Contd....Tsunami...The Killer Wave

When the waves hit the different parts of South-East Asia....they have had some devastating effects.....thousands have been killed (at the time of the post the death toll is abt 1,00,000 and is still rising).....and millions have been rendered homeless...the scenes that I have been watching on the television for the past few days have been very very shocking and sad....I saw some amateur videos on CNN and CNBC which showed the Killer waves hitting Thailand and Indonesia....the sheer force with which they hit the coast was mind-boggling. The other fact that the wave travelled as far as Somalia and caused devastation there is even more mind boggling as Somalia is 6000 KM from the epicenter of the quake !!!!!!

I have read a lot of amazing survivor stories...and every story is a miracle in itself....though I watched only the images of the tsunami on the TV...I can say that the survivors were those with luck and determination to fight against all odds (u need both to survive such a disaster)....the TV coverage on the tsunami has been very extensive....i am glad that i am able to follow the situation so closely...thanx to CNN and rediff.com....

The fact that such huge waves went undetected for most part (a US Pacific lab claims to have detected the tsunami)....is very very shocking. I guess Mother nature reminds us time and again....how ever advanced the technology can be....how many ever inventions man has made....she is still in control of the earth and we cannot deny that.

The Pacific lab that claims to have detcted the Tsunami...says that they didnt have the contacts of the concerned people in their address book to warn those countries....are u kidding me ??????.....how hard is it to get the numbers or email addresses???? if not anything...atleast they could have googled for the numbers...and I am sure they would have found 100 of those......this could have saved many lives!!!!! I am not saying that it would have saved all the lives...but even saving some lives is as precious......what if the life saved was that of ur beloved one ??? wouldnt u have been grateful ???

one more incident that read on a blog on rediff ..... when DD (Doordarshan) was asked abt when they would be airing the next update on the Tsunami...guess what the answer was????...."How can we air an update in the middle of a cricket match !!!!!we will air the next update after the Cricket Match between indian and Bangladesh"....can u belive that??? is a cricket match more important that giving updates to the families and realtives ofthe people that were effected by the killer wave???

the aid has been flowing in from all directions....but is it too late???? u never know....atleast we know that people in the world are trying to help those hit by the Tsunami...that is very very encouraging...people all over have been sending in food/clothing/medicines apart from the monetary aid and volunteering....

someone aptly put it.....on the first day of such an adversity the victims need..food and shelter.....on the second day clothing....third day medication...finally relocation and rehab....I guess we are into the medical attention and relocation mode right now.....

seeing all this i was wondering....how come soo many people were killed in only one incident when 4 hurricanes one after the other in Florida was resposible for 14 lives ???? I saw a lot of things that were in favor of the US....they are very well prepared for these kind of adversities...i am not saying that they are prepared for a tsunami....but i am sure that they will not be hit as badly as they crisis management and emergency management organizations are very well trained and are upto the task....unlike the countries that have been hit by the tsunami..it clearly shows the amount of effort that US puts into these ememrgency drills..the fact that they (effected countries) are among the most densly populated places in the world..doesnt help....it only made the effect of the tsunami more severe with lot more lives at stake....

to be continued......

Tsunami.....The Killer Wave

As most of u know that South-East ASia was hit by the tsunamis (killer waves) in the early hrs of 26th....people had just finished their Christmas celebrations....Kids were on the beach and the streets playing cricket etc....the fishermen were getting to work....women were out mending the fishing nets and helping the men go out into the see....hundreds were on the beach for their early morning walk and jog.....people in the tourist places were out to beat the crowds to the beaches....the businesses on the beach were abt to begin in full swing.....but all these people were unaware of the danger that was brewing the depths of the Indian Ocean !!!!!!!!!

Earlier that morning a 9.0 earthquake had hit the shore of the Sumatra Island in Indonesia....taht itself had caused a lot of devastation....people from India will remember the quake that hit Gujarat abt 3 yrs ago....its after effects cans till be seen on the streets of Gujarat whre people are still trying to get over the personal and financial losses that the quake had brought...

This quake in Indonesia seemed to have shocked the world by its magnitude as 9.0 quakes are not commonly seen....the one in California in 1986 was much smaller than this one...so u can imagin the magnitude of destructiion it can cause. Tsunami is a tidal wave that is caused by quakes close to the shore or in the ocean....the quake caused a disturbanc eon the ocean floor which develops into a huge wave that is only 1 meter in the ocean but travels at 500 mi/hr (near to the seep of jet)....it travels very fast in the deep waters and slows down considerably when it approaches the shore...the bottom of the wave is slowed down by the sloping (elevation) of the ocean
floor as it approaches the shore...but the top of the wave keeps traveling at a greater speed and accumulates water so it rises to abt 20m in height as it reached the shore with millions of gallons of water.....when it hits the shore it hits it with such force that it can literally destroy everything in the vicinity.....

example....if a tidal wave of 90ft(~25m) height hits the east coast of Florida...it can travel across Florida....flooding the whole state!!!!!!!!!!!! and drowning most of it

the waves that hit Srilanka were abt 40ft high, those that hit Chennai were 20ft and those that hit indonesia are speculated to be abt 60ft high...so u can imagine the amount of devastation these can cause....

to be continued..........

Saga of the Cleveland Browns

I recently attended a talk of Terry Pluto...leading sports journalist in the US and the probably the best sports writer in the North-East Ohio area. I used to read his articles in the Akron Beacon Journal (when I used to subscribe it, I dont anymore....newspaper is a luxury in student life...hehehe). He, like most of us, is an ardent fan of the Cleveland Sports teams and is very disappointed with the unsuccessful sporting history of the teams....Cleveland Indians havent won a world series since 1954, Cleveland Cavaliers havent even reached the NBA finals ever (for most of the people who dont know much abt Cavs....its the team Lebron James plays for) and the Cleveland Browns havent won anything in the past 25 years....so basically all the sports fans in Cleveland are longing for some kind of Success of these teams and the closest or the only glimmer of hope is the impressive run of the Cavs so far this season and I atleast hope that it transforms into a Playoff Season!!!!

Cleveland is probably one of the few cities with teams in all the Professional Sports....NBA,MLB and NFL...and it has got a tremendous fan support and sporting history. The Cleveland fans are considered to be the most enthusiastic crowd (as there are only a few things to cheer for these days) and its sad to see that these wonderful fans are disappointed day-in and day-out by the lacklustre performance of the sports teams.

Terry pluto has written books on the Browns, Cavs and the Indians but his favorite topic is the Browns (who doesnt like football???). He talked abt his new book False Start ...that was based on the bad choices made by the NFL when Art Modell left Cleveland with his team to become the Baltimore Ravens!!!!!!

I learned a lot of things abt the transactions that took place in that period between 1995-99...and how the Cleveland Fans got shafted...by the then owner of the Cleveland Browns ..Art modell....demanded a new stadium for the Browns with the City money and since the City of Cleveland rejected the idea he was pissed and left with his team to Baltimore which built a new stadium for him.....so much for the fans feelings!!!!!!

Terry mentioned that the NFL didnt take any actions against Art for leaving the city on the contrary they proposed to set up a new team in Cleveland as they knew that the fans in Cleveland are so crazy that they will pay to watch anyone play!!!!! so the whole point here was for the NFL to make the most out of the oppurtunity to make (more) money. The price that the currrent owner of the Browns paid was abt $550 million when the rate for taking over any franchise was between $300 - $350 million ....the LA Dodgers were then sold for abt $325 million and everyone expected the Browns take over to be abt the same price.....but the NFL increased the franchise take over cost and in a way ensured that the next person to buy a team (which happens to be Texans) will have to atleast pay that amount....this was a smart move by the NFL to make more money.

Usually, when a team moves out of a city, the city is up for grabs for other teams to move in within 900 days but when Modell moved his team out the NFL let abt 1500 days pass by before letting another team come to cleveland....this way the owners of the other teams could blackmail their respective cities to build new stadiums....as they could say ""Build a new stadium or we will move to Cleveland!!!!".....to support this argument there were atleast 5 new stadiums that were built or were agreed upon in that period of 5 yrs.

A new franchise is usually given abt 3 yrs (Texans were given that period)....to prepare for the opening season....but the Browns were given only 11 months!!!!!! that too with countless restrictions.....the head Coach Palmer was asked to hire the personel for the team but the restrictions from the NFL were:

U cannot approach an Asst Coach of another NFL team
U cannnot hire anyone that is on the roster of another team
U cannot sign any player that is currently signed with another team

now with these restrictions even the best possible coach like Parcels would have found it difficult to put a team together....so Cleveland Browns were put together by gathering Coaching Staff that was either fired by other teams or from the College level....the players were drafted from the Expansion Draft where in the teams will leave the extra baggage (dispensible players) and Browns picked them up....now with that kind of coaching staff and players I dont think its fair for any one to have high expectations from the team.....there was nobody in the Club house with any experience of putting a team together. can u imagine what a fair draft or hiring process or preparation time would have done to the browns team???? it could have been a play-off contender by now!!!!!!!!!!

