Family conversation

Almost 7 years old. After I picked her up from school, her mom (singing):

How was your daaay?

T: I'll kick you away

K: Don't be so mean...

T: Don't worry I am keen

(K: what's keen? T: Like smart, I know)

K: Oh my God!

T: Cocoa Pod

What an awesome impromptu poetry session

Father daughter

Age: 3 years 10 months 17 days

Day: New year's eve. Last day of 2020!

What did she say: "You are the best daddy ever, because you tied a balloon flower for me"

Lockdown Blues

After a long time, spending some time listening to interesting Youtube videos. Including astronomy. Catching up on big updates over the last few years. Few of the interesting things discovered lately:
IC1101. Largest Galaxy discovered. It is about 6 million light years in length (Elliptical), having 100 trillion stars. Estimated to be about 12 billion years old (born very close to big bang). Dying phase with Yellow tinge (rarely any new stars forming). At the center, there is a possibly the biggest Black hole ever.
TON 618. Biggest black hole (Quasar) discovered, Estimated to be 66 Billion solar masses (though some theories suggest that a black hole cannot be over 50 billion solar mass, as the accretion disk surrounding it would fade away after this mass).
Hercules Corona Borealis. Wall of gamma ray bursts. Over 10 billion light years long.
UY Scuti. Another one of the latest discoveries which was technically discovered long back, but only recently confirmed as the largest star known to us. About 5000 light years away, this massive star is so huge that if placed in place of our sun, it will eat up not just earth but even the asteroid belt. Owing to it's late stage in life, some estimates put its remaining age at just 10,000 years, after which it will shrink, perhaps to become a white dwarf.

More interesting stuff such as Observable universe, dark energy/matter, event horizon (when 2 galaxies move away from each other over the speed of light, they cannot be seen to each other) and some theories suggesting that 95% of all galaxies have already crossed over this line from us.
After Milkdromeda is formed and stabilized (maybe over 4 billion years from now), all that will be seen from inside this new galaxy will be only this galaxy. That future civilization will probably not understand multiple galaxies, local clusters, super clusters, voids, super voids! Given that our universe is barely 13.8 billion years old, we are at a very very early stage of the universe, whose life could span over 100 trillion years from now.

A Productive day, part 2

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Life is a cycle. A violently fluctuating turnstile of good and bad, of frustrations and happiness, of moving and being stuck. On some days things seem so out of order that you wonder why did the day even happen or why did you even wake up today to why were you even born; and on other days you begin believing in the universe, in a higher being who aligns everything magically for you. Today was one of the days where it appeared that the universe, fate and the lord of luck had paid full attention to our family and left no stone unturned and answered a lot of our prayers. So without further ado, the things that happened or moved today were:
1. Wifey got her first job interview call in Canada. Not just that, successfully cleared the round too! And not stopping at that, got another interview call from another organisation for tomorrow as well!
2. The wait-list at a daycare for our little angel got confirmed. Although we were verbally told about the said confirmation late last week itself, today was the day that we received an official confirmation, after a nail biting wait after a call yesterday from the director of the daycare who couldn't find the confirmation mail (or was that email) from the other parent(s) who decided not to take up the vacant spot. Well, all's well today, in that aspect at least.
3. Today was the first time that my first credit application at my first employer in Canada got approved! Well technically it was the second credit application, but I am not counting the first one as it was a pre-approved one. This one went to a Credit underwriter who decided to approve it.
4. Talking about daycare, late last week (just before the long weekend started), we had applied for the childcare subsidy online. Today we got a confirmation email about putting us in the waitlist. Raising our hopes for a subsidy interview some time in the next 2 to 3 months, and for a very helpful financial support. Moving and shaking.
5. Another accolade filled day at work for me. I am just going to be grateful for everything and everyone who helps me and ride this good luck wave till I can. So today referred two Merchant Solutions leads to an internal team, and got a lot of (much less deserved) praise for it. Well, a good start is a positive start, and I am not going to wipe away this excited and happy feeling anytime soon.
6. Got my Canadian Driving License by mail today. Though it is only a G1, and though it has missed a letter while spelling my first name, I am not going to complain. It is a bright start and I should take it as a foundation stone. At least I didn't have to wait 8 to 12 months for it (as they were kind enough to consider my Indian Driving license experience, without having a DL extract to show for it). Now to find and convince a friend or an acquaintance to teach me a couple of driving sessions before taking an instructor led class towards G2.

