Out of the blues...

After the sudden decision I made last week, my mood is back to normal ( almost). I got calls from many friends who read the blog - Thank you ! And all the encouraging words from fellow-bloggers helped me feel a lot better ! Thank you !!!

So, after I bought the ticket, I began to shop ( I just needed an excuse). Now, I've so much stuff for everyone that I hope they would fit into the suitcases !!

On Friday, I picked up my tickets and planned to meet my friends in Dallas. I told K that I would meet her in Valley View Mall. The only problem was that we din't know where it was. So, I decided to pull into another small mall and instructed her to do the same. I thought we could ask someone as we were close to it. I got out of my car and then realised that I had locked myself out !! My keys were on the passenger seat ! How could I be so stupid ? ! ? I wanted to kick myself. I calmed down and called AAA ( ha..I was paying for it and here was a chance to finally use it). The AAA guy came in 40mts while K and I waited and he unlocked the car in a few minutes. It was so easy to open the passenger window and insert that rod to open the door ! I was stunned realising how easy it was to steal a car or break-in !!

Then Saturday was spent in shopping too. On Sunday, I did something interesting - went to a musical drama called 'Bombay Dreams'. Yes, the same one for which the music was composed by AR Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This was the first time I was watching a play in the US and I was very excited. We got balcony seats and I hoped that I would be able to see atleast a little bit. I was reminded of the 'opera' scene in ' Dil Chahtha Hai'. Many people were dressed in formals and gowns. My friend S and I were suddenly conscious of our ' casual clothes'. It was nice to see so many Americans attend an Indian play; some were even dressed in salwar-kameez and kurtis. The theatre was huge and crowded.

The play began and it was superb. The songs were awesome. The costumes were so colourful ! The dances were good. The lights and background added to its brilliance. It was like watching a movie except that it was live. The show lasted for a little over two hours and it was a success. That was the last day it was playing in Dallas. So, if this play is coming to your city - watch it ( unless you hate songs because it is a musical).

Monday was the day of errands and now I am left with packing before leaving to India on Wednesday. This time, I am flying directly to Bangalore and so I'm very thrilled. Everyone back home is also excited. Weekend should be fun.

I will be blogging with India stories soon !

Is this my threshold ?

I was standing in the queue for security check when I last saw him. I turned around and saw him smiling and waving at me. My family was there and they were all waving me good bye. I could feel the tears swelling up as I tried to muster some courage to give them a smile. I looked back one last time and went inside the terminal. I headed towards the line for check-in with tears flowing down my cheeks. It did not stop even after the plane took off. I must have been a sight. After my usual set of misadventures, I was finally back to my life here, so far away from my loved ones.

I was soon looking forward to my spring break to be with V. School kept me busy. Very busy. I started blogging about the wedding. Soon, I realised that it made me miss V even more. So I stopped thinking and writing about it. Long distance relationships teaches a lot of lessons in many aspects. As V traveled a lot, it was difficult to even call each other ( my phone bills have never been less than 3 digits in a long time). Somehow hearing his voice even if it was just less than a minute made my day. I was strong girl according to many....But how long can I hold up ?

Soon, I realised that meeting V for just spring break was not going to work out. I was very depressed. I feel sick. Lost interest in school and research work. The girl who could not-stop-smiling suddenly looked like a tragedy queen. Then I bounced back to almost-normal after a while. It was always about distraction - I started planning my Canada trip.

Then sometime in the end of April, my professor gave me permission to take a break in summer and visit my husband ( I guess he could not bear looking at my sad face anymore). So, I told V to apply for a visa. There were many hurdles and confusion...But I told myself that I would be with him in May. I realised soon that I was mistaken as there was further delay. So, I decided to take a long break in Canada.

Now I am back, there is still no sign of the visa. My moods have become worse as I seem to get more depressed. I have kept in touch with fewer friends. I seem to be talking lesser to everyone. As I look back, I realised how much more silent I have become for a person who cannot stop chattering. I seemed to have a lot of enthu, which is so unlike me. How did I become like this ? Have I reached my threshold ?

You've waited for so many years, just manage for a few more weeks.
This logic does not work. I think its harder to be fine for just a few weeks; its like standing in a queue - when you start by standing at the back, you feel fresh and energetic; as you inch towards the end at by moving forward, you only feel more frustated and annoyed.

Long distance is not new to me. I've managed to sail through more turbulent times. But, I was probably stronger then. I've learnt to avoid and not think about V when I go out, when I shop, when I eat out, when I am at home, when I am watching a sad/happy movie...And then there are times when I just cannot bear it...And out comes a torrid of tears. V is always strong and would console me.

