The price of a donkey in Finnish... my trip to Finland, Dec 2011

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Jari Tukiainen has just stamped his favourite entry for the harbour competition with a "this is the best" sticker. He hopes the entry is ultimately selected and the competitors' ideas become the blueprints for the harbour's redevelopment plans. Tukiainen and I are doing the rounds at the Helsinki City Planning Department's Laituri building, an exhibition space created by the Planning Department for town planning enthusiasts like him and curious tourists like me. And everyone in between. The harbour area competition was held to tap creative minds from across the world to find ways to integrate the harbour area into the city's urban space.

But even the most talented urband planners can overlook some aspect of the city's character that makes it what it is and fail to account for the same in the plan. An alert resident could point it out, saving crores of rupees that might otherwise have to be spent at a later stage to bring about the necessary alterations. More importantly, with the entries out for public scrutiny, the common citizen is thrown right in the throes of the decision-making process, the place he rightly belongs. Well, that is what the council at the Helsinki City Planning Department believes. A belief that has led the organizing committee of Helsinki's World Design Capital 2012 to commit itself to "openness" as one of the basic principles that defines its work culture.

FUTURE GAZING

I am in the city for three days to find out more about courses offered in some of the universities. I spend my spare time roaming the city and that's when I stumble upon Laituri and discover more about the "openness" that the City has pledged itself to. The exhibition space building is right in the city center, within 5 minutes of both the railway station and the metro central station, so that one can peep in and get a feel of the city's growth pangs even while waiting to catch a train. Later, I meet Heikki Mäntymäki, the head of communication at Helsinki City Planning Department who shows me what the department's architects are working on -- breathing life into plans that expand the city's borders in all four directions.

The plans spell out the different types of housing that are marked for the various localities. The city's skyline and its landscape as it will appear in 2030 can today be seen on paper to the most minute details. "When walking or cycling along the promenade it will be possible to breathe in the fresh sea air and enjoy the views, which include the granite shorelines of Mustikkamaa, the dome of Upenski cathedral and the reeds of Viikki," says the City's brochure. An extension of the current metro and the tram lines connect the planned areas with helsinki's city center.

Want to play a game with a fellow resident on what each of you would be doing twenty years from now? Take another peep into the city's brochure and you won't have to worry about hedging your bets. Along the same promenade where you get to view the dome of Upenski cathedral, you would "also be able to relax while fishing or eating ice cream along the shoreline!"



MY FAVOURITE SKY COLOUR

I have tried to prepare for my visit to the city that took in the middle of this month (December 2011) by knowing what to expect: cold weather (possibility of sub-zero), few hours of sunlight, a friendly but reserved people. As it happens, the few hours of sunlight have been obscured ("snatched" to Finns) by an overcast sky. "You know it might appear strange but I actually like the grey sky," I tell Mia, an English teacher and a new friend I make in Helsinki. "You really are strange," she retorts, "everyone here likes sunshine and a blue sky." I can understand, what with residents going to work for months together in darkness and returning home so too (in the darkest months of winter, daylight in South Finland falls to under 8 hours). For me, though, grey skies remind me of the rains in my native Goa. And rains remind me of football during my school days and there has been no bigger joy than that.

The cool weather invigorates me like nothing else. Every morning I have breakfast at Youth Hostel (hostelling international) where I am lodging, right in the premises of Helsinki's Olympic Stadium! I have eggs, bread and cheese, oat meal porridge and jam, yoghurt (banana flavoured!) and then some more oat meal, but when I leave the hostel building and meet the cold wind in my face, I feel like I could eat again! I start my trot to the central railway station, jogging on a mud track that skirts the opera house and the Finlandia hall.

No matter how I prepare, when it comes to prices I am always caught off-guard. Tea at 2 Euros 50 cents (roughly Rs 175) anyone? A tram ticket for a km at the same cost? Luckily for me, Helsinki is a small city with all the major attractions and shopping centers within a couple of kms from the city center, which itself is under 3 km from a hostel. I take to running all the time.

OUR (India's) ENDANGERED CHALU TICKET

Matters are different, though, when I have to visit Turku, a good two hours by train. The ticket is 29 euros 40 cents, the equivalent of a little more than two thousand rupees. In India, a two hours train journey in second class would probably cost me around hundred rupees, even lesser if I chose to travel in the unreserved class. Many a times I would travel that way -- in the unreserverd class -- saving money for my flight ticket to Europe.

I spend a good part of the train journey looking outside. It's like being transported a hundred years back in time. No, not that you would see historic forts or palaces. But for long stretches there are just fields along the tracks, with forests in the background. Not a speck of civilization... not even a plastic bag blowing in the wind to remind us of the wonders of plastic or the horrors of man's abuses.

