God has been even...

I write this during my train journey from Kuopio to Helsinki within Finland. Its been now almost 12 days traveling within Germany, UK, Austria and Finland. This is my second visit to Finland. Last time when I came here it was in April. It was cold at that time but this time during June the weather was excellent. Clear sky and of course 24 hrs day. I have traveled some 17 countries so far and but Finland is amongst the best places to travel and visit. Its so fresh and refreshing here. The air is clean. It must be among one of the most beautiful natural places in the world. The tall pine trees between huge lakes. Its hard to describe – you only can see and feel it. I would strongly recommend any one who loves nature to come and visit this place. But more than the nature what touches you is the people. They are honest, true and that’s why may be happy. There is no inhibition. Nothing artificial. Its all “I am what I am”. Its so natural.Its so different from India. We try to be so cautious of others that we start becoming artificial. And the biggest problem we have is we are dishonest. We flaunt what we don’t own. We believe in not paying taxes. We believe in short term gains and don’t have a broader horizon. We try to be good and not are naturally good.

But then I believe God does not give everything to everybody. There are so few people here in Finland. Its just a country of 5 million people. The roads look so empty as if there is a strike going on. The trains I traveled were never fully occupied. They don’t have enough people to sale their products. The population is decreasing and there are more old people than young. This naturally means their products become expensive and affordability goes down. So less people buy and this is a vicious cycle. For an example a metallurgical test we conduct in India for 50 Euros , our customer pays 600 Euros for the same here. It will not be long before they will land in an economical mess. I am sure the process has already started and except for very high technical capabilities things have started moving to India, China or Brazil. In India we have such a huge market that any thing and every thing is consumed. Our biggest strength is our human resource. Its high time these countries should start importing manpower from India or China. It does not make any sense by stopping or slowing immigration. I was discussing this with my customer and he said the government does not have enough jobs for present citizens so it will add to more pressure. But then there will be more unemployment if the cost of living is too high and not all can afford it. This will result in less sales and more layoffs. Its so complex. This is Gods way of not giving everything at one place. He has made his distribution very even. We inherit great strength and wisdom in India. If only we are good to what we have and truthful and honest we will be much better off. I don’t know how this will happen. Once this starts happening we will be more strong as a nation and happy citizen of this world. During my next trip to Europe I would certainly like to go to Denmark and try to find out what they do different then the world that its worlds happiest country for many years.

Summing up the trip

Today is my last night in Europe. I am at Stuttgart and fly to Frankfurt tomorrow morning for further connection home. This has been a great trip as I got an opportunity to go to places which you usually dont travel. In my last trips to Europe I had visited only the metros but this time I got an opportunity to go inside small towns, villages - places like Bad Salzungen, Leimbach, Fulda,Burghaun, Rottweil, Aichhalden in Germany - Graz, Zeltweg in Austria, Turku, Tampere, Lahti in Finland. I travelled on planes, cars, trains and buses. This gave me a great perspective about the continent. I went into mines 800 meters into the ground and 110 meters up on the tower. I went into the Eastern part of Germany , the historic border which at one time was making so much of tension in the world. How removing the borders has bought peace and triumph. Is it not so unfortunate that how much trouble we create with these man made borders. The trip in the mine was so enthralling. How difficult it is for some people who work there in the dark. Such a hard job some part of the society is doing to make our life comfortable. Touched World war 2 history there. Theres a cave in the mine where Hitler had hidden tons of Gold, Billions of Dollars and best paintings of Berlin Museum but unfortunately US noticed it and after the war dug out every thing. Its said they carried every thing and till recently have been returning to the different countries there Gold and money. I saw a Crystal mine there with sparkling crystals and they do a light and sound show there. So dazzling.