As expected the Browns were annilated by the teams and we fell to abt 2-14 and Palmer was fired....in comes the hotshot coach from the University of Miami....Butch Davis...but seeing the plight of the browns he had insisted on being the incharge of the hiring and draft in short he was Coach/GM.....his first season here he did wonders by leading the Browns into the playoffs as he was still Coach Davis but the last couple of years the Coach in him was over shadowed by the GM Davis and his team fell apart...as a result we finished 5-11 last year from 9-7 record of the previous season......and this year were are on our way to finish 3-13.....now tell me what kind of expectations should the Browns (Cleveland) fans have from their teams????

The Indians tooo are falling apart with the last survivor from the 90's team....Vizquel....being traded....there ended the golden era (partially)...we atleast reached the World Series.....of the Indians and we are rebuilding again!!!!!!

Cavs are the only bright feather in the current Cleveland teams thanx to our local boy/hero....Lebron James....it has been a treat to watch him on TV....i have been following this kid for the past 4 yrs since he was a Sophmore in HighSchool....he was a Phenom...Pluto had been wirting abt him since and I have seen this kid grow from a Highschool star into a NBA Phenom....he is a great guy....unlike the other younger people in the NBA...he is level headed and knows to move with the right crowd and not take part in a crappy rap song full of gangsters (u cant claim u were innocent Anthony!!!)....

well all in all...being an ardent and die-hard sports fan of the Cleveland teams I hope there is a turnaround in the fortunes of our team!!!!!!!!

Earth Sea

I eagerly awaited the mini-series on the Scifi Channel...Earth Sea....I was very much thrilled by the previews and had the expectations similar to LOTR....but I guess I was expecting tooo much from a normal TV series.....LOTR trilogy is once in a lifetime classic...it doesnt happen everyday.

Anyways, back to Earth Sea...it was a story abt this young wizard (they seem to be the most popular guys around in Hollywood now...Gandalf,Harry Potter, Dumbledore.....) who wants to get all the powers ASAp....but as we (those of us in school) all know that never works as it will lead to disasters.....welll thats exactly what happened and he is challenged to calling the spirit from the dead....from the side of darkness...and now he has to send it back else it will devour him and get all his powers and the world will be in trouble!!!!!!!!!

The idea for the min-series was pretty good but I felt that they were trying to put too many things into the 4 hr (2 episodes) series.....they wanted to show the elements of rivalry among young wizards in school (like Harry and Draco in HP) , wanted to show the great burden the wizard carries when being hunted by the spirit from the Dark Side (like Frodo baggins) and he has a fat friend that accompanies him to the mouth of danger (aka Sam wise Gamgee).....there are Priestesses, Men, Evil Spirits, Wizards , Dragons.....etc...in the series.....though it looked great in the previews the original storyline was very thin and never had the punch the movies like LOTR and HP had....

Though it was a disappointment I am an ardent fan of Sci-fi and Fantasy stuff so I watched the series for 4 hrs even in the middle of my Final weeks....heheheheh...and I also ended up writing this post on that series...so I guess I kind of liked it a little bit.

 Some interesting Laws....

LORENZ'S LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR-

After your hands become coated with grease, your nose

will begin to itch.



ZADRA'S LAW OF BIOMECHANICS-

The severity of the itch is inversely proportional

to the reach.



ANTHONY'S LAW OF THE WORKSHOP-

Any tool,when dropped,will roll to the least

accessible corner..



KOVAC'S CONUNDRUM-

When you dial a wrong number,you never get an

engaged one..



CANON'S KARMIC LAW-

If you tell the boss you were late for work

because you had a flat tyre,the next morning

you will have a flat tyre..



O'BRIEN'S VARIATION LAW-

If you change queues,the one you have left

will start to move faster than the one you are in now..



RUBY'S PRINCIPLE OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-

The probability of meeting someone you know

increases when you are with someone you don't

want to be seen with..



WILLOUGHBY'S LAW-

When you try to prove to someone that a machine

won't work, it will..



BREDA'S RULE-

At any event,the people whose seats are

fartherest from the aisle arrive last..



OWEN'S LAW-

As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee,

your boss will ask you to do something which

will last until the coffee is cold..

Wow!!!!!!!!!! you must be wondering if the picture was taken 20 yrs ago.....it was taken a couple of months ago at a gas station in Akron... 

U think u are modern and savy??? what else can u say abt the modernization in India and abt the cell phone revolution 

Do I need to comment on this picture??? its after all...public transport 

Haystack or what!!!!!!!! to me it looks like Lorry with a Mane :):) 

Now you know what not to do when in College....you shouldnt be in the bad books of the staff members:):) 

waaaahhhh.....Palace on wheels :):) 

This amazing site is only possible in India :) 

We won Volleyball Intramural for the first time in 4 1/2 yrs !!!!!!!

Well....the title of the blog gives away the reason for me writing a blog so soon after the previous post (considering the frequency with which I have been posting over the past 6 months or so)....coming back to the title topic...

Our team "Biohazards" won the University of Akron Intramural Volleyball Tournament...the team...Shadi, Luay (both Jordanians), Sunny Virmani and me....Shadi Luay and me have been a part of the team for the past 4 1/2 yrs....the fourth person has been constantly changing....Jeff, Ninad, Bharadwaj, Mayur,Rajesh,Shawn....have all played for the team but we have never been able to win the Volleyball tournament...we have won wallyball (Volleyball played in a racquetball court)...abt 4 times but never in Volleyball....the closest that we have made it was Semifinals in my first year...so it feels good that we won after 8 tries:):)....I guess the saying "try and try till u succeed" worked for us...this year we didnt go in with any hope but we played well in the league matches that gave us the confidence for the playoffs....we went undefeated in the league and even won the playoff's without losing a game!!!!!!!!!....we lost only one game to team "X" in the league matches and that was a close one too.

We are the final of the Wallyball tournament too and by shear coincidence we are playing the same team in that final ...team "X"...it was some sort of revenge for us when we beat X in volleyball final as we had lost to them in the Wallyball fina last year....now it will be a double blow to them if we can beat them in the wallyball final this Thursday...our team has specialized in wallyball over the past 4 yrs now we can beat a normal team very easily...the dominance has been such that even without me and luay for most of the wallyball games due to my class and his TA assignment we won our games easily with Shadi and Sunny taking care of the bussiness....our only loss in that league came against X but we had only 2 people playing for us...final is going to be a different story....

This year as in the previous yrs we went into the volleyball tournament without any expectations and suddenly we started playing well....with Shadi and Luay in the front court and Sunny and I in the back court we started playing well as a team and won a couple of close matches that gave us the confidence to go all out in the rest of our games....as usual Shadi got fired up and he gets upset reallly fast....even if we lose a couple of quick points his temper gets triggered and I had to calm him down as usual....Luay and Shadi played brilliantly in the front court. Sunny playing with us for th first time blended right into the spot that used to be Rajesh's. Like Rajesh, Sunny also has a good serve in Wallyball but the advantage we got this year was that Sunny has a better serve in Vollleyball too....and this year my serve go better in volleyball so we could do well.

The Final was a close affair with we winnning 25-23, 25-23. This whole tournament was played in Olympic format with rolling scoring like in TT....whether we serve or they...the team winning that rally wins the points and not like in badminton where u can win points only on ur serve...we had difficulty with adjusting in the begining but we adapted to it real fast...the other chnage was that the serve touching the net was considered good rather than foul so we had problems as we were used to leaving the ball once it touched the net...Dhruv, Arjun and Sirish had come to watch the final so we can say that we played in front of a small crowd:)

All of us got shirts and we got our picture taken for intramural website (I will post the link as soon as it is up)...for sunny that was the first and for me probably the 12th or the 13th...but I think I have only 3 or 4 with me as used to give them to my roomies and now to sindhu...I took some of them as gifts to India for my friends and my Sister.....I thought i will win the Badminton tournament for one more shirt but I wasnt informed of it and it was won by a guy whom I can probably beat under 5....anyways, there is always next sem :):).....

At last I write again:):)......

