100% attendance at Finnish Chapter Reunion

Posted on Delhi Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog, Mumbai Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog and my Jacob's Blog.

On Thursday afternoon I had a call from fellow Cathedralite and Stephanian, Professor Ajeet Mathur that he was on his way to Oulu to address a conference here. I decided to call a reunion meeting of both our alma maters, Delhi Stephanians and Mumbai Cathedralites.

Ajeet and spouse, Sari.

Ajeet's better half arrived on Friday afternoon, so Friday evening was reunion time with spouses at my residence. I am glad to report that yet again we had 100% attendance with both spouses present!

Ajeet is now the Project Director of the Finland - India Economic Relations Project being executed at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. He is also the Director of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research, which is part of the Planning Commission of India (working on the 11th 5 Year Plan), which is headed by Stephanian 63er (like me) Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Quite surprised to see that Ajeet is now an Indian bureaucrat!

Ajeet gave a very interesting talk at the conference in Oulu "Promoting mutual cooperation, economic and social development". Ajeet's topic was "On why unemployed are unemployable and what Finland can do about it".

A few years ago I would have been very excited about such a topic, but retirement has caught up with me and it is a topic for others, especially the younger expats in Oulu and Finland, many of whom have stayed jobless (for no fault of theirs) for many a year. Did Ajeet's talk offer any solutions - yes, migrate to India which requires an enormous influx of trained cadre in every field!

One particular slide was of great interest to the entire audience. It has stuck in my mind. It was a picture of a monkey cleaning utensils at a roadside truck dabha somewhere in India. Ajeet pointed out that the wages given to the monkey for his work was 2 bananas a day.

Not even the lowest of lowest in India can afford to compete with the work of this monkey.

Ajeet added that one of the largest exports from India to the US was Monkeys where they are being researched to see what human tasks can be handed over to monkeys such as repetitive keyboard entry, etc.

Great reunion - going way past midnight!

Coincidence at Oulu Airport!

Posted on my Jacob's Blog, the Oulu Chaff Blog, the Mumbai Cathedral School Seventh Heaven Blog and the Delhi Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog.

Yesterday was Annikki's birthday. I had offered to take her to any restaurant of her choice in Oulu. We have an offering of several cuisines here: Algerian, Chinese, English, Finnish, French, Greek, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Moroccan, Thai, Turkish, Russian, US, Vietnamese, ...

But Annikki had other plans.

We started on a shopping expedition where she first went to he favourite Flea market and did some expensive shopping - maybe a couple of Euro!

Then we went to some small shops where she bought stuff for the house. Her next stops were two shops that were also celebrating their birthdays. We got free coffee/tea and cake for just visiting them.

Just then I had a call from Prof. Ajeet Mathur, a Cathedralite and Stephanian, like me, and also resident in south Finland. Ajeet said that he was on his way to Oulu and his plane should land around 6 pm. I told him I would pick him up from the airport.

Annikki told me rush back from the airport as her plan was to buy a pizza and go and sit on the beach and enjoy the sea breeze and the glorious sunset. She wanted a large open air restaurant and not be cooped up in a tiny one with no view in town!

I reached the airport at exactly 6 pm. There were a load of people coming off a plane. I noticed what looked like a foreigner waiting with a small placard identifying a conference, which I knew would be the one Ajeet would be headed for. I also noted a cameraman waiting to get a film of the arrival of Ajeet. Obviously, Ajeet was to be a distinguished speaker at the conference.

I positioned myself next to these two gentleman, who obviously had come for the same purpose - to receive Ajeet. I heard them conversing.

One said to the other that he was from Australia.

Always ready to break the ice, I asked him whether he knew our popular Australian CHAFF participant, Benjamin Hayes. The answer was in the negative, but with the formalities done away with, we struck up a conversation. He asked me where I came from. When I said Bangalore, India. Out of the blue, he said his parents were from Bangalore, India and they had left India at the time of Independence in 1947.

Then came a second shock as he said that his dad was from Bishop Cotton School, one of my alma maters.