But, occasionally, another thought breaks my pleasant reverie: what if the unreserved class had to be disbanded in India? All my unplanned journeys, when I would be on the move at a minute's notice, would come to a screeching halt! No, that just wouldn't do. General compartment is the very essence of the Indian spirit. I have a mind to motion the parliament to make it a fundamental right as soon as I get back to India. Something on the lines of "roti, kapda, makaan aur (food, clothing, shelter and) general compartment". Here, in Finland, in the cosy confines of a luxury chair car, and divested of money that would have bought me general tickets for many a journeys, I feel I need to get back as quickly as possible and start that petition. We must hold on to our "chalu ticket raj" with all our might. I am seized with the thought of returning to India this very moment to protect our gift to ourselves.



SEARCHING FOR THE MAGIC POTION OF SISU

Well, I am not going anywhere until I have sampled some of the museums in Helsinki.

After winning its independence in 1917 from Russian domination, Finland fiercely maintained its neutrality. They have realised the power that neutrality can wield. Though sharing a border with the former Soviet Union on its eastern front, it steered clear of the cold war winds during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, focusing instead on strengthening its economy. Over the years, the country has steadily and surely, made great progress. Today, Finland's GDP per capita, at $34,900, is among the highest in Western Europe.

Tuija and I visit the National Museum of Finland, which has centuries of Finnish history. Its walls are plastered with paintings of Kalevala, the national epic of Finland compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century, and a book that has played a major role in the development of Finnish identity. It chronicles the rule of centuries of Swedish domination. The men of Finland have fought its share of wars. During second world war, this small country of 5 million people drove back the Russians and then the Germans, in two distinct battles. The Finnish soldier, fighting long battles in freezing winters, became the epitome of stamina and perseverance, and popularized the word "sisu", a term used to mean courage in times of adversity and working hard to beat the odds.

The country has won accolades for its education sytem. Finns do really well in PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) tests, and all the time people from other nations visit the country to get ideas and find out more about the obviously well functioning school system. Perhaps that is also the reason why, to a large extent, Finland and crime are perfect strangers.

LOOK UNDER YOUR SEAT

My journey to Turku UAS (University of Applied Science) has more surprises. In my haste to reach the university on time, I have missed taking the University's address. It's a university after all... people ought to know.

On arriving at Turku, I leave the station with a couple of young ladies. As we make our way out of the station, we have to cross a rail line. Some distance away is a stationary train, hooting after every few seconds. We reach the rails, and the trains gives another grunt. A new country knocks the lights out of me when it comes to such moments. Should we cross the line or should we wait for the train to pass (but we don't know when it will start). But the two girls look at me, then at each other, then walk briskly across the line. I join them. Being partners in crime, we warm up to each other.

I ask one of them whether she knows about Turku UAS. The first lady consults the other, and after consultations and deep thought, tells me that she regrets neither of them know. Turku UAS draws a blank again when I enquire at the ticket counters. It's then that the absence of an Internet terminus hits me the hardest. Being used to planning-on-the-fly, my first stop on arriving at a new destination is often the Internet Cafe. There I hunt for the best way to go around the city and prey on the scraps of information shared by the cafe owner and other co-travellers. Yeah, not the best way, but then that's my style.

Well, even after scouting for a while I can't find any Cafe around. I had been warned that home connectivity is so good and 3G so pervasive, there are few public cafes. But this is different -- my Cafe search has netted not even one result. To my eyes, there are none.

I had been in such a spot earlier. It had happened last summer when I was vacationing in Berlin. The day after I arrived at my hostel, I had left early in the morning for the guided "Cold War" cycle tour. I had to leave in a hurry and had just enough time to take the most essential details from the friendly receptionist -- the bus number to reach the destination as well as the names of the neighbourhood of my hostel and the destination. The bus number I wrote down in my diary while the neighbourhood names was committed to memory, or so I thought. The cycle tour had been eventful, the guide's narrative had the effect of taking us back several years in the past.

On my way back I took the bus with the same number in the opposite direction, but it was soon apparent to me that it was taking a different route from the one earlier, which meant that it would not go past my hostel. The name of my hostel's neighbourhood, that had seemed so clear a few hours ago, was now only a blur, though I could still remember that it had a "strafze" in it. I looked at the map and found to my shock and dismay that all names had strafze, that it was the German name for streets! I carried on in the bus until I got to a bustling commercial area, hopped off and made my way straight to an Internet Cafe. Only after noting my hostel address was I able to get back on track.

Well, back to the present. I am wondering whether I should take the bus and roam the town hoping to find an Internet cafe, when a young gentleman walks past. He has the air of a student, a query confirms my suspicions. He is from Turku UAS, he tells me. What a relief! He guides me how to get there.

On my return journey, I toy with the keyboard of my laptop and chance to look at some of my saved pages on Mozilla. I click at one of the pages, and ..lo, it refreshes itself! That's when I notice the strength of my Internet connection.. "excellent". I had been travelling in a hot spot of WiFi connectivity (the train) without realizing it!



