Hey everyone....wish you all a happy dussera...hope this day brings you joy and for all those who are in India hope you have tonnes of home made sweets...and for all of us poor grad students and fellow indians in the US...go buy some sweets from the Indian store and enjoy the festival.
October 11, 2005
Happy Dussera
Hey everyone....wish you all a happy dussera...hope this day brings you joy and for all those who are in India hope you have tonnes of home made sweets...and for all of us poor grad students and fellow indians in the US...go buy some sweets from the Indian store and enjoy the festival.
Thought for the day
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot...And I missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely...Why I succeed.
--Michael Jordan
September 01, 2005
When everything goes wrong........
Last week I had two experiences that have made me believe that some of the days everything that you do goes wrong.....
On sunday, Sindhu and I had invited some friends over for dinner but being brilliant at time management we had committed to a couple of friends that we will go to a telugu movie "Athadu" with them in Cleveland. Sindhu, poor thing, got up at 7 AM on sunday and started cooking so we can finish most of the cooking but afternoon and go watch the movie...I too got up at 8 AM with some help from the alarm...I jumped in straight away after a cup of coffee...we cooked for most part of the morning till 10:15 when my friend called and said that he wanted to go to the temple too so we will have to leave by 11:15...by that time we had finished Palak Paneer, Carrot Soup, Kofta Curry (Partly)....so we showered and went to the temple and watched the movie and came back and jumped straight back into cooking...we made fried rice (different recipe this time)...Sindhu wanted to make Gobi Manchurian (she is an expert at that)....when she started with that we realized that we were out of corn starch... and in the mean time I was getting hungry as I had very little to eat from the morning...how ironic ??? i was cooking since morning and I never had a chance to eat...I didnt want to eat the stuff that we were cooking so decided to make a sandwich...first of all the fridge wasnt working well...so the patty wasnt frozen so I wasnt sure if it will taste good...wanted to make it as usual in the microwave.. but that was being used tothe Gobi stuff...so decided to heat it on the stove...in the mean time I put some bread in the toaster....the patty got burnt and so did the toast so I could eat that and threw it away (I hate throwing away food)...thought will have some rusk....but took a bite and realized that it had softened up...grrrrr....tasted aweful...I was getting hungry by the minute...then Sindhu said that we were out of corn flour which is an essential ingredient for Gobi Machurian (GM)...so I went to the indian store hoping to find it there....but there was no luck....so came back but by then Sindhu had furthered her preparation so I had to think of an alternative so went to the closest grocery store....I could find corn starch for 15 mins...I found everything that could be made out of corn but not the one that I wanted...finally made it back and we finished cooking just in time when my friends arrived...luckily they had volunteered to get dessert else we would have been in a fix:):)
Episode two:
I had a grant submission today and I was asked to write the grant abt 72 hrs before the deadline !!!! Normal time for grant preparation is 2-3 months for making up a good grant and more over this waa my first major grant ever and I was to do it from scratch to finish with no reference to prior grant applications.....I went abt the task like a maniac....i wrked abt 12-14 hrs a day on the grant and was on the verge of going insane when I found out that I was going to miss the deadline as the signed cover letter had to reach Atlanta by thursday at 5PM....and it was 2 AM on thursday when I found that out....this was about the time I almost finished with the grant proposal....my world was just about to draw a blank but I decided to call them this morning and to my relief they said that it can be electronically submitted today and the letter can be mailed by the next day....got one day's extension...that was all i wanted...now I had to get the signatures from all the people involved in the project which is a big deal as I am dealing with residents and surgeons that are hard to catch hold of....and on top of that my advisor had not given me his CV which was essential as he is the Principal Investigator (I not being a citizen cannot be a PI)....the signature page doesnt come up till all the documents are electronically submitted !!!! great...i had to wait till 3:35 pm for my advisor's CV as he was in meeting constantly and had some other things to do....he gave me the CV finally but with some corrections that I had to make great!!!!!! then I printed the thing out ran over to the OR and got the resident's signature....had to wait for him to finish his surgeryand I didnt have much time left...then i noticed that the grant application needed some official's sign too !!!!!! so I made a couple of calls and got to the person who had to sign on that and went to him..he was very very co-operative and signed it immediately...now I had to FedEx the letter in next day shipping and I wasnt aware of the ;last pick time for next day air...so borrowed my advisor's car and went to FedEx...according to Murphy's law....there was lots of traffic and when I got there, there was a line....some printer was down so they were fixing it, finally the line moved....and when it was my turn the weighing machine had some issues and then the credit card receipt printer went out of paper !!!!! great !!!! everything happpening at the worng time...then finally I pay and get out...there is big traffic jam and it delayed me till 4:40 pm to get back....then finally I got on to my PC and put everything together anc hit the submit button at 4:50pm....ten minutes before the deadline.....now that I had such an adventure for this grant I will be very very happy even if it is partially accepted.
Episode 3:
I will make it short....
wednesday evening...wanted to heat up the boiled eggs....put them in the micro wave.. and started making masala for Kootu...and also put some dal to boil and was cutting eggplant... all this was being done simultaneously so i can go and play badminton....I forgot abt the eggs and I had a mini explosion in the microwave...I had to clean all that up and in the mean time...the masala got burnt....and then for some reason the dal got burnt too....then I started grinding the masala and found that it wasnt getting ground in the Grinder....so put some peas and water to elevate the level of the paste to that of the blades so they can grind the masala....but it turned out to be a disaster as the peas had gone bad due to the non-functional freezer...had to throw that away....I settled for plain dal with tadka (dal was what I could salvage from the burnt vessel) and eggplant...
On sunday, Sindhu and I had invited some friends over for dinner but being brilliant at time management we had committed to a couple of friends that we will go to a telugu movie "Athadu" with them in Cleveland. Sindhu, poor thing, got up at 7 AM on sunday and started cooking so we can finish most of the cooking but afternoon and go watch the movie...I too got up at 8 AM with some help from the alarm...I jumped in straight away after a cup of coffee...we cooked for most part of the morning till 10:15 when my friend called and said that he wanted to go to the temple too so we will have to leave by 11:15...by that time we had finished Palak Paneer, Carrot Soup, Kofta Curry (Partly)....so we showered and went to the temple and watched the movie and came back and jumped straight back into cooking...we made fried rice (different recipe this time)...Sindhu wanted to make Gobi Manchurian (she is an expert at that)....when she started with that we realized that we were out of corn starch... and in the mean time I was getting hungry as I had very little to eat from the morning...how ironic ??? i was cooking since morning and I never had a chance to eat...I didnt want to eat the stuff that we were cooking so decided to make a sandwich...first of all the fridge wasnt working well...so the patty wasnt frozen so I wasnt sure if it will taste good...wanted to make it as usual in the microwave.. but that was being used tothe Gobi stuff...so decided to heat it on the stove...in the mean time I put some bread in the toaster....the patty got burnt and so did the toast so I could eat that and threw it away (I hate throwing away food)...thought will have some rusk....but took a bite and realized that it had softened up...grrrrr....tasted aweful...I was getting hungry by the minute...then Sindhu said that we were out of corn flour which is an essential ingredient for Gobi Machurian (GM)...so I went to the indian store hoping to find it there....but there was no luck....so came back but by then Sindhu had furthered her preparation so I had to think of an alternative so went to the closest grocery store....I could find corn starch for 15 mins...I found everything that could be made out of corn but not the one that I wanted...finally made it back and we finished cooking just in time when my friends arrived...luckily they had volunteered to get dessert else we would have been in a fix:):)
Episode two:
I had a grant submission today and I was asked to write the grant abt 72 hrs before the deadline !!!! Normal time for grant preparation is 2-3 months for making up a good grant and more over this waa my first major grant ever and I was to do it from scratch to finish with no reference to prior grant applications.....I went abt the task like a maniac....i wrked abt 12-14 hrs a day on the grant and was on the verge of going insane when I found out that I was going to miss the deadline as the signed cover letter had to reach Atlanta by thursday at 5PM....and it was 2 AM on thursday when I found that out....this was about the time I almost finished with the grant proposal....my world was just about to draw a blank but I decided to call them this morning and to my relief they said that it can be electronically submitted today and the letter can be mailed by the next day....got one day's extension...that was all i wanted...now I had to get the signatures from all the people involved in the project which is a big deal as I am dealing with residents and surgeons that are hard to catch hold of....and on top of that my advisor had not given me his CV which was essential as he is the Principal Investigator (I not being a citizen cannot be a PI)....the signature page doesnt come up till all the documents are electronically submitted !!!! great...i had to wait till 3:35 pm for my advisor's CV as he was in meeting constantly and had some other things to do....he gave me the CV finally but with some corrections that I had to make great!!!!!! then I printed the thing out ran over to the OR and got the resident's signature....had to wait for him to finish his surgeryand I didnt have much time left...then i noticed that the grant application needed some official's sign too !!!!!! so I made a couple of calls and got to the person who had to sign on that and went to him..he was very very co-operative and signed it immediately...now I had to FedEx the letter in next day shipping and I wasnt aware of the ;last pick time for next day air...so borrowed my advisor's car and went to FedEx...according to Murphy's law....there was lots of traffic and when I got there, there was a line....some printer was down so they were fixing it, finally the line moved....and when it was my turn the weighing machine had some issues and then the credit card receipt printer went out of paper !!!!! great !!!! everything happpening at the worng time...then finally I pay and get out...there is big traffic jam and it delayed me till 4:40 pm to get back....then finally I got on to my PC and put everything together anc hit the submit button at 4:50pm....ten minutes before the deadline.....now that I had such an adventure for this grant I will be very very happy even if it is partially accepted.
