Cricket World Cup - May thebest team win

Two fabulous catches by Sanju Samson

Being a Sanju Samson fan, I was greatly disappointed that he was not chosen in the Indian World Cup squad. He sadly has no godfather in Indian Sport!

I was also saddened that my school alumni from Bishop Cotton School, Bengaluru, Mayank Agarwal was not in the squad.

Pathetic turn out for World Cup games.

As I have already blogged, I was also very disappointed with the organisation of the first match and lack of a decent opening ceremony. As I asked is India a truly cricket loving nation?

However, as the tournament progressed, I was happy to see some excellent performances from new entrants, especially the young Afghani team. They really made a good step forward. I was taken aback by their loss against Australia when they were in the driving seat. 

There have been several reports of match fixing. I hope that it is not true as they are a great young squad and I have always been a fan of Rashid.

K. M. Mammen  (cousin Vinoo) giving the Man of the Match Award to K. L. Rahul.

My cousin, the Chairman of MRF Ltd., gave the Man of the Match to another favourite player of mine, K. L. Rahul. He did  give another such award in another game but I was slow to get my camera out.

I was disappointed with the performance of the English team especially as I am a fan of Moen Ali. Jos Butler has had a bad run right from the IPL onwards. 

The Indian team have been cruising. Harsha Bhogle, who is usually a good reader of the game,  had raised the point that it may be that the Indians have peaked too soon. This opinion was knocked down by Ravi Shastri, but I have never been a fan of Ravi Shastri, so his opinions do not matter to me. He is usually wrong!!

The players that have impressed me most are Rachin Ravindran of New Zealand, and Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada of South Africa, whose bowling run up is like a cheetah. I hope another favourite of mine, Ken Williamson, is coming back to form.

No Australian players are in my list of favourites. So I hope that South Africa gets through to the final.  I hope the better team wins in the India and New Zealand clash.

The persisting with Hardik Pandya shows that the BCCI is corrupt to persist with a player who is unfit on several grounds to play in the Indian squad. Always excuses to keep him alive in the squad.

I am sure the same situation will arise when it comes to Rishabh Pant!

The four semi-finalists have booked their places as I had expected. We hope all the teams show their fighting spirit and the best teams get through to the finals.

I will blog my opinion prior to the finals.

Martti Ahtisaari - My interaction or not?

 

Stamp of Martti Ahtisaari to be released 

in December 2023

Martti Ahtisaari was from Oulun Lyceo, where my daughter studied. He was the third Finnish President who went to  the Oulu Lyceo.

Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg

Kyösti Kallio

The others were Presidents Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg and  Kyösti Kallio

I landed in Finland in 1984. My brother-in-law, a senior Finnish  bureaucrat in the Ministry of Labour,  looked at my bio-data and wrote a letter to Martti Ahtisaari, who was also a senior bureaucrat, introducing me to Martti Ahtisaari. He asked me to address a lettter to Martti Ahtisaari, giving details of my background and explaining how I could play a role in the Finnish hierarchy. 

That was in 1984! 

I am still waiting for an acknowledgement of the communications to both these letters.

That was my first experience of how the Finnish system works.

Three reasons are given for this. 

The first is that the person is least interested in extending a hand to the request. It is just ignored as being irrelevant. 99% of the action is this behaviour.

A second reason is that Finns like to do a serious evaluation of the situation before replying aletter. This is the typical answer given when one submits a job application.

When I was explaining this to a group of German journalists who were visiting Oulu Univeristy, about why they did not get reply to their letters to Finns, I gave the benefit of the doubt to this second reason. I was severely admonished by the Dean of our Electrical Engineering Department and Vice Rector of the University for denigrating Finland when holding a senior position in the University. (Not that I cared, as I believe in telling the truth as it is.)

The third is that Finns have very poor social skills. This is best explained by an incident of one of my students who went as an exchange student to Loughborough University. He was being hosted by a Professor. 

