Anmol Sagar
Myriad thoughts on a million things
Toronto highlights!
1(I had jotted down the below post a few days before we were to leave Toronto… but never got around to putting the final touches and actually posting it! So, it’s a little dated… but none the less, here it is now 
)
Well it’s been close to three weeks and we’re at the lag end of our holiday here at Toronto. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone! This is by far the longest holiday I have ever taken ( I got 2 weeks off for my wedding!) and zooooop (!) it’s over.
Yeah, I’m heartbroken over leaving Rhea and everyone else here behind… but the bright side is that finally I will be able to feel some sun and warm on my face. I mean, for us the cold and snow was great, but after a bit, I can see why everyone who sees it so much here isn’t so enthusiastic about it. It looks pretty and all, but it’s windy, cold and wet! You have spend upto 15 mins putting on a series of warm things before you can step out and you can’t do much outside expect go to malls and restaurants.
Anyways, we managed to squeeze in a lot of touristy stuff and even with the cold managed to do all the things on our checklist. So here were the top few things we did and would suggest to anyone who is planning to go to Toronto in the winters.
Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) – Quite a Royal Treat!
Located near the beautiful Toronto University, the ROM is a treat for all history lovers. It’s a huge modern 5 floor building (check the fancy facade in the snap below). Multiples wings with so much to see that it is not possible to see everything in one visit. So we picked the areas of our interest and only decided to see those sections.
The Dinosaurs section awesome. The highlight for me was the huge Barosuarous…. A neck that long, I wonder how it ever held it up. Teradactyls were quite the treat too and scenes from Calvin’s (from C&H) classroom reveries kept popping into my mind. I also quite enjoyed the special section on the trypillians (Aboriginal ancient tribes from Ukraine). Another interesting section was the natural world wing. With a colourful autumn scene done up, this section was definitely the most popular among the kids. Different animals, various show and tells for kids made this section lively and interesting.
Royal Ontario Museum
Casa Loma – A royal rags to riches and back kinda story
This is a fairy tale kind story. A young Henry Pellatt starts of as an industrialist making a fortune in public utilities like electricity. Too much money and fame almost always is very difficult to keep going for too long… so some bad investments and poor Henry was not so rich anymore. Though while he was rich, he really did dream big…So a palatial house he built, which he put so much money into that he could not finish it before he went bankrupt and had to sell it all.
Besides being a little wannabe type, the castle can be compared to any real castle in Britain. With all the fancy trimmings of the post industrial era (hot water and an intercom included) it still manages to look like a 16th century piece of art.
Casa Loma
City Habour Front
Freezing temperatures of -7 and an even higher windchill, and this was the day we decided to check out Toronto’s habour front. Not an ideal scenario, but we managed to still have a great time. Bundled up, we walked the habour front which offers a breathtaking view of the lake. We even managed to have some fun ice skating and checking out some of the boats harboured.
City Habour Front
Down town lights and Christmas displays
Christmas always is a time for festive lights, but nothing prepared me for the festivity of Toronto down town. With light displays along each road, huge structures with beautifully lit designs, it was quite a treat for us. Eaton Center (a mall) had a beautifully done up swaroski Christmas tree. Outside, The Bay (a big departmental store) had some really beautifully intricate window displays. Scenes from Christmas done up with in depth details, the thought and effort of the displays was really noteworthy.
Check out one of the snaps below. All the down town buildings added to the festivities and had the lights for all their floors lit till late in the evening.
Eaton Center Swaroski Christmas Tree
The Bay's Christmas Window Display
Different kind of problems
1A few minutes of telly watching in canada and one would get to see multiple adds on debt counselling, bankruptcy help, help with bad credit history and cash for jewellery! I mean I know there’s a global meltdown and people across the world are adversely affected… but this?!
Apparently this is ever quite so normal here…. People going bankrupt all the time, not being able to control their credit spend. From what I understand, medical costs can often spiral and cost people their livelihood. It’s quite the experience listening to cash man’ Joe go on about being able to give you instant cash for your jewellery and Mr. Aggrawal (attorney at Law) encourage you to file for bankruptcy in order to get out of your debt trap! (He even had a gujju chick intone in gujju how it is marvellous to get legal help from a gentlemen who can speak in her very own language!)
I thought emerging economies like India had problems… of population, of poverty, of development. And that our more developed counterparts had at least the livelihood issues figured out. But I guess everyone has problems… only different kinds.
A Tour of La Tour CN!
1So when we are finally settled in and ready for our first solo expedition into the city, we decided to go see the pride of the city, the CN tower.
The CN tower (CN being Canadian National) was built in 1974, and at 553.33 m (1,815 ft, 5 inches), it is the World’s Tallest Building. Besides being a broad casting tower and catering to 40 radio & TV networks, it is a huge tourist attraction with over 2 million people visiting it every year.
