Aaj Ki Taja Khabar

SDCC3 outclass Inland Empire

2008-08-07T00:42:00.001-05:00

THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON THE 29th of JUNE.....

SD3 had an outstanding day on the field today against Inland Empire. The week was a terrible week from personnel stand point as we had to recruit new blood to make up the team due to unavailabilities and injuries. We had 4 new players in the team and were without our captain Arshad, Sakthi stepped up to take the responsibility and did a wonderful job.

We won the toss and elected to bowl...as is usually the case with our side...better bowling team. Started off with a beautiful first over from Shiva with a wicket maiden....Fanil (new player) started off well too and complemented Shiva with some controlled and economical bowling, he was unlucky to not get any wickets (due to some dropped catches) but with Shiva leading the wicket taking effort all Fanil had to do was support him and he did a fabulous job. Shiva got another break through and by the end of their spell we had Inland Empire 10 overs..24/2....Suneel and Raju P (new player) came in as first change bowlers....Raju making his debut got a wicket with his third ball uprooting the middle stump....that was a treat to watch...little did we know that we were going to watch some exceptional stuff from him...he just took over the game and got a wicket almost in every over of his to finish with 7/17 in 6.2 overs....a stupendous effort for any level of cricket....beautiful piece of bowling from him...all of us were witness to a performance that is not a every day occurence on the cricket field. Ajay...the other new comer...didnt want to be left behind and added with a beautiful wicket of his own...he bowled the batsman with a peach...all in all we were able to get the opposition out for 58 runs !!!!!!!!!!!!! thats the lowest total in a game that I have been involved in (30 overs or more)......we got them out in 24 overs....a clinical performance on the field by SD3...

We didnt want to repeat the same mistakes that we made during our last low scoring loss against the same team in the season opener so Sakthi asked all the batsman to play positively. It was a great confidence booster to have the team's leading scorer, Raju S, back in the line up....the batting looks a lot more assured when he is in there....Ajay and he opened the innings and got us off to a good start before Ajay fell for a dubious decision. In walked Tejuswi..Another new recruit....he started playing some lovely drives and lofted the ball before perishing to a slower ball...all of a sudden it seemed to be a similar story of batting collapse when Vinit fell without scoring...and the bowlers bowling a tight line without giving anything away…..runs had dried up….Sakthi then made a smart move and sent Shiva up the order....Shiva played some attacking shots that brought the momentum back to SD with Raju playing steadily at the other end....they brought us home in 14 overs....for no more loss of wickets...all in all it was a well earned victory that the team has been waiting for....

SDCC3 registers a big win against Regal CC

2008-08-06T02:07:00.001-05:00

The day started with the usual rolling of the pitch, laying of the match and running around to get supplies, it was a typical home game morning, with nothing out of the ordinary but turned events that unraveled from then on made the day special for the team. Arshad won the toss and as discussed prior to the game...elected to bat. He said that he wanted to challenge the team with the task of defending a total after it has failed to do that inspite of scoring 230 plus runs not once but twice and both the times against Brit & Dom. Coming off from the last ball thriller and morale killing last ball loss to Brit & Dom the team seemed all pepped to take on the captains challenge.

Arshad and Raju opened the innings for SD3....with Arshad looking more and more confident with each innings and Raju trying to make amends for a rare failure in the last game it was a perfect setting for a big score....Regal bowlers started off well by yielding only 19 runs in the first 6 overs with only 7 coming off t he bat....it was a slow but a steady start and the growing confidence in the strokes of both the players was apparent and it looked like a perfect platform for the two of then to launch....with the first bowling change brought the welcome relief that the bastmen were looking for an they turned around the scoring rate in an astonishing manner. Arshad was the first to up his scoring tempo with a brace of boundaries and Raju soon followed suit. In not time the score coasted towards fifty and at the first break the score was aorund 65 in 13 overs for no loss. Refreshed from the break the Arshad started scoring at a fast pace and started increasing the scoring gap between him and Raju...he was racing towards a well deserved fifty when he fell against the run of play for a slow bowler for 48. By then Arshad and Raju put together a Century partnership....thats was the first time I had seen a century stand for SDCC 3. It provided a perfect platform for the rest of the batsmen. With Raju playing the sheet anchor role Aman was sent in to hit some quick runs and he started off in a stylish manner with a couple of well timed boundaries but he perished to a slower bowler too...Raju on the other hand completed a well crafted fifty....Satish...our star from the last game....walked in confidently....he started playing himself in and runs started flowing at a brisk and steady pace...Raju perished trying to increase the scoring rate and fell for 61. Hari walked in confidently and it looked like a good setting for him to get back to scoring ways....the guys were rooting for him to strike form as he has been really unfortunate so far this season....but his bad seemed to continue as his lofted drive off the first ball he faced was plucked out of the air by the fielder....he stood there in disbelief....Suneel was sent in to stem the sudden fall of wickets....with Satish going great from the other end all Suneel had to do was stay at the crease....Satish was scoring runs at a brisk pace though not all from the middle of the bat....Suneel decided to go at the slow bowlers when they picthed the ball up and connected the first time for a four but the very next ball he persihed for trying to be over aggressive...he got LBW for completing his pull shot before even the ball reached him...yeah it was that slow....suddenly the 260-270 score started looking like a distant possibility....Tejuswi walked in and started off confidently driving down the ground and flicking the ball with ease....Satish was playing a composed innings and was begining to open out....Tejuswi fell in quest of quick runs for 10....in walked the man of the day...little did we know that Shiva was going to take charge of the game and dominate Regal. He started smashing the ball all over the place and that kind of even encouraged Satish for taking on the bowlers....score crossed 250...and was on path for a good score....when Satish played one lofted shot too many to fall for 49 runs to the surprise of all the SDCC players....Shiva finished with 22 runs off 9 balls...SDCC3 finished with 257/8 in 40 vers....seemed like a good score...but so did 237 in the previous game.

After the break, Shiva opened the bowling with Fanil....Neville...the opener for Regal CC started off well by pulling and cutting the ball with unbelievable power....after Shiva got the first break through with a swinging ball, the usually reliable Fanil was dispatched for a few runs mercilessly by Neville...which prompted Arshad to bring on Raju P...he was greeted by Neville with a monstrous six.... but Shiva kept pegging away from the other end and got wickets at regular intervals,....then Raju and Shiva settled into a rhythm and were working in tandem...and that paid dividends and Shiva teased Neville and forced him to play one shot too many.....Neville perished playing across the line...and with him the hope for Regal CC as well...as he seemed to be the only batsman that showed some sense of responsibility to stay at the wicket....Raju P joined the act and got a couple of wickets of his own....Shiva with 4 wickets was easily the pick of the bowlers... he could have had his fifth too but a misunderstanding between Fanil and Tejuswi resulted in a dropped catch....Renga and Suneel continued the restrictive bowling that Raju and Shiva had started....and were rewarded with wickets as well. Shiva was brought back into the attack and he struck straight away to grab his 5th wicket....in the mean time he also dropped a dollly...that even Boycott's mum could have caught.....all in all Regal was bowled out for 88 . The man of the moment Shiva was given the game ball and SDCC3 players finished day with a 171 run victory....now they have a well earned 2 week break before they head to Woodley grounds to take on Anaheim.

Olympics - India's eternal desire for a Gold...will it be fulfilled in 2008?