After his first night at the Ptofessor's house, when he came down to breakfast, the Professor asked him a rhetorical question as to how he had fared through the night. The student was silent for several minutes as he was thinking how he should answer that question.

This was explained to me later when the Professor of English in Oulu University gave a talk about Social English, as Finns have little knowledge about that aspect of life.

When Ahtisaari was President, he behaved like Prime Minister Narendra Modi does today, flying at the drop of the hat to all corners of the world. 

I used to keep track of the movement of Ahtisaari on a very popular  special web page calling him the "Satellite President". 

My personal assessment at that time was that he was building a base to either become nominated as the President of Europe or to get the Nobel Prize. 

He got the latter!

Credit must be given, as he was a great negotiator. He negotiated quite extraordinary peace  deals between warring factions. 

His contribution today in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would have been priceless. 

There is no-one who has stepped into this role since.

Although I did not ever meet President Ahtisaari, I did interact with his son when I was a serving member of the Ethnic Minorities Advisory Board (ETNO) representing English speaking members of Finland..

Compulsory army service in Finland for young men was considered absolutely necessary. Those who either chose to go for a stint in social service or those who opted out of it were thought to be traitors or pariahs.

This was until in 2000, when President Ahtisaari's son opted for social service rather than to do the army service! (He served as an assistant in the Labour Ministry in serving in  handling ETNO issues.)

It then became acceptable to not join the army service, although many Finns, even today, hold that it is a non-Finnish character.

My father-in-law had to join the army and served on the frontline as a sharpshooter during the entire 1938-1944 wars between Finland and Russia and then in driving out the Germans from Finland. He had no optioin then as if you did not join you would be considered a traitor.

After the war he became a committed Christian and opted out of further service in the army. His back was riddled with grenade shrapnel which meant he could never sleep on his back.

When our daughter interviewed him as University project, he talked about his service to her, but refused to talk about his actions on the front line. He wanted desperately forget those terrinble moments.

Our elder grandson has completed a year of his compulsory army service. The second grandson is taking  a year off from and is planning to finish his army service as soon as possible.

I advised him to complete it quickly as when one gets older, it becomes increasingly difficult to respond to "stupid" commands being shouted at you by younger people in the process.

I had one of my senior researchers in Ouklu University who went for his army service when he was over 25. He had been completing his Master's degree.

Within a month, he had to quit on psychological grounds as he could not handle the brain-washing process.

Martti Ahtisaari was probably not the best Finnish President that I have served under, although he had the background of being a bureaucrat before becoming President. In my opinion, this a dangerous combination, as the use of the bureaucratic process can result in a  power hungry person misusing the Presidency.

Sauli Niinistö

I think the best Finnish President so far has been our present one, Sauli Niinistö, because he understood humanity after he and his two children escaped the tsumani in Thailand by climbing up a tree! 

Having been the Finnish President, may we say sincerely to late Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari - Rest In Peace.

 

Nelson Mandela on the Palestine/israel issue

 https://www.facebook.com/reel/1554176501987563?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V

We fully endorse late President Nelson Mandela’s views expressed in this link. 

If one changes-principles at will, such people have no right to lead ANYTHING!

The hypocrisy, lack of spine, of those leaders and people standing behind ANYONE in this conflict ONLY shows their own personal agenda. 

No one has said THIS more clearly than Nelson Mandela!

We request you to read this blog entry of ours

  “Through the eyes of an Arab Israeli..” 

which was posted on 3rd October 2007!

(Meeting with Israeli Palestinian Human Right Activist Najib Abu Rokaya)

Finnish Immigration Policy - Where is it going?

My 2001 report to the Finnish Sports Federation on tools for integration.

ThisYouTube video “The Full Story” by Johanna Kauppinen is worth watching. It handles a look at the new immigration policy.

Annikki and I will try, in a later blog, to put it into perspective of my 54 years as a foreigner of interaction with Finland.

There is much you can do in your personal life which will have  a long term impact on your acclimatisation, especially if you have children!