I asked Alen his surname. Then came the even bigger surprise. His surname is Pembshaw.

Alen's dad used to come to Bangalore in the 70's very regularly. He would head straight to my dad's office as my dad was, at the time, the Chairperson of the Bishop Cotton Boys School Old Boys Association. My dad had passed out of school in 1926. Alen's dad was much junior to him.

I had met Alen's dad several times, as my office used to be in the same buolding!

As we were looking at the coincidence, the cameraman, whom I do not recall ever seeing in my life, turned to me and said that he knew my daughter, Joanna and also my wife. Apparently they go to the same church and his wife, a doctor, is a good friend of my daughter.

That was a string of coincidences which seemed outrageous to me!

Later, Annikki briefed me that Seppo Ahava is the husband of Maria, who is a doctor now and whom she has seen as a small girl in the church.

Ajeet arrived. As I am camera shy, I made myself scarce.

Usually Ajeet stays with me, but as the City of Oulu had organised this programme, he had been booked into a hotel. I took Ajeet to his hotel and organised that he spend the evening usefully.

I rushed home, picked up Annikki, picked up a pizza from a friends's pizzeria and headed to the beach. The sun was just setting and darkness was falling fast, but the glorious colours could still be seen.

It was extremely windy, so we sat in a shaded place and enjoyted our pizza.

There was no one around when we reached, as it was still drizzling, but before we finished our pizza, some kids and then some elderly people could be seen walking on the windy shores.

Before darkness finally set, we set off back for home, not accomplishing one part of Annikki's mission, to look for more stones to take home!

Coincidences and a windy pizza dinner on the beach were the mark of Annikki's birthday for this year. (Of course, there was cake when we got back home!)

Some of you are Oh so...

Today, I had an email from 54er Sadhana (née Shah) Madhusadan from Pune.



Gopa (Sadhana's daughter), 54er Sadhana, me and Timo (Gopa's husband)
at the Pailin Thai Restaurant in Oulu when Sadhana visited us here in early summer.

Some friends have found it very delicate to send an email to me to find out if I was OK.

54er Gracie (née Hayeem) Bent Lerno sent an email to Sadhana asking "Do you know if all is OK?"

And that was because she had received this email from 56er Doreen (Feibusch) Heimlich which said:

Dear Gracie,

Trust you and your family have been keeping well; --

We've been forwarding each other all sorts of interesting things lately, but I've been wondering if you've had any Update(s) from Jacob?

The last entry on his cathedraliteheaven blogspot is from June 26th.

Has something changed?  Can you please let me know?

Love

Doreen

Doreen, Gracie - you are both so sweet. Love you both.

I guess that the next time I go off line for a period, I should put up a broad sign on all my blogs.

The single most important reason I did go off was that comment from the Anonymous Commenter asking me to get a life, away from my blogs, not knowing that all you wonderful friends out there ARE MY LIFE!

I had inadvertently forgotten to add Ranjit Mathrani to the list of 57ers. (I am sure it was not Budni's fault but mine.)

Not only is he very much around, he will be hosting one of the events for the 50th Year Reunion of 57ers in November.

My sincere apologies to Ranjit, whom I remember so well, for leaving his name off the list.

Emails to two 57ers are bouncing.

One is that of Pop Pharoah's elder daughter, Marguerite (née Pharoah) Sparks. The other is Shireen Desai.

I have sent an email to 61er Claire (née Pharoah) Knight to find out about her sister.

If someone could clarify the situation about Shireen, I would be grateful to help me put the Master List straight. (It is possible that in Shireen's case there are 2 "e"s in her email address user id.)

I tried to speak with 56er Ubi on Skype yesterday. Although I got through, the speech was breaking up and finally the connection got cut. This seems to happen between my computer and calls to India. Anyone give me an explanation?

Ubi seems to be enjoying his retirement in the same vein as me. Wish he would start blogging as he is a wealth of info about the school, and he is on the spot.

