When It Rains!!!!

I open my arms far and wide to hold the whole wide sky,
I open my heart to the tiny droplets that refresh my skin so dry,
I jump like a grasshopper forgetting all sense of social belonging,
I let my heart behold the moment in a sense of total fleeing.
---Yours Truly

Ever wondered why rain evokes so many emotions in us. Rain describes joy and happiness for some, it also describes pain and grief for some, for some it is just another time to relax and chill out, for some it is a callous fact of nature that destroys their lives.

My personal emotions with rain have been diverse through the various stages in my life.There have been times when I jump in joy seeing rain, but there have been other times when I would pray for it to stop. There have been times when the need for rain becomes so imperative that one resorts to steps like black magic and prayers. Wonder what God thinks of all those things I did as a child :-).

The first thing that come to my mind when I think about rain has to be pakodas(mmmmm). Imagine sitting on a chair in the balcony, chating with my sister with rain lashing down outside and you have that lip-smaking pakodas made by mom with all that love assorted in it! Heaven. Heaven is right here on earth. The next will have to be the times I have been at my native place Mavelikara during the monsoon season. Kerala has this dreamlike mystery about it that has a haunting effect on us long after you leave the place.

Lush green fields, vivacious rain forests and enchanting sounds; it truly is God’s Own Country.Rain brings out the best of the place because it is then that the human activity stops and nature takes full control. For many it is like witnessing nature in it full fury; every lightning takes your breath away for it feels like you are at the end of the world; for others its a time for retrospection and realize what we miss out in our lives in our own ways. Then there is a third kind like me who are not aware why life is so difficult anyways:-). And what do they do? They make paper boats and recreate pirates of the Carribean in Kerala.

I must agree; times have changed. I remember being in brick roof houses, which leak when it rains. Grandmother puts those utensils at various vantage points on the floor so that water does not spread in the house. This I must say was my first real experience with rain water harvesting. I remember eating hot piping kaachil(Potato yam) with coconut chutney during this season…yummy.

Nature has a magical way of filling the world with wonders.

Ticket to US of A

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost (The Road not Taken)

Centuries ago man used to travel barefoot across mountains and rivers in search of greener pastures. No one literally cared which direction they were travelling. Turn of civilized era, man started to make communities and that which were spread across places. These communities then turned into larger civilizations and finally became countries depending on the color or behavioral patterns of people. Now while all this was happening, man used to travel across to each others territory often. Initially they used to do it on foot across mountains, hard terrains and rivers; over a period of time they found that predefined routes across territories would allow other beings of the same clan to use it to travel on the same route. These came to be known as Roads. Human society has evolved so much over time that, we now have roads just about everywhere. Roads criss cross under and over each other as if they are strings of a kite as seen in our kite festivals.

Am I writing about the Transport system of countries? No, Now here goes the actual story...

Going to the Niagara falls is something people dream of and is often a one time affair in a life time. I have been fortunate enough to visit the place twice now. This story begins with a trip to Niagara falls, guess what; we decided to travel 700 Kilometers in a rented car this time, unlike last time when we took a packaged tour. Since we are new to these roads, we took along a GPS(Global positioning system) with us. The technology impressed us as it guided us into the smallest of lanes with very high precision. It seemed as if somebody up there is watching us all the time. The system had a lady voice in it.

Have you ever wondered why all announcements across a variety of places are having female voices? Be it airports, railway stations and now GPS :-). Is that because males are not good announcers? I don't know, I never understood though. May be you can help me.

So continuing on the journey... Everything was real pleasant till we reached a place called Ogdensburg, a border town between the Unites States of America and Canada. We could see the big bridge over the Saint Laurence River. We jumped in joy inside the car(excluding Ravi, who was driving). We took pictures and video. The GPS lady who was pretty much in silence all the while, suddenly asked us to take a left turn and we did. Little did we know, that left turn is going to cost us so dearly.

