Ooty and Vancouver may be poles apart, literally, but there are certain similarities, climate-wise and to some extent, between people. Not that they look like distant cousins or have same food habits or language. Though Ooty is one of the cities in Tamilnadu [south India], the inhabitants have different backgrounds ranging from languages to festivals but all are perfectly at home with Tamil, the state language. On top of this, even Taxi wallahs and porters manage to communicate in other languages, including Hindi and English!

Vancouver too is cosmopolitan. Apart from Europeans, here you come across all sorts of people from Asia and Africa. All of them speak English though the accent depends on the country they belong to (the younger generation, especially the school children speak exactly like those natives whose mother tongue is English).

Though there are sophisticated shopping malls here and there, there are also shops owned by Asians and Africans where items preferred by Asians and Africans are available. If you happen to step into any vegetable shop you [hard-core Indians] may find it difficult to select the exact vegetable, specially the leafy ones. Of course, these are all neatly packed but could be of any leaves! “Do you have pumpkin?” you may ask and pat comes the answer, “over there”; it means, it is upto you to pick up what you want! Fruits are very attractive but the color of the same need not be natural! Anyhow, we have to be thankful to them for selling the items you need. In Ooty, there are umpteen fruits and vegetables stalls, though the buyers have to squeeze themselves through the narrow gaps…..but the colors of the fruits and vegetables are natural!