Philosophy behind my multiple entry blogging

Posted on Jacob's Blog, the Oulu Best Buy Blog, the Oulu CHAFF Blog, the Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog, the Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog, the Jacob's Politics Blog, the Move the UN Blog, and the Talk Show Ratings Blog.

Many diverse groups of people with multiple interests are reading my blogs.

Some of you are reading more than one of my blogs.

It is very annoying to see the same posting on more than one blog.

I apologise.

I have, therefore, to introduce a strategy till such time as I can get all or most of my 120 000+ readers to install a policy of being updated whenever there is a new blog entry on the blogs of their specific interest.

If they do this registration, then I need only post any entry to a single blog. The blog info service should inform you if that particular blog has been updated.

If you subscribe to getting this info for three blogs, then I need not post an entry to all three blogs!

Till the recording service is fully operational, at the top of each entry I will include a list of the other blogs that the entry will be found.

For instance, this entry will be found on ALL my blogs.

If any of you have a better solution, I am all ears.

Remember, I am a computer idiot and know nothing about the art of designing things for the computer. :-) That's because I use a Mac!

Any other beauty title holders from School?

I had a message from 57er Fleur (née Ezekiel) Mandnani who  corrected me on some issues.

This was the very sweet email from Fleur.

Dear Jacob,

Thanks so much for your msg & so glad to know that you are back after your well deserved holiday.

I read thru your blog & was saddened to hear that anyone can accuse such good folks as Annikki & you of religious fundamentalism, of all things!  They are just an unhappy lot & obviously have nothing better to do!  Idle minds!

Knowing you over the years, I feel that this statement, of whoevers, is as far from the truth as anything could possibly be!  Besides, you have the right to be who you are & really don't need to justify anything to anybody!  Everyone knows you both for the wonderful people you are.

As regards our 57ers list - Yes Saker Mistri is the correct name & the other is also the same person but the second email address is the correct one.

Yvonne (née Isaac) Baker is the correct name & apologise to you as she does not seem to be aware that you are not a 57er, so pl excuse her remarks.

I have never heard of Tanaz Lal in our class of 57, but I could be wrong.  Will have to check with Pramila when we next meet at our Organizing Committee meeting on Saturday, Sept 8 at Pramila's office.  The Committee consists of Pramila, Saker, Arun Mahimtura, Pervez Antia, Sunil Sahni, Homi Commisseriat, Bhupinder Anand, Kashinath Dandekar & self.

After we meet on the 8th & we come to more concrete decisions, I will definitely send you our programme (since a few changes are to be made) once it is finalized so you can put it out on your blogsite.

Incidentally, I am only the cog in the wheel of our Reunion & assisting in any way I can to get our Reunion together.  It is more Pramila's lead that is helping us along - but she is a busy lady - as she has a chemical business to run & so I help out by sending msgs etc.  Saker is the other person who is also very active. And since I connect with you more than any of our other 57er - I was commissioned to send you the msg.

My dear Brother, Noel, & wife Cecilia have been coming to India since like Christmas! So far they have not made it  to India tho' Cecilia is still thinking about it. Noel may not be able to come at all since he has a lot to be done - workwise in the Realty world.  So I am expecting Cecilia but I don't know when - hopefully sometime in Sept or Oct this year.

I do hear from Vijay Shivi once in a while when he drops into Pune as his house is very close to ours in Pune.

Glad to know that your 59ers are planning your 50th in 2009 & God willing we will be able to meet you & Annikki & all the other 59ers sometime during that time.  I remember your last reunion when I met you all on one occasion when I accompanied Noel, as Cecilia did not come to India at that time.

Will check on the 57ers email addresses & let you know in my next, if there are any changes, additions etc.

