Completing a Year in Toronto

I complete one year of my stay in Toronto today. Its been a very interesting time so far. Full of good things and not so very good things as in dealing with anything new. I had promised myself that I will write my impressions on Toronto the day I complete my first year. Here I am, I am a man of my word!

I will organize my experiences in three categories

The Good
Toronto is highly multicultural and does a very good job of making everybody feel at home. We have a Little Italy, Greektown, China town, India bazaar, etc! I love the fact that all of the nations have their own niches in one little place.

Toronto also offers very nice urban walks, good transportation system and downtown living. During the harsh winters, it offers the PATH - a underground walkway/mall that is 27 kms long, covers almost the entire downtown and makes the winter far more bearable.

Toronto also has a very good service culture. You generally do not walk off a place with dis-satisfied and if you do, you generally get a refund or something free in return. This generally does not happen in my experience in Central Europe.

The Bad
People in Toronto can be very cold and unemotional. Someone bumps into you in downtown Toronto, there is a very very high chance, he/she is not going to apologize. You would expect some courtesy, but that does not seem to bother anyone.

Toronto winters are not for the faint-hearted. You get loads of snow and wind chills can be deadly for a week or two during winter. Thanks to whoever conceived the PATH, barring that, this place would have been tough to live in.

The Ugly
Driving in Toronto has to be among the worst experiences in North America. Cars honk a lot which I find very irritating. You get out of Toronto and it gets better. There is something about a busy city in the sense that people just don't care what gets them from point a to point b. Good thing about Toronto, you actually don't need a car unless you are living in a suburb.

Conclusion
Every city has its pros and cons. I find Toronto offers a good balance in terms of its negatives and positives. People can do more with acting civil but on the other hand the service culture is good. It comes across as an oxymoron of the sorts. It offers good outdoor living during spring/summer and good infrastructure to get through the winters. I would rate Toronto as one of the better cities I have lived in so far and that list includes places like New Delhi, Hyderabad, Tokyo, Kagoshima and Prague.

Fantastic Idea! - Ad on public transit

This is why I like west more than east part of the world. You can express yourself freely. Australia rejected this ad, Britain ran it, Spain ran it, Italy rejected it and Canada is going to run it.

Obama on Tire inflation

This clip made me chuckle. I love American Politics since it is so connected to ground roots and spoken in layman terms.

Watching Rafael Nadal in Toronto

Had the pleasure of watching Rafael Nadal in the semi finals of Rogers Cup 2008 live in Toronto. The match was played on July 26th. Watching Nadal play Andy Murray of Scotland who I think was very impressive too was a treat. What Nadal brings to the game of tennis is not possible to express in words! He has a fantastic persona with amazing humility. He is about the best athlete I have ever seen hold the racket. Watching him play is like watching a gladiator battle a lion. He just keeps on fighting, fighting, fighting. Sometimes you even wonder whether it is because he has not learnt to give up! But he would not be half as idiolizable should he ever know his limits. One thing I find fascinating is that he is really a right hander who plays with the left. Does everything else except tennis with his right. This kind of dexterity is more common among the left handers since we live in a right handed world.

View Larger Map

This seems to be my house in Hyderabad! I think after months and months of searching this is how close one can get when pointing to locations in India. My house does stand out from the rest for some reason!

Toronto vs Prague

I have been wanting to compare my living experience in Toronto vs Prague. I fought the urge to jump into this early on because I wanted to spend at least 2 weeks before I could give Prague a fair chance. Its unfair if I had blogged on the first day or first week because I think you generally look at only the good sides during that period. Now that I am feeling my way around Toronto much better - this blog post shares my comparative analysis.


Prague
I must say this - Prague has to be about the most scenic beautiful city I have lived in so far. Its almost fairytale in terms of its sights. I felt this aspect even more just before leaving the city. However there are few aspects that can spoil the experience, here it goes:

a) Service - Prague offers about the worst service culture I have experienced so far in my travels. You should consider yourself lucky if you get what you want, because generally people would consider everything they do for you (no matter how much money you paid) a favor.

b) Us and them culture - I never really could understand why at the heart of Europe you will be made to feel alien at every opportunity. They always look at foreigners as just that - "them"! No matter how well behaved you are, no matter how much Czech you can speak, you do not belong there period!

c) Economics - This aspect baffles me! It always will and I will never get over this. If the average salary of a city (Prague) goes to pay around 60% of the average rental accommodation then how much money do you have left to eat? I did not have too much of trouble keeping my head above water but I managed just about that and nothing more! There is something eerily wrong in the Czech economy and people who work for someone else seem to accept it with amazing ease. The only way you can make money and live a decent life now in Prague seems to be going the entrepreneurial route. Nothing wrong with going entrepreneurial mind you but it cannot be the only way to have a decent life! Let me give you a real life example. As an entry level IT professional you would make somewhere around 2500 USD. Your monthly rent in a decent accommodation would be 930 USD. You do the math now. You have to pay the EU prices for food, EU prices for monthly rent but you will be paid the central European salary.

Toronto
Toronto is a very typical North American city. Now what that means is that it is very concrete-y and has a cosmopolitan feel to it. Apart from this, it differs in one way from many other North American cities - it has a decent public transportation network! I could go from downtown center of the city to the airport (around 40 kms) in 40 mins with 2 CAD. I think that is quite a deal there.

a) Service: My personal move to Toronto was pretty straightforward - no questions asked at customs, no questions asked at Immigration. No hassles whatsoever with getting into the city. People are amazingly friendly. No hard-nosed snobbish treatment so far. If you did not hear me say "Jalepeno" while you were making my sandwich, its your fault and you will fix it with an apology and follow it up with a smile! I love this aspect - I was missing this level of service in Prague especially having lived in Tokyo! So the service level definitely beats Prague hands down.

b) Us and them culture - Integration into the Toronto life seems easy. People are completely okay with you being wherever you are from and that is because around 55% of the people in Toronto were born outside Canada. So the "Us and Them" culture is completely absent here.

c) Economics - Food is cheap. Real cheap compared to EU. Your monthly rent of an average IT guy would be around 20%- 30% of your monthly salary compared to 60% in Prague. Electronics is cheaper than EU. Organic healthy food is an option you can actively pursue here unlike Prague where it is beginning really slowly now.

Now this by no way means that Toronto is better than in Prague in all respects. It is better than in Prague in respects I personally care for. Everybody is different and they have different things they look for in a city. For me, Toronto is better than in Prague but is it better than Tokyo? - only time will tell.

I do intend to follow similar line of thought comparing Prague and Toronto in 3 months and then in Six months (during bitter cold winter) to show you if/when and how my perspectives evolve on this subject.

Enjoy.

Peace,
Raj

Exploiting the artistic license

It has always amazed me how some people can take advantage of environments and present anything in light of being artistic. I took these photos at the Palladium shopping mall in Prague, Czech Republic. This is in my mind a classic example of how far people can stoop in order to make money.

Now keep in mind that Czechs are always known to be bit lenient on such things but this for me is a new low.

Look at these photos and judge for yourself.