Canadian Impressions: February 2010

Recently, I was in Canada for a few days. It was my first visit ever to the country, and left me desiring for more. Canada may not appear foreign if you are an American, because you don't need a visa to travel there. But I did find Canada to be very different from USA. And, since I am comparing apples to apples - Toronto to New York - I think my impressions are representative. First, the Canadian winters. The average daytime temperatures are about 10 degrees lesser than those in the New York east coast area.

I landed there pretty early in the morning on a Sunday, 7 am, hoping to make the most of day (and also for some reasons beyond my control). We later walked the streets of Downtown Toronto scouting for breakfast. We moved from shop to shop looking at the operating hours. None of them would open before 10 am. By 9:30 am some Starbucks opened up. Though I was grateful, if you have been up since 3 o'clock in the morning, you want food by 9 am, not just a coffee with a snack. Lesson number one - Canadians are in no hurry to open their shops on a Sunday. Be prepared to wait till 10:30 am if you want a proper sit down breakfast. There weren't too many (rather any, when we started) people at the Younge Street - believed to longest in the world - even in the downtown area. Finally by midday few people started venturing out.

In a few hours you understand the reasons for the Canadian way of life. It was freezing. Further movement was subject to a hat and a pair of warm gloves. We finally gave up and had a juice and a pretty average Thai soup. The only thing great out the soup was the potion. I closed my day with a very early dinner. The biggest reason, almost all dining places closed by 6 pm. I returned back to the hotel by 6 pm to sleep for a good 14 hours. What better lesson in hibernation can you ever get.

Armed with the lessons of day 1, we begin day 2 in a relaxed Canadian way. Monday is the first day of the week and I noticed is the laid back and balanced Canadian life versus New York. The operating hours of a bank branch that I visited- 9:30 am to 4:30 in the evening. Compare it to 6:00 pm for a similar institution in New York. Or Indian public sector institutions, which work from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. ICICI Bank, a private bank I was closely associated with as a part of my job in India, has its branches open from 8:30 am to 7 pm. Indian public sector banks which used to have their customer service hours from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm, have extended them as computerization has reduced the amount of manual work involved. However, the merit of timings become apparent after 5 pm when the winds become really chilly. You feel a strong desire to not go out unless you really have to. But a lot of eating and drinking places are open late on weekdays. I mean late by Canadian definition – 11 pm. We adapted to style of Canadian commerce and skipped our breakfast for an early lunch instead.

The rest of our stay passed nicely. Though we saw all around the Downtown, the Financial and the Theater districts, I decided against venturing too far out. I also tried this great place that serves vegetarian cuisine from around the world. We also met an old friend Karan, who is now settled in Toronto. Few other takeaways from the visit, Toronto isn't full of Indians as a lot of us think. I spotted fewer Indians than I usually do walking in Jersey and New York. Karan insists that it is the most cosmopolitan city in the world though I disagree. I believe the place has far fewer people of Asian – Chinese, Korean, and Japanese – origin too. The population is largely Caucasian White. I didn't visit the Greek, Chinese or Indian settlements around the city. But it does have food from all over the world, lots of Thai places, tea houses, Chinese restaurants, Sushi places and Pizza outlets. The public transport if good with Subway in the north to south and streets cars (buses or trams if you prefer) that run on rails in the east west direction.

Colder Toronto weather; higher transient population or the tougher corporate life in New York could all be possible explanations. But all of them lead to the conclusion that Toronto is more focused on family and having a relaxed balanced life as compared to New York. (Btw, Toronto is a more expensive city than New York.)

Lessons from Jim Rogers' life - a gift to us & US

Take a guess as to which country is being mentioned in the following paragraph.

The country X enjoyed a huge bubble in the _____. When it burst in _____, prices collapsed, sending the economy tumbling. Regrettably, the government and the 'central bank of the country X' kept trying to halt the natural, cleansing effects of this recession by propping up many of the companies in trouble. Just as a forest fire serves to clear out deadwood and underbrush so that the forest can renew itself, recessions help to ensure healthy future growth. In 'the country X' , the business that should have been liquidated became "zombie companies" surviving, albeit barely, on government's artificial support. Everything was Band-Aided with quick fixes. While this delayed a decline, it also postponed the country's recovery. A country can actually spend more money trying to stave of a recession than the recession might cost.

You probably think that I am talking about USA. However this is a passage describing 'the lost decade' of Japan by Jim Rogers. Though Jim mentions in passing that America followed the same route in 1970's, he might as well be presaging what may be coming ahead, considering the way the American debt & fiscal deficit has ballooned. To use a cliche, "History repeats itself." As Jim mentions, a country can spend more money trying to avoid a recession than the recession might itself cost. Sounds even more familiar. After all, only last week the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke pointed out that US needs to control is spending & deficits. Of course he did not talk about the fact the balance sheet of the fed itself has been increasing in size as it has been buying just about anything - mortgage backed securities, corporate debt and the T-Bills issued every few days by the US government.