After a smooth ride for 2-3 minutes, we saw that the bridge that we saw far is right in front of us and the road was leading us straight into it. We still believed the GPS and drove right into it. The bridge had a rough patch over it, I guess to avoid people over speeding and it said "MAX 30 km/hr". It was a pleasant drive over the bridge, but what we saw after crossing the bridge surely had everyone thinking. It said "Welcome to New york".

My heart started to pound at that because we all know how messy it can be at borders with immigration. We thought of taking the reverse gear but on enquiry it was told that if we did a return from that point, border control from US will follow us and catch us. Don't know for what though. So now we had to cross into US immigration and let them know our story and that was the only hope for return. Unfortunately, none among the group of 5 had their travel documents with us. The only hope is if we find a gentle officer and let him know our sad story.

There was a big queue of cars in front of us adding agony to our woes. Finally after an hours' wait it was our turn to go in, we pulled the car in front of the officer who asked to show us the documents.
"Officer, We are in trouble" Said one among us.

Now as it was uttered, the officer put her hand on her revolver. What a terrifying sight that was. May be the usage of the words was wrong; we realized.

However we managed to tell her our story, she asked us to pull up aside and assigned another officer to the case. The officer gave a smile to us. I could see his sharp teeth from one corner, it kind of had a spectacular sharpness and glow that I had not seen before. "Is he a Dracula or something?" I wondered.

The next 3 hours were a collection of very tense/terrifying moments. I don't think I can forget that anytime soon. The guy asked all kind of questions, individually to each of us to check if the story versions from each match or not. We overheard another officer telling him in his ear "If I were you, I would have taken them into custody".

Anyways after all that interrogation session, the officer kind of finally believed us that we were tourists who had really lost our way into the US. He took our finger prints and photos and officially rejected us entry into US. It had to be done because the other task on our hand now was to tell Canadian immigration when we go back that we had come from Canada only. Well, all was done and he gave us the rejection letters and asked us to show it at the Canadian immigration. He led us to our car. He told us that this rejection would not stop us from travelling to the US if we want anytime. But we will have to mention the same anytime we are applying for a US Visa. As he said the last line he gave us a smile. I could distinctly see his sharp teeth shining. Did he drink any one's blood? I don't think so. May be we were few of those lucky ones.

The Canadian immigration on the other side were softer on us. Since we had the rejection letters with us, we could not have come from anywhere else than Canada then. The lady advised us to keep our travel documents with us in such trips, being non-residents. We thanked her and our stars and finally came out un-hurt and free back into Canada.

Although this experience took a bit of sheen of the Niagara trip, but the magnificence of Niagara took over it and end of the day, it really was a trip worth travelling.

In the hindsight, everything is funny, but imagine if the officer had listened to his friend; I would have had another Close encounter of the third kind. May be I would have got something new to write then "Food in Jail - Good or Bad", provided they give me access to this blog site then.

Gastronomic Journey - Montreal

Please!! And I mean it; Please do not be fooled by the picture shown above. I did not make any of them. I know people sometimes can go the extremes with what I can do, but for God's sake I did not make any of it. I mean look at it, there is vegetarian biriyani, palak paneer, butter chicken and don't know the rest. I can take any kind of allegation but this one, I mean do you really think I can make that?? pffff

So its been close to 18 months in Montreal and according to reports coming in, my gastronomic journey has not added even a kilo of weight extra to my body from what it was when I landed here. Now is this the problem of the food I ate or it is the way the food gets settled in my body..hmm a tricky question indeed.

At the very onset of the prospect of cooking, I must admit that there was a lot of excitement attached to it. We always think that we could at least by luck end up making things that at least look like the picture above but then over time it fizzles to the point where you say; "Is there anything to eat today?" :-)

I will not say that I am getting sick of eating the sambhar, dal and rice everyday, because I will be in trouble if I said that and I think that my room mates have are slightly bigger build than me and I don't think I can take any aggression from them now.

