Asian Games.....no proper media coverage

I have been following the ongoing Asian Games for the past 10 days or so....they are being held in Doha, Qatar....the surprising thing is most of the media is not interested in the events unless we win a medal or dont win a medal in an event we were expected win....

It was kind of sad to see a couple of lines on these great atheletes that sweat it out for the country but dont get any news coverage...but people like aishwarya rai, SRK and Indian cricket team hog the news for every small thing they do...

Jaspal Rana, shooting ace, won 3 golds but wasnt the headline for that day..but Ash and Bacchan Jr doing puja at Vaishnav Devi is on the front page!!!!!!!!!! So much for the hard work of the atheletes....on times of india website Asian Games werent even on the front page well till we started winning medals...no lead up articles and how the atheletes prepared and stuff....but the failure of Indian cricket team is scrutinized to the minutest detail and every-tom-dick-and-harry thats played the sport will make a smart ass comment on how the team failed and that something has to be done....brilliant...everyone knows something has to be done and that the players need to regroup and play...thats called stating the obvious...

India though has a 1/3rd of Asian population is finishing a lowly 7th or 8th in the medals tally...thats very disappointing and kind of sad state of atheletics in the country....but the bright side is that we have won abt 52 medals so far...which is by far the largest haul at the Asian games...kudos to the medal winners and the others that tried...

Thanks to Rana (Shooting 3 Golds and a Silver), Sania( 1 Gold and 2 Silvers), Hampy(2 Golds),Paes (2 Golds), 4 x 400m Womens and mens relay teams ( 1 Gold 1 Silver), Advani (1 Gold, 1 Bronze) and other medal winners we have a respectable total for the event but compare that to 147 Gold medals (287 in all) by China and aby 60 Gold medals each by Korea and Japan!!!!!!!!!!! Its a slap in the face of Indian Atheletic Association...but they care less about such things....they will only see the rich haul from this year's edition compared to the previous one...but the difference in the class of athletes...is quite obvious....

Shooters got abt 14 medals...by far the best section of indian contingent but the coach resigned on return as he was disgusted and disappointed with the facilities provided by the administration...Rana minced no words and flayed the Indian Sports Asscoiation (SAI)...for not providing any ammunition in time for practice and stuff like that....he went a yard ahead and mentioned that the credit for his win doesnt go to SAI....but goes to the coach and team....

If you think about it...3 Golds by rana, 2 by Paes, 2 by Humpy, 1 by Advani...are all individual efforts from world class contenders...all these people compete in internatinoal tournamenst and have excelled on their own...so those golds are not due to SAI...so 8/10 golds are not due to SAI !!!!!!!!! Now that speaks volumes of the facilities provided and also about the training standards in India....

Track and field that brought home 6 Golds and 12 other medals in the last edition has 1 gold and 6 other medals to show here in Doha edition...thats like going backwardsrather than forward in progress....and there can be only 2 reason....one, SAI didnt provide enough facilities and exposure and two, athletes didnt perform...most of them gave a lame excuse of not feeling good and sore back and stuff like that...how ridiculous...you train for the whole year for this occasion and then you fall sick on the race day!!!!!!!!!!!!! How come only Indian athletes fall sick and not the Chinese, japs and Koreans???? Its not like we are playing in a cold place either...we are playing in the middle east that has a climate similar to India....if not worse....perfect example....Anju george...Gold medal hope in Long jump....skips lot of tournaments this year to participate and train for Asian games (god knows why you have to skip events when they could have been used as dress rehearsals)....gets a Silver with a below par performance and then complains of sore back and withdraws from triple jump!!!!!!!!!!! Now can anyone explain this to me????

The media doesnt help the cause either as they dont cover the performance of the athletes all thru the year and only cover them at the games and then glorify their failure...medial should reduce the coverage on the Indian cricket and Hockey teams which have been waaaaayyyyy below par in their performances....right now both of them have hit a rock bottom...hockey was even more disappointing as we finished 11th /12 teams at the world cup and didnt even make semi finals of Asian Games!!!!!!!! So much for a nation that won 8 Olympic Golds!!!!!!!!!

