“For heaven’s sake its just a [tag]calendar[/tag] !”, my friend yelled…
My heart raced. I wanted to reply, but I was choked with emotions and I simply couldn’t…
![[tag]Kalnirnay[/tag], [tag]Kalanirnay[/tag], [tag]Kaalanirnay[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-07-18_kalnirnay.jpg)
All the walls in my room are covered with pictures and maps. My friend got a picture of all of us and wanted to stick it in the place where the calendar was. I said no.
I look at the calendar everyday and it reminds me of home. It reminds me of the hundreds of little occasions and festivals that I’m missing. I look at the ‘red’ dates occurring on weekdays, and think about how the holiday used to excite me 10 years back.
In short, the calendar means a lot to me. It’s almost a part of who I am and part of my upbringing and culture. It makes me nostalgic, and in a place where everything is ‘foreign’, this is one of the few things that is not. (see, the week starts on Sunday!:) ) Indeed, the last thing I use it, is to see the dates! For most part of the day its just lying there on the wall doing nothing. Sounds silly?
The calendar-[tag]almanac[/tag] in talk is, Kalnirnay (कालनिर्णय).
Does anyone remember the old advertisement? It went in three languages on [tag]Mumbai[/tag] TV station:
[tag]Marathi[/tag]: कालनिर्णय द्या ना…. कालनिर्णय घ्या ना
Gujarati: कालनिर्णय आपो ने… कालनिर्णय लो ने
Hindi: कालनिर्णय दिजीए… कालनिर्णय लिजीए
(Customer: Can you give me a Kalnirnay?…. Shopkeeper: Here is the Kalnirnay)
Then, there was this signature jingle:
भविष्य मेनु आरोग्य ज्ञान, उपयुक्त साहित्य प्रत्येक पान ।
पंचांग शोभे सुमंगल असावे. भिंतीवरी कालनिर्णय असावे ॥
Astrology, Recipes, Health, Information,… Useful literature on every page
May you get an auspicious horoscope, let there be a Kalnirnay on your wall
(Ok the English translation sounds funny)
Today this calendar is India’s largest selling publication and is available in Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, English apart from Marathi language. The brand is so powerful in [tag]Maharashtra[/tag], that at the end of the year, people say “I have to buy a Kalnirnay” instead of saying “I have to buy a calendar.”
Quick question: What are the two objects you will find in all Maharashtrian homes?
Answer: A statue of Ganpati (Lord Ganesh) and a Kalnirnay calendar!
So,… No! Its not just any calendar. Its Kalnirnay…
Sequel to my previous post: [tag]Niagara falls[/tag]: evening
Some more pictures:
[tag]Queen Victoria Park[/tag] at Niagara Falls is called the ‘heart’ of Niagara parks. During peak seasons, it has thousands of daffodils, rock garden and some beautiful trails.
A tree in Queen Victoria Park
[tag]Rainbow Bridge[/tag] across the Niagara river connects US and Canada. The deep blue something Niagara river downstream of the falls looks ferocious. This bridge was constructed in 1941 and is about 290m long.
Rainbow bridge
Its was a long, albeit extremely pleasurable walk from Casino Niagara (where one can park for free) to the point close to the falls. Walking along this path next to the river was awesome. At one point, we were surprised – it suddenly started raining – but soon enough it was dry. Then we realized that it was not the rain, but tiny droplets of water getting sprayed from the Niagara falls. The sound (noise!) of the falls starts rising as we approach and it’s impossible to hear without shouting.
View of Canadian Niagara falls and the road along the river
Another view of Niagara Falls (Canadian side)
Niagara falls, Canada
The Niagara falls are divided into two parts. One part is a straight line and the other is a horseshoe. The straight part is in US territory, while the curved one is Canadian. It is generally accepted that view of the whole area is many times better from the Canadian side than the US. Many people pop across the border just to take a look
Niagara falls, US
The falls are illuminated at night, and they look colorful and pretty!
Niagara falls, US
The [tag]city of Niagara Falls[/tag] glitters at night. There are a number of casinos, hotels, restaurants and bars. In the picture you can see a ray of white light that illuminates the falls. The two pictures of US falls shown above are the result of the same beam.
Niagara falls town at night
Finally, there are lots of things to do after you have had enough of the falls 
Experimental shot. Artistic, no?
Wonder who plays that Guitar!
