, ie., my short sight glasses, and I had been managing with the glasses I use for looking at my computer, I walked across to this shop in the morning, as it was just about a kilometre away from where we stay.

As I did not have my prescription, I had my eyes tested (only for short sight), chose the best Indian frame available (Rs. 1400 = € 20) and got a glare-free lens (Rs. 2100 _ € 30), all in the space of 3 hours

Cost wise it was 5 times more than Eye Savers, but the choice was much greater, and the speed of service excellent.

Certainly this small roadside optician in Ahmedabad lived up to the Finnish version of their name!

(Note: Parasnath Temple. The highest hill in Jharkhand, towering to an elevation of 4480 feet. The Parasnath Temple is considered to be one of the most important and sanctified holy places of the Jains. According to Jain tradition, no less than 23 out of 24 Tirthankaras (including Parsvanatha) are believed to have attained salvation here.)



On my walk to the Optician, I passed by a camel cart sauntering into Ahmedabad. I woud not have been surprised to see the cart driver using his mobile phone -Is this legal or illegal in India?



I also watched the ladies at work shifting sand on their heads on a building site which will house an ultramodern complex in the near future. The men standing around were, busy, supervising the work.





I saw the gents and ladies of Ahmedabad with their masks astride their motorcycles and scooters. They do not wear the legally prescribed helmets but they rather protect themselves from the air and dust pollution. Which is the more deadly killer - they seem to think it is the pollution.



I also saw the beautiful work of the local roadside potters as they displayed their wares on the roadside. Going for a song!

Some of the streets of Ahmedabad do have pavements, but the condition is just atrocious.



Here is a recently laid pavement, which shows the quality of the work! Wow! Is this the work of trained engineers in 2009?





And I wonder what use is such a pavement where the trees form the centre of it leaving no room for any human to walk on it. Annikki and I are wondering what name should be ascribed to this wonderful concept?



Or take this form of pavement, where every gate to a house breaks it up as their own territory, making it quite impossible to use it as a pavement.

An Indian architect and his future American wife walked into our service apartment to see it as they are getting married in Ahmedabad next January. They were looking for a place where the family of the lady could stay.

We got talking. The architect told me that no one follows any rules as far as building construction is concerned. To each his own. The contractor decides what he will do. So the encroachment of pavements is a matter left to the contractor - and, of course, that means this public land is considered by the house owner as his / her own property to do as he / she wishes.

What is the meaning of town planning? Or have the people ever heard of such a concept?

I understand now why Ebbi and I could not get any progressive plan passed in 1975 about Rural Urbanisation. It appears to be infinitely worse today than then!

I wonder whether it will get better when India is still a democracy and the population reaches 1.5 billion? :-)

Gandhian philosophy

26/11 and I woke up this morning remembering all those who lost their lives last year on this tragic day in Mumbai. Especially, our dearest Ashok.



Annikki and I remembered Madhu and her children, their spouses and her grandchild, who should bring a new breath into Madhu’s life.



In the evening we went to the Kocharab Harijan Ashram to which Mahatma Gandhi returned to after his South African spell. We were given a personal guided tour by a wonderful man, Mr. Ramesh Trivedi, who looks after the place. The minute we mentioned Finland, he proudly pulled out his mobile phone and said "Nokia". He gave us a most refreshing lemon and ginger drink. He would not accept any money from us for anything.

I explained to him the history of Nokia as a small town and its entry into mobile phones and the role of the University of Oulu, Microelectronics Laboratory, in the process in the late 1980s.

It was fascinating to get a personal picture, from Mr. Trivedi, of the life of Mahatmaji, his distrust for the law process and the denial of justice for the common man, much of which has not changed around the world even today.

While discussing Mahatmaji, I asked Mr. Trivedi the question we had posed on the blog earlier today, as to what Act Gandhi would have opposed to draw terrorism to a close.



Mr. Trivedi immediately produced a special invitation for Annikki and me to attend, that very evening, a lecture by Prof. Johan Galtung, the subject being "State Terrorism and Non-State Terrorism; A Gandhian Inspired Action Plan from Violence to Non-Violence".

We were indeed most fortunate to be able to attend this lecture by this Norwegian professor who has been active from as far back as 1959 in peace negotiations around the world - Somalia, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Basque area of Spain, France, North and South Korea, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, etc., etc.

Prof. Galtung is driven by Gandhian values and for 40 years he has been at the forefront of international peace generating activities. He has written 140 books, translated to 33 languages, and authored over 1500 articles reflecting an original thinking across an incredible broad range of issues including Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy, Non-Violence. Last week, he was talking to the CIA, etc., etc. His a work without an end as conflicts are growing by the hour.

Although Prof Galtung spoke on all the major issues that drive international and Indian domestic terrorism (including suggesting a solution to the Indo-Pak Kashmir issue), he could not come up with and answer to what we had asked on our blog yesterday.

Earlier today, I had a let down in my euphoria about the ICICI Bank. They had been so good in opening the account, but when it came to internet banking, they have far too many glitches for someone who has had a trouble free internet banking experience with Nordea Bank over the last 20 years.

First I discovered that for Fund Transfer to another ICICI customer, I needed yet another password, and that would take almost a week to get hold of. Then this morning, when I tried to log into my account, I was told that for security reasons I would have to log in using my original login details provided by the bank. When that failed, I was told I had two more attempts before my account would be locked. So I used the login details that I had changed as soon as I had activated the internet banking facility. That also failed.

Instead of losing my last attempt, I went to the nearest ICICI branch and explained my problem. The officers had a great deal of problem understanding this simple problem. In their presence and following their instructions, I made my final attempt and it failed, locking me out of my ICICI account altogether.

Luckily, I still had access to my Finnish bank accounts, so I was not left penniless.

It is obvious that ICICI have not thought through their internet banking experience. They can certainly put a lot of people into hot water if their accounts behave the way my account has been locked out. And as they have a very aggressive investment division, pushing people to do this and that, it could lead to utter chaos. And even after this, they could not understand why I had reservations about following their advice!

I have bills to pay and travel money to use, all locked away till I, probably, get access again, next Monday, in New Delhi.

So be wary of any internet banking system with any bank in India, as they may have great software engineers in this country, but they do not have the skills demanded for a site which has extra security demands.

Emails are still pouring in about the views we have expressed about India. But, today, the tide turned dramatically with 100% of the respondents supporting our opinions and views. They all agreed that India is a Garbage Dump, a horrendous one at that.