Lot of things have happened since I wrote my previous post....
.....I attended 2 conferences, given 2 talks and presented 2 posters
.....Hemant's Parents had a nice vacation with us and went back
......Baddhu's parents have visited him and they went back too
......Red Sox won the world series
......the 86 yr curse is now broken
.....Phani visited us
.....India lost to Pak again:( in the ICC
.....Ind-Aus series started and we are getting drubbed
.....my poster won an award at the Conference on Campus
.....I have turned in 5 homeworks and 2 COmputing Projects
.....I have given 2 mid terms
......I drove abt 2000 miles
.....the 8 week class that I taught ended
.....I graded 8 Lab Assignments, 2 projects and 2 Finals
......I prepared abt 50 samples of Solutions for my Chemistry Lab (I am a TA)
.....I have debugged abt 2000 lines of code (I am a TA for C-programming)
.....I have written abt 400 lines of code myself in Fortran
.....Akron went from 1-3 team to 4-4 team in Football
.....Ohio State lost 3 games in a row and are out of contention for the National Title
.....Kumble crossed 400 wickets and is Closing on Kapil Dev's record
.....I have fixed my laptop, took me abt 3 hrs taking it apart and putting it back together
.....I have increased my running speed on the treadmill from 6 mi/hr to 6.5 - 7 mi/hr
.....I have started running more than 4 miles for the first time on the treadmill
.....3 presidential debates have taken place
....Rajesh bought a car....Congratulations Buddy!!!!!!!!!
.....tempatures in Akron have dropped by 20 deg F
.....I have played badminton 2-3 times a week
....ISA had Garba and Fresher's party
......I have played TT 10 times more than I had in the past 4 yrs together
.....Amru has bought a house, a great house abt 10 miles from here
.....George (my colony friend) celebrated his first wedding anniversary
.....he even bought his first car...Hyundai Santro Xing
....he got into IIM for distance learning MBA
.....my sister had a surgery and got 3 of her wisdom teeth pulled out
.....I have learned how to use a Chop saw in the lab to cut synthetic bone specimens
.....I havent had a hair cut though!!!!!!!....its long overdue....may be this weekend:)


I guess I have mentioned everything I can possibly think abt....now there is nothing else to write:):).....will post more often from now on:).....have a great halloween....

Ganesh Chathurthi

Last weekend we celebrated Ganesh Chathurthi at Anusha/Pallavi/Bindu/Sumi's house. For the first time in three years this occasion was not celebrated in 277 Torrey which had become the worship place during the 7 days of the festival. We used to have a proper Pandit/Pujari in Ravi Ayyer and now that he is in Cleveland we were left with no Pandits....anyways,,back to our pooja...it was the first time I was going to be involved first hand in the puja....i had just assisted my mom and dad before that....we were going to read the mantra's and the story by oursleves!!!!!!

It was decided late the previous night to do the puja at their place, we were deciding on the prasad and it was finalized that Payasam,vada and Lemon rice would be the Menu. The next day morning Sindhu prepared the payasam (ofcourse under my guidance..heheheh..just kidding), Pallavi made the Vada's and Bindu made the lemon rice...none of us had performed the puja by ourselves without guidance so it was going to be quite an experience for us.

Hemant's parents were happy that puja will be performed and said that they will also come along for it, we were more than happy to have somebody who knows the puja to be present. Now came the things needed for the puja...we had 3-4 Ganesh idols and then we did the prathishta of the god using Haldi, Kumkum and flowers. Then started the last minute running around to get the flowers, vick for the lamp, oil, agarbathi, tape recorder for the arathi casette that hemant's dad had. The best part was all of us trying to figure out which way the god should be facing....no one had a convincing answer....so i called my mom(in India) to find that out. All in all, with all the things in place we started the puja at 10:55 Am...that too because it was supposed to be "Rahu Kaalam" from 11 :00 AM so we had to start the puja. I was asked to start the puja and I had no clue what to do...so started with my limited knowledge and some sheets of paper that had the whole puja procedure, mantra's and the story....but it was in Telugu...so only a few of us could read that...Sindhu/me/bindu....I hadnt read slokas in telugu ever in my whole life so it was going to be fun I thought....I started the puja and had a great difficulty in reading the slokas....but i was trying my best to not to mess the pronunciation....after sometime the slokas became more and more complex and I was making more and more mistakes in reading them....I was having a horrible time.....then came my savior for the day.....Bindu...she offered to read the slokas....though she started just like me....she got better with time unlike me who had gotten worse.....so she read all the slokas and the story in Telugu...and I performed the puja...a lot of people there didnt know the story involving Ganesh-Chandra (moon) and Lord krishna....so we explained the whole story in english and its significance before reading that in Telugu...then Uncle read Narad Mantra/Sloka with tremendous fluency which made me look like a fool with all the mistakes that I had made earlier....then I came home before the aarathi to pick up Aunty so that she can also be a part of the puja.....then we had the "Sukhkartha...." on tape and some more bhajans....in the end we had finished the puja successfully and I was veryvery happy.....it always feels good to worship....thats what I have noticed....when ever I go to the Cleveland or the Pittsburgh temple I feel a sense of peacefulness, calmness and inexplicable joy inside me.....u can call it what ever u want....but I love tha feeling and I have a sense of achievement I did something worthwhile that day......

After the Puja we had some hot-hot vada's with Payasam and lemon rice....the combination of food items was very very good and all of us there....me, Sindhu, Anusha, Bindu, Pallavi, Nisha, Uncle, Aunty, Suresh, Praveen, Vinod etc.....had a hearty meal as most of us had fasted till the time we had prasad (though it was only 12:30 pm by then). Then i went to Canton as a family that I am close to (Sneha and Sharvari's) was also performing the puja in the afternoon....I had nice time there, had some wonderful food (little bit in the afternoon and dinner)...also taught some kids cricket....all in all it was good day......apparently Kumar had also performed the puja at his place and I wasnt aware of that and couldnt make it to his place for the arathi in the evening.

Back to School.....

After a great summer in India and after some matches of Cricket now its time to get back to school and back to the normal grind:(....I had a blast this summer mainly on the India trip and now the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy with the school starting and Hemant's parents visiting us.

Our new Apt looks lively with Hemant's parents in town living with us....they had come last week and ever since its been very very exciting as we have had some awesome conversations and ofcourse the awesome food!!!!!!!!! The first week of school was pretty hectic as I have three TA assignments....Basic Chemistry, C programming and Physics of Heat and Light.....I also have a course to teach...Software Applications....and to add to that I have a couple of courses of mine that I taking to fulfil the PhD Academic requirements....I have never had so many things to do during school....oh forgot my research part:)....I have to take care of my research in my free time (if there is any:)).....The first weekend of school always ends with a long weekend due to labor day so it was kind of an early break from the hectic semester ahead....Sindhu, Nisha and I had gone to Raleigh,NC to visit Amol....we drove all way.....540 miles !!!!...it was a fun trip.

The drive thru West Virginia. Virginia and NC was beautiful with mountains and tall trees....had never driven to that part of the US so that was a first time for me in that area....we were scared that the long weekend would be ruined by Big Brother Frances....but fortunately for us (though unfortunate for all the people down in Florida....) Frances didnt hit NC atleast till yesterday .... when we had gotten back. Had a relaxing weekend...went to an Udipi buffet on Saturday and ran into an Undergrad friend of mine...that was a pleasant surprise and thru him i found out that some of my other friends were working in Raleigh too.....so much for my networking with friends...but got to meet some of my friends who in raleigh for the Long weekend....it was kind of fun catching up with them after 4 yrs!!!!!!!! back to the vacation part.....went to an outdoor mall one evening and played tennis later on....the next day we went to the Carolina Beach ...we had a fabulous time in the water....though we were at the beach only for 2 1/2 hrs we had a great time...the waves were big and we had fun trying to dodge the waves and at the same time not getting knocked off our feet....all in all...we had a nice vacation before the hectic semester in front of us....with me having a busy schedule for the rest of the sem and Sindhu having her Comprehensive exams sometime in October...we will surely look back to the past weekend for memories of fun:)....

Moving to Brown St.......

Well....after a long and frustrating Apt search Hemya and I are moving into university Rentals on 451 Brown St, Apt #4. We are going to close the deal and sign the lease tonight so atleast one thing out of the way.....the house search was very frustrating as there were lots of twists and turns to our approach.

First I wanted an Apt but hemant wanted a house with a porch so that he can drink,smoke and yell at top of his voice over the weekends :):)....we thought of a house on Rentschler St...there was a nice house (old though) with 3 bed rooms and a porch (to hemya's satisfaction)....I thought we found a house !!!!!!!! but then some bad memories of the st haunted hemya (Brijesh had lost his Laptop there)....and the fact that it was close to a sidy kallu area didnt help....all in all that house was out...then we saw some other house but the bedrooms were really small... so ignored!!!!!! Then came the new twist in the story that Miki and Megha & their roomie were also
looking for a house....thus started a house hunt with 5 bed rooms!!!!!! saw one but the landlord didnt seem that great and looked lazy so that was discarded....then one more twist...since we were going nowhere the house hunt miki says "i atleast have an apt but u guys dont have a place after the 15th so go ahead and look for a 2 bedroom apt".....

