Toronto Getaway

[Jillian (from CSPS Toronto) and I outside the Mandir. Jillian and her colleague Maureen helped us to put together all the site visits we had in Toronto. ]

We were in Toronto over the last 3 days for the LAB programme. Module 3 kicked off with a series of site visits (what we know as LJs). We started with a large group visit to a Hindu Mandir that was about the size of 3 football fields. It was made entirely out of limestone on the outside, marble on the inside, and sandstone in between. They have spiritual guidelines prohibiting the use of manmade structures for the Mandir, hence each of the 24,000 pieces of the building was done separately and everything was pieced together like a jigsaw.

There was also an Indo-Canadian museum in the building. That was where I learnt that the Indians invented the number zero; founded 10 to the power of 53 (tallashanam); 34,000th of a second (krati); and made observations on gravity about 1200 years before Newton. Every inch of the interior of the Mandir was filled with intricately carved pillars, walls, ceilings, sculptures and statutes. It was a sight to behold (no photography allowed, unfortunately). Our group was hosted to a lunch cooked by temple volunteers at the end of the visit, after which we headed back to downtown core.

The next day, we were divided into groups of 5-6 people, and covered a total of 30 sites. This huge slate of visits undergirds what the School terms as the live case method. The method involves interacting directly with stakeholders of an issue, and using lines of inquiry to gain perspectives. These activities are complemented with conceptual sessions such as the one they had with Roger Martin on The Opposable Mind.

We took some time off to take in the sights of Toronto, albeit from the CN Tower. It was clear skies during the time we were up there, so we got an excellent view of the sunset, and the little island where our Porter plane had landed (with a 30 second ferry ride to the 'mainland').

So we're back in Ottawa for now; will be heading to Montebello in just under 2 days. I hear it's a pretty place - hopefully the leaves have started to change somewhat :-)

View of the setting sun from CN Tower, the world's tallest building (for now).