Episode 3:
I will make it short....
wednesday evening...wanted to heat up the boiled eggs....put them in the micro wave.. and started making masala for Kootu...and also put some dal to boil and was cutting eggplant... all this was being done simultaneously so i can go and play badminton....I forgot abt the eggs and I had a mini explosion in the microwave...I had to clean all that up and in the mean time...the masala got burnt....and then for some reason the dal got burnt too....then I started grinding the masala and found that it wasnt getting ground in the Grinder....so put some peas and water to elevate the level of the paste to that of the blades so they can grind the masala....but it turned out to be a disaster as the peas had gone bad due to the non-functional freezer...had to throw that away....I settled for plain dal with tadka (dal was what I could salvage from the burnt vessel) and eggplant...
August 20, 2005
An Interesting forward....
This was an email forwarded by my friend Hitesh...very
innovative and funny...I kind of got bored half way
down the list though:):)
A for apple.
B for bada apple.
C for chhota apple.
D for dusra apple.
E for ek aur apple.
F for fokat ka apple.
G for gol apple.
H for hazar apple
I for itney saarey apple?
J for jaao nahi khaana hai apple
K for kaise nahi khaayengey apple
L for lena padhega tumko apple
M for mujhe nahi chahiye itne apple
N for naa nahi kehtey kyunkey yeh hai apple
O for Oh to tumne khaa daale yeh saare apple
P for peth bhar khaao apple
Q for qismat mein nahi hoti hai sabke, yeh apple
R for roz agar khaao tum apple
S for sehetmand rahoge khaaogey agar tum apple
T for tumko nahi milengey itney achey apple
U for udhaar kii nahi hai yeh apple
V for very tasy hai yeh apple
W for waste na karo time aur khaalo jaldi se apple
X for X'mas mei bhii khana padenge apple
Y for youn na chehra phero dekhkey apple
Z for zaraasa aur khaalo aaple aur...
July 25, 2005
Work an Hour for a worthy cause.....
My friends Bharadwaj and Gautam have been working with Asha Foundation for the past few years.It is a foundation that helps homeless kids in india thru donations and funraisers...
one such fundraiser is called "Work an Hour"...in this u can donate as much as you want but the concept is to contribute an hour's pay for this worthy cause... please click on the following link and work for an hour for the needy kids in India
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour
Amazing run with the cricket matches for Akron Cricket Club
After I got back from india I didnt get a chance to write .... and I have been lazy in posting for a while now...
Its summer time in Akron and also time for some cricket....we are playing in the Midwest cricket Tournament which comprises of 31 teams from 4 states...its fun as it gives a lot of people like me who never got to play cricket with Season Ball and all the equipment back home in India a chance to play at competitive level....
This year we didnt think that we will be able to put 11 people together to form a team to represent Akron in the MCT .... but we managed to get some people from the neighbouring Kent State University and also a couple of guys from Goodyear....we started disastrously...losing the first 2 games...and one getting washed out....in the mean time me and a friend Raghav were in India...me for my sister's wedding...had a blast...once we got back we heard that one of the better players on the team had fractured his finger and we were looking down and out....then started our dream run of victories....we first beat Ohio State University then beat Nationwide Cricket Club and Everest Cricket Club (one of the better teams in the league) in a double header weekend in Columbus...all of a sudden people started noticing AKron CC and we were thinking of making the playoffs....we beat West Virginia University team last weekend and now were 4-2 after a 0-2 start to the season .... we thought that we wouldnt make the playoffs for sure...but becoz of this turn around we have a chance of making the playoffs if we win this weekend...the team we are playing is ECC whom we had beaten once....we ended 3rd in the pool and they 4th so only one team goes thru as the top 2 teams have already made it to the playoffs...so its do or die situation for us....we would have been in a better position had we not lost the first two matches but huge margins....that has made our net-run-rate less than that of ECC....
This year I have enjoyed playing cricket though I am not performing too well becoz of the team...it has been wonderful to play on a team where everyone is contributing to the victories...so far it has been a team effort with everyone chipping in with batting, bowling and fielding...
Abt my trip to India....it was an awesome trip !!!!!! I was attending my sister's wedding...I had missed her engagement and also all the other functions related to the wedding so I was determined to have a blast at the wedding making up for all the lost time for having fun....I did have a blast with all my cousins....they have all grown up and I actually can have a decent conversation with them other than movies etc....it was nice to see all my uncles, aunts and my parents and grandparents...I had only spoken to my Brother-in-law at that time so I was all excited to meet him in person....we had a nice time together....all in all I had a great time at the wedding in spite of my broken finger...actually I had a partner in by brother-in-law's brother-in-law...even he had a broken hand and we were given all special treatment and nice table to eat during the buffet...I enjoyed all the attention:)....the only bad part of the whole trip was the plane journey either way....on the way there I got delayed by 4 hrs and also got my bags a couple of days late and on my way back i was delayed in Paris for a day....it sounds like a nice break to have in paris...but I was at the airpost most of the time...will write abt that horrible experience in a later post.
I have a couple of conferences coming up and also writing my proposal so have been pretty bysu lately...the only low point of the past couple of weeks has been today as my first research paper as a First Author got reject by the biggest journal of my research field...but I will try for some other jjournal and see how I can change the paper for this journal.
Its summer time in Akron and also time for some cricket....we are playing in the Midwest cricket Tournament which comprises of 31 teams from 4 states...its fun as it gives a lot of people like me who never got to play cricket with Season Ball and all the equipment back home in India a chance to play at competitive level....
This year we didnt think that we will be able to put 11 people together to form a team to represent Akron in the MCT .... but we managed to get some people from the neighbouring Kent State University and also a couple of guys from Goodyear....we started disastrously...losing the first 2 games...and one getting washed out....in the mean time me and a friend Raghav were in India...me for my sister's wedding...had a blast...once we got back we heard that one of the better players on the team had fractured his finger and we were looking down and out....then started our dream run of victories....we first beat Ohio State University then beat Nationwide Cricket Club and Everest Cricket Club (one of the better teams in the league) in a double header weekend in Columbus...all of a sudden people started noticing AKron CC and we were thinking of making the playoffs....we beat West Virginia University team last weekend and now were 4-2 after a 0-2 start to the season .... we thought that we wouldnt make the playoffs for sure...but becoz of this turn around we have a chance of making the playoffs if we win this weekend...the team we are playing is ECC whom we had beaten once....we ended 3rd in the pool and they 4th so only one team goes thru as the top 2 teams have already made it to the playoffs...so its do or die situation for us....we would have been in a better position had we not lost the first two matches but huge margins....that has made our net-run-rate less than that of ECC....
This year I have enjoyed playing cricket though I am not performing too well becoz of the team...it has been wonderful to play on a team where everyone is contributing to the victories...so far it has been a team effort with everyone chipping in with batting, bowling and fielding...
Abt my trip to India....it was an awesome trip !!!!!! I was attending my sister's wedding...I had missed her engagement and also all the other functions related to the wedding so I was determined to have a blast at the wedding making up for all the lost time for having fun....I did have a blast with all my cousins....they have all grown up and I actually can have a decent conversation with them other than movies etc....it was nice to see all my uncles, aunts and my parents and grandparents...I had only spoken to my Brother-in-law at that time so I was all excited to meet him in person....we had a nice time together....all in all I had a great time at the wedding in spite of my broken finger...actually I had a partner in by brother-in-law's brother-in-law...even he had a broken hand and we were given all special treatment and nice table to eat during the buffet...I enjoyed all the attention:)....the only bad part of the whole trip was the plane journey either way....on the way there I got delayed by 4 hrs and also got my bags a couple of days late and on my way back i was delayed in Paris for a day....it sounds like a nice break to have in paris...but I was at the airpost most of the time...will write abt that horrible experience in a later post.
I have a couple of conferences coming up and also writing my proposal so have been pretty bysu lately...the only low point of the past couple of weeks has been today as my first research paper as a First Author got reject by the biggest journal of my research field...but I will try for some other jjournal and see how I can change the paper for this journal.
May 02, 2005
Back to blogging after a long time.....
I have been pretty lazy in getting back to blogging....but finally I decided write something....
The semester is coming to an end and I am kind of getting busy as I have to wrap up a couple of things before I go to India....I am all excited this time as I am going for my sister's wedding...there is not much shopping to do except for my sis and my would be jiju...and a couple of things that my friends wanted....
I watched the India-Pak series (only the last 3 one-days) on a website called Desi-media.net. It was a a horrible experience as we watched it into the wee hours staying up late and our team kept disappointing us with their brilliant performance....it was frustrating to watch India lost match after match to an under-strength PAK team....the fact that our bowler's could bowl well on home fields makes me wonder how they would perform abroad...the selectors should seriously consider other options for bowling if the current players are not doing well...Sehwag thought that he played well in the Tests and the first 2 one-days so he can throw his wicket away....SRT felt that he performed with the ball in the first game and then scored a 100 in the 4th so his job is done....except for the 100 he looked out of sorts in the middle....then came our man of the moment...Mr. Dada ganguly....what can we say about this once good batsman but now a sitting duck....I dont know what happened to him for this tranfomration to happen bt right now he doesnt deserve to be on the team after the performance he put up in the last series.....he should go back to the drawing board and figure out his flaws like how Dravid did after he was criticized and dropped from the One-day team, can you even imagine a team without him (Dravid) now....it would be a disaster in waiting...there would be an instant collapse 50-70% of the time India would have batted....people will say he wasnt outstanding in this series...he didnt get an MOM....scores a century but doesnt get the award (they could have shared it)...dhoni scores a century who was at the other end supporting him ???....who saved us in the 5th game with kaif ???... Yuvraj was a disappointment...and kaif was partially successful in the limited chances that he had....Dhoni was good but his temperment needs some work...you just cant blast everyball....the rest of them less said the better....
