Aayush's Self Portrait

This is what Aayush did -- he made a self portrait from his graduate picture. What you see above is a pencil sketch of himself. I plan to get mine done as soon as he has the time to do it.

Spring is here

This weekend though forecasted to be wet and rainy turned out to be sunny with some great tempteratures( atleast Saturday was). I didn't do what my neighbour does at the first sign of summer -- he starts to wash his cars. Seeing his gleaming cars right through summer does give me a complex but I cannot somehow bring car washing up on my priority list-- it just does not happen. I remember in Noida we had some one do this for us on a daily basis and with the result we had spotless cars (inside and outside). Not many folks invested in this and it was impressive whenever I offered a ride to any one.

The weather was so nice today ,I was contemplating a quick kayaking trip down to Port Credit but I decided against it when I thought of the the icy splashes from the waters. It will take another few weekends to be warm enough to get on to the water.

Up on top you an see Aayush and me in front of our house. The snow has gone but the grass is still brown from its dormancy through winter. The camera is on our car in an auto mode ( our neighbour was washing his car :))

The Drive to Work

Every day ( well not every day, but on weekdays) I undertake a 14 kms drive to my work. It used to take approx 25- 30 mins going North on 410. I smiled all the way to work as the South bound traffic was really jammed bumper to bumper. There are lesser businesses in Brampton as it is more of a residential town and hence there is high volume South bound in the morning and North bound in the afternoon. Both times I am driving against the traffic and like I said , it is a commuters dream. Now, it takes just 15 mins to get to work. The roads are "clean". The impact of the recession can be seen as fewer people hit the road each day and my commute time decreases. I no longer smile as I think of the disrupted lives as we all know that layoffs increase everyday.

My constantly decreasing commute time is juggled between listening to the John Oakley show on 640AM or calling my brotherPankaj ( also on his drive in at that time , on I89 South in Pittsburgh) and my parents in Lucknow. Sometimes official conference calls take priority and its a wonder I have not ended up in the ditch trying to read / write messages on my BB while driving. A few months back we heard that Ontario was going to ban the use of cell phones while driving following the example of Quebec which has made it into a law. Fortunately the premier, Dalton M ruled against it and Torontonians can now make good use of their time while they commute on an average 60 mins ( one way) to work.

After coming to Canada, i have got hooked to audio books and its a great way to keep abreast with reading. I just heard the classic -by Napolean Hill and Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) all over again-- a book I had read when I was around 20 along with a few Ken Follets. Though you may look like a "zoned out" teenager with ear plugs -- it makes a lot of sense to go for audio books.

BTW: I forgot to mention that the pic above is of our Highway 401 which is 16 lane wide near the airport. During the peak hrs the traffic moves at snails speed.