Take care & love to you both,

Fleur

From Fleur's email it appears that the 57er 50th Year Reunion has an Organising Committee which may be as follows:

PRAMILA SHIVDASANI, Chairperson
SAKER MISTRI , Co-Chairperson
ARUN MAHIMTURA,
PERVEZ BAIDA ANITA,
SUNIL SAHNI
HOMI COMMISSARIAT,
BHUPENDRA SINGH ANAND,
KASHINATH DANDEKAR,
FLEUR (née EZEKIEL) MADNANI

If you want to get in touch with any of them, please email me. I await their Reunion Programme which I will give prominence here on the blog. So stay tuned.

My sincere public apologies to Yvonne (née Isaac) Baker, as I listed her as YVONNE BAKIRFAM, taking the surname from the email ID. Yvonne sent me an email correcting this, and I have apologised to her directly.

She and her husband, Geoffrey Baker, have already booked their tickets to India to attend the reunion.

I was also pleased to hear from 57er Ashok (Tony) Jaitly from Delhi.

On another front, male chauvinists, 56er Ubi and I, have been having an interesting side discussion as to which Class had the best looking girls.

Acknowledging the outstanding beauty of many 57ers, Ubi came to the conclusion that the Class of 56 had undoubtedly the best crop.

I chose to strongly disagree, standing firmly by the Class of 59!

With such outstanding beauties as Piloo, Renuka, Harmoinha, the Singh sisters, and many many more, I do not think any other class could compete. As far as the boys are concerned, with egoist me around, I do not have any option but to say that we had the best looking guy in school, EVER! :-)

The Class of 57, however, has an unfair advantage in this discussion, as our dear Fleur was the first Miss India in 1959 who represented India in the Miss World competition!

I wonder whether any other Cathedralite girl has won this title and/or any other major beauty titles?

Thanks, Mr. Anonymous. I am back with more gusto...

Posted on the Cathedralite Seventh Heaven Blog, the Stephanian Kooler Talk Blog and my Jacob's Blog.

I am listening on the internet to the audio commentary from BBC of the fourth one day international being played at Leeds between England and India, where India is trying to cut the lead in the one day series.

Also, yesterday here in Oulu we lost our television reception at home. Finland went over to Digital Television. I have not installed a Digi Box. We have a satellite antenna with access to two satellites. However, as soon as the green leaves appear on the trees in late April, they mask out the reception. Autumn is a bit late, but in another few weeks all the leaves on the trees would have fallen. We can get our satellite reception back again. I can then think whether to invest in a Digi Box by next April.

I am so happy at the emails that I received welcoming me back to the world of blogging. Here is a small cross section of the mail I received:

From Mumbai, India:

Dear Jacob,

26th June to 31st August was a very long sabbatical Never mind, it's good to have you up and about. You were missed!

Looking forward to a normal, hyperactive Jacob's Blog!

The only "fanatical" or "fundamentalist" attribute, you can be accused of, to my mind, is your fierce loyalty to the educational institutions that you studied in and your fellow students, young and old.

Of course, I will not list your other attributes lest you should get a swollen head!

Carry on carrying on!

Regards,
Ubi.

From Mysore, India

Dear Jacob,

With joy I observed that you were back to providing entries in your Seventh Heaven blog, after a long hiatus.

I was then deeply shocked to read of the calumnious references made to Annikki and you, to which you refer.

Be assured that at no time have I perceived the least religious bias in any of your writings or responses;  I doubt these could possibly occur, given the wonderful truly secular attitudes bred into us by the educational institutions in India which we were fortunate to attend.  I pray you will retain strength to defeat your detractors.

An earlier entry mentions that Viney Sethi was at Loughborough in the 1960s.  I read Chemical Engineering there from 1954 to 58, so the association pleased me.  If it so pleases Viney, I would be happy to hear from him.

Regards,
Naval

From Toronto, Canada

Hi Jacob,

Just a short note to let you know that I am really pleased that you are back blogging!

It's a real pleasure to read your 'ramblings'. Pity about your camera breaking down whilst Viney was with you, but .......

Take care, and all the best to you, Annikki and the family.

Chinnie

From Milan, Italy:

Dear Jacob,

Welcome back to your internet heaven!

It felt rather eerie without your entries these past two months!

