My New Car

Well.. I was tired of travelling in the bike without a car and the monsoons made the matter worse.. So, I finally decided to buy the car even though my favorite Linea was still not launched in India. Me & Pach set out on a series of test drives and I finally settled on Honda City. Pach wanted me to buy a diesel car.. But none of the diesel cars interested me and their prices were exorbitant as well.. Honda City was smooth in changing gears and was perfect for city driving with good mileage. Here comes our new car on this day.

In the weekend, me & Pach set off to JC road in the weekend to get all the accessories fitted. We planned to go on a long drive coming weekend in our new car.

Visit to US

After my return from Chennai, joined a new project in Bangalore. Immediately, had to visit US on a business visit to a storage company. My travel plan : San Francisco -> Pleasanton (CA) -> Rockville (MD) -> Nashua (NH) -> Cambridge (MA) -> New Jersey -> Bangalore

Left Bangalore mid of June and took the flight to San Francisco. Had a opportunity to meet my good old colleague and friend Vivek. He had come to Airport to pick up and dashed to his house in Fremont. It was a lovely house. Manju had prepared good dinner, ate that and crashed.

Next day, we went around one of the parks where the previous colleagues had get-together. Evening, checked into a hotel in Pleasanton close to office. Mohan joined in as well.

Had been San Francisco. Even though had seen it many times before, just went around the city. Golden Gate Bridge is always inviting and drive over it is so fun. on a nice sunny day, it was at it's best. Visited, ChinaTown and drove around the city.

Took the flight to Washington D.C for Rockville next day morning. Luckily, Prasad Inchal was staying in German Town near Rockville. It was a pleasure to meet them in their house with lil' Aryan around. Renuka prepared good north karnataka food for dinner. Also, came to know Siddeswar was also in German town and it was pleasure to meet them as well.

After couple of days stay in Rockville, headed to Nashua in New Hampshire. Took a flight to Boston where Amanath also was in same flight. We both drove down from NJ to Nashua. stayed there couple of days. Good thing about NH is that there is no sales tax. All items we buy will be on the same price as listed without any additional taxes. Did some shopping in Nashua Pheasant mall & shops around.

Mohan had got his car and from there drove down to his house near Hopkinton, MA. In the weekend took a train and went to Boston for sight seeing. Senthil was staying in Boston and we both went around the city.

Next day, we drove down to Cambridge and after meeting during the weekend (July 4'th) took a flight back to Bangalore.

Visit to Chennai & around..

I had to visit to office in Chennai after my return to Toronto to complete the TOI formalities and handover my responsibilities to new PM designate. Bhavana & Chibi planned to visit me over the weekend of April 13-17 and we had good fun. The guest house is pretty new one and had excellent facilities like a resort... We spent good amount of time doing shopping since we had buy some jewellery and dresses.. We also decided to visit Saravana Bhavan & Murugan Idli shop for lunch while we were shopping..

One of the days we planned to visit Mahabalipuram and the beach.. It was good to see the great rock carvings by the erstwhile Pallava kings. We visitied the five rathas, Shore temple and few other caves too.. Shibani enjoyed walking on the beach while the waves swept her feet..



We decided to drop visiting Pondicherry and do it later sometime when we have few friends with us..

Mungaru Male..

We decided to watch some movie [Sunday 08, April 2007] since it's been a long time we had watched a movie in the theatre.. Yes, for a change it is a kannada movie which we heard was doin' good and was running almost 100 days and still house full.. Shibani didn't want to sit in the theatre for that long and opted not to join us.. So, it was just both of us and went to nearby theatre to watch the movie.. Needless to say, we didn't get the tickets since they were all sold out in the morning itself.. I decided to shell out 5$ for two tickets (cheap isn't it compared to us/canadian movies) and got the balcony tickets for the first show.

Now, coming to movie.. I should say we made a good decision of watch a entertaining kannada movie after a long time..The film is mostly shot in the rainy season in the Karnataka's visually stunning Malnad area. The film rocks because of the fantastic photography. One could see the Jog falls in it's majestic splendour from different views/angles including the top view.. The music is pretty good and then there is energetic artist Ganesh ( of Comedy Time) whose television work has already rewarded him with a big fan following. This is supported by veterans like Anantnag, Jai Jagdish..

Shibani's 7'th Birthday..