The other sad story is that of football...few years ago we are in the top 75 teams now we are ranked 147th in the world!!!!!!!!! How many countries are ranked???? we have been steadily declining but no-one wants to do anything about it...

One of the headlines kind of intrigued me...."Indian Shuttlers disappoint"....well...FYI..this is Asian Games and most of the World's top players are from Asia and Indians are not among them so they are bound to have failures...it would have been too much to expect medals from Indian shuttlers...may be one...thats it...but they did put up a commendable fight and made Pre and Quarterfinals in most of the events....Indian mens doubles team also caused an upset...so instead of showing their performance in positive light they are shown as a bunch of losers....

I can go on and on about this topic...will have to continue about this later...

Mid-Atlantic Badminton Classic 2006

Its been a long time since I have competed in a badminton tournament...played intercollegiate in 2000 and thats abt it...last played competitive badminton at district level in 1992....so it has quite sometime....so i was all excited to play in the tournament....

It, Mid-Atlantic badminton Classic 2006, was held in Bryn Athyn PA, over the past weekend...I competed in Mens Div B Singles and Doubles....Div A would have been pushing too hard to compete when I am competing after a long time...just to give a feel of Div A....people on the US national team and No.1 under 22 player in the US played in that level...in Div A doubles people like Vincent Lobo... was no.1 doubles player in india for 4-5 yrs and played for India at Thomas cup level...played...so it was way out of my league to even think about competing in Div A....not yet atleast....just started getting back into badminton after a long time...play at a Club in Bryn Mawr PA (15 miles from Philly)....actually Vincent lobo also plays at our club...so its a treat to watch that guy play...unbelievable player....

coming back to the tournament....friday evening was the singles tournament...I least expected to make it past the secon d round...i had a easy first round....but i played horribly...won 21-5, 19-21, 21-6...second round was against a student from MIT...heheheh...u guessed it right...an oriental guy....watched him play and beat my friend...so thought thats it for me...but had a good game...kind of warmed up and started playing well...moving well on the court...won 21-18,17-21,21-18...i was dead tired and excited at this point...i had already met my goal that i set for the tournament....

next up was Semi-final against Srikar...from Alaska...he seemed to be a good player...and as the game go underway...I could see that he was clearly a better player...and was just taking me apart...decided to hang in...waited for his mistakes....won the first game 21-19 on the most sensational rally i have played in my entire life !!!!!!!!! it must have had 20-25 shot exchanges....ended with reflex (lucky) smash return from me parallel to the net into my opponents face...i couldnt belive i made that shot!!!!!!!!!!! in the next game he upped his game to another level and dissected my game to win 21-13... i was tired at this point...he had two of his friends that play in men's div A rooting for his and kind of making guestures to help him...I was thinking...."ok, suneel u played well so far...just hang in there and see if u can make it as close as possible"....it went neck-to-neck in the final game...he was always on top of things and was ahead in score...the new scoring system doesnt let u make any mistakes as u win or lost a point every time there is a mistake...it was rally scoring like in TT and volleyball...u can win a point even on opponents serve...i managed to win the game 21-18 !!!!!!!! i was in the final of Men's B singles!!!!!!!!!! i couldnt believe that...I was completely exhausted...played singles after a long time and at that point I had played 9 games of singles in 3 hrs!!!!!! so i was tired...at the scoring table they said that the final will be played whenevr I was ready!!!!!!!!!! they meant that night!!!!!! i told them 15-20 mins as it was already 9:40 pm...and I had to come back that night...1 hr drive and go back to play the doubles early next morning...so i wanted to get done ASAP....