On the way to Niagara Falls from Toronto is the [tag]Welland Canal[/tag]. It is a man made construction that connects [tag]Lake Ontario[/tag] and [tag]Lake Erie[/tag]. Lake Erie is about 100 meters above lake Ontario and guess what this canal does…. it lifts the ships up! awesome, isn’t it? Canadian Encyclopedia describes it as follows:
The Welland Canal is a navigational canal 43.5 km long, crossing the Niagara Peninsula of southwestern Ontario from Port Weller on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. It overcomes a height difference of 99.4 m between the 2 lakes and bypasses the turbulent Niagara River and [tag]Niagara Falls[/tag].
The [tag]ships[/tag] pass thru a series of ‘locks’ or gates that slowly raise their height. I was at lock 3, which has the St. Catharines Museum and plenty of space to watch the action:
View of QEW from Lock 3:
Queen Elizabeth Way. (Freeway that connect Buffalo, New York, USA and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto and its western suburbs):
As the ship approaches, a bridge over a local road opens:
Gates open to let the ship enter:
Ship enters the lock:
Water is pumped into the lock to “lift” the ship up:
CSL Assiniboine. Its a beautiful ship. (notice the level):
Finally, the ship is elevated:
Children 
were screaming and cheering the rising ship while the crew members happily waved back at them. I have heard that sometimes crew members from foreign ships toss a few foreign currency coins at children, its worth the fun.
This large ship was going upstream, but we also saw two small sailboats going downstream.
Finally, if you are still clueless about how the whole thing works, see the little animation (source)
Picture from my weekend visit to [tag]Niagara Falls[/tag].
It was taken at 20:10, sometime after sunset.
![[tag]Spring ahead[/tag]](http://priyank.com/images/weblog/2007/2007-03-11_springahead2.jpg)
Today the clocks here sprang up by an hour to DST – [tag]Daylight Savings Time[/tag]. That means, IST is now 9.5 hrs ahead of EST. Initially I was irked by the thought of decreasing my sleep by one hour, but thanks to my erratic schedule, this change in clocks did not affect me at all 
Here is some information about [tag]Daylight-saving time[/tag] from Wikipedia
Daylight saving time ([tag]DST[/tag]), also known as summer time in British English, is the convention of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less… Governments often promote DST as an energy conservation measure because it substitutes summer afternoon sunlight for electrical lighting… In a typical case where a one-hour shift occurs at 02:00 local time, in spring the clock jumps forward from 02:00 standard time to 03:00 DST and the day has 23 hours…
Being closer to the equator, India does not follow DST.
India does not observe daylight saving time, (DST) or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971.
This year, DST adjustments were done 3 weeks earlier compared to 2006. The shift to DST has been advancing by 3 weeks, maybe that will be enforced all thorghu the year! The sunrise today in Toronto was at 7:37 AM, with a day length (sunrise to sunset) of 11 hr 43 min. By June 21, the day will be 15 hr 47 min long! I really miss the early 6:45 AM sunrise in India though!
Hopefully this change in time will indeed result in some [tag]energy saving[/tag]s.
If you saw Canadians surprised over a spring-like December, you ought to see this Toronto Star report about a [tag]freezing [/tag]February. If they said that December 2006 was the warmest in 40 years, so here we have, February 2007 as the [tag]cold[/tag]est in 28 years!
The average temperature was -8.4C, which was three degrees colder than normal.
That also made it the fifth coldest February since 1937 when weather records were first kept at what is now Pearson International Airport.
- Toronto Star, March 5, 2007
Indeed, it’s March already, yet we had one [tag]snow storm[/tag] yesterday and today’s temperature has plummeted to -21°C with a wind chill of -35°C. Ooh!!
Pjf writes:
Dearest readers in warmer climes, please blow some warm air our way for we are suffering terribly as we navigate the bitterly frozen landscape of Toronto.
Blow?? We came here to do just that! Some time back, we joked amongst ourselves that there are too many people ‘imported-from-warm-countries’ which is making Toronto all heated up. Looks like they have turned a cold shoulder now 
The weather Gods haven’t spared India either. Northern parts of the country are grappling with a brutal [tag]cold wave[/tag].
The hill state (Himachal Pradesh) came in the grip of severe cold with temperatures falling 3°C to 4°C below normal as the state experienced isolated snow during the past 24 hours.
-Tribune India, February 15, 2007
Brace yourself for the climatic shift…
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