Had gone to Raleigh, North Carolina for visit a couple of friends (Nisha and Amol)...over the last weekend of spring break (Apr 2nd weekend)...it was long drive and I was the only one driving as Sindhu didnt have her license to drive....Raleigh trip was nice as we had fun together and didnt try to do too many things....went out for 2-3 hrs a day and ate at home and watched some movies together....it was general TP nothing out of the world....but that according to me is quality time spent with friends as we get to talk and have fun instead of going on 8-9 hr site-seeing expeditions....
The weather has been pretty crappy....can you believe it ....we had snow in the 4th week of april and we are having sleet (ice and rain) in the first week of may!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is what I call typical Ohio-weather....it had already ruined the start of the cricket season...but hopefully it will get better and we will have a great season...
Watched a movie called SAHARA.....thought it was about treasure hunt and was expecting to see some stunning discoveries and chases like in Indiana Jones...but to my disappointment it was only as good as any second grade Hollywood movie...some of the scenes even reminded me of Mithun-starers !!!!!!!!!! All in all I was extremely disappointed and will think twice before spending my hard-earned money on such movies...I have to settle a score with my friend KG on this matter...he said it was a good movie...wait till I meet him....
I have been very unlucky with the injuries aspect....the Cricket season hasnt even started and I have injured myslef quite a lot....first got hit on the Chest playing cricket, then got hit by a soccer ball on my thigh when I was just passing a bunch of guys playing soccer...it left a black mark...and it still hurts (been a month).....then slipped and fell from the treadmill....skin on my left knee was scrapped pretty bad thought i was healing from all these then I dropped a weight on my index finger and nearly crushed it....right now its better but it still hurts to bend the finger....I also sprained my back somehow...and I had to stop lifting ab crunches and also had to slow down in running...it stinks!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate injuries.....but I am glad that all tehse happened after the Racquetball intramural....I played in the tournament after a long time...its been 2 yrs since I have stopped competing in State and NAtional tournaments so I thought its OK for me to play in the school tournament....last couple of years I didnt take part as I thought it was unfair to play against people who are novices....but I saw some people take part in some of the sports this year even when they are actively taking part in ranking tournaments....so I decided to compete...it was fun except for a match against Giri...he irritated and annoyed me a lot with unsportsmanly like behavior.....but I made it past him and went on to win the tournament....I got a t-shirt as the prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sindhu finally got her driving license...it happened yesterday....after 3 unsuccessful attempts she finally cleared the driving test....it was quite a relief for her (and me) as it was her last attempt ...had she failed she would have had to wait for 6 months before getting another shot at the license....she is very relieved and treated herself to a mini-ipod!!!!!!! it arrived today (actually she bought it a week ago:))
I think i will have to stop here....and continue in my next post so people dont get too bored and I too will have something to write in my next post:):)
11 days for my India trip...............
The semester is coming to an end and I am kind of getting busy as I have to wrap up a couple of things before I go to India....I am all excited this time as I am going for my sister's wedding...there is not much shopping to do except for my sis and my would be jiju...and a couple of things that my friends wanted....
I watched the India-Pak series (only the last 3 one-days) on a website called Desi-media.net. It was a a horrible experience as we watched it into the wee hours staying up late and our team kept disappointing us with their brilliant performance....it was frustrating to watch India lost match after match to an under-strength PAK team....the fact that our bowler's could bowl well on home fields makes me wonder how they would perform abroad...the selectors should seriously consider other options for bowling if the current players are not doing well...Sehwag thought that he played well in the Tests and the first 2 one-days so he can throw his wicket away....SRT felt that he performed with the ball in the first game and then scored a 100 in the 4th so his job is done....except for the 100 he looked out of sorts in the middle....then came our man of the moment...Mr. Dada ganguly....what can we say about this once good batsman but now a sitting duck....I dont know what happened to him for this tranfomration to happen bt right now he doesnt deserve to be on the team after the performance he put up in the last series.....he should go back to the drawing board and figure out his flaws like how Dravid did after he was criticized and dropped from the One-day team, can you even imagine a team without him (Dravid) now....it would be a disaster in waiting...there would be an instant collapse 50-70% of the time India would have batted....people will say he wasnt outstanding in this series...he didnt get an MOM....scores a century but doesnt get the award (they could have shared it)...dhoni scores a century who was at the other end supporting him ???....who saved us in the 5th game with kaif ???... Yuvraj was a disappointment...and kaif was partially successful in the limited chances that he had....Dhoni was good but his temperment needs some work...you just cant blast everyball....the rest of them less said the better....
Had gone to Raleigh, North Carolina for visit a couple of friends (Nisha and Amol)...over the last weekend of spring break (Apr 2nd weekend)...it was long drive and I was the only one driving as Sindhu didnt have her license to drive....Raleigh trip was nice as we had fun together and didnt try to do too many things....went out for 2-3 hrs a day and ate at home and watched some movies together....it was general TP nothing out of the world....but that according to me is quality time spent with friends as we get to talk and have fun instead of going on 8-9 hr site-seeing expeditions....
The weather has been pretty crappy....can you believe it ....we had snow in the 4th week of april and we are having sleet (ice and rain) in the first week of may!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is what I call typical Ohio-weather....it had already ruined the start of the cricket season...but hopefully it will get better and we will have a great season...
Watched a movie called SAHARA.....thought it was about treasure hunt and was expecting to see some stunning discoveries and chases like in Indiana Jones...but to my disappointment it was only as good as any second grade Hollywood movie...some of the scenes even reminded me of Mithun-starers !!!!!!!!!! All in all I was extremely disappointed and will think twice before spending my hard-earned money on such movies...I have to settle a score with my friend KG on this matter...he said it was a good movie...wait till I meet him....
I have been very unlucky with the injuries aspect....the Cricket season hasnt even started and I have injured myslef quite a lot....first got hit on the Chest playing cricket, then got hit by a soccer ball on my thigh when I was just passing a bunch of guys playing soccer...it left a black mark...and it still hurts (been a month).....then slipped and fell from the treadmill....skin on my left knee was scrapped pretty bad thought i was healing from all these then I dropped a weight on my index finger and nearly crushed it....right now its better but it still hurts to bend the finger....I also sprained my back somehow...and I had to stop lifting ab crunches and also had to slow down in running...it stinks!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate injuries.....but I am glad that all tehse happened after the Racquetball intramural....I played in the tournament after a long time...its been 2 yrs since I have stopped competing in State and NAtional tournaments so I thought its OK for me to play in the school tournament....last couple of years I didnt take part as I thought it was unfair to play against people who are novices....but I saw some people take part in some of the sports this year even when they are actively taking part in ranking tournaments....so I decided to compete...it was fun except for a match against Giri...he irritated and annoyed me a lot with unsportsmanly like behavior.....but I made it past him and went on to win the tournament....I got a t-shirt as the prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sindhu finally got her driving license...it happened yesterday....after 3 unsuccessful attempts she finally cleared the driving test....it was quite a relief for her (and me) as it was her last attempt ...had she failed she would have had to wait for 6 months before getting another shot at the license....she is very relieved and treated herself to a mini-ipod!!!!!!! it arrived today (actually she bought it a week ago:))
I think i will have to stop here....and continue in my next post so people dont get too bored and I too will have something to write in my next post:):)
11 days for my India trip...............
March 24, 2005
Dodgeball....
Last week I played Dodgeball!!!!!!! thats funny as I had always played that game in the sports period in school back home in India....but here the game was completely different as it was pitted on a basketball court.....7 balls are lined up on the middle of the court and both the teams stand at either end of the court, when the whistle is blown both the teams run towards the balls and try to get as many balls as possible on their side...once that is done you need to get back atleast to the free throwline in their half before throwing the ball at the opponent, you can get a person out by hitting the person anywhere on the body below the shoulders....but the ball should not hit the ground before hitting the other person else that person is safe....
but the flipside is if you throw it too high to get someone out and if a player on the other team catches your throw before it hits the floor then you are out....so you should be carefull when you throw the ball...but you can throw the ball only from your half...once you get the opposition team to 3 people your team can start attacking by moving into their territory...you can go as close as the 3-point arc and try and get the people out...the team getting the entire team out is the winner....we play best of 5 games and first to reach 3 wins is the winner for the night...
it seemed to be a very very simple game to play at first but once I started playing it was very very hard to throw the ball as it was soft and hard to grip...I used to be a goal-keeper in soccer and I am used to throwing a ball but this was hard as we had to be accurate and fast....it was very very hard to hit the people on the full....the first couple of games I got out for throwing the ball to high and letting the other team catch it....but it was fun as you try to come to the half line to get a closer hit at the opponent and he is waiting for you to do the same so he can get a better shot at you...overall it was a fun experience...it would have been better had my whole team showed up as we had to forfeit our game due to lack of players...we played scrimmage games with the people that had showed up....so it was fun....
this is going to be a weekly affair so every sunday night will be an eventfull one atleast for the next 4 weeks:):)
7 weeks to go to india....the countdown begins:)
but the flipside is if you throw it too high to get someone out and if a player on the other team catches your throw before it hits the floor then you are out....so you should be carefull when you throw the ball...but you can throw the ball only from your half...once you get the opposition team to 3 people your team can start attacking by moving into their territory...you can go as close as the 3-point arc and try and get the people out...the team getting the entire team out is the winner....we play best of 5 games and first to reach 3 wins is the winner for the night...