Now coming to the reason I started the blog, I actually wanted to write my journey through the variety of cusines that I have had during my stay. It will not be huge, but local friends are suggesting new ones already.

Let me start of with apna Indian food in Montreal.
A variety of restaurants dot across various parts of Montreal which goes to prove that Indian food is much liked by Canadians, which is good to know. I myself have tried a whole lot of them and have concluded that these are a much more customized versions of Indian food than the actual ones. No offense to anyone, the food in most places are really good. But for example look at this following conversation.

Customer: "Can you get me 1 chicken tikka masala, a chicken vindaalooo and 4 naan's?"
Waiter : Of course Sir. Would you like it to me very spicy or medium spicy or mild?


Now I knew that every dish that we see in India has a flavor of its own and it does not get changed in spice to adjust to people. I mean quantity of spice defines the dish.
Anyways thats customization at its best. For us the smile on our face tells them all. Very spicy!!!

Overall I have liked the food and its not been very disappointing anytime. Some of the good ones are listed below.
1. Indian beau Village (http://indianbeauvillage.com)
2. Pushap (http://restomontreal.ca/portal/pushap/index.php?lang=en)
3. Maison Indian Curry (http://restomontreal.ca/portal/indian-curry-house/index.php?lang=en)

4. Le Taj (http://www.restaurantletaj.com/)
5. Buffet Maharaja (http://www.buffetmaharaja.com/)
6. Al Safa (Jean Talon)- Pakistani restaurant with the food being the same.


Chinese food







I must admit that I was really wary of the Chinese food before I actually gave it a try. Thanks to Charmaine, I have started to like it now. For beginners, the Chinese Dim sum would be an ideal start because it kind of gives you a peek into a variety of Chinese delicacies which you may not get if you are going for particular dishes. Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese Tea. In India we tend to associate Chinese food only to noodles, which is not wrong to an extent but to be true Chinese food is much more than just noodles. I also tried Crab for the first time here.

The places I have visited in Montreal are the following

1. Kam Fung restaurant in China town.

2. Beijing restaurant in China town.

Lebanese food

Lebanese food comes very close to Indian food. I say this because they use a lot of spices in their food. The spices do match some of our flavours. They do use chilly sauces also like us. The Falafal(the spherical ball in the picture) is my favourite. The best ones in town is Restaurant Amir, which has a lot of branches in the city.

Italian food

The first thing that comes to mind with Italian food is Pasta. I have taken a particular liking for pasta these days. You can try a lot of flavours of pasta and with different fillings. One of my favourite places for pasta in Montreal is Pis Pistol on St Catherine street. Never tried the other delicacies in the restaurant but will make it a point to cover some more before I go back to India.

Peruvian food

I must admit that I never would have tried this one if Jean would not have invited me for a lunch. Thanks to her, I would never regret the experience. Peru has its own food history as evident from the time she spent to explain me about each of the dishes that came on the table. Peruvian food has a lot of similarities to food from Kerala. A lot of root delicacies are part of the cusine here as with kerala food too. Particularly tapioca(kappa) and sweet potato. Anways I enjoyed the experience.

Vietnamese food

Again an unknown commodity for me, Vietnamese turned out to be a surprise. I won't be able to name out the dishes here but it has a flavour that makes it different from even Chinese. The sweet sauce served with food was awesome. There are many Vietnamese restaurants in downtown montreal near China town. Thanks to Jean and team again for the treat.

We create all these inhibitions inside us that stop us from exploring the good unknown. Once you get to know it, it is bliss then. This is not just applicable to food alone.

I will make it a point to explore some more new cuisines before I go back. May be I will update this same blog then. I need to have a back pack to hold all these wonderful experiences with me.

Special Thanks to Jean, Charmaine and my friends here for making the whole experience, one of Gastronomic proportions.