We do hope that we can bring around those who have been most verbose about this to think positively so that we can do something to make this country better and prevent what we see as a terminal decline!

Respects to Gandhiji

We have been slammed by a few of our regular readers for what we wrote in our last blog entry. Some were disappointed in us for what we expressed. Others were plain angry with us.

But this one comment got a hang of what was in our mind.

A comment on your note "The Garbage Dump - India":

"Annikki & Jacob: This is one of your outstanding articles that I have read. Hope now u know why I keep screaming about shifting base to Finland. Civic sense is short lived. Leave the poor and the people in slums - Even the middle class and well to do have this urge to spit, litter and create a fountain wherever possible. My job with XXXX is to create economic opportunities thru the students for communities. The future is the young students who will make the change provided they join this program and work together. Now u know why "Slum Dog Millionaire" got its award. Jai Ho. A dear Mumbaite friend. "

Behind our luxury temporary home in Ahmedabad, the scenery is this. It has been the same since we arrived last Sunday.



Another writer pointed out that India is a democracy, unlike China, and has a billion people.

We are not comparing India with China or any other country. We have not been to China to make any such comparison.

What we tried to explain is how easy it is if one sets up a code of civic practice and abides with it. What is difficult about that, especially for the educated, who are some of the ones screaming blue murder at us? This is exactly what the Minister said a few days ago.

Also, are there not are many many large democracies who have managed to get their house in order?

And think back. Was it better or worse when India had a population of 750 million? So when the projected population is 1.5 billion, where will this country be? Better than today, or will the excuse be the same that we have a population of 1.5 billion and India is a democracy!

Go back to the fact that Ebbi and Jacob pointed out this scenario over 30 years ago, andsuggested a remedy. But no politician or Industrial Development Corporation sought to take action.

But did the politicians and bueaucrats not take action to give the corporate powers what they wanted for their bottom line, regardless. Double standards?

And who will take the responsibility for the present chaos?

Anybody standing with their hands up?

We have no apology to make for what we wrote. It is a fact. Anyone who takes umbrage with us on this is living with their heads stuck in the sand.

And here, in a posh locality in Ahmedabad, in the middle of the road, the stray dogs get a share of the littered prasadam somebody dropped. The perpetrators did not even have the courtesy to drop it in a nearby garbage bin (if there was one around!).



Is it OK to litter the streets with this?

Annikki prepared to go out this afternoon in Ahmedabad wearing the dress code that most women appear to follow in this city.



The dust, dirt and pollution is so overpowering that women here know that their dress sense must protect them. A sad reflection on what abodes in this once magnificent city.

The situation in an expensive location in Ahmedabad is just the same as near a slum. It is just garbage, garbage, garbage strewn everywhere.

We finally reached the Gandhi Ashram to pay our respects to the man who was responsible for the freedom of this country and also who taught the world that non-violence was an important weapon.

It was almost dark,. Most of the fluorescent lights in the Museum were not working. We finally got to see the depiction of the breaking of the Salt Act.



What would be Gandhiji's reaction be to the India we are witnessing around us today? Would he start a Satyagraha to correct this mindless senseless rape of this country.

We wondered what Act Gandhiji would break to drive this nation back to its senses!

The Garbage Dump - India

By Annikki & Jacob Matthan

The good news of yesterday. Samba Siva, our dear friend from Patni Computers, who used to be in Finland and is now working in Electronic City outside Bangalore, rang Jacob to tell us that his wife has delivered a beautiful baby boy, 2.6 kg. He was off to see them as they are near her parents place in Andhra. I have conveyed best wishes on behalf of our entire Findian community to them.

It is difficult to know how to start this piece. We are not writing this to offend anybody. But we are seeing reality, our way.

Yes, we are in Incredible India.
Yes, we are in Ahmedabad, from where Mahatamaji started a mission.

We are about to try to start a mission or be clobbered by all of you for even thinking of starting it!

It is 10 years since we were last in India. Jacob came back a few months after our visit to his niece, Suchi's wedding, to say his last farewell to his mother. At that time, by some quirk of fate, there was an enormous traffic jam just outside Chennai Airport and it took Jacob about 2 hours to reach his mother’s home. That was an unusual morning.

During that visit he did also make a visit to Bangalore. He noted that the city had exploded. It took about an hour for a journey which used to take him just 15 minutes 15 years earlier. Progress?

Yesterday evening, as we watched Indian TV, there appeared an ad in which someone opened a car window and tossed an empty bottle onto the road in front of a scooter rider and his passenger. The scooter rider picked up the bottle, sped through the traffic, probably breaking hundreds of traffic laws in the process, caught up with the car, knocked on the window. When the window opened, the bottle was tossed back into the car!

Effective ad? Effective message?

When you are living in a garbage dump, shifting the rubbish from Point A to Point B, hardly seems a worthwhile activity. And breaking laws to do that seems even more of a “No! No!”.

This time, for our visit to India, we landed in Mumbai at 02:30 am and were duly impressed by Sea Link, designed just like many of the cable stayed bridges in Finland.



Above is a picture of the Replot Bridge (Swedish: Replotbron; Finnish: Raippaluodon silta). It is a cable-stayed tuftform bridge connecting the island of Replot with the mainland in Korsholm, near Vaasa, Finland. It is 1,045 metres (3,430 ft) long and the longest bridge of Finland. Two supporting pylons are both 82.5 m (271 ft) high. The bridge was inaugurated 27 August 1997 by the president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. (Acknowledgement: Wikipedia)


Mumbai Sea Link - 2009, the pride of Mumbai.

Our visit to Mumbai taught us that the traffic situation had got worse and even with all best intentions, there would not be much improvement.

Our daily blogging of our India trip, which is reaching many thousands of people in all corners of the globe, has got us some good and interesting comments. One, from a dear friend in Finland, sticks out. He commented how nice it was that we were not writing about all the dirt in India.

We could hardly contain ourselves - Dirt in India?

People in India are living in the largest Garbage Dump in the world. This is what The Honorable Jairam Ramesh, the Environment and Forest Minister in the Indian Government said last week:

If there is a Nobel prize for filth, India will win it: Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh, known for making forthright comments, today said if there was any Nobel Prize for dirt and filth, India would get it.

"Our cities are dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt," he said at a function to release a report of TERI.

Ramesh lamented the poor facilities for disposing municipal waste in majority of the cities in the country.

The ministers' comments assume significance as the TERI report on 'Green Indian 2047' says that waste management is not given priority in local bodies.