2008-08-05T11:46:00.004-05:00

With the Beijing Olympics around the corner, only one thought is on most of the Indian people's minds....will we get a medal this time ?? (No...not a Gold...any medal would do). Thats been the sad story of the indian sports ever since Olympics have been established. The fact that India has never won an individual gold medal is surprising to believe when countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Israel & Saudi Arabia have managed to bag Gold medals. The fact the Rathore...who won a silver was considered pride of the country and was given a promotion in the indian army and was awarded all kinds of honors that take people a lifetime of excellence to achieve tells the sad tale of the current state of Indian sports. On the other end of the spectrum is USA...where they literally dominate the medals tally...what ever said about the competition from China, Russia, Australia etc....USA is the team to beat. Michael Phelps....the swimming sensation that won about 6 gold medals in the previous edition Olympics took a sabbatical because he couldnt achieve his goal of 8 GOLDS !!!!!! And he is back this year to take another shot at getting 8 Golds....1 more than Mark Spitz....and most of the people in the US wouldnt even know who Michael Phelps is....he has not been conferred with country's highest honor nor has been invited to every damn award ceremony organized in the country....and the most surpising thing is that he is not even 24 yrs old!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We as a nation cry or erupt in joy with the performance of the Indian Cricket Team...the "Alpha, Beta and the Gamma" of Indian sports. The kind of recognition, fame, money and media coverage that these cricketers get is envied by all the other sports men & women. People like Dhoni...who has not even achieved a lot in like is given Rajiv Khel Ratna award.....thats the highest honor given to a Indian sports person....was Kapil Dev awarded with that ? Sunil Gavaskar ? And ask any indian cricket fan....who has contributed more to Indian cricket (so far) Dhoni or Kapil/gavaskar/Dravid/Ganguly ? Dhoni has no doubt transformed the Indian ODI team but I think the government should have taken their time as they did in SACHIN's case....8 yrs !!!!!!! Same with Sania mirza....she is honored like crazy at all the award ceremonies and people turn a cold shoulder to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati who actually win tournaments....Sania no doubt has brought Womens tennis into limelight in India but she has done little of note to be honored with lifetime achievement awards.

I think the we should stop idolizing & creating media publicized demi gods like our cricketers, Anju George, Sania mirza and start concentrating and encouraging the guys that go unnoticed....Indian Hocket team, shooter, boxers, chess players etc....

As somebody said "We did our part by participating, thats what counts...winning is only a bonus"...unfortunately thats been the kind of attitude that has been inculcated in us since we are kids.....what we see is what we learn.....

the Olympics is not only about participating...its about winning too....I think we have participated enough...its time to start winning...atleast take the right steps towards winning.....

The classic example of how things have gone to worse can be seen by the sheer lackluster performance of the mens hockey team...once the Badshah's of the world with a lot of Gold medals...we had come to a stage where we had to play the qualifiers...and now we have hit the rock bottom....we failed to qualify for the olympics.....that should serve as an eye opener to a lot of people that something needs to be done....

Some might say....."in India we concentrate on studies and not on sports"....I would say "why not" sports are a form of expression....we need to have some kind of exposure to sports as it gives you a different platform to excel....why should we only excel in studies....as such most of the schools in the indian system only require you to memorize things and mechanically solve the problems from the last "10 years" to pass the final exam. Are we blind to believe that only people of india study, and others dont ? Look at China, germany and other major countries....they are developing as a nation....in research, education, manufacturing, sports etc....

The basic flaw I think is in the system that is not being able to identify and nurture the talents at an early stage....people get into sports teams with influence, bribing, seniority etc....that is not the right way to build you infrastructure...and more over we are teaching the kids that you can get anything with influence, bribe etc....and that hardwork is just one of the ways to achieve the goal when on the contrary it should be preached that HARDWORK is the ONLY way to achieve your goals....

I can go on & on....now I can only hope that we win some medals to justify the 1 billion population tag that India has.....

Compuware Game....

2007-06-14T15:13:00.001-05:00

After that loss against NCC we headed to Nationwide ground to play the second half of our double header....the umpire was very very rude...we werent scheduled to leave the ground we played on earlier that morning but due to some conflict we had to move to another ground....we had 45 mins between the games on which we banked on to get some lunch....but becoz of the change in venue...we lost most of that time and the umpire wasnt even considerate enough to let us get some food...he said that we wil have to lose some overs if we went for food...thats rubbish....when our car got there the umpire was on the field already gesturing us to come for toss....we had 6 people at that point so when I won the toss i elected to bat....it was a forced decision...but turned out to be a good one....

Sham and Baji opened the innings and were hitting at will against the relatively weaker bowling team....both of them scored briskly....Baji was playing himself back into form by gradually increasing in confidence with each of his knocks....Sham was at his attacking best....both of them put in a quick 60-70 run partnership when against the run of the play.....Baji got out....then Uday was sent in....he too got out quickly...Guru was promoted to get some batting practice....but he got out for a duck.....too bad that he didnt utilize the opportunity....by that point the groupism in the team was brewing....we developed a group system and divided the team into 3 groups and each groups would be awarded with points based on the players performance...this was done to incorporate healthy competition within the team....little did we know that Raghav...would abuse it to the advantage of his group...hehehhehehe...well....Raghav and I kind of steadied the innings and took the score close to 170 when I got out...trying to get over aggressive...Vijay went in and started belting the ball to all parts of the field with neat hits....his hitting was so effective and outstanding that he outscored Raghav ( playing since the 9 or 10th over) in a 9-ball knock...we ended up with 210 odd runs....

their batting too wasnt that great....so Raghav decided to experiment with the bowling....which was a good idea....but he abused the system to give bowling only to the people in his group....result being that his group got about 7-8 wickets that fell that day....anyways....Gabroo bowled and over and so did Guru....Uday bowled a couple and Harsha bowled 3....then Rajni and Thimma bowled 4 each in which Rajni got 5 wickets....he was bowling very well....with a decent flight and good line.....he deserved the wickets he got....the best part was his celebration after each wicket....in panesar style....with pumping fists and running to the batsman...accompanied by a shriek of joy ( or heckling the batsman)....Rohit also joined the party with a couple of overs and wicket....my contribution on the field was just a catch....we got them out for 70 runs or so.....it was a relatively easy game after that close match against NCC...so we ended the league phase with 3-1 record and luckily for me...we topped the group...in spite of my terrible performance against NCC that brought some solace to me....

Game against NCC (20-20)

2007-06-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Our next game was against Nationwide Cricket Club (NCC)....i know quite a few people on the team as I have been playing for quite some time with Akron CC....so it was nice to see some familiar faces...

The game started late as the NCC guys came late...the umpire rightly punished them for their tardiness by deducting 2 overs from their chase...there was lot of opposition to that....but we started the game finally....we were concerned becoz we had a double header that day and had to play two matches back-to-back....so we were banking on the break between the games to replenish our energy reserves....

Anyways...we started batting...Baji and Abhay started well....scored briskly....got a partnerhsip going...then Abhay got out against the run of the play....Sham walked in and tried hitting out from the first ball....bad strategy....well he got a life....then Baji went...he scored 15-20 runs...I went in with the hope of building some partnerships and keep the score board ticking....sham got out immediately....in walked Raghav....we decided to buckle down and get ones....dont know what got into Raghav....tried lofting the ball...not exactly his strength and got out....to a good catch....in walked the debutant....Vinay...we had a similar discussion in the middle....buckle up and run singles....he did the same things Raghav did and was caught at the same position....Guru came next....both of us are comfortable with each other as we can run our singles fast....so we had a nice little partnership going....then I had a rush of blood and was catch at short third man....we were in a little bit of trouble...as Vijay got out immediatelt and Guru after hitting a good six....thanks to rajni and Harsha...we played out the rest of the overs for 120 odd runs....