Then started our last mission of finding a 2 bedroom apt....saw some and liked a couple....one was like a deluxe suit so we were excited...but the price was really high....$775+electric !!!!!!! That was out of my budget....the other house that excited hemya was that the one with a porch....but the bedrooms were too small!!!!!!! so hemya goes home rethinks his strategy and comes up with a figure where he was ready to pay the extra amount that was out of my budget....it would have been a nice place for his parents too!!!!! so we go to the landlord and then find out tha tthe heat is also on electric!!!!!!!! that makes it $100 a month atleast!!!!!!! that put the house out of Hemya's budget too!!!!!!!! Then we finalise on this brown st Apt....the only thing is that it is slightly far from the desi junta....probably 5-10 min walk....but that shouldnt be a problem most of the times as both of us have cars...only Sindhu and his parents will have trouble during the day when we will be at the lab (or work).

This evening we will sign the lease to move into the house by next Friday. Hemya's parents who had put their air ticket booking on hold for us to find an apt can now get the confirmation and we should be settled in the new apt by the time they get here:):)...

This weekend and the next will be pretty hectic as we have back-to-back cricket matches in Cleveland and Colombus this weekend and have a game next Sunday and I will have to move over the next weekend!!!!!!!!.....I hope I will have enough energy to get to the lab the next 2 mondays!!!!!!!!!

One Pic of adi...at his laughing best....this was one feature of both Madhu and Adi that disrupted the play practices....they couldnt supress their laughter and even slightest incident would trigger laughter from one person and the other would catch on....I miss those practice sessions...they were fun 

Adi posing for the last time to Priya as Ayyer oggles adi for the last time in the US:) 

Ayyer and Anil with Adi... 

Was thinking abt Adi...then remembered that I had some pics that we had taken at the Airport..Nishant, Birju and Ayyer with Adi

Cricket...Cricket and more Cricket....

Come Summer time here in Akron for the cricketing enthusiasts its showtime....as there is lot of cricket played in the area. This summer we even have a lot of cricket played by the Indian cricket team....so thats more cricket...though its just watching but most of the people that follow cricket will spend their time watching the games live and reading articles online and also following the stats. For those on the Akron Cricket team (ACC) its some more cricket as they play games every weekend and follow the games in the other groups online. They spend most of the evenings in a week playing cricket and some part of the day visiting Midwest Cricket Website. They follow the scores and stats of their team mates and also of other players around the league. The members of ACC have introduced a points system to award or deduct certain points based on their performance in each of the games....so the see the points table atleast once a week :):)

Last weekend we won a game against West Viginia University and we were all pumped up and were high in confidence during the week and also during the tennis ball cricket games....but yesterday we had a terrible loss to Ohio State Univeristy.....they just outplayed us:(

We scored 159/9 in 35 overs largely thanks to KiranN and brijesh at the start, KiranN and KiranB in the middle overs and Srikanta and Sunny in the final 3 overs.....we could have scored much lesser if not for those guys.....we could have also scored more if a couple of other batsman had contributed....I have been keeping for the first 12 overs and then Kiran N for the rest of the match.....when we were fielding we were horrible.......we dropped 2 relatively easy catches in the third over!!!!!!! that was ridiculous as were playing the top seeds and the only undefeated team in the league with the best batsman in the league.....on top of that we were defending only 160!!!!! Couple more chances were grassed and we could not make a comeback with such blunders....their batsmen pounded us with thumping hits and their best batsman clobbered us around the park.....one six that he hit off my bowling was mind boggling!!!!!!!! I have not seen anyone smash a ball with such power and authority....its a struck absolutely flat and hard....even if it had gone straigh to the fielder he would have thought twice to put his hand to it.....then we pulled back a little by getting two quick wickets but that momentum was lost due to lack of application of the fielders and by the 3 dropped catches in the last couple of overs.....that was a disheartening loss....but we need to buckle up and play the next match as if it is a do-or-die situation as we need to win the last two matches to make it to the playoff's and being such a talented team it would be a pity not to make it atleast to the playoff's!!!!!!!

It was Hemant's birthday yesterday, he threw a big party saturday night instead so he could get drunk and not think of going to work the next day!!!!! we had a great time as most of the people that I knew came to the party and we enjoyed the barbeque and drinks thoroughly.....though for a veggie and non-alchoholic like me there were limited options we still had tons of fun....after 2 AM most of the normal people left and only a few were left in the party and it got wild!!!! Rushi, Brijesh and Hemant were drunk and starting jumping off the porch onto Hemant's "piece-of-junk" car !!!!!!! it was funny to watch some people restaining Hemya from jumping and he trying to device new ways to escape them and getting onto the porch to jump onto his car:)

India-Pak game is everyone's favorite around here (including my Advisor's:))....but we had to play a game so couldnt stay up to watch the match but we made 100's of calls during the day to follow the score!!!!! but we were disappointed at the end to find that India lost but were delighted that we could atleast get that bonus point to give some hope of making it to the finals:)

Hope the coming week brings goodluckand cheers to both the Indian Team and AkronCC :):):)

This is the tool kit used to perform that operation!!!!! Interesting isnt it??? 

Guess what this is???? Its a Baboon spine that we disected in the lab:) 

Cricket.....

Have been playing a lot of tennis ball cricket of late...surprising since we are playing in a tournament that uses Leather ball:):). But we dont have an option as we need to practice and dont have a place to play with the season ball...grrrrrr

Till last year we used to play on the filed that had batting cages right next to it so that we could have fielding practice and batting & bowling practice alson side each other. It was a perfect palce to practice as most of the pitches in our league use a concrete base with either carpet or astro-turf top. The batting cages were as if they were built for us, they had a concrete base with a carpet on it and had nets surrounding the batting and the bowling area. This year our practice field has been taken away from us as the University is constructing a "Frisbee Field" with Astro turf on it. Its a ridiculous decision as thousands of dollars are being spent on it and very very few people actually play frisbee on campus!!!!!!! I think its just another way of getting a practice field for the U A football team so that they dont have to travel 4 miles to the Rubber Bowl (abt a $40 million stadium)....they do anything and everything for the football program....thats unfair to the other students and athletes.

So now we play cricket on a softball field with tennis (MRI) ball and we play the league matches without any leather ball practice...I am not complaining abt that becoz we can see a lot more people participate and the games have become more competitive and its been fun taunting other players and we actually see what we do to the other teams:):) the only thing that would have made this scenario excellent is a facility to practice with leather ball atleast once a week:)

Last game was a bit disappointing as we didnt perform to our abilities in the bowling department and also in the batting dept to an extent. The top order collapse, brijesh and kiran out for ducks, was halted by Hari and Thimmanna...though the scoring wasnt that great they made sure that there was no more fall of quick wickets...Hari was looked to be getting back to his normal self and played calm and composed innings with occasional aggression to get a boundary. Unfortunately for Raghav after he played himself "in" he got out. Kiran B then went in as a bundle of nerves...the extent to which he got tensed was unbelievable. But he put together a courageous and aggressive knock with a couple of lives . Just as he was looking good he managed to give a simple catch that could not have been spilled even if he was fielding there :):) (just kidding buddy). I walked in next after a long break from cricket (due to the India trip). Hari was looking good when he played a stupid shot which can be considered to be a very very irresponsible shot given the context of the game and that he was the set batsman. he got out and Srikanta walked in confidently....he played the first couple of balls very well but then got carried away and tried to flick a ball and got a top edge that ended as a simple catch.

I have always enjoyed running with Baji as we have been in similar situations over the past year and we managed to run 1's and 2's comfortably. We were doing the exact same thing when he played an uppish flick that went straight to the fielder...came in sunny....at that point I think COBCA (other team) must have thought that they were on top with all the bastman gone....I got run out the next over...I usually run pretty fast but guys mentioned it to me later that i had slowed down during my second run that resulted in my run-out. But I felt that i was running in top gear....I was tired but I guess thats what happens when u have a long break and zero fitness:)...but my run out was the turning point of the innings as Manpreet and Sunny blazed away and scored 45 runs in less than 5 overs!!!!!!! we ended up with 182/8 in 35 overs not bad!!

They started off well and were on course to win if rain had not interfered!!!!!! Thank God for that...they were 104/1 in 18.3 overs....it was one of the few below par performances of our bowling attack...but atleast now we know that we cannot get over confident that we got others all-out in the stipulated overs!!!!!!!! now back to square one to figure out (fresh start)what has to be done abt the batting and bowling for the next match by putting the last match behind us...Go Akron Go....