There is poor compliance with the solid waste management rules.

Dirt and filth could have both the physical and philosophical interpretation! In India, it has both, which are intertwined at the hip.

Mumbai was bad, but on our first few days we were too busy to notice this. Although the stench and dirt was everywhere, we somehow coped with the situation, seeing all the positives.

We then went to Cochin.

In the old days, Kerala was always considered to be the home of the clean.

The very first evening, Jacob needed to buy a camera, so he walked to the shopping centre nearby. It was like walking through a sewer. And this was just metres away from one of the top radio stations in Cochin, a couple of hundred metres away from the local home of one of the largest media conglomerates in India.

Anyone oblivious?

The drive the next day between Cochin and Kottayam confirmed to us that this was not the Kerala of yesteryear. With all the progress, the roads were just as wide as before. The traffic had tripled, quadrupled or x-upled. The entire infra-structure is in shambles,

As we walked around Kottayam, Jacob was amazed how such a clean and beautiful city of his childhood could have become yet another amazingly large rubbish tip.

If Kerala was bad, our next stop, Bangalore, Jacob’s birthplace, was infinitely worse. It used to be referred to as the Garden City as lush green parks, well maintained, were the heart of the town. Beautiful buildings, well laid out roads and avenues, fountains, were all part of the landscape of the city centre.

This is a city which is now in terminal decline. Every nook and corner is filled with rubbish, every road is a metal jungle. there is no such thing as civic sense. Home to the biggest IT giants, these mighty men, who are among in the richest in the world, care two damn hoots for their surroundings, the health and well being of their workers or the people of Bangalore. All they provide is lip service and then point to corrupt politicians. They may know something about IT but they know nothing about urban planning, health or welfare. They know how to stash away their billions, and leave their industrial bases in total and complete turmoil.

In all this, Jacob came upon one little oasis, where the small corporate group run by his friend, 59er Elijah Elias, was trying to keep some degree of sanity in this madness. A losing battle, but it showed Jacob that if one wanted, it was possible to have a sense of civic sense and pride and maintain an atmosphere of dignity for one’s workers.

To our surprise, Chennai, our home between 1969 and 1976, was a welcome change, although the frailty of the system was exposed by the heavy rain which caused much of the city to be flooded, roads to be clogged and traffic to be severely hampered. As we wandered to the far reaches of the city to meet our friends, we found that the civic sense of the new centres was lost, especially once the IT companies moved into a region. The only intention seemed to be to maximise their bottom-line while throwing the rest of the area to the dogs!

Yes, there were plenty of stray dogs around.

Knowing several of the professional chiefs in many of India’s top IT companies, we do hope that they will suggest to the top management and corporate owners that they should change their ways.

The longer subsequent visit to Mumbai revealed to us that opulence is living side by side with filth and dirt on a scale which is hard to imagine.

Yes, the fisher folk in the small hut on the seashore do have a satellite antenna stuck on their roof, but they have no sanitary conveniences or “education” as they foul the rocks daily in full view of the enormous sky scraper world behind them.

Does anyone care?

Some of the worst possible slums in the world are located around the city. They harbour infections, breed diseases and the slum dwellers are the scum of this earth to the surroundings.

As 59er Anil Ruia put it, Mumbai generates 7000 tonnes of garbage every day. Even with 10 tonne garbage trucks to haul this away, it would require 700 trucks moving in and out of the city every single day just to take this rubbish “somewhere”.

Where?

The garbage trucks presently plying the streets are fit only for some metal junk yard, These toy trucks are probably filled by just going down one street. The hydraulics do not work and no compactation is possible. So the streets remain filled with garbage and stink to high heaven.

Over 15 years ago Jacob had written an article “Western Recycling Doomed; A lesson From India”.

He now eats his words, as Incredible India has moved into the darkest of ages, while the rest of the world has progressed in civic sense, concerned about the environment, health and hygiene of the population. India has given up its past ways and now follows neither its old philosophy or the western model - moving the country into chaos surrounded by filth and dirt.

What was an ordered established system that worked has now descended into nothing but hell. Instead of trying to give dignity to the untouchables who did yeoman service to the entire country, they were treated as animals and forced to give up their profession. Instead of uplifting them, giving them the tools of the trade and a salary and honour for the noble work they did in keeping a country clean, they have been denied their right to improve themselves. And there has been no one to take their place.

The Jerrypuranwalas who used to roam the streets gathering the junk, have virtually been done away with, only causing more and more rubbish to be dumped onto the streets around the country. Almost all open spaces are strewn with rubbish.

What a terrible sight. What a health hazard!

But who cares?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meeting yesterday the US President Barack Obama, would probably have been better off asking for help in converting the Garbage Dump called India into a habitable country, rather than asking for assistance on the nuclear front!

It is not that Indians do not know what is to be be done and how to do it. But it is greed and rapid expansion of a middle class into existing urban areas, led by an even more greedy corporate leadership, who remain “uneducated” about social values and responsibilities, that is partially responsible for this chaos. The corrupt politician and bureaucrat, a corrupt police force, all lead to the same way - chaos.

About 30 years ago, Mr. Thomas Abraham (Ebbi), a philosophical and brilliant engineer with an equally deep financial sense, the then Managing Director of Southern Investments (P) Ltd., a large construction company operating out of Chennai, wrote a wonderful small book called “The Affluence Machine” about the way cities of the future should be designed. Even then he was not talking futuristically, as all the technologies existed at that point of time to execute his dream.

Based on his book, he and I authored a paper called “Rural Urbanisation” which would take the development away from the existing urban centres and move them into to serial distances away from them which were manageable but would help each centre to benefit the hinterland. The idea was that every two hours away from a metropolis, two hours on a high speed motorway, there would develop a self-generated urban spread, which with the minimum of Government inputs, could be developed into thriving economic power houses, where the people would self generate their wealth.

Just imagine, 2 hours (roughly 150 to 180 km) between every metropolis all around India.

The concept of Mr. Thomas was to have a central core of the city where all the major services would be located, enough to serve the population of that region. The old and elderly would have housing generated near to this city centre and the city would expand along the radial axis. The suburbs would develop to serve the younger local population who were mobile enough to use their own transport. A very efficient public transportation system (futuristic in some sense) would be created for most of their needs. The circular rings would generate areas of economic activity. From the circular rings, high speed transportation, which at that time would have been considered futuristic, would bring the outlying population into the City Centre.

