Landing in Canada

This is a slightly different type of landing experience. I did not fly straight to Canada from India. Since I was going in that direction anyway, I figured I may as well have a miniature holiday in London for a week and then go to Toronto. So I had booked Jet Airways Bangalore to London (13 hours), and change flights in Mumbai. And Westjet London to Toronto direct(8 hours). They were fairly cheap, The Jet was around 20k. And Westjet, 15k plus 3500 for baggage. In all, less than 40k, which I thought was great.

My flight from Bangalore was at 910 in the morning. My dad insisted I must be there 3 hours prior to departure since it’s an international flight. So I reached the airport at 6 only to find out that immigration happens in Bombay and for all practical purposes this was treated like a domestic flight. So I was stuck in Bangalore airport with three hours to kill. The only good thing, I had to check in my bags only once. I had two American Tourister trolleys, a soft-sided big one and a polycarbonate medium-sized one. On a side note, the polycarbonate one feels much stronger and nicer, the fabric one was a bit flimsy and the handle broke in London. Anyway, back to Bangalore airport, both bags were around 21 kilos and my cabin bag was about 9 kilos. No problems with both. I had put a red shoelace around the trolley handles to mark my suitcases. But later I found out red shoelaces were the ‘in’ thing, every trolley is a blue American Tourister with a red shoelace. Luckily my dad had also put a blue ribbon, so I spotted mine eventually. I digress. Back in Bangalore airport, I had an average idly sambar chutney and waited patiently for 2 hours. Then I boarded the flight to Mumbai on time. The flight took off on time. Breakfast was served, like in most domestic flights, no alcohol here. The food was worse than the idly at the airport. I didn’t mind too much. I had a promising future to look forward to.

In Bombay airport, immigration happened pretty swiftly. Right after it, a woman gave me a 300 rupee gift voucher for Mumbai Duty-Free. I bought liquor chocolates and paid the difference (not the best thing to buy, pretty mediocre chocolate). I boarded my flight to London on time. I got an aisle seat and luckily the seats next to mine were empty. The flight was otherwise full. Many people were eying my seats and I was praying no one comes. The plane was about to take off and I sighed in relief. Just then the stewardess came and said a mother and an infant want the seats next to mine. Mother's sentiment goes a long way with me, so I agreed.

Drinks and snacks were served promptly, right after take-off. I got two glasses of red wine. It was decent. Lunch was served an hour later. Some rice and chicken. Not the greatest but after 2 glasses of wine, it seemed pretty good. I asked for another glass of wine.

The in-flight entertainment was OK. There were games, movies, TV shows and some music. I started watching a movie and fell asleep immediately. Then I must have slept for 3 hours. I woke up only because I had to pee urgently. But there was a long queue. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who went overboard with the wine.

Dinner was served later. It was the same thing I had for breakfast. It was called a pizza wrap. Generally, I’ve learnt in life not to eat anything that conflated the names of two dishes like Pizza Wrap, Biryani Burger, Idly Pakoda, Biryani Pizza and so on. This pizza wrap was terrible, to say the least. I was also told that there was no wifi. I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to check the score. I asked for another glass of wine to take the edge off.

The flight landed 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. But immigration at Heathrow made sure those 10 minutes were made up for. It took more than an hour at Terminal 4. I think they’ve delegated this terminal exclusively to poor Asian countries. The queue was never-ending. The immigration officer wasn’t the most friendly guy. He wasn’t badly behaved either. He just seemed a bit cold, that’s it. But these things are amplified when you’re made to wait 90 minutes. Being accustomed to watching stuff with subtitles on made me look for the captions button on the counter. There was none. He could have been speaking Gaelic. He wanted to see my ticket to Canada when I told him I don’t have a job in Canada. Other than that it was pretty smooth. In all, it didn’t take more than 2 minutes at the counter.

