Happy Birthday Deepak

Please join me in wishing 59er Deepak Kaikini a very very happy birthday.

Deepak lives in England and is now enjoying his retirement, like me, from a long practice as a General Practioner.

Roopa (also a Mumbaite but not a Cathedralite) and Deepak have two children, Nina who works as a Solicitor specializing in criminal cases and Sunil who works as marketing director with a sports information company.

Enjoy a great birthday, Deepak.

Boycott Call by Jury of Conscience at the World Tribunal on Iraq

The Jury of Conscience, after the final session of the World Tribunal on Iraq, after 2 years of deliberation, included the following recommendation:

7. That people throughout the world launch actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received “reparation awards”: Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest.

May I request all my readers to take steps and pass this information on to at least five of their friends.

To read the entire verdict and recommendations of the Jury of Conscience, please visit my blog page:

http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com

Gopa in the vicinity; Happy birthday David

Last Wednesday I had a call from Gopa, daughter of Sadhana Madhusadan (Cathedralite 54er) from Pune, from a nearby village where she was visiting her mother-in-law. Gopa suggested Annikki and I visit them as it was not a long drive (about an hour and a half).

Anniki had tons to do, so I took off in my ancient rabbit and was with them in less than an hour and a half. I would have done the journey quicker but a Police Motorbike shot past the queue of cars streaming out of Oulu, so we did not know where he was in hiding - so we had to keep our speeds to within the speed limit!!

Spent some real quality time with both of them and Timo's 82 year old mother. Although partially blind (she recognises people from their voices as she cannot distinguish them with sight) she lives alone in her home and manages everything like clockwork. A truly great lady, mother of 11 children, she recalled the names of not only all of them but also her 26 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren!!

Timo's mother, now 82

Gopa looked as lovely as ever and Timo was his real gentlemanly self. Gopa was her sprightly full of life self and Finland is really suiting her. She is lucky to have such a wonderful man as her husband.

Gopa had even brought me some real Kerala papadams from Pune!! We love papadams.


Timo and Gopa in front of the traditional built in oven
in Timo's mother's home in a village near Pudasjärvi

And finally, may I take the opportunity to wish 59er David Colaco, from the famous Colaco family which contributed so much to Cathedrlaite life, a very happy 61st birthday on behalf of all 59ers.