18 till I die

"I wanna be young the rest of my life
never say no - try anything twice
till the angels come and ask me to fly
I'm gonna be 18 till I die - 18 till I die"

What is it about growing old that tinkers us all the time?
At a time when you wanted to grow up very fast, time never used to go soon, when you did not want to be treated as a kid any more. And as we grow older and actually realize that it was better being a kid after all, time would have already sped along :-).

I must say that in India, one would be considered a grown up only after they cross may be 18, it also has to be accepted that they grow up much faster in the west (10 may be :-)). While in the growing up years you always want to be a little more older to get some things done, but as we go on and on, one gets knocked up in the race of life and starts to wish if he/she could actually go back in time to those wonderful days as a child. This is a truth that is pretty universal, at least that is what I think. I remember being 17 yr old actually thinking what it would be to be 20, does that mean more intelligence, more maturity, more handsome or just more moustache :-).

Once you are in the 20's you actually start to feel the pinch, you are into your higher studies. You actually are shaping up your career. Of course the usual sidetracks do come when you feel every other girl is looking at you because of your new hairstyle or the funky new jeans..and you occasionally feel you are the coolest person in college, which invariably will never be true. By the time you finish your higher studies you would be around 22-23. At this time its a rush to find yourself a suitable career and to impress your bosses of your capabilities. "I have to establish myself in this company now" thats a commonly used sentence often. By the time you establish yourself in the company you have crossed quarter century. Thats when you feel what you are actually earnning is not what is the market price, you could actually earn more if you were working elsewhere. Thus begins a search for prospective companies that would give you a 50% hike from what you are earning currently. You should understand that one needs to go through the "establishing yourself" at the company again from the start here.

I have come pretty close to 28 during this while. Now don't dare think that this is totally my story, I am sure if you would actually try to reflect yourself here, it actually might be yours. Every other friend who I talk to these days always asks "When are you getting married?". Thats when I realize, there is something like that too left. No offense to anyone, but I actually think that people who ask me this question and who are not married are actually confused at the idea of a marriage.
"Let him marry first, then I will decide if I should actually marry now or should I take my time".
On the other hand, people who are married and who ask me the same question think like this -
"This guy pushed me into it, I am going to take revenge on him now" ha ha ha ha...
humor intended ...no personal thoughts on anyone here.

Going close to 30 is considered as "ye to gaya, khatam" (meaning..he is finished). There is a friend of mine who is married and 30 and who always calls me young and calls himself old. Now the thing to ponder about here is "Does marriage make you old?" or is it just one of those going to be 30 syndrome?

No wonder why Brian Adams, close to 50 years old and still sings around "I'm gonna be 18 till I die"
On second thoughts, its not bad being 18 for ever ;-)...what say?

Why did Gandhi Die?

Hey Ram !!!!!.....[which may be translated as "Oh God"]

These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot. I choose to write something about a man who lived his life in a way that made millions follow him and who left a legacy that was worth following even after his death.

On this very day some years back (January 30, 1948), Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a creation of Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949.

Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:

“Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.”

But why did Gandhi die? Not the obvious question here to be asking. What I mean is, why as mankind we are unable to follow the legacy left back by him? Why do we kill each other? Why are we still fighting with each other in the name of religion, caste, race or land?

Gandhi lived a life where he preached non-violence and truth as the weapon against oppression at a time when it was called fancy to be oppressing people. Not anymore, but I feel his preaching is still relevant in the present generation too.

Something for this generation to ponder about. Hope they do that soon!!!

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

The Great Indian Railways

If at all I wanted to write something amazing in my life, it had to be about my journeys on Indian Railways. It brings into me a sense of belongingness and excitement that is incomparable with anything else.

Traveling on the Indian railways is not just a travel in itself. The amount of people you interact with is extremely high especially if you take the second class option, which on most time may not be the best option, specially in summers. Traveling in the Indian railways is always a mind blowing affair.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I write about the railways is the typical slang used by the hawkers specially the coffee and chai walas. Traveling in Indian trains is always a mind broadening affair. The number of people you meet, the friendships you make, the food, the sights, the songs, the vendors who run around the train, the filth, the smell. You feel as if it is after all a very small world, with a plethora of cultures under the same roof. Readers who have traveled on the Indian railways often in the past at least will be able to relate to what I just said above.

