Kandathils, Stephanians - Hip Hip Hurrah

The President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, has conferred on Mammen Mathew (Kandathil, Stephanian, commonly known to all of us as Rajen, Rajenchayan) the PADMA SHREE Award. This important news was announced on Republic Day at New Delhi. This award has made it a record for any one family in Independent India (see below). 

Rajen gets the Padma Shri award from Abdul Kalam

 

Rajen, former US President Bill Clinton and former Indian President Shri K. R. Narayanan

Besides being my dear and constant companion when we were together in St Stephen's College, Delhi, Rajen was also very dear to both Annikki and me when he came to England. It was Rajen and his friends who campaigned for me and made history in the college by getting a second year student elected to the post of JCR President of the College. Together we made the JCR from a dumb unloving unfriendly place into one of the most liveliest places to hang out in.

Later, I was one who was involved in giving him the courage to choose his life partner, Prema!! I still remember him sweating away in the car when he went to see his to-be for the first time!! He ran through more than a few of my handkerchiefs and hand towels at that time!!

Rajen, with another outstanding Stephanian classmate, architect Ramu Katakam, who is also now a member of the Kandathil family by marriage, hitch-hiked across the globe from India to London to land at my doorstep in the mid 1960's. Both were going places, and Rajen has shown us the way to the top.

I must mention the other two of the four Stephanian musketeers of Rajen’s year, Azhar Siddique, who went into hotel management and made a great name for himself in that field, and Suresh Mehra, who runs one of the finest garment export houses from Hyderabad.

Rajen studied journalism on the job at Bristol in Wales and then in the USA. In 2002 he received the rare honour of being appointed as a Reuters Trustee, the first Indian to be appointed to this position. He has been the Chairman of the Indian Section of the Commonwealth Press Union, President of the Indian Newspaper Society, and the Editors Guild of India, and has also been on the Press Council of India.

Today, he is the guiding spirit of the Malayala Manorama Newspapers Group, India's most outstanding newspaper and magazine publishing centre, founded by our greatgranduncle, Kandathil Varghese Mappillai, given shape by our grandfather K. C. Mammen Mappillai and then guided in turn by the late K. M. Cherian and then K. M. Mathew, till Rajen took the helm.

Rajen is assisted by his two younger brother, both professionals, Philip Mathew (Thambi), also a Stephanian and father of 2 Stephanians, Amit and Riyad, and Jacob Mathew (Chacko), sadly not a Stephanian but the father of one, Harsha.

Rajen's daughter-in-law, Miriam (Anu) Mathew (née Paul) was an outstanding Stephanian and a leading executive in a US bank till she returned to India to take the helm of Manorama Online. Her husband Jayant, is also in the newspaper business and a student of our leading Stephanian friend, Sreenath Sreenivasan, Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and an expert on convergence journalism.

The other Award Winners in our family:

1. The late Mr. K. M. Cherian (Chetpetappachen) - first awarded the Padma Shree and the later he was given the Padma Bhushan. Our dear cousins, Dr. K. C. Mammen (Bapukuttychayan), one of India’s leading paediatricians and Mrs. P. V. Jacob (Sarasukochamma) are Chetpetappachen’s surviving children.
2. Mr. K. M. Philip (Peelukuttychayan, Pappa) was give the Padma Shree three ago back. He was the World President of the Y. M. C. A. after many years of outstanding and honorary service in the Indian Y. M. C. A. At the age of 92, he is still physically and mentally fully active and still takes part in many business functions. His wife, Chinammakochamma is also fully active at the age of 85. She was the leading light of the Mumbai Y. W. C. A. for many many years. A dearer lady so full of fun and laughter one will not find on this earth. His two children are Sen Philip and Dr. Peter Philip (Suresh, a fellow Stephanian of my era, an outstanding economist, the business brain behind the launch of the FIRST Kooler Talk, classmate of such leading Stephanians as Sayeed Rizvi, Sarwar Lateef, Zaffar Hai).
3. Mr. K. M. Mathew (Mathukuttychayan, Rajen's father) was given the Padma Bhushan, nearly a decade ago. His wife, the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew (Annammakochamma), who passed away in 2003, surpassed all what her husband and her children have done in her service to the women and children of India. His daughter, Thangam, Rajen’s sister is the mother of 2 Stephanians, Adit and Rohan. (See above for details of his sons - Rajen, Thambi and Chacko.)
4. The late Mr. K. M. Mammen Mappillai (Kochappachen), half a decade before he died in 2003. His wife, Kunjukochamma is a hostess extraordinaire, a person who has made any person entering over the doorstep feel as one of the family. Kochappachen, aided by his six brothers (Cherian, Oommen, Eapen, Varghese Mappillai, Philip and Mathew) and one sister (Mariam, my late mother ) and the sister-in-law of their deceased brother, (Mrs. K. M. Jacob, Pallammachi), built the MRF tyre company by their sense of unity and devotion to one another as well as the entire Syrian Christian Malayali Community. Kochappachen was physically assisted by his wife’s brother, now retired Technical Director of MRF, Kurian George (Georgie, my dear friend in Chennai who keeps me abreast of all the best news from India these days) and technically, mentally and morally assisted by my late father (Kuriyan Matthan). MRF was stabilised and brought forward as India’s leading tyre company by his son, the late Ravi Mammen, and is now run in the family tradition of professional management by his two surviving sons, Vinoo and Arun. Vinoo is the father of 2 Stephanians, Samir and Rahul. His only daughter, Remani is an outstanding artist running her own creative art design company.

It is important to mention Mr. M. K. Mathulla, founder of H.M.T. and a die hard Kandathil, got a Padma Shree some 20 years ago.

In this tribute of honour to Kandathils, I must also say a fond farewell to a dear friend, also a Kandathil, Mr. K. C. Mathulla, who died in Mumbai on 28th January 2005, my wedding anniversary. Mathullapapachayan, as I knew him, had been one who had been of greatest strength to me. When I arrived in India with a "foreign" wife, it was he who, with his Mauritian wife, the late Gabbykochamma, gave me the most practical advice on how to live in India. Besides that, it was he who took me to a leading homeopath and cured me completely of sinusitis, a terrible scourge that I had suffered for many years. It was he who cured Annikki of her acute tonsillitis, again with homeopathy through a well known homeopath in Bandra, Mumbai.

May his soul rest in peace.

Sadly, he had no issue. His dear wife, Gabbykochamma, who suffered from painful arthritis for many many years, left for her heavenly abode to await resurrection several years ago. I will remember this humble and great man, who was dear cousin and friend to my mother and a wonderful uncle and mentor to me, in my daily prayers forever.

Do you wiggle your toes?

I do. And probably that is the reason I am reasonably trim except for that unhealthy paunch!!

"People who cannot sit still for more than a few minutes provide a clue to keeping slim and trim, a US study says."

A report in BBC entitled "Fidget off the fat, research says" says that fidgeters keep trimmer than those who do not fidget.

And it is not easy to learn how to fidget.

So if you see any of your kids or grandkids fidgeting - don't stop them!!

The reason I wiggle my toes is that I suffered from frostbite when my strong winter shoes cracked across the sole when I was on a long distance hike in the dead cold of a bad winter. It seemed to lead to a sort of dead sensation which I did not connect with that event. Tests at the local University Research Hospital did not reveal the reason for this strange sensation. (Which was strange as there are hundreds of cases of frostbite every year in our town.)

When I was in India a few years ago, as usual I went for my Executive Health Check-up at a hospital in Madras. I mentioned my strange sensation to the doctor.

The doctor narrated to me a sad tale of a leading Indian actor who was filming in the Himalayan snows and suffered a severe case of a frozen leg. Not knowing how to handle a frozen leg, his helpers dumped his leg into boiling hot water, leading to serious consequences.

The doctor mentioned that the sensation I described was sort of similar to what he had seen from that case. At that time I was able to put two and two together and I came to the conclusion that my sensation was due to frostbite. I had been scared that what I was feeling was a prelude to Parkinsons Disease as many members of my close family have suffered this fate.