The major traffic would be kept out of the city area as the economic public transport system would be developed to serve each suburban community and link them to the central hub as well as the outer rings.

Facilities such as sports fields, etc, would be on the outer rings, ensuring environmental harmony.

Mr. Thomas, who is a builder of great repute had crunched the numbers. He knew that with the seed capital, this model was a self supporting, self generating one, which he as a builder would have been happy to be part of.

Our joint paper was submitted to many Chief Ministers, but only one showed interest, but he too was out of power before he could commence his intention of following through this model.

In response to a recent email from me, this is what Mr. Thomas wrote yesterday:

It was wonderful to remember those days.

"The Affluence Machine" was the name of my book, which was of interest to just four or five people. I remember that Mr. V. Suresh, the CMD of HUDCO once took a copy for a Minister friend. The report that you prepared was once used by Tamil Nadu industries Development Corporation in their proposal for an industrial township. I have a (not yet moth eaten) copy of that particular report.

After the failed attempt at building new cities, I got into this far out idea that human intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. I have a website www.intuition.co.in which describes that idea.

More tilting at windmills!

Still, the property development thing is going OK and my son now runs it.

Do keep in touch.

Ebbi

His new website is fascinating. But it is sad that Ebbi moved away from developing a concept which would have avoided the present random development followed by utter chaos.

Take for example the development of Panvel on the outskirts of Mumbai. This would have been an ideal centre to develop the City Model described in “The Affluence Machine”. But presently Panvel demonstrates how one should not allow growth to occur.

The decision to build the new international airport there and the way Mumbai has clogged itself, caused the property speculators to rush into this one paan shop ( biriyani restaurant) town and ruin not only the area, but make it one of the dirtiest centres in India, even before the first stone for the airport has been laid.

And the journey from Panvel to Mumbai is tragedy in itself.

Our visit to Ahmedabad, from where Gandhiji was able to run his mission to free India, was to see how things were shaping in Western India. We were totally disappointed with what we saw. Although not as bad as Mumbai or Bangalore, it is another city which is falling quickly by the wayside.

Gujarat had started its trunk road system way back in the 60s and 70s, making intercity transport fast. But they stopped there and allowed the uncontrolled city growth to happen within existing city centres while not developing the civic services to meet the demands of the expanded population. What now exists, like all the other cities that we have visited, is a junk yard and garbage dump as far as the eye can see.

One wonder what the residents feel like living inside a garbage dump?

Beautiful buildings of the past are no longer visible as hideous constructions as overbridges are developed a few feet in front of them. Beautiful monuments reflecting a glorious heritage are covered in dust and tucked under the rubble of even more monstrous flyovers and approach roads. The left hand does not know what the right hand does. NGOs battling to look after our traditions are left powerless and speechless by the financial muscle of the corrupt politicians and industrialists.

And when you drive along any street, what you see is that every second shop is an eatery, every third house is a “bank”, every fourth house is a mobile phone dispensing centre. Each one is struggling to keep alive. They live together in squalor and spread more. Are these the only industrial activities that we can be involved with? Are these the "industrial activities" which push up the GDP?

We do not want to appear to be purveyors of doom. We still hope to see some of our faith in this country be rejuvenated when we visit New Delhi and Chandigarh. But from what we have seen so far, greed and corruption pervades all.

Constructive suggestions:

1. Road construction:

We give a simple example how in Finland an activity of building a new road or bridge is done. The first step after the designing of the construction is to set up the diversion route which takes the traffic away from the construction site so that there is no disruption to normal life. Once this is constructed and the traffic pulled away from the area, the area is cordoned off so that building work can proceed rapidly. Target dates are hardened, special areas for materials designated, service roads built. Materials move in on a Just-In-time basis and work is done on a 24 hour basis to ensure that the dates are kept, as otherwise severe penalties are imposed on the contractor. Usually the work is completed ahead of time, and the well planned diversion becomes an emergency road, not to be just done away with because the main job is done.

In all this, the normal work of the citizen is hardly affected. Time is valuable - but in India, only the time which affects the pocketbooks of the rich and mighty is considered valuable. The rest of the citizens be damned.

What is more important is that the quality of the work is never affected. The materials are not contaminated, there is little waste, and everything can be done "on time".

2. Household garbage:

Or let us look at how household garbage is handled in our small town of Oulu. Each house is provided with two bins. One is for mixed waste, the other is for bio waste. Every wek a truck comes to the area and collects the waste, just one man with his well equipped truck where he wheels the dustbins onto a loading platform which automatically lifts the bin, empties it into the back of the truck and this is compacted immediately. the whole operation takes hardly a minute and it is clean, neat and with no spill or left overs.

Recylable rubbish, such as newspapers, cardboard boxes, plastics of all forms, glass, metal are kept by home-owners separately. Nearby centres with huge well like dustbins, lined with ultrastrong tarpaulin fabrics are built into the ground. residents take there rubbish there at their convenience and empty them. The special trucks with gear to empty these wells and put fresh storage bags arrive as soon as the bags are filled. being located in strategic places as petrol stations and supermarket complex compounds, it is not much of a problem for residents to take and dispose their recyclable rubbish at these points.

In addition, near every colony there is a large container which is especially meant for newspaper and pure paper waste. No other waste is permitted in this container as it goes directly to the paper mills for making new paper.

In addition to all this there is a huge rubbish centre just on the outskirts of the town. there you can take all your different types of waste like electronics junk, refrigerators, fridges, radios, wood, all metal containers, and dump them into huge containers which are then sent to special recycling centres.

There is a huge mixed waste centre where you weigh your vehicle and trailer when you enter and you can dump this into the tip. You weigh your vehicle and trailer on the way out and pay a small fee for using this tip, as the city has to find suitable means for disposing this. (A biogas centre has now been developed to utilise this waste.)

In addition, any dangerous and hazardous materials have a special section where they can be dumped.

As a result you see no rubbish lining the streets of our town. Once established and the residents educated, this is like clockwork and any rubbish lying around sticks out like a sore thumb.

When, Oh when, will this happen in India?

Incredible?

If India is to survive, it will not be because of the rapid growth of the middle class as an "uneducated" mass which trundles to work regardless. It will be when each citizen can be proud of his or her country. Sadly that vision of that day is receding by every hour that passes.

Mumbai over; Murphy's law?

The last day in Mumbai was certainly one of great nostalgia plus quiet excitement for me.