My return from London was at Gatwick airport. I got there 2 hours before departure. Here, things were a little different. You have to check in your bags at the self-check-in kiosks. First I had to get tags from a machine by scanning my passport. A woman helped me put the tags on my bags. Then I had to go to the check-in area nearby to physically drop off the bags. After that, strangely there was no immigration while leaving London.

Right after security, I was greeted by an expansive duty-free exhibition. They had a nice collection of alcohol and colognes. I bought a bottle of whisky and a couple of colognes. I had some pounds left in my multi-currency Forex card, I used that up(on that note, I think forex cards are very convenient for swiping and online shopping). Also note, London duty-free is generally more expensive, especially for cigarettes and tobacco.

The westjet flight from London to Toronto was running on time and boarding happened promptly. I noticed that most travellers were either visiting Canada or going back to Canada. It didn’t seem like there were many immigrants. As luck would have it, I got a window seat and the seat next to mine was empty on an otherwise full flight. The flight was about to leave and someone decided she wants to deplane because she was nervous. So that caused a 2-hour delay as they had to deplane all passengers in order to do a security check. But I later realized that the 2-hour delay was a blessing in disguise.

The flight seemed slightly more spacious than the Jet. Since this was a super-budget airline, everything had to be bought onboard. But the menu was fairly affordable. I bought a meal and a drink combo. The meal was pretty yummy and the wine was a notch better too. My forex card came in handy to pay as cash was not accepted. I bought another glass of wine. This was an eight-hour flight. The onboard entertainment was also a paid service hence I stuck to Netflix on my phone. There was paid wifi. 500 Rupees for 3 hours. Was pretty slow but good enough for basic browsing, scores and WhatsApp.

Snacks and tea were served later. This was on the house. Dinner came later. That was also pretty good. Overall, I was very pleased with Westjet. I think their heart is in the right place.

The flight landed at Toronto Pearson airport 10 minutes earlier than the revised schedule. I walked out along with the rest of the passengers. After walking some, there were several declaration kiosks. I barely waited a minute before it was my turn. These were machines where you scan your passport and your details show up on the screen. You are then asked a few questions about the purpose of your travel and if you’re carrying dangerous items into Canada. You’d be wise to say no to all, either way. A photo is taken automatically and the machine hands a slip with your photo and details on it.

From there I walked to the next section which was immigration. I was the only one it turns out. The officer looked really bored and tired as it was already 6:30 in the PM. He made a funny remark about my t-shirt. I didn’t think it was funny. He asked if I knew someone in Canada. I said a couple of acquaintances. He then asked if I had any dependents. I said no after a pause as the question seemed a bit out of context. He then asked why I paused. I said I wasn’t sure if I heard the question right. He seemed satisfied. After doing a bunch of things on his computer he asked if my PR card can be mailed to the same address. I said no. He said then I’ll have to update the address later. I said cool. Finally, I was made to sign on copr papers. He then said I’m good to go. Proof of funds wasn’t asked for.

As soon as I exited immigration. I was greeted by a friendly-looking man and woman duo, at the Service Canada section. They asked if I’d like to get my SIN. I said yes, please. The guy handed me a bunch of pamphlets and a Welcome to Canada book. Then I was given a tiny form which strangely asked for my mum and dad’s birth names and not my name. I filled it out and my SIN was processed immediately as I was the only one. The lady behind the counter said Welcome to Canada and good luck. She seemed sweet. In all, this whole process didn’t take more than 20 minutes from landing.

I walked out of the airport and asked for a cab and there was a cab right in front of me. I took that and gave my address in Mississauga. It took me barely 15 minutes and I reached my place. While in the car, the driver said I’m lucky as the traffic was terrible just an hour ago. So I guess the flight delay wasn’t a terrible thing.

The guy I’m staying with took me to a mall to get a phone number. A woman there patiently explained all the plans. Heads up, everything’s pretty expensive. I got a Virgin mobile postpaid. It’s 55$ a month for unlimited local calls and 4 GB data. There was a credit cap of 200$ since I had no credit score in Canada. I later found out that I can’t make calls to India or any other country for 6 months. A friend suggested I switch to Roger’s after a month. Another friend suggested I buy calling cards till then. Apparently, they’re really cheap for making calls to India.