So ever since then I have been wiggling my toes to keep the muscles on my feet loose. It has helped, except that my dear wife gets annoyed when I wiggle them for 15 minutes at 4 am when I wake up and before I get out of bed, and she is trying to get to sleep!!

Now I have a good excuse to keep wiggling my toes.

And finally, many many thanks to all those who emailed me yesterday on our celebrating our wedding anniversary. We had a great day (including quality time at the flea market and with the grandkids and an extended call from ourgranddaughter in Lincoln, England) followed by an absolutely heavenly Greek Cypriot meal at my Cypriot friend's restaurant, so large in portions that Annikki could not get through all of hers. Obviously fidgeting had increased my appetite as I had no problem with finishing mine!!

What a GLORIOUS day!!

Today, January 28th 2005, is truly a Glorious Day.

It is 38 years since Annikki and I got married in a small beautiful English town called Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

Sadly, we are barred from visiting that town by our local friends. When we visited there the last time, about 14 years ago, as we drove into the town, it was hit by an earthquake!! :-)

As my mother used to say, if I had been married to an Indian, I would have been thrown out on the streets a long long time ago. Annikki deserves that cup the my father used to say was his trophy for having been married to Ammachi for all their years together!!

And here is a recent photograph of us with 2 of our 3 grandchildren . Asha and Samu.



Annikki's mother is in her interval care in the Old People's Home. Mika is also at his 3 day a month interval care.

We were able to sleep late. We are looking forward to a day of shopping - Annikki as usual at the fleamarket, while I potter around a few shops - looking for nothing particular in mind as I have everything I need. After that we will choose to dine at some restaurant, one of the vast array of friends' restuarants to choose from - Chinese, Thai, Indian, Turkish, Greek, Mexican and, of course, Finnish. Depends on what we feel like in the evening. Maybe not Turkish, as we did that last year and maybe not Chinese as we did that the year before!!

Many thanks to all the rest of you who remembered us through emails on this great day.

As we enjoy another honeymoon year, it is on to the 39th!!!

Vinay is 61, Geordy arrives in Oulu

Cathedralite 59ers - let us wish Vinay (Dabholkar) a very happy birthday. I have sent him a card from all of us. Vinay was the most outstanding student of our class - fighting for first place with Wabhir Zayani. He was good in all the subjects, not just in Maths or English or Geography. If I am not wrong he was also the youngest in our class!! Although not an active sportsman, he always had a keen interest in sports and knew who was doing what on the sports field. Vinay's home was in Horniman Circle and I used to go there on Satuday mornings, ostensibly to study Marathi. We got past the alphabet every week, after which it was cops and robbers!!

Keralites, I welcome Geordy George of Deepika International to our home town here, Oulu.

Deepika is, like Malayala Manorama, an old-established (118 years) and leading newspaper from Kerala.

Geordy and a couple of others, one from Bangalore and another from Punjab, are here to visit Nokia's Technical Documentation Centre.

No doubt we will meet up in a couple of days and spend a few hours chit-chatting, while I get a chance to use my Malayalam (a bit rusty at the moment).

At this link you can read more about Deepika Global

I am up a bit early because...

Yesterday, Sunday, was a busy day.

There was an afternoon meeting of the English Club of Oulu to discuss the 70 year celebrations to be held in October of this year. Annikki and I were two of the first to become Life Members of this Club. Annikki had a stint as Chairperson running the Club in the 80's (after having been the kindergarten teacher for the Club) when she was one of the most active ever. Lunch, on the house, was the very traditional Salmon Soup, rather a filling and delicious Finnish preparation.

As soon as I got home, Annikki informed me that there had been a call from the Oulu Railway Station as a new but dear friend from WIPRO who was passing through. I caught up with Abey Thomas from Kerala / Bangalore and 3 of his colleagues, one from Trivandrum, the second from Bangalore and the third from Mumbai at our favourite eating haunt on Oulu, Michelle's Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant - Michelle being from Calcutta. Unfortunately, Michelle is holidaying in India with her three kids, so the food was only second best.