Love

Barbara

From Perth, Australia

Dear Sushil,

We have known you now for close to 40 years. Never have we once known you to be either a religious fanatic or an anarchist or hippie.

I wonder how anyone who knows Annikki and you could ever make any of these accusations.

Vera and I missed your blog entries, but we prayed for you and now we are happily settling back to our routine of checking your blogs.

Please do update the Maliyakal and Kandathil web pages also as many of us out here like to see what is happening with our many relatives around the world.

Rohan

From Rio de Janerio, Brazil

Dear Mr. Matthan,

I was so glad to see your blog active again.

I have subscribed to a service which tells me when you update your pages. I was wondering whether the service had gone bust. It forced me to visit the pages, to see only the old posts, to my disappointment.

Having been reading your work online for close to 10 years, I cannot see how anyone could ever accuse you of being a religious fundamentalist.

And seeing the 40 year relationship you have with your wonderful wife depicted in your tribute to her, it is impossible to understand anyone accusing you or Annikki being anarchists or hippies.

Please do not take such words seriously, as all those who know you, either personally, or like me through your writings, know that these are just idle thoughts of thoughtless persons.

Dr. Samuel Pires

Thank you all for your concern and well wishes.

Annikki and I are strong enough to defend ourselves when people start any baseless onslaught on us. And dear Ubi, I already have an enormous swollen head that it could be used as a basketball. No need to cause it to swell any more!:-)

Yesterday I attended a Thai Festival in Oulu (had a taste of some really spicy papaya salad). I met a whole new lot of new Indians, as well as Sri Lankans, now here in Oulu. Engineers, software specialists, almost all of them.

And by today I find I have half a dozen committed readers of these blogs! Here was an email from a young Maharashtrian from Mumbai, India:

Dear Jacob Sir,

As you had suggested during our conversation at the Oulu Thai festival today, I read your blog.

It is really good and honestly it makes me proud to see an fellow Indian already done and doing so well far away from our motherland.

I also read your web page dedicated to your wife Annikki. It was really sweet.

I especially liked the pictures of the Indian evening. It would have been great fun doing those bollywood numbers. :-)

I would certainly like to be part of this unique community Findians.

Thanks n Regards,
Sagar Shinde,

Welcome Sagar, not only to the City of Oulu but also to the Findian Community which spans every continent. The very fact that you are an Indian in Finland makes you part of that Findian Community of which Annikki and are the proud parents!

Yes, it has been good to get back to blogging. I think the advice from the Anonymous Commenter for me to get a life was certainly good as it allowed me to focus on what is going on around me and to come back to blogging with some gusto.

I will have to get a new camera as the old one held together by grey silicone sticky tape is just to difficult to use. Joanna has sent me hers from England, so at least you will soon be able to see some pictures.

Help locate missing 57ers for 50th Year Reunion

The 57ers are organising their 50th Year Reunion.

The untimely passing away of Budni Behram Badhniwalla has put a great stress on the remaining organisers.

Fleur Mandani (née Ezekiel) has taken the lead to organise this event in November of this year.

She put out a cry for help a month ago, just when 59er Viney Sethi was visiting me here in Oulu.

Between Budni and myself we had located quite a few of the 57ers. We had put together a Master List which I have sent to Fleur.

Fleur has added a few names which are now listed as missing.

1. Allwyn Ceal


2. Anil Akhaney


3. Colleen Judah


4. Daveen Waters


5. David Haskel


6. Deepak Melwani


7. Delia Thompson


8. Diana Rowe


9. Ferial Karim


10. Gopal Motwani


11. Joyce Shellim


12. Kathryn Manning


13. Katie Largent

Anyone who has any knowledge of the whereabouts of these missing 57ers should email me the information so that I can pass it on to the 57ers who are involved with the reunion plans.

If you know of any other 57ers who are not in this list, please let me know. I will check them against my Master List and proceed as necessary.

Please watch this BLOG for details of the Reunion Programme as I have asked Fleur to keep me informed.