The People
I was a little worried about the waiting time in the airports between the transits when looked at the itinerary first. It was around 28 hrs of total journey time, in which 10 hrs eaten by the transit waiting time. But I realized that was for good, after announcements in the airports about arrival delays of various other flights.
That whole time I had nothing to do really. There were free Wi-Fi connectivity everywhere, but didn't feel interested in using them most of the time, since I felt a lot sleepy because of the previous travel. Sitting in the steel chairs that were available in the lounge were not sufficient for a good sleep for me. But again Hongkong airport taught me another important. No matter whether you are in a bus stand, railway station or airport, people are just people. Extreme physical conditions can push you to do something you can never imagine.
I remember seeing a lot of drunken people lying on the roads and near signals of Bangalore besides the hot sun and the fast moving traffic. Also there were instances where I have seen them near the drainage. But not that bad; airport is a lot better place. I noticed a lot of them lying on the floor here and there near the lounge having their bags as pillows. Some of them covered up four to five chairs together and made them their seat. No matter which country they were from; almost I noticed people from all of the continents (except Antartica.. :P ). Not to mistake that they were drunken; they were all actually tired like me.
Even I felt doing so. But my stupid inner self which keeps me warned about the meaningless decency aspects never let me do that. Apart from that, my over enthusiastic photographic interest (even though I was not possessing a professional camera), never let me sleep when there was a good lighting and everything there looked like a photographic subject (deleted almost 50% of the pics taken after reviewing them is a different story).
When I landed in Calgary and went just out of the airport to catch a Taxi, a man waiting there voluntarily called me to his taxi and took my luggage into the boot space of his sedan. It was -1º C and full cold. I wanted to rush and enter the front seat; and to my surprise both of us went to the same side (left side) of the car. I thought he is going to open the door for me. But he took the seat and locked the door. Oh God.. it is left hand drive in Canada :) . I know that, but couldn't recall at that point of time until I noticed the steering wheel. Then I managed to take the other seat and the taxi started to my hotel.
On the way, we had an interesting conversation.
Driver: "Are you from India or Pakistan ?"
Me: "Yes. I'm from India"
Driver: "Where in India ?"
Me: "Bangalore". He looked like an Indian as well. So I asked, "Are you from India ?"
Driver: "No. I'm from actually from Sri Lanka. But got settled down here before 20 years"
Me: "So you speak Singhalese. Is it ?"
Driver: "I know Singhalese. But I actually speak Tamil"
That was a great surprise for me and felt a lot excited to know that the first person I met there has the same mother tongue as mine. I replied without waiting, "Seriyaa poachu poanga. Naan Thamizh dhaanga. Enakku sondha ooru Thanjavuru. Bangalore-la work panraen." (Even I speak Tamil only. My Native is Thanjavur. Working in Bangalore).
Then we started speaking in Tamil itself. He said there are a lot of Tamilians, especially Sri Lankan tamilians in Calgary and all parts of Canada. We were talking about the snow and the climate and mentioned that the lowest recorded climate in Calgary was -63º C years before. He asked whether Ooty and Kodaikanal will have this low climate and snow. I just laughed and said that I don't remember any instance of snow there; but only heavy mist, fog and moderately lower temperatures when compared to the plains. He said he had never been to India, but have seen these places in movies.
Most significant thing I noticed about people in Calgary was their traffic sense and their sympathy for pedestrians. During my stay there, the climate jumped upto -8º C with a snow storm, which was completely abnormal for me. But besides the freezing cold, I managed to walk down the road to capture some real cool pics with my Nikon Coolpix :)
Almost I was the only person who was walking on the road. Everyone else was on a four wheeler. Rare to see two-wheelers (including bicycles). But when crossing roads where there were no signals, I was surprised to see every vehicle that came by, stopped for me and let me cross the road. There were even instances where I never noticed or realized that those cars were waiting for me and then they waved their hands and asked me cross the road. Kudos to them all... !! I don't know what it takes for something like that to happen in India. But my tries to change myself on this aspect itself is not helping out. If I stop my car on the road for letting the pedestrians cross the road, where there are no signals, I would either be heavily buzzed by the following vehicles or scolded by the overtaking vehicles who never care about the intention.
Other thing that surprised me was, even people who are completely new to you, will greet you casually if you are the first person to meet on that day or you are travelling in the same elevator etc., Apart from that, I don't remember seeing many compound walls, security/watchman for any building, cops/cop vehicles on the road. I felt they feel a lot safer than us. Yes, the Delhi gang rape news has reached every corner of the world and we should ask ourselves how safe are we here.
Every person roams around with a smartphone in their hand and those devices have almost every detail; starting from a local grocery shop to the bus/train route details to reach any place in the city. The Calgary Transit operates both buses and trains for intra-city transport. You buy a ticket in either bus or train for 3$ and you can travel anywhere within the city up to 90 minutes with the same ticket. And there is a ticket free zone within the core down-town area, for which you don't need a ticket in both in train and bus. That's wonderful !!!
Even though Canada is governed by a parliamentary democracy (a prime minister ruling the federal government), it is a constitutional monarchy headed by the Royal Family of Great Britain (currently Queen Elizabeth II) with a Governer General as their representative. Even many of them speak French there. I remember sometimes I was puzzled to understand those questions from hotel waiters, who initially thought I knew French and then got back to English.
Calgary is again a mixture of people from a lot of other countries including a lot of Indians (especially Punjabis) and Pakistanis. The person who dropped me back to airport was a Pakistani. The statement that he made stands out in my mind.
"I know how you and me are very different way back home in our places. But for these people, we both are one and the same. Desis.............!"
So why not here then ? Hope time will wipe out the issues and differences.
(Don't worry. This useless series will end with the next post.....)