Well...we thought that it would be a god total as they had to chase it in 18 overs....Vijay and Guru started of well again...Vijay esp was brilliant...he was in a zone and bowled with good control....we got a few wickets but essentially kept the asking rate high.....Manpreet was introduced and he started with a brillinat yorker....we kept the scoring low and got wickets at regular intervals....I felt we were all good to go...little did I know that I was going to have a horrible day....first I dropped a catch on the boundary line....it was simple catch...that should have given me a hint as to what kind of a day I was going to have....Raghav threw me the ball in the hope of wrapping things up after the other debutant Harsha bowled well and got a couple of wickets...I was taken for 12 runs in my first over...with a six off my slower ball...its been a long time since I hadbeen hit for a six off my slower ball as I have been getting the ball spot on....but this time it didnt work....then harsha bowled another good over and I screwed it up again, i was taken for 12 more runs in the next over...with another six over deep sqaure....I asked raghav to stop me....he obliged....thank god....I dont know what would have happened had I continued....anyways...Gabroo and Guru brought us back into the game with some excellent bowling in the death....but we did give them some freebies by bowling fullish length....on Baji's and Sham's insistance raghav asked me to bowl the last over .....I was surprised ....I said "r u sure?? I am having a terrible day"....he said that he faith in me....I was encouraged....14 required of the last over....started off with runout from the first ball....but then i compenstaed with six of the next ball again....i was like...whats going on....why am I screwing up that bad...8 from 4.....they got 2....6 from 3....bowled a slower ball..that beat the batsman and the keeper all end s up....that went for a bye and another for unfortunate overthrow...4 from 2.....the ball slipped from my hand and I bowled a waist high full toss that went for a single...2 runs scrored....2 balls 2 runss... brilliant piece of fielding by sham...he shot the non striker end wickets down under pressure...1 ball 2 runs...we got the field up but I screwed up with a ball right in the slot that was hit for another six!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! end of the game and a disastrous performance from me....after all the effort from Vijay, Guru, Gabroo and harha....i gave up 42 in 3 overs!!!!! my worst ever performance....so we lost the game and fell to 2-1....we had to win the next game to top the group.....

Start of the 2007 cricket season

2007-06-04T23:50:00.000-05:00

Cricket season is a much awaited season for a bunch of us who spend most of the time in winter discussing the previous seasons or the upcoming season or (worse) indian cricket team....heheheh

This year the season didnt start off with the customary practice games....we participated in a 20-20 tournament....a first of its kind in this region....13 teams participated...Akron CC had a few new faces....Vijay, Abhay,Rajni, Vinay, Aditya....but most of the team was comprised of players that had represented akron in the years prior....Sham, Avinash, Raghav, Praneeth, Manpreet, Gurpreet, Harsha, Uday, Rohit and myself.....Hari, Manas and Sri Harsha werent available for this tournament.

We started off well against UCC....restricted them to 108 odd runs in 20 overs...this being our first time in 20-20 and also being Raghav's first game as captain of Akron CC....it was quite an experience....Vijay making his debut bowled brilliantly and so did Sham,Uday and Gabroo...I managed to chip in with a few good overs. the only person that had a bad day was Guru...he was pretty deflated after that...he is the most energetic fielder on the team so his silence and drooping shoulders did have an effect on the team....but we bowled well for our first game...the only surprise was that the new ball was shared by Sham (spinner) with VIjay....it took most of our team and their team by surprise...

Our chase started disastrously losing Baji and Abhay in the first couple of overs....both of them caught off guard for playing attacking shots too early in the innings...that too in the first game of the season....but that didnt ditter Sham....he kept counter attacking and that worked for us....he hit some lusty blows but fell trying to be too aggressive...Raghav and I managed to see the side through to victory thanks to some horrendous fielding by UCC... i rode on my luck 5 times !!!!!!!! Yes they dropped 5 of my catches....I couldnt have given any more chances...hehehhe Raghav also was dropped a couple of times....but in the end we managed with Sham and me scoring in 30's and Raghav in 20's. All in all it was good start for the season..... I was chosen Man of the Match...i dont remember when I last won that honor....hehehe

Next we played GahannaCC....we batted first this time....Sham and Baji opened the innings and put up a fine show....it was good to see Baji among runs as he started the season with a duck....sham started from where he had stopped in his previous innings...he even bettered his previous effort....he was at his swashbuckling best....he swatted the attack to all parts of the field....some of the sixes that he hit were huge !!!!!!!! and he wasnt even trying to slog....they were all great looking cricketing shots....it was treat to watch him....we were expecting AkronCC's first century....little did we dream to see that...and we would not even have thought of that to be in a 20-20 game even in our wildest dreams......all of us were excited....but like in the past....AkronCC player threw his wicket when in sight of a 100 and when he had the bowlers at his mercy.....too bad that Sham missed his century but for me...he got one....he scored 92 !!!! and he got out in the 16th over.....cant even imagine what he would have achieved had he played the full 20 overs :):)....then our innings fell apart and suprisingly we ended up with 170 odd runs with only 20 runs to show in the last 5 overs....thanks to sham we managed that score...else it would have been around 120....

Guru and Vijay were on fire when we started our bowling....they had a competition going...and they managed to clean the top order in the first few overs....this despite Guru being hit for a six of t he first ball of the innings....the game was in our control.....Manpreet and I got a few more wickets and we thought we had wrapped it all up....but we were wrong....Raghav introduced Baji and Sham....Baji got a couple of wickets in his first over....but was clobbered in his next and Sham too was hit for a few sixes....so all of a sudden we were under pressure again....Raghav threw the ball to me and asked me to look to contain them....I had noticed that all the balls that were hit for sixes were short of length or in the driving length....so I decided to experiment with blockhole balls and slower ones....it worked and I managed to get a couple of wickets and we wrapped the game....so we were 2-0....it had been a long time since we had a winning start to the season...so all of us were happy and it was no surprise that Sham was chosen the MOM....

more to come.....

Asian Games.....no proper media coverage

2006-12-14T01:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-10-13T10:52:00.000-05:00

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"

2006-09-14T23:13:00.000-05:00

Lage Raho Munnabhai...rocks

2006-09-11T22:12:00.000-05:00

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???

2006-09-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-19T10:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

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 "

2006-07-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

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 !!!!!!!

2006-01-09T00:08:00.000-05:00

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...

Happy Dussera

2005-10-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

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

2005-10-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

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

When everything goes wrong........

2005-09-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

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...

An Interesting forward....

2005-08-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

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...

Work an Hour for a worthy cause.....

2005-07-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-25T19:56:00.000-05:00

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.

Back to blogging after a long time.....

2005-05-02T17:19:00.000-05:00

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...............

Dodgeball....

2005-03-24T21:24:00.000-05:00

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)

2005-03-11T18:01:00.000-05:00

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

2005-03-04T00:06:00.000-05:00

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....

Super Bowl 2005

2005-02-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

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...

Ebay

2005-02-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

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

Sania Mirza.....

2005-02-02T01:59:00.000-05:00

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....

Some Sardar Jokes that a friend forwarded...no offence to anyone..

2005-01-28T15:20:00.000-05:00

* 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.

2005-01-27T02:47:00.000-05:00

Awesome stunt by the army corps

Republic Day...Mera Bharat Mahan !!!!

2005-01-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

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...

Cold Weather......

2005-01-18T13:18:00.000-05:00

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...

Semester About to Start ......

2005-01-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

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.....

2005-01-12T17:43:00.000-05:00

Graduation Day....A big day for Sindhu :)

Russell Peters......

2005-01-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

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.....

Some more links and sites that accept credit cards

2005-01-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

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

2005-01-03T16:11:00.001-05:00

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.

2004-12-30T20:40:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

to be continued......

2004-12-30T11:26:00.000-05:00

Tsunami.....The Killer Wave

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-12-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

Saga of the Cleveland Browns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-12-15T02:34:00.000-05:00

Earth Sea

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

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

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

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

2004-12-03T16:53:00.000-05:00

 Some interesting Laws....

LORENZ'S LAW OF MECHANICAL REPAIR-

After your hands become coated with grease, your nose

will begin to itch.



ZADRA'S LAW OF BIOMECHANICS-

The severity of the itch is inversely proportional

to the reach.



ANTHONY'S LAW OF THE WORKSHOP-

Any tool,when dropped,will roll to the least

accessible corner..



KOVAC'S CONUNDRUM-

When you dial a wrong number,you never get an

engaged one..



CANON'S KARMIC LAW-

If you tell the boss you were late for work

because you had a flat tyre,the next morning

you will have a flat tyre..



O'BRIEN'S VARIATION LAW-

If you change queues,the one you have left

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



RUBY'S PRINCIPLE OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-

The probability of meeting someone you know

increases when you are with someone you don't

want to be seen with..



WILLOUGHBY'S LAW-

When you try to prove to someone that a machine

won't work, it will..



BREDA'S RULE-

At any event,the people whose seats are

fartherest from the aisle arrive last..



OWEN'S LAW-

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

your boss will ask you to do something which

will last until the coffee is cold..

