Most Wonderful time of the year..

Yes.. It is Christmas time and it is the most wonderful time of the year in Europe and the Americas. Toronto was all set for Christmas and we could see this in all the shopping malls and main streets lighted for christmas. Even, the FM radio continously plays a lot of christmas songs. Some of my favorite songs have been : Last Christmas I gave u my heart, Let it snow, Jingle bells etc..

As I mentioned, the malls are really decorated with lighted christmas trees, Santa claus posing with childeren and all the shops giving discounts and attracting lot of customers. The Eaton Centre at Yonge-Dundas in downtown Toronto is really attractive at this time of the year.

The old City hall which is one of the Toronto's prominent building was this year illuminated by French artist Xavier de Richemont. Richemont uses video projections to illuminate the hidden structural and architectural aspects of Toronto’s City Hall and its exquisite Romanesque Revival craftsmanship including the distinctive clock tower and the grotesques. Below are some of the illumination Pics :

The new city hall also called Nathan Phillips centre hosted musical shows and Cavalcade of lights. The Ice Skating rink in the front of the Nathan Phillips centre was all lighted and lots of people from small kids to old persons were seen smoothly skating on the ice. We could just watch them move along. In the night, there was fireworks.

Toronto's multicultural neighbourhood like the Greektown, Little italy, Bloor-yorkville and other were all lighted for Christmas and a nice to see them.

K-A-N-K

Yes.. it was alvidha time on 15 Dec 2006 for the Pach, Arch & Saanvi as they bid final goodbye to Toronto. Pach arrived sometime in 01 feb 2005 and Arch/Saanvi 01 Apr 2005. So, it was close to 2 years now in Toronto. Below is the snap which were taken in front of their apartment (30, Gloucester Street, Apt #610) just before departing to Airport..

I was feeling very bad to see them go since I would be lonely here at Toronto. I would be missing all the fun & trips we used to have. Pach was an excellent project team member and a great friend. I would be missing him both in & out of office. Anyway, they have some great plans lined up in year 2007.. Here's wishing them the best in all their ventures in the coming year.. Also, I just hope the days tick off as quickly as possible so that I can return to Bangalore as well to see my sweethearts.

Let it Snow ! Let it Snow ! Let it Snow !

This year we are not really feeling pinch of winter here in Toronto and much of Canada as well.. There has not been snow fall in the two months both in Nov & Dec 2006.. In fact, most of the people were wishing for a white christmas but again this year it is a Green Christmas (8 out of last 15 Christmas have been Green). Well, our hopes of seein', touchin' and playin' with snow are temporarily on hold.. We are keepin' our fingers crossed and hopin' that atleast in the months of Jan/Feb we'll have some good amount of snow to see..



We had first snowflakes on Dec 05 and after that none seen till end of december. Below are couple of snaps taken near our office. The pond on the right in the picture below was frozen and we could see the tree branch or a stone thrown on it would just slide instead of sinking.

Lakeridge Resort

Let's make a trip, to remember - from January to December.... Pach was leaving on the coming Friday i.e on 15 Dec. This time as I mentioned in my previous post, we didn't have much snowfall in Toronto.. Saanvi didn't have opportunity to touch and play in Snow... So, we decided to visit the nearby Lakeridge resort (on Sunday Dec 10, 2006) which was at a higher altitude and there was good snow there.. It was a Ski resort and we could see lot of people Skiing there.. We hurled snowballs at each other and took some good snaps..

On our way back we had a peek at Chalk lake, Ski-Dogmar resort and had our usual french vanilla cappuccino at Tim Horton's along with Timbits/Butter Croissant/Bagel..

SantaClaus Parade

Toronto hosts lots of festivals and parades throughout the year. Each one has different themes and is enjoyed by all people. I believe the SantaClaus parade started in year 1905 in Toronto and has continued ever since. I had missed this parade last year but was lucky to see the same this year. This year the parade was on Nov 18 Saturday. The weather was bit nippy but there were quite a lot of very small children and adults waiting on the pavements of the parade to see their favorite characters passing by. The tableu's had lot of popular characters like Dora, Barbie & dancing princess, Clifford etc.. See below some of the snaps.

Nature's Spectacular Display of Changing Colors..

Well.. The people in in cold countries experience all kinds of weather. Summer, Winter, Fall (Autumn) & rains/snow.. Whatz awesome is the the nature's display of vibrant colors which makes the entire area look so beautiful.

As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves. It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.

We visited Halliburton/Minden highlands this fall to see the beautiful colors. It was a three day weekend and we planned to visit this on a Sunday (07 Oct 2006) . It was a beautiful drive and we had pleasure of seeing some good scenery.

Saanvi's 2'nd Birthday at Toronto..

Saanvi celebrated her second birthday here at Toronto on September 28. Last year, I had missed the fun since I came to Toronto only in mid-October. We had a grand party at 30, Gloucester street, the apartment party hall where Vijapur's reside in Toronto.