it seemed to be a very very simple game to play at first but once I started playing it was very very hard to throw the ball as it was soft and hard to grip...I used to be a goal-keeper in soccer and I am used to throwing a ball but this was hard as we had to be accurate and fast....it was very very hard to hit the people on the full....the first couple of games I got out for throwing the ball to high and letting the other team catch it....but it was fun as you try to come to the half line to get a closer hit at the opponent and he is waiting for you to do the same so he can get a better shot at you...overall it was a fun experience...it would have been better had my whole team showed up as we had to forfeit our game due to lack of players...we played scrimmage games with the people that had showed up....so it was fun....
this is going to be a weekly affair so every sunday night will be an eventfull one atleast for the next 4 weeks:):)
7 weeks to go to india....the countdown begins:)
March 11, 2005
Live India -Pak Series (Free)
A friend called last nite and told me abt this link which streams live cricket...India Pakistan Series....online for free....I thought it would be a straight forward link....but there is a process to it....here it is
go to www.asu.edu....type tamil in the search box on the right hand top corner...a page of links will open up...click on the 3rd link from the top .... Rams 3M or something like that.... it will take you to a personal home page which also has a lot of links...look down the list...probably the 15th link or so u will see 24hr Doordarshan low quality live link click on that .....the streaming will start in Windows media player....the connect is not that great as there are a lot of people logged on to it....so please me patient and keep refreshing...
Once connected the video is not that clear but good enough for free viewing of the match
watch and enjoy cricket and support the Indian cricket team:):)
go to www.asu.edu....type tamil in the search box on the right hand top corner...a page of links will open up...click on the 3rd link from the top .... Rams 3M or something like that.... it will take you to a personal home page which also has a lot of links...look down the list...probably the 15th link or so u will see 24hr Doordarshan low quality live link click on that .....the streaming will start in Windows media player....the connect is not that great as there are a lot of people logged on to it....so please me patient and keep refreshing...
Once connected the video is not that clear but good enough for free viewing of the match
watch and enjoy cricket and support the Indian cricket team:):)
March 04, 2005
A lot of things have happened since the last post
I have been quite busy for the past couple of weeks....and also have been lazy to post anything so finally I have decided to write something before i forget blogging :):)
A lot of things have kept me busy...I thought that the last semester of classes would be a cake walk...on the contrary its turning out to be the most difficult and time consuming semester of my academic career at U Akron. I have enrolled only in two courses but they are proving quite a handful...one is a 700 level and other 600 level...both of them in Mechanical engineering department....Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis and Applied Stress Analysis -I...sounds like fun doesnt it ????
I have never gotten the amount of homework that I have had in this semester so far and we are only abt half way thru !!!!!!!!!! The homework problems have also been very very challenging and have been very very time consuming...the midterms dont help the process either...they only add on to the misery. But the worst part is when u think you have done quite well in the homework / exam...you get your papers back and see that you made some silly mistakes that cost you 5-10 points when you werent supposed to lose any...that is indeed very very annoying. welll i think I will stop here abt my academic hardships...else people will think I am getting tortured or something....its not even that bad :):)
For the past month or so I have started working out (light weight training) in Gym, I have also been playing a variety of sports too (racquetball, badminton, TT, volleyball, tennis) that have kept me busy and on my toes....I have become very very health and fitness concious of late...but all these activities keep me going throughout the day and also in the night....they keep me active...I am glad that I getting to do all this....though I am not sure how long I will be able to do this actively...
I have finally booked my tickets to India...13th May thru 8th June....I will going to home sweet home...for my dearest sister's wedding...the only sad part of the whole deal is that Sindhu will be missing the trip as she will be on OPT....that doesnt guarantee the return into the US...so we dont want to take a chance...My sister is all excited and so is everyone in the family. It will be one hell of a trip as it will be veyr brief but event filled....I need to go get my F1 Visa renewed and go to Visakhapatnam for the wedding and also visit Sindhu's parent in Hyderabad and meet all my friends...etc etc...I am looking forward to the wedding as I missed the engagement and missed a lot of the festivities related to the wedding...is liye poora vasool karke aneka...total dhamaal in short.
Sindhu...poor thing has been thru a bad experience with the OPT..she had applied for one in Dec but the school didnt send it thru till Jan so she lost 30 days of precious time...the rule says that she will be able to work in the US till 90 days from the date INS receives the application for OPT....now she got 2 offers for internship from Philips Medical Sys and she is not able to take it up as the Employment Authorization Card will not be processed in time thanx to the school authorities...its too bad as she had been trying hard to find a job and when she found something it had to turnout this way....I hope her luck changes soon and that she gets job/internship soon.
on a lighter note.... last weekend I watched "The Incredibles"....man!!!!!!!!!!! that was an awesome movie....it was a full to timepass movie and complete paisa vasool (though I paid only $1.50)..... I would have written a post on the movie but the most of you would have seen it and there is no point writting about something everyone knows about....all I will say is that I will definitely watch the movie again....atleast for the little kid who keep running all over the place....
A lot of things have kept me busy...I thought that the last semester of classes would be a cake walk...on the contrary its turning out to be the most difficult and time consuming semester of my academic career at U Akron. I have enrolled only in two courses but they are proving quite a handful...one is a 700 level and other 600 level...both of them in Mechanical engineering department....Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis and Applied Stress Analysis -I...sounds like fun doesnt it ????
I have never gotten the amount of homework that I have had in this semester so far and we are only abt half way thru !!!!!!!!!! The homework problems have also been very very challenging and have been very very time consuming...the midterms dont help the process either...they only add on to the misery. But the worst part is when u think you have done quite well in the homework / exam...you get your papers back and see that you made some silly mistakes that cost you 5-10 points when you werent supposed to lose any...that is indeed very very annoying. welll i think I will stop here abt my academic hardships...else people will think I am getting tortured or something....its not even that bad :):)
For the past month or so I have started working out (light weight training) in Gym, I have also been playing a variety of sports too (racquetball, badminton, TT, volleyball, tennis) that have kept me busy and on my toes....I have become very very health and fitness concious of late...but all these activities keep me going throughout the day and also in the night....they keep me active...I am glad that I getting to do all this....though I am not sure how long I will be able to do this actively...
I have finally booked my tickets to India...13th May thru 8th June....I will going to home sweet home...for my dearest sister's wedding...the only sad part of the whole deal is that Sindhu will be missing the trip as she will be on OPT....that doesnt guarantee the return into the US...so we dont want to take a chance...My sister is all excited and so is everyone in the family. It will be one hell of a trip as it will be veyr brief but event filled....I need to go get my F1 Visa renewed and go to Visakhapatnam for the wedding and also visit Sindhu's parent in Hyderabad and meet all my friends...etc etc...I am looking forward to the wedding as I missed the engagement and missed a lot of the festivities related to the wedding...is liye poora vasool karke aneka...total dhamaal in short.
Sindhu...poor thing has been thru a bad experience with the OPT..she had applied for one in Dec but the school didnt send it thru till Jan so she lost 30 days of precious time...the rule says that she will be able to work in the US till 90 days from the date INS receives the application for OPT....now she got 2 offers for internship from Philips Medical Sys and she is not able to take it up as the Employment Authorization Card will not be processed in time thanx to the school authorities...its too bad as she had been trying hard to find a job and when she found something it had to turnout this way....I hope her luck changes soon and that she gets job/internship soon.
on a lighter note.... last weekend I watched "The Incredibles"....man!!!!!!!!!!! that was an awesome movie....it was a full to timepass movie and complete paisa vasool (though I paid only $1.50)..... I would have written a post on the movie but the most of you would have seen it and there is no point writting about something everyone knows about....all I will say is that I will definitely watch the movie again....atleast for the little kid who keep running all over the place....
February 11, 2005
Super Bowl 2005
For most of my friends in India this is something new....its the final of the National Football (American Football not Soccer)league...the people here call it the World Championship....here everything is a World Series or World Championship...
The Irony of that brand name....only the teams from the US take part in the events. NBA champions are called World Champions but USA got knocked off in the preliminary rounds at the Real World Championships where the teams from all over the world compete, they barely managed to get a Bronze at the Olympics after 3 humiliating defeats.....Baseball finals are called the world series but Cuba gets the gold at most of the Olympics....is there something that I dont understand or these people dont ?? How can someone be a World Champion when teams from neighboring countries also dont take part in a tournament.....
Well..coming back to the Super Bowl 2005....every year its a big event for people to get together (in some cases bigger event than Christmas) eat chips and other junk food and drink lots of beer and other cola drinks...basically a lot of calories !!!!!!! I like the event for its commercials...the best commercials of the year are aired during the gametime...some of them are really hilarious but mostly average and some suck...I am still a bigger fan of Indian commercials....Bajaj,Rasna, Lifebouy, Vico-turmeric, dabad lal danthmanjan etc.... they have a catchy tune and nice jingle to go with:)
We had great time before the Super bowl with a potluc lunch (idli, sambhar and Chatni)...during the game we had potluc dinner...Fried rice (Subha), kofta curry ( Sindhu), sambhar (sindhu), egg curry (anil) and desserts .... Gulab Jamun (amru), Chocolate Chip cookie pie and Cappuccino Jello Pie (urs truly)...we ate a lot that day with Chips, garlic bread, pop and beer servings as finger food and drinks... we played a great game called ..."mafia"...that was the first time that I had played that game...it was a brilliant game...I might sound silly if I explain it but when u play it u will realise what a great game that is....u can spend hours without realizing time....
welll....let me also mention abt the game before I get bored writing abt the Super Bowl:):)....It was between Eagles (Philly) and Patriots (NE).....every one that I talked to wanted to Eagles to win but all of us knew that the inevitable thing was a "Patriots victory"....if u would ask me who would I like to see win the answer would be "Eagles"...but if I were to bet on it then i would have put my money on the "Pats"....they are a greAt team but the only reason i dont like them is becoz they beat my fav team "Colts" and also becoz they have won 2/3 times so there should be some change in the final results...
well the game as expected was pretty close but the result was never in doubt as the Pats defense had the eagles on a leash even with their best received TO on the field...Bellichick (pats coach)....showed the world why he is called the "king maker"...he is the brains behind the team and is a brilliant strategist...he would have analysed every possible play before the start of the game itself and would have had his defence ready for all those situations...well the final score 24-21 might not sound as if the game was one-sided but it was very clear who was going to win through the final three quarters...
