...Life moves on...

It's a mixed bag of emotions as i count the last remaining days with my first company - Wipro Technologies, Bangalore. I must confess that it has been one of the toughest decisions of my life to leave this organization and pursue an opportunity outside. When i look back - I probably don't see a grief or any sign of remorse...All i see are some unforgettable moments and memoirs that this company has given me for the past 3 years and 5 months.

23rd July 2007, a bunch of 10 people from HIT were given a joining under the header of Magnum Opus. 31st of July 2007 - we were deported to Bangalore and our 3 months mandatory training was waived off because we had done a project with the company during our final semester. Yes indeed, it was like a feeling of a Chosen One - but probably not for long. We had a 15 day extensive Java training - there were many names but one which stuck with me for all these years was definitely Anoop. We were assigned projects by 19th August 2007. I got lucky with the Nortel Networks account.

From that day till now - it has been one heck of a ride. There were times when i just wanted to give up and there were times when i could enjoy an unparalleled feeling of happiness. My most enjoyable tenure work wise was with the GNPS issues that i got a chance to resolve. These were challenging and also gave me the perfect blend to learn and get exposed to the world. I learned to interact with people who were not of our culture and felt being responsible. Yes, i would probably take Chethan Mangalore's name right at the beginning before anyone else who have supervised me for in my present organization. I think as a reportee the best joy is to see people having faith in you, Chethan did just that. It gave me whole new confidence in dealing with things in life. No prizes for guessing but he gave me the opportunity to travel outside my home country too. Gaurav has been my mentor from almost the start of my career and i still take his opinions on things which are related my professional career. Well not to mention the fun i have had in conducting games or participating in one to make the work place more happening.

Speaking of onsite, Canada was a life changing one for me. So many of them out there in Canada who just gave me the love that i honestly never expected. I feel proud to say that i was one of those of lucky ones who found home out of home and where people really wanted me to come back again. What can be more saddening than leaving a part of me there with the uncertainity that it maybe really long before i see them again...It was like India there, it was like college and i felt people around the world are no different than us or we are no different than them. One random line that probably means a lot more than JUST being a line is this - Shaiju K, you are the best manager (not just a people manager) i have worked with/seen so far in my life...not to mention about the opportunities that became reality because of you. I learned a lot from you and would always be in touch!

I was lucky enough to visit Canada for the second time and it just showed me how people can be really welcoming to you - if you really know how to talk and acknowledge. Personally it was a great achievement because i thought i broke a lot of myths about Indians - yeah Russell we do have stereotypes but then if they were not there - you would be unemployed right now.

Getting back to India - Ah! What should i say...So many friends in Wipro as i leave...maybe i should take a breather and take all of their names who would remain as buddies even outside the organization - Tej, Shrikant, Santhosh, Sandeep S, Shyami, Raka, Sony...and recently - Umesh, Sundeep, Jyoti, Usha, Shuhaibu, Krishna, Sristy, Priyanka, Sai, Aruna and so many of them...You know the secret of having so many friends is by treating each one of them specially...but the place where i met with these wonderful people is at Wipro. I should not skip to mention Mahesh and Kiran too - you guys are more than managers for people. Also, the one Bengali who gave me all the confidence and also who made me feel that i was special - Mr. Sabyasachi Malakar. Also it's a necessity to mention Selva's name who was my first mentor and is a wonderful guide even till date. Gautam - i don't hesitate to say this that you are the most underrated person i have ever met in terms of programming ability...I know you would achieve a lot. Savitha and Sangeetha will always remain like those two cute seniors whom i always loved getting my legs pulled by.

I know my days are numbered and it would be a long walk on the 20th of December out of the Wipro Campus. Many asked me the reason - why i wanted to quit and till this night - i don't have a specific reason. I did not hate my managers - i loved each one of them i worked with. I did not crib for onsites they came to me, i did not ask for band progression they happened...But i think we all need to move on in life to an uncertain world at some point of time - forgetting our fear...where it might just be a new beginning...

All my gratitude to Wipro Tech, i wish the organization - all the very best and the people working for it or who have worked for it. It's hard to say a goodbye but probably it's for a comeback....The earth is round and Well you never know!!!