2004-11-29T01:05:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T02:32:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T02:30:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T02:29:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T02:28:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T02:27:00.000-05:00

waaaahhhh.....Palace on wheels :):)

2004-11-17T02:26:00.000-05:00

This amazing site is only possible in India :)

2004-11-16T14:45:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-10-29T00:14:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

2004-09-24T00:30:00.000-05:00

Ganesh Chathurthi

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

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

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

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

2004-09-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

Back to School.....

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

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

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

2004-08-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Moving to Brown St.......

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

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

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

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

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

2004-08-04T20:12:00.000-05:00

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

2004-08-04T20:03:00.001-05:00

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

2004-08-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

Ayyer and Anil with Adi...

2004-08-04T20:01:00.001-05:00

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

2004-07-26T14:02:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-07-20T16:10:00.000-05:00

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

2004-07-20T16:09:00.000-05:00

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

2004-07-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

Cricket.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-07-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

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

2004-07-07T12:48:00.000-05:00

continued....

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

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

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

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

2004-07-06T15:33:00.000-05:00

Back in the US of A...

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

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

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

.....to be continued :)

2004-05-26T03:17:00.000-05:00

Home sweet Home

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

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

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

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

2004-05-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

End of a glorious era in AP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-05-12T12:46:00.000-05:00

Respond instead of reacting: Azim Premji

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.

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

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

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

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

2004-05-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

Dhanraj Pillay Issue....

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

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

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

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

"We need Dhanraj Pillay for Olympics"

2004-05-04T01:02:00.000-05:00

A blog atlast!!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-03-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

India wins first series against Pakistan in PAK 3-2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-03-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Done at last!!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

2004-02-09T02:35:00.000-05:00

"Chai Bana na".....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004-01-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

My planned crime......

I think after reading Brijesh's blog I am inspired or rather have become bold to reveal the crime that me and my friends pulled off in my 6th standard, yeah I know that we were too young to plan but we planned it to perfection.....and never got caught....though i wasnt a part of lifting i was a part of the crime too.....

In 6th standard we used to have a craze (rather obsession) for collecting stamps, coins and currencies.....we used to literally bargain for exchanges....it was fun....i still have all my collection....we used to treasure triangular, circular, rhombus shaped stamps, rare coins and any kind of currency notes from foriegn countries.....at the peak of this collecting fad there was a stamp and currency exhibition in our school.....all the classes were given time slots to enter the exhibition hall and we were given the time after the lunch break....we were happy that we got a lecture off and that we could see some to the rare collection....two of my best friends...yes...at that age we used to have 3 or 4 best friends....that would just make the other person happy....hehehheh....thinking abt that makes me laugh even now....back to my two best friends in school.....they were collection maniacs......so they sneaked in with the other class during the lunch break and were blown away by the variety there.....there they found out that a student from the other class managed to flick a coin....so they decided that they will do that too....they came to me and said that they needed help.....I being a kind of quite and reserved (then not now!!!!!!!!) person was scared initially but they told me that they will do everything but I will have to hide the loot as i was the unsuspected person there.....all the teachers kind of liked me, though i wasnt a great student, so I was perfect person to hide things.....they came up with the plan to flick a circle stamp and an Indonesian currency note.....they had seem them on the previous visit and exactly knew where they were. So they came up with the plan that they will go in with 3-4 people between them....we were taken inside in a line...so one guy would slightly pull them out and the other will pocket it....but there was the catch....everyone was checked.....ok here was one thing that i could never understand....only the guys were checked !!!!!!!!!!! the girls were let off without even being questioned!!!!!!!!!! thats unfair. So now the problem was..where to hide the things.....they were thinking all kinds of possible places....but it will difficult to get to those places while in the crowd....so they were all eliminated.....shoes and socks were also checked....then I came up with the master stroke.....i asked them to stuff it up their ties!!!!!!!!!!!! they were shocked!!!!!!!! Suneel the calm guy came up with such an idea.....all this was planned during the lunch break.....then when we went in everything went according to the plan......they were out with loot untouched and unsuspected.....lekin woh time pe mera itna phata hua haalat tha....poocho mat!!!!!!!.....we were back in the class and they gave the stamp and the note to me.....they were really impressive looking.....I like a good boy put them in the brown cover of one of my books.....I used to cover all my books with a brown cover with my school logo on it and I also used to staple them so it was kind of difficult to push them in but once they were in there it was a perfect hiding place......

the missing stamp and currency note created a havoc in the hall.....the exhibitionist was furious and my class teacher tooo....she came fuming into the class and said that she was ashamed of us....then none of us came forward to accept the crime and the whole class said that we were all innocent....she said that she would agree with that only after checking all the bags.....here too the girls were let off without being checked!!!!!!!!!! very very unfair......she checked everyones bags....books....tiffin boxes....shoes....everything.....but she a few favorites in the class and fortunately i was one of them.....she just browsed through the bags of her favorite students and checked thouroughly in the others bags!!!!!!!! after the whole episode my friends had a naughty smile on their faces and i was shit scared and guilty......but they were my best friends so could not turn them in.....anyways....I was also a part of the crime so I kept my mouth shut.......welll...my friends exchanged those two items the next week (they were smart enough to wait that week).....and good a great deal.....they gave me a coin and triangular stamp for my help......I was very delighted with gift and I completely forgot abt the chori!!!!!!!!!! well....at that age and with the craze of coins and all that stuff i didnt feel guilty abt the incident at all and I completely forgot abt the incident in a few days time with the exams and all......now when I look back I feel kind of guilty for stealing something but there is also a joy that i was involved in a successful lift off that even the teachers could not find out!!!!!!!!!

brijesh.....thanx to ur crying episode that inspired me to relive the memories of the above incident.....I think i will list only this incident else mera poora history patha chal jayega.........hehehhe....just kidding.....I dont think I have any other incident even similar....I was shit scared that time in the hall that I never even tried to indulge in such activities.......just imagine????....what if we were caught!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....maa kasam.....sooch ke hi dimaag hat raha hai.....how could we face our parents?????

2004-01-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

Snow Day.....!!!!!!!!

Today the university will be closed from 1 PM due to snow and the incoming snow storm....thats a nice break as I have class in the evening. This is a very rare thing to happen at Akron....it happens at the most once a year when we have tons of snow and tons more coming....the first time it happened during my time in akron was the first day i took my car to school!!!!.....boooooooo.....I was very very disappointed as it was the first time I got a parking permit and I owned my first car and with a brand new driving license and insurance I was all raring to go and it was called a SNOW DAY...not fair I thought...but I was glad later that day as i saw cars sliding and skidding in the snow....I was thinking...."thank GOD!!!!!, thats not my car". Me being a rookie I could have easliy been one of those cars and I am sure that i would have hit somebody or something had I driven that day.

One more reason to be happy on a snow day is that the classes are cancelled and we doint have to turn in any homeworks!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now thats a nice incentive......I will take that option of sitting at home and doing nothing to attending class and turning in Homeworks!!!!!!! But on the flipside.....the GYM is closed tooo!!!!!!!!....so all we can do is sit at home and do absolutely nothing but to chit chat and watch movies!!!!!!!! I would rather play something like RACQUETBALL instead. Talking abt RACQUETBALL...there is a league tournament coming up at KENT STATE.....its a nice tournament....it has abt 15-20 players in the league and you play every player in the period of 3 months at the end of which the winner is decided by the number of wins and also based on tie breakers. Its a nice tournament for the people who have been playing for over an year or so....as there will be a lot of players with ur skill set and also with varying styles of game so that will improve ur game more than when u play with ur regular practice partner....if anyone needs info please let me know!!!!!

Abt the snow....its been very very cold for the past month!!!!!!! its been freezing with abt temperatures between 4-30 degrees F without the windchill.....now add the wind chill !!!!!!!! that will be 10-15 degrees lesser than the normal temperature.....now i will enjoy my holiday by going home and having a nice and hot coffee and a ood lunch later.

2004-01-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

Home sweet home.......