I got an opportunity to try different food. Things I don't eat at home. It was difficult to get lot of choices in vegetarian food but never slept hungry and unsatisfied. Drove motorboat in Baltic sea and Dakota bike - so much like our bullet. Was so close to nature. Air never breathed so fresh. By the way I had mentioned name of a place above Bad Salzungen. Bad does not mean BAD but Bath. At all places in Germany where they use Bad before the name of the place means there is a natural water source which cures diseases. The walk around one of these source - gives you such a wonderful feel. It really feels something has touched you in.

but the biggest gain has been the people with whom I interacted. They were so nice and homely. The hospitality was so great that we don't even do anything like this in India though we call ourselves good hosts. How happy these guys live - not creating unhappiness by there own doing. They accept the situation as it is not trying to worry about things not in there control. I am really bowled over by the touch. Another lesson I learn was punctuality. How I was able to plan every thing nicely as every thing moved in time. A train, a bus, an appointment, a taxi call. If we can do this back home how much more we can deliver. I have a whole day journey tomorrow and it will be tiring. I hope I carry on this writing once back to the daily chores at work and home. I also look forward to my trip to US which starts in a fortnight.

Finland - a great place to see

For most of us in India Finland is famous for Nokia. I thought I will buy a Nokia phone here as it may be cheaper but its expensive then India. Any way, I am not sure why the name Finland but my wild throw on this may be because theres lot of fish these guys eat :-)

Finland is in northern Europe with Sweden on its west and Russia on its east. It has some 6 million people and is a beautiful country. Finland landscape is covered with pine trees, hills and lakes. My host mentioned that there are more than 10000 lakes. Every family here must be having a summer home near the water. Most of the people as I understood leave in the southern part of the country with the capital Helsinki, Turku, Tampere all in the south. The most popular sport here is Ice Hockey and people follow F1 racing in a big way. Naturally the present world no 1 is from Finland. My travel took me to Turku, Tampere and Lahti. My days were in my meetings but got some time in the evening to see the places in this places and also on my drives between these cities. My first night was at Turku which is one of the oldest city in Finland. I had mentioned about my day at Turku in another blog so now I start about Tampere. Tampere is the third largest city of Finland and is surrounded by lakes, ponds and ridges. There are more then 200 lakes and ponds in Tampere. After my business meetings I strolled along the city , its parks, water bodies. Weather was superb and sunny. For dinner I went with Teppo and Kirsi, my hosts to a revolving restaurant on a 110 meter high tower by the sea. What a view. The sun setting at 10 pm into the sea, Great five course meal and a wonderful company made the evening a memorable one. Any one visiting this city must go to this restaurant for a dinner. great food, great ambiance. I am attaching some pictures taken there. And if you want to get close to nature make FInland your next tourist destination.

What a Day

I am at my hotel roon now at 10.30 PM after a great day, may be one of the most memorable days of my life. Its still day light outside. My host here Teppo picked me up from my hotel and we drove to his beach house on the Baltic sea some 30 kms from Turku. The house is located amongst some of the most scenic places you will see facing the sea. Turku is in the south west of Finland with Baltic sea on the west. Teppo has a weekend house here and its a great place to spend you weekend. It was cold and windy Temperature around 5 degrees during the day and Teppo suggested my jacket that I was wearing was not good enough for this place and he gave me a complete dress with trousers , jacket, cap, gloves etc. And then we rode on his Motor boat into the sea. What a fun. He let me drive his boat and it was thrilling. Here inside the deep sea I was driving a motor boat at 150 km per hr and what an experience. Its hard to describe. Such a great fun We went into an island and roamed around. Then we drove back to his home. He is into motorbiking also. And he has at this place a old 350 cc Dakota motorcycle he bought from the army. It has place to keep two machine guns. We drove it to the woods and he allowed me to drive it in the woods. It was such an adventure driving this motorcycle into the woods on tough terrains, real fun. We came home at around 3 pm where his wife had cooked a wonderful meal and with all the adventure I was really hungry and my plate was all clean. Teppo is very much into F1 races and so we again took the motorboat to another island to go to his fisherman friend who has a TV and saw the F1 race. Unfortunately within the first round Force Indias one car was out and saw Vijay Mallya looking shocked but his another car was 10th. One of the basic reasons for Teppos interest I believe might be because todays champion Kimi Raikkonen (I believe thats what its spelled) is from Finland driving a Ferrari and he won the race. Its always a proud moment when your countrys flag goes up on the podium. We drove back in the evening to Turku and am surprise to meet Rajesh rathore with whom I am going to have a meeting in Burlington, Canada in three weeks is also at Turku and we go out for dinner three of us in a boat in the river behind our hotel. Good Food and we have a great time. During the day I came in close contact with Teppo and I learnt couple of things from him todays which I will never forget. When we entered his house in the morning I asked him how safe it might be in this country as his motor boat or house remains un attended for weeks and nothing is lost - is he not worried about this. At our home we cant even think of locking the home for few hours and going out for a family dinner even though we have servants etc there. He replied he never falls in love with his materialistic things , its better to keep in cash then love your car or boat etc. If it goes insurance is there but these things are there to bring enjoyment not worries. So rightly said. Maybe we try this time all of us going to Purulia for my birthday locking the house for 4 days and enjoy being together away from the daily hassles of life when in your town. Another thing he said which I will remember forever was its not how you begin but how you end that counts. So right. I have already requested Teppo use of his property for a vacation in summer some time in the coming two years. Its a place to see and enjoy. No pollution, no noice and complete peace. From tomorrow again the routine meetings start. I will be in Finland for the next two days before I fly on tuesday to Germany - again a long journey - train from lahti to Helsinki and then flight to Frankfurt further flight to Stutgart. Stutgart will be my two nights stay again before I fly back home.

