Happy New Year

Hiya Friends,
Wish you all a very happy and bright 2011!
This is a photo from one of the highlights of 2010- the Canoe trip.

Fog(gy) Memories…

Early morning scene today -
Location: Out of my window.
I get up and look outside the window and see that my neighbourhood is covered in a white blanket of sorts. I have to walk out the door into the balcony and check instinctively. I smell the air – there is a certain crisp to it. It is not smoke – not the pollution you are now so accustomed to… OOO it is fog! Fog that diffuses the early sun rays and the one which will dissipate as the rays become intense.
The fog, the cool weather all of this has become so rare in these recent years – something attributed to global warming - that it seems distant now..
I instantly apparated (from Harry Potter) into my school days. This brings back the anticipation we used to have as kids – of the soon to come Diwali festivities with fond memories of the school vacation associated with it. Then it brings back the memories of the approaching winter, of snuggling blankets and not wanting to get up early, of going to school early morning any way and enjoying the ride on dad’s scooter, of wearing the red school cardigan…
All this hidden somewhere in you and lost in the daily grind only to be brought back unexpectedly one fine day…
Oh all the nostalgia!

Welcome?

Who wants this doormat?

2 days – 3 continents (virtually)

This weekend was all fun and dance. Enjoying summer to the fullest!
Its summer and there is so much happening in the city that you have to choose!! This weekend we did festival hopping attending 3 events in 2 days.
There was this South Asian Festival with all the pomp and colour of our side of the continent! They had a whole program of music (tabla concert) and lots of dances – Kathak, bharatnatyam, Garba and of course Bollywood!

Next hop was the beaches Jazz festival. This was in a park near the beaches area. It was out in the open on the lawns and had attracted lot of crowds. We spent some time there listening to some young talent and then some singers from the French quarters in Canada and later Argentina.

Sunday was our Salsa day and we headed to the Salsa fest. It was interesting. There were a lot of hot spots which was like this – they had blaring music on; being either played live or played records and there were people dancing. Then there was a stage and people playing live music there. After a while 2 instructors were teaching some basic salsa steps there and people were watching and learning. I too joined in of course. You know when it comes to dance, I cant stop myself!

Loved the cultural diversity all had to offer – right from the crowds to the music and dance to the array of foods!

Beach BBQ Vs Earthquake

What sounds more interesting – a beach barbeque party or an earthquake?
Ok, I know beach barbeque party of course! Right? Well if you’d ask me, I’d say an earthquake. I know what you are thinking now – she is crazy! Well judge for yourself …
It so happened that we had a beach barbeque party organized at the office – just a summer celebration lunch. There were some relay games and Hawaiian shirt contest and the likes. Lunch was hotdog, pasta salad and potato salad followed with ice cream! Interesting it was indeed as there was the whole of the office – all of 12 floors worth people gathered to enjoy the meal.
Then we headed back to our dungeon. This needs a bit of explanation. We are located on the 14th floor but some restructuring work is going on there and so we are temporarily located in the basement which we lovingly call the dungeon.
So, back to the story. We came back and were at work for about ½ hour. I felt something shaking. I thought I’m moving my chair too much so sat still and the shaking continued. Saw the water bottle shaking and looked around to see if anybody else had noticed. That time, the colleague who sits across me also looked up and said he too felt it. Then there was some noise around and we all started wondering if we should head outside. I hesitated for a moment thinking I should take my passport with me if nothing else! But that thought just flashed past and we headed out. Some more people were descending the stairs.
We are in a building 22 stories and if we felt the tremors in the basement, I’m sure people on the higher floors experienced them much more than us. After about 10 mins, we started to go back and the building security would not let us in. We told him we just wanted to grab our passports but he wouldn’t agree. So we had no option but to go the parking lot away from the building. Once there, some of us started checking on their blackberries about news of the earthquake. Here we came to know that the earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale. They had started evacuating the building and all the staff was out. We were told that there would be investigation to verify that the building suffered no structural damages before we would be let in. that would mean about 3 hours of no activity and just waiting. 3 of us sneaked inside through an alternate route and gathered our stuff.
Then somebody had a bright idea of going for beer! So our team headed out to this place and we had a great time there with drinks and snacks and chattering around. Making the most of ... earthquakes… on a Wednesday afternoon…
Not totally crazy, am I now?

Rush Hour... no rush minute...