The Irony of that brand name....only the teams from the US take part in the events. NBA champions are called World Champions but USA got knocked off in the preliminary rounds at the Real World Championships where the teams from all over the world compete, they barely managed to get a Bronze at the Olympics after 3 humiliating defeats.....Baseball finals are called the world series but Cuba gets the gold at most of the Olympics....is there something that I dont understand or these people dont ?? How can someone be a World Champion when teams from neighboring countries also dont take part in a tournament.....
Well..coming back to the Super Bowl 2005....every year its a big event for people to get together (in some cases bigger event than Christmas) eat chips and other junk food and drink lots of beer and other cola drinks...basically a lot of calories !!!!!!! I like the event for its commercials...the best commercials of the year are aired during the gametime...some of them are really hilarious but mostly average and some suck...I am still a bigger fan of Indian commercials....Bajaj,Rasna, Lifebouy, Vico-turmeric, dabad lal danthmanjan etc.... they have a catchy tune and nice jingle to go with:)
We had great time before the Super bowl with a potluc lunch (idli, sambhar and Chatni)...during the game we had potluc dinner...Fried rice (Subha), kofta curry ( Sindhu), sambhar (sindhu), egg curry (anil) and desserts .... Gulab Jamun (amru), Chocolate Chip cookie pie and Cappuccino Jello Pie (urs truly)...we ate a lot that day with Chips, garlic bread, pop and beer servings as finger food and drinks... we played a great game called ..."mafia"...that was the first time that I had played that game...it was a brilliant game...I might sound silly if I explain it but when u play it u will realise what a great game that is....u can spend hours without realizing time....
welll....let me also mention abt the game before I get bored writing abt the Super Bowl:):)....It was between Eagles (Philly) and Patriots (NE).....every one that I talked to wanted to Eagles to win but all of us knew that the inevitable thing was a "Patriots victory"....if u would ask me who would I like to see win the answer would be "Eagles"...but if I were to bet on it then i would have put my money on the "Pats"....they are a greAt team but the only reason i dont like them is becoz they beat my fav team "Colts" and also becoz they have won 2/3 times so there should be some change in the final results...
well the game as expected was pretty close but the result was never in doubt as the Pats defense had the eagles on a leash even with their best received TO on the field...Bellichick (pats coach)....showed the world why he is called the "king maker"...he is the brains behind the team and is a brilliant strategist...he would have analysed every possible play before the start of the game itself and would have had his defence ready for all those situations...well the final score 24-21 might not sound as if the game was one-sided but it was very clear who was going to win through the final three quarters...
February 10, 2005
Ebay
Sindhu forwarded me this hilarious song on ebay...the song (i dont know who wrote it) tells you the story of the ebay buyer in the tune of "you are my fire" (I think by Nsync)...I am not really into western music so I cannot recollect who sang that song...its one of the Boy bands...click on the following link and click on the "play button"
http://www.geoffellis.com/ebay.html
http://www.geoffellis.com/ebay.html
February 02, 2005
Sania Mirza.....
Most of you must have heard about the tremendous success that Sania Mirza had at the recently concluded Australian Open. She was indeed a surprise element...atleast for me...I have been following tennis on TV and through news for about 16-17 years...I think the first tennis match I saw was when Boris Becker won his second Wimbledon title in 1986. I have seen a lot of players from India try their luck at the international level...I say luck becoz not many (may be 5-6) have succeded at that level though they had a lot of promise at the Satellite Tennis (a notch below Pros...more like Div II).
I stayed up (though for some other reason too..) till abt 2:40 am to watch Sania play against Serena...Sindhu wanted to watch the game too but she is not a late night person so I recorded most of the match on the DVR...making complete use of the DVR these days!!!!. I didnt give sania even a 1% chance against serena and I thought that the game would be a blow out and that Sania will be severely thrashed....but she proved me wrong...it was my first time watching her and she was brilliant...I mean she wasnt as good as her illustrous oppponent but she held her own after the initial nervous phase.
The commentator was mentioning all the great Indian players that have played and succeded at thet international level....Amritrajs, Ramesh Krishnan and his dad, Paes and Bhupathi etc...they even had one reporter from Hindu join them in the COmmentary box and they asked him a lot of questions abt the state of the sport and women involvement in India...he gave pretty good answers saying that it was a big boost that Sania was doing well as it will prompt other young girls to take up the sport and give them confidence that they can match their international rivals who are far superior in physique, technique and exposure. It is indeed a good thing that has happned to Tennis in India as the success came from a girl !!!! Nobody expected her to even make it past the first round and she exceeded all expectations by making it to the third and finally losing to eventual champion but not without making her sweat....most of the people have just seen the score line...6-1,6-4 that is very very misleading as it wasnt a blow out. Serera won 61 points and Sania 43 so it wasnt that bad....
Sania matched Serena stroke for stroke in the second set after she got crushed in the first...many must have turned their TV sets off expectin the match to finish in 15 more minutes ... and some would have expected her to crumble under pressure but she dug deep into her reserves and came out fighting and gave Serena a kind of glimpse of what could turn out to be a successful tennis career. Her forehand was superb and her serves were pretty good too...the only area where she needs a lot of work to be done is the return of serve as she was barely able to get to Serena's serves...she had a golden oppurtunity to go up a break with 0-40 in the second set but Serena came up with big serves and young Sania was a mere spectator sometimes...
The first time I had heard about a girl called "Sania Mirza" was way back in 2003 when she won the girls doubles at the Wimbledon. I was hoping that her career would take off as Leander's had after winning the junior wimbledon....but I didnt hear a lot abt Sania since...just that she was making steady progress up the ranking inthe womens section...but I guess from now on I will hear more abt this youngster from Hyderabad....
I stayed up (though for some other reason too..) till abt 2:40 am to watch Sania play against Serena...Sindhu wanted to watch the game too but she is not a late night person so I recorded most of the match on the DVR...making complete use of the DVR these days!!!!. I didnt give sania even a 1% chance against serena and I thought that the game would be a blow out and that Sania will be severely thrashed....but she proved me wrong...it was my first time watching her and she was brilliant...I mean she wasnt as good as her illustrous oppponent but she held her own after the initial nervous phase.
The commentator was mentioning all the great Indian players that have played and succeded at thet international level....Amritrajs, Ramesh Krishnan and his dad, Paes and Bhupathi etc...they even had one reporter from Hindu join them in the COmmentary box and they asked him a lot of questions abt the state of the sport and women involvement in India...he gave pretty good answers saying that it was a big boost that Sania was doing well as it will prompt other young girls to take up the sport and give them confidence that they can match their international rivals who are far superior in physique, technique and exposure. It is indeed a good thing that has happned to Tennis in India as the success came from a girl !!!! Nobody expected her to even make it past the first round and she exceeded all expectations by making it to the third and finally losing to eventual champion but not without making her sweat....most of the people have just seen the score line...6-1,6-4 that is very very misleading as it wasnt a blow out. Serera won 61 points and Sania 43 so it wasnt that bad....
Sania matched Serena stroke for stroke in the second set after she got crushed in the first...many must have turned their TV sets off expectin the match to finish in 15 more minutes ... and some would have expected her to crumble under pressure but she dug deep into her reserves and came out fighting and gave Serena a kind of glimpse of what could turn out to be a successful tennis career. Her forehand was superb and her serves were pretty good too...the only area where she needs a lot of work to be done is the return of serve as she was barely able to get to Serena's serves...she had a golden oppurtunity to go up a break with 0-40 in the second set but Serena came up with big serves and young Sania was a mere spectator sometimes...
The first time I had heard about a girl called "Sania Mirza" was way back in 2003 when she won the girls doubles at the Wimbledon. I was hoping that her career would take off as Leander's had after winning the junior wimbledon....but I didnt hear a lot abt Sania since...just that she was making steady progress up the ranking inthe womens section...but I guess from now on I will hear more abt this youngster from Hyderabad....
January 28, 2005
Some Sardar Jokes that a friend forwarded...no offence to anyone..
* Ek dost ne sardar se poocha "yaar tu hamesha foreign channel
kyon
dekhta rehta."
Sardar "yaar kuch bijli unki bhi kharcha hone do."
*4 hightech sardar inventions:
---Waterproof towel
---Solar powered torch
---Book on how to read
---Pedal powered wheel chair.
* Why did sardar cut the sides of the capsule before taking it?
Guess
what
---To avoid side effect!!!
* Man:sardarji where were u born?
sardarji: punjab.
man: which part.
Sardar: oye part part kya kar raha hai, whole body is born in
punjab".
* Lawyer to sardar: Gita pe haath laga kar kaho ke
---Sardar :yeh kya, sita pe haath lagaya to court me bulaiya. ab
fir gita pe haath.