So Here I am at Turku in Finland. This is the 15th country I have seen in my life time and except for Dubai all has been business related.It was a two hour flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki and then three hours bus journey to this place. Helsinki looks like an old airport. The bus drive was great and I think the best time to come here is may be one more month from now. Still there are no leaves on the trees after the winter onslaught. I recollect participating in my school drama when I was in 5th standard on Indian Freedom struggle and the starting lines of the drama were "The sun never sets in the British Empire" but even if the sun sets here it is for really small time. At 10.00 pm when I reached this place the sun was still out like we have around 5.00 pm in India. The birds were flying to there nests. So that means it was going to set shortly and till the time I went to bed it was still not completely dark. The hotel I am staying here is great. They have English channels on the TV. And the most important the internet is free. Using internet has been the most expensive thing for me here. You pay almost 10-12 Euro for an hr. or you need to take daily packages which i usually took for 30 -40Euros. This brings me to the topic I wanted to write. Having been to almost 6 countries In Europe in my four trips here I have found travelling and leaving in Europe more tough and some what not as carefree as you find in US for Vegotarian Indian like me. One of the major reasons is the cost. Its really expensive in Europe and I dont know how they survive with this kind of cost and working just 40 odd hours in a week. What I found that things cost same in US and Europe just the currency changes and thats a 60% effect. Hotel rooms here average 80-100 Euros and same in US but in dollars. Gas here is 1.5 Euros as compared to .80 Euro in India or now alsmost same in US. A taxi ride of almost 40-50 kms can kill your days budget. The secod biggest problem is language. I mean its so funny they have no signboards in English or no announcements in English and its different language every where like here its Finnish and German in Germany. There was a bus change to my ride yesterday and the driver announced about it but I didnt understand a bit and when I saw everyone getting out I just got out and then found out that for this bus this was the last stop. So you feel very unfriendly type. In US its so different - Any place You go you can understand every thing and relate with them. Its more adventures here like you dont know whats going to happen next. Infrastructure both palces is same. Superb, something I dont know India will ever have. Systems superb and everyone follows the law and respects it. The better thing in Europe is the History. You can feel History here and old buildings with typical European architecture. Its same from a small village to Munich or Vienna. While travelling to Europe you feel a bit out of place where as in US its so much like i know this place. And to top it you end up seing every 7th to 8th guy Desi in US.Food - absoultely no problems in US. I will be travelling to US in another 2 weeks and will be driving with Duane may be 2000 kms in 5 days but its nice and enjoyable. In next 15 minutes my host is going to pick me up from the hotel for a sight seing to this town, Turku look like a beautiful place. My hotel is by the side of a river and great view. I am taking my camera today and hopefully will be able to share some of the pictures of Turku. Enjoy your Sunday. But one think I must confess about Europe - the people are good and help you out.