Our trip to the tower began one cold winter morning with us as usual takng a bit to figure our coordinates. Their is a sky walk one can take from the Union subway station to the Tower… a much better way to get to the tower without the winds lashing at you. But no…adventures that we are, we landed up getting out at the wrong end and walking around the whole block to the tower. See some snaps of us trying to figure a way to the tower!
Getting to the CN Tower
The tower itself is quite majestic. Slim and tall it’s quite awe inspiring. The elevators have glass walls, floor and ceiling. We could see our slow climb up the tower and watched the dity unfold in front of us. The Attendant explained that due to strong winds, the elevator speed was reduced and we covered the one minute journey in 4 minutes. The view is quite breath taking and the lake ontario spreads across in front of you endlessly. The Look out level at 1,136 feet allows one a 360 degree view of the city. We spent a wonderous hour watching the city go about it’s business and marvelling at the architectural brillaince of the building. One level below is the glass floor level. A beautiful christmas tree aside, the level has a large glass floor one can walk over, look right down onto the ground hundreds of feet below. Check come snaps below.
The Glass Floor at 345 Feet
Panoramic View from the Viewing Area of the CN Tower
Having had our fill of looking at tiny people, buildings and cars, we finished off our trip with a super fast descent (in under a minute! And totally not for the faint hearted ). A quick trip to the gift shop and a small detour via a simulator ride (that had absolutely nothing to do with the tower and was kind of confusing) we were done for the day!
More tomorrow as we venture deeper into this beutiful city. Keep tuned in….!
Bonjour Toronto!
1Okie.. so it’s been a bit since I posted anything… between the Jet lag of getting to Toronto, meeting sis after 2 1/2 half years and seeing my princess Rhea for the first time… you really can’t blame me for being a little lax on the posting front!
Its a beautiful time here now… the pristine white snow covering eveything is quite a treat for us people from the tropics. Landing in toronto and the arial view of the city bathed in white was was breath taking.
People had warned us of -6 degree temperatures here. Not being one for the cold, I was dreading stepping into the cold, freezing and keeling over… But thankfully, if one is dressed for the weather, it is really good fun to be outside and in the snow! Once i got a little used to it, I had an absolutely awesome time snow stomping, trying to pack a snow man, snow balling people and rolling about in the snow!
Yesterday, we even got to witness a ‘Snow-ma-geddon’! Thats what the call a good hearty snow storm here. With temperatures going down to -11 and wind chills of -22, everything in the city was at a stand still. Meanwhile, I had a lovely time watching the snow fall while being nested in a heavenly hot tub in the condos indoor pool with clear glass walls and cieling. Once the storm warning was called off, we even managed to step out for a bit and had quite a ride driving over the snow laden roads and watching the snow ploughs clear the roads. Check out some of the snaps.
View from my Balcony
The Snow is Everywhere
Once we were settled in a bit, we felt confident enough to venture out into the city by our own. The subway is quite a convinient way around the city. Though the signage in and around the subway leaves a little to desire….Nothing to beat the london tube in terms of signage and making travel idiot proof. After a few boo boos (thats little Rhea talk for a faus pax) of going around in circles and not being able to find the sub way entrace or going to the lotto center and asking for sub way tickets (don;t even ask me how we managed that!), getting on the wrong direction train etc.. we’ve managed to figure the subway and it’s lines.
Well, thats all for starters…. We’re planning to see the top few city attractions over the next few days and so will keep posting. Aure voir for now!
Give Peace a Chance
5Thank god the Gateway rally went off without any untoward incidents! I’m always thankful when my psychosis is proved wrong. J
It was quite an emotional moment for Mumbai I hear. People present tell tales of people breaking down and crying at the sight of our beloved Taj in tatters. Watching all the candle lighting, Mashaal holding and Jai hind ka Narabazi on the telly brought tears even to my eyes! I think it was a good cathartic action and really do hope outcomes of relevance can be achieved.
I totally loved some of the posters the people came with. Here are some of my favorites
- Mr. Deshmukh, don’t play a Joker. Remember, you are our Nauker!
- Chief Minister, Instead of taking Ram Gopal Verma for Taj Terror Tourism, If you would have shown the terrorists, Ram Gopal Varma ki AAG, they would have anyways killed themselves!
- Call back the Bar girls. Maybe they can protect us!
- A-Chute-A-Nandan! CM of Kerala. A dog himself.
- We would prefer a DOG visit our House rather than a POLITICIAN!
- Dogs and Politicians are not allowed in this Rally!
- US Politicians from Yale. Ours from JAIL!