* Ek teacher ne sardar se puchha
"akal badhi ya bhais "
Sardar bola "sir pehle date of birth to batao".
* Why was sardarji writing the exam near the door
coz it was an entrance exam.
* Banta's son:dad there is some one on the door 2 collect donations
for a
swimming pool.
Banta: give him a glass of water.
* Santa:I am a proud sardar, my son is in medical college.
Banta: really what is he studying?
santa: he is not studying they r studying him.
kyon
dekhta rehta."
Sardar "yaar kuch bijli unki bhi kharcha hone do."
*4 hightech sardar inventions:
---Waterproof towel
---Solar powered torch
---Book on how to read
---Pedal powered wheel chair.
* Why did sardar cut the sides of the capsule before taking it?
Guess
what
---To avoid side effect!!!
* Man:sardarji where were u born?
sardarji: punjab.
man: which part.
Sardar: oye part part kya kar raha hai, whole body is born in
punjab".
* Lawyer to sardar: Gita pe haath laga kar kaho ke
---Sardar :yeh kya, sita pe haath lagaya to court me bulaiya. ab
fir gita pe haath.
* Ek teacher ne sardar se puchha
"akal badhi ya bhais "
Sardar bola "sir pehle date of birth to batao".
* Why was sardarji writing the exam near the door
coz it was an entrance exam.
* Banta's son:dad there is some one on the door 2 collect donations
for a
swimming pool.
Banta: give him a glass of water.
* Santa:I am a proud sardar, my son is in medical college.
Banta: really what is he studying?
santa: he is not studying they r studying him.
January 27, 2005
January 26, 2005
Republic Day...Mera Bharat Mahan !!!!
Wish you all a very Happy Republic Day !!!! Its that time of the year in India when all the public places are decorated with indian flags and all public offices have a flag hoisting ceremony. My dad works for Hindustan Petroleum so we used to attend two flag hoisting ceremonies per year (the other for Independence Day):):)
As a kid I used to be excited when either Republic day or Independence day were nearing as that was the only time I could go to see my Dad's office...when I was in Visakhapatnam all of us (kids) used to go to the office attend the ceremony eat a lot of sweets, saw the refinery and Dad's work place and came back to the colony immediately as there was another function there. After the function there used to be a traditional cricket match of the Uncles which used to be a big deal and it was a packed house to see the game....when I moved to Mumbai the routine didnt change much for the first couple of years but as I got older I stopped going to my dad's office and I used to only attend the ceremony at the colony....all of us used to wait for the formalities to finish so that we could eat (how we change with age) !!!!!!!!! after the flag hoisting we used to have either a soccer match (independence day)/ crikcet match (Rep Day)...we used to change the sport becoz of monsoon...we used to have fun playing those matches as they were always competitive and we used to play...Youngsters Vs Uncles (only cricket)....ofcourse we used to win...during the Indepedence day celebrations we used to play soccer forming two teams among us...it was great fun as lot of people used to watch it....that time one more reason for some people to play was to impress girls. Some of my friends were "linked" or teased with some girls name so whenever he scored we used shout from the field the girls name and in response that girls friends also used to shout his name....so it was all fun...the best part of soccer in monsoon was the soggy field...Keechad...we used to luv playing...but my mom wasnt excited as the clothes used to be dirty (next to trashing level) everyday:)....we used to name the two teams..."Tigers" and "Lions"...the tigers team used to wear striped shirts...that reminds me...one of my friends had asked "should we wear strips and come???"...all of us had burst out laughing and we still tease that guy with that incident...
All fun apart...the best part abt the Replublic day or independence day that i used to like are the Songs played and the Parade on the TV....the parade used to be awesome..I miss that now:(:(....it was great to see all the states represented and all the armed forces perform.....it was exciting to watch the tanks, soldiers on foot and horses etc...I think that is one of the few times when Indian Army is shown on TV....the Guys who work day and night and risk their lives for our comfort only get mentioned in news as being severly injured or dead....thats sad as the Army in this country gets a lot of attention. I used to feel that the soldiers always had low profile or coverage when they should have been shown as symbols of strength and determination.....but anyways....it was fun to see these guys on TV in their uniforms...
The songs that are played on both the days are awesome!!!!! They are very very touching....I have always liked the patriotic songs and some songs still give me a strange feeling inside...I cant describe the feeling....but its a great feeling...I guess thats why one of my friends wrote on her blog "You can take a man (or a woman, for that matter) out of India, but you can never take India out of a man (or a woman)."....
My favorite song is "Aye Mere watan ke Logon"...that song still gives me jitters and makes the hair on my hand stand whenever I lister to it....the lyrics are brilliant and the voice brings forward the sacrificies the soldiers have made for the freedom and well being of India...
As a kid I used to be excited when either Republic day or Independence day were nearing as that was the only time I could go to see my Dad's office...when I was in Visakhapatnam all of us (kids) used to go to the office attend the ceremony eat a lot of sweets, saw the refinery and Dad's work place and came back to the colony immediately as there was another function there. After the function there used to be a traditional cricket match of the Uncles which used to be a big deal and it was a packed house to see the game....when I moved to Mumbai the routine didnt change much for the first couple of years but as I got older I stopped going to my dad's office and I used to only attend the ceremony at the colony....all of us used to wait for the formalities to finish so that we could eat (how we change with age) !!!!!!!!! after the flag hoisting we used to have either a soccer match (independence day)/ crikcet match (Rep Day)...we used to change the sport becoz of monsoon...we used to have fun playing those matches as they were always competitive and we used to play...Youngsters Vs Uncles (only cricket)....ofcourse we used to win...during the Indepedence day celebrations we used to play soccer forming two teams among us...it was great fun as lot of people used to watch it....that time one more reason for some people to play was to impress girls. Some of my friends were "linked" or teased with some girls name so whenever he scored we used shout from the field the girls name and in response that girls friends also used to shout his name....so it was all fun...the best part of soccer in monsoon was the soggy field...Keechad...we used to luv playing...but my mom wasnt excited as the clothes used to be dirty (next to trashing level) everyday:)....we used to name the two teams..."Tigers" and "Lions"...the tigers team used to wear striped shirts...that reminds me...one of my friends had asked "should we wear strips and come???"...all of us had burst out laughing and we still tease that guy with that incident...
All fun apart...the best part abt the Replublic day or independence day that i used to like are the Songs played and the Parade on the TV....the parade used to be awesome..I miss that now:(:(....it was great to see all the states represented and all the armed forces perform.....it was exciting to watch the tanks, soldiers on foot and horses etc...I think that is one of the few times when Indian Army is shown on TV....the Guys who work day and night and risk their lives for our comfort only get mentioned in news as being severly injured or dead....thats sad as the Army in this country gets a lot of attention. I used to feel that the soldiers always had low profile or coverage when they should have been shown as symbols of strength and determination.....but anyways....it was fun to see these guys on TV in their uniforms...
The songs that are played on both the days are awesome!!!!! They are very very touching....I have always liked the patriotic songs and some songs still give me a strange feeling inside...I cant describe the feeling....but its a great feeling...I guess thats why one of my friends wrote on her blog "You can take a man (or a woman, for that matter) out of India, but you can never take India out of a man (or a woman)."....
My favorite song is "Aye Mere watan ke Logon"...that song still gives me jitters and makes the hair on my hand stand whenever I lister to it....the lyrics are brilliant and the voice brings forward the sacrificies the soldiers have made for the freedom and well being of India...
January 18, 2005
Cold Weather......
The past couple of days have been very very cold....yesterday it was 9 deg F during the day!!!!!!!!! it felt much colder as we had wind chill too:(:(.... Over the weekend it snowed a lot but it didnt matter as we (Amruteshwar and I) watched 14hrs of football coverage!!!!!!!!!!!!! All we did was watch the Steelers beat Jets, Falcons beat Rams, Eagles beat VIkings and the disastrous rout of the Colts at New England.....we watched the games at my place on studrday and at his place on Sunday....we felt soo tired after watching the games:):) I had to go in early to the Gym so that i can work out and burn the extra calories I put on while wtching the game.
The cold weather doesnt help in anyway either as it keeps u indoors and all u want to do is lie down on the couch/bed cuddled up in the COmforter and watch movies sipping coffee/hot chocholate. Sindhu had made garma garam Pakode for us on saturday so it was more comfy.
The waether had been so bad that the doors of my car have frozen and so have the locks....I tried dropping off a friend home late Friday night after the Sankranthi get toegtehr and she couldnt get out of the car from her side.....we tried for abt 5-10 mins and finally gave up....I got out of my seat and pushed the seat back so that he could get out from my side:):)...quite an adventure to just drop somebody home:)
that night we had lots of fun....we had a pot-luc gettogether for Sankranthi (Pongal)...we had kofta Curry(Nisha), Fried rice(sindhu), Raitha and Plain rice (Renu), Aloo Mutter and Sambhar(Bindu) and Chakra Pongal for prasad by urs truly....I had expreimented with the recipe for the first time so I had to make a lot of adjustments especially to the quantity if gudd (jagerry) taht had to be put in the Pongal....in the end it was a success and people liked it....then we had "online aarti" we logged onto music india online and played "Om Jai Jagdish" from there, it was total TP as no one new the aarti.....all this was more fun for the new girl that had ceom from India the Previous night:):)....Kumar, our expert cook, wasnt happy as he was informed in the last moment so couldnt cook anything....we were glad as people appreciated our cooking for once...else he gets the accolades all the time:):)...all in all we had a good time and played risk and watched the clipping of Russell Peters that I had posted abt a week ago...