My opponent was a guy from Drexel university...he had beaten his opponents in straight sets...so had played 6 games till then and i had played 9....so he had the advantage of playing fewer games....in the warm up i was trying to probe for some weaknesses but couldnt find any and I saw that he was quick on the court...I had the same sinking feeling that i had befor ethe semi-final game...but suprisingly i was getting to almost all the shots that he was playing so that lifted my confidence....he won the first game 21-18....it wasnt as bad as i thought....but i could see that he was clearly tired...not that i was fresh to play...but I was kind of thankful for my half-marathon training...i had run a half-marathon in september so my stamina was kind of holding me up quite well....I started making my opponent move on the court and started stretching him...he was up to the task and made me move as well...so both of us were dead tired and were stalling for time whenevr we could and were glad that the referee offered 60 secs break at mid-game...we were glad....i prevailed 21-16 !!!!!!!!!! now with one more game to win...i thought of going for the kill initially so that i can jump ahead and then slow down....I expected my strategy to work as my attack would tire my opponent also...my plan worked perfectly and I jumped to a 11-2 lead....from then on it was a uphill climb for both of us...as there were long pauses between serves as we were stalling for time....finally I finished the game 21-10 !!!!!!! I was jubiliant but too tired to celebrate...couple of my friends had stayed back to watch my game and they supported me in the final game that helped immensely...its a feel good think when u look at someone and they clap for u and encourage u and root for u...thanx Devin and Haiti...actually they were rooting for both of us as they were Drexel too:):)

I was tired and literally would have given 100 bucks to anyone who would have offered to drive me home!!!!!!!!!!!!! but couldnt find anyone...

had 5 hrs sleep and hd to get back to play my doubles match the next day....

Fwd: Indian Cricketers vs Indian Soldiers

I am not against Indian cricketers or Cricket...in fact I am more a cricket fan than any other. But thought that this mail is worth forwarding.... After loss against New Zealand, India is back to normal with peoplestill hoping for a miracle. In a way it was good that we lost and people now have come out of their craze for arguably most overrated, over promotedand overpaid team.

There is a war on in Kashmir and India has lost 51 soldiers and officers.They are fighting at a height of 17000 ft. It is -5 to -30 C inclement weather.The intruders, 80% of whom are Pakistan army soldiers, are at the top of mountainand our brave soldiers are actually climbing those mountains with rope, against the fire.

Some figures that may shock you:An Indian air force flight lieutenant is paid Rs. 1200 flyingallowance per month and he is supposed to make 40 sorties in aging Migs.That is about Rs. 25 per sortie after taxes. If he dies his family getspaid Rs. 2 lakh.

The man of the match in any World Cup team gets 3000 pounds,about Rs 2.1 lakhs.

When flying over Kargil at 18000 ft the flight lieutenant isjust 1000 ft above intruders armed with American stringer missiles and caneasily be shot down. Yet, he does it. Nachiketa who returned frompakistan captivity will be back for action. And whom do theydo this for?

A person in Bihar has offered 111 coconuts and intends tooffer 10001 more. A large corporate and BJP local unit offered prayer atSidhivinayak temple and distributed prasad. A youth in Gujarat is on fast.No, none of the above is for Indian soldiers, its for India's win in World Cup.

You may be aware of how important the life of a US marine is.

if 5 of them lose their lives, all newspapers in US cry as if world warhas started. There are stories of their families and how they curse US government.Fl. Lt. Ahuja was killed in cold blood and he was cremated by his four year old son...The head line in Times of India was about India\'s win over England.And our team can not make 4 runs in 7 balls against Zimbabwe!!! Andpeople in India or Indian people across the world still worry about their performance.

Azhar...the wristy magician..the forgotten hero

I saw an article on Rediff that was asking the readers to post their opinion abt Azhar being invited to the celebration and felicitation function of all the cricket greats.......I was pissed off with the article as it was titled in a manner that points out BCCi making a mistake in doing so....

Then i read the comments from the users....it was an overwhelming victory for Azhar fans!!!!!!! 99% of the people that responded said that BCCI is atlast doing the right thing...how true...can u imagine the same kind of ban and ill-treatment being dished out to Shane warne, mark waugh, crookes, gibbs....and many other people that were implicated and in some case confessed to accepting "gifts" from "information seekers"....thats the sad state of affairs of Indian cricket where the Board elections take much of the time of the Board members than they working to improve the state of Indian cricket at grass root levels...