Cheers!

Why Indian Rock doesn't really know to Rock yet!

So i decided to write up something which has been a subject of close study for me. I have been in and out of it and then again back into it, but the reality is, no matter how much we raise the devil's horn, no matter how much we get wasted over a dope, no matter how much we learn to swear...India is far far behind in the Modern Rock Scene for getting any international attention what so ever. So sit back and read on as i try to dig in the causes and quest for a possible change.

The definition of Rock has changed over a period of time. No matter how you think the true ROCK was played in the 70's and 80's..Let's face it, it doesn't sale anymore now. Rock music had to evolve to compete with the ever increasing popularity of the R n B and Hip Hop artist. This is no longer a generation of the tough and the wasted. The new generation in the west wants to be cool and not rough. R n B and Hip Hop offers the same to them. It never made sense to me to listen to a Black Eyed Peas and spit out lyrics that don't have a head or tail but let's face it - They are cool. What did rock do to save it's fate in the hands of these elements - It evolved to something called - Alternative Rock. A genre which i have hurdled to define forever. The best way to describe is probably to think it of as something that you cannot classify into one specific genre of Rock music. No matter how much you debate over it but this is the only surviving form - which of course draws heavy influences from Pop music. Standard Chord sequences that have been played a million times in zillions of songs are arranged and treated to give you that sound that appeals to the radio.

Despite this try, i have struggled for one Rock station in Canada. Be it Montreal or be Ottawa - even if you get through one, none of them play classic rock any more. Gone are the days when a BJ or a G n R would rule the Billboard Hot 100 singles. When was the last time, a out n out rock number was on the number 1 spot? - Hard to remember. But still we have the Modern Rock Charts and we have our own favorites there holding onto a league of their own - but mind it, again, no classic Rock here.

Now let us shift the paradigm to India, as this post mostly deals with the scene in India, well ideally it should. I have been to uncountable Rock shows in India. We are at the mercy of Hip Hop still, that it hasn't caught up like a fire unlike in the west. A guy picks up the guitar mostly in the first or second year of college, gets his buddies, some of them he thinks has a sense for music and some of them are these cool dudes, who are his close friends - forms a band and the next thing you learn about them is that they probably hardly know how to ROCK but they do know all the gimmicks from the old School Rock musicians, they have seen the video of. A innocent crowd stares on and some out of them snap in alcohol abuse and starts spitting words of worship to the guys on stage. The third guy, who has no clue about what's going on the stage, gets influenced by this guy and follows him in raising his different finger patterns as that makes him look hardcore too. I hate to say this, but Rock has not been the thing about being COOL - which we take it as in India. No matter how much we deny it, but Rock has been dominated by the skin color and the accent - though we can correct the accent but the color? So the brown guy lands up in total confusion - because he neither can follow Hip hop because that's Just about too Cool for him to handle and finds doping an easier solution to his desire of being the Rough n Tough guy - on broader picture - he gets a solution to be different amongst the mass which listens to Bollywood songs.

With that being said - i am sure most of you have been to the Rock shows in India and you already know that you have nothing more to expect than probably 10 songs that get repeat played in every single show you go to. We are still living 15 years back - when the world has actually leaped forward to a new genre. The fact remains, like you can probably think that there can be no one playing the Indian music better than someone like A R Rahman in the west, similarly, it's hard to imagine someone from India to play something which is their music. The inception is not from us - but who said we have to incept to be successful. Hell India did not invent the computers - but leveraged the most out of it. So time now to think a little serious about what we lack primarily.

The first thing that definitely lacks in our bands is Originality - I know most of you know about it already as it might have been spoken out by so many Indian Rock Music Freelancers (well they hardly make money out of a permanent job doing this) - which actually leads us to the next point - lack of support. You know why we lack support - because it doesn't draw any money for any one. That leads to the third point - Bollywood. No matter how much you think yourself as Cool when you say that Bollywood music sucks - don't deny the fact that it identifies the Indian Culture - what we do wrong by being a Rock musician is - we try to steal the market from Bollywood rather than creating one from ourselves. Which brings us to the fourth point - lack of money. Let's face the facts - India is a developing country - we have still 70% of the population struggling for food - all of you reading this post belong to that 30% and for whom life is a smooth sail from the basic amenities perspective. Rock has been predominantly a DEVELOPED nation thing. Again deny it or face the truth. What we do know is that - we don't have a K'naan singing a song called Waving Flag from India about the poor people dying here rather than in Somalia - I am sure we would out number them any day. Of course the reason is - that 30% actually wanted to be Cool and i don't want to repeat myself about why they thought that Rock Music was the coolest thing to do.