A STAG COUNTRY

Back to the topic of prices. Finland may be expensive but then there's also some give, some take. The "take" part comes in Helsinki at 2 am at night. After a long day of fruitful meetings, I ran my way at mid-night to Helsinki's notorious hideout called Bar Loose. It was in the city center, a three km run from my Olympic Stadium hostel, so by the time I reached there, my glove-less hands were freezing. A 3 Euro ticket got me inside the disco. Another 3 Euros got me ginger-ale. Back home, I wouldn't get entry into a disc unless I had parted with a hefty 1000 bucks (that's around 15 Euros), and pataoed (that's a very Indian word that means something like pampered + convinced) some girl to join me, by buttering both sides of her bread or whatever else she wanted buttered. And I would have had to get some beer which I wouldn't even drink.

Well, but the story is not about the butter, it's about the bar. Don't forget this is the original reindeer country (Santa Claus has his home in lapland, which falls in Northern Finland) and stags are always welcome. Maybe they are more than welcome cause the dance floor is crowded with single ladies. Bar Loose is a terrific place which plays rock n roll.



THE VOWEL-HARMONISED FINNISH LANGUAGE

I met some students at the universities I visited. Like anywhere else in the world some were happy, some cribed, and one young man even told me the story about buying a donkey in his native Ethiopia.

It went like this: In my town, he said, if you had to buy a donkey, you meet one vendor and ask him the price. Then you go to another and ask him for less. He says one thousand, you say nine hundred. "no, no" "yeah, yeah"...you haggle, fight and talk about everything under the sky. Why are prices going up, why you are not at fault, what the prices were like during your grandfather's time, how it was much better then... Finally you agree to a price and go home with the donkey and a lot of new words, in case you are new to the language.

In Helsinki after walking the aisles of a supermarket for a good deal of time and loading a trolley full of goods, all you get at the cashier's is a "kiitos" (thank you). No chance for a talk. He told me about his friends who have been living in Finland for more than a coupe of years, doing nothing all day but learning Finnish, and are still not confident of speaking the language. "It's very difficult," my friend tells me.

But already I have taken a liking to language. The rules of vowel harmony stipulate that the front vowels (ä, ö and y) cannot occur in the same word with the back vowels (a, o and u). Once I latched on to new words and called them out a few times, it would seem easy to remember them. My mouth and tongue would make the sound of their own accord.

In Finnish, there are also certain phonotactic constraints: there can never be more than one word-initial or word-final consonant. What this means is that if you are beginning a word with a consonant, the word MUST have a vowel immediately after the first letter (the consonant). Think of some english words: think, trying, spelling -- none of these could exist in Finnish. Where words are borrowed from other languages, they may have to be operated on before being accepted. The word Franska, would have to undergo a change because the cluster Fr- is not allowed. So, in Suomi (which, by the way is how Finnish is known in Finland), the language spoken in France is referred to as ranska.

As a result of their love for vowels, Finnish people can proudly stake the claim that their language is the only European language in which normal text contains more vowels than consonants. There are similiarities between Finnish and Konkani, my native language. Tati is aunt in Finnish, it's eggs here in Goa. Joo (pronounced "yo") is the commonly-heard word for yes in Finnish, in Konkani it means "come" such as in the frivolous but extremely popular Goan folk song "yo bayle yo, soro mhaka di poylo" (come, my wife, come, and get me some whisky).

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Photos

Bookworms
Moomin, Snufkin and me at a Public Library in Helsinki (creator: Finnish author Tove Jansson). Moomin and his family Reading is one of the top hobbies of Finns. Most read in their mother tongue (Finnish, Swedish, Saami). All foreign language films have Finnish sub-titles.

Open House Every Day
At the Helsinki City Planning Department's Laituri building, an interested resident inspects the shortlisted entries at the Harbour competition. Resident's feedback in terms of comments and ratings are taken into consideration before the jury arrives at its final decision.

The Keeper of the Past
A joy to behold. The tower of the National Museum of Finland has an illuminated star set against a stone wall.

The epic that binds the Finnish people
Scenes from Kalewala, Finnland's national epic adorn the dome of the National Museum of Finland. The Kalevala played an instrumental role in the development of the Finnish national identity, the intensification of Finland's language strife and the growing sense of nationality that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917

Battlefield scenes
Donning the armour, I get a sudden surge of energy! At the National Museum of Finland

Past meets Present
Yesterday's queen and today's princess the National Museum of Finland!

Sinä ja minä, me tulla toimeen oikein hyvin
You and me, we get along very well!

The Finns bare it all for their team!
Finns and Swedes are arch-rivals when it comes to ice-hockey. Jubilant fans celebrated Finland's win over Sweden 6-1 at the World Ice-hockey Championship finals in 2011. (File picture from my May 2011 trip to Finland)

Paint me Blue and White
Finnish fans dress themselves with the national flag's blue and white colours while waiting for the victorious World Ice-hockey Champions of 2011 at Helsinki's Kauppatori (Market Square). (File picture from my May 2011 trip to Finland)

Another cheer team
Yes that's me with some of my friends from the Finnish cheering team. Before the Finland-Sweden Ice Hockey finals. (File pic)

Celebration time
Father and son at the Helsinki Market Place after Finland's victory over Sweden. (file pic)