We will see each other soon, he says. How soon, I would wail.

And now...I wait, as always, just to be with him. Tried to distract myself with a lot of other things...Yet I cannot get over it this time. Every conversation I have with him, ends up with me bursting into tears. I know the wait will be over soon and I will be with him. I've been crying for the last couple of hours. V called to console me but I had no control over my tears. I hang up and continue crying.

I feel so empty inside....Oh God...Give me strength.

p.s. wrote this post at 3am. did not publish it. woke up today morning feeling a little better and made a decision to get away from here.

The colour of money

On a recent visit to Canada, I came across the Canadian Dollar and I was happy to see that different denominations had a different colours. The Indian rupee is always easy to handle, you know just by the size if it is a Rs.5 note or Rs. 500. The colour difference is an added bonus.

When I came to US, I thought it would be similar here too. I was quite surprised to learn that all notes had the same colour and size. So, one has to be careful all the time while dealing with money. Ofcourse as students, we are always broke and use credit-cards more frequently. Nowadays, I carry only small denominations, mostly for parking or other such reasons. Life revolves around a quarter here hehehehe.

I have always been fascinated with currencies. These days, thanks to the widespread acceptance of credit cards and ATMs, it is not such a hassel to get currency in another country. So, I can eat in an european city during a transit without worrying about euros or other money. Turns out that even euros have different colours for different denominations.

I wonder who makes these decisions about currencies - their colour, size and photographs. That would be a cool job indeed.

Incidents on 6 - 6 - 6

I was woken up in the wee hours of the morning on June 6th by my aunt. C-12 had fallen sick and had to be rushed to the hospital. My uncle took her while I went back to sleep. I was leaving back to US that day and had a lot of errands to do; I figured that since my flight was in the evening, I had plenty of time.

One of the first things I do as soon as I wake up is check mails. I opened my yahoo account and for some reason my password did not work. This was my primary id. I decided to open my secondary id to see if this was a problem in all ids. I could login into this account. Now, I began to panic. I tried a few more times before the word verification started. Then, I tried to retreive my password, as expected it said data mismatch. Someone had hacked into my account and changed all the information !!! I was wondering what to do when my aunt told me all of us were going to the hospital and that I had to pack and be ready in an hour. I mailed yahoo and told them the situation, got ready, packed in a rush and was ready to leave.
C-12 was doing fine but had to wait for a really long time to see the doctors. So, my uncle could not drop me off to the airport and I told them I would just take a cab. I told them I would leave early as the security had been beefed up after some terrorists were caught in Toronto. The cab ride was uneventful.

I got my boarding pass and was informed that the immigration for USA would be done in Canada itself. There was a long line for the immigration and I stood wondering how bad this was going to be. The instant I started talking to the officer, I calmed down. It was good to do small talk after 2 weeks (no one did any small talk in canada) and he even helped me fill out some forms.

I was a little early for my flight but din't mind it at all. After getting something to eat, I settled down with my ipod and was almost dozing off when they announced that my flight was delayed ! I was annoyed. Just then, I realised someone was staring at me. She was the cutest kid I had ever seen ! Elizabeth was 2 years old; she had blonde hair and blue eyes; wore a frock, stockings and cute shoes. She was so adorable with chubby cheeks and a cute smile. She soon started playing with me and my mood was completely cheered up and I forgot all about the delayed plane.

I finally reached Texas, K came to pick me up. I was so happy to be back home ! We went to IHOP and chatted for sometime. I came home and checked my email again. No luck. My account had surely been hacked. Now, comes the painful process of collecting as many ids as possible and letting everyone know about my change of address too. Sigh !

All this was on 6th, then to cheer myself I went to the bath and body works semi-annual sale yesterday. Ahh paradise ! I went crazy and bought quite a few things. Tried some new flavors and looks like I've to go back and get some more. Hehehehe.

The Scotia Bank incident

Both A and I did not have Canadian currency and were looking out for a place to convert currency. After walking for a while on Queens Rd, we finally spotted Scotia Bank. It had ATM too. So, A decided to draw some money while I decided to convert US Dollars.


I was just getting the money when I heard a loud noise. It came from the ATM machine. Oh o...now what ! Both A and C-8 gave me a sheepish grin. I saw a big spill of orange juice.C-8 had spilt the bottle of Orange juice that she was drinking. C-8 said ' sorry, I don't know what happened'. I saw a lady go and talk to them. In the meantime, I got the money and told the guy at the counter about the spill. He was very sweet and said ' Don't worry about it, I'll clean it up'.