It’s only been a day here. So far, everything’s been great. The weather is pretty cold but I like it. Tomorrow, I plan to open a bank account. A friend warned about credit cards, he said every rejected application affects the credit score and that’s a problem later. He suggested I use prepaid cards till my credit score is built. Will expand on that topic when I have all the information.

A couple of takeaways: a short holiday in Europe is a great idea to ease the pain of a long journey, and it also makes the immigration process in Canada much easier since you're typically landing with non-immigrants. Leave a comment if you have a question.

Later. Peace out.

About me

i thought of putting this at the about me section but i made a decision years back to leave that section empty no matter what, because i tend to get bored easily and i, being a person with nothing to do almost all the time, would admire my blog, profile, photos etc every once in a little while. and at one point of time i would get sick of a lot of things there and about me the most. so i decided to leave that empty. but now that i've written this, i kind of liked it and wanted to post it at least here.

i'm a very good looking guy that thinks he's ugly. i'm not fat but i want to lose weight. i have very very low self esteem but i can't help thinking too highly of myself. i often weep in self pity. i will pity you when i see you. i don't agree with you unless you agree with me. i'm quite sure of myself and i've not known one that's more insecure than i am. i care a hell lot about what you think about me but i wouldn't change myself for the world. i wish to die before sixty. i'm 23 today. i'm a very honest person but i've shoplifted. i like to write but i don't write much. i like humour and more so when it's directed at me. i care a hell lot how i look but i'm invariably shabbily dressed. i would call myself shit before you could, just to make you feel second. i liked catch-22. The fountainhead talks of ideal virtues and it should be destroyed. i'm not arrogant but i could be very cold. i love music. i will never help beggars unless they're singing. i wouldn't think you're right but i never will claim i'm right (the RIGHT 'right' like okayed by God) but i will say what i will say and i will pass any test you will give me. my life is shit. i enjoy it. have i laboured the point too much? or there is no point at all? i don't know. whatever. who cares.

Bones - Killers

I brushed my teeth today, relief, that gives me about a week now, to live on without brushing. I'm not the type of guy that doesn't brush daily, but there had been times, when i didn't brush for ages. That was during college, living in a hostel that's prone to paste scarcity. And this got me conditioned to a lifestyle without paste, brush and what not. Last week, while coming here, to my mom's house, i'd forgot to bring my brush and thus forwent brushing for about a week. Today afternoon, i noticed, the layer on my teeth had grown some and definitely called for cleaning. So, i looked for a brush around the house and found two, maybe used, brushes. One was cleaner than the other, so i picked that and brushed my teeth, with vigor and passion (for those that think it's gross, phone me and i'll tell you what's gross). I'm digressing. I have this habit of getting a little elaborate on every little thing i want to say, giving every little detail. That, about my brushing today, was meant to be just a trivia, irrelevant to what i have to say, but with what comes to me as i write it, i could get a whole post out of it (someone that's intrigued by my brushing habits and teeth arrangement can leave a line at the comments section and i'll get back with the whole story).

I brushed my teeth today, relief. Ever since i became a blogger, i've been coming up with brilliant posts (entirely my point of view, readers that think differently can continue thinking, it's a free world) and how ever brilliant they may be, the readership doesn't get beyond five. It was five when i started and it still is and i've been blogging for almost 3 years now. Not like i want to be a popular writer and all that, well i don't mind that of course, but having no progress since the start as far as the readership is concerned makes me think maybe i'm not a good writer, and that is not a nice thought, you have my word. I don't really feel good about the fact you see, especially when i see so many lame blogs overwhelming with comments, but what's of consolation is the comments are equally lame. I could be totally wrong about the lameness of these blogs, and these bloggers could be outstanding writers and i could be the bad writer, but there's got to be at least a few that could relate to what i write and appreciate what i've written.