What time would you get up if you had a bus to catch for another city at 6.00 in the morning? ok let me give some more details. The bus starts at 6.00 am, reaches the point you board in about 10 mins. You stay at about 10 min walk from the boarding point.
So again - what time would you get up? 5.00 am? considering you would snooze and everything...
well not me!
I get up at 5.45 am (that too accidentally, more on this in a minute), rush through everything; barely managing to get a very very quick shower, and make a dash to the boarding point. And how! start walking, am not even halfway there when the bus goes past me and then I am left with no choice but run. Technically there is a choice - of missing the bus, but not without trying right? Not when you took the trouble of reserving a ticket in advance! So I reach the bus just as the conductor is about to close the door. I ask him if this is the 6.00 am Borivali bus while puffing and panting heavily; he nods and I set my foot on the stairs. Finally I am in it and it starts immediately! Leaves me thinking that good I didnt waste any time wondering if I would make it to the bus or not and trying!
Now for a little background.
I was to travel to Mumbai on an official visit. I had booked in advance for 6.00 ticket. I set an alarm. Mom too was going to set one and I didnt let her do it: very confidently stating I'm all set and I've set 2 alarms - in case I switch one off instead of snoozing it. And so I had. Albeit for 5:55 am and 6:00 am instead of 4:55 am and 5:00 am.
Can you beat me at that?

Junk comments...

Peeps,
I have been getting some junk comments - for reasons I cant comprehend - and the comments too I cant comprehend.
So as a precaution, have set the comment moderation on.
-P

101st post and no title...

We study together from the age of 3 as kindergartners;
We laugh and cry together;
We gulp down food and manage to play in the short recess;
We run around the school campus sometimes forgetting who we are running behind;
We have our share of fights; Mischief intended : malice none;
We get back together the next day as if nothing happened;
We tease each other, call names: sometimes weird, awkward and remember the history behind all of them;

Some of our pranks backfire and one amongst us is punished;
We stand by him: daring to face the punishment together;

We recognize people by their first and last names and the house colour;
We belong together; we grew up together;

Then you leave high school and lose touch with most;
Welcome to the real world;

One fine day, thanks to the efforts of a few trying to trace everybody, you get a call from a school mate.
A reunion … after 19 years!!
Excitement, anticipation, anxiety;
Will you recognize them? Will people recognize you?

And then the day arrives.
My vocabulary fails me here, I have no words to express.

Nostalgia.

Solar eclipse

as seen today...

Resolutions is a heavy word

was the title of my post last year and it weighs me down still.
Last year I had the audacity to make resolutions and to top it, make them public on this blog. So I take it upon myself to declare here how many I accomplished and where I failed.

•Make something creative every week so by the end of the year I should have 52 things I created - Although I didnt have 52 things I created, I did have a fair bit so I consider this as accomplished (now wont you say thats a creative excuse?)
•Write blog posts at least once every week - failed ! If only I had 7 more, the total would be 52 for averaging out the 52 weeks...
•Take one photo every week - then again! Although not 1 photo every week, I have a total of approx 2500 photos clicked in Oct-Dec - thanks to the Canada trip. Can I please please say this as more than accomplished?
•Exercise (this is one which is most likely to fail) - as predicted - failed miserably. Howmuchever, I want to put forward an argument here, I know a month of swimming, once a week badminton sessions and a couple of days in the gym does not count as exercise!
•Take up some creative course – photography maybe! - again - failed this too.
•Learn to swim - yay! done this.
•Ride a bicycle (this one is after a long time) - Did not :(
•Call up old friends (as some of u would agree I am verrry bad at this) - fared ok there
•Volunteer at an NGO/orphanage/old age home - yes

I had restricted my list to these 9 items (for the year 2009) and I am not too happy to report that I failed to keep up 4 of them.
Need I say I wont be keeping any this year much less make them public?
Do you keep score of your resolutions?

Welcome 2010

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 ahead!!

The return...

