back to India..

it is time to pack and move back home leaving behind the new faces I got familiar with, I might not meet them again but if I do then it will surely bring a smile to my face. Canada, where I spent good 3 months is actually a country still in ice age (I am told the temperature can go down up to -30..crazy !). Canada is a real big country, 10 times bigger in size than India and India is 10 times higher in population. Canada was discovered about 500 years back infact the country is much younger than many of the beautiful temples back home (by home I mean India). For such a young country it is quite advanced when it comes to infrastructure and the standard of living offered to the citizens. Looks like basic education and Healthcare is available free of cost, that simply means the taxes paid are made better use of. Anyways let me take you through my little ride here..

Montreal, Paris of north America (really? atleast that is what the tourism sites claim), was the first city I visited in Canada. Like most big cities, Montreal also has 2 parts, one part of Montreal has the 18th century buildings, few cathedrals (Notre-dame being one of them), narrow cobblestone streets, street shows, horse-drawn carriage rides, bi-cycle or rather tri-cycle rides, etc and on the other side of Montréal we have an amazing skyline, most of the Multinationals have their office here, best hotels are available, night life is vibrant and can cater to all kinds of people. I had a chance to be there during one of the musical nites, the francofolies. I enjoyed the good music but crowd was wild, wild because their way of dancing was pushing or kicking each other (seriously, I am not exaggerating) and they were having fun doing that ! Anyways, I also visited the Olympic stadium, went up the observatory from where you have the full view of the city and also went into the biodome which has the four ecosystems depicted - tropical, laurentian, marine and the polar areas. My son had a good time there and I was happy to see the penguins for the first time. To keep my little one happy we also visited the drive-through safari and the granby zoo, it was the most boring thing I did in Canada:-)

I also went around to other nearby areas and Quebec city was the best of all. Hotel Château Frontenac ,the stone buildings, street shows, winding streets lined with shops and restaurants, they all make the city a wonderful place to visit. One of the weekends, me and family went to Mont Tremblant, the drive to the place was the best for me in Canada, really picturesque. There were too many views which could have been made into wallpapers. The place was again beautiful and gondola ride to the casino turned out good for me as I won few dollars at the casino. Incase I get a chance, I think I would like to spend another weekend at this place but will not have the maple candy on snow again ..too sweet for me

Just for the sake of experience, me and family went apple picking to one of the near-by apple farms, my son who is not yet 3 had picked all the apples. The first one he picked was yummmm and assuming he can pick the right apples we allowed him to pick the remaining but then no-one ate the apples other than me (they all were sour !)

Last but not the least, was my trip to Niagara, the view of the falls from the observatory (top view) or the boardwalk or from the boat ( the maid of the mist boat) were all exquisite, extraordinary, magnificent, splendid, outstanding, breathtaking or simply sexy ! Never saw anything of that sort ever and having seen such a view, I feel sorry for the Americans because though majority of the falls is in America the view is better from the Canadian side ! On our way to Niagara we had a stopover at the 1000 islands, we took a boat ride allowing us to see the various small islands. Some islands were so small that all it had was one small house and water all around. I wonder what will be their postal address ? Do postman actually go and deliver letters there? What if someday the water level goes up and the whole Island goes missing? will the address cease to exist ? Too complex for me till someone explains. Apart from 1000 islands, we spent some time at Toronto downtown and visited the CN tower which I never knew was one of the wonders of the world (sometimes in the 90's). We had a good time and the glass floor in this high rise tower was quite unique

So it was all work during weekdays and fun over the weekends. So though I initially did not enjoy being in Canada maybe because I was away from family after a long time and for a long time but the country now seems friendly and when people say Bonjour I know what to reply ...

Signing off.. oops flying off ..Babu S

Go Habs Go ..

I saw my first ever Ice Hockey game today, not on T.V, i watched it live @ the Bell Centre in Montreal. It was Canadiens (Habs) Vs Atlanta Thrashers. The atmosphere was amazing, thousands of people had come in to support their local (Canadien Habs) team and Canadiens surely needed the support after having lost their last 5 encounters, the match was a do-or-die for them. Very much like cricket in India, Canadians (not just Canadiens) are surely crazy about this sport. Stadium was packed with people from all age groups, kids with their mom or dad or both, young couples (both straight or otherwise :-)), middle aged men, women, university students, school students, few had come in wheelchair and quite a few 70+ youngsters (surely young at heart). They all had just one anthem for the evening - Go Habs Go ...

The match was very interesting and Canadien Habs dominated the game from the word go, the Atlanta Thrashers were being thrashed by Canadiens at the every given opportunity and by the end of first 20 minutes, the Canadiens were one up on the scoreboard. Thrashing by Canadiens continued but from no where Atlanta scored a goal and the scoreboard read 1-1 at the end of next 20 minutes. And finally during the last 20 minutes they played Hockey, I mean there were some fights on field (in India the first thing to pick up during a street fight is a hockey stick), anyway the crowd loved to see the players hit each other and i was one of them. No Goal scored in the last 20 minutes, so the game went into extra time (5 minutes duration) which also did not provide any result and finally Canadien Habs ended their losing streak with a well deserved win during the shootout

Stadium was nice, decent setup to accomodate such a large crowd. Every corner of the stadium had a logo of some sponsor or the other. Infact the game is so commercialized that during penalty strikes the referee waits for the TV commercial to complete and then resumes the game, i do wonder if it was commercials during the break or was it the other way round. Even the support staff who came in to clean the ice seemed to have a sponsor or at least they wore jacket or T-shirt which had logo of the company that sells disinfectants. Well this kind of commercialization is nothing new, it happens in most of the sports but referee waiting for TV commercial was new to me :-)

Anyway, they played good music during the break, during one of the breaks 5-6 yr old kids played Hockey which was nice to see, there were some funny moments like all the Habs were asked to spell CAMMALLERI (last name of one of the players in Canadien Habs team) and none of them could do it. Well it may not sound very funny but it was fun when we saw it. Prior to the game, United Soccer Leagues First Division champion, Montreal Impact were honored and the players received a standing ovation for their win. I am sure the players felt very nice about themselves, representing your city/town/country is a great privilege and then living up to your dream and also millions of others by winning a tournament is amazing !

special thanks to the client who arranged the tickets for today's game (surely a wonderful gesture by them), I got to see a hockey game and the seats we got were also perfect, seats were quite close to the playing field or rink and high enough to be able to view the game without any trouble. Good that Canadien Habs won the game and now Go Habs Go, go get the trophy ..