The cold weather doesnt help in anyway either as it keeps u indoors and all u want to do is lie down on the couch/bed cuddled up in the COmforter and watch movies sipping coffee/hot chocholate. Sindhu had made garma garam Pakode for us on saturday so it was more comfy.
The waether had been so bad that the doors of my car have frozen and so have the locks....I tried dropping off a friend home late Friday night after the Sankranthi get toegtehr and she couldnt get out of the car from her side.....we tried for abt 5-10 mins and finally gave up....I got out of my seat and pushed the seat back so that he could get out from my side:):)...quite an adventure to just drop somebody home:)
that night we had lots of fun....we had a pot-luc gettogether for Sankranthi (Pongal)...we had kofta Curry(Nisha), Fried rice(sindhu), Raitha and Plain rice (Renu), Aloo Mutter and Sambhar(Bindu) and Chakra Pongal for prasad by urs truly....I had expreimented with the recipe for the first time so I had to make a lot of adjustments especially to the quantity if gudd (jagerry) taht had to be put in the Pongal....in the end it was a success and people liked it....then we had "online aarti" we logged onto music india online and played "Om Jai Jagdish" from there, it was total TP as no one new the aarti.....all this was more fun for the new girl that had ceom from India the Previous night:):)....Kumar, our expert cook, wasnt happy as he was informed in the last moment so couldnt cook anything....we were glad as people appreciated our cooking for once...else he gets the accolades all the time:):)...all in all we had a good time and played risk and watched the clipping of Russell Peters that I had posted abt a week ago...
January 14, 2005
Semester About to Start ......
As usual the Holidays end very quickly and the long Semester of Studies and research lie ahead....I felt these holidays have come and gone very very soon and I never felt as if I was on a break...as I had a standard routine...Get up at 8 or 8:30...go to the lab by 9:15...work till 12:30...eat lunch...work again from 1:00 to 5:15 or so....come home...have a cup of coffee with Sindhu and by 6:15 go to the Gym...come back by 8:00 (it closes at 8 during the break)...cook if its my cooking turn...watch a movie...if mood permits study or work on some lab stuff and go to bed by 1:30 - 2:00 am...and get up again in the morning....
its been like that for the past 3-4 weeks since the Fall semester ended...the only bright side of it is the Gym...I run for abt 3-4 miles and play TT Mon-wed and play Badminton thurday-Sun...for the past couple of days I have been playing Racquetball ... aahhh it feels good as its been abt 7-8 months since I last played racquetball...the last time was in May when i played the Final of the Kent State Tournament...wow...that was long time ago...my game has deteriorated from couple of years ago when i won the Bronze in the Nationals......I have not been able to finish off points and I am making a lot of mistakes....I guess its just lack of practice...
back to studies...the otehr day I was having a conversation with my friends abt the studies in the US and in India....though India is supposed to have an overall better quality of education...the proof is the number of Indians that are in the US....but I feel we have more of the theoretical knowledge than the practical knowledge..
back home in India students are pressurized in the 10th and 12th standards as if it would be the end of their world if they didnt get high percentages....common give the m a break..they are human beings tooo....
I had been thru that situation so i can testify the mental strain the students go thru. My parents have never pressurized me to study...I am very very thankful to them for that... they kind of understood that if they let me study as I wanted and when i wanted I did much better than they making me sit in a room and asking me to study...thats why I was allowed to play Badminton and cricket even during exams when my friends werent even allowed to leave the house...my neighbour even disconnected Cable TV so that his kid would study....for one whole year their family was without TV as it would be a distraction to the child...thats ridiculous...if he/she can be distracted so much that they would be neglecting their studies then something is really wrong there...
The standard routine for a 10th or 12th Grade student in India...is very very scary....they just do one thing...study, study and study again. the students are encourages to reproduce the whole text book...and the practice that the teachers would cut points for not writing as it is from the textbook is just adding fuel to this crazy practice of mugging up books and reproducing them without actually understanding them. I mean I know people who can just cram any number of pages given to them and they just continued that into Engineering where its simply not possible to cram the whole textbook...but i know some people who have done that and have also been successful...these are the guys with tremendous memory capacity...hats off to them
we were asked to give as many exams as possible thru-out the year so that we will be ready and will not hesitate when we see a question in the final exam....we were so used to writing answers to the same questions over and over again that sometimes i used to wonder if there is any difference between a 12th grade student and a Robot ???
the worst part is the chaos after the results...if u want to get into engineering u need to get mind boggling percentages in Maths, Physics and Chemistry (PCM) and if u want to get into Medicine then its Biology, Physics and Chemistry (PCB).
In Bombay it was a practice to get admission into an engineering college based on ur 12th grade marks in PCM, in other states they have a separate entrance exam for that..now thats case in Bombay too. if u want a free seat (abt Rs. 6000 a year) in a good college then u needed to get atleast 94%....else u will have to settle either for a below average college or a payment seat (Rs.50,000 per yr).....all this apart from the individual college fees, books etc. I had a 94.66 % and my rank in mumbai was 618 !!!!!!!! can u believe that ???? are we machines???? what else are we supposed to do???
my friend go 94.66 tooo but his rank was 750 ....confused???? well my aggregate total was higher (languages included)...so u not only need to score in PCM but u need to do well even in otehr subjects...in short u have to memorize text books of all the subjects and then also make time to learn the english grammer and not make any mistakes in that too....great!!!!!!!!!!!!
during the admission process I found out something else...the Quota system....yeah thats right...there is a quota for some sections of the community... I used to think why wasnt i born in that community???
There was 50% reservation for the Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe....the supposedly economically backward classes...my foot...a couple of guys that I knew in college got admission in that quota and came to the college in a Car of their own !!!!!!!!! and I (and my other friends) was supposed to be from an advanced caste or economically strong setion of the community so we travelled by buses!!!!!!!! and worse our fees abt Rs.10,000 per yr (free seat) and their's was Rs.100...yeah thats right just hundred rupees...$2.00 for the whole year....
then there is Girls quota abt 30%, NRI quota, Defence Quota, free fighter's quota, out of state quota, management quota, sports quota etc......so normal guys like me had abt 10% of the seats to fight for...example if all of Bombay had 5000 engg seats we were eligible only for 500 and all the people that were in the above quotas were again eligible for these 500 also....great....why not just say...guys (not girls) from other castes just stop studying for engg and medicine and get into other fields or worse look out for jobs in a mechanic shop....I dont even want to get started abt the Caste system...its ridiculous....the way it was intended to function and the way we are using it currently.
anyways.....some positive light...I knew some peopel from the backward castes that were good students...they never tried to get in with the quota system...they used to always work hard and only take the seat that they would get by merit....that takes a lot of courage and determination as u will be tempted to take up a seat in a good college if u went into the quota....but they were satisfied with the seat in the average or just above average colleges as they earned those seats....I resepected the m a lot for their stand....
all this just shows something....that education system in India for engineering /Medicine or any other field needs to be reformed so that students can have a well rounded personality...thats one more reason why we have only 2 bronze medals and a silver medal to show in the past 5 olympics.....
its been like that for the past 3-4 weeks since the Fall semester ended...the only bright side of it is the Gym...I run for abt 3-4 miles and play TT Mon-wed and play Badminton thurday-Sun...for the past couple of days I have been playing Racquetball ... aahhh it feels good as its been abt 7-8 months since I last played racquetball...the last time was in May when i played the Final of the Kent State Tournament...wow...that was long time ago...my game has deteriorated from couple of years ago when i won the Bronze in the Nationals......I have not been able to finish off points and I am making a lot of mistakes....I guess its just lack of practice...
back to studies...the otehr day I was having a conversation with my friends abt the studies in the US and in India....though India is supposed to have an overall better quality of education...the proof is the number of Indians that are in the US....but I feel we have more of the theoretical knowledge than the practical knowledge..
back home in India students are pressurized in the 10th and 12th standards as if it would be the end of their world if they didnt get high percentages....common give the m a break..they are human beings tooo....
I had been thru that situation so i can testify the mental strain the students go thru. My parents have never pressurized me to study...I am very very thankful to them for that... they kind of understood that if they let me study as I wanted and when i wanted I did much better than they making me sit in a room and asking me to study...thats why I was allowed to play Badminton and cricket even during exams when my friends werent even allowed to leave the house...my neighbour even disconnected Cable TV so that his kid would study....for one whole year their family was without TV as it would be a distraction to the child...thats ridiculous...if he/she can be distracted so much that they would be neglecting their studies then something is really wrong there...
The standard routine for a 10th or 12th Grade student in India...is very very scary....they just do one thing...study, study and study again. the students are encourages to reproduce the whole text book...and the practice that the teachers would cut points for not writing as it is from the textbook is just adding fuel to this crazy practice of mugging up books and reproducing them without actually understanding them. I mean I know people who can just cram any number of pages given to them and they just continued that into Engineering where its simply not possible to cram the whole textbook...but i know some people who have done that and have also been successful...these are the guys with tremendous memory capacity...hats off to them
we were asked to give as many exams as possible thru-out the year so that we will be ready and will not hesitate when we see a question in the final exam....we were so used to writing answers to the same questions over and over again that sometimes i used to wonder if there is any difference between a 12th grade student and a Robot ???
the worst part is the chaos after the results...if u want to get into engineering u need to get mind boggling percentages in Maths, Physics and Chemistry (PCM) and if u want to get into Medicine then its Biology, Physics and Chemistry (PCB).