So... here I am sitting at the Toronto airport waiting to be airborne. As has happened earlier on my way here, I reached the airport very early! My flight is scheduled for 6.15 pm. I thought I have 3 bags so let me go early and reach in time so that I have no hassles. So I plan to reach there at about 3 pm in the afternoon. I arrange for the limo to pick me up at 2 o’clock anticipating it would take about an hour given the bad weather and impending traffic.
At about 1.30 when I am thinking of going and finish the check-out formalities at the hotel, I get a call from the limo driver. He says he is early as the weather is not too favourable and there are inevitable delays in this weather. Anyways by the time I finish all the formalities and have my luggage sitting in the car trunk, its about 1.45.
We start. What I see on the way is that there is no traffic and there I am at the airport check-in counter at 2.40 with too much time at my hand!
I had not thought I’d say this any time but I am glad that the rep at the counter could not operate the new ticketing system! At other times I’d be probably irritated at having to wait at the check-in counter for 25+ mins but not today. Today I am happy that the rep is cursing a system upgrade and that nothing works as it used to. All this is because of e-ticketing. Who would have thought. But I am glad for this hiccup and user complaints and more so that I (and the software we develop) am not responsible for this! Now that I have said this, I am musing, would it be any different for the customers we develop software for?

Cavalcade of Lights

What do you think about going to an open air theater at 7 in the evening and listening to a concert albeit not knowing the singer or having heard her songs before? Oh and I forgot to mention its -6 deg celcius and with wind chill feeling like -12. Crazy eh?
I did that. Singer was July Black, a Canadian performing artist. Occasion: prelude to Christmas. Location: at the Toronto city hall, where the official Christmas tree of the city is. It helps that this square where the performance was, there was an ice skating rink. I’d have liked to skate but given that there were nobody with us who could skate and me being so prone to falling, I dropped out of that and settled to just listen to the music. It wasn’t too bad, with cup of good hot chocolate to keep me warm.
After the concert there were fireworks. Amazing too. I’ll leave you with some pictures!

Toronto's official christmas tree.


the stage

fireworks - in the background is the new city hall buildings

the harbourfront - Toronto

The weather predictions for Sunday was that it would be partly sunny and partly cloudy but no rains. So I had decided that I do some outdoor activity. This time we(debs and me) didn’t ask the concierge for directions! Getting used to roaming here I guess! So we took the usual bus, then train and then the streetcar (aka tram).
We got down there and walked in the direction of the lake. Its not very difficult to find the way around there – there is the CN tower which you see from almost everywhere ( when our line of sight is not blocked by any tall buildings). We reached the lake side and there it was the queen’s quay.

It was a little cloudy and the lake reflects the sky so all was still pretty much grey at that time. It was a little cold too at 4-5 degrees. We took a stroll down from the queen’s quay to the harbour front and reached an area where in summer there are a lot of activities taking place. Not so much in winter.
There are three small islands in Toronto which can only be reached by ferry/boats. Summer time is the best time to visit there I hear. Now most of the activities there are closed so only the boat tour takes you around the islands.


We were thinking of going on the ride since it might start getting cold from next week and if the weather is not good, they might cancel the tours. But it was still cloudy so I thought we would come back in another hour or two. This boat tour was scheduled every hour. So we were just strolling around the lake side enjoying the sites
Here I spotted another boat just docking and then this girl calling out people/selling tickets for the next ride. I still wanted to wait for the sun to come out so that I get good pictures! So to spend about an hours time we went to this shopping center at the quay. When it was about 15 mins for the boat ride we went to the place where the boat would start from. We had an advantage of being the first ones on board – so that we could take seats we wanted! By now the sun was out of the clouds and so the sky was looking blue and everything was bright around.

The boat went past one of the islands which has a small aiport – which services flights from Toronto to New York and some other places in the US. Next we went past an island which was a clothing optional area – first in Toronto. Further we circled around a small Island which is a bird sanctuary. Didn’t see a lot of birds apart from swans and ducks – maybe because of the season. The trees were looking good and casting great reflections in the water, being the fall season.

The Toronto skyline looks beautiful from the boat.
Then we were on our way back to the shore.
So we had a good time and it was a good day spent along the harbor.

What happens when

you tell the hotel service lady that she didn't replenish sugar the previous day?

This..

