Canada - Vancouver part 1

When i first came to know that i have to move to Edmonton i didn't even know where it was. 'Canada' to most Indians means only one of the following things -' extreme cold' and 'Niagara falls'. I had only read about Canada in 'Dollar Bahu' and there too it was described as a country where the person has to spend some very difficult years so that he can go to United States. Naturally i was quite apprehensive about moving. But, amongst all these averse opinions only one of my friends was very excited for me, saying that it is a very beautiful country with wildlife and mind blowing scenic beauty. I felt comforted by that and started looking forward to my actual experience.

Vancouver : (5th July - 13th July 2012)
        Since Vinay was in Vancouver for a short time we decided that i would land in Vancouver so that I can get a chance to see Vancouver. We were in Vancouver for only one week. We decided to spend the evenings in the week touring the city and on the weekend to go to Victoria Island. Vancouver is quite a big city with a really impressive downtown. We took the train to go to Downtown and then walked down from the station to Canada Place Promenade. The Downtown area is very impressive with many multi-storeyed buildings overlooking busy streets. Yet, alongside these busy streets there are small gardens with beautiful fountains where people can sit and take a respite before heading on with their busy schedules.
     Canada Place Promenade is a really beautiful spot on the harbour. It was an old cargo pier which was turned into a really great tourist spot when the Canada Place was constructed with its unique architecture resembling the sails of a boat. At Canada Place we took a walk on the 'history walkway' which is like a self guided walkway into Vancouver's past clicking photos with the statues there. The walkway overlooks the harbour and we saw different cruise ships docked there on their way to Alaska. Sitting on one of the benches there with brightly colored flower plants by my side, looking out at the sparkling sea with the sea breeze brushing on our face i could not help but feel that i am in a land of beauty.
After sometime we thought of returning home going via the old Vancouver area. There we saw many antique shops, small cafes with people eating while sitting on chairs in the patio area, old buildings and lampposts which would have come straight from a Victorian era novel. I felt a bit nostalgic there as it reminded me of Goa with its old building and small but chic restaurants. As the sun started setting we returned home because even these beautiful streets in this wonderful city have seen their share of street violence.

A bridge with a view

The most beautiful scene I have witnessed while in Edmonton is the view from over the groat bridge which is on top of the Saskatchewan river. Everyday as i commute from my home to office i look at the scenery on this entire stretch of groat road. There is not a building in site, all we can see are the trees dotting the banks of the winding river. I have been able to see this landscape in all its beautiful forms throughout the year and it appears beautiful every day of every season. In the fall the trees on the banks of the river change colour to golden yellow and their reflections shimmer on the water creating an illusion of lights dancing in the water. As autumn comes to an end the sun rises later and later till most of the times i am able to catch the sky before sunrise in all its pinkish-purplish glory. That sky has made me time and again lament the fact, that i cannot paint because that is what i  want to do when i see it. As fall turns to winter, there is a layer of snow covering everything and sometimes if there is enough sunlight you can see the coniferous trees sparkling and i feel as if i am in some kind of enchanted place where there is magic in air and  i will  santa claus and his reindeers will burst into view any time . The river in winter is completely frozen and it makes one wonder, if there was even a river there in the first place.
As the river water starts melting you can see big chunks of ice floating in the river, heralding the arrival of spring. Even though the coniferous trees are looking as serious as always, some of the other trees have started forlicking, sprouting new leaves in delirious happiness. At this time the view from the bridge has completely changed, whereas in winter one could see a silver blanket covering the trees, now there is a lush green blanket.
 Each season here is beautiful in its own way and the transitory nature of most of the seasons (except maybe winter) makes one appreciate every season.