Indian Railways has a total state monopoly on India's rail transport. It is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting sixteen million passengers and more than one million tonnes of freight daily. Indian Railways is the world's largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse a total length of 63,140 km (39,233 miles). As of 2002, IR owned a total of 216,717 wagons, 39,263 coaches and 7,739 locomotives and ran a total of 14,444 trains daily, including about 8,702 passenger trains. This information courtesy wikipedia.

Now these are huge numbers and a good reason to understand why they are called the lifeline of the nation. They travel across the length and breadth of the country bridging boundaries and cultures with consummate ease. They make dreams come true carrying people from far flung places in India to the big cities.

I have travelled in the best berths in the second AC, where the only people you find when you get in are either elderly couples who if you start talking, will praise their sons to death or young newly married couples who stare at you if you turn your head to them, specially the male among them. In short, try it if you are elderly or have married just recently :-).

I have also traveled on the third AC coaches, which are much better than the second AC one. Most commonly used travel mode used over the years has been the second class sleeper. I also had the opportunity to travel sitting for over 24 hrs to my hometown from Hyderabad. I also remember the day where we had to sleep on the corridor near toilet :-) as our train had been canceled and we had to jump on to another one as we had no other option.

It kind of brings a sense of dejavu when I travel on the underground metro trains here in Montreal about the kind of times I have had in India. You get into a metro here and look at the faces of people and you feel as if they are the ones who run this world, they look to be carrying the whole worlds worries on their shoulders. No one laughs, no one looks at each other.

I have traveled on the local trains in Mumbai too. An experience that one dare forget soon. The only thing you find on a platform is people. As you enter into a platform you are engulfed by a sea of people that follow you. As with a sea, there is not much of a choice you have here, the only way out is to give it to the sea, and hope or pray that you will manage to get into the next coming train. You do not have to do much about that too, just allow the sea to guide you. Once inside the agony does not end, you would end up standing on one feet for about 10 minutes before the next big station comes. You would also have to acknowledge the friendly pan chewing smile that the uncle standing beside you gives you. The whole time you are under the mental trauma thinking what would happen if this person opens his mouth, but somehow it remains pretty fixed during the travel and unloads only at the place where he intends to get down.

When I was a kid, traveling on train used to bring the kind of excitement that was just amazing. The preparation to board a train would start at least 2 months before the travel itself. My dad would ensure that we have the tickets in the holiday season and book the tickets 2 months in advance to avoid the last minute rush. I remember my mom telling me once seeing the excitement in me. "Don't come to the village if you are coming just to travel in the train".

Dad being the kind of planner he is would ensure that we are well in advance at the station. Once inside the train, its a jostle between me and my sister for the window seat, particularly if we have got only one of the two window seats reserved. I must say that I used to win the battle most of the time with the kind muscle power I had. Being the nice guy I am, I used to give it to her once in while. When the train used to stop at the station me and my sister would hit the train outside through the window and if it were to start at that would elate thinking that it was us who signaled the start of the train. Idli vada used to be a favorite with my sister and even though I liked it too, I never used to ask dad to buy those. I would always use my sisters love for it to my advantage he heh..I am sure she would agree.

The love I had for train journeys has remained in me. The prospect of a train travel still brings the childish excitement in me. Off late I had been traveling from chennai to hyderabad quite often, which have not been the best because the train usually starts late in the day and by the time you are awake you are at your destination. The journey used to be good only if you could find a girl on your opposite seat ;-) he he he...One can never miss on a opportunity to impress girls and I had this other charm of knowing multiple languages that I used very leathaly, somehow some girls found it very amusing to find a mallu, speaking telugu ha ha ha. I have seen during these travels that the people traveling are all software engineers from hyderabad who work in Chennai like me.