I picked up a meal for Joanna, Tony and Samuel, as Joanna has been suffering a nasty bout of tonsilitis and little baby Daniel has a bad chest. While they enjoyed their meal, I had the privilege of walking around with my 8 month old grandson.

Got home to find Annikki had cooked a delicious chicken curry and made her own speciality India roti, which is cross between a tandoori nan and a paratha.

Off to bed after a couple of chats on Skype with friends and up again now at 2 am for another exciting week.

However, the reason I am blogging so early is because today is the 17th anniversary when my very dearest cousin, K. C. Mammen (Kunjumonchayan) of Bangalore passed away. Those of you who did not have the opportunity of knowing Kunjumonchayan, he was the most loving affectionate person on this planet. Having lost his father, K. M. Jacob (Chackochayan), from whom I got my name, and one brother (Anian) when very young, he lost his second brother, Roy, in the mid sixties, also at a young age.

To me, Kunjumocnchayan was more than just a cousin, or even an elder brother. Once, when I had a difference of opinion with my father, it was Kunjumonchayan who diplomatically ironed out our problems!!

When I was living in Bombay, he came to gain work experience and stayed at the YMCA which was behind our house. He used to be over for the Sunday meal at our home, which was also huis home. In the meanwhile, I used to run over and meet up with him in his room almost every other day. He was always fun and games and forever smiling and happy. There was never a care in the world if you were with Kunjumonchayan!!

I often wonder why God takes away the people who provide so much joy to all around them so early in their life. I think of his dear mother, Palammachi, who has over the last 63 years seen her husband and then her three children taken away from her. My heart bleeds for her. However, at the age of 86, she is blessed with a wonderful daughter-in-law, three lovely grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, all of whom are in my mind every single day as I remember my dearest cousin of all who is no more but lives in my heart every hour of the day.

Snowpeople 2005 by Annikki

I had sent out an email with an attachment, but unfortunately the attachment did not arrive and the download link was broken.

I am posting here the photograph for your viewing on the blog.

You have two snowpeople, a snowman and a snowgirl, holding hands. They are carrying lanterns. The snowman is waving his hand.

They are standing in front of the ice-covered pond and Annikki's mother can see them as she sits in her regular chair in the kitchen.

Some Birthdays Today

Today is the birthday of my very good internet friend who keeps me up-to-date with what is happening in India - Georgie.

Our relationship goes a long way back as he used to be an inmate in St. Joseph's College Hostel on Lalbagh Road, Bangalore, in the early 50's, when our home was across the road from the hostel. I used to be a frequent visitor to the hostel as I had made many friends there. At the tender age of 9 -11, I used to be scorer for the College cricket team and a good friend of L. T. Subba who later played for Mysore in the Ranji Trophy Tournament. I learnt to be a hockey goalkeeper from my friend Abraham Tharakan, the St. Joseph's College goalkeeper, which gave me the grounding to become school and college goalkeeper later in life. Above all, I got permission to fly my kites on the large hostel playing fields.

Recently, another hostel inmate of that time, Atul Shenoy, a Mumbai Cathedralite, also remembered this little fellow who used to haunt the college corridors and have Masala Dosais in the hostel canteen!! I was in the process of tracking down Atul's brother, Arun. Glad to say that Arun was tracked down and was able to attend the 50 year reunion of their Cathedral Class of 1954 in November 2004!!

Georgie had a very busy life when he was in MRF. Besides regularly seeing him at Kochappachen's (the late K. M. Mammen Mappillai) home, I used to meet up with him infrequently at some Rotary Club meetings when I had to make up my attendance!!

Now that he has retired from his position as Technical Director of MRF, a post he filled so admirably for many a decade, it is nice to see him lounging on the internet and to share news and views with me.

By co-incidence, when Yakub P. Mathew discovered me a few days ago when I had made a post about the interview with my Stephanian friend Kamalesh Sharma on BBC Hard Talk (see below), he mentioned that Georgie had visited him in New York last year. It is indeed a small world.