For instance, is putting children in an International School the correct answer?

Racism is rife in Finland. It is hidden and can be a shock if it hits you between the eyes. 

I faced it in England in 1963 and again when I moved to Finland in 1984. How did I cope with it? How have our chldrn faced it and coped wih it?

If you have any questons, do write to us to help you through the problems.

10 Richest Mineral Producing Countries of Africa

My good Somalian friend, Liiban Ismaciil (aka Lee)  sent me this video link. 

https://fb.watch/ocR06AsV7b/

Is this comedy or is it based on fact? 

These guys are funny to be taken seriously!

Can anyone put this in today’s context?

If factual:

1. Where is all this wealth vasnishing? 

2. Why are  the ordinary Africans suffering?

3. Why are African countries having to live off “loans” from World Bank and IMF?

https://fb.watch/ocO-BnLWeu/

A Blast from My Past -

 While going through my ancient files, I came across this little blue notebook with my pet name on the cover.

SUSHIL is my Indian name, a tradition started by my paternal grandfather. 

In the past, we were given our official name, in which the first was the House name that you belonged to from your father’s side. Then you added your father’s name and finally your own name.

The own name would then be made Malayali and would be used by your family and family friends. Occasionally, you also got called by a “pet” name which could be associated with your standing in society, your contribuion to society or just endearment.

My eldest maternal uncle  was the late Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian (Chetpet Appachen), . He got the name Cherian as being my grandfather's eldest son, he was given his great grandfather's name - Cherian.

Padma Bhushan is the award he was given by the Indian Government for his contribution to Indian journalism and work for Indian Independence. K stood for his family House name, Kandathil. M stood for his father's name. which was  Mammen Mappillai.

Take a look at the names of all my mother's  brothers in order of birth.

1. Padma Bhushan K. M. Cherian

2. K.M. Oommen

3. K.M. Eapen

4. K. M. Varghese Mappillai

5. K. M. Jacob

6. Padma Shri K. M. Philip

7. Padma Bhushan K. M. Mathew

8. Padma Shri K. M. Mammen Mappillai

The ninth member of the family was my mother, whose name should have been 

Padma Acca K. M. Mariam (Padma Acca being my personal title for her) as she held 7 fiery brothers together to help them build MRF Ltd. , Malayala Manorama, MM Rubber Co. Ltd. amongst a host of other companies. 

(Her brother, K. M. Jacob, died early and my name is Jacob as I was born shortly after he died. )

Without her strong hand  and mutual love and affection with her brothers, this family would have broken up into fragmernts a long time ago. (This story will appear in my memoirs in due course.)

So you will note that each of them has the K. M. prefix before their own name.

My paternal grandfather took another route. 

His name was Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur Maliyakal Kuriyan (Mysore) Matthan.

Raja Mantra Pravina Dewan Bahadur was the title conferred on him by the Maharaja of Mysore for his services to the State of Mysore. The House name is Maliyakal, which is also my house name. His  name from his father was Kuriyan (which be also spelt as Kurian). The pet name "Mysore" was given to him by the people of Mysore for his contribution to the state. His personal name was Matthan, but he turned it to his surname name. This was because he saw it as part of the western society he had become involved with and he changed from being a Syrian Christian to a member of the Protestant Church.

So his male children were

1. M. George Matthan (Commissioner Mysore Government)

2. M. Kuriyan Matthan (CEO Tata Engineering Consultancy Services, after being the Chief Engineer of the B. E. S. T. in Bombay)

3. M. Matthan Matthan (DCM) 

4. M. John Matthan (CEO BHEL & CEO Integral Coach Factory)

5. M. Jacob Matthan (LIC Chairman)

My mother's family were all professionals and business  oriented, while my father and his brothers were all professionals, all of whom reached the pinnacles in their professional life.

