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:)

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:):)

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....