I hope all of you will join me in wishing Georgie a very very happy birthday and many many more to come. Unfortunately I do not have a recent picture of Georgie to share with you.

Another relative who has her birthday today is Ammu. Chacko and Ammu are one of the few relatives who have taken the trouble to visit us in Oulu. Here is a picture of of the birthday girl from my image files.

The Jacob Mathews, 1999
Happy birthday Ammu from both Annikki and myself - I won't reveal your age as the police may accuse your husband of cradle snatching!!

Proud to be a Stephanian

BBC Hard Talk on BBC World on Thursday 13th January 2005 featured the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, none other than my good friend and Stephanian colleague, Kamalesh Sharma. Kamalesh had just gone into the MA course when I joined as a fresher in 1960.

On my very first night in college, there was a knock at my window after dinner. It was a time when all us freshers were living in fear of who would catch us to rag us. But for the rest of this story kindly visit

Katy Issue 7 14th July 1996.

Kamlesh had previously been the Indian representative at the United Nations, where he had faced some tough interviews, and one on them was on BBC World Service Radio. It was after this that I was able to re-establish contact with my old friend.

Kamlesh stood up as a true diplomat when faced with the aggressive questioning on Hard Talk.The whole objective of the interviewer was to question why India had rejected to receive Aid from the developed world and seemed to be focused on "India's pride" and the "desire of India to be a superpower in the region". Some of the questioning, as is usually the case in Hard Talk, bordered on the ridiculous!!

I was impressed by how Kamalesh stood up and in a quiet and gentle manner brought the aggresson down in a manner which made the interviewer look quite ridiculous with her one track mind. His Stephanianness stood out above all!!

You will be able to download and see the interview in a day or so from the

Hard Talk Web Site.

It is not yet on the web but should be in a day or two.

Well done Kamalesh!!

Tragedy of the Tsunami - Our deepest concerns

An Open Letter

Dear President & Prime Minister of India,

My wife and I share with you and all the people of the region the grief that is in many homes, and among the many homeless, these days, as the effect of the Tsunami tragedy unfolds here on an hour by hour basis.

Today, we, in Finland, also mourn around 263 of this countries nationals who appear to have been engulfed in this horrific wave. To see over 120,000 people of the world die in this tragedy and many millions more in dire situations, breaks our heart, mainly as we realise our helplessness.

It appears that none of our immediate family was lost in this event. But many dear friends still appear unaccounted for. We hope and pray that they are safe and well.

What concerns us more, however, is the news that India would be joining with the US Government in organising the relief efforts in the region. That is of greatest worry to us.

As you are aware the US Government has been part of an “illegal” war in Iraq where many hundred thousand people are being done to death, even as we write this to you.

No less a person than the most respected Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, has declared that the war on Iraq is illegal.

Also, in a effort to control the region, the US Administration have wiped out the indigenous law and industry in Iraq, and also given numerous no-bid contracts to their favoured companies, such as Bechtel, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, to name just a few.

The rape of a tortured nation continues despite the human tragedy of that region.

For the Indian Government to be associated with a criminal Administration in such a massive relief operation associated with the Tsunami, would cast the Indian Government in the eyes of the world in a very bad light.

May we urge you that the original stance taken by your Government that the Indian Relief effort could and would be managed by itself without any association with outside Governments, would be upheld.

May we bring to your attention that the US Administration is very anxious to get information about the strategic defence organisation in the crucial Vishakapatnam - Port Blair axis, and any relief effort with the involvement of the US Administration will be to compromise the defence capabilities of your and our nation.

We all know that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condeleeza Rice, and many others in the US Administration, past and to be installed, have provided false statements in many public fora, including the UN.

It is our greatest concern that you will safe-guard the Indian nation from playing into the hands of this neo-con right wing Christian religious fundamentalist group whose only objective appears to be to establish their foothold, by means fair and foul, in the South Asia region.

