NOKIA CALLING

K. J. S. Chatrath takes you on a tour of Nokia, a small town in Finland. The birthplace of the largest mobile phone company in the world, the town — with half a dozen churches — is also home to a Christian movement that works in many parts of the globe, including India

Visiting Finland, a country not visited by many Indians, I entered the posh shop of Nokia phone company in the main shopping street of Helsinki. I told the young man behind the counter the purpose of my visit. "I am from India visiting Finland on a holiday. Nokia is a popular mobile handset in India and having come to Finland, I would like to visit Nokia town where phones are manufactured. How can I go there, please." He looked genuinely surprised and fumbled a little. "Sir, but we sell Nokia phones and accessories here," he protested. "Yes, of course, but you must know where the town is located," I persisted. "OK, come with me, sir." He took me to another corner of the showroom and went on to do — what every person does in case of difficulty these days — consult the Internet. After a few strokes on the computer, he beamed the "Eureka" look. He told me the town was located near Tampere — around three hours by train. Feeling happy, I thanked him and went to the railway station to book my ticket for journey to this elusive town.

The chubby, almost expressionless old woman at the railway booking who attended to me did not speak much English. Few clicks on the computer and she called one of her male colleagues for help. He spoke English and explained to me that there was no seat available in the train for the journey but the return journey ticket was available. However, he went on to add that a seat was available in the compartment for people travelling with pets. "Don’t worry, even if you don’t have a pet, we can put you there if it is OK by you," he added graciously. Not being a lover of cats and dogs, I put up a brave face and lied politely: "Ah, I would love it." So armed with return ticket to Helsinki-Tampere-Nokia, I left the station and was on the platform the next morning to catch the train.

I had no difficulty locating the special compartment — there were images of a dog and a cat painted on it. Once the journey started, I thoroughly enjoyed the green of the countryside from my train window. It was a holiday and people were going to their houses in the countryside by the first morning train — to return after three days on Sunday evening.

I was expecting to get down at a swanky railway station but was surprised to find that there was no station building or any structure at the place where the train stops. There were just two ordinary platforms. In fact there was no ticket-buying facility there. One has to get into the train and request for a ticket.

Nokia, a small town 200 km from Helsinki and with a population of 28,000 in South West Finland, is the birthplace of Nokia mobile phone company. The company and the handsets are named after this tiny town. It is said the name Nokia is derived from the Finnish word nokinaata, a marten, an animal that inhabited the banks of the nearby Nokinvirta river. The earlier name of the town was South Pirkkala. It was in 1938 that it was named Nokia, and Nokia railway station was established in 1895.

In 1966, the fusion of Nokia Paper mill, Nokia Rubber Works and the Cable Works took place. The rubber and paper units were sold off in the early 1980s and the birth of an electronic giant took place. In 1992, Nokia decided to focus on its telecommunications business, which resulted in it becoming the largest mobile handset manufacturing company in the world. The name Nokia has been retained though the company has no longer any phone manufacturing factory in Nokia — the town.

The town has six churches and I visited the one around which lies the cemetery. The cemetery was like any other cemetery in a small European town — green and clean. At the entrance, facing the Church, are a row of graves and a monument in memory of those from this town who died during the two world wars.

I discovered something more about Nokia – "Nokia Revival" (also known as Nokia Missio). It is a Christian movement that originated in Nokia town. The starting point of the movement was the renewal experienced by Markku Koivisto, the Vicar of Nokia Lutheran Church. Koivisto started to arrange, what are called "Thursday-nights". They were characterised by strong emotional worship, loud prayer and healing of the sick, spiritual gifts and falling down during prayer. Later on due to friction and problems, Markku Koivisto was forced to quit the vicar’s job. The activity has spread to Helsinki and other towns. I was surprised to know that apart from operating in some other countries, it does missionary work in India, where it has started a Christian school for children and a Bible school to train pastors. There are 20 people working for the mission in India.

One can spend hours walking and resting on the banks of the Vihnusj lake. Since the day of my visit was a holiday — the Midsummer Holiday — all shops and establishments were closed and there were no people around, except an old dignified couple who had come to the cemetery to water the flower plants on the grave of their loved ones.

Quiet sadly, I took a bus from a stop near the church to return to Tampere and so ended my short visit to the amazing little Nokia.

HOME