Life @ calgary

During the past few months i am at calgary, canada for a project implementation. This is my first real outing away from india, although i have been on a short trip before. Life here is very different than what we have seen in india and it is a great experience for me to know the people here and enjoy the things here. Contrary to my expectations and reservations that i had in my mind, people here are very polite, hospitable and behave in a friendly manner.

Here if you go out for a walk you can hardly see people, except for places like a super market or a mall.Even total strangers will wish you and spread a smile to you. These kind of things you can hardly experience in busy indian cities like mumbai or chennai.But the reason what i feel is behind this is may be due to the fact that, the population in canada is nowhere near what we have in india. "People need more touch in their lives".(as it is shown in a popular ad).

Life altering differences that i found here during the first few weeks:
1. Traffic is very disciplined here. Even at peak traffic situations no one honks the horn and pisses off others.So obviously less or no noise.
2. Clean environment, very less pollution
3. Kind and decent drivers who always stop and let the pedestrians cross the road.
4. Few tall buildings, more long buildings. For eyes and legs that are used to the tall and big shopping malls of mumbai, seeing not so tall but long shopping malls is a different thing.


Calgary as a city is one of the modern cities in canada and compared to other provinces/cities like toronto, calgary is a much younger one. It also has a unique weatherline compared to other places in canada. During winter season the temperatures can go down quite below -15 to -20.But the uniqueness of calgary is even during the cold months once in a while the temperature increases and stays around 5-10 degrees for a week once in a month.They call this phenomenon as "chinook".

The skyline of calgary downtown is decorated by a tall building known popularly as Calgary tower. I will reserve my experience at the tower for another post.Will write more about my experiences in forthcoming posts.