The first problem was to get a suitable auditorium. As the City programme for the year had already been finalised, no regular auditorium was available.
I looked around and found that if we did some adjustments, the main lecture hall L1 in Oulu University could be used. It had a capacity of around 500 - 600 seats.
Annikki and I set about the task of meeting all the right people and organising the budget.
With the cooperation of all the appropriate people we decided that we would not charge any entrance fee, because of the tax implications, and as we felt we could underwrite the expenses as the lecture room was free for me and I could get the appropriate sound system from my local friends in the business. Also I got three furnished guest room apartments in the University for them to stay.
Shovana Narayan and her troupe of 5, including her singer sister, Ranjana Narayan, a Supreme Court Advocate, arrived in Oulu. I made sure they met all the important people of Oulu when they arrived.
Shovana Narayan
Shovana Narayan is one of the outstanding classical dancers of India. For her incomparable contribution to the Kathak style of classical dance, she has been decorated with several awards, including Government of India's coveted Padmashri and Sangeet Natak Akademi awards. She has bestowed Kathak with dignity and enriched it with a deeper and wider canvas of expression and dimensions. She is at once, an explorer, a performer, a choreographer and an artiste par excellence, with values and a cause. The explorer and researcher within her have seen her author six books on Indian dance, which bespeak of intensity, depth and gravity. She has also worked closely with nationally and internationally acclaimed Indian and western dancers and musicians from various streams of art. Shovana's palette contains other media, including films and operas as well as being a dedicated guru whose disciples are creating their niche in the world of Kathak that once again bears testimony to the intensive training being imparted by her. She is also a senior serving civil servant belonging to the Indian Audits and Accounts Service (1976 batch). Married to Dr. Herbert Traxl, Austrian Ambassador, the two have a son, Erwin Ishan Traxl. Her younger sister, Ranjana Narayan, is a lawyer and a classical singer. Other books by the author: ˜Kathak: Rhythmics Echoes and Reflectioin- (Roly Publication); ˜Dance Legacy of Patliputra' (Publications Division, govt. of India); ˜Indian Theatre and Dance Traditions" (Harman Publications); ˜Performing Arts: A Policy Perspective" (Kanishka Publications); "Kathak" "A Handbook (Wisdom Tree Publication); "Indian Classical Dance" "A Handbook (Sterling Publication).
That paid dividends as the auditorium was full, as Finns turned up for the performance.
We were even able to have the University restaurant open during the intermission. We had a children’s play area for those who came with small children. We had a Red Cross facility on hand for any emergency.
The whole event was a success. It was duly reported by Kaleva.
Although the costs were minimal, we had important sponsorships in kind for the group, as we were not an official organisation, but whomsoever we asked put their hands out, generously, to help us.
Our Finnish friends took care of all the formalities so we stayed within Finnish law!
Four years of groundwork by Annikki and me amongst the community had paid off.
From there onwards, whatever we arranged were successful events, always involving the whole of Oulu, which at that time covered just under 100000 people.
Every ethnic community joined us in making this and all other events successful, fostering the multicultural attitude we were promoting.
And remember, at that time the only Indians in Oulu were my two children, aged 17 and 15, and myself!
That comfortable situation prevailed for many years as no one was seeking glory. We were all working for our communities to be integrated into Oulu society.
The performance of our friend and international superstar, Shashank Subramanyam, in August 2011 was to a packed audience in Valve in the Oulu City Centre, where the hall of 175 was filled with even people standing at the doorway to hear him play.
Shashank Subramanyam
Shashank Subramanyam (born October 14, 1978) is an accomplished flutist from India, specializing in Indian classical music. Having displayed exceptional musical talent from a young age, Shashank began performing at the age of 6 in 1984 and has continued to showcase his artistry for over three decades.
In recognition of his contributions to the arts, the Government of France honored him with the prestigious title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for the year 2022.
Shashank is also noteworthy for being the youngest recipient of the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi's senior award for the year 2017, and bestowed by the President of India at an investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
We had active participation from not only O-India Google Group (not O-India Ry, which did not exist then) participants and wonderful suggestions from the local Indians to make the event appeal to the Finnish audience.
Yrjö Mikkonen (from the Finnish music academy) and his wife, Shahnaz (Head of the organisation looking after migrants to Oulu), made sure that all the technical and organisational arrangements were perfect.
Oulu City officials cooperated with us fully as they realised an international superstar had agreed to come to Oulu.
We even had the cooperation of the airline to ensure everything was perfect with no cost to our small community.
And the cooperation of our Indian Embassy was of paramount importance, although we did not request any financial assistance as we were not a registered society at that time.
We were all working for one goal to ensure that we had a perfect performance in Oulu.
No one was working to further himself or herself.
We had an Organising Committee headed by a Finn and composed primarily of Finns, those mainly in the Oulu music business. We had the cooperation of all the media, print and radio,.
The success of the event was evident.
After that, the series of problems with my health from 2014 onwards caused Annikki and me to quietly withdraw from the organisational scene, but we continued to take part and help the organisers to conduct successful events.
But things changed!
In our post “Why we terminated our membership to O-India Ry" speaks for itself.
The doom we predicted has hit the Indian Community of Oulu faster than we thought, and it has been brought on by itself.
It was decided to bring Shashank Subramanyam again to perform in Oulu.
As we did not want to associate with O-India Ry, we opted out of taking part in the event and informed Shashank the reasons, so our absence would not be misunderstood by our friend!
After pressurising every Indian in Oulu, night and day, less than 100 Indians (out of 500) turned up for the Shashank performance. The auditorium was less than a quarter full.
And out of 180000 Finns in the Oulu region, not even 30 turned out for this show!
There was utter confusion in ticket pricing (Euro 21, 23 and 28?), and also who could or could not attend.
Finns are cost conscious and not fools. They know when one is being cheated!
And advertising in Flea Markets and in Oulu University showed total absence of sanity in the organisers.
People who go to Flea Markets go to save money!
Two Indian Oulu University students who visited us told us that they could eat pizzas for three days for that amount of money!
The poster they produced for the event was fine but how many Finns know the meaning of Raaga Murali?
Is it a common term as Classical, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rap or Rock?
This was a true case of the blind leading the blind!
Such an event flop may have destroyed all the good work that has been put in for 40 years to get our Indian Community appreciated in Oulu.
Did Kaleva or any media even cover this event, (pre- or post) of an international artist.
Shashank, an international superstar, performed to an empty hall.
I was told that the sound equipment was sub-standard or the people handling it were not able to understand the demands of this type of music.
Who takes the blame for such shambles?
Anyone of O-India Ry willing to stand up?
We noted that some were patting their own backs on social media trying to avoid telling the world the truth and what a mess they had made of this event!
These people have been ready to take glory for someone else's work but when it came to failure, everyone is running the 100 metres backwards at twice Usain Bolt's record.
In our case the behaviour of O-India Ry was criminal by the Board Members of O-India Ry. That made Annikki and me to take the drastic step of terminating our membership with immediate effect.
In the case of the Shashank performance,
O-India Ry appears to have gone a step further in possibly committing tax fraud in Oulu.
Is worse still to come?
Was it prudent on Annikki and my part
to distance ourself from O-India Ry?
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