The party was pretty good. The Wipro gang in Toronto had dwindled this time since many of them had gone back to offshore. But even then, we had Kalpesh, Anil Reddy/Swarupa (departing Toronto next day), Sthanu with his parents, Shekar/Kavita, Shekar's Sis/Bil, Viren, Gayathri, Anil Kalli, Saanvi's parents (Pachu/Archu) and last but not the least photographer Roopesh uncle.

The kids had good fun. We were playing "Finding Nemo" on the giant TV screen for people to watch. Since, it was Friday evening, it took sometime to start off since everyone had to come back from office. First we had the traditional Arati session where the ladies performed arati and wished Saanu. This was followed by blowing of candles (by archu/pach) and cake cutting.


Click HERE for more photos.

The menu was delicious with not many items but good enough for the party.. This time Archu prepared most of it herself with couple of items we ordered. We had Samosas, Chuda(Avalakki), Dahi Vada as starters. For the main course we had Naan, Aloo-mutter, Channa dal (from Mistaan), Jeera rice, Jilebi, Salads and ofcourse the bday cake.

Yes, everyone had good dinner and after some fun they are went back to their homes.. Also, today it was officially confirmed that Pach would be leaving Toronto by mid-December back to India for good. I would personally miss such a wonderful couple very much, which means it would be a terrible and lonely winter for me here in Toronto !

Happy Birthday Pach..

Pach just completed 29 revolutions around the Sun on Sept 22, 2006. He had cut the cake exactly at 00:00 hours on 22 Sept. After coming from office that day in the evening, we celebrated again by cake cutting. We went for dinner to "Brar restuarant" in Brampton. It was good restuarant with lot of items in buffet.

Muskoka - The land of Lakes

Muskoka located 2 hours north of Toronto is a vast district of shimmering lakes, thundering waterfalls and sheer granite cliffs, aromatic pine forests and dense maple forests that turn crimson and gold in the Autumn.

We visited Muskoka on Sunday Sept 17. The weather was rainy/cloudy for most part of the previous week. But on Sept 17 it was beautiful weather with 26C. So, we decided to drive up to this beautiful place.We drove past Barrie, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge. We stopped at the Lady Muskoka but cruise ride was 3 hours and we didn't take that. Instead, we decided to drive and stop at some scenic points around the lake.


We first visited the Muskoka falls. The falls was good but
we had a take look beneath the bridge. We stopped by Muskoka lake a took couple of snaps.

We continued further to place called Port Carling which is small on beautiful town on the lake. We did a mistake of not packing food this time. We decided to have it outside since we had to start early too. That decision was wrong and we had to be just contend with donuts & pepsi.



Me & Pach in shorts. In Mysore parlance people would say as
"Cheddi Chikkana". In the coming weeks it would be winter and we can't afford to wear shorts any more. This I should say is the last outing wearing shorts in Canada.





I took this nice picture of Pach family. It is generally difficult to capture Saanvi's attention while taking pictures. She would be looking at totally different direction than we want her.






We continued further and stopped by at Barrie. We just relaxed by the lake simcoe in the evening watching the speed boat rides. Saanvi was happy to see a duck family wade through the lake. Then me & Saanvi played the stone throwing game - who would throw the farthest?

It was time now to head back to Toronto. We started on the Barrie highway back. We were damn hungry and were looking for options to eat. Thanks to Saanvi we decided to go back home and Archana decided to quickly prepare Rice/Dhal. She gave us refreshing and much needed Strawberry milkshake and while we were taking a look at the snaps the dinner was ready. Oh my gosh.. We just quickly gobbled up the food to satisfy our full day hunger.

The autumn (fall) has begun in Canada while we look forward to go on a long fall ride towards Algonquin park.. Keep yourself tuned for further updates.

Last summer trip to Niagara/Marineland

We had taken the season pass to Marineland and we can visit as many times we can this summer. Marineland will close during winter from October onwards. Also, from next month onwards the autumn followed by severe winter would prevent us from making any trips. So, we decided to visit both Niagara and Marineland for one last time on Sunday Sept 10 and do some of the stuffs which we had missed before.

The weather was perfect at 26C but was bit nippy and we drove
first to Marineland. We saw the Splashing whales which we had missed last time.

We dropped by the Dolphin show at King Waldorf's centre.
We decided to watch it upclose so that we get a very good view.


It was lunch time we had good chapati rolls and curd rice prepared by Archana. Then we decided to go around and do some rides.

Saanvi loved the boat ride pretty much and it was one of the rides where she is allowed to sit. Pach & Archana mustered enough courage this time to do the rides which they had missed last time. First we went to the dragon ride, swings and then to the roller coaster ride.