Being Christians ourselves, with the family traditions of the late doyens of Kerala, K. C. Mammen Mappillai and Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan of Mysore, and Padma Bushans, the late K. M. Cherian, K. M. Philip and K. M. Mathew, and Padma Shri the late K. M. Mammen Mappillai, makes this even more nauseating as this American Christian fundamentalist group only poses to be Christian as they further their personal agenda.

May we repeat our deepest condolences to all the people of India who have been affected by this tragedy.

As the old year ends and the New Year dawns, we hope that the region will be blessed with peace and calm as it rebuilds itself from this horrific calamity.


Yours sincerely

Annikki and Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

Some Cathedralite / Stephanian News

Willie (Cathedral Physics Teacher 50s & 60s) in Canada has just updated me on some Cathedralite / Stephanian news.

He has only received a one sentence input of this year's Founders Day in Mumbai. Hasnain (59er) is travelling in India, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Will someone feed me with info.

Roshni, (wife of Stephanian Raj who is the son of former Prinipal Sircar of my era in Stephen's), who is also the aunt of my sister-in-law, is back in Canada after a holiday in Bangalore. Willie does say that Bangalore has become over-populated and polluted and as a possible result, Roshni was ill with bronchial trouble. I am fully in agreement with that statement about Bangalore judging from my last visit there a few years ago.

Willie and Pushpa are off for a 10 day, 6 island, cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. Hope both of you have a great holiday.

Ilari starts his own blog

Ilari Sohlo was a very wonderful and critical analyst who used to have his sharp columns in Finnish and English to our fortnightly web magazine "Findians Briefings". He was one of the contributors who pushed up our web hit figures amogst the younth audience world-wide.

I have just read through his first blog entry. I welcome him to the wonderful world of blogging where he will do far more justice than just a fortnightly column in a web magazine. Expect a hard-hitting blog on a variety of issues from him!!

Presently he is in Hungary but will embark on a trip to India in a few weeks. There should be an interesting travelogue blog coming out of here. His blog is available at

http://goingsohlo.blogspot.com/

Ilari and his partner, Ildiko Hamos, are the authors of new book about Finland, which will be published, in German, in a few weeks. It contains great photographs from this beautiful country.

Report that Finland tops global school table

BBC is just reporting that Finland tops global school table.

The article says that Finland's CLAIM to have the best school system was reinforced by the latest international comparisons. The results are from just 40 countries and it is a reflection of maths and reading abilities and it consists of an appraisal of 15 year olds.

Having been married to a Finn for the last 38 years, had four of our children pass through various stages of the Finnish school system (after their earlier education through the Indian system) and one through the Finnish University system (another two through the British University system), plus my own experience, having been personally educated through the Indian and British systems, and then working with University students, researchers and staff over a period of 7 years, I must strongly disagree with both the Finnish claim as well as the assessment of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Finnish reading skills are indeed excellent, but it is not because of the school system. It is part of the culture and the construction of the Finnish language, which is phonetic and develops way past any other language in the use of compound words. This helps everyone to increase their eye-grasp from the mere 5 to 10 letter words (normal to most other languages with the Roman script) to words as long as 20 and 30 characters or even more. Anyone familiar with commercially exploited speed reading systems will understand what I am talking about where it is possible to increase reading speed by over ten times with little loss in comprehension.

The maths education in Finland is highly laborious and it is quite queer as to the way that maths is taught - it does not give much to doing mental maths. It also leaves those poor in maths scarred for life. I am sure from watching my wife (a product of the early Finnish system of the 50's) to one each of my sons and daughters, products of the 80's, and now my grandson (00's), that the system is nowhere near any of the other systems that I am familiar with - English, Indian, American, French, German and even the closely related Swedish system.

However, the more realistic way of assessing the school system would be to assess the level of "education" provided. In that, the Finnish system is totally at the tail-end of the world table. My own experiences in handling Finnish students in a Finnish University, as well as in various other fora, tells me that my understanding of education just does not exist in Finland.

The Finnish kids are great at mouthing and parroting the words of the "teacher". They have little assessment skills, no debating skills, very little international skills, a large amount of "nationalism", and many more defects which expose a totally flawed schooling system.