Probably this post will go down the garbage and would be lost in the ever passing time but i would quest for a solution and i would do that right now. It's to the rock musicians of our country - It ain't gonna work if you copy the lifestyles of Rock musicians from the west. You would always end up seeing those 10 faces in the crowd that follows your band for all of your shows, who would cheer for you. India's definition of a Rockstar is entirely different - It will not work or fetch the things that Nickelback would sing in their modern day sale out song either. You cannot imagine yourself as a God once you land up on a stage and play the fastest riff in the world that annoys more people than what they would want to hear. The advice is, be a common man - don't compete to be the celebrities. Go back to your Jam room and bring out that creative talent in you rather than following someone else's foot steps to make something original. Err...hold on...that is not it, if you want to really see an Indian song do good - make it a little more of this age rather than staying up in the late 80's and smoking weed. Make even the one off show that you get - a grand event to watch. Show the media that you can make the money meter roll. Recognize your market, do not try to think that you can work in the WEST and the WEST is always the coolest place to boast about if you've got a show to play in the UK - no one remembers what happens after that one off show - so don't fly rather leverage it.

It's strange that i look down upon me and i find that i too struggle to accept the reality at times. Remember, Jai ho, was playing on all radio stations in Canada - even though it was an Indian Composition - maybe nice time to have a Rock song do like that - out of all the discouragement in the post so far - Take my words for it - people would be stunned here. Bottom line is - you have to make people believe that you can really make a business out of your music - else get ready to hold on to your passion and let it die a slow death - even before you have a clue about it. Until the next time. Adios!

Indian IT, soccer and Misc

I thought of writing this blog at Work because the feelings would be more justified that way. This post is an outcome of the dissapointment that Indians like us suffer when we find that all we do every year is support a Brazil or an Argentina or a Spain for the World Cup Soccer. How does it feel when you are sitting in front of the LCD monitor at work during a WC game everytime and someone pops out this question - Why does India never qualify for the World Cup? You guys lost to Lebanon this year in the first round? You guys are 133rd in the World Ranking? Well embarassing indeed. It's sad to see that all the money in India goes into Cricket which we call our religion but then Cricket has never been a world sports - and by the likes of it - it would never be. Anyway this post is not about Indian Sports rather it's about the Indian IT.

Hell yeah, if you have to compare anything to the Soccer in Brazil that runs with the same passion in India - It is the Indian IT industry. After living in Canada for the past 8 odd months, i have realized that parents in India have no intentions of producing a Diego Maradona or for that matter a player of any smaller stature. Reason is simple, we go for the safest bet of them all - Education. Sports is not big in India. The reason is not lack of nutrition but lack of money. A sports person in India is not guaranteed of a future - but a IT guy, yeah sure he is. We Indians are quite instinctive. I remember when i was getting admitted for my Engineering and that i had chosen IT as my stream of Studies - A lot of people gave a lot of opinions about it because of the post 9/11 after effects. But then IT survived, and as i can see reality - India would be the biggest exporter even going forward for the next 20 years minimum. It is slowly becoming like playing football in the streets of Brazil. Every nook and corner of the Streets in India has a infotech company or an Engineering School teaching the two basic streams - Computer Science and IT. A staggering 400,000 engineers were produced by India in 2010. That's like 10% of Canada's total population. I know studies say that only 25% of them are worth working for a multi-national company - that too leaves the figure at 100,000 people.