A lot of my friends had gone baack to India to visit their families during the past month and I couldnt go.....I am very jealous of those guys !!!!!!!! Its been 2 years since I last went home....I miss home, family, friends, College and of course MUMBAI!!!!!!!!!!! Not that I dont have friends here.....I have made some great friends here and I am very happy for that and for the fact that met a special person here in Akron:):) but being away from family always hurts!!!!!!!!

I have to go to the airport in the evening to pick-up Rajesh.....he went to my house in mumbai!!!!!!! I am jealous again......gggrrrrr....talking of the Cleveland Airport.....I have made tons of trips for the pick-ups and the drop offs but I still distinctly remember the day i landed in the US.....khyati, ashwin, priya and rujul were there at the airport to pick me and Manasee up....it was a strange feeling......but I was very excited and i had no regrets of leaving India atleast for the time being....I was away from home, parents and sister for the first time!!!!!!!! but the next time around......when I made my first trip to India and came back.....I remember Bhaddu, Milind and a couple of other friends waiting for me at the airport.....I was very excited to see them.....but I was very sad.....cant say depressed.....but i felt like I was missing something big in the life here......when I had gone home.....i had given my parents a surprise.....I went a day earlier than i was supposed....it was all preplanned and my friends came to the Sahar Airport to pick me up.......the look on my mom's face when she saw me was priceless!!!!!!!!!! my dad was sleepy but he was delighted too.......and sister jumped out of bed!!!!!!!!! that is indeed an unforgettable moment (Kodak Moment) and just shows how much they love me and miss me!!!!!!!!!!! My friends had made surprise welcom plans too....they came with a poster!!!!!!!!!!!!! it read "TM Assistant Plumber Vasinaka" (TM is the name by which my friends at home now me as), they even got me a garland!!!!!!!!!!!! It was very very embarrasing!!!!!!!!! but I loved it ...

My mom was initially very upset that I surprised them....as they had made all the arrangements to come to the airport the next day......but i guess seeing me comepensated for a lot things....hehehehhehe...mom and sister wanted to talk all night, they were that excited......but I had to force them to go to sleep so that mom can get up early and make break fast and take care of other things for dad in the morning and deepika had to go to work!!!!!!! then started the constant requests to eat. eat and eat!!!!!!!! where ever I went and whom ever i met would give me something to eat or drink.....i must have eaten a year's quota in a month!!!!!!!!!!!!

the rest of the trip was very eventful and filled with lots of fun and cherised memories.....met with all my childhood buddies.....Goti, Battery, Kotli, Saby, Wali, Boozie, Naga, Kummu, Daru, pappu and rest of the gang........they were very excited too to see me after a long time...we had a ball of a time!!!!!!!!! got together with all my cousins for Pongal at my Grand Parents place for the first time in 9 years!!!!!!!!!! that was some reunion we had!!!!!!!! it was filled with singing, dancing and catching up with uncles, aunts and grand parents......i can stilll remember everything on that trip like it had just happened yesterday!!!!!!!!!!

when it was time to leave Mumbai.......I started realising that all this was coming to an end and that i was returning to akron.....my mom, dad and sis were noticably sad!!!!! at the airport it was not like the first time.....i was all smiles tht time....but now I was very sad to leave all my beloved ones and friends back....the flight back was very quite and kind of depressing........the life in akron felt very boring compared to what I experienced there.....but as everyone says....time is the best healer.....in no time i was back to my normal life here in Akron and I was back with all the friends here.......little did I know that i was to meet the special person in my life that year!!!!!!!

cant wait to get back home!!!!!!!!!! hoping to go home in May.......cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

2003-12-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

Check out the two links.....

Facts abt September 11 Washington

Spoof of Matrix

2003-12-17T12:40:00.000-05:00

hey he hey......India Wins !!!!!!!!!!

The win abroad (in Australia) at last !!!!!!!!! Most of us cricket fans are very passionate abt the wins and losses of the Indian cricket team. It was evident from the gathering at my place during the ICC championship, World Cup and now for the India-Aus series. The fact that they have been played at odd times (early mornings) but still we had a good crowd watching the games. The best part was the India-Pak game when we had 50-60 people in Vikas's and my house !!!!!!! But now with India beating Aus in the test match I am sure that those numbers will be crossed in this series.

It was really great to see India win a test match in the Kangaroo land after 21 year and for the first time in the Indian Cricket history we won a match in Aus to go ahead in the series !!!!!!!! That is quite an achievement in itself and speaks volumes of the dominance that AUS team has had over the years. But now things will be changing pretty soon I guess. BUt we need to guard against complacency......thats been a factor which has brought down Indian teams many times over the years...be it Cricket, Hockey, football or badminton etc....we get over confident after a single victory....thats when we overlook the strengths of the opposition and take them lightly....AUS has not won 50 games under Waugh for no reason......they are a great side (probably the best team ever in Test History).....yes you have read that correctly....this AUS team has been the most dominant team ever to have played cricket in both versions. They are talented, hard working, agile on the field, have a never-say-die attitude and confident.......just this one loss will not make them a bad side.....no team can be perfect...they are bound to lose some games......so Indian should watch out for a spirited comeback....watching the Indian team play has been very very encouraging over the past couple of years......whatever people may say (that includes me) or might have said abt Dada (Sourav) they are being proved wrong....he has transformed the team with his attitude and backing of the players. That has been his strength.....gaining the confidence of the players......they respect him for what he does for them and for the team not becoz he is the captain....he gets into the mind of the opposition teams and frustrates them....this has never been the attitude of the indian captains......

The team now has a talented and aggressive batting line up with some good bowlers to back them up. We have always been a good batting side but now we have bowlers who want to perform and at the same time learn more with every match. That has been the difference.....
there has always been a debate as to whether India is Tendulkar's team but now we can say no!!!!!!! he has been a dominant batsman in the one days but has never been the same player in tests (people may feel free to refute....this is my opinion)......he is too aggressive to last for long time at the crease.......he can be devastating and demoralise the bowlers but in test cricket its the ability to last and at the same time score is waht is important....I have been a fan of Azhar, Dravid and Laxman (of course sachin and sourav too) over the years......but I feel they never get the credit they deserve. People may have different notions abt Azhar.....thats a different debate altogether.....but the point is on the field u evaluate a person by his skills.......not by his actions off the field........people say he has fixed matches and alll........still he scores 9400 runs.....just imagine how much he would have scored otherwise....I am not very sure abt the whole issue as to why only he is being made the scapegoat of all this when others were involved too....agreed that he has made a mistake.....but u should not take it away from him that...... he was, is and will be one of the cricketing greats of India ......

Dravid the poor guy....never gets the credit he deserves........people talk abt laxman's 281, it was a great innings no doubt, but no one talks abt Dravid's 180 from the other end, people mention Ganguly's 183 at Taunton but never mention Dravid's 153 from the other end (one more funny incident.....Ganguly was dropped by Murali in the outfield and his throw gets Dravid run-out....what rotten luck)....people talk abt Sachin scoring 186 like God!!!!!!!!!!!! but who was at the other end......ofcourse Dravid with 153 !!!!!!!....people made Kaif hero (he deserved that)....abt his century in the ICC trophy but no one mentioned Dravid's 71.....what abt the world cup!!!!!!! he was there every time the team needed him.....people said that he scored very slow and all that stuff.....is that important when ur team is 30/4 ??????......or when the team is on the brink of losing with the last recognised pair in the middle???? people
talk abt the devastating 98 by sachin against PAK in the world cup......but what abt Dravid's 44* to take the team to victory????? hello is anyone getting the point??? one more interesting stat abt his test performance is that of the 16 centuries he has scored 15 have been meaningful "It often escapes all attention that only one time out of 16 when India's best Test batsman has made a century have India lost the match. Nor have these been centuries, bar one in New Zealand, scored once the match has died. It is hard to know about God and stuff, but few human beings have reached Dravid's levels of recent accomplishment. "

Laxman.....man!!!!! lesser mentioned abt the bad-luck he has had the better it is. First of all he is a good middle order batsman....he is sent opening in West indies....of course its hard to perform there especially in a position u are not accustomed to....he "failed" (had a 50 and couple of otehr good scores).....he was dropped from the team......then he makes a comeback and then establishes a spot in the team......he is still shuffled in the batting order with Dravid.....hello???? is anybody with brains there ????? when a batsman is in form u want him in the middle saving the game for u and not a batsman out-of-form. People agree that Laxman and Dravid are good players but when they are not making runs.....they have to be dropped and that we should not go by past performances!!!!!!!!!!!! but the same people say this when Sachin is not getting runs "he is out-of-form he needs some time in the middle".....isnt that unfair???? Not to take away anything from the great batsman but shouldnt the treatment be same for the talent. Laxman can match sachin in most of the strokes......but remember Sharjah !!!!!!!! Sachin was playing like a God but Laxman was made to take singles to give sachin strike.....how many times have u seen that happen otherway around????? why should Dravid's and Laxman's sacrifice their natural flair and ability for the team when otehrs are not ready to do that?????