I set off to see Ooky & Rivca. I managed to spend some quality time with Rivca in their lovely apartment, as Ooky was off on his "golf" round. I am so happy that I had some really wonderful moments with Rivca as she is so sensitive, direct and honest. She expresses her hopes and desires and also the pros and cons of life in such a manner that one can see what has been before and where she hopes for life will go tomorrow. She is so childlike!

I was hoping to see Suchita and Vijay, as they live in the same building, but Vijay was on his way to help out Mrs. Sethi (Viney's mom) as Viney and Purnima are away in Papua New Guinea and Australia. I shared a few words with him. I had not disturbed him since our last evening of the Reunion, and I had been right, as he told me that for the past three nights he had slept through each for 12 hours! I do not wonder!

Then it was on to Ubi's across the road to return the Old Boys' Association tie that he had kindly lent me for the Founders' Day Service and to say thank you to my wonderful friend. We shared a few thoughts and to my surprise he told me that my childhood friend, Ravi, whom I had blogged about just a couple of days ago, had been one of his closest friends when they were in Germany. What a small small world.



This visit also got me a snap of Ubi as he had not come to the Evening with the Findians and during his hosting of a party for Annikki and me, along with celebrating Meena Bhatt’s birthday, as I had not taken out my camera.

I rushed back to pick up Annikki and Mika and go to Pappa's (97, Peelukuttychayan, Mr. K. M. Philip, my mother’s elder brother) and Mummy’s (Chinnammakochamma) place for lunch. I had misunderstood the time as 13:30. Suresh (Peter Philip) had said 1 or 1:30.

On the way I saw my first mumbai example of traffic rage when two private car owners got within 10 mm of crashing. They shouted abuse at each other, waving fists through their car windows, but, luckily as all the cars were packed together like sardines, neither cold get out to become physically violent!

At Pappa’s house they were waiting for us, Pappa, Mummy, Suresh & Meera and Anna (daughter of my niece, Mammy (Thambachayan's daughter) & her husband, Anian (K. P. Philip) , who live in Belgium). Anna works for the Rolling stones magazine and seemed clued upon everything! Bright girl.

Mika ate like a horse as the food was delicious. I pecked at everything but ate the sweet heartily - something I should not do.



Pappa, at 97 and Mummy (90+) are both mentally as sharp as I have known them all my life. Pappa goes to play an hour or two of bridge every evening at the Willingdon Club - at 97!!!! He made me promise that we would see them before we left India for Finland, which i certainly shall on the 13th of December.

Then we went back to the Guest house to wait for our taxi. It arrived a few minutes late, but when we went down, there was panic. by some quirk the keys were locked inside the car and we could neither put our luggage in our get in to go to the airport.

The driver, Ramesh, acted quickly. he sprinted off somewhere. Five minutes later he returned with two boys carrying a long strong metal ruler. they inserted this between the window and the body of the car and tried to smash the lock open - but it did not work.

They sprinted off somewhere and were back in two minutes, this time with a very heavy screwdriver and a long strong copper rod. While one guy plied the door of the car open with the screwdriver, the other pushed in the copper rod and cleverly pulled the inside door handle lever and, presto, the car door was open.

An amazing feat in a place where we did not know there was such “talent”.





Later, I asked Ramesh where he had found these guys. He told me he had gone to the Traffic Control point and pleaded for some help from the policeman there. He was assured that help would come in a couple of minutes - and these two guys had appeared out of nowhere.

I wonder what the profession of these guys really is, but obviously the Police know them well and use them!!

We arrived at the Airport just in time to complete our formalities and board the aircraft.

The flight was delayed by about half an hour so we arrived in Ahmedabad about 8 pm and our apartment at 9 pm.

A nice clean apartment and they had very nice simple Gujarati vegetarian meal waiting for us.

We are going to enjoy our stay in Ahmedabad, that I am sure.

We are graced and blessed

Annikkki has been complaining of a skin / allergy discomfort for a long time. And she has been self conscious about it although any skin rash could only probably be viewed with a microscope. She has tried many remedies but claimed that nothing worked. She wanted an allergy test, but I found that allergy tests can only be done on a doctors orders.We asked friends and my cousin gave us the name of a top specialist in Mumbai. A call revealed that no appointments were possible during the time we were in Mumbai.

I told Malathi. She said she would attend to it.





Dr. Ashok with his wife, Malthi and their two boys,Darshan and Disanth (some years ago)

Her husband is the "Doctor of Dharavi". Dr. Ashok Khembahavi works from 10:30 to 14:00 hours and again from 16:30 to anytime the last patient arrives in his small Dharvi clinic, 6 days a week. To get him to join even for a family get together is something historic. Considering that he charges Rs. 10 per patient (€ 0.15) and even that most do not have, so are FREE, shows that he is truly one carrying out a noble profession. And to top it, besides being a general practitioner, he is a skin specialist!

Yesterday evening at around 18:30, this God's gift to humanity, arrived at our doorstep. The minute he saw Annikki, he arrived at his diagnosis. After speaking to her confirmed it. He probably sees more patients in a month that a Finnish doctor sees in his entire lifetime.

I have invited Dr. Ashok, as he is fondly known to his patients, to come and stay with us in Finland, a country that his wife, Malathi adores. He has promised to do that.

Dr. Ashok worked in the Congo for two years. His clinic was set inside a factory compound. He told me about the deadly Malaria mosquitoes of Africa. No wonder, when my friend, Kamu, goes there, he gets back to Finland and is taken directly into the hospital. Kamu is presently in Zambia!)

Such a human being as dr. Ashok is so rare in this Universe. I hope and pray that God preserves him as the people of Dharvi need him more than anything else.

Thank you Dr. Ashok. We are humbled by your visit to us.

A rude awakening....

Annikki went to her Seventh Day Adventist Church in Byculla.

I had about an hour to spare. I decided to visit the grave of my elder sister, Nalini, something I had not been to see since the gravestone was laid there in early 1961.

My taxi driver found the cemetery after asking around a bit. The cemetery office was well managed and run. The office was open. The officers quickly found the location of Nalini's grave on paper. But when the guy took me out, could not find the grave.

We returned to the office to recheck. First, he told me that probably the plot may have been purchased, suggesting that someone else may have been buried over her grave. Then he said that no tombstone had been laid.

I assured him that I was there when she was buried and also I had been there when the tombstone was laid.

He then handed me over to another cemetery worker,. This gentleman took me to another part of the cemetery - just 10 metres from the office. At first, he too could not locate the grave. But suddenly, I recognised the large tombstone my parents had laid for their daughter, my sister.