Azhar...no doubt did a wrong thing by accepting money (well...that is still to be proved)..though CBI cleared Azhar for not finding any evidence against him...lets assume that he did something wrong....but does that discount his talent as a player??? how abt the manoj prabhakar hidden cam adventure on Kapil, sastri and gavaskar!!!!! people seemed to have forgotten that episode...abt how kapil was implicated in Wadekar's match report and also in the version of Lele then secretary of BCCI.... but all these players are being hailed as "greats" and "heroes" of indian cricket when the man who brought laurels to the Indian team with his brilliant batting and fielding is being tainted as a cheater!!!!!! Double standards of the highest order!!!!!

Gavaskar was quoted to have said "Azhar is God's gift to Indian cricket"...that he was can be seen from his batting record....how many peple can claim to have scored hundreds in their first three tests??? how many can claim to have scored a century in first and last test matches???? how many people would have come forward to take up Captaincy in those turbulent times of early 90's....there was kapil in that team too...so why was Azhar selected???? its based on sheer talent and determination that he rose from a normal player to a brilliant batsmane with wrists that defined logic to all cricket experts....

As far as I can remember anything abt cricket I have been Azhar's fan ....I dont have too much info abt his personal life...but that applies to Sachin, dravid, sampras, Schumi, gopichand, Dhanraj pillai etc also....but based on his talent i can never adore a person/player more....i used to be mesmerised by his wrist work....too bad that i can never emulate even 10% of his wristiness in my own batting:)...but i try and compensate taht with using my wrists in badminton:):)

people have said a lot of things abt Azhar bringing disrepute to the "indian team" and he tarnished the image of the Indian team....he misused the greatest privlege according to some...but is cricket that important to t hose people that are criticing him??? how abt the politicians....we compromise on all of their wrong doings and nevr even bother to find out abt their cases being solved or not??? how come when those issues are far more damaging to the society people tend to turn a blind eye but when Azhar's topic comes to play their use double standards....the contrasting point is that people are evening protesting to save "Afzal" the guys implicated in the parliament bomb blasts but still want to hard azhar after all thses years that he had spent in seclusion and away from public appearances.....

I can go on and on...but i will keep some views for a later time.....

The Man who invented "Ctrl+Alt+Del"

 

Lage Raho Munnabhai...rocks

The brilliant,dynamic and adorable goon duo...Munna and Circuit (aka Sarkeshwar) are back!!!!!!!!!! This time they had a ton of expectations to meet and meet they did with aplomb....in a total tapori ishtyle. Most of you might have already seen the movie or read the review for the movie...so I will not repeat the storyline here...

I cannot recollect the last movie that I had seen that was a total TP from start to end....I enjoyed the film thoroughly..and so did rest of the people with me in the theater. The audience satisfaction could be gauged by the standing ovation that people gave at the end of the movie and also by the applause that the jokes were receiving.

All this, while preaching Gandhian way of life (gandhigiri)...hats off to Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi for the brilliant story and screenplay. The fact that they could bring out the gandhian values tagged with humour such that current movie going audience could associate each of the situations in the movie with their life. The fact that Munna was a common man trying to preach gandhigiri makes the concept very appealing.

Though Sanjay Dutt as Munnabhai aka Murli Prasad Sharma was terrific for me the star of the movie was Arshad warsi as Sarkeshwar aka Circuit!!!!!!!!!! He was simply brilliant with his sense of comic timing, dialogue delivery,expressions and spontaineity...if you thought that his performance in MBBS was terrific he delivers a performance that is a notch here....his vinamratha was awesome....

Sanjay Dutt looked old in the movie but put up a performance that makes you wonder if he was born to be munna...I cant even imagine any other actor playing Munna...his comic timing and dialogue delivery were simply superb....his growth as an actor can be seen in the ease with which he handles comic, emotional and tough-guy scenes.

