Just watched "Sorry Bhai" - I am so so so so happy Chitrangada is back, and is as gorgeous as ever!!! She makes me wanna be bi! 

Got back from Canada last night. So much happened over the last week or so. Calgary was really hectic - we were out having fun all day everyday. So we slowed down quite a bit in Toronto. Got up really late - enjoyed watching real TV and free internet in our hotel room. Went out for a few hours, and that too mostly towards Gerrard Street, which is THE place for desi food. We ate twice at this dhaba kind of awesome place called Lahore Tikka. Mutton curry with butter naan and cheap bollywood songs blasting through the crowded place. Oh btw, I love Canada. It is FAR FAR better than this shitty america. My love for Canada has many reason. That is one place I wouldn't mind calling home for a while. Also, its ideal for filmmaking. A quote from Gabrielle Roy on the Canadian 20 dollar bill says, "Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?" 

A recent film "Amal" is a Canadian film with an Indian story and actors. Here's the trailor: 
Amal Movie Trailer - Watch the best video clips here

So most part of Toronto and the long journey back home was spent on watching the CNN IBN coverage of the Mumbai devastation live on CNN. India was on the front page of every newspaper in Canada, and the world over - not really the ideal way, but India was famous overnight. Suddenly foreign people had some idea about what I was feeling. Officials at the airport saw my passport and asked me if my family was okay. A gentleman sitting beside me on the airplane showed his concern and sympathy. The New York city cab had a news ticker which mentioned the death of the Brooklyn Rabbi and his family in Mumbai. People knew, for once. It wasn't like when the bomb blasts happened in Delhi and everyone around me went about their business like nothing happened. I don't know if I should be happy or sad. The reason people know this time is because Westerners were also victims, and the terrorists singled out American and British citizens. 

I understand that violence has become so common all over the world, and I shouldn't expect people living in America to really be up to date with what happens in every corner of the world. What I do expect is at least the people I am connected with, people I meet on a daily basis, people who know where I come from, to acknowledge my country's pain each time, even if foreigners are not victims. Maybe things work differently here - and that is why I don't take offense - just feel alienated and plan my trips back home. That reminds me, I'm off to Delhi next month for a really short trip :)

Another new thing I did on the trip was read a book about the country I was visiting while I was visiting it. I read "The Unfinished Canadian" by Andrew Cohen. It was so much fun to read all these interesting facts at night about the Canadian identity, or the lack of it, and then get up in the morning to interact with various characters from the book in real life. I think I should do this more often. Next one on my list is Croatia.

I have some photographs to share but uploading takes too long - will do it later. 

Its hard to blog, or even email for that matter - I'm going through a major online communication block. What to do!?