Whew! What a happening whirlwind of a day. Momentum is building up and continuing well in this journey in the land of opportunities. Hope that reading this post has given you a little bit of good luck charm as well, and has rubbed off some positivism for your life as well.

A productive day

Oh Canada!

New city, new country and new continent! It's been a little over a month since I moved to the land of opportunity. Away from my family, and in the company of my relatively new family, i.e. my brother in law. Came a couple of months before the ladies, mainly to hunt for an apartment, set it up for their arrival, and start the job hunt process as early in the financial year as possible.

This post is not about my journey so far, but specifically about today, i.e. 19th March 2018. Since it has been such a good day, thought about capturing this day as a brief moment in the fleeting journey of life. Something which I might look back to enjoy seeing the efforts taken at one stage towards trying to achieve long term goals.

So without further ado, did and achieved the following today:

1. Called Scotiabank customer care number to cancel my still un-delivered and un-activated credit card and to issue a new one. I can collect it from my home branch in 3-5 days. This was stuck for a long time now; 32 days since it was approved to be precise; and when I finally get it I can look forward to building the much needed credit score that is required for many things here.

2. Gave general guidance to an MBA college senior in Mumbai on process to come to Canada, who was looking for information. I think of it as my part of giving back to the community.

3. Submitted the signed lease agreement to my new apartment. Since the lady at the rental office was very busy today, it appeared it will take another day of running around to finalise the same, as I had a few doubts. But thankfully I took a photocopy of the agreement myself and waited in the apartment lobby for her to come back to her office in spite of her telling clearly on phone that she would be busy today. It also helped that there was no concierge, nor could any passer by help when I asked them where exactly is the mailing area where I am supposed to leave the agreement. Wasn't feeling confident leaving a signed original agreement in a pile of other documents, accessible to practically anyone having access to the lobby, and the lady later confirmed that I only need to leave a photocopy of the same with them. Also could clarify a few doubts regarding certain clauses and minor corrections.

4. Visited a daycare center near the new apartment. Purely on the suggestion of a stranger lady who was walking with her infant in a stroller, near the apartment, whom I disturbed and asked for whereabouts of nearby daycare centers. My suspicions about the daycare not being available for the next few months came true when the lady running that daycare told me that they are all booked till September. But at least got her visiting card and she said she'll entertain me on email. Fingers crossed for getting a good daycare for Tashu for the eventuality that both me and Krithi will be getting jobs and going to our work places soon.

5. Visited my home branch of Scotiabank. Got the much needed information about details related to swift and other details required to transmit funds to my USD account here. They confirmed that they will call me once my credit card arrives at the branch. Also finished the long drawn chapter of withdrawing limited funds from my pre-loaded forex card and depositing cash to my chequing account in piece meal basis. Tip for people migrating or planning to open a new bank account in their new country of stay: Don't get a pre-loaded forex card, get traveller's cheque(s) instead. This way your only headache is to find a bank that will accept your traveller's cheque(s) while opening a bank account. You won't have to hunt for ATMs with high daily withdrawal limit and keep withdrawing limited cash daily at additional cost; which is 3$ per withdrawal and little extra hidden cost. This is over and above your daily headache of visiting ATMs/ABMs and travelling with all that cash in your pocket.

6. Spoke to a senior regional manager from a prospective employer organisation. He was very forthcoming and sounded very helpful. He agreed to meet me in a couple of days and asked me to send my details and resume to his email. This would be my first meeting with a prospective leader whose team I could join. Also glad about the resume talk, which brings me to the next achievement.

7. Finally met the very helpful HR lady who has a good experience in recruitment for the second time and for the specific purpose of working on our resumes. She spent a good couple of hours with us and gave fantastic tips to change our resumes, so that the chances for our resumes getting selected for a particular role becomes very high. Finally made the much needed changes to my resume and sent it to all the relevant people I could. Also passed on the suggestions to my wife too.

8. Did a big amount of grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. At least for the next 11 days that we would be in this temporary airbnb shelter.

So hoping that the momentum built today continues well into the next month. Was a very sweet day today. And the icing on the cake? Two video calls from Wifey and Tashvi. Saw Tashvi doing so many new things today that she has learnt over the last few days: Giving kissies on cheek, dancing by shifting her weight on her feet while standing, and trying to wear her bangle herself!

The power of 13

13th November. What a week and what a day! Was on a war footing all along.

So to summarise, on 13th November
1. Passport approval done in the morning
2. New property registration done in the evening

Over the week one case logged in and other prepared to be logged in by next monday (17th)

Auguri!

Riesling