I guess this is an endless debate that can go on and on.....but the best part is....INDIA is WINNING, thats what matters

I got my grades.....I am happy that I got more than i expected in a course....

2003-12-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

Story of Life ......

WHEN THINGS IN YOUR LIFE SEEM ALMOST TOO MUCH TO HANDLE, WHEN 24 HOURS IN A DAY ARE NOT ENOUGH, REMEMBER THE MAYONNAISE JAR........AND THE BEER.

A PROFESSOR STOOD BEFORE HIS PHILOSOPHY CLASS AND HAD SOME ITEMS IN FRONT OF HIM. WHEN THE CLASS BEGAN, WORDLESSLY, HE PICKED UP A VERY LARGE AND EMPTY MAYONNAISE JAR AND PROCEEDED TO FILL IT WITH GOLF BALLS. HE THEN ASKED THE STUDENTS IF THE JAR WAS FULL. THEY AGREED THAT IT WAS.

SO THE PROFESSOR THEN PICKED UP A BOX OF PEBBLES AND POURED THEM INTO THE JAR. HE SHOOK THE JAR LIGHTLY. THE PEBBLES ROLLED INTO THE OPEN AREAS BETWEEN THE GOLF BALLS. HE THEN ASKED THE STUDENTS GAIN IF THE JAR WAS FULL. THEY AGREED IT WAS.

THE PROFESSOR NEXT PICKED UP A BOX OF SAND AND POURED IT INTO THE JAR. OF COURSE, THE SAND FILLED UP EVERYTHING ELSE. HE ASKED ONCE MORE IF THE JAR WAS FULL. THE STUDENTS RESPONDED WITH AN UNANIMOUS "YES."

THE PROFESSOR THEN PRODUCED TWO CANS OF BEER FROM UNDER THE TABLE AND POURED THE ENTIRE CONTENTS INTO THE JAR, EFFECTIVELY FILLING THE EMPTY SPACE BETWEEN THE GRAINS OF SAND. THE STUDENTS LAUGHED.

"NOW," SAID THE PROFESSOR, AS THE LAUGHTER SUBSIDED, "I WANT YOU TO RECOGNIZE THAT THIS JAR REPRESENTS YOUR LIFE". "THE GOLF BALLS ARE THE IMPORTANT THINGS--YOUR FAMILY, YOUR CHILDREN, YOUR HEALTH, YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR FAVORITE PASSIONS--THINGS THAT IF EVERYTHING ELSE WAS LOST AND ONLY THEY REMAINED, YOUR LIFE WOULD STILL BE FULL".

"THE PEBBLES ARE THE OTHER THINGS THAT MATTER, LIKE YOUR JOB, YOUR HOUSE, YOUR CAR". "THE SAND IS EVERYTHING ELSE--THE SMALL STUFF."

"IF YOU PUT THE SAND INTO THE JAR FIRST," HE CONTINUED, "THERE IS NO ROOM FOR THE PEBBLES OR THE GOLF BALLS". "THE SAME GOES FOR LIFE. IF YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME AND ENERGY ON THE SMALL STUFF, YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ROOM FOR THE THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU". "PAY ATTENTION TO THE THINGS THAT ARE CRITICAL TO YOUR HAPPINESS, PLAY WITH YOUR CHILDREN". "TAKE TIME TO GET MEDICAL CHECKUPS". "TAKE YOUR PARTNER OUT TO DINNER". "PLAY ANOTHER 18". "THERE WILL ALWAYS BE TIME TO CLEAN THE HOUSE, AND FIX THE DISPOSAL". "TAKE CARE OF THE GOLF BALLS FIRST, THE
THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER". "SET YOUR PRIORITIES. THE REST IS JUST SAND".

ONE OF THE STUDENTS RAISED HER HAND AND INQUIRED WHAT THE BEER REPRESENTED.
THE PROFESSOR SMILED. "I'M GLAD YOU ASKED. IT JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU THAT NO MATTER HOW FULL YOUR LIFE MAY SEEM, THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR A COUPLE OF BEERS."

2003-12-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

I am back !!!!!!!!!!

The past three weeks have been very very hectic.....I was literally working everyday till 2-3 in the morning. But now I am done with 75% work for the semester....only one take home exam to finish and have another final on Wednesday.....and I will be done for the semester !!!!!!!

I was soo depreived of sleep for the past week.....busy with projects, presentation and a final. I was up till 5 o'clock this morning finishing up a project and then i slept thru the day !!!!!!!!!! I havent done that in a long time....but it feels good to sleep for more than 6 hrs once in a while....I am very fresh and ready to go now.

Now back to Sapna's story.......

hmmmm.....where was I???? haaann.....then for a couple of days I found it difficult to find a place for her to stay temporarily before she found a house. Fortunately, disha said that sapna could stay at her place for a while and that they were looking for a house too.....so they would also be moving out pretty soon.......I thought....its Ok as it will be of great help for sapna to stay with them and look for a house with their help. We moved her into Disha's place that night.....it wasnt too hard as Sapna was living out of the suitcase......not very surprisingly, sapna hit it off well with what started out as Disha and Co and now Sapna is an integral part of that group.....she got aong well with everyone and everyone liked her immediately....adi,hemant, raghav,aarti,shyamala,nihir,nishant, pankaj, manas,raashi,anurag,priya & priya, shradha and later madhu and brijesh........everyone became a good group

then started her search for a house and roomies !!!!!!! Me being the ISA president had all the info needed for anyone who is looking for a roommate.....hheeheee.......but then Priya (then known as Rajiv's friend) and Shradha (then known as Raghav's friend) got in touch with Sapna and they were all set to live together.....I dont remember the exact details as to how they got in touch with each other......thats why the people reading the blog should write comments describing the missing pieces :):):)......she looked at a couple of houses and she liked one on the allyn street......what was better was that Disha and all would be her next door neighbors!!!!!!!!!! she wasnt ready to pass on such an oppurtunity ......so she called me that night and asked me if I could come and have a look at the house the next day......though I myself hadnt looked for houses anytime prior to that....i said that i would be there the next evening.....it was a decent house but had a lot of cleaning up to do.....the rent wasnt exhorbitant either....but all this would have made more sense had she had roomies by then......but all of us convinced her that there would be a lot of girls coming that fall and that they would gladly accept to live with her......how many of us would let up on a chance of coming straight into the house u would live in, when u come from India ?????......i know Adi came straight to Torrey St.....hehehehhhe.....

Priya, Shradha and Sapna became roomies and from then on alll of u know what has happened and how we became good friends.......I guess Phani, Hemant and Sapna became great friends over the summer and they were a trio wherever they went !!!!!!!! all this till the worst fellow phani left for connecticut and now all of a sudden Sapna left fr India tooo.....i got to talk to her once but other than that there has been no news abt her....i didnt even get see her update till today.....i was soo busy that i havent been in touch with anyone.....

2003-11-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

Swamped with work.....

I am really sorry for delaying the update on the blog.....i have been swamped with work.....its been a busy busy....couple of weeks.....I know that writing will not take a long time....but somethings have to taken care of first and the post on Sapna cannot be written in haste.....so please bear with me.....as I promise that one of these days....I will continue with the story......