Visit to the tallest concrete free standing structure in the world – CN Tower

Warning: Long Post

How does it feel being on top of the world? Well top of the world as far as you can see for that matter! I could tell you how it does! I visited the CN Tower and the view from there of the city of Toronto was amazing to put it mildly! Sunday being a good weather day we decided we would go to the CN Tower. It is funny how everything here ties in to the weather! We don’t really need to bother so much with the weather back in India. So the case in point is we followed the weather channel and studied that it would be a sunny day with the temperatures being around 10 degrees Celsius and we decided this would be as good a day to visit the tower as any we could in this season. Thus our plan was made.
We took the bus and then the metro to the Union station( yeah – just 2 trips in the public transport and you know a lot more about the city than you would by hiring a cab). We got down there to see this was like a business district with tall buildings trying to overpower one another – there was the Bank of Montreal BMO, the Royal Bank of Canada RBC, the Citi group building, the Scotiabank and the likes. Its nice to be in a big city and see all of these skyrise buildings which I missed while being located at some other client locations – in fact all my previous visits. Agreed all these places I visited had a small town charm about them but it’s a different feeling being in the heart of a commercial capital city – just like being in south Mumbai! Well the CN tower is visible from almost the whole of the city (and even from others – we saw it on our way back from the Niagara) but when we got down at the Union, we could see it right in front of us albeit 2 blocks away. We just started walking in the general direction to the tower and we knew we’d be there. On the way we saw the Royal York Hotel which is a very old hotel built sometime in 1928-29 for the royals from the UK. It is one of the largest hotels in Toronto. Going further we saw the above mentioned buildings and needless to say I clicked a lot of pictures.

Then we arrived at the base of the tower bought our tickets and headed inside. There is one lift which travels at 22 km/hr and it took us to the first level which was the belvedere in 45 seconds. The elevators were also glass paneled on one side. This took us to the first level – Outdoor Observation level. The main attraction here is the glass floor… Yeah glass. You can view the foot of the tower and the surrounding area through this. A lot of people were freaking out here as standing on a glass platform at this height does not really appeal to a lot of people. At the same time, we see a lot of kids very happily hopping and jumping around. Then there were some who were lying down on the glass and taking pictures which includes me! (thats my foot on the glass floor and you can see the ground below - far away - see the spots? they are cars)

Just outside of this glass is a balcony like structure covered with only a wire mesh and which is exposed to the elements which is the Outdoor Observation deck. The feel of fresh cool air is worth experiencing. The wind one experiences at this height has a different chill to it! Just taking a flight of steps we reach onto the next landing which called the Lookout is another balcony covered in glass planes. A pie of this circle also holds a restaurant and this floor rotates! The view from the restaurant changes and it completes a 360 degrees turn in 72 mins. Well I didn’t go to the restaurant but could make out the difference in views from all the time we spent their and the second time we came back to this floor after visiting the top. Again a breath taking view. All this at a height of 346 m or 114 stories equivalent.

From there we took another elevator which took us to another 33 stories higher to a height of 447 m. This is the sky pod. It is (or used to be till being surpassed by Burj Dubai) the highest man-made observation deck. The sky pod gives an unobstructed view of the Toronto city and is even more overwhelming. We heard that on a clear day one could see as far as the Niagara falls. No such luck for us though! From here you can see the levels below and is quite exciting. The view of the observation level from the sky pod below - We spent quite some time there and then headed back to the glass floor level. After some more pictures and viewing the place again, it was time to come back and set foot on solid ground!
We had taken the entire package which included visit to both the levels on the observation level, visit to the skypod, a motion theater ride experience and the movie about the CN Tower. The movie described how the tower was conceptualized by the humble idea that with all the high rises in the city, the TV signals were getting blocked and they needed a tower to transmit the signals which would be taller than any other buildings in the area. Thus the tower was born.
The motion theater ride experience was something I had not experienced before. Here we were seated in a mobile or moving vehicle. The movie was called Himalamazon which is how a new technology had made possible to develop trees which would grow in 11 months upto a full height. The trees would be made using the atmospheric conditions and DNAs from trees from Himalayas and Amazon – hence the name. It was almost like sitting in a ride with us being logs and it showed the journey of the logs through the factory, the jungle, the river etc. When the logs fell in the river, some water splashed as well!
Then back on the ground outside the tower, we went to the side opposite from where we had approached and we got a full view of the tower. Some more picture taking here, wandering on the brewery nearby and I was ready to call it day!

Look out

I am currently sitting on the 20th Floor of the 22 storey office building. Right behind me is a window which gives me a view of Toronto city – the CN tower and the business district on one side to the more non-commercial area which falls in the Eat York district where the office is located. Right behind the business district I can spot the lake Ontario which no doubt can be spotted because of the height where my desk is. One look outside and you can see that the highrise buildings and densely populated trees can co-exist. I can see a lot of green outside here and in this season of fall, some pretty yellow, orange and red trees. I am trying to make the most of this view while it lasts.
Lo and behold I present to you the view from my (office) window.

Visit to the most powerful falls

in North America - thats how Wikipedia describes Niagara Falls!

Yeah I had the chance to visit the famous Niagara Falls! What an experience it turned out to be!

