[tag]Toronto[/tag] city is situated on the bank of Lake Ontario. To the south of the city is a chain of small islands, called [tag]Toronto Islands[/tag]. The islands are a popular tourist destination. Barely two kilometers away from noisy and crowded downtown, this place is ideal for a quick escape and some solitude.
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Tourist cruise ship on the on-shore dock.
Regular [tag]ferry[/tag] services run from the mainland to the islands. For a mere $6 ticket, the visitor can spend whole day cris-crossing the islands on ferries. Many people carry their bikes, while others bring their barbecue sets and have a little party.
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Toronto downtown as seen from the lake.
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The giant and the dwarf. CN Tower against a tiny yacht.
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On the ferry from mainland to the islands.
[tag]Ward’s island[/tag] is the eastern end of the central island and it is also connected to the southen island. There are a number of residential areas, restaurants, parks and a nice little beach. The calmness of this place felt almost unbelievable, especially because just 15 minutes back we were in the city.
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Arriving on Ward’s island.
As seen in the picture above, many people own a yacht and spend their weekends idling in the lake.
More photos in subsequent post.
Inspired by Krish Ashok’s masterpiece, I attempted playing the same Punjabi music on my Sitar. This is a bhangra song, I don’t remember the name, but if you do then let me know. (I hope it sounds like what it is supposed to.)
Here is the result:
[audio:http://priyank.com/audio/bhangra_on_sitar.mp3]
If you are unable to see the player above, here is the mp3 file:
The piece is played on my Sitar which is dying but still manages to produce some sound. I had a crude mic to record this (and somewhere in the clip you can hear birds chirping.) The clip has 3 sound tracks, mixed in Goldwave.
I think the clip is not great but I enjoyed playing some non-classical stuff for a change and then mixing the tracks 
Before you begin, you must read Gabriel’s The First Ten Things You Need To Know Aboot [tag]Canada[/tag]. She He will address most of your curiosities in a matter-of-fact manner.
Update: Sorry Gabriel! I’ll remember it now.
Now I have been in this country for 8 months and 8 days (wow! how precise!) and it is interesting to note how my perceptions change (and ARE changing) as I live here. Agreed that I spent most of these 8.3 months confined to the business school in what they call the ‘York University’ (YU) campus, I am not as insightful about this place as some other newcomer would have been.
You might have read my initial observations about this place. While all of them are still valid, I have discovered something more.
For instance:
- ALL Canadians are confused about their history period. Once I was talking to a history major about this, and he had an easy answer – ‘I studied American (read US) history at college.‘
- Although the country is independent, they celebrate Queen Victoria day with vigor. Even the oath for new immigrants is a statement of allegiance to her majesty, the Queen of England (or is it Britan?)
- They have this funny obsession about perceiving themselves to be different from the US, but they really dont’t do the job well! For instance, cars are driven on right side of the road, but distances are measured in kilometers. Color is spelled as colour but the accent is very American. Call them escalators, not lifts
The free and open environment in ‘our’ Canada is like a mouthwatering delicious piece of stake that the orthodox setup across the border MUST finish. Hmm… why don’t the two countries merge? By ‘merge’ I don’t mean a peaceful union, but a hostile takeover by the [tag]US[/tag] Republicans. They will then be able to cast their religious, conservative and/or homophobic ideals on a wider territory. Yummy. As a side effect, more people will be under their rule, so the amount of moral sin per person attributable to the actions of the Republicans will be lower. (sometimes the engineer inside me strives to quantify everything… you know what I mean? (that is another over used phrase))
Now I have neither been to the US nor have I spent a long time in Canada, but I can already distinguish an American from a Canadian. Do you wanna know the difference? I think if you can identify people of Pune from that of Mumbai, you can easily spot an American among the Canadians 
I don’t expect any nasty comments from the Bush-land saying ‘who the hell is this smart guy’, simply because nobody reads this blog!
to be continued…/
Instrumental and Vocal versions of our National Anthem [tag]Jana Gana Mana[/tag], another awesome Bharatbala production. I especially loved the instrumental version
Happy 60th [tag]Independence Day[/tag], everyone.
![[tag]India Independence Day[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-08-15_iflag.gif) ![[tag]Independence Day[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-08-15_iflag2.gif){kind=small} |
“उजड़े नहीं अपना चमन, |
“आसाम से गुजरात तक, |
I feel more and more that the verses above is nothing but wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it is an occasion to celebrate.
Sixty years of [tag]Indian Independence[/tag].
I had been to [tag]Algonquin[/tag] Provincial Park this weekend with about 10 classmates. I’ll blog about it in detail shortly, but here is a sneak peek!
![[tag]Coon Lake[/tag] camp at Algonquin Park](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-08-13_alg1.jpg)
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