Vidya Balan...who played Jhanvi...munna's love...was excellent...she was supposed to be brilliant in Parineeta (I have not yet watched it). She seemed to be a perfect cast for the girl-next -door and ever-smiling-shy girl. She brought the babe-factor to the movie...she looked really good in her casual dresses and with a wonderful smile...watch out all the actresses...here is a girl that has the talent, looks and skills to give you all a run for ur money...she is here to stay.

Boman was also very good as lucky singh...the villain of the movie...just as in MBBS..he portrayed the role of a punjabi with perfection....

The support cast was also very good..making the movie an overall master piece....

But the movie will not be complete without the man!!!!!!!!! Bapu...Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi....Dilip Prabhavalkar played the part to perfection... he portrayed the Mahatma very convincingly. The character of Bapu was handled very well and by introducing the non-violent Mahatma to the goon-munna Hirani weaved a memorable story.

The gandhian values which have mostly been used by politicians in their speeches were brought back to life and they were introduced to the generation-X in a mind-blowing package that is bound to have some kind of an impact like Swades, Rang de and bhagat singh. But the most telling difference is the end value...whatever was shown in the movie can be realistically applied to our daily lives unlike the other movies.....

All-in-all this movie is an thru-n-thru entertainer and a must watch...I would have liked to mention some of the jokes but didnt want to spoil the fun for the people that had not yet watched the movie...

India paying tribute for 9/11....will such things happen in the US???

The picture here shows a tribute from Indian citizens to the deceased/victims of 9/11. Can you even imagine such a thing being done in the US for the deceased in Mumbai/Malegaon/other terrorist attacks in Kashmir???? All this claiming that they are working towards world peace....yeah right...they have only fought in the wars where they have been directly involved. They call the people attacking twin towers as terrorists and people causing troubles in Kashmir and other parts of India as Militants...a rather mild word used for those monsters..... 

Work an Hour....Asha

No matter how long a journey is, it starts with one small step.
Donate an hourhttp://www.workanhour.com

A foward thats worth reading once...hehehe

If u TREAT her nicely, she says u are IN LOVE with her;
If u Don't, she says u are PROUD.
If u DRESS Nicely, she says u are trying to LURE her;
If u don't, she says u are from UGANDA.
If u ARGUE with her, she says u are STUBBORN;
If u keep QUIET,! she says u have no BRAINS.
If u are SMARTER than her, she'll lose FACE;
If she's Smarter than u, she is GREAT.
If u don't Love her, she tries to POSSESS u;
If u Love her, she will try to LEAVE u.(very true huh?)
If u don't make love with her., she says! u don't Love her;
If u do!! she says u are CHEAP.
If u tell her your PROBLEM, she says u are TROUBLESOME;
If u don't, she says that u don't TRUST her.
If u SCOLD her, u are like a CHACHA to her;
If she SCOLDS u, it is because she CARES for u.
If u BREAK your PROMISE, u Cannot be TRUSTED;
If she BREAKS hers, she is FORCED to do so.
If u SMOKE, u are BAD BOY;
If she SMOKES, she is a GENTLELADY.
If u do WELL in your exams, she says it's LUCK;
If she does WELL, it's BRAINS.
If u HURT her, u are CRUEL;
If she HURTS u, u are too SENSITIVE!! & sooo hard to please!!!!!
If u send this to girls, they will swear that it's not true.......
but if u don't, they say u are selfish.....

A monster called..."Reservations "

When this whole thing abt the reservations for OBC's in IIT's,Medical Colleges and higher educational institutions started I was in India.... the government had simply made a statement without understanding the repurcussions of such a step. the students from these institutions went on a strike...especially the docs...the most shocking incident that comes to my mind even today happened in "Amchi Mumbai"...