We had our first stop at a village named ‘Niagara on the Lake’. It was a small town with tourist gift shops, coffee shops etc on the street. Next we went to a farm shop where they were selling fresh orchard picked fruit, homemade jams and preserves etc.

Next we saw this - a botanical clock - another tourist attraction here

From there we went to a spot where the Niagara river forms a pool of water down a valley. There was a cable car which went across the gorge. Here is the view

From there we went to the falls. The first view itself is amazing!! When we reached there, while still in the car, we spotted a rainbow; caused by the mist which rises high above and out of the falls.
A little note here: I had imagined the falls to be much larger than what I saw – maybe because of all these talk you hear but of course they are amazing – one of the natural wonders and not to be missed.

The best part is since we are on the Canadian side, we can actually be at the 80% side of the falls and experience the horse shoe from the top. The US side of the falls is about 20% and is flat where as the Canadian side is C shaped. We can experience it from the table top on the brink where it falls and gives you a very different feeling. Then we took time to explore the walkway along the river – the falls, the surrounding area, and walk on the ridge along the river. Some of my observations: You can really hear a huge roar from the water falling at this height. Also the mist rises very very high above. You can feel the mist as if it is rain while you are up at the horseshoe itself.

The next touristy thing we did was take a boat ride called ‘Maid of the Mist’. This boat takes you from one side of the river to a place very near the falls where there is a huge column of mist. That experience is awesome. You can feel the chilly water of the falls on you and get the feeling of almost going into the falls. Everybody is given flimsy raincoats which is actually of not much use since there was a lot of wind and we got wet anyways.

That is some experience. (We were lucky here as from next week the maid of the mist boat ride will stop. It will start getting too cold to go that close to the falls. )
Do I need mention I had a great time there?
Needless to say I was clicking throughout the day. Some of the pictures I have included here, some go in my Picassa and some more on Flickr.

Prep to the journey - an experience!

Well as promised, here is an update of the prep to my journey! My(and others) visa processing got quite delayed and I along with some other colleagues travelling with me were on tenterhooks waiting for them. Finally on Wednesday we heard news that the visas were processed and we would receive them. Me not being the main office was to collect my passport from the airport itself. So we were all ready to fly on sat night when we got the news that Monday is a thanksgiving holiday out here so we changed tickets to Sunday evening. Now all was fine until I left office on Friday – set with the e-tickets in hand. Saturday I did my last minute shopping. No matter how often you travel and how long you know in advance, there are always some last min things to be bought – yeah well its true for me at least! So I was out doing that, my cell phone battery conked off and so I was unreachable. After returning home, when I charged the battery sufficiently, I noticed a message from the travel dept guy asking me to call him up. He tells me that there was a huge drama and that my tickets are changed and he had sent out new tickets. Now the drama being, earlier tickets were from continental airlines and I was flying in from the US. According to the (new?) laws, we need to have US visas if we have a transit from there!! This was found by accident by another colleague who would also be flying with me. She had a casual call from one of her friends who works with the travel industry and he told her of this requirement. She tried to find out more and talked to some official from the Continental airlines directly who confirmed of this requirement. The she spoke to Thomas Cook and they confirmed as well.

Now this was notified to our travel dept back at the office and after some more rounds of back and forth, our tickets were finally changed to this new airline – Lufthansa. Now the story doesn’t end here; there is another twist. On Friday I had notified the travel rep that we had not received any formal documentation - no business invitation letter or other formal documentation. He assured me that none is required. Obviously I was not convinced and printed out all the meeting requests and any other doc to this effect that I had but left for the day unsure.

There was still this bug bothering me on Sunday which was the day I was to fly so I called up my manager to get any available documentation he had from the client or our onsite office. He was surprised that the travel desk did not give us the same and sent out some. That put me to peace. And thus ends my pre-travelling adventure.

But come to think of it, what if we had travelled on the initially booked airlines without any documentation with us? Shouldn’t the travel department guys know about it? It gets pretty frustrating as this is their job and they should know their job.

Here to stay

So what does it take me to start blogging again?

Well this …

Can you tell where I am now?

I traveled to Toronto, Canada over the weekend and here I am 3 days thence, sitting and updating my blog. I know I have been missing from the blog scene for quite a while and if you have kept checking all this while, I’m sorry folks!

But now that I am back, do expect to see the blog updated at least twice a week if not more! And of course you would loads of pictures on my photoblog and some here as well.

The prep to my journey was eventful and my next blog post would be about that!

So long!