Babbling Brooks

The title of this blog-entry is not mine but a quotable quote from one of the greatest classical poets of Rome, Virgil(Publius Vergilius Maro). I felt this quote will be befitting title for the kind of content that I'm intending to throw into this blogosphere. There is one challenge that invariably featured in all my new year's resolutions, that's about "getting slimmer, lighter and fitter....yes it's all about getting rid of my embonpoint". But believe me this has been one of the things on which, I've made some conscious effort so far, but none of them have seen any encouraging results so far. Repeated set-back's and failures made me think of a systematic approach to the problem. I thought of the factors that generally seem to influence our Body Mass Index(BMI), the food I eat, my active side of life and other potential hormonal imbalances. Out of these three, the first one, the food we eat is the factor that I chose to do a "deep-dive" in

I just wanted make my entry about this in the Blogosphere as this is one of topics that you scarcely get across an informative article/post. In Canada, there is way that the spouses of workpermit holders(Temporary foreign workers) can work.Another interesting aspect is if you opt for open workpermit, the applicant can work for any employer who can offer a job for the applicant's capabilities. This workpermit is also applicable for Students who are in Canada on a student permit and want to work part time during the course of their studies. The application and instructions can be found at/downloaded from: www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/ pdf /kits/guides/ 5553E . PDF In the case of my spouse, I did not submit any documents proving her academic qualifications or professional experience.But the workpermit was approved without any issues/questions and the process took about 10 business days from the date of posting/sending the documents to Immigration Canada. In the workpermit application there

Am in my early thirties and an Indian by birth. It goes without saying that I would have met or consulted umpteen physicians, surgeons, doctors. All of them whom I've so far come across can be categorized as Type A - Conventional, perfectionist physicians. And until 2 years ago, I thought there is only that category Type A that exists and there isn't any other, ever. [when I say category of Doctors, am sure all of us know there are million "gists" - gynecologists, dermatologists, neurologists and so on..but what am referring to is from a common patient's standpoint, categories within general, common medical practitioners]. I changed my perception when I met Dr Choi a couple of years back. He obviously belonged to "type i", a new type that I've come across! So, what, Dr Choi is all about? He is a man who's, I think, in his late 30's. When I met him for the first time, I met him because he was the only Dr available on Saturdays in the clinic t

I read Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India and I think this is his debut as an author. The variety of subjects that he handles on the world's fastest growing nation and the largest democracy, as the evolution of "ideas" is indeed an unique approach. To me as I read through it, I was amazed by the kind of perspective he has taken while approaching each topic. Considering Nilekani as a current generation Indian entrepreneur, it's mind blowing that he has looked at things from pre-colonial rule era and until recent times. First time ever, I understood what "demographic dividend" means. I've always looked at China as an adorable Asian nation whose growth path and future are unencumbered. Be it its hard working and conservative population, be its technology adoption, be it the unbiased and bold stand towards taking tough measures like population control, be it the kind of ports and roads they have built and so on and so forth..China has always been a countr

It is little know and often forgotten practice / requirement that in Ontario(Canada) temporary foreign workers or the people who have temporary resident status with a valid work permit have to personally visit Toronto District School Board(TDSB) http://www.tdsb.on.ca/ office and get an approval letter for our kids to avail/continue education in TDSB schools. The documents you need to carry: Passport of Father, Mother and the student[orignials] Workpermit, Visitor records for Father, Mother and the student[originals] Proof of residence for the Father and Mother[it needs to be a bill, bank statement for the current or the last month, they don';t accept driver's license but they accept letter from employer, recently issued] Couple of years back the schools used to insist on this letter and they ask the students to get his from the TDSB office; now a days some schools are taking the parent's work permit copy by themselves and say that that is good enough and a letter from TD

There is a new Service Canada office at Steels and Warden which is very accessible to people living in this area ie.Steels and Warden, Woodbine, Victoria, Pharmacy. The office is called " Markham Scheduled Outreach Site" 3636 Steeles Ave. E. , Suite 223 Markham, Ontario http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/cgi-bin/hr-display.cgi?rc=3557s4&ln=eng Driving direction: This is in a mall which is towards the west from Warden and Steels and it is at east of Victoria or Pharmacy. This mall is at the east of IBM campus at Steels. As soon as you enter the mall climb up/ take the elevator to the first floor, the tough part is there will not be any clear name plates or sign boards to point you to this office. But you will soon locate this office which is just in front of the main staircase in the first floor. The office is open every Wednesdays and Fridays and working hours are 9 am to 3 pm in these two days of the week. Though people say we can go with an appointment, till today it is jus

Am not a travel freak, neither am I a big fan of sight seeing trips...I always piggyback on some of friends with their carefully laid out travel plans just for the sake of my wife who likes to roam around and considers that's the best way to enjoy life. Here's one friend of mine, the most mature of the ones I've got, who suggested this trip with a reserved train ticket from Toronto to Niagara on this 'Labour day' long weekend. Here's how it was: Fancying our first ever train trip we went on to take a 'Via rail' bound to New york starting at 830 am from Toronto Union Via rail station. Pls don't confuse yourselves over the queue that lines up in the train boarding gate. It seems you need to take that queue to get your preferred seat. No seat allocation, its all first come first. First ever Canadian train experience was boringly slow and I had a tough time answering my daughter's never ending tweet "are we there yet???" When we reached the