However, the sad side of the story is that we are not investing much on innovating - We are mostly renovating. If you go to a market in whichever part of the world - there is 90% chance that you would be using a product made in China. Now i also understand that India can never be China. A normal Indian guy wants to supervise work or fights for that day when he can do that - you cannot even dare imagine the work culture that a Chinese man would go through if you compare it with India. Well let it be that way then. Let's do it our own way - but let's make a product of our own - An Indian Product. I don't take away anything from the Services sector at all - I have heard terrible reviews/comments from people here about our work in the BPO sector - but then face reality - India again is the biggest exporter of Call Centers. If i dig more to find out why we could do it - true, the dollar is a BIG factor but then a normal Indian doesn't "live" is life like the way a normal guy in the west would do. We value work as our source of money, entertainment and amusement. At work here, we leave office by 6 max. No one wants to stay beyond that. But in India i have hardly left office at 6 in the past 2 years. How do we celebrate? - Eat food at good restaurants and save a lot of money.

Going forward, India will produce gallons of MBAs. I would say it's a good sign in a way - but the fact remains - that you can either manage or you just can't. A degree is just an aspiration to your desires for more money. So we should know our strengths and invest on that - which is not always being the manager. I would wish to see more money put into grooming people in Engineering or other fields of Education. Good faculty and rising awareness on faculty management would be just an added benefit. The professors in the IITs and NITs are getting older now - we need to have a concise movement in that region. As the new age comes forward - I can see India shining all the way. I don't boast because i am an Indian but the fact of the crux is that - Even though population is our biggest concern, it is our biggest strength too.

I hope the dots were connected well enough for you to make any sense out of this post. Eventually i wrote it over a period of a week. So until next time - Signing off!

...and before you realise...

"Long time and no see", no wonder i have been really busy - busy giving excuses. Life has taken a good turn and hit the speed gears like never before. I am here in Ottawa for the second time after just a 45 day break. When i left Canada on 3rd April, i was heart broken and i was happy at the same time. Heart Broken because i lived some of the best days of my life ever and happy because i was looking forward to people who waited for me to be with them. I must say that i had a gut feeling that i would be back here to work again - even considering the fact that my project from my company per say was not in a great shape. But to get back here in the next 45 days was truly unanticipated.

2010 has everything in it to be rated as one of the best years of my work life so far. It's not easy to get an Onsite in a 60 membered team where only 6 at a time can be here. Moreover, i got my chance so it was the turn for the others. I would not want to be modest but i think i sincerely wanted someone else to come here if that was in my hands to decide. I got a call back in 20 days time from my Manager that people here wanted me to fly back in - I think i had done well in the past 5 odd months.

It's always good to do the niche things in life rather doing something spectacularly common. Enough of self enlightenment in the post already. Let's move on and talk about those 45 days i spent in India. The first week after landing was meant to be in Bangalore. I met friends from all nooks possible, ripped my wallet like crazy. In a week's time, my bills were reading 10k+ INR already. I dropped by to Kolkata, met some of my old buddies from College. Not to mention the DCH reunion between Sid, Akash and Sameer at Jadavpur. It was all going good, as i traveled back to my hometown in North Bengal. I was thrilled by the weather - 18 degrees like, i was doing great in India. Had Mom cooked food for 6 odd days and traveled back to Kolkata to meet people who probably mean the most to me in someway - Dark Project re-united. Nachiketa did not turn up but Korak, Ugyal and Sauvik certainly did and we for the first time took our time off to relax and hangout together rather than practicing for shows or recording.

I was in Kharagpur with by soul bearers. 46.5 degrees of heat. No food till 4 in the evening - other than the consolation that i was spending my best times with DP, it was dreadful. We had our photo shoot and i think now we finally have some band photos that are worth sending to Newspapers/event managers. I was doing my bit with my DSLR, however Sauvik could not have looked more Geeky with his Analog SLR.

When i left KGP, i felt that the fun stopped for sometime but i was wrong. As always Anir is probably become my best buddy ever for our common choices. He introduced me to 3 beautiful women out of which 2 were just great company - Meet and Amy. I got so involved into our group that i did not even find time to meet my other commitments before i realised that i was supposed to fly back again. We went to Coorg, did night outs, cooked food, ate food, celebrated - as if i look back and feel that a year had passed in just a span of 15 days where everyday was a celebration. I have been honest with them and i would be honest here, i did not know that India can be this fun after i left Ottawa. Indian Ladies take a bow - you are awesome.