Coming to my name, it should have been Maliyakal Matthan Jacob, but as my paternal grandfather turned around the system, I got the name Maliyakal Jacob Matthan, but an Indian name was also added, which is SUSHIL. (My elder sister was Nalini, my elder brother is Ranjit, and my younger sister was Thangamma.). Sushil is used by my other family members and family friends who have known me since childhood.

But this is a digression, as the reason for this blog is that I found a small notebook a couple of days ago which had an article written by me in 1975 about the potential for trade between Finland and India.

Written by me 48 years ago, when I was just 32 years old, there may not be much technology  significance today.

What interested me is not the content of the article but that I was able to write an article before my access to a computer in beautiful long hand, something which vanished when I returned to Finland in 1984, 9 years later, as my handwriting skills vanished. With the advent of the computer, and arthritis hitting me quite hard simultaneously, I resorted to using the compuiter for my writing to avoid the pain.

When I joined the University of Oulu, I was given access to IBM XT and AT computers, along with the IBM Mainframe. 

My earlier computer access was when I was working in MRF.  IBM opened their computer centre in Madras. All we had was preparing punched cards relating to the stocks in store. 

I did not stay with the IBM Computers for long as I spent most of my time trying to remember key strokes and functions and less time creating my documents.

One day, a young lady arrived at the door of my University room from a company called Systema Oy. She convinced me to look at what she was selling. It was an Apple IIC computer which had a "mouse" and the commands were simple to remember.

I took to it immediately and my productivity went up 2000% compared to that of my colleagues. 

Soon I had others working on my Apple IIC all day creating all sorts of scientific experimental stuff. 

I had to wait till they went home to get my work done, which became quite simple as it was productivity oriented. What took them 4 hours on their computers, my productivity with my Apple Macs took hardly 2 hours! (This was at the time of the cumbersome DOS system.)

Within a year, all my colleagues were clammering for their own Apple computers, but I had moved on to a Mac, the Mac Plus,  the Mac SE and then the Mac Portable and then the Mac PowerBook, my first own computer. 

There is an interesting side story when I bought my PowerBook. I claimed it as an expenses and claimed depreciation for the whole year, although I had bought it only in December. 

The Oulu Tax Office declined to give me the depreciation for the whole year. I went to Oulu Court. There I showed that I could do a whole year's work in less than three weeks. The judge ruled in my favour. 

After that the Oulu Tax Oflice never questioned me on my claims!

I was continually ahead of my colleagues who were always playing catch up with me.

I would go in on a Saturday morning and upgrade all the software on the Macs of my colleagues.

As a result, despite being a third world country intruder in Finland, I got upgraded from an ordinary researcher to the Laboratory Manager and then to the Chief Engineer.

The secret of my success was that they needed me more than I needed them! 

I do hope you will enjoy this handwritten 20 page article of mine. 

It shows my vision of 35+ years ago, even  before I moved to Finland. It also shows my commitment to promoting India and its culture, products and technology to Finland.

Remember one of our Guiding Principles:

"Go where you are appreciated!"

Appendix:

Paddy Feeny gets challenged

His intro to himself - late Paddy Feeny

Nowadays, when I visit an Indian household in Oulu, what I notice is an enormous TV in the living room.

When we arrived in Finland. A family of 6 living in about 25 sq. m. area, I looked around and found a black and white 4” (10 cm) tv with a short wave radio. 

My in-laws had a colour tv in their living room, but we preferred to stay in our small living space. Only when Elton John or the Eurovision song contest were on, which was well after my in-laws had gone to bed, would we go down and watch the larger tv.

During the day Mika and I would be glued to a short wave Sony radio listening in the main to BBC World Service while Annikki tuned in to her small kitchen Grumdig Radio listening to the Finnish radio service. 

Only in the evening would we all crowd around the tiny tv to watch Finnish news and programs.

Being a sports addict, Saturday afternoons, Mika and I would tune into Saturday Special, BBC’s sports round up hosted by their top sports commentator Paddy Feeny.

Paddy Feeny was going upwards, and was also given the job to host the Write On programme which was to air readers views.