The medical students were protesting in a peaceful manner with just a rally and no violent slogans and stuff....at one point they all staged a sort of "dharna" in front of the assembly or CM's office i dont remember exactly. The police intervened out of the blue and started lathi charging the students without any warnings or any kind of persuasion....it was unbelievable that they did this when the whole thing was being televised nationally!!!!! All the news channels aired the bloody scenes of the students getting beaten up by the police mercilessly...the worst was still in store...female students were also assaulted (i guess thats more appropriate than lathi charge) by male police officers.....lot of the students were severly injured.......it was a painful sight...the future doctors of india being man-handled that way.... the next couple of days saw a lot more invovlvement of the students from around the country in opposing the reservation demon....

Some students in Delhi also went on hunger strike....all the newspapers and news channels covered the whole episode but there was no response from the government...students continued their hunger strike for abt 15 days and in the meantime more students and resident docs joined the "strike"....and what were the great indian politicians doing....."Nothing"....i couldnt believe that not a single MP or MLA etc didnt release a statement in the press abt the whole issue....on top of this as if to rub salt on injury....all the resident docs were handed a return-to-work-immediately-else-get-fired notice!!!!!!!!!!

The man of the moment"Arjun Singh" then criticizes the Knowledge committe for showing some kind of support to the whole issue...when all they said was that the government was acting in a haste and that they should consider all options and how they will be implemented before making press statements...the pressure that was building up was so intense that a couple of well known and respected members of the knowledge committee...Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Andre Beteille... resgined from their posts on the committee.....

I couldnt fathom the fact that the "National knowledge Committee" had a panel of elite and well-educated people but could be vetoed or overruled by a bunch of illiterates or educated-morons called "netas". I was glad the day Manmohan singh became the PM as I was thinking...."Which other country in the world has a President and a PM with PhD's ???"....but looking at the current situation it makes me think why had i even considered that India would be in better hands...

Atlast the government thinks that it has a master plan to counter the ever intensifying reservation struggle...feels weird as it sounds like freedom struggle.......they come up with a proposal that they thought would hushhhhhh the agitated crowds....."we will not take away anything from the students...inorder to accomodate the reservations for the OBC's we will increase the number of seats in the colleges!!!!!!!!!!"

are u kidding me!!!!!!!! First of all...most of the colleges in India are under-staffed with moderate or poor infrastructure and now they want to increase the number of students to increase the burden on a run-down education system!!!!!!!!!

One thing I never understood was "Why do people need reservation based on caste???". i understand that people need reservations but that should be economic-based and not caste-based....even for the econimically needy provide reservation till 12th grade and not after....people should get a seat in college..be it IIT or IIM or AIIMS or any other...based on merit...if u are economically backward but deserve aseat based on merit then the govt should make provisions to provide a "free seat"...where in the student wil lnot have to pay for higher education....

Looking at how things are going can u imagine what the standard of IIT and IIM would be after the reservations are implemented??? The day when a IIT / IIM degree (which is considered almost peerless in India) will be no different from a Mumbai/delhi/osmania university degree is not too far.... I pray that it shouldnt happen atleast in my lifetime...not that it should happen afterwards...

A verbal dual on a forum in TOI caught my attention and it is worth mentioning:

Pro-reservation guy: you upper caste people esp brahmins think that by giving us reservations for 60 yrs after independence u can make us forget the suffering of 3000 yrs when our caste people were insulted and treated like untouchables....we deserve to get reservations!!!!! (Can u believe this guy????)....by the way the original version had lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors...

Response: Dude!!!!! Are you completely out of ur mind!!!! What are you blabering??? I do agree that some people had been suppressed for 3000 yrs but we didnt do it....get that...u say that you have been given only 60 yrs of reservations blah blah...have you ever been suppressed??? or treated like an untouchable??? NO.....then why the #@$% should you get reservation....you say that your people were ill-treated...so they deserve the reservation....so the people prior to independence are the once that deserve it, not a piece of @#$% like you who wants to ride on their shoulders and deprive a student of merit from getting into a college.....if you think you deserve the seat earn it with merit...prove that you are more capable than the other guy...