Talking abt cricket and not mentioning Dravid is a sin!!!!!!! I know lot of people would beg to differ but I dont care:):) Did I ever??? Dravid showed the class today!!!!! though it was against UAE...the other batsmen had the same attack to face too....but he showed the kind of form he was in....AWESOME.....it was a treat to watch him and kind of improvisations he was pulling off were simply unbelievable...name it...Pull, Cut, Sweep, Gliding to the thirdman, flick, cover drive (can anybody hit it better???), inside out shot, lofted shots over the point area, down the ground and ofcourse his brilliant running between the wickets....he has come a long way from where he started and its time he gets what he deserves.....to be known as the "Premier batsman" of the current indian side....Just becoz u are someone's fan u cannot deny the facts as they are proven by stats!!!!!!!

This is a picture of me after my graduation last year!!!! little did I know that I would start school again:)....trying this new hello software for posting pictures on the blog:) 

continued....

More abt the trip....for the first time I travelled long distances by bus in India...i had previously never travelled for more than 3-4 hrs....in the past 12 yrs atleast...but I travelled from Jalgaon to Pune and Pune to Mumbai by Bus, Bangalore to Hyd and HYD to mumbai also by Bus....the best rides were Pune to Mumbai and Hyd to Mumbai....they were Volvo buses that were extremely comfortable. The seats were better than the plane seats (economy class)....they go back twice as much as the seats in plane and had the overhead AC and light controls....it was a nice journey...but very very expensive...more than Train travel but the timings are convenient as most of the bus journeys are over night so u dont feel that u lost a day or so....u travel most of the distance in ur sleep....there were two instances that were note worthy....first was the sleeper bus from Jalgaon to Pune...Adi insisted on me taking the sleeper bus and now I hate Adi for that as I got the top birth (like in a 2nd class coach in the train)....but it was cramped...I couldnt fit there...with great diffculty I squeezed onto the berth then i realized that the light was on the other side (I wanted to read)....I tried turning but couldnt so I had to get down and climb back with feet first (it was very very embarassing)....people were watching with curiosity to know what I was upto:):)......the next instance was on my bus journey from Bangalore to Hyderabad....I was excited that they played Yuva...I was plannning on watching it so I was glad....watched the movie for abt 1 hr and 20 mins before were stopped for dinner, After dinner when the movie and the journey resumed people in the bus wanted to sleep so they made the driver turn off the volume!!!!!!!!!!! so i watched the rest of the movie without sound!!!!!!!!! I was furious as it was 10PM and people were ready to sleep...nothing against them but why to turn the volume off?????

One more incident that I will remember for sometime is my visit to Tirupati....I have walked up the 7 hills before but never with my Mom and sis so it was a different experience...I should give a lot of credit to my Mom for being able to climb the hills at the same pace as my sister (not exactly but considering her age it was good pace)....we stopped for rest every 10-15 mins and drank drinks and ate in the stalls...it was like a fun hike:):) when we went to the temple the next day I couldnt recognize it as it was surrounded completely by buidlings!!!!!!! it didnt loook like the temple that I had been to n number of times....all the stalls were moved to a different locations and there was construction going on every where (just like at the U of Akron)...the whole place lost its charm...thats the best to put it according to me....it loooked more like a commercial place than a religious place....lots of hotels, cottages, guest houses and restaurants...I thought I knew Tirumala (Tirupati is the city at the foot hill and Tirumala is on top of the hill) very welll but this time I couldnt find my way around as they have laid many roads and constructed many buidlings....all things apart...the Darshanam was great....its a complete different feeling when u see the idol of lord Venkateswara....its a divine feeling which is hard to express in words....all the frustrations that u have when in line are completely gone once u see the idol

Lot of other places that I had visited have also changed....the once village where my grand parents stay is now a town with lots of industries and also an engineering college!!!!!!!! it was completely different....it was nice and calm some years ago but now its busy with lots of vehicles and other businesses...I was delighted to see my Grand parents ..... I had stayed with them for 2 yrs when I was little (from age 1 to age 3)....my mom thought I was too difficult to handle with my (then)infant sister...so she sent me to my grand parents house...thats the reason why I call my mom "mummy" and my grand mom "amma" (telugu word for mother)....I used to see all my uncles and aunts call her "amma" so i started calling her that too and I still refer to her as "amma". They have a huge house, I used to feel lost and frightened sometimes when i was little...but now it was a different experience to goto the same house....they used to keep the stuff in the top shelves so that I couldnt get to but now I am taller than all of them so I could reach for things that they couldnt get to without a stool/chair.....its a funny feeling...driving in that place is more difficult than driving in Mumbai (its different may be it cannot be compared)....as it involved cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, scooters, bikes, rickshaws, autos, people, kids, cows, pigs etc....alll on the road and most in the middle of the road...it was quite a challenge.

The other change that I have see in India is the spending capacity of the people. It has gone up tremendously...people have been going out more often and eat out more and there have been a lot of malls that came up recently so people have been shopping more too...The movies have become expensive.....Imax in mumbai is most common hangout for the weekends...if u take a family there u will easily spend abt Rs.1000 just to watch a movie and eat a snack there...I went bowling for the first time in india and I was shocked to see that it was Rs.200 a frame and it was jam packed at 11 in the night!!!!! it had abt 20 lanes and there was come wait time too:):) ...... welll all in all even I ended up spending a lot of money on travel, eating out, buying clothes and gifts and also on telephones (had to call Sindhu in Hyd regularly:):) )...end of a memorable trip :(:(

Back in the US of A...

Got back from India last week....it was a great trip had loads of fun and ate tons of sweets. But the sad part is that the trip that I had been waiting for the past 2 and 1/2 yrs is over and now I have start waiting for my next trip:( that's sad....5 weeks just flew by and I didn't even realize that I had gone to India for a visit...except for the first day...I felt completely at home and didn't miss Akron (and of course my cooking) at all:). Met with all my friends and we picked up from where we left the last time and we didn't feel that we hadn't met in a while...I guess that's what happens when you somebody for too long. I met my groups of friends when I first moved to Bombay in 1993. We have been friends since then have had great time together....we had our shares of joy and sadness. We used to celebrate the B'days and also when we did well in the exams but there were gloomy days when some friend had to leave for good or when someone got a KT.

Its an inexplicable feeling when I saw my parents and my sister, initially it was just joy but in the next couple of days it was love and affection and everything else that I can think of. Now I miss my Mom waking me up early in the morning at 10 AM :) I have to get up for my alarm with great difficulty and have to make my own coffee. I miss the filter coffee that my Mom makes....its taste is completely different. Earlier (during my undergrad) I had to wait for my dad to finish the paper on Sunday before I could get it but now it was better as we had two papers on Sunday...one telugu paper and the other being Times of India...my dad reads the telugu paper so I could comfortably sip my coffee and read TOI. I miss going on walks with my Sis...this time around we hardly got time together but we made the most out of it....now that she is also an earning member (I am still a student)she keeps teasing me abt that and when we went shopping we used to have fights in the shop as to who will pay....it was quite a sight for the shop keepers:) as we were wielding our cards out as fast as we could and trying to get to the cash counter faster than the other person.

I went down south to meet my relatives and it was quite a hectic trip...I was gone for 17 days and I visited abt 9 places....first went to Vizag then to Vizianagaram (dad's place)...then to Rajam (mom's place) back to Vizag....then to Tirupati via- Madras...then drove to Bangalore and finally to hyderabad. Had also gone to see Adi in Jalgaon and Bhai in Pune....so it was quite an eventful trip.

.....to be continued :)

Home sweet Home

I reached Mumbai in the early hours of Saturday….I was very very excited to come home after 2 and a half years….the plane journey was a bit irritating as we had a lot of delays and we got a plane which had very little leg room and we had to run a lot in Paris as our flight from Atlanta was delayed and we were the last to board the plane in Paris….the plane was held for us as 50 of us were in the flight from Atlanta that was delayed….we had an extra delay in the Paris Airport as we weren’t issued the boarding passes in Cleveland…we were asked to get them in Paris and that made us the last people to get to the flight….Sindhu and I were scared that we would be delayed by a day in Paris and that we would lose a day of our trip….that’s unacceptable !!!!!!!!!!! We were glad that we made it and we were tortured by the brilliant movie… Paap …John Ibrahim was the hero and his expressions were worse than Ham Kings….he can be crowned the new Ham Master:)

