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.

A Call from Down Under

A few days back I got a call from an old friend. A "friend", is putting it mildly. When you go through 3 years of NDA the relationship can only be understood by the word "buddy". Its been 30 years since we had sat side by side through academic classes in NDA while we tried to fight off sleep and hunger as some of our instructors tried to impart some knowledge to our dulled brains. Today in hindsight I believe they were successful as we seem capable of handling most of lives problems adequately. Just goes to show that if you have some one droning on & on to your sub-conciuos mind, the message goes through.

But that is not what I wanted to write about. It was the value of the call I got from my friend EBSV Saradhi. He is now known as Vijay Eyunni. It is as if EBSV took on a new identity after he immigrated to Australia. Typical of Vijay he kept me on a guessing game when he called and inspite of my scrapping my memory I could not nail him down. Our conversation went way back to the mid seventies and the "blip" of a year that we spent in IMA, the friends we grew up with and lost track off till the Internet came along & it seems to have brought all of us back together. Some of us are on facebook, most on the course yahoo group but a few can only be contacted by the POT( Plain old tele). As name after name came up for discussion it was incredible how we could recollect every fine detail of events long gone. I can imagine similar conversations between the many names we remembered and what a thrill it must have been for them as it was for us. I believe in Dec of 2008 there was a Diamond Jublee celebration at NDA. I would have loved to be there but geographical challenges prevented such a trip.

Anyways for those who havent seen the ex Gurkha lately-- there he is on top , without his Khukri looking lean & mean ( well maybe not that lean) as he takes on some sort of a Martial Arts stance...

Milldog Sluminore

Last night we eventually saw the movie. I felt a bit confused when the movie got over and as is customary, we asked each other if we had liked the movie. Anita did not like it. I liked it but I was not happy with it. While it was a great story and every one does love a rags to riches story but the way India has been depicted is what holds me back from backing this movie in full . In a way, it was the truth but it is difficult to allow the rest of the world to see India in that light.

One change in the story I would have liked is for Latika to have answerd the Three Musketeer question correctly. Dont ask me why-- but that is the way I would have liked the story to have ended as against the guess that Jamal resorted to. Afterall is'nt the story line about Jamal using his life's story to address the questions??

Aayush who joined us at the fag end of the movie was so captivated with the movies final question climax that he ended up seeing the movie all over again from the start.

Definitely worth seeing!! but just for the record ---It does not beat "Wednesday"

Pankaj/ Shalini visit Feb 2009

Pankaj/ Shalini , Neel & Niki drove up from Pitts this weekend. Their trip was long overdue and we all looked forward to it. Canada is on a long weekend on account of "Family Day" on Feb 16, while the US has Presidents Day and they too have a long weekend ( atleast for the kids schools) . We did what we love doing together - ie going out for breakfast. Very appropriately "Panera" has opened shop very near square one and that was the obvious choice. During the day all of us spent some time at the Y playing squash and a streatch of walking/jogging on the indoor track. Late at night we took in a movie-- "' Jane do, Jane Na" -pretty nice and strongly recommended for family viewing. As the weather was still pretty cold for any out door activity we spent time on a board game interspread with some great food that Anita had pre prepared in anticipation of their visit.

I am looking forward to their visit this summer when we can do some kayaking..

Here is Pankaj enjoying an Orange ( not in pic) after a game of squash. As per him this is what he loved to do whan he came to the US many moons ago.

Feb 12: Aayush's Birthday

Today is Aayush's birthday. We started the birthday as has been customary every year with a small cake cutting ceremony at midnight. This was accompanied by calls from India & Japan. Actually we had already had a small cake cutting ceremony on the night( Feb 4) Antrix left for Japan . In the evening Anita organized a surprise party for Aayush. We requested Young to muster three other friends at 7 pm this evening. We organized some choclate cake and pizzas for the boys but I am not too sure his friends had not let the cat out of the bag and the surprise was not really a surprise. In the pic just above you can see from left to right -- Young, Aayush, Sayed and Sid. The pic in the middle is Anita thinking Aayush is still as small as he is in the snap right on top-- alas!!

Happy Birthday Aayush -- hope the year ahead brings you lots of good tidings, health and happiness.

Antariksh off to Japan

Last week Antariksh left for a three month Architecture internship at Tokyo. You would not believe what all areas the recession has impacted-- the Engineering interns at the Univ of Waterloo were hard pressed for a coop opportunity as most firms were hunkering down for the recession and trying to save every dollar they could. As options dwindled the search was intensified and it is to Antrix's credit that inspite of the odds being against him, he persevered till he found a position in Israel and Japan. We had to rule out Israel as during those days Israel was at war with Palestine and it did not seem a safe place to travel to. Japan was the other option and a quick call to the Japanese Embassy enlightened us that a visa was not a challenge. Morale & spirits rose from then on . A recent communication from Antrix indicated that working a 11-13 hrs a day seems normal. All these years when I heard that the Japs were workoholics, that aspect seems to get confirmed now. The last few days while Antrix geared up to leave for Japan , he tried to pick up some rudimenatry Japanese. Though he a did do a good job at picking up essential phrases but I guess a large part in language learning is pronounciation. I am sure he would have ended up murdering their langauage the first time he must have attempted a conversation.

By the way have a look at his portfolio-- seems a bit sci-fi to me.
Portfolio: > http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/portfolio/atandon/portfolio_.pdf

We wish him all the best for his coop term in Japan