Off to Banff

    Right since Vinay had decided to come to Canada he was always talking about the 'Canada Rockies'. I had never heard of the existence of  'Canada Rockies' and I suspect few do. But, it was during the spectacular journey from Vancouver to Edmonton via the TransCanada train, that i began to to appreciate what 'Canada Rockies' were and what a wonderful opportunity we had to explore them.
     Canada Rockies encompasses about five national parks of which 4 (Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho) are close together and have been declared a World Heritage site. We had passed through the Jasper national park while coming from Vancouver so we thought that we should see Banff first and then see if we can manage a more leisurely tour of Jasper some other time. We fixed  the date of going to Banff  as 28th September and booked a room in the Mount Royal Hotel on Banff Avenue. Since we didn't have a car we figured that staying at the center of the Banff town would be a good idea as we would be close to the public transport as well as the restaurants. The next step was booking tickets on the 'Greyhound bus service' to go to Banff. We thought of going on friday afternoon so that when we reached Banff at night we could get our rest for the rigourous hiking activities we had planned.
    On 28th September afternoon we went to the Greyhound bus depot in Edmonton. We arrived well before our scheduled time at 2:15 and were in the waiting room when we came to realise that the earlier 1:15 bus had not come yet. I was surprised to note that buses do come late even in Canada. Thankfully our bus was on schedule and we got on the bus. But, since the bus was already full we didn't get seats next to each other. The most impressive thing about this bus service was that there was a toilet on the bus!! Another intersting thing is that here for long distance travel in bus, we have to checkin our luggage similar to what we do for flights. The bus journey to Calgary was delayed because of a traffic jam on the Trans Canada highway. We reached Calgary at about 6:30. Looking out of the window i could see numerous skyscrapers, beautiful sculptures in the center of squares and i felt that Calgary resembled the glamorousVancouver more than Edmonton which has a 'quiet town' feel to it. Unfortunately due to the traffic jam we missed our connecting bus and had to wait for half an hour for the next bus.
    Calgary-Banff is only about 1 and half an hour journey but the bus driver decided to break it off at Calmore for a coffee break at Tim Horton's. We were drinking coffee and eating Cheese Bagels when we suddenly realised that nobody from the bus was at the cafe. We went running to the bus to find out that the bus driver was pulling out from the parking and was going off. Thankfully he stopped when we started running after him and when we got on the bus all the passengers were laughing. I almost cringed with embarassment as it was the first time in my life that such a thing had happened. I made a mental note to keep a lookout for the driver at all times in the future.After 20 minutes journey we got down to Banff.
     The moment we got down i could feel the cold. It was 9:30 in the night and we started towards our hotel with the aid of 'Google maps'. We could see a faint silhouette of mountains but nothing clear in the dark. Walking down the streets i thought we were taking a wildlife tour, what with the street names being named after the wild animals found around Banff - Lynx Street, Bear Street, Squirrel Street, Wolverine Street and so on. I thought it innovative of these people to name their streets in this fashion. We got to our hotel in a very short time passing through quite crowded streets (which in itself is an anomaly because back in Edmonton ,streets are almost deserted by 9) and open shops(in Edmonton most shops close at by 7). We checked in the hotel, had dinner and called in an early night planning to getup early for hiking.

Walking among trees

I often go for a walk in the evening. The apartment where we live is very close to river valley where the sasketchwan river flows so i often go there. It is very serene to gaze out at the river with the waters dancing in the sunlight. I just love that place. Everytime the train goes over the river i lookout to catch the breathtaking beauty of the river valley. There is the calmly flowing river beneath you and on both sides of the river the land is completely covered with green lush grass and dotted with trees.




The trees around the school



The grounds around the school

     

                These walking trips took me to a public school near our house looking at which i wished my school was like that. The building itself is not so impressive as the grounds or the meandering footpaths which take you to the school. The entire ground surrounding that school is covered with green grass and trees. As autumn comes, the grass remains green (no doubt regularly irrigated by sprinklers) but the deciduous trees have started shedding their coats. The squirrels are busy, running here and there scavanging food for the coming winter. The whole look of this place has changed. As the autumn invades, the scenery is like a beautiful collage of colours with the coniferous trees retaining their green colour but, the deciduous trees are in their different stages of change with light green, yellow and orange. I am still to catch the beautiful maple leaves changing colours but, even without them its a treat to see the entire ground once covered by grass, covered by the yellow-golden leaves of fall (Even though our apartment manager won't agree with me as he poor dear has to blow the leaves off the grass :)) P.S : Images courtesy Vinay Bavdekar (Don't want to make a copyright violation ;))



The golden-yellow carpet



I am sitting in the window seat looking out past the slums to the Pashan lake. It seems wonderful,
I always wanted to sit like this the cool air fanning my face and writing... :)

Anyways what to write is the next question... My day to day life doesn't bear revisiting for me, let alone make an interesting reading. So writing about it is out of question. I am most passionate about.. So i will start with the one thing on which i a comfortable enough to talk for hours.

I will start with the recent book which i found interesting - Tipping Point
It is a book which i never would have thought i would have read, much less love. Till present i have limited my excursions to the lands of fantasy, mystery and sometimes spirituality. But, one of my friend told me so many interesting facts from the book that i begged him for it.

Tipping point is a book of how epidemics spread. Generally epidemic is a term which we associate
with some disease however, Malcom Gladwell (author) insists that 'epidemic' term can be used
to describe any phenomena which becomes widespread, let it be a disease or any new fashion.
Reading this one would wonder what is so interesting about the book that a person reading it just can't stop eulogising about it?
It seems like some book which will have a number of facts and a bunch of case studies thrown together to make a potion, potent, yet which no one will be willing enough to taste unless one plans to write a thesis on it...

Yet the book is riveting because the author has woven all the facts and test cases to make a
mesmerizing story out of it. For me the book was an exhilarating experience.
The name 'Tipping point' itself suggests, that peak point at which suddenly a phenomena gets picked up by a multitude of people making it tip i.e become widespread. The author describes Tipping point - 'a biography of an idea. To quote him 'It is the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, ebb and flow of crime waves or any number of mysterious changes that mark everyday life.