It is many a time that I would throw in utter rubbish at my university students, and they would gobble it up as the gospel truth!! They have poor reasoning skills, and the lack of the ability to make an argument, makes them, in my humble opinion, very poor students.

Also, having edited countless articles for international conferences and scientific journals, masters and doctoral theses, over the last 20 years, I have found that the students were generally very poor in presenting their arguments. Exceptions, however, prove the rule. I had one student who finished his normal 5 year masters in less than three and completed his doctoral thesis in record time - but such examples are few and far between.

Finland is, however, the best country internationally in presenting an "image" and polishing that image that even they believe that it is the fact.

Sadly, my personal experience has been that there is a vast difference between the image created and what lies underneath - just as the claim that Finland is the least corrupt country.

My analysis and experience is that Finland is one of the the MOST CORRUPT COUNTRIES on this globe!! And, that corruption starts at the top of the political system, and runs through the judiciary and the entire legal system, the police, the bureaucrats, and right across the corporate system.

But that is another story, part of which was exposed in two of our books "Handbook for Survival in Finland" jointly authored with my wife and my own book "Seven Years Hard Labour in a Finnish Holiday Camp - A Finnish University". Both books were published a decade ago.

Visitors from South Finland

Yesterday, we had visitors from South Finland. Gopa, Sadhana's (Cathedralite 54er) daughter, her husband, Timo, and his son, Peteri. Timo's mother lives about 80 km east of Oulu and they had visited her over this long weekend, as today is a holiday - Finnish Independence Day.

We had lunch at Michelle's Chinese restaurant. Michelle is of Chinese origin but very much a Calcutta girl. The food she makes us is great. Annikki could not join us as she was busy looking after her mother, so we brought back food for Mika and her.

Tonight, most Finns will be glued to the TV as they see the parade of their dignatories at the Presidential Ball in the Palace. Ladies dress up to see who gets the best coverage, sometimes those with the least coverage, in the tabloids!! Annikki watches if she has time. I do not as they never show the foreign dignatories. They always break for the news when the Ambassadors are being welcomed by the President and her husband.

Last night, Annikki was busy with her art creations from snow and ice in the garden. They are truly outstanding. I hope I can learn to put some of those images here on the blog.

Whenever thoughts flash through my mind on any subject, I will post them on this blog. So do come and visit it when you have a few moments to spare and do post your comments.

First post in Jacob's blog

I have blogged before, but due to problems with my server in Canada, the entire set of blogs and my domain name, findians.com, have vanished with about 10,000 web pages created over the last 9 years..

In this new blog I hope to share my personal thoughts and feelings on a variety of subjects with the thousands and thousands of my friends around the world - including over 80,000 findians, my Maliyakal and Kandathil family roots, my wife's Reinikka and Räihä family roots, my alma maters - Bishop Cotton's School in Bangalore, Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay (Mumbai), St. Stephen's College of Delhi Unversity (Delhi) and the National College of Rubber Technology (now the London Metropolitan Polymer Centre in the London Metropolitan University, Holloway, London), as well as my professional life as a Polymer Researcher and Consultant and a Microelectronics Materials Specialist. I will also cover my life as Mac addict and my successful life as a web page designer.

Today is 6th December. It is the Finnish Independence Day. It is also the birthday of a dear friend who is married to my niece (daughter of my cousin), K. P. Philip, who lives in Singapore. Happy birthday Anian on your 48th birthday.

To see my very very undistinguished biodata you can make a trip to my site which I have called Polymer Technologist, Microelectronics Materials Engineer, Macintosh/Apple Addict, Innovator, Motivator, Connector, Technology Leader - JACOB MATTHAN.

Personal comments, however critical, are welcome. I am in a firm believer in the motto that only criticism can help improve a human being - and God only knows how much of my life needs improvement!!

Annikki and I are both retired now, but life is more hectic than ever, as you will realise as you share our life with us.

Welcome again to Jacob's Blog.