As I stood in silence, something that had never struck me before, hit me right between the eyes - Nalini had been just 23 when she had died, not even in the prime of her adult life.

I wept at this thought as I had always considered Nalini as my elder sister, the mature one, the old one. And she had always been that to me.

To think that here was I, at an age of 66, looking down at my sister's grave some 49 years after her passing. It was a shock to me just to think she had been just 23 years old when she had left us.

I remember much talk in our home that she would soon be too old to get married. The rush had been on to find her a husband.

And what tragedy had followed.

As the marble grave was raised, almost to knee height on a granite slab, it was not dirty of filthy like many around it at ground level. I thanked my parents for their foresight, something which had not been given by my siblings when they planned the graves of my parents.

Is it a life of coincidences?

Yesterday, I had an email from someone in the USA asking whether I could recall an M. Varghese who had studied and finished from Bishop Cotton’s School in Bangalore in 1956. As I had left when I had completed the IVth Standard in 1953, I did not recall that name.

I replied to the gentleman that maybe he could contact Aditya Sondhi, the school historian (in my eyes), or my cousin, Anand Matthan, who had finished school in 1955. Or, maybe he was thinking of my cousin Varghese Matthan, who would have completed school in 1956 had he not left to join Madras Christian College School in 1952.

In passing, I asked the Old Cottonian whether he was any relation to the fabulous cricketer of that time who used to play for the school. I had watched him many a time, sitting on the stone parapet around the school ground, plucking and eating the fresh bamboo sprouts that lined the first eleven pitch.

I quickly had a reply from him, thanking me for my efforts and that Aditya had provided him with loads of material. Further, he was indeed the cricketer that I was thinking about. And his father had been a friend of my father.

Further, he added, that was I not the same person who lived opposite St. Joseph's College Hostel and who had a quiet shy sister, Nalini, who, obviously had been the heartthrob for many of the St. Josephites - and he listed a few of them to me.

He was thinking that as he had lived just around the corner from where I had, maybe we had played tennis ball cricket together. We did have a team but I do not recall this outstanding young cricketer of our time sharing the field with the likes of me and our rag-a-muffin cricketing friends!

In passing he paid me a nice compliment which I will treasure. He wrote:

You are a Renaissance type of an individual ( passion, vision, empathy & creativity ) & continue your quest of keeping us informed.

Sadly, I am not a blogger about Cottonians as I was there too short a time to write about for 10 to 15 years nostalgically. I do wish there was someone doing just that!

It is indeed a very small world . As I am having a bit of a discussion on Facebook with some Home Educationists, I wondered how all this would fit in with their thinking of isolating the children from the real world of childhood, daily interaction with many tens of children, and the most important cry of our Mumbai School "School First, House Next, Self Last".

But that is another subject that maybe I will take up later.

Suffice to say that when I returned back to the Guest House, my thoughts were on my sister, a shy pretty girl, married at the age of 22 (because many thought otherwise she would be too old to get married), childbirth at 23 and followed by her tragic demise 15 days later of tetanus. Thoughts kept flooding back to my mind and I wondered what a difference life would have been if she had been around.

Finally, in passing, as nostalgia is on my mind. I thought I would share with you a photograph of my family dating back to the early 1980s.



Much water has passed under this bridge!

What a week that was

Twelve years of concentrated effort, whittled down to three years of intense effort and we had one of the best reunions that I can remember, taking all classes in our school into consideration. (I have been helping several classes to organise their reunions.)

The credit goes to the entire Mumbai crew, headed by Capt. Shivi and Piloo. Let us make no mistake about that.

Without their perseverance, persuasion and immaculate planning, it would not have been possible. Many credit me with the success. I refute that completely.

What Annikki and I did was enjoy ourselves connecting people who desperately wanted to be connected. Now they have established their connections, they can continue with this way or they can use the direct channels.

So, as was suggested by some, we can the of our Google Group to do something worthwhile for our communities. I will, over the next few weeks, try to highlight some of the important projects that could merit our support. Some are being done by members of our Google Group, others by members of our School or College, and yet others by persons not connected to either but friends who need to be supported in their efforts.

After the Tuesday Parsee dinner, both Annikki and I suffered total burnout. I managed to meet a young boy, my cousin's son, Aanad Katakam, and have lunch with him on the Wednesday. This youngster is so fascinating and so alive, it brought back much of the youth in me. He is interested in everything . T is the sign of greatness. He could talk to a 66 year old with such confidence and be interested in what I had to say. A mark of the greatness that lies ahead of him.

On Thursday, I went to Chembur to meet Abhijit, who had done the catering and decoration for "The Evening with the Findians". I thanked him for the wonderful flavour he brought into our lives. But on the way there and back i was virtually gassed out of existence. The pollution in Mumbai is so overpowering, I really wonder how one can live in this. Coming from a country where the air is clean and fresh, 365 days a year, this sort of throttled me to a stop. I got home and slept from around midday till the next morning.

Friday I was still tottering, but I stayed away from food and tried to stay close to home, but I had to meet Malathi halfway. She came in from Powai and I went to Bandra Gymkhanna. We spent a couple of hours talking about the past and the future.

While at the Gymkhanna I watched the kids on the tennis courts in what was a coaching session. How different coaching sessions here are compared to in Finland. In Finland, the first emphasis is on physical fitness followed by increase of flexibility and mobility. Then comes a more focused training in the sport of interest. So jogging, muscle activation, etc. are the key aspects of a training session. Hitting the ball would be the last stage of the process.

In a one hour training session, the first 10 minutes is the warm up, the next 15 minutes is the physical fitness part of the training, the next 2o minutes would be the training in the sport, the next 10 minutes would be fun time, and the final 5 minutes would be the warm down.

Maybe I should see some more training sessions before I make generalised comments about training in India vis-a-vis Finland.

I feel well enough to venture out today, so stay tuned for more from the blog.

On to the last day of the 59er Golden Reunion

(Special note: Let there be no mistake, but most of the good pictures I am uploading are by our photography ace - 59er Hasnain Chinwala (Chinnie). It is not any of my expertise. A couple of others have sent me photographs as 64er Rajiv Ved. That is why my blogs remain popular as the inputs are from across the board of my readers. A special thanks to them as they are my co-authors!)

The staff who joined us. Willie planned to be here for our reunion
3 years ahead of the date! John planned his trip to coincide with this.

17th November, and the last day of the Golden Reunion was ahead of me. Chinnie sent me this picture.