Ninaithale Inikkum - Watch it

I don't watch random movies unless i'm terribly bored. I was terribly bored. I didn't complain much when my friend suggested this movie, the trailer was seemingly nice, so we said "why not". One good thing about tamil movies is that you can tell if the movie will be any good from the first few minutes. Here, i didn't need in minutes, only seconds and i knew agony was ahead. A huge portion of the movie is what prithiviraj reflects during his flight journey. Yes, this is also a flash-back movie, only there are too many flash-backs that you lose track of reality. But, don't you worry, that's least of the painful things that the movie will offer. If there's one thing actors look for, besides fame and money, that is variety in roles. Here, prithiviraj, after almost establishing a poetic-excessively-good-natured-composed-lover-boy image in the industry, comes off as a muscle-man type that beats up people with the loudest blows ever possible. Though, that happens only in the first half of the movie, after figuring that that really doesn't suit him, he tries to re-establish his former image in the second half and beats vadivelu in doing so. There's no vadivelu in this movie to salvage it. There's bakyaraj though, but why, i don't know.

Shakthi comes and goes, here and there. Karthik goes and never comes, 'relief' you think and he comes. Shakthi plays a pointless role and he's done total justice, i felt. Karthik also plays a pointless role. In fact, the whole movie was pointless, so that wasn't worth mentioning, forget it. Like i said, there are numerous flash-backs, one of those is what karthik narates to bakyaraj. What jarred me there was, bakyaraj was there in that for the most part. For a second, i was excited thinking, maybe bakyaraj suffered from amnesia, a twist, but that wasn't to be. But twist, there's ample, you'd be begging "no more, please" toward the end. The director made sure there were no loose ends, at the end, i guess he failed to notice that loose ends would go unnoticed in this deluge of dung.

One good thing about this movie, it wasn't predictable. Not even predictors dared to predict, because every time they were about to predict, a new set of characters rolled in, to further the convolution. Predictors wept. The songs, the movie could have done just as well without the songs, it's a flash-back for god's sake. But the songs were passable, only their entries were a little too sudden and they made the movie long.

In this movie, there's love, romance, friendship, fight, comedy, college, crap, priya mani, death, tragedy, sorrow, more crap, football, revenge and a happy ending. No, you will not be literally happy at the end, maybe a bit, because the movie ended, yet this movies qualifies for a happy ending. The bottom line is, the movie was terrible, unwatchable, boring, vapid and what not. If someone tells you they liked the movie, it's a ruse, don't fall. But, i'm still going to recommend this movie to anyone that comes to me in this regard, because watching this movie, brings a new perspective to tamil cinema. This will tone you, so that, you will enjoy any remotely enjoyable tamil flick. Hurry now, or the movie will be gone.

thick wire

If i remember correct, it started when my father told my brother (older) to write on blogs, he knew my brother can write well. My brother, i guess, liked the idea and opened a blog and posted. He posted a few posts and got bored at one point and stopped posting. I happened to read his blog a little later, i found what he'd written really amusing and funny. His first post was about how he stared at the ceiling while he was lying on the bed and the thoughts that occurred to him then. After that, i wanted to write too, so subjecting my brain to some ordeal, i thought hard for stuff to post on my blog that i was going to get shortly, i wanted funny stuff. Then i figured i was born devoid of originality, because nothing came up of it's own accord so i tried to analyse why i liked my brother's post. I figured, because it was funny, it spoke about something as trivial as staring at the ceiling with complete earnestness as if that were the most important thing in every one's life. So, writing about trivial stuff with earnestness was the key, i thought. That's when 'book spinning on finger tip' came to me and i wrote it. I told my father to read it and he said he liked it, he said there's imagination in it. So, deeply inspired, i wanted to write more and clinging to that feeling i wrote 'time'. Now i had enough items to post, so i decided to create a blog and i did, then there was the problem of 'what to name it', different names came to me but the ones i liked were already taken, and i named it "fewnewthings.blogspot.com".