In the meantime.....I would like to wish my darling sister Deepika a very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY.....Hope u had a great day

2003-11-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

Farewell........

Wednesday night was my cooking turn and as usual I had gone to play racquetball with Kiran and started cooking at 9pm. Then i saw that i had a missed call from Hemant....little did I know why he had called.....he had called to let me know that they were going out for a farewell dinner for Sapna (huh?????)....what ?????? farewell !!!!!!!!. I was stunned !!!!!!!! I didnt understand what was going on??? why are these guys giving a farewell dinner to Sapna when she is getting married in Jan and was planning on leaving akron after that ???? I was totally confused....i had no clue that she was leaving for India the next day !!!!!!! It was too late for me to join them for dinner and as it was I had to cook for my roomie. So I called Sapna and asked her to let me know once they get back from dinner.

In the meantime, while cooking I was thinking about how I met her and all that. Its actually an interesting story....we had a common friend Nitin (studying in houston)....I had no clue who Sapna was (till last June).....Nitin called me ask abt Akron...what kind of a place it was and if they had a good student population and all that stuff.....then he told me that Sapna got a job there and wanted to talk to someone abt the place....Sapna who???? then he told me that she was his best friend's (Sandeep) Girl friend and all. I told him that she can call me and that i could take care of her accomodation temporarily. Then i talked to her a couple of times and I didnt know where to set her up??? so I decided to ask her if she had any problems staying with me for a couple of weeks ???? I told her that i was staying alone...my roomies had gone to India....and that she can have a room for herself....as expected she said that it was fine with her. She came to Akron on the weekend of the july 4th....Sandeep came the next day. when I went to meet her on her arrival I was surprised to see the car completely Jam packed and had enough space to just accomodate her. even if I tried I could have gotten into the car....it was well packed....heheheh. I showed her the route to her workplace and we had a lot of fun the 2 weeks she stayed at my place. Most of the times i got invited for dinner so I used to take her along as we would get better food than we could cook. Then Nishant came back from India.....now we had to look for options to set Sapna up temporarily....it wasnt too hard as she was a talkative and easy going person....

I have to go to a seminar now....willl complete the blog soon...hheheheheh

2003-11-11T01:03:00.000-05:00

We got the Intramural Champions shirts.....

As I mentioned in my earlier post....we are the new Wallyball Intramural Champions.....we got our shirts today. The shirts are the prize we won for our tournament victory. All of us went to the office eagerly....atleast the other three guys did...I was kind of enthu but not very very excited as I was a couple of years ago when i won my first shirt.....all of us chose the sizes and colors to our liking and we even got a shirt for the 5th guy on the team who played only 1 match !!!!!!!!! but I guess that worked well for the rest of us as we practiced together and performed as a team better....he could not make it to the practices and most of the matches due to class...

I must have won atleast 14-15 shirts so far in my three years here.....not that I am boasting.....but I have been lucky enough to get the shirts for my friends too.....though I won many shirts i think i have only 4 with me.....I gave them to my old roomies, friends and also sindhu. I even took some shirts to india to give them to my friends as they had a University of Akron logo on them. Badminton was the main reason that I got that many shirts.....I used to win the singles and Mixed doubles regularly and the year Hemant was my partner i even won the doubles (that reminds me....hey hemant did u get a shirt for that????). We used to get shirts for playing against the Kent State University in the Inter-university games. Wallyball and racquetball got me more shirts. so over all I am happy that i won the shirts becoz I have never bought a University of Akron shirt....I have bought my department and College of engineering shirts but never the Univ shirts.....hey that reminds me of one more thing....last year at the International Dance party I won the "Best Male Dancer" award for which the prize was.....one more shirt (heheheheeh)....I gave that to a friend who I felt was/is/will be a better dancer than me (i think I better fit the TP dancer or Ghati dancer category). I think thats too much of writing on shirts....I dont think I have ever written so much abt shirts.....

2003-11-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

Comment section added......

hey people.....i have added the comment section....I have been wanting to do this for a long time but had no clue how to do it. Thanx to Rajesh I found out how to put it on, actually it was very very simple......but... once u know the process most of the things are simple...isn't it ???

2003-11-07T01:01:00.000-05:00

Fall'03... Wallyball Champions....BIOHAZARDS !!!!!!!!!!

Biohazards is our team name and we as u must have guessed by now that we won the thursday night league of the intramurals (intra-collegiate).......yeah !!!!!!!!!!! we had a very very close game...but ultimately we won !!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very very happy.

It was a very satisfying victory as it was a sweet revenge.....we had lost to the same team in the league stage. That loss made them the top seeds and us the second seed . We were comfortably wining that game and suddenly our game fell apart and we lost in three games....that was a very frustrating loss. Tonight we were determined to beat those guys.....our team Rajesh, Shadi, Luay and myself....have to beenplaying well lately......Shadi and Luay upfront for setting up and spiking, rajesh and i stand in the back court to receive the serve and to take the smashes...... to do all the running around. We started off with a series of good serves and solid spikes. shadi is our main spiker....if he has a good day we win easily else it becomes difficult. Its hard to win without spiking. The other team were good athletes and we covering the court with ease. we won the first game easily 15-7. we didnt expect such an easy victory but we took the win. Then we expected them to make a comeback.....to our surprise we took off....exactly the way we did in the first game and we ran to a 13-2 lead......all of us were playing well and shadi was having a great day....then it all started....they got their game together and our game started falling apart......they won point after point and finally won the game....15-13. thats 13 points on a strech!!!!!!!!! we were down and we getting back the memories of the previous loss.....the final game was played at their pace and they kind of dictated the terms in the first few points.....they were up 9-3 and shadi lost his cool.......once he loses his cool his game falls apart and he starts making silly mistakes......then we started our comeback...we were very very determined. shadi regained his composure......Luay started controling his spikes and served well.....rajesh was running down everything. So we were back into reckoning.....we equalled at 9-9.....now it was their turn to get restless and they started to come under pressure...from then on every point was contested closely and the rallie became longer and both the teams were pumped up. we could see the emotion in both the sides after winning a point. we somehow got the upper hand and shadi at one point made a brilliant retrival with his foot (any part of the body is allowed).....we won the game 15-12. atlast we win back the title......yes, we were the champions for 2 years....2000-01, 2001-02....but last year we couldnt get a team together so we couldnt play.

this week has been pretty hectic with midterm, homework and project discussions for Dr.reddy's class and Dr.V's class.....the semester is coming to an end and its going to be busy time for all of us with 2 projects, one paper presentation and two final exams and another midterm......

India has lost both the games that i watched.....its very disappointing to get up at 4 in the morning (or not sleep all night) and watch for 8 hrs to see them lose.....not that they are not trying....but they can do better. welll I hope they do better from now on and we go on to win the cup.....that looks a difficult propsition seeing the Aussies play....man !!!!!!!!!! they are definitely a team to beat!!!

watched MATRIX REVOLUTIONS.......it was very very disappointing....it wasnt that bad but I went in expected more. I was very disappointed with the second movie so i was expecting them to make up with the third......but alas I was disappointed. the movie was too slow and boring for the first 30-40 mins....from then on its was ok.....but Adi, Sindhu and I were having our own fun by passing comments....

Now my hopes rest on LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING....and i am sure that it will not disappoint....

2003-11-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

Cricket time again......

Yesterday we played cricket after a long time....we played tennis ball cricket. We played Seniors Vs Juniors.....all the juniors who could make it were on one side and we (seniors) were mostly from the Akron Cricket team....it didnt take us long to realise that tennis ball cricket was completely different from the season ball cricket......we got used to playing with all the gear that we were too early for the shots and were swinging before the ball even reached us. But we were also trying to have as much fun as possible while playing some serious cricket.