Not to mention that my weekly average working time in office dropped severely as i was into some kind of a rush to live my last few days in India. It became a Irony that even though people just crib to come to Onsite and put their papers for it - i was not really willing to come back again so soon. With all due respect to Gajan and Kush in particular - i had a feeling that i would miss my friends in India a lot more. It's been almost a week now and i still miss the fun...It's summers here in Ottawa - it looks like a different place all together. Girls in tank tops - 1/16th pants, sunshine, workouts.

So bottom line time - nothing in this world is fixed - so don't plan for something which is into your imagination. Live this moment - do not crib about the future or the past. The more you want something, the less it comes to you - so don't expect anything from anyone. Life is just too short - Keep your arms wide open to grab anything and everything that comes your way. But in the end, be honest and remember that LOVE WILL KEEP US ALIVE.

Soon. Signing off.

DJ

The years!

25 years, i had the privilage to walk on this earth. 25 long years it has been. With Lows and with a set of highs. I guess, it's a part of the ecosystem's phenomenon that balances things for us. What though it expects is that we never hold back too far and let a memory linger way too much because if we do that, we never move, we remain buried in the past.

In these long 25 years, i have been a poor man with no penny in my wallet to having almost a bag full of it. I have seen the world millimeters away from me. I have loved and i have lost at the same time. I have dreamt and i have failed. But as i move, i try and make each of my day better than the last one...I strive to become a better person every single day.

Sometimes i am disillusioned by the unanswered questions about this life - where i belong from and where would i reach in this long walk. One thing i have realised is, that it's no worth thinking about it. I have tried a zillion times to define the definite but only with a return of nothing. It's like a blind man trying his best to distinguish darkness out of the light.

See the other side of life now, i made friends and i mean really hardcore friends 30000 Kms away from home. I never thought that there would be a day in my life when i would feel bad to leave people whom i did not know even 4 months back and that i was upset about coming out of India. Now i am sad because i have to go back. I did not know that i would come out of the shadow of being the insecure guy in school to become one of the bold guys of my age. I never thought i could be loved after i lost it once, but now i know that there is a plateful this life has to offer that we never bother to look at. If you are one of those who likes to think about future, then you should know that you are making your present a past without living it. I loved it when one of my best buddies told me that our parents have always struggled and saved their worth to give us a beautiful day, we need to take account of that and enjoy it.

I guess, if one of you share a similar story as this one, Go out there, breathe the fresh year...If you have been a Sudipto then Man If i could do it...You can do it too. Be a self made, always.

A continuation of the last post!

Just read the last post back, only to realise that it was one of the most lame ones i have ever written. Anyway, i felt that the chronological data is not required when you write a blog because i don't think a reader really cares about it unless it's a mystery plot.

I woke up at 7:00 AM with much assistance from people. I knew i was the last one to rise. There was a door bell suddenly. A lady came in with a couple of packets and 2 cups of coffee. It felt like being in a jail receiving a bi-daily meal. I had just kept it on the TV table and even before the next breathe, people rushed inside my room to tell me that it was bad. We Indians are not used to muffins and Black Coffee (It was brown but it tasted like CCD's 20 ml expresso) for breakfast. Now where would you get Puri and Sabzee in the morning when you are in Canada. People decided to take it from outside.

We got ready and got out. Mr. Driver was all ready in his same old Blue Sweater. Though he behaved mostly as a man who is not paid well enough by his company and that his wife was too annoyed because of him driving us overnight to this place. We got on to the Bus, as i heard Madhu saying that the next stop is - The Skylon. It was evident that, not only the software professionals use copy and paste but it was the same with Civil Engineers too. This Skylon thing looked the same copy of CN Tower, only that it was shorter in height. We went up the tower and the whole of Niagara was bustling all around us beneath. It was a good view. Cold morning...and you do not have much patience to things. I ran into conversations with Umesh yet again. We had coffee at Starbucks with a Butter Croissant. It was the first time i went inside a Starbucks, had heard a lot about it till this time but always chose Canada's own Hourtons over it.