But, lets come back to Jim Rogers, the guy who made enough money to retire at the age of 37. The book in question, " A Gift to My Children - A Father's Lesson for Life and Investing," is packed with knowledge and wisdom. In his own words,
the book is different from his earlier books in the sense that its about the larger lessons distilled from his experiences. Lessons about thinking for yourself, using common sense, learning history, philosophy and languages and making the world a part of your perspective. Lessons, which we all could use. In less than 100 pages Jim packs lessons that can use at all stages of your life and earlier you learn these lessons, the more you can get from them.

As a aside note, according to Jim, 21st century belongs to China. He does not like India and Russia as investment options. So much so that he has moved to Hongkong & is making sure that his two daughters know Mandarin.

2009: Clouds of a long recession ?

Central Park, New York on a cloudy winter afternoon. The dull sky bespeaks of the upcoming gloom, only silver lining being a slight hint of color.

Its just that I have not been able to capture the color yet in the news around me, not as yet. In fact things seem to be becoming gloomier in real life. Brace for a dark night.

Places of Worship

Wondering whats happening to our places of worship. They are performing every other function than the one they are meant to do, to provide that close connection/ proximity to the supernatural power. Instead, they are becoming tourist centers with economies surviving on pilgrims. They are crowded, mis-managed and to add insult to injury you can buy a costlier ticket to an earlier/ faster/ closer 'darshan' (look) of God.

In the last 9 months I have made three trips. First to Shirdi in December 07, the second to Vaishno Devi in April 08 & the last one to Salasar in July 08. On all instances I was left with a bad taste. Huge crowd, loud, pandas/pandits or other people approaching you for special pujas, darshans and prashads, long lines, security & noise all around. There are cameras for security & also for beaming you the picture of inside sacred hall so that you don't spend too much time there.

I don't know if I am the only one here, but I would like my religious visits to be quiet, those rare opportunities to connect with my spiritual side. These visits leave me more tired and disturbed than provide inner peace

Btw : I left my phone & contact list in India. Yes yet again. Don't blame if I haven't called you if you haven't given me your number in the last few weeks

Books Update : Hannibal by Thomas Harris of the 'Silence of the Lambs' (Work in Progress)
Movie Update : Tropical Thunder (Genre : Comedy, Rating : Average). Ben Stiller is good and I did not recognise 'Tom Cruise' till the credits.

It also happens in Delhi

It happened with me yet again. Had taken a day off to make good use of the Christmas weekend to go home. The three days home were great for unwinding and I really did not want to come back. (For those who me know too well, for example my parents, were surprised. I am not those very sentimental and mushy kinds) Never the less, I let home on Christmas night to take the Rajdhani to this city in the heart of India where I work

Now that I am absent minded is almost universal acknowledged. And I had the extra advantage of leaving a little late for the station. I went to station the train was already there at the platform. I frantically searched my name in charts. To my dismay, it was not there . It took me quite some disbelief to figure out that my ticket was not confirmed.

It took me good 15 minutes of talking to the TT to convince me how desperately I needed to be at work the next morning. Seeing no signs of me relenting the poor man gave in. That he too almost missed the train in this whole exercise is another story.

Once in I decided to call back home to tell them that I have left Delhi. I looked into my purse, then in my bag, then in my jeans pocket and then again in my purse. Quite a few rounds of these searches and realized the evening had been more exciting than I initially thought. I had lost my cell phone. Since was talking on the phone while on my way to station it clearly was not left back home.

For those who loose their cell phone for the first time are clearly unprepared for the loss of information it brings. I have since long stopped keeping people's cards or a diary. The 1.5 inches by 4 inches by 1/2 inch gadget stores all my contact numbers, to do lists, information etc. But this to is not the high point of this story.

The high point of the story was to be unfolded the next day morning. I landed in Nagpur and then reached office, to find out that dad had called someone to give a message. An autorickshaw driver had given my cellphone in the nearest police station to be delivered to its owner. In 2004 something similar had happened to me in Mumbai. But ordinarily I or for that matter no one I know would have expected this is Delhi. We just make certain generalizations of things and people around us.

Yet again life taught me not to make any assumptions

PS : If I haven't called you for long, please blame it on this incident. Its high time you give me a call so that I get your number again.

The memories of a city: Mumbai

I am a born and bred North Indian. So much that I often describe Delhi as the place I belong to, to cut short the details. The first time I visited Bombay ( The old name symbolises some things & I prefer it to the new one) was ten years back. The first impressions of the city have been such that I rank it above any other. One of the few cities (in India) where people queued for buses, where a female could safely take a taxi at 11 pm , place where people have much more civic sense then our national capital, where taxi drivers would not cheat you if you did not know the way (unlike delhi or chennai). A city that was untouched by the fundamentalism & culture police and, had a night life.

For those used to bus travel in Delhi, let me recall an incident which happened 10 years ago.
I was boarding a BEST bus with my travel group (5 people), when the buses conductor said he could take more than two of us on borad. Reason, the standing capacity of the bus was X (I don't remember the number) and he could accomodate only two of us. So either we split or wait for the next bus (15 minutes or something). For us, used to passengers hanging out of Delhi buses and the scant regard of traffic rules generally around the country, this was a welcome surprise.

That was Bombay ten years ago. Things have changed since then. With the mounting population pressures , Mumbai's infrastructure seems to be creaking. But, what has not changed is the spirit of a Mumbaikar (the new term for Bombayites).