In Bombay it was a practice to get admission into an engineering college based on ur 12th grade marks in PCM, in other states they have a separate entrance exam for that..now thats case in Bombay too. if u want a free seat (abt Rs. 6000 a year) in a good college then u needed to get atleast 94%....else u will have to settle either for a below average college or a payment seat (Rs.50,000 per yr).....all this apart from the individual college fees, books etc. I had a 94.66 % and my rank in mumbai was 618 !!!!!!!! can u believe that ???? are we machines???? what else are we supposed to do???
my friend go 94.66 tooo but his rank was 750 ....confused???? well my aggregate total was higher (languages included)...so u not only need to score in PCM but u need to do well even in otehr subjects...in short u have to memorize text books of all the subjects and then also make time to learn the english grammer and not make any mistakes in that too....great!!!!!!!!!!!!
during the admission process I found out something else...the Quota system....yeah thats right...there is a quota for some sections of the community... I used to think why wasnt i born in that community???
There was 50% reservation for the Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe....the supposedly economically backward classes...my foot...a couple of guys that I knew in college got admission in that quota and came to the college in a Car of their own !!!!!!!!! and I (and my other friends) was supposed to be from an advanced caste or economically strong setion of the community so we travelled by buses!!!!!!!! and worse our fees abt Rs.10,000 per yr (free seat) and their's was Rs.100...yeah thats right just hundred rupees...$2.00 for the whole year....
then there is Girls quota abt 30%, NRI quota, Defence Quota, free fighter's quota, out of state quota, management quota, sports quota etc......so normal guys like me had abt 10% of the seats to fight for...example if all of Bombay had 5000 engg seats we were eligible only for 500 and all the people that were in the above quotas were again eligible for these 500 also....great....why not just say...guys (not girls) from other castes just stop studying for engg and medicine and get into other fields or worse look out for jobs in a mechanic shop....I dont even want to get started abt the Caste system...its ridiculous....the way it was intended to function and the way we are using it currently.
anyways.....some positive light...I knew some peopel from the backward castes that were good students...they never tried to get in with the quota system...they used to always work hard and only take the seat that they would get by merit....that takes a lot of courage and determination as u will be tempted to take up a seat in a good college if u went into the quota....but they were satisfied with the seat in the average or just above average colleges as they earned those seats....I resepected the m a lot for their stand....
all this just shows something....that education system in India for engineering /Medicine or any other field needs to be reformed so that students can have a well rounded personality...thats one more reason why we have only 2 bronze medals and a silver medal to show in the past 5 olympics.....
January 12, 2005
Russell Peters......
I have been hearing about this brilliant stand up comedian...Russell Peters for sometime now...all my friends keep saying that his work is brilliant so when I got this forward from my friend i decided to watch it...try this link.. http://rack1.nethosters.com/~charles/russell/russell.ram...
if it doesnt run from the link...copy and paste the link in Real Player...
Its a 45 min video of his performance....watch it when U have some free time...trust me u wont be disappointed!!!!!!!! it was a hilarious experience.....he was spontaneous and very creative....
He mocked a lot of accents and cultures....but not in the wrong way....it all flowed in the spirit of fun....he mocked the Chinese, South Africans, Jamaicans, Indians, Canadians, Americans.....name them...but it was too goood.
His facial expressions and his gestures were very good too...he seemed to be at ease pulling off alll the situations that came up....the crowd was in a laugh riot....the last time I laughed so much was in the "Johnny Lever Live"....when I was in my 11th Grade....abt 9 yrs ago....that was probably the best comedy performance I have ever seen....with Russell coming pretty close to that.....
if it doesnt run from the link...copy and paste the link in Real Player...
Its a 45 min video of his performance....watch it when U have some free time...trust me u wont be disappointed!!!!!!!! it was a hilarious experience.....he was spontaneous and very creative....
He mocked a lot of accents and cultures....but not in the wrong way....it all flowed in the spirit of fun....he mocked the Chinese, South Africans, Jamaicans, Indians, Canadians, Americans.....name them...but it was too goood.
His facial expressions and his gestures were very good too...he seemed to be at ease pulling off alll the situations that came up....the crowd was in a laugh riot....the last time I laughed so much was in the "Johnny Lever Live"....when I was in my 11th Grade....abt 9 yrs ago....that was probably the best comedy performance I have ever seen....with Russell coming pretty close to that.....
January 05, 2005
Some more links and sites that accept credit cards
Thanks to a friend who noticed that i had most of the contacts as address and not sites which accept credit cards as they are more convenient for people to donate as they may not want to go thru the hassle of mailing a check...so here are some sites that accepts all the major credit cards...
https://secure.unicef.ca/forms/emergency_page.html
http://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp
https://www.ashanet.org/donate/tsunami-relief-donation.php
http://www.thousa.org/donate.html
Some more sources that are helping the victims:
Tsunami Relief Fund-ACF
First Merit Bank
106 S. Main St. TOW80
Akron.OH 44308
US Fund for UNICEF
General Emergency Fund
333 E. 38th St.
New York, NY 10016
800-486-4233
www.unicefusa.org
Salvation Army
South Asia Relief Fund
615 Slaters Lane
P.O. Box 269
Alexandria, V.A. 22313
800-725-2769
Action Against Hunger
247 W. 38th St. Suite 1201
New York, NY 10018.
212-967-7800
www.actionagainsthunger.org
Americares
88 Hamilton Ave.
Stanford CT 06902
800-486-4357
American Friends Services
Committee Crises Fund
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
888-588-2372
www.afsc.org
American Jewish World Service
45 W. 36th St., 10th floor
New York, NY 10018
www.jdc.org
https://secure.unicef.ca/forms/emergency_page.html
http://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp
https://www.ashanet.org/donate/tsunami-relief-donation.php
http://www.thousa.org/donate.html
Some more sources that are helping the victims:
Tsunami Relief Fund-ACF
First Merit Bank
106 S. Main St. TOW80
Akron.OH 44308
US Fund for UNICEF
General Emergency Fund
333 E. 38th St.
New York, NY 10016
800-486-4233
www.unicefusa.org
Salvation Army
South Asia Relief Fund
615 Slaters Lane
P.O. Box 269
Alexandria, V.A. 22313
800-725-2769
Action Against Hunger
247 W. 38th St. Suite 1201
New York, NY 10018.
212-967-7800
www.actionagainsthunger.org
Americares
88 Hamilton Ave.
Stanford CT 06902
800-486-4357
American Friends Services
Committee Crises Fund
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
888-588-2372
www.afsc.org
American Jewish World Service
45 W. 36th St., 10th floor
New York, NY 10018
www.jdc.org
January 03, 2005
Aid for the Tsunami Victims.....
If u are looking for an organization to donate money/clothing/medicine/food in aid for the vicitms of Tsunami...here is a listing of some organizations that I have been able to put together:
Prime Minister's National Relief Fund Embassy of India
Attn: Head of Chancery
2107 Massachusetts Avenue,
NW Washington, DC 20008
Website: http://pmindia.nic.in/relief.htm
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Website: http://www.unicef.org/index.html
Press Release: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_24630.html
Donate Online: http://www.unicef.org/support/index.html OR
https://secure.unicef.ca/forms/emergency_page.html
Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Relief Fund
Website: http://www.tn.gov.in/misc/cmprf2003.htm
Press Release: http://www.tn.gov.in/pressrelease/pr281204/pr281204-1.htm
The Hindu Newspaper Relief Fund
Website: http://www.hindu.com
Press Release: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/0035/index.htm
Donate Online: http://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp
The Times of India Newspaper Relief Fund
Website: http://www.timesrelieffund.com
Donate Online: http://www.timesrelieffund.com/donate.htm
ASHA
Website: http://www.ashanet.org
Press Release: http://www.ashanet.org/index.php?page=tsunami-relief
Donate Online: https://www.ashanet.org/donate/tsunami-relief-donation.php
Sri Lankan Tamils in Ohio and surrounding regions are collection funds for the victims. Please send the checks to
International Relief Foundation
P. O. Box 20691
Columbus, OH 43220
Attn: Sugu Suguness or Ranjan Manoranjan
It's an organization registered with the IRS and contributions are tax deductible. 100% of the funds raised will be sent for relief efforts in the North and East.
****************************************
The Tamil Health Organization also collecting funds -- Please see the following.
* Through our secure online Paypal system:
http://www.thousa.org/donate.html
* By direct debit facility into IMHO account
(please contact our Treasurer, Dr. Rajam Theventhiran at theva406@aol.com or 718-987 2687; Dr. Raguraj at ragumd@hotmail.com or 410-638 6729; or myself at thambit@aol.com or 513-891 2748)
* Mail in a check to:
P. O. Box 901, Bel Air, MD 21014-0901, USA.
(please make check payable to IMHO)
In addition to that Tamil Health Organization is requesting the following.
1. Collecting medical supplies in your local hospital like IVF, IV sets, antibiotics, antidiarrheals, vaccinations (Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and Tetanus toxoid/vaccine), etc. Every one in USA and rest of the world knows about the disaster, therefore it may be easier to get help from non-SL sources. We're sending a cargo container to SL.
2. Providing medical services to the affected people. If you can fly to Katunayake airport, then we can arrange for your transportation to affected areas and lodging. We've 18 doctors traveling to NE on Jan 15 and Jan 22, 2005. We need doctors/volunteers to travel in February 2005.
- Please contact Thavam at thambit@aol.com or 513-891-2748
You can also help by contributing to the following organization
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization
517 Old Town Road, Cumberland, Maryland 21502
Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA
PO Box 46, Maryknoll, NY 10545
All the organizations are Registered Charitable Organizations in the USA - 501 (c) (3) under the United States Internal Revenue Service code.
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