Winter in North America

My trip to Canada in November was my third trip to North America and the first to Canada. However, my last 2 trips to NA (to the US to be precise) were during July- August which was spring- summer time in NA. I had heard a lot about the fall and winter seasons in NA and I have ever since been cherishing this secret wish of traveling to NA during one of those seasons. This time around I was lucky as I was asked to travel to Canada during November for official reasons. We were flying Lufthansa and had a stop over at Frankfurt, Germany. It was in Frankfurt that I got the first taste of what I was likely to see in Canada. We landed in Frankfurt at about 8 in the morning. We had to deplane through the staircase and walk a few steps to get into the bus that would transport us to the terminal. I had my jacket neatly packed in my check in luggage and was wearing a T- shirt with jeans. The moment I reached the exit door of the flight, I could sense the cold wind blowing against my face. The next couple of minutes I was exposed to the atmosphere and by the time I climbed the bus I was shivering with cold and my face had gone completely numb. Some 15 odd hours later we landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, our final destination. Once I collected my luggage, I took out my jacket and wore it since I did not want to take a risk. However, I had left my winter cap and gloves inside the suitcase and still thought I was all set to face the weather in Canada. Little did I realize that I was in for a rude shock. The gates of the terminal opened to the main road and lo and behold, I could see snow upto half a metre in height on both sides of the road. It was cold and the wind was blowing violently. We had 15 pieces of luggage to be loaded into the cars that had come to pick us up and it took us a jolly good 5 minutes to finish the job. Thanks to the wonderful climate outside, we felt as if it was taking us hours to finish the job. We somehow managed to push our luggage inside and got into the comfort of the car, heater on, windows up. We looked like cleaned broiler chicken kept in cold storage for days together. All of us were as good as dead and were looking at each other wondering how we were going to survive another 21 days in this weather. Fortunately for us, things were not all that bad in the days that followed. We were taken to the city and put in a hotel very close to our office. It had not snowed in the city and everything looked like it was summer except for the occassional cold winds. It was one thing that we could not step out into the open without our jackets on, but it was another that we got used to the weather in less than 2 days. There were those rare times of the day when the winter cap and gloves were necessary to keep us warm and comfortable but all in all the next 3 weeks went just fine for all of us. In spite of all that happened, I was still praying for a snow fall since it was something that I had seen only in movies. And lo! my prayers were answered on 1 December. It was a Saturday and a pretty lazy one at that. We got up late, had a late breakfast and took a bus to the mall for our last minute shopping since we were traveling back to India on 2 December. We boarded the bus and within less than 10 minutes, it started snowing. It was really a wonderful sight! I felt as if talcum powder was being showered on all of us from the sky. It was powdered snow that was falling and not the big flakes. Within 10 minutes, everything around us turned snow white. The roads, the pavements, the roofs, the plants and trees- almost everything. It was time for us to alight from the bus and walk towards the mall. Needless to say, the pavement was covered with snow powder and it was really slippery. We had to hold each others hands and take one step at a time to avoid falling in the snow. The sight from within the bus was wonderful but definitely not the walk in the snow. We had a X'mas party to attend in the evening and I thought it would be better if I wore a long kurta with jeans for the party. The worst decision, however, was to wear a pair of slippers with the jeans and not the customary pair of sneakers. As usual, we took a bus to the venue, got down at the nearest bus stop and had to take a 10 minute walk to reach the final destination. There was snow all around which made it difficult for us to walk fast and as if that was not enough, there was chilly wind blowing all around. Here I was trying to rush to the venue with my slippers on and I felt as if I was kilometres and kilometres away from my destination. Within a good 10 minutes, I was inside the party hall freezing like never before and trying to look as normal as I could. Later only did I realize that I was taking that walk at a temperature of -9 degree celsius. I thanked the supreme being for I was still alive. The next morning, it was time for us to leave Canada. It was bright and sunny when I boarded the car that was to take us to the airport. The snow was lying all over Halifax for upto 2 cm in height and we could see it melting slowly as we were driving towards the airport. However, the experience of watching the snow falling and feeling the cold air blowing against my face still lingers afresh. The quality of that image in my mind would not melt at least for some more years to come...