Downtown....

Continuing my stay in Toronto I had several things ahead of me to explore. Till now I had not been to any place apart from my office and back home. Actually I was waiting for the right time, precisely the weekend to come. And here it came finally and we planned our visit to Downtown, the so called heart of the city. The moment I stepped on the street of Downtown I was literally flabbergasted. That place was a wonderland, and it felt just like you have stepped in a place you had always wanted to be a part of. The view from there was stunning, skyscrapers all around and all the streets illuminated to the fullest. I liked each and everything about that place.

After being to a place like Downtown it feels great when somebody tells you that there are lot more places in Toronto to visit. I was pretty excited then but that didn’t last long because we can’t cover everything in a day. Basically, my philosophy says: if you’re going to stay at a place for a couple of months you should explore things at a slow pace, so that you can always choose a new place to visit every time you go out without getting bored by visiting the same places over and over again and I hope this makes sense too.

So that was the end of my first weekend and it went pretty well.

TORONTO MANIA

Believe it or not, currently I am in Toronto.

A night before coming here I dreamt of my visit to Toronto and the next day I was here,
so to say; I have literally comprehend the feeling of the cliché "Dream come true".

It feels great when everyone you know, even the unknown, come to you and ask you regarding your visit abroad and you start blushing and nodding your head vertically saying "Hopefully I am".

A couple of days before coming to Toronto, I was pretty excited about my travel and at the same time worried too. I was just trying to be optimistic hoping that, this time I am not the victim of the same old prank being played over me again and again. This time I was fully prepared for the travel as I had already bought most of the accessories and clothes required for my travel. If this time again they would not have sent me I would have been highly demoralized.

But finally the D-day came and I step aboard the flight that was heading to Brussels and the only thought coming to my mind was “No more pranks Naveen, welcome aboard, now you don’t have to worry, they are not going to ask you to leave the plane; Bon Voyage”.

This was my first time on an international flight and I was more than happy to enjoy every moment of it. The arrangements in the Airbus were consummate; I mean, if they are providing you with a collection of latest movies, unlimited songs, unlimited games and not to forget 10 different varieties of so called imported Hard Drinks, at a distance of 50,000 feet above the ground, what more can you expect.

I enjoyed the experience to the fullest and was now looking forward for the flight from Brussels to our final stop Toronto. After a couple of hours we boarded the next flight to Toronto which actually turned out to be the same Airbus we took from Bangalore to Brussels (How strange, in the tickets we had, the 2 flights we were supposed to board had different numbers so we thought them to be different, but who cares). So, being on the same flight again was not much of an excitement, just that we tasted all the 3 meals in the same flight.

Now, came the end of our journey or to say the beginning of a new experience. We reached "Toronto".

My cousin uncle came to pick me up; the irony here was that we both (my uncle and I) hadn’t seen each other since a long time so we both were not sure that how the other person is going to look like. Thanks to the white board he was carrying with him displaying my name-“Naveen” in bold :). The moment we came out of the airport I was literally shivering of cold. Many people had warned me of the extreme cold weather in Toronto and now I believe them.

My uncle then took us to the Hotel where we already had our reservations. The moment I entered our suites, it was like one of those lavish suites I had always wished to reside in. I was pretty satisfied with the suite. To be true, there were half a dozen things in the room I was not even sure of how to operate. The suite comprised of all those things I can think of and even more.

Then came the other phase of transition in which I was supposed to report at the office the following day. Everything was going pretty smooth as of now, as one of our office mates was also staying in one of the suites near us, so we could actually ask somebody for any assistance. Also he was from India so that made things easy for us.

While going to the office, we first took the subway followed by a bus. I can’t avoid mentioning the fact that the transport system here is so well organized that you hardly feel the pain of travelling, unlike India of course, where if you are stuck in traffic means you’re helpless. I feel the reasons for such convenience in transport here are the wide roads, high frequency of buses and also high penalty for violation of the rules. You can hardly see any (so called) Traffic Policeman here for managing the traffic and yes forgot mentioning “Horns are strictly prohibited here”.

So after a comfortable journey to the office we met our team which comprised of around 8-9 members (which includes 2 Indians as well). We found the whole team very cooperative and supportive. They were quite interactive in their behavior and treated us quite nicely. It’s always a good feeling when you are working with the people who are not from your origin so that you have different things to talk about and also you can explore different cultures.

I was aware of the term “Jetlag” but had never experienced it. I was bewildered to see that most of my new colleagues were literally surprised to know that we had reached Toronto a day before and came to office the next day. All were saying you must be “Jet Lagged”. C’mon people, I have heard of this term a million times, can anyone tell me how it feels to be Jet Lagged? Then came the feeling; in the evening of the same day at around 5pm, my eyes started closing by itself. I was in the office and never felt so sleepy before. I was literally out of control of my dizziness. That feeling was a bit strange but true. So, this is what they call “Jet Lag”. I just waited for the clock to tick 7 so that we can leave the office and as soon as I reached home I went to sleep.

Continued in the next post>>>>>>