Then A and C-8 came to where I was standing. A looked very annoyed. She then told me that the lady had asked them to clean up the mess. I told A that the guy at the counter said it was ok and that he would clean it up. Just then the mean lady walked up to us and gave us paper towels to clean up the mess !! She came with a trash can too !!!

I was hopping mad and wanted to tell something real nasty to her. But I din't. We cleaned up the mess while C-8 stood with a sad face. I cooled down thinking that Scotia Bank was probably too poor to employ Janitors. I guess that is why they don't train their employees on customer service or even politeness !

One thing is for sure...I would never go inside that Bank again !

The Beaches in Toronto - 2

Here is the continuation of our adventures.

We walked a couple of blocks and then boarded a street car on Queens Road. The driver told us when we reached our destination - the beaches. Contrary to what the name suggests, the beaches is actually a district in Toronto. The road is filled with shops selling all kinds of items. Some looked so similar to the shops in India. There were lots of tourists. It seemed to be the tulip season and so we saw lots of pretty flowers everywhere. We walked for sometime, did window shopping, had coffee at Second Cup, went to the library and finally headed towards the board walk.

There were lots of pretty houses, pretty gardens and parks. The shores of Lake Ontario looked very beautiful. There was a long walking stretch with wooden boards. The banks had pebbles and sand. The lake was huge and almost looked like a sea. We sat on the pebbles and just enjoyed the wind and the sound of water splashing. There were many people walking their dogs and I saw all kinds of breeds. C8 and I finally played with one cute dog while A was busy clicking pictures. How I wish I had a dog. Sigh !

It was evening and we headed back home. This time there were no adventures.

I would strongly recommend seeing 'the beaches' for anyone visiting Toronto.

The Beaches in Toronto - 1

' The bus-stop is just across Mavis. Catch bus number 61 ; the bus would stop for a long time in a Mall on the way. Don't get off there. Continue and get down in the last stop called Cooksville GO. From there get another bus to UNION STN. That is Toronto downtown. '

My uncle gave us these instructions for getting to Toronto downtown last Friday. By the time we woke up and got ready it was already around 11am. Archana, my cousin C8 and I finally got out of the house armed with umbrellas ( yes it had to rain ofcourse). C8 carried her own cute umbrella while A and I decided to share one - which meant A would actually hold it as she was taller (hahahah).


The bus stop was very close to home according to my uncle. We reached Mavis. There was a funny looking bus stop. It was completely transparent ( how would this provide shelter against the sun?). There were 2 tiny chairs. We were not sure if this was the correct bus stop. After some investigation ( looking for any boards, signs) we found 6119 written on a tiny pole. Did this mean bus number 6 - 11 - 9 or was it 61 -19 ? There were more combinations too but we decided that this was probably the one. The bus came soon. We bought our tickets and sat down.

Finally a big mall came. Aha. We were told not to get off. I had asked the driver to let us know when to get off. So he looked at me and told me ' this is your stop'. I looked at A and gave the driver a puzzled look. I told him ' no we will get down in the last stop'. The driver nodded his head and said ' no this is your last stop to union stn'. The argument continued as I explained to him that I was told not to get off. The driver got extremely annoyed. He started explaining about some train and some bus. Huh. No one told me about a train !! The driver looked like he wanted to kick all of us out of the bus. A kept telling me that we should continue on the same bus. I was going crazy listening to the two tell me opposite things. What do I do ? The driver finally got fed up and closed the doors. We seemed to make a U-turn. Oh o. Was this the last stop after all ? Suddenly I saw another bus standing on the opposite side with ' union station' written on it. And finally it flashed to me that this was what the driver wanted us to catch. I asked him to stop and we got off and ran to catch that bus. Phew. Made it in time.

We reached Union Station. We looked for maps and directions of any kind. We found none. I told A that maybe it was up the stairs; I found upstairs to be a railway station and there were no maps ofcourse. This was very strange. We went to another ticket counter and still found no maps ! What sort of tourist place was this ? No maps and no time-tables to pick up ? Finally we went to a Budget rental in the station and told him we were lost. The guy at the counter was very sweet and gave us a map. Yipee !

All this running around made us very hungry. We hurried towards Le Papillion for a superb French meal. A and I had 'crepe' which was just like dosa only a little sweet. I had crepe Jean-Pierre ( yummy) , A had crepe aux Champignons and C8 had pasta. The waiter was very nice to us and suggested that we see the beaches on such a dull rainy day.

The rest of the story will be continued in the next post. But if you are in a hurry you can read it in A's post.