As I said in one of the earlier posts, times do change but they change for the good too. I wish I can go a long journey across the length of my country experiencing the sights, smell, color and diversity. Hopefully the day is not far.

Railways can create long lasting relationships overnight. I remember getting close to a family while traveling back from mavelikara to Hyderabad that they invited us over to their house and we did meet them again.

I will try to get some in depth travelogue of some of my journey's in particular in the upcoming posts.

Enjoy the Videos.

The Polar Express

Part 2 of my stay in canada is a little later than the travel itself but nevertheless its part of the original script. Here it goes....

Sounds of prayers from the nearby temple were humming in my ears..It was kind of soothing to my ears considering the fact that it was a saturday morning and you could actually keep aside all those application, software, network jargons in your suitcase and lock them up for the time being. I could feel the warmth of the tropics as I was trying to open my eyes very hard to wake up finally. Sweet music of the birds humming around, the clanking of the milk mans cans and what not....What!!!!!!!!!!! I jump out of my bed only to realize that the whole thing was just a dream. I could not sleep back with the kind of things I just saw. Why do u dream if you cannot make them true immediately...now that is not an eternal pessimist talking for sure. Just that I am missing home so much. Finally got up, washed my face, made a tea for myself even as my room mates were asleep. Wondered If I would have been home, Mom would have brought that piping hot tea to my bed itself :-)..hmm things change, they change for the good too. Its not too far getting those things back too.

Took the tea and thought I would have a look at the wonderful Montreal morning outside.
Shock!!!!!!! Where am I, Have they shifted the whole city somewhere up in the clouds. Just the kind of view that I had got travelling in that shocking British Airways Flight some time back. I am in a white world! I dont see roads, I don't see grass nor mud, where have they gone. Ok, I know I am going a little overboard with my explanation of the fact that it was snowing here ;-)..but then how do u explain it when you are only seeing for the first time in your life?


It felt as if there has been a shift in the thermal equilibrium in the world. We in India get into homes to find respite from the scorching hot temperature outside, here they get home to find respite from the scorching cold ( a newly devised term, sorry if that is wrong). Looked as if the fridge and weather have switched roles for the time being. I imagined myself becoming tiny and walking inside the freezer of a fridge, hmm sounds interesting. The powers of my imagination has increased over time as you can see. I could see in the horizon, sun trying its best to show its face to the world. I must say that the sun here is just acting as a tubelight which comes once in a while to tell that he is still alive and one day it will get back with a bang.


Although I had known that it is going to snow here in a while, it was still a shock to me to see what I saw. With all these things running in mind, we decided to have a walk in snow to see how that feels and probably click some pictures in the snow to show to friends back home the kind of wonderful experiences I have been going through here ha ha ha...Of course we also had to make that first snow ball to hit someone. Althought I must add that I personally don't like being hit but then this being one of its kind, I actually thought, why not.


There are a lot of first happenning since the time I started from home. So it was time for me to take my first steps on snow. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Now what does this mean in the current context. I don't know, I just used it because I am blogging and there are people like you who would like to read the same. I mean I was trying to impress you with my usage of words and sentences. Hows that?? You don't need to know all the answers. No one is smart enough to ask you all the questions. Am I moving away from the original script here? I think so. This is just to re-iterate the kind of feelings and thought process that I went through to take that first step on snow.

I must tell you that it was an experience of real pleasure. The first few steps were like those of a little kid who is walking for the first time seeing his/her mom calling her from a distance. The snow looked pretty slippery to start with. We had to hold ourselves so that we don't slip and fall somewhere. We took the opportunity to click a lot of pictures on the snow. Pictures that will stay with me for a long time and will be testimony to the already impressive list of first time activities that I have done in the short stay at montreal.

But in the end I must say that it was a very impressive experience with snow. Something that I will cherish for a long time to come. Although the thought of staying at a place where the temperature dips to -40 degrees is something that is sending the next shock wave through my spine.