Well.. I should say she had been waiting for this day immediately after her 6'th birthday previous year.. To add to that, I had told her that I would return before her birthday from Toronto made it still special.. She was counting every day and the first thing she did everyday after waking up is to find out when I would return and how many less days for her birthday..
There was nothing special and it was usual family get-together.. Shibani's friends Mahima, Arjun, Gowri etc had joined us to wish her happy birthday.. I was extremely happy to invite Pach-Arch and Saanvi too.. It was the first time they were visiting our house and it made more special for them to join us on this ocassion.. Shibani cut the cake and was happy to look and play with all the gifts she had received. In the morning too, she had been to school which happened to be the last working day for this academic year. She had distributed the chocs which I had got from Zurich and I believe everyone liked them since they were different..
End of the day, she was the most happiest and cheerful girl ;)

Goodbye Toronto

It was now my turn to bid goodbye to Toronto on March 23, 2007. one & half years of stay finally coming to an end when I decided to go back for personal reasons. I liked the city very much and I should stay the stay has been very memorable and special to me. Some of the things which I liked in Toronto & Canada in general are :

1) Excellent planning & infrastructure.. The city is planned in grid form and we can see roads criss-crossing from North-south and east-west of the city.. The buses (TTC-Viva) ply on the complete length on these big streets. In addition to that, the metro(subway) train services on critical artery of the city provide the much needed mass rapid transport system. One can reach any corner of the city easily without a car !
2) Clean drinking water and electricity available throughout.. I didn't see a single minute of power-cut any time. Also, easy availability of hot-cold water everytime.
3) Experience the vagaries of nature : One can experience all the weather conditions - spring, summer, fall, winter.. The winters especially the snow is a great experience. I really enjoyed it a lot.. The fall colors provide a great sight throughout the country side.
4) Great shopping - easy access to shopping malls and internet shopping makes it easier to order any product of choice
5) Easy access to internet - High speed internet available easily which makes everyone connect to the web, download anything of our choice easily.
6) Large Indian/sub-continent community - Being multi-ethnic city we do not feel out of place.. We have numerous south-indian restaurants, movie theatres, temples etc..
7) Great road network - I loved driving on those highways.. I know it is quite monotonous and boring but the great road network cuts down the travel time and we are able to travel almost of 100 of KMs in quick time.. Since, I loved driving long distances it was pretty nice experience however it lacks the challenge and the varied landscape as in India..

At the end of it, we still would miss the social environment and the great tropical weather of India.. I'm heading home now after close to 1.5 years being away from my family..

My birthday in Toronto..

It was just one day before I was suppose to depart Toronto.. I was overwhelmed by the surprise gesture bestowed upon me by my team members.. After returing from the Sun sponsored farewell lunch in afternoon, we gathered for the cake cutting and later played TT for the last time..

Parents visit to Toronto..

I was very happy to invite my parents to visit Toronto. [Feb 02 - Mar 23] It was also a dream come true for them too and everything right from boarding plane to visiting Walmart, highway driving, Niagara falls was a great experience for them. They thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the stay and wished that they could have stayed longer. We visited all the places in and around Toronto namely the CN Tower, Niagara falls, Malls - Eaton, Fairview, Subway/Street car experience etc.
I had a good company at home and great mom's food for two months of their stay here. It was really most memorable time in my lifetime.

Winter Magic Niagara falls

Niagara falls is pretty awesome in any season. However, during
winter and at sub-zero temperatures we can seem some part of it
getting frozen and still huge quantity of water falling. I was very happy to witness the winter magic this year and below are couple of snaps.

Winter Fun in Toronto..

We were eagerly looking forward for the great snow in Toronto so that we all could experience it as well as get an opportunity to have some fun in snow.. Yes, the weather didn't disappoint us.. Even though snowing started a bit late this year but started after Jan 15 and didn't stop snowing.. The next snowfall was bigger and better than previous one and I thoroughly enjoyed it.. The Wipro gang had gone to Lakeridge ski-resort where we had opportunity to do skiing, Tubing and various other activities.. It was real fun and we enjoyed a lot..


I also had joined the Ice Skating classes in this winter.. The class duration was just 8 classes... I missed couple of classes at the end of it I was able to balance, walk on ice with skates and do a bit of sliding.. It needed a lot of practice to do skating and even though it looked so simple wasn't that.. The ice rink was outside and cold weather would let our spirits futher down..

Auto-show in Toronto..

Well.. Every year we have Auto-show in Toronto (Metro Toronto Convention Centre & Rogers Centre) sometime during second week of February... Last time I had missed it and hence was looking forward to be in the show this time around. I had opportunity to touch and feel some of the great cars and newer models/concepts which are yet to come by.. The cars & bikes were really good looking and I had particular interest towards the convertibles which I liked the most.. We took snaps by sitting in some of those cars.