I was a little worried about the waiting time in the airports between the transits when looked at the itinerary first. It was around 28 hrs of total journey time, in which 10 hrs eaten by the transit waiting time. But I realized that was for good, after announcements in the airports about arrival delays of various other flights.
That whole time I had nothing to do really. There were free Wi-Fi connectivity everywhere, but didn't feel interested in using them most of the time, since I felt a lot sleepy because of the previous travel. Sitting in the steel chairs that were available in the lounge were not sufficient for a good sleep for me. But again Hongkong airport taught me another important. No matter whether you are in a bus stand, railway station or airport, people are just people. Extreme physical conditions can push you to do something you can never imagine.
I remember seeing a lot of drunken people lying on the roads and near signals of Bangalore besides the hot sun and the fast moving traffic. Also there were instances where I have seen them near the drainage. But not that bad; airport is a lot better place. I noticed a lot of them lying on the floor here and there near the lounge having their bags as pillows. Some of them covered up four to five chairs together and made them their seat. No matter which country they were from; almost I noticed people from all of the continents (except Antartica.. :P ). Not to mistake that they were drunken; they were all actually tired like me.
Even I felt doing so. But my stupid inner self which keeps me warned about the meaningless decency aspects never let me do that. Apart from that, my over enthusiastic photographic interest (even though I was not possessing a professional camera), never let me sleep when there was a good lighting and everything there looked like a photographic subject (deleted almost 50% of the pics taken after reviewing them is a different story).
When I landed in Calgary and went just out of the airport to catch a Taxi, a man waiting there voluntarily called me to his taxi and took my luggage into the boot space of his sedan. It was -1º C and full cold. I wanted to rush and enter the front seat; and to my surprise both of us went to the same side (left side) of the car. I thought he is going to open the door for me. But he took the seat and locked the door. Oh God.. it is left hand drive in Canada :) . I know that, but couldn't recall at that point of time until I noticed the steering wheel. Then I managed to take the other seat and the taxi started to my hotel.
On the way, we had an interesting conversation.
Driver: "Are you from India or Pakistan ?"
Me: "Yes. I'm from India"
Driver: "Where in India ?"
Me: "Bangalore". He looked like an Indian as well. So I asked, "Are you from India ?"
Driver: "No. I'm from actually from Sri Lanka. But got settled down here before 20 years"
Me: "So you speak Singhalese. Is it ?"
Driver: "I know Singhalese. But I actually speak Tamil"
That was a great surprise for me and felt a lot excited to know that the first person I met there has the same mother tongue as mine. I replied without waiting, "Seriyaa poachu poanga. Naan Thamizh dhaanga. Enakku sondha ooru Thanjavuru. Bangalore-la work panraen." (Even I speak Tamil only. My Native is Thanjavur. Working in Bangalore).
Then we started speaking in Tamil itself. He said there are a lot of Tamilians, especially Sri Lankan tamilians in Calgary and all parts of Canada. We were talking about the snow and the climate and mentioned that the lowest recorded climate in Calgary was -63º C years before. He asked whether Ooty and Kodaikanal will have this low climate and snow. I just laughed and said that I don't remember any instance of snow there; but only heavy mist, fog and moderately lower temperatures when compared to the plains. He said he had never been to India, but have seen these places in movies.
Most significant thing I noticed about people in Calgary was their traffic sense and their sympathy for pedestrians. During my stay there, the climate jumped upto -8º C with a snow storm, which was completely abnormal for me. But besides the freezing cold, I managed to walk down the road to capture some real cool pics with my Nikon Coolpix :)
Almost I was the only person who was walking on the road. Everyone else was on a four wheeler. Rare to see two-wheelers (including bicycles). But when crossing roads where there were no signals, I was surprised to see every vehicle that came by, stopped for me and let me cross the road. There were even instances where I never noticed or realized that those cars were waiting for me and then they waved their hands and asked me cross the road. Kudos to them all... !! I don't know what it takes for something like that to happen in India. But my tries to change myself on this aspect itself is not helping out. If I stop my car on the road for letting the pedestrians cross the road, where there are no signals, I would either be heavily buzzed by the following vehicles or scolded by the overtaking vehicles who never care about the intention.
Other thing that surprised me was, even people who are completely new to you, will greet you casually if you are the first person to meet on that day or you are travelling in the same elevator etc., Apart from that, I don't remember seeing many compound walls, security/watchman for any building, cops/cop vehicles on the road. I felt they feel a lot safer than us. Yes, the Delhi gang rape news has reached every corner of the world and we should ask ourselves how safe are we here.
Every person roams around with a smartphone in their hand and those devices have almost every detail; starting from a local grocery shop to the bus/train route details to reach any place in the city. The Calgary Transit operates both buses and trains for intra-city transport. You buy a ticket in either bus or train for 3$ and you can travel anywhere within the city up to 90 minutes with the same ticket. And there is a ticket free zone within the core down-town area, for which you don't need a ticket in both in train and bus. That's wonderful !!!
Even though Canada is governed by a parliamentary democracy (a prime minister ruling the federal government), it is a constitutional monarchy headed by the Royal Family of Great Britain (currently Queen Elizabeth II) with a Governer General as their representative. Even many of them speak French there. I remember sometimes I was puzzled to understand those questions from hotel waiters, who initially thought I knew French and then got back to English.
Calgary is again a mixture of people from a lot of other countries including a lot of Indians (especially Punjabis) and Pakistanis. The person who dropped me back to airport was a Pakistani. The statement that he made stands out in my mind.
"I know how you and me are very different way back home in our places. But for these people, we both are one and the same. Desis.............!"
So why not here then ? Hope time will wipe out the issues and differences.
(Don't worry. This useless series will end with the next post.....)