We got some good food on the Paris-Mumbai leg….and the service was also much better….atlast we reach Mumbai and we were both very relieved and excited…..Sindhu was tensed as she would be meeting my parents for the first time and she was trying to figure out what to say….one of my friends said that he had made some arrangements with the customs guys so that I can walk out freely without hassle….a Havaldar was standing at the gate with my name and he had asked me to come to Counter 2…..once we got our bags we went to counter 2 and I thought we should put our bags through the scanner….but I guess my friend has a solid contact in the Customs….We were asked to walk straight through the gate and we were surprised that it was that easy:):) …..I had a lot of electronics so I was scared that the customs guys would catch me….but it turned the other way round….. we were the first to come out of the airport and my parents had not expected that I guess….I couldn’t find them so I walked to the nearest PCO and I called my sister on her cell……she was surprised that I was out and my parents were surprised tooo and they couldn’t figure out how they could have missed us….I could see the joy in t heir faces….I was delighted to see them too:)…thenI had to do some weight lifting as I had to load all the four big bags into the rented van….then we dropped off sindhu at the Santa Cruz airport for her to fly to HYD…..I could see that she was visibly tensed but she was trying to have some kind of conversation or the other with my folks….once we dropped her off ….we came home and I was up all night talking to my parents and my sis….my sister went to bed early at 5 AM!!!!!!!! and my parents at 7 AM!!!!!!! then slowly I hit the sack at 9:30 AM…..I slept like a log till 6:30 in the evening…..I met with my friends later that evening and had a good time

The next day I met a couple of friends and we went to watch a new movie called “UUFF kya Jadoo Mohabbat hai”…..at a multiplexer called IMAX….it was next to the real IMAX….I was surprised seeing the crowd and I was informed that it was the most visited place in the weekend inspite of its cost!!!!!!!!!! The ticket for an evening show is Rs.130 and for a day show is Rs.65…we bought Pop-Corn for Rs.25 a bag (rather a small pouch) and also two bottles of coke for Rs 35 each…..I was shocked!!!!!!!!!! its damn expensive and people are buying stuff left and right!!!!!!!!!! One more thing that I observed was that almost everyone had a Mobile!!!!!!!!!!! auto wala, sabzi wala, taxi wala, etc…everyone…India has become HEP….then I bought a couple of Jeans as I had hardly enough room to pack my clothes….after putting all the gifts I purchased and those that my friends had given to take home!!!!!!!!!! I had abt 5 sets of clothes for the whole 38 day trip!!!!!!!!!!!…..the next step to start driving….I had to concentrate a lot but now Iam getting better….a couple of times I got onto the wrong side of the road….I thought people would panic….I sure people in the US would have….but here…they just went on to the other side as if it was normal!!!!!!!! that shocked me:)…but now I back to the ranti and ghati driving….I am enjoying honking and giving gaalis:)….

that’s it for now as my mom is waiting for lunch and being in India….every hour is a meal time:)

End of a glorious era in AP

By now most of you may have guessed what I was thinking of....its abt the end of the Naidu era in Andhra Pradesh. Yes, the hitech and IT driven era of Chandrababu Naidu has come to an end in AP...congress hit the sweet spot during their election campaign by targetting the farmers. They showed the farmers how neglected they were and how the Naidu Govt was pampering the IT industry and ignoring the agricultural sector....they promised to give free power and water for irrigation and thus turned the tide on Naidu who was expecting another term as the CM.

Though Congress has a point that farmers have been overlooked for facilities and infrastructure it cannot deny Naidu from being one of the revolutionary and aggressive leaders of our time...obviously when one sector is being developed the other sectors will suffer but I think Naidu did the right thing by trying to tap the IT potential of Hyderabad....now Hyd is the Silicon Valley of India along with Bangalore...and it would not have been possible without Naidu. He initiated a lot of deals which resulted in the benefitting of the companies in Hyd. All the major IT companies have offices in Hyd....now with Bioinformatics begining to blossom...I think its sad that Naidu is not there to make the most out of it....he was a leader with an aim and he worked till he achieved....

People may say that he had a one track mind...and they he wasnt an efective leader.....for those guys....he started a project called "Janma Bhoomi" which was basically cleaning of AP and helping the backward places to get roads and electricity....all this just based on voluteers and the local residents of the place being developed....this was a brilliant effort and it helped a lot of people in AP. It brought the masses together and they worked together for the betterment of AP.

Bill Clinton had come to India i think in 1999....if I am not mistaken....he spent 4 hrs with the Prime Minister and abt 2 days with Naidu.....what more needs to be told abt the business sense of the man....when sanctions were being imposed on India after the Nuclear testing....companies abroad were ready to fight the sanctions to do business with Naidu.....

Kellogg's wanted to start a B-school in India and had approached different states in teh country for a suitable location....everyone wanted a share of the seats and also charge for the land.....come Naidu...he says..take the land for free (or what ever cost)....his proposal was accepted by Kelloggs and now we have a B-school in India which is accepted world wide as a great institution...not to take away the pride of other Indian B-schools...but its just a mention

F-1 wanted to set up a race track in india....where did they settle????? AP ofcourse.....why??? any doubts?? Naidu...did the job again...its a Rs. 1000 Cr project and who is benefitting from this??? people of AP....well what ever said and done....Naidu may have lost the election but he has defenitely set the trend for the coming years.....there are lot more things but I cant write all those here...i dont know all of them....but at the same time...there were a lot if drawbacks in the Naidu Govt....but which Govt doesnt have a drawback???? he atleast have enough positive points to offset the negative ones...unlike other states...

What Anil Kapoor did in a movie called "Nayak"....Chandrababu Naidu did it in real life

I hope Congress doesnt lose the businesses and market developed under Naidu

Respond instead of reacting: Azim Premji

I am very happy to be here with you. It is always wonderful to be with young people. The funny thing about life is that you realize the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black, to salt and pepper and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realize the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have leant along the way. I hope you will find them useful when you plan your own career and life.

The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim?

While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found.

My friend was sharing me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that,it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be absolutely delicious? The difference was that she has cooked it ! In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it.

The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some. You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson.

The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received. Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than
becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.

The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem, which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth.

Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.

The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring your hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, "Look, why don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day." The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!" If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective.

The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change, do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations. Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts. At the end of the day, it is values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to the destination.

And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the Customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor
would pick up the money, smile politely and say, "Thank you, Sir." One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, "Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at
him when he comes back tomorrow?" The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate my politeness? In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realize that my rebellion was another kind of
conformity. We defied our elders to fall in line with our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do. I wish you all the best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life.

Remember, those who win are those who believe they can.

Dhanraj Pillay Issue....

I think IHF and Mr.Gill have time and again humiliated Dhanraj Pillay by asking to prove his fitness and then saying that he was being omitted from the experimental sides as he is expereienced....but now they have committed a blunder by dropping Pillay from the Olympic squad.I am a big fan of cricket and badminton but I do follow some hockey...what sachin/sourav/Dravid are for cricket and Gopichand for badminton Dhanraj is that for Indian Hockey.

Teams all over the world fear Dhanraj and they know that his sheer presence will be enough to motivate the indian team and that they will have to play harder. Over the years Pillay has proved time and again that he is the best thing to have happened to Indian Hockey in the past 15 years. How many times has he lead the team from the front and bore the brunt of the media when the Indian team didnt perform well but he excelled. With his talent he can walk into most of the international sides but the officials of IHF think otherwise...I think its high time that these people are shown the right way so that Indian Hockey can prosper. How many years has Gill been incharge of IHF and what have we to show with him on the top...NOTHING...so I think its time for some change in officers and there should be some room for new ideas.

Baljit Singh Dillon and Baljit Singh Saini are players of high caliber, they should not have been treated like this either.

All the reasons given by IHF and the coach are lame and none of them are convincing.

"We need Dhanraj Pillay for Olympics"

A blog atlast!!!!!!!

Well....I have atlast decided to write a blog :):) the past month had been pretty eventful with a lot of things happening....I attended a conference for the first time...I presented a paper at a conference for the first time.....I had my first publication thru the conference proceedings.....I drove for 9 hrs for the first time (to go to the conference and to visit Phani)...I saw fire in akron for the first time.....

Yes....the fire was in Sindhu's house and it was a big one....it totally destroyed the second level.....the devastation was such that the girls living upstairs.....lost everything expect for the documents (luckily) and themselves.....they were left with no clothing but the ones they had on that day.....it was a really sad scene....I had never seen anything like that before....there were 3 fire trucks to doze the fire off....the only positive thing in this incident is that no one was hurt and that all the passports were safe.....the girls lost clothes,books, notes and all their belongings (including soft toys).....this is the finals week so the loss will be bigger to bear as they dont have their notes to study from and they also have to bear with the mental shock.

Sindhu lives downstairs so all her belongings were intact but the house cannot be lived in....everything in the house was stinking of ash and smoke....so was my car which was used to transport most of the remaining valuables.....but to their and our surprise the librarian at the University acted promptly by waiving the fees for the lost books and also contacting Red Cross....representatives of Red Cross came home to meet the girls the next day and they gave each of them gift vouchers for Value city......it was really nice of them......I wanted to ask Madhu to see if ISA could do anything....but as I expected the Girls straight away rejected my idea of fund raising.....even in such depression they didnt let go of their principles....hats off to them.....on constant pursuasion though....they agreed to accept some coupons from ICAGA and also household items from the ICAGA members when they move into their new house....