Links to watch India-Pak cricket series 2006...Live

The following are the links to watch (to my knowledge) to watch the ongoing India-Pak series live..but these are not free links...there is ~ $25 charge to each....check them out

www.livecricketon.tv

www.desicricketlive.com

Back after a long time....hopefully will be regular from now on !!!!!!!

I have been thinking of writing a blog for a long time but have been very lazy in implementing the idea!!!!! But at last I have decided to get back into it....

A lot of things have happened since I had written my last post....for starters....I got engaged (with Sindhu) and we will be getting married on the 19th of May........so thats some good news !!!!!!!!! at least for now... cant say for sure if it is good or bad news ...ehhhheeheheheheh

I had my PhD proposal and candidacy which was kind of a nightmare as expected but I barely managed to pass them. Proposal wasnt too bad I had a couple of questions that were hard to answer but thats ok....but the candidacy exam was a comeplete disaster..... atleast from my view...I didnt do too well...i answered all the difficult questions but messed up big time with the easy questions....i dont know what happened but I suddenly got tensed and my mind went blank on some things that were basics of biomechanics...my PhD committee members are definitely kind hearted, I can vouch for that (now that they passed me after my dismal performance).

My first publication as a first author for a journal article got accepted for "Clinical Biomechanics"...that was a very exciting day and I was all pumped up...it is indeed a very satisfying experience to see that the work you do is going to be published in a major journal.....

I taught my first class in the college of engineering...i taught "Soft tissue biomechanics" which is basically dealing with bones, ligaments, tendons and cartilage....i taught 1/3 rd of the course...i was completely incharge of my 1/3 rd including the exam....it was a very good experience...I was tensed for my first class...i had made notes that was supposed to last me for 50 minutes but I could have talked for 2 hrs with the stuff that i had prepared for.... I thought 50 mins was too short and will not take much time to finish but on that day I realized how long the 50 minutes actually were....but i guess thats becoz of the butterflies in the stomach ..blah...blah...blah...after that class 50mins used to fly by and I used to be surprized when the class used to remind me that it was time to stop....i guess i kind of settled down into the routine...

Sindhu had gone to India to attend her brother's wedding so I was a bachelor for 6 weeks...it was kind of good that I had time for myslef but it was kind of boring without her being around...I think I kind of gottend used to her being around.....i didnt know what to do with my time...initially I was preparing for my exams but after that I started watching a lot of movies (not that I usually dont)...

Went to Austin,TX for thanxgiving to meet my old friend...praveen kumar pasupathy...it was a blast of a trip...i should say that Austin is a great place....its weather is nice... being from OHIO i was kind of glad that I was in TX at the end of November!!!!!!! Went to HOuston, san Antonio ... it was a 4 day trip but a great trip....caught up with praveen after a long time....

went to DC for Christmas...for a surprise party for...Grace....it was a fun trip as it was my first time in DC....she was surprized that Dipti, Sindhu and I drove down for her B'day.....it was a nice a surprise planned by Himanshu (her husband). Sindhu and I went to see the museums...we saw the National Museum of Natural History and Air and Space Museum.....we spent 4 hrs (combined) but I could only see 1/2 of natural history museum and 1/3 of air and space..but Sindhu was tired so we called it quits....it was indeed a nice experience...i could have easily spend 3-4 more hrs....also caught up with a couple of friends of mine and sindhu after a long time so all in all it was a goodtrip....we had a small incident on the way back which could have been disastrous but didnt turn out that to be bad....

spent the new year's with come friends in Akron, Milind (my old roomie) and Bhavna had come down from East Lansing, MI and all of us (Anil & Subha, Amru & Darshana, Gaurab & Anu, milind & Bhavna and Sindhu & I) had a nice time on new Year's eve playing TABOO, watchinng the Ball drop on TV and playing Mafia (it is an awesome game!!!!! ) till 4 Am....

I think I have kind of written too long a post after a long time...so will stop here for now...