Some of the stragglers of the group at Alibaugh at Madhu Kapur's home.

A beautiful picture through Hasnain's camera, taken by the professional cameraman on the spot, of some of those who had stayed on late afternoon at Madhu's home. This scene has brought tears to Annikki and my eyes. Meera, Vijay's wife, brought in Mika for this photograph and he had joined us, willingly.

On the morning of the 17th, I had agreed to meet a childhood friend, Ravi Arapurakal, formerly known as Ravi Abraham. (Thanks to 59er Geeta for putting us in touch.)

We had not met for 51 years. We had played "Cowboys and Indians" and "bang bang" in the compound of the Meher Mansion building (Cooperage Road) as kids and more sedate gamesin his home opposite Dhanraj Mahal, a building I believe which caught fire and has never been rebuilt.

Ravi came over to the Malayala Manorama Guest House. It was just like yesterday as we caught up on our past years. We talked non-stop as we probed each other for the most important events in our lives - our work, our marriages, our children and our roots. Although we are not related, we found that our association by marriage had become stronger over the years, although I had not been aware of it. My nephew, Joseph, son of my cousin, Somakochamma (Mrs. G. K. O. Philips) was married to the daughter of Ravi's sister-in-law. (I hope I have got this right, as we did go through a lot of relationships.)

As Annikki had had a late breakfast, and the delicious Parsi dinner was not far away, Ravi and I adjourned to the Chinese Restaurant in Kemps Corner. I devoured my favourite, a large dish of noodle soup, while Ravi had his favourites, including Chilli Chicken.

Two hours passed by as if it was just 20 minutes. I was to have renewed this old friendship. Ravi is in a fascinating area of work, and hopefully I will be able to use what he taught me in those few hours to make my life better. Thank you Ravi.

Back to the house.

By 20:30 we were at Piloo's mansion for what was the last event of our reunion. A few had left - Viney for Papua New Guinea, Vijay for Delhi, Noel for Pune, but the major lot of my classmates were still there for this event hosted by Piloo, Armeane and his wife Mary and by Adi and Ratan. It was a sit down dinner to be served on banana leaves and it was being prepared by the best Parsi caterer in Mumbai.

I had several soft drinks - Lychee Juice, Orange Juice, Sprites, while some of our friends stayed on course with the hard stuff. Many did not, and the evening was filled with our merriment, not in the least bit alcohol induced.

There was an air of sadness about us as we all knew that in a few hours we would all be going our separate ways. Friendships had been recemented and new ones forged, especially between the girls and boys and among the spouses.

Shivi gave the final farewell toast which I reproduce below:

Good evening.

I will take the suggestion of George Burns who said -- "The secret of a good speech is a good beginning and a good ending and to make the two as close together as possible!"

It is impossible to single out any one person for making our Golden Reunion a Reality and such a great Success. We owe it to each and everyone of you present or not, to your spouses and to your indomitable Cathedral Class of 59 spirit --- May it Rip, May it Thunder!

We have set a huge precedent by our Mother of ALL Reunions -- A Class Act! On your behalf I would like to thank our hosts for the many spectacular events. They came forward spontaneously and generously to make each one unique & a thumping success!

Could we ever forget ---

The curtain raiser cocktail dinner by Ooky Elias & Rivca and Viney and Poornima Sethi, held at the Bombay Gymkhana? Despite rain and cyclone warnings they set the pace by their warmth for the events to follow.

The Elvis Theme dinner-dance creatively set up by Meera and Vijay Nayar which set us rocking under the stars?

The Findian Evening, a treat of delectable south indian dishes by Annikki and Jacob Matthan?

The Founders' Day Church Service so dignified and beautifully orchestrated by our School which was a poignant reminder of our youth?

The Alibaug cocktail lunch at the state of art Kapur Bungalow, perched atop a hill overlooking the whole of Alibaug, which was inaugurated in our honour and in our presence by Madhu Kapur?

The regal Ruia House set in the middle of gardens and fountains where Ashok, Anil & Amla Ruia regaled us with music, games & an amazing 48 varieties of veggie dishes at their dinner?

And finally this fabulous 'Seaside' setting for our grand finale sit down dinner by Piloo, Armeane & Mary Choksey?

In the years to come, we will, I am sure, recall with the greatest pleasure these wonderful moments which took our breath away! Could you please raise your glasses and toast them!

Thank you."

Ooky was more direct in singling out a few others and focusing on me in particular as the one who had brought everyone together by my perseverence, and Shivi and Piloo for keeping this reunion focused and of a quality which will never be matched.

I had to respond to tell the assembled gathering, that although I was the conduit to this reunion, many others, like Hasnain Chinwala, Percy & Frainy Mistri, Viney and Purnima, and many others from other classes had helped with their inputs.

A delicious dinner, which was everything traditional Parsi, with some really wonderful vegetarian dishes to boot. The chicken and fish dishes were just as I had always known them, showing me that the quality of Parsi traditions had been preserved over the last 50 years.

I was greatly saddened that Mary, Armeane's wife, was indisposed and not able to be thanked by us personally for her participation and her hosting of this event.

Many of those who had not sent in material for our book, now seeing that they would be the losers, had rushed home and prepared short write ups and also come armed with photographs. Thanks guys and gals - you know who you are! :-)

And then it was time to leave (as described by Annikki) this paliatial Tata home in the centre of Mumbai, (much like the two palaces at Alibaug) and return to our little "mouse holes" with beautiful memories to take back to our cubicles.

Before I left, I talked with Amla Ruia about the wonderful work she was doing with the villagers. She was ready to ring her local representative in Rajasthan, then and there, at midnight, to allow me to see the work. But the better counsel of her husband, Ashok, prevailed . She promised to be in touch with me in the morning.

Sure enough by 07:30 am I received a text message from her with the phone number of her manager, Bhupendra. Amla had already spoken to him before I could ring.

I am excited that I will see earth shattering work that Amla has performed in Rajasthan. I hope I can spread the message after witnessing it myself what success she has achieved and show her passion and commitment to her cause, which is also my cause, even though I am 7000 km away. If we do not act, and act quickly, there will be a continuing of the chaos and the demise of all around us.

I went to bed that night, happy with the achievements from my work of the last 14 years which had culminated in 7 nights of sheer joy. I slept well knowing that I had a lot on my plate during the next few days before I left for Ahmedabad. It was work I would enjoy doing.