The fire incident totally freaked me out....becoz....my roomie and I have a lot of stuff at our place....both of us have TV's,VCR's, DVD Players's, Laptops....and many other small electronics.....and we dont have a second level.....and most of the things in the room are inflammable....thats a scary thought:(:(

i hope the girls do well in their finals and get done with the semester as they will have some time to relax then and think abt what has tobe done next....in a way the finals are helping to keep their mind away from the incident....so thats good.

the other thing....is that I cleared my PhD qualifiers....I cleared 6/7 papers....I failed in "Numerical Analysis"...so I was asked to take a course in that subject and get atleast a "B" in it.....I will be taking that course in the fall semester. I am happy that now I am a Doctoral Student and from the fall semester I will be on PhD pay .....hhehehehehe

The conference was a good experience....though it was a small one....500-600 people thats it.....but its always better to start with a small group before going to the national conf.....I got to spend time with Phani so that was a bonus....he showed be around his village (sorry phani but thats the best description I could give)....he showed me his work place and the polymers he made.......he made some awesome rasam and beans curry for dinner....we watched Khakee later that night......it was relaxing weekend....if not for the driving....I drove abt 1300 miles over the weekend....I had never done that before.....so it was quite an experience.....

well....I think....I will go to bed now....its quite late as i have to get up early to go to the lab:):)

India wins first series against Pakistan in PAK 3-2

India won its first series in PAK today, its been a long time since India had won a One-day series. It feels good to see the Indian team bounce back from 1-2 down in the series and also shedding the tag of chokers in the process. It was a very very close game, the margin of victory (40 runs) doesnt tell the story of how close the game was.....ask those who were watching!!!!!!!!!!!! everyone was very tensed and was hoping that Pak gets all out as we had the doubt that if they batted the stipulated 50 overs they may attain the target, though it seemed improbable...but thats how the series had been!!!!!!! when a team was counted out of th game it bounced back tremendously to make the match close if not win it.

India-Pak series has always been a much-waited series as the tension in each of the games is unbelievable....u need to expereince it to know how it feels!!!!!!!! the joy when the indian team wins and the disappointment when we lose....but its a part of the game....this series was termed "Friendship series"....it was a friendship series off the field not on the field!!!!!! u could see the intensity in the players during all the games.....that didnt look like a friendship series!!!!!!!!! I think the politicians coined that term for the series as I feel cricket is a game and the players had gone there to win matches but not to solve the Kashmir problem or to reduce the tension between the two countries so the term "Friendship series" is very veyr inappropriate.

Back to the matches.....each game had a common factor....Ganguly losing the toss..hehehehe but I guess that was lucky too as we ended up on the winning side. I find it really strange when people I watch cricket with start commenting on everyone else expect Sachin.....I find that very very irritating and the criticism the other players have to face (not in person) is unbelievable....Ganguly...such a great player...yes, he is a great player....a player cannot make over 9000 runs by fluke!!!!!!!!!! he is having a bad patch that doesnt mean that he doesnt deserve a spot on the team as a player....he has been criticised a lot but never supported....everyone fails...sachin had a bad patch in AUS, then everyone said that it was a bad patch and it will go....he was very very inconsistent and failed in the first three tests before he fought back with that double century....people were patient then but the same people are not ready to give Ganguly the time to get back into touch....I still feel he should open the innings...he was the best there and he belongs there....like how sachin didnt click when he came down the order and was back in form once sent back to the opening slot I think Ganguly will fire too if he gets the opening slot. As a captain what he did is unparalleled....people often forget that he made the difference in the attitude of the players by backing them up when they were down and encouraging them when they did well.....he gets under the skin of the opposition with his verbal volleys which none of the past Indian captains were successful with....u can see the results of the Indian team since he took over as the skipper....the records speak for themselves....

Laxman.....he did a splendid job today....people were cursing him for not firing so far this series but he laid all the questions abt his form to rest with his century today....I found it absolutely disgusting when people started cursing him for slowing down in his 90's when he actually was scoring run-a-ball or more (same thing with dravid in the first match)...people were like...this guy should get out then only india will score more....he is wasting balls....he is costing us the match.....rubbish talk all this....whats wrong if he slows down for an over or 2 to get to his century and then accelerate he worked hard for the century and he deserved it so let him get to it......the so called "genius" and "little master" also does the same thing....once he gets to his 85's or 90's he slows down too...that too considerably....then these same people will say whats wrong with that....thats bias...I agree there is nothing wrong with that but that should apply to other people too.....someone said that sachin would have gotten his century by the 35th or 40th over had he been there so its ok if he slows down then.....so is it laxman's or dravid's fault that they come down the order and get to the 90's in the slog overs????? thats very unfair to ask them to try to accelerate and in the process miss the hundred for the team sake....people say "they shoudl think abt the team....and not abt the records" thats rubbish....whats wrong in scoring a century and also scoring runs for the team......century is not a everyday thing...so when u get close to it u tend to get a bit cautious....there is nobody who is an exception to this.......the only person I have seen who never stays in his 80's or 90's for long is Azhar....I have atleast seen him hit out 4-5 times when he was in his 90's and get to his hundred. in one instance....he was on 82 the next 4 balls were....6,4,6,4.....now thats something one cannot do everyday.

dravid.....scored 243 runs this series.....highest aggregate for India and 2nd only to Inzy in the series.....but people still criticise him....what else should a player do ??? people criticise his keeping....but i guess he is such a true team person that he is taking it in his stride....he is not a keeper but took up the role for team's sake....the team management has forced him to continue keeping when he has expressed his dissatisfaction.....and when he misses something people will be extra critical....he is doing his best for the team so give him credit for that and try to be a bit more open minded and less critical of this outstanding player.

as a matter of fact....let ask the sachin fans a stat.....how many times in the past 3-4 years has Sachin come good in a clutch match....I am sure there are some but not that many....he is a great player...no doubt abt that... but dont look down upon the others and criticise the other players....people will say sachin scored a century in the Chennai test against AUS.....but the clucth was Calcutta when laxman and Dravid came good......chennai test against PAK....sachin on 100 something....great knock...didnt take us home....considering that he was the last of the recognised batsman barring mongia....same scene Adelaide test.....dravid saw us thru to the end when it looked that India might get all-out....stood there till the end.....

I know that the sachin fans out there are ready to jump at the chance to criticise the above blog....but i had to put forward my thoughts:):)

Done at last!!!!!!!

I am done with my PhD qualifiers at last!!!!!!! Man !! thats a good feeling....I have been studying like crazy for the past couple of months and i am glad that I am done with studying for some time now.....atleast i feel I have done well so i should clear the exams!!!!!!!!!

It was one hell of an experience which i would not even like to repeat even in my dreams!!!!!!!! It was an exam marathon of 7 exams in 6 hours.......the dreaded day started at 7:30 when i got out of bed lazily and by 8:30 I was ready to go as i had the exam at 9 am.....I needed Sindhu's help to take the huge pile of books that I had....some of the exams were open book so i didnt want to miss any book concerned to that book....it took 2 trips up and down my apartment to get the books down to my car.....when i stepped into the office in the department the secretary was stunned to see me with a ton of books and going back down stairs a couple more times to get the remaining books!!!!!!!!!!! she was laughing and couldnt understand why i was getting that many books!!!!!!!! I was set up to write the exam in the department library.....I got the morning session papers at 9 am.....I was told that i will have to find another place to write at 11 am as there was some kind of meeting at that place!!!!!! I found that very strange as I was writing my PhD qualifiers (which was a big deal for me)and the department couldnt even reserve a room for me!!!!!!!!!