It was around 10:00 AM. Mr. Driver looked into his watch and gave us 45 minutes to do sight seeing at a place called Journey Behind the Falls. This place was good. The closest to the falls i could ever get in the entire trip. I was kicking myself to have missed out on the maid of the midst thing - A ferry takes you closer to the falls and you see the water falling point blank. Wasn't meant to be, fate had chosen a different time for me to come here. Anyway it was worthy enough to see what i could get to see. Today was Valentine's day, it's hard to find a single girl on this day but i was hopeful. Only to my disgust, the crowd was us and a very few people who were probably a victim of their fate just like i was.

We made it to the bus at around 11:00AM. Tussar had a proposal of doing a simulated Sky Diving thing. I was excited too, i had seen this on TV. As soon as Madhu proposed it to the driver, it seemed like the fire just needed a bit of wind to burn. The Driver started "barking" and i by no mean want to use a sober word here because i hate people when they do it like that. I was quiet however, as Umesh suggested me to take out my ipod and take a listen to music instead of paying attention. I normally don't speak when seniors are there to take care. So it was not meant to be. We went to the shopping market in Niagara which were all Factory Outlet Stores. You name a brand and you have it here. We got some discount coupons and off we went, inside the stores. I bought a few things. I am very bad at resisting my temptation at buying stuff. None the less, they were good deals.

We went to Burger King for - My recommendation, never go to Burger King for a Burger. We reached the parking place right on time - it was 2:00 PM as the driver had grunted to us before. We got on to the bus, only to realise that Tussar had not taken any food. He politely asked Mr. Driver to stop by at a Sub. But as again i write...our gentleman (sarcasm) started grunting again. He went to the extent of comparing the cultures of Ukraine and India. I wondered, how could he make out the culture of a nation with 1 billion people having just 11 on board. I was itching to speak but held on to my nerves - Never speak when your seniors are there to take care. I put on the ipod and started listening to some random music - I like them when we are on a drive. Yes for all of you, who are a little and i mean a little curious about "what happened to Tussar's lunch?" - Mr. Driver did stop at a Subway on the way.

We reached Toronto at around 3:45 PM, and again little to my knowledge the place "to eat" was fixed - You see we Indians are very particular about our meals. If it's food, we don't see the time...and if it's Sarvana's Bhawan people don't care about what they order too. It was again the sweet smell of South Indian food. As shameful as i am, i went on to eat on everybody's plate other than my own Vegetable Dosa. I knew - I will never order vegetable Dosa again. It was awesome food otherwise.

As we saw the sun go down towards west, and as the miles ran behind us - We left memoirs in time, to cherish and to remember for - I left my Time-keeper - My Fasttrack watch awarded by my college at Niagara for the times to freeze!

A road trip to Toronto/Niagara.

We went to a road trip from Ottawa to Toronto and Niagara for a total time of 36 hours. Here's a snapshot of the experience.

13th Feb 2010, 7:45 AM: I was ready and raring to go. Pradeep had asked me to come to his room. I went hustling down, as i was already late for about 15 minutes. As i opened the door of Room Number 211, i realized that my perception of IST in EST was wrong. Indians were not the slowest in the world. I was informed that the Driver was travelling from Montreal and would be 2 hours late than the anticipated time. I went back to my room and started seeing some debate on NDTV about the recent MNIK overplayed hype. No wonder it's a good fodder for the politicians, the news channels and least to mention SRK too, because how so ever honest he is about his statements - No publicity is bad publicity.

13th Feb 2010, 9:30 AM: The mini-bus carrying about 7 people arrived to take "the 4 of us - Pradeep, Sangeetha, Savitha and Sudipto" at our Apartment doorway. Mid earth is owned by some Chinese folks, so i anticipated someone like that to come out, but that wasn't the case. The accent of the person gave us an impression that he was probably a French guy. But as it turned out, we were wrong. He was from Ukraine with a broken English accent. In the midst of things, i did not know the 7 people on board personally. But after half an hour of drive, they introduced themselves as Anuja, Asha, Harish, Madhu, Tussar, Tussar's family (wife and his kid) and Umesh. So we were on the way to Toronto, a trip in Canada driven by a Ukrainian guy working for a Chinese company with Indians on board - A world tour in it's own rights.