There was no internet those days so I wrote my letter to Paddy Feeny.

Two page letter to Paddy Feeny

I was not happy with the way the programmes were hosted, so I addressed my complaints to Write On (again Paddy Feeny).

Personal reply to me from Paddy Feeny.

Within 2 weeks, I received this short reply from Paddy Feeny.

My letter thanking Paddy Feeny for the corrections made!

My minute by minute analysis showing 

the benefits of the changes!

I wrote to Paddy after watching the progress for three weeks.  I was glad to report that my views had been taken into account and Paddy and the producers had made modifications to the programme to take into the criticisms submitted by me.

The moral of this post is that if you have a problem, express your views and make the constructive suggestions. 

If the person receiving this information is intelligent, he will assess it and make the amendments and corrections and acknowledge them publicly. 

If the person is insecure and insincere, and surrounded by sycophants and those drunk on personal power, what will happen is that the situation will never be addressed and all sorts of subterfuges will be adopted to cover their insecurity and incompetence.

35 years later in life, we find that human behaviour has not changed.

Maybe some people in Oulu should think about the morality of this story!

A Delicious Gujarathi Evening

A tribute to Mrs. K M. Mathew (Annammakochamma) written by her husband, the late Padma Bhushan Mr. K. M. Mathew (former Chief Editor of Malayala Manorama and one of my mother’s younger brothers). 

Annikki and I had the good fortune to be hosted to a Gujarathi dinner evening in Oulu on Saturday.

Besides enjoying the camaraderie, we were amazed by the assortment of dishes served up by the hosts. There were over 15 different preparations including 5 different types of roti, including my absolute favourite, the Gujarathi sweet roti. 

Such amazing talent was on display. 

It took me back to the days when I would visit Anand and Baroda and stay with my Gujarathi friends.

I enjoyed every dish, all vegetarian and spiced to perfection by our hosts. A truly amazing experience in Oulu. 

How we wish there would be someone with the courage to start a vegetarian restaurant featuring not only Gujarathi dishes, but also the vast variety of true Indian vegetarian cuisine, such as from Andhra, Chetinad,  Kerala, Maratha,  Rajasthani, Telengana and Udipi, vegetarian food that I am very familiar with and which is a distance apart from the North Indian food served up by the majority of Indian and Nepalese restaurants in Finland today.

I am the nephew of the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew, who every Malayali lady knows because of her many decades of culinary expertise she used to share in the Malayala Manorama and the Vanitha ladies magazine, which is also now published in Hindi from Delhi. 

I was fortunate to be taught, in 1963, the elements of cooking by Mrs. K. M. Mathew before I set off to England for my studies. She taught me a few crucial dishes to survive and even hand-wrote some of the recipes (which I have preserved all these years).

"Life fragrant" by Mrs. K. M. Mathew.

An endorsement to Annikki and me written by her son, Chacko, in the book "Annamma" on his mother written by his father.

List of books on cooking written by Mrs. K. M. Mathew.

Modern Kerala Dishes

Flavours of the Spice Coast

The Family Cook Book,

Modern Kerala Dishes.

An endorsement by Mrs. K. M. Mathew to Annikki  in her book on Kerala Cookery.

Kerala Cookery 

A revised version of the Family Cook Book.

A revised versiion of Modern Kerala Dishes.

When we lived in Shawbury, England, Mrs. Mathew came to our remote village home to meet Annikki and our first born daughter, Susanna.

Annikki with Mr. & Mrs. K. M. Mathew who hosted us at their residence in Kottayam (1991).

After we returned to India in 1969, we visited Mrs. Mathew regularly when we went to Kottayam. When she came to Chennai, she would make it a point to visit Annikki. Although a generation apart, it was a mutual admiration society as they shared many common interests, art, cooking, education, music, fashion, upliftment of people, to name just a few.

Mrs. K.M .Mathew examines the White Chocolate wedding cake Annikki made for her niece's wedding (Chennai, 1999).