Saanvi enjoyed her first encounter with deers in the deer park.
Last time when Shibani was here we weren't lucky because all the
deers were standing by the wallside due to light drizzle. Saanvi
was not afraid to meet the deers. She touched them, pulled their
tails and also chased and ran along with them. She enjoyed it pretty
much.

After that we continued our towards Niagara falls to take one final glimpse. We had left the "Journey behind the falls" the last time. Basically, this takes us very close to Canadian falls. There is also a tunnel from where we can see the falls in its majestic force coming down. It was good to experience it once.

On the way back we stopped by restaurant Bombay Bhel in Missisuaga where we had dinner thali. On the way home we saw the full moon and Saanvi sang some of her favorite rhymes including 'where is thumpkin'.. and by the time we reached home it was close to 10PM.

Joy in Toronto

I was pretty happy to meet Joydeep (Joy/Jodu) in Toronto after close to 3 years. He had come on just a single day business visit to CIBC bank to give a presentation. I met him at Comfort Inn hotel on Thursday 31 Aug. The next day was Friday and in the evening I picked him from his office. We had dinner at Chef of India and visited my apartment.

The next day was Saturday. It was sick weather in Toronto (cloudy and raining) and spoiled our three day Labour weekend plans of going outside. We had breakfast at Burger king, visited Eaton Centre and then went to CN tower. We had a glimpse of city from a good height. Afternoon, we had lunch at Saravana Bhavan in Missisuaga and dropped him at Airport around 3:00PM.

Joy gifted me white Jubba-Pyjama which can be seen in the picture here.

On the way back from Airport dropped by Pachs house and then we all went to Fairview mall to do some shopping due to Labour weekend sale.. We couldn't find anything that useful to buy. Later went to Udupi Madras Cafe in Missisuaga for the dinner. Pach had got a fat pay hike previous day and we were all pretty happy about that.

Ganapathi Bappa Moriya @ Toronto

Just few days before the festival, I was thoroughly disappointed since I'll be alone this time here in Toronto and Bhavana/Shibani at Bangalore and we are not celebrating any festivals together. I had just then got the good news that Shibani did pretty well in Maths exams and I believe Bhavana had been to my parents house in Bangalore where they all celebrated together. My joy knew no bounds when Archana invited me to join them for the Ganapathi puja in their house.

Pach & Archana had decorated the small puja place and it was all setup by the time I came to their house. We did the puja and listened some good Ganapathi songs on our laptop. See the pic of Saanvi in the traditional dress here.

Later, it was cooking time and Archana was getting ready for the naivaidya. She had prepared Modakas which I believe is deity's favorite. We did puja and then followed by a fabulous lunch. I had a pleasure of eating atleast 5 Modakas myself. Thanks for Archana's generous serving and Pach not liking sweets as much as I do ;)

Evening, we went to Siva-Vishnu temple in Rivalda/Sheppard/Weston road. The temple was small in size but we went at the right time when they were decorating the lord and maha-mangalarathi was being done. Saanvi was totally dazzled by the Temple bells that were ringing non-stop and she clinged onto me tightly. We came back home after the visit. It kept me busy and happy the whole day which otherwise, I would have been in sad state and sleeping at home !

Scenic Caves at Collingwood..

We decided to visit finally the Scenic caves [on Saturday Aug 12] at Collingwood. We had missed it previous time because by the time we reached it was closed. Scenic caves are part of the beautiful blue mountains where we had Skiied last winter. The weather was pretty good but the Barrie highway 400 was pretty busy. It was a stop-go traffic and it almost took an extra hour and half.



Our first stop was ofcourse our regular Tim Horton's in Barrie. We had the French vanilla coffee to start off. We drove past the Barrie beach where Saanvi played in the water for sometime.. But looks like she didn't like it that much because of sleepy mood.


We continued our journey and finally reached the scenic caves around 2:00PM. The first thing we did ofcourse was having lunch. Archana had prepared Chapathi-Dhal and I my favorite & easiest Vangibath. We had a good lunch and then hiked towards Scenic caves. The Scenic caves aren't really big caves except for couple of them. On the top we could see the Georgia bay and the blue waters. It was good to hike through the lush green rocks in between.

We had taken a combo ticket along with Mini-Golf. So, when we came down the caves we tried our hands at golf. It was a mini 18 course golf and was fun. Pach scored 64 and was clear winner. I scored 68 and was second followed by Archana at 73.



We then went to see suspension bridge. It was a small bridge but
we could see it sway as we crossed the bridge.
It was almost 7:00PM and it was time to close. We hurried past to our cars before they shut the doors.



On our way back we stopped first at SunSet point and then at Wasaga beach. The Sun was setting and we caught a very good glimpse of the setting sun in its orange color. Wasaga beach was pretty good. The sand on the beach was silky and as we watched the sun just disappeared far away. We started our car to head back to home which was other 2 hour journey.