Now that i have a blog i wanted to post more, i realized i was a bit image conscious, so i didn't want people to judge me from my blog so i decided not to post random scribbles and tried to come up with ideas that don't reveal my nature or if anything, only suggest that i'm reckless. On my next post i wanted to write about how majority of people lose their integrity during times that are trying, how they tend to disregard their beliefs (or their claimed beliefs) and only try to save themselves, acting contrary to their principles. Well, that was about the theme i had thought of, and i wanted to deliver that idea by using a boy and how he is mentally disposed at different situations. Well, that didn't come out very well, but on the brighter side i got a good story. As i wrote more of it, i found myself paying less attention to my theme, so i let myself go, and thus came the story. I read and reread the story over and over until i'd memorized it, what an amazing story, i thought. My friends liked it too, my parents liked it too, my brother liked it too. So, i made up my mind, writing is my thing, I just needed to work on it. Earlier, i had decided music was my thing and had started to learn guitar and i kept at it until i realized that music doesn't come to me naturally, so i didn't take it seriously. Now, i was going to keep at writing until i figure that that doesn't come to me naturally too. It didn't take me too long to figure that, almost immediately i gave up writing.

I hadn't written in a while. My father happens to be a compulsive reader, he read everything that he could see, he would read biscuit wrappers if he had nothing else. He, i don't know how, happened to read gounder brownie's blog and he found the author's English way good. So, i also read it, and it was quite funny at places and my father was right about her language. Now, the old spark was rekindled, i wanted to write again, i wanted to write like gounder brownie. Now, i needed to know what made her blog funny, and when i thought about it, it seemed pretty obvious to me, there was ample sarcasm in it that made it funny. And in the post that i read, one of her teachers was the object of sarcasm. So, it was a piece of cake, sarcasm and college teachers was the mantra i was looking for. And i wrote 'mostly inside my college'. Incidentally, i had read catch 22 from which i copied the style of writing (only what i grasped from catch 22, i don't claim anything), which helped accentuate the dumbness of my teachers and in fact, it portrayed them dumber than they were in real. Now, i was a little worried, should some professor read my blog. I had to have a cover name, i picked 'apple'. I also changed my blog title from 'few new things' to 'apples and screwdrivers' i had got bored of 'few new things'.

During college, i had nothing to do most of the time. I was getting terribly bored and i couldn't find a thing to do, so i started to dislike my blog, the name and everything about it, just to keep myself occupied. I thought, a new name for my blog was overdue already. I didn't like 'apple' for a name neither 'apples and screwdrivers'. I started to dislike every name that came to me, i mean, how unique can names get? Then, my favorite song was 'wires' by 'athlete'. So, i made the decision, the link will be wirestales.blogspot.com and my pen-name 'wire'.

I wrote under 'wire' for a long time. I started to like the name 'wire' for some unknown reason. But, 'wirestales' my blog URL started to sound a little trite and i wanted to change it, but i decided against it, for i didn't want to lose my staunch followership of five readers that i had established then. Five ardent fans of mine they were, because they agreed to read my blog after i insisted them persistently to read, only 14 times.

Then one day, out of the blue, it occurred to me that when a stranger visits my blog they might be misled by my pen-name 'wire'. When one looks at the name 'Wire' the first adjectives that come to them are in the neighbourhood of 'Slender', 'Thin' and what not. Right there lay the catch, in the way people are disposed to think these days, i don't come across as a very thin person, and those adjectives that pop up inside a fresh reader's head don't really suit me, you see. So, just to be clear of any misconception, i renamed my pen-name from 'wire' to 'thick wire'. Some might ask, doesn't that suggest something along the lines of 'chubby', 'fat' et cetera. Yes, it may, but i say i'd rather have people surprised to find me thinner than shocked to find me fatter. Thus 'thick wire'.