The morning session comprised of Physiology, Biometry (I hated both the subjects) and Biomedical Instrumentation....all these are core courses and i did well in them when I took them in my first 2 semesters!!!!!!! but now it was a diferent ball game......I dreaded Physiology as it entailed all the systems in the body and many other things!!!!!!!!! I studied real hard for that and I was surprised to see one of the questions from the first chapters of the book!!!!!!!!! it was an easy question and the next one was hard but I did well in that subject and i was thinking....that wasnt a bad start for the day....one of my dreaded subjects out of the way and I am feeling good!!!!! But little did I know what was in store for me in the next paper.....It was biometry....statistics.......yuck!!!!!! i am not a great fan of the subject but i can do with it......but t my shock....I saw alll theor questions in the stats paper!!!!!!! my heart sank!!!!! i was expecting to get atleast 1 or 2 problems to solve but Dr.Sheffer (instructor of the course) had other ideas!!!!!!!! I could make sense of 2 questions but the other 2 were bouncers to me!!!!!!!!! i answered the first two and then decided to get to my instrumentation paper....that I was expecting to be a cake walk.......when i looked at the questions I thought I will breeze thru them but when I started doing them i realised that it wasnt as easy as it looked...and my neglectance and over confidence in the subject was now showing as i realised that I wast prepared enough to answer the question.....I struggled to get the Fourier Coefficients for the given signal and I didnt manage to get them....I was disappointed but the second part of the question was a bit better as it had Laplace Tranform....I got the answer and I was elated but in the mean time i lost track of the time and I realised that I had 15 minutes to answer the 2 questions in biometry!!!!!!! i wrote what i felt was appropriate as i wasnt sure abt either of the questions!!!!!!! i had to dig into the reserves of my skills honed over the years of writing crap in the answer paper in India!!!!!!!!! when U didnt know the answer beat around the bush and fill up the pages!!!!! thats exactly what i did but anyways, i was done in time and I had an hour's lunch break.

Had lunch at Sindhu's place and came back for the second innnings!!!!!!!! this time it is 4 papers in 3 hours!!!!!! the subjects were easier than the morning session....Circuit Analysis, Signals and Systems, Numerical methods and Analysis and Linear Algebra....I expected linear algebra to be a easy but it turned out other wise.....I answered the first question and the second was a bouncer......if A is a matrix then find A power n........I had 4 books for linear algebra and i couldnt find a answer to that question!!!!!!! I started with Signals and systems which turned out to be Signal and Image processing!!!!!!!!! now that was a blow below the waist as I was told it would be only signal processing!!!!!!! it was 1 and half questions Signal processing and 1 and 1/2 questions of Image processing.......I thought I was doomed but the only good point was I had to answer only 2 questions of the 3.....so i thought I will try my best to answer the signals part and answer the half Image processing question.....thats exactly what i did.....the i started with Circuits next......It was like clock work as I had practiced a lot for that stuff!!!!!!!! It went smoothly.....I was left with numerical methods.....I saw the questions and was stunned as I didnt now a lot of them.....but I had abt 45 minutes left so i decided to think calmly and went abt answering the ones I knew and finally I finished the exam on time and the feeling was amazing!!!!!!! it felt like a big burden taken of my shoulders and then i got to watch the Ind-pak match so i was very very happy....though it was a close game we could have played better and should have won the game.

"Chai Bana na".....

The person our group here at akron can associate with that statement is Adi, Sunil Adwani, is my friend who left for India this morning....he was one of the most joyful persons that I know. He is always lively and keeps the people around him cheerful. the fact that he has left akron has not yet sunk in.....I guess it will take some time...may be tommorow when I start doing my usual stuff I will realise that Adi isn't there.....

I wanted to write the blog on Adi earlier but the cricket matches kept me away from the blogging world for sometime.....so the WAAARRST FELLOW Phani grabbed the chance to write the blog on Adi....and man did he do a great job!!!!!!! awesome blog phani.....

I think I first met Adi at his place for the ganesh puja.....the first reason due to which I remembered Adi was that his name was Sunil and he had a roomie named Nishant.....well...I am suneel too and I had a roomie named Nishant...so it was that sheer coincidence that I used to remember abt Adi.....I didnt even know him that well till the Cricket 2002 season....which was a memorable season for most of the people on that team....as Phani said we could go on and on abt tht season and the 2003 season.....people in Akron have started hating us for the fact taht the guys from teh cricket team always talk abt cricket where ever they went and never get tired abt discussing their losing season....heheheh

In the summmer of 2002 I met Adi and Phani at the nets, ram and I were trying to make a team and they wanted to be a part of it. We started practice and thats when I saw how dedicated they both were in improving their game...neither had experience with the season ball cricket....they were always on time and we had a lot of fun with the relatively rookie team....sunny, sairam and all the otehr rookies also had a ball...that season will always remain in my fond memories....Adi's career as a bowler was almost disrupted by Ram !!!!!!!!!! what ??? Ram?? how can that be possible people knowing Ram would say....but the truth is that Ram wanted to teach Adi to swing the ball and take advantage of the natural angle that a left arm seam bowler gets bowling over the wicket.....they used to practice hard in the nets but Adi who was used to bowling around the wicket (similar guard to that of a right arm bowler) found it difficult to bowl that way....and could not adjust to the new style....he was naturally hit for some runs and wasn't successful in getting wickets....no wonder he ended the season with only 2 wickets!!!!!!!! but he made up for it with his briliant fielding and oustanding catching.....he was the best fielder we had and the person to go to for a high catch.....he was outstanding in the cover region and has had tremendous success there....he got two direct hits in a game in 2003 season....one was that of Bharat who is one of the most feared batsman in our league......batting.....he was a typical gully cricket...leg side player...just like me...but i had a wider range of shots than Adi (u have to admit that Adi)......

then came the famous and memorable six-a-side tournament where AkronCC performed extremely well exceeding everybody's expectations.....the best part was that Adi wanted to watch Sampras-Agassi final of the US Open....but we were in Columbus....so he wanted us to lose so that we could go back in time for the start of the match.....but for what we experienced I think Adi didnt mind missing that match....beating the top seeds....making it to the play off's after losing both the league matches....brilliant batting from Adi and Phani....I getting hit in the face....losing the final by one run.....name it and we had that!!!!!!!! most of all....phani hogging after every game!!!!!!! he kept on eatin eating and eating......by the end of the day he had eaten more than the rest (five) of us.

played some tennis with Adi....it was great.....he was a really good player but for some reason never beat me...seriously....I am not bragging abt it but I have to admit that he was the better player but always lost to me.....i guess I was lucky!!!!!! the fact that he was a left-hander used to irritate me as I never liked playing racquet sports with lefties!!!!!!! I have had bad experiences in both Badminton and now in Racquetball with lefties....i get confused and keep hitting the ball to their forehand side.....

then came the 2003 cricket season.....it was a turn around time for Adi's bowling career....Ram had left akron!!!!!!!!!!! i am just kidding.....we missed Ram .......but adi went back to bowling left arm around the wicket and was very successful in getting wickets and drying up runs!!!!!!!!! he was so successful that he was selected for the all-star game !!!!! thats indeed an achievement as the best players in the league are selected for the all-star game!!!!!!!!! he ended the season with 16 wickets!!!!!!!! I was in race with him for most of the season (phani and manpreet dropped catches to make sure that I was always behind) but his 5-wicket haul against OSU took him away from the rest of us!!!!! he even batted brilliantly against Youngstown and almost took us to victory......he top-scored in that match.....

for the past few months.....i got to know adi very well....with he coming over to my place and we playing racquetball together...i got to know him well.....he was always cheerful and was clear minded....he was also very optimistic and looked at the positive side of things!!!!!!

apart from sports adi was a part of our cultural program for Diwali.......he did a great job in our play at the 2002 diwali and was hilarious in his role as Raja Gajendra Singh in the play "teri Biwi Sirf meri" that we perfomed at Diwali 2003.....the practice sessions were the best part as Adi and madhu used to have a laughing competition as to who will disrupt the practice first by breaking out with laughter!!!!!! we had a tough time getting the two of them to get the scene and dialogue right!!!!!!!!

Adi is a big sachin fan and I am a big Dravid and Laxman (and of Azhar) fan so we used to have endless debates abt who is greater....though i was always outnumbered I still will say "Dravid is the best, Dravid baba ki jai!!!!!!"

there was one more thing that i can associate myslef with Adi.....the "Sunil-Suneel" picture...we invariably have atleast 10-15 of those pictures....we get a picture taken of the two of us whenever we find one of our friend's taking pictures with a camera......he have had those pics at almost all the parties we went to together and at all the events

Leaving us with all these and many more unforgettable memories Adi left Akron this morning for good!!!!!! Now, who will......

.....Ask for chai or make chai at any hour
.....stand in the cover position next season
.....play racquetball with me everyday
.....say "Sachin baba ki jai !!!"
.....bowl left arm around the wicket
.....leave the ball outside the stump looking as if to nick the ball on its way to the keeper
.....watch tennis and keep me updated on the latest news in tennis
.....make Renu and Prathyusha laugh (they are Sindhu's roomies who invariably break into laughter when they see adi)
.....call phani whenever Dravid scores a century
.....take all the high catches on the field
.....get the direct hits to get Bharat run-out
.....be happy to see indians fail and Gili (Gilchrist) tear apart the indian attack
....be in the "Sunil-Suneel" pictures with me

.....guys please feel free to add more of these one-liners!!!!!!!!!

ADI, my best wishes will be with you whereever you go and whatever u do......I will surely meet up with u when i come to india the next time!!!!!!!!! it will be time for another "sunil-suneel" photo:):)