' To make sense of epidemics the author suggests that 3 factors should be considered :
1. Law of few
2. Stickiness factor
3. Power of Context
The entire book is about how these factors can actually be studied to understand why a particular fashion fad or an idea can tip. He has given many examples around these. One of the example he has cited is about Paul Revere during the American Revolution. Paul on hearing from a stable boy that the English military was on the way to crush out the Americans, spread the news overnight to all surrounding villages. Because of this, when the English came the local militia were ready for them. He contrasts this with what Paul's friend, who tried to spread the news to west of Boston and failed to make any impact. The author argues that the result was different in both
cases because they were different kinds of people - 'Law of Few'. The author describes that there are 3 type of people responsible for any word of mouth epidemic - connectors, mavens and salesmen.
Connectors are a type of people who know a lot of people. They are people who collect acquaintances as people collect stamps - its their hobby. Mavens are people who collect a lot of information. These are the people who are always gathering information and also helping others from their knowledge. Salesmen are people who will convince people inspire of themselves that a particular thing is good.Paul Revere was a person who had all these attributes. Paul was a connector and so the stable boy approached him and when in the middle of night he was spreading the news he knew whom to contact and had skill enough to convince them.

Stickiness factor is something which we come across everyday when we remember some advertisements and forget others. Gladwell has however cited some really wonderful examples about how 'Seasme Street' and 'Blues' Chess' used the Stickiness factor for educating kids through TV shows.

Another example cited by Gladwell is about a public murder where no witness came forward to help the victim. Gladwell argues here that if the murder had only one witness then that witness would have come forward to help the victim, but because there were so many nobody came, believing that the other would come. Gladwell says that this is power of context. And further goes on to explain how it could have resulted into rise of crime in New York City in 1997. When crime was on the rise in New York City in 1997, there was a lot of graffiti on the subways and a lot of fare beating. When a new in charge for the subway was appointed he took action against the graffiti ensuring that no train would leave the docking station unless it was clean. For fare beating, police in civil uniform were put and people were arrested. They found that many of the people who were fare beating had weapons on them. After these steps were taken a decline in crime rate was observed. Gadwell links both of these together explaining the 'Broken Window Theory' - If
there is one window in a building which is broken and if it is not mended, then after some days all the windows in the building will get broken'. The crime rate had increased because small felonies were not getting punished which created an atmosphere in which anti-social elements started nurturing.
Gladwell had given numerous examples around all these 3 factors but the underling idea is the same - 'Little things make a big difference'. The book is very fascinating and startling. It made not only interesting reading but i started looking around myself and found out that i was indeed in the midst of connectors, mavens and salesmen :)

So, after a long long gap i am again writing ...
Yesterday, after many years i again took out Swami Vivekanad's book and browsed through it. The person, the books amaze me. When i am feeling down i always take it out and reading through it soothes me. I got a whole set books of the life and preaching of Swami Vivekananda as a prize for an Elocution competition in ninth standard. And since then I have always prized them.
Reading, i have always felt, acts as a kind of medicine to me. Except for instances like yesterday, i prefer fiction , mystery and such novels. The story should be so gripping that one should lose oneself in it. I find relief in submerging myself in the depths of any book - a trick to escape from realities(Only thank god nothing similar to Inkheart ever happened to me). Tired from the frustration and ups and downs of this fickle IT sector , books are those patient friends to me who cheer me up. I think i will stop now or else somebody may take this thing to be an essay on 'Reading - my passion/love/hobby' instead of a personal blog :P

Its been some time (well actually years) that i have been mulling over the idea to start writing a blog. But, i always used to get stuck over the name. I wanted to give my blog the name which would best describe what i am going to blog about. So that readers can be give the freedom to decide whether to read or not. I am of the motto 'title says it all'. Hence, the reason to search for an appropriate title.
Yesterday at night (at about 12:30 when generally i get really gud brain waves... I sometimes think that i should be going to office from 5 p.m onwards as i am more innovative at that time) i suddenly found myself with the title for the blog - 'maze of thoughts'. You being an intelligent enough reader may already have guessed that my writing is going to be just like my blog title - a completely maze in which i leave the reader to follow his/her (nowadays there is such a hue and cry over the pronoun as if merely changing a pronoun is going to cause liberation) path in it.

I already beware the reader that my writing is going to be just like what is to be seen on this page with lots of unrelated ideas written in brackets. Afterall, i am writing this blog just for me. The reader is free to ignore whatever he/she doesn't like. Infact thinking from this perspective i find that thus communicating in electronic medium is really gud as one can simply close the browser window on the bloggers face without the blogger ever coming to realise it and the reader escaping the danger of being bored to death by having to endure the other person's monologue.