13th Feb 2010, 2:30 PM: After a single break in between for Canada's favorite Tim Hourtons, we reached Toronto in around this time. As the bus (i felt it was a tempo of sorts) entered Toronto, i gushed to Sangeetha that it felt as if we entered a new Country all together. Ottawa really looks like a different city. Little to my knowledge, the whole trip was pre-planned and well executed by Madhu so far. We reached a South Indian restaurant by the name of Karaikudi. Entered inside and felt that i am back in Chennai. It was chettinad food and more than half of my company were speaking in Tamil, which i was generously trying to understand. In came the waitress, she had colored her hair and looked like the face of the Indian waitresses of the 22nd century in India. None the less, i love South Indian food and we ordered for a variety of stuff. Our group was interesting. We had a Marathi Family, a Marathi girl, 2 malayalis who could speak all South Indian languages, 1 Bengali and rest all Tamil speaking people. No wonder they say that India is Countries inside a country. The Bengali was generous so he had no trouble.

13th Feb 2010, 4:00 PM: It's always a challenge to do time saving when you are in a huge group but i thought we were quite punctual - I know by this time the driver had a different opinion about us. The group was split into two - 3 on one side and rest on the other. The split was done on the basis of people who wanted to see CN towers and those who wanted to shop. I wanted to see the 3rd tallest tower in the world and hence was amongst the group of 3. So a random guide was allocated by our driver and he bought the tickets for us to go inside and above the tower. I was a bit scared of being around with two ladies, with the fear of the unknown - but they were brave and i was wrong. We set out inside the elevator, as a narrator told us that it was going up at the speed of 15 KM/hour. The lift was made out of transparent material, so we could stare outside, as i felt a bit of "stairway to heaven" kind of a feeling. The whole world started to shrink down and i could envision that the boundaries really narrowed down to a lump. We reached on top of the CN towers and it was a VIEW. We could see the entire city of Toronto from a bird's eye. They said that Niagara could be seen from there too, but it was misty. As i stared down, i felt the analogy between the proverb - "Bada ban jana" and the "height" of the tower. You look down and you see everything so symmetric, no borders, no differences - Our world (My attempt of gaining some TRP over this post).

13th Feb 2010, 6:00 PM: After our brief stay at the City Hall Toronto, we set out for our next destination - 82 miles down south, the Niagara falls. I remember the blurry memories of reading about this mammoth falls in our geography books in school. I was excited though the even dawned quietly on us.

13th Feb 2010, 9:00 PM: After resting our bags in the hotel, we had set out for the falls. It started snowing like the Christmas Carol songs. The spirits were high and there was nothing stopping us(another attempt on TRP). As we reached closer my anticipation rose. I was about to see something which had so much of hype around it. The air grew colder as we stepped closer to the falls...and here it was - The Niagara Falls. You could see Buffalo, New York on the other side of the falls - they call it the US side of it. The Canadian side looked more brighter and was outshining the US side of the story. Leaving the diplomats do their jobs, i concentrated more on the falls, i admit that i have never seen such a gigantic proportion of water falling down ever, even though about 40% of the water around the falls was frozen. People folk-ed in for the picture perfect snaps - one memory to remember forever. I was not well protected for this cold and soon realised that my hands were numb (Ironic). I ran for cover but the only place i found were my Jeans' pockets. They called it the horse shoe (probably because of the shape of the falls resembling it) which was hard for me to picture(Guess i had to be in a helicopter to visualise it).

14th Feb 1:00 AM: Realising that this trip was offering me more company than i thought of, i celebrated the dawn of the V-day in my own rights - Another year with no valentine. Well much to remember about this night than to forget. I had found out a great company in the form of Umesh. He is quite a senior folk but he never made me feel that. Our philosophies matched and we started having some good bit of conversations. We got off from Boston Pizza and followed Madhu inside the haunted house called - The house of Frankenstein. Half of the gang had left for the hotel by that time and we were 6 of us (out of which 2 were girls) getting inside a place which tried the best to "scare the hell outta us". With not much senses on the proper side i did not feel that the masked men and fake dead bodies were good enough to haunt me that night. However, it was a great experience. We walked down to the hotel and slept by 2:00 AM that night.

Rest of the story in the next post.