On our way we stopped at Pizza Hut near Hwy 26 & 400. Had a
good dinner and headed back home. It was yet another good and memorable trip.

Humber Park, Bluffers Park & Lakeshore Boulevarde Drive

It was a long weekend as August 07 being a Civic holiday. We weren't in mood to go out of Toronto a instead decided to visit some places in Toronto itself.

On Saturday Aug 05, in the evening we went to Humber Park. This park was kinda in wilderness and has a small Humber river flowing. There was small trail which led us to the river side. There was thick growth of shrubs on either side of trail and there was no one except us. We saw lot of birds in near the water-side. I tried my hands on the bird photography which requires immense concentration and patience. The birds used to fly off whenever I was ready to take a snap. Anyway, I was able to take couple of snaps. We had Khara avalakki snack and decided to come back home. Saanvi had some good place to run around.

The Next day, we went to Bluffers Park & Scarborough heights. The Bluffers park was crowded by Toronto standards. In fact, getting a parking space was itself difficult. We spent around 15 minutes trying to get a space. There were lot of Indian families and people were busy near the beach, some of them had tents and they were enjoying in their own way. We went a little further
where there weren't many people. Had some icecream and spent time watching the vast open space and the Ontario lake. Some people boating and flock of birds forming different pattern of "V" returning home. It was good evening well spent.

We continued from Bluffers park and stopped at Scarborough heights which is a very high point where we could see the Ontario lake and the boats passing by at a distance. We then decided to drove all the way on Lake Shore Boulevard. This is a good road that runs parallel to the Lake Ontario & Gardiner expressway. It was getting dark and the downtown was lighted. The Chinese Lantern festival had lit up the Ontario place and we stopped by Pizza Pizza for our dinner. We had a large veggie Pizza and ate on a table on the beach in moonlight.We headed home after that. It was a relaxing long weekend in Toronto.

Les Jardine Botanique Royaux - Royal Botanical Gardens @ Hamilton

Les Jardine Botanique Royaux - Royal Botanical Gardens [RBG] @ Hamilton



We left Toronto in the morning around 10:30AM on Sunday 30 July 2006. The pleasant cool air from Lake Ontario passed over us while travelling away from Toronto on Gardiner Expressway. However, this was only temporary.. As we moved towards Hamilton the mercury started rising. It was a hot day with no rains which were expected in the past two days.

We reached Royal Botanical Gardens around noon. We first visited the Rock Gardens which had numerous collection of flowering plants. We were totally hungry and had the dhal-dosas made by Archana. Only, after that we got a bit energy for the photo session. The rising temperature was sapping our energy too.

We next drove past the Arboretum then the RBG Centre. The RBG centre had a mediterranean garden with the right environment created inside the building for variety of plants from that region.

The Hendrie park is pretty big in area and reminded me of Lalbagh. The only difference is this is neatly maintained. We saw numerous flowering plants in rose garden, scented garden, Lilies and numerous other plants. I was able to try the macro-mode in my camera too. The fun part was Saanvi was so happy to see the enormous vast space and she just began her sprintathon. The moment she saw someone coming near her made her to run faster.

We later relaxed sometime in the DunDurn castle park and then continued towards the Laking Garden. This was a small garden with lots of small green plants.. Well.. we were so tired that we didn't go into details as to what the plants were.. All of us were hungry by then, we had Saboodana prepared by me. It gave us great relief. After sometime, we continued our journey further..

Pach wanted to visit the Rock Chapel sanctuary. But, later we found out that it was a trail for hiking.. So, we decided to drop that but instead went to see the Webster falls at Spencer's Gorge. It was a nice little falls. We spent sometime there and on the way the usual Tim-Horton's French vanilla with Tim-bits took us back home.

Click here for more photos.

Temple Visit at Richmond Hill..

My desire of visiting a Temple in Toronto finally came true on Monday 24 July 2006. It was an important day for Pach as well. So, we decided to finally visit this after our office time in the evening. (Anyway in summer it doesn't get dark till 9;30 night). We drove to the temple and had good darshan of the lord(s).

The temple is at Richmond Hill (Bayview & Elgin Mills road) and is infact multiple small temples in a big enclosure. The temple had many deities notable among them were Lord Ganesha, Muruga, Shiva, Parvati, Durga, Venkateshwara etc..

There were couple of unique points in this temple.
The Shiva Linga is not a man-made idol. I believe it was picked up in the holy waters of Ganges near Kasi, India (also called Banares) by His Holiness Sri Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakotipeetam and was kept here.
The Muruga idol is I believe the tallest in the world.

The priests were all from India and they had very good experience & knowledge and carried out all the pujas with thorough dedication.

After Puja we ate Prasadam (which was dinner for me !). Saanvi was happy to see couple of kids of her age and she started playing with them.

Click at http://www.thehindutemple.ca/ for more details