Thank you 59ers for all the joy you have brought to our lives. I rested in peace, knowing that my dear friend, the late 59er Bala Parasuraman, would have enjoyed this and I would record this success in his name.

A day without excitement

On Monday, after a brunch at 59er Viney and 61er Purnima Sethi's place, we set out for Mumbai at around 11 am. When we approached Panvel, I got the shock of my life as this one restaurant wayside village was now a high rise city with the new International Mumbai Airport being constructed at its perimeter.

In the 1970, Thomas Abraham of Southern Investments and also head of the SI Construction company had written a fascinating book about how the cities should be planned. He had created a financially self generating model and also looked at the structure of the city in relation to the different age groups that would inhabit a growing metropolis. Based on this, we had prepared a joint paper called "Rural Urbanisation" which took into account maximisation of the use of the resources and the economics of such a venture.

After the seed capital, Abraham's model was that urbanisation would be financially self generating. But the structure of the development HAD to be controlled.

In today's context only the worst of Abraham's model is in place in that it is self financing but the growth is unplanned and the new metropolises are slums even before the first building is set up.

The skyline at Panvel is proof of this.

We managed to get into Mumbai without too much hassle as the driver knew the routes where the traffic was minimal.

After a rest, I went to see Cathedralite 56er, Shyam Chainani, Honary Secretary of the Bombay Environmental Action Group. It was fascinating to see him work in his childhood home (where his father Chief Justice Chainani had lived) which he has converted into his office hub. He is inundated with material and he is working on several fronts. I wished I could help him as all the causes he is working for are noble ones, but it requires physical presence in Mumbai, or India, to be of service to Shyam.

If any of you are action oriented, please do meet up with Shyam and do what needs to be done. India, and especially the larger cities in India will surely collapse under this unrestricted and unplanned growth now in progress. Already, Bangalore, as a city, is grinding to a halt while all those software engineers sit in their ivory towers oblivious of how they are the one's responsible for this chaos. While their bosses rake in the money, these youngsters labour under the illusion that they are contributing to India's growth, little realising that each one of them is part of the problem.

Dinner, that evening, was with one of my dearest of friends, 56er Ubi and his wife, Bubbles. Also present were 49er Yezad Kapadia from Delhi and his brother, 56er Sorab and his wife. 56er Meena and her husband, Vikram Bhatt, 59ers Harmo, Hasnain, and Shivi and his 61er wife, Suchita, were also part of the guests along with Ubi's youngest sister, Dimple.

It was an interesting evening where all topics under the sun concerning our Alma mater were discussed threadbare. Annikki and I came out "educated" by our peers.

We all agreed that the present Alumni Dinner on Founders' Day has to be changed in format if it is going to be an event worth attending. If it retains its present format with no structure and 750+ attendees, no purpose will be achieved. I certainly would not like to take part in chaos!

Monday was, therefore, a day of relaxation and wonderful food dished up by Ubi and Bubbles.

Politician or bureaucrat

In an article which appeared in Emirates Business, my former Stephanian colleague, Mani Shanker Aiyar, says that "bureaucrats make very poor politicians".

May I disagree and say that "bureaucrats make very dangerous politicians" as would be the example of Matti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, who bureaucratically engineered his whole political career and after with the grip of a bureaucrat.

Ahtisaari travelled the world at his taxpayers expense, working to one goal. He then weedled his way to a Nobel Prize. He is now scheming to get one of the top European posts, President or Prime Minister.

I say "Beware of a bureaucrat with political ambitions!"

A sabbath day

First, I must share with you the picture taken by Hasnain at the Church of those 59ers who came ON TIME for the photo session.



Annikki will get very angry with the title, as to her the only Sabbath is Saturday! However, I am using it metaphorically, as I could not blog on Sunday because at Alibagh i did not have access to internet.

Mika, Annikki and I chose to go by car. For Mika to step onto the ferry would have been very difficult. We left at 08:30 and reached Alibagh at 11:15, well ahead of the guys and gals on the ferry. We went to Viney's place, where he and Purnima had moved his mother and sister to town to allow us to stay in their home.

Annikki and I fell in love with their home.

Our first event of Sunday was at the home of Madhu Kapur. What a heavenly place, so futuristic that only our Ashok could have dreamt of a house like this one. All our thoughts were of our dearest friend. All of us could feel his presence amongst us.



The infinity pool had my hair standing on end. The bathtub on the verandah in the bedroom was outrageous! The snacks and the food were simply ravishing. It was great to meet Ashok's daughter and her husband and Ashok's son and his wife.

Madhu was a perfect hostess, aided by Suchita and Shivi and Ashok's two children and their spouses. They had all struggled to get the place ready for our get together.

We especially remembered Pamela in London who was celebrating her birthday on this day.

After the lunch and a short rest, we went to the Sai Inn Resort, where many of our colleagues were staying. We had a session where everyone had a chance of introducing themselves. Some of the info was fascinating. How I wished people had sent in this info to Annikki to include in the Coffee Table Book.

Back home to change and then to the Ruia's place for our second major Alibagh event. Another outstandingly beautiful home and beautiful garden, with a lovely lawn and an open air dance floor.

Amla, Ashok and Anil, had done everything themselves along with their team of helpers. All in house! My thoughts here went out especially to Anil, who must have been wishing that his dearly beloved, Madhu, could have been with us.

I saw Amla individually supervise every small detail. What a lady. All the time, even under the greatest of pressure, she looked as cool as a cucumber. She reminded me so much of my late mother, who, even when the world was crumbling around her, would never get flustered. Ashok has been blessed with a wonderful partner.

The evening was great entertainment and fantastic food. Each snack and dish was labelled after a participant - a very novel idea - but just imagine - over 50 different dishes.

The atmosphere was unique as a special Master of Ceremonies kept the evening buzzing with games and music. Ashok had organised for everyone to have their photograph taken and a framed copy with the event to be prepared on the spot.

Jangoo gets a head massage while Robert waits his turn
and Armeane is getting in line!

There was a massage room where many were able to enjoy a foot or head massage by experts. What organisation! No wonder Phoenix High Street is such a success!

The new house and garden are a spectacle. There is a meditation room for as many as a thousand people. A garden unique in itself. Beauty unsurpassed, as we imagined how wonderful this would be when it was completed.

After a superb vegetarian meal followed by a sheaf of deserts, it was sadly time to draw things to a close. We returned, all, to our respective places for the night and ready for another day of comradeship.

What glorious reunion it has been, and one hoped that it would never end.