Mrs. Mathew had a regular column in  the Malayala Manorama, the largest circulating regional newspaper in India. Every Kerala lady waited eagerly every morning  her next tested recipe. (The way to a husband's heart is through his stomach!)

She would wake up at 4 am and work with her assistant to create the next recipe which would then be published in the newspaper. Her first assistant, Vasu, now retired, was awarded the EU Certification for his cooking!

We would tease her husband and children that their newspaper circulation was not based on their expertise in publishing but rather on what new recipe Mrs. Mathew turned up for the day.

We eat at Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant in Oulu run  by Michelle Hu from Kolkotta, two days a week, every week. The buffet table is unique and a feast. The salad spread is delicious, the sushi selection is truly scrumptious, the hors d'oeuvres spread of vegetarian dumplings and spring rolls, onion rings, papadams, Chinese crackers, Chinese cooked vegetables, fried fish or Chinese fish, the mushroom or fish soup, fried rice and noodles, and the main food selection, which on Thursday's is a beef curry and Friday's a chicken vindaloo, make the experience for us to go through the week satisfied, waiting for the next Thursday and Friday to arrive. And the price is very reasonable as is evidenced by the crowd of regulars every week. Michelle is an excellent cook and hostess and the entire kitchen staff and serving staff are very professional.

I have no doubt that Garam Masala, the only real Indian Restaurant in Oulu, serves excellent food, but it is too spiced for our elderly palettes. 

Both Annikki and I feel that to eat there is difficult for us as I have to take along my bulky walker. The restaurant is small and it would be inconvenient for other guests as the restaurant is popular and always full.

But I digress, as yesterday's Gujarathi dinner  experience was truly marvellous. A gourmet's delight.

How we wish some these experienced talented ladies would take the plunge to put up a different type of Indian restaurant than what we see all around in Finland. 

I have heard that there is one such restaurant in Helsinki set up by a former Oulu based Indian, but our travelling days are over, so that is only a dream. 

We know the talent exists across the board, as the Malayali gentlemen dish out a true Kerala traditional meal every Onam, which we are always happy to join and enjoy.

We have such untapped talent in the ladies and gents who have come from all parts of India to Oulu. Annikki and I would have, in our younger days, been at the centre of promoting this type of cultural exchange. 

Many years ago, Annikki did teach Indian cooking to the polytechnic in Ylivieska, and it was greatly appreciated by the students. She specialised in using easily available Finnish ingredients to create Indian dishes. 

When she produced "her" Masala Dosas, we had a queue of people lined up in our house waiting to enjoy the preparation. She even had a large  powerful coffee grinder to make the rice and urad dal powder! 

Michelle told me that recently a  restaurant was opened by a Michelin Star  Chef in the centre of Oulu which had queues of people waiting to get in. Her critical review was that it was not of any superior quality.

Running a restaurant is, however, not just serving good food but also good management and marketing.  The ambience must be perfect.

With an immediate market spectrum of over 200000 inhabitants, we are confident that a good Indian vegetarian restaurant in Oulu would draw in the crowds. 

Surely a much better draw than the 50 plus pizzerias scattered around Oulu, 

As I have had to take charge of our home kitchen, I worked out a ergonomic cooking schedule as we are just two people. Working from a wheelchair is difficult. 

Also, when we got married in 1967, my dear wife tolerated me in the kitchen for exactly one week, not because I was not a good cook, but because I was extremely messy!

If good food is available, like in Royal Garden, we would be dining out all weekdays. We have the benefit of 18 free taxi trips every month without any cost. 

Also, I am fortunate to have many Oulu taxi drivers from various communities, Ethiopians, Somalians, Sudanese, Zambian, and also many of my former Finnish  engineering students who have retired and who drive taxis. These would help us get to the restaurant economically.

Come on, dear Indians, please take on the challenge and get to produce an exclusive new "Indian" vegetarian restaurant for the people of Oulu. 

Annikki and I will be the first to help you break into this area.