- ‘DESHMURKH’ – a film by Ram Gopal Varma. Starring ‘you know who’!
Some posters were made to take pot shots at the MNS chief and his total absence in this whole episode. Don’t know if that was due to a gag order or he’s finally decided we’ve been traumatized enough.
- I am Indian. There is only one SENA that I believe in. That is the INDIAN ARMY!
- A Missing poster with Raj Thackeray’s picture.
Well we might not be so great at the security and protection stuff. But we sure are good at the rallying and doing it with style. J
Citizen action or Passionate stupidity?
4It’s been almost a week to the terror attacks and all of India has gone into an overdrive. Political action aside, citizens are so enraged they are planning all kinds of citizen protests, actions etc. We’re all feeling passionately about this whole episode, but there needs to be some level of practical thinking we need to have. For example, there have been these pleas running on radios, SMSs, emails etc for a congregation near Gate way of India tomorrow at 6. (3rd Dec)
Gosh! Can you imagine if we have any of the balance terrorists still loose in the city? The telly has been reporting that they’ve gotten 10 so far and there might be a very real possibility of more of them who got away. If they did and if they have some means of blowing people up, then this meeting will be like icing on the cake. A whole lot of people in the one place they surveyed so well. Their target of 5000 might still be achieved.
I’m sure no one is thinking about the security aspects of this meeting. The police is already exhausted with all the blaming, running around, trying to pick up their skirts and do something that I’m not too sure if they will be thinking about putting the right security measures that such a large gathering would need.
Might just be another example of how we are such sitting ducks for terror, albeit passionate and united ones!
The big Indian Blame game!
0As usual after anything big that happens, people have to find someone to blame. Post the Mumbai terror attacks, Politicians are going into a tizzy demanding each other’s resignations. They’re so busy blaming each other and asking for our votes in the same breath that they’re really not doing anything about the security situation we have at hand.
I was watching this interesting piece of reporting on CNN IBN yesterday. They were calling it the operation water Rat (you know Indian telly with their inclination to drama!).
Anyways, the piece had a smart looking reporting doing a dry run of smuggling suspicious looking wooden crates (that the reporter claims could easily be carrying 100 kgs of RDX) into the waters of Murud Janjira (a little ride north of Mumbai) and then moving on land in a tavera all the way o the gate way of India. The reporter claims to have tried this 3 different times and in different ways and not being challenged even once!! It’s that easy. He was saying it was such a cakewalk that anyone can do this…you don’t really have to be a trained terrorist. That’s how vulnerable we are!
Some further investigations by the reporter took him to the customs office in Murud J. The customs have a joint responsibility of shore security. He reports that the office list 21 customs inspectors on its roll, but he has to wait till 12 pm to find the only one that decided to saunter into the office that day. Wearing casuals, yawing and asking the reporter to switch off the camera, he is hardly a solace to us Indians whom he is to protect.
The customs officials are expected to patrol the waters around their post and ensure no materials in being smuggled in or out without proper check and authority. Locals who were interviewed shared that some customs officials come in only 2 -3 times in a month and that too only to sit around and drink tea. On being questioned further on what really the customs office is supposed to do, the inspector very calmly says, “I don’t really know! You should check with the bahe sabih” (that being his boss)!! Apparently they have only a few boats that are used to patrol the seas and most of the time they do not work. And the people who patrol the seas are contract workers who have no clue what to look for! On being asked what their job is, they claim in broken hindi that they’re not very clear on that. They are asked to just take the boat for a ride around and bring it back safely.
This is the state of shore security….after the 93 blasts, after the train blasts and multiple other threats that the police receives on a regular basis.
I really have nothing else to say except…. OMG!! God save us… ‘cause we are definitely not going to do much else except find someone to blame.
Times… they are changing!
3I have lived in cities like Bangalore, Calcutta and Mumbai and have spent considerable time in each of them. I’ve been in Mumbai for over 5 years now and there have been quite a few things that have happened in these years that have made my mum call me in hysteria to ensure I was ok. Here are some of the incidents I remember
- The floods of July 05
- The train bombings of 07
- The multiple bomb blasts of 08
- Three different occasions of unrest when MNS chief was arrested and Mumbai shut down
- The terror attacks of 26/11!
I can’t remember such times in the past. I can’t recall an incident in my many years in other cities which would warrant family/ friends from other cities to call and check on my safety. What is happening to our world? Is it dangerous living in this city or are our times itself dangerous?
It’s definitely a threatening time to live in… threats from crazy terrorists; political vandals and sometimes from poor frustrated Mother Nature.
P.S: Dear Mice, if you’re listening… we’re done here. This experiment has gone horribly wrong and Deep Thought II ought to really shut it down before we make a bigger mess!