Our team: Rajesh, Honey Venkatesh, Avinash, sunny, vikas, Adi, hemant, Dhanraj and myself. The juniors were also equal in number.......we played 3 matches...one 6 over game, one 4 over game and a last 2 over game.....we won the series 2-1....the games were hotly contested and people got real serious at times but over all we had a great time.....the problem with tennis ball cricket is that we have many people and have less overs to bat and bowl. so people should understand that they cant do both.....if u bat then wait for ur turn to bowl.....if u bowl then go last to bat......these should be the general rules of play.....but these are my views as winning is not of as much importance as is having fun. we wil try to play as much as possible to play until the weather interferes.....its getting cold and we are lucky to get the couple of days of warm weather.

I didnt sleep at all last night.....as I was up till late to watch a telugu movie with Sindhu and her roommates....it was 2:45 Am by the time we were done with the movie and I was going to sapna's place to watch the India-Australia match.....so we stayed up and talked till 3:50 and then i dropped sindhu home and went to sapna's place. The match started on a positive note for us.....Zaheer got Hayden with the first ball of the match.....but from then on nothing went right for India.....Aus went on to score 286/8 and then we started....in the mean time...Sapna made some tea for us....Hemant, Adi and Chappar (Honey).....India started off on a disastrous note....Veeru got out the first ball of the Innnings :(:(....from then on Laxman followed....tendliya played well but he got out for 67 (or 69) thats it....Dravid got out tooo for 59 well made runs and then on we just collapsed like 9 pins. We were all out for 209.....ggrrrrrrr....we lost to a second string Australian bowling attack !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i cant believe that.........our first string attack gets beatn by them all the time....cant we even beat their second string consistently????????

I had met with my advisor after a long time.....I finished making a poster of my master's research and had given it to my advisor for corrections...he liked the poster a lot but needed some to check the details of the poster. He is back into the lab ...... that feels goood......we were worried that he would not be able to make it back for 5-6 months.....but his recovery has been very astonishing and he was back in no time. though he is not completely back into his research mode......but he comes to the lab 2-3 times a week to the lab. thats more than enough to keep the current research going.

The winter is setting in very fast......its been very cold for the past couple of weeks...but the last couple of days were nice and warm to wear shorts.....probably for the last time for the next 5 months.....

2003-10-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Fun Filled Evening at Central Hower.....Diwali 2003

Last night we had our Diwali function at the Central hower high school......its just outside the University Campus. It was selected as the venue as its not far for the Indian Students to walk down to the function and also has a very good auditorium....3 of the past 4 diwali functions have been held at the high school.

It was a fun evening.....all of us enjoyed it.....there were a lot of americans and other internationals at the party...more than usual....but the student turnout was not as expected but anyways we had a crowd of abt 350.......the Mayor of Akron attended the function for the first time and the president of the University Dr. Proenza also attended the celebrations.....the first 15-20 minutes of the program were made boring by the countless speeches.....they were supposed to be scheduled such that the speeches will be between programs.....but Dr.Midha had his own ideas....Rajesh and hemant (MC's for the evening) had their script written for good opening remarks and to make a nice platform for the whole show to launch.....but Dr.Midha took over the mike and just wrote his own script.....he should have let the MC's know what he had planned on doing. THere was a good slide show depicting Ramayana and the significance of Diwali.....I think the student President should be given the oppurtunity to start the evening as they work their...xxxx's....off to make the show happen....it happened even last year....I had prepared a speech regarding the significance of Diwali and how it is celebrated in india........Dr.Midha went on stage first and spoke abt diwali...and abt everything else that I wanted to talk ....so when i went on stage I said "Dr.Midha said everything that i wanted to say.....so i have nothing else to say...enjoy ur evening.." and the same thing happened this year with Madhu....poor girl...she didnt have anything to say as Dr.Midha and the other speakers killed the first 20 minutes which included the intro....

anyways....the cultural program started with a Bharatanatyam....it was performed by a cute little girl....she was really good and had nice expressions....I guess thats the key to Bharatanatyam...Bhushan and Co....then performed a skit that was based on the choices we make abt coming to america or to stay back....it was nice play....though some of the situations were exaggerated. Our (Mine and Rajesh's) variety singing was next.....we had just practiced once....the night before....we sang 8 songs....all of them were sung with lyrics of one song in the tune of the other....it was well received by the audience....we were encouraged by the response and that encouraged us to perform better in the rest of the program..... our next performance was the play....the bollywood spoof "teri biwi sirf meri" it also generated a good response from the audience. the play had all the typical bollywood dialogues, characters and situation...so it was well appreciated.....i could hear a lot of people laughing....but Sapna's laughter was above all.....we could hear it distinctly heheheheheheh.......I was scared that Madhu and Adi will have a fit of laughter on the stage....I dont thing we had a single practice in without either of them bursting out of laughter.....but they controlled it on stage so the scenes turned out great. Vikas....Sacheeen....was the star of the evening....at least with our play....his every action and dialogue drew laughs and claps.......Mrityu was also very good in his short but a dynamic role of "Shine master kachra"......Adi was majestic in his kings role "Raja Gajendra Singh".....Madhu and Rajesh "Chandu aur pappu"....were the lead pair for the play.....they have made their identities now....from now on they will be addressed as Chandu and pappu.......but the main attraction of the evening was the dialogue "yeh lijiye boost" by Honey venkatesh (I mean, Hari Venkatesh).......

Our Dance went well too......I was actually tenses before the dance....trying to remember all the steps so that i wouldnt mess up the efforts of the others.....we practised hard for more than a week....with 2 hrs everyday...overall it was a great show and the food at the end of the show was good too....it was catered by "Saffron Patch "..... The arrangements for the food were very well done..it was very organised and there was no usual rush for the food as there were three station serving food....it was very well planned....well done...Madhu, rajesh, Hari and the other ISA committee members.....

2003-10-21T01:26:00.000-05:00

Diwali practice.......

For the past week or so I have been very very busy with practices of the dance and play that I am participating at the Akron Diwali function. The prcatices have been very very hectic as we had auditions on Sunday......thanks to Rajesh and Madhu (the main couple of our play) who were also on the auditioning committee....both our performances got selected. Actually, rajesh and I are in 3 programs.....Dance (hollywood bollywood), Play (Teri Biwi Sirf Meri), Twist The Tune (VESIT style).

In Twist the Tune I sang "Jhumma Chumma" in the tune of "Aankhon ki ......gustakiyan" and Rajesh sang "Didi Tera Deevar Deewana" in the tune of "Kahi dhoor jab din dhal jaaye"....... this is basically a common thing to do back home at the college fests....but here in akron most of the people have not been exposed to it. I had performed this a couple of years ago....the peope liked it too.

We have been practicing hard for the dance and the play. Manisa, Ankita, Prachi and Megha are the girls in the dance and Parvath, Prasanna, rajesh and I are the guys. My partner is Ankita. We have been trying to choreograph our dance with a lot of enthu....but we end up with limited success. we have 5 days to go for Diwali and we have only half the song choreographed. But we have solved our main problem....getting the 4th guy...thanx to prasanna.

The same is the story with the play....our cast includes.....Rajesh, Madhu, Hari, mritunjay, Vikas, Adi, hemant and Myself. We have been trying to make the script as funny as possible....its basically a bollywood spoof. It has all the typical bollywood stuff in it...action, drama, emotion, romance.......

we lost in wallyball last week.....we will be seeded 2nd in the playoff's not that it would matter a lot. we will be having a tougher draw. we lost to a team of just two guys.....it was the worst game that we had played so far....we won the first game....15-6, and then started out troubles.....they started playing smart and stopped serving to my end....they started serving such that it would land between Rajesh and Luay....they are usually good in communicating but that day both were trying their best and tried getting to the ball together a lot of times....we got under pressure and made some crucial mistakes.....we were just giving the ball away... and we paid the price for that. Shadi was having an Off-day too.

I got the ball rolling for the cricket club at last....we have been trying to do that for the past 2 yrs.....and we started the process now. its better now than never ..right??? Hopefully we get accepted as a new student organization...this way we will get some funding for the season and probably a new kit ..hehehehh

2003-10-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

Diwali Coming Up......

Its diwali time in akron and as usual I have become busy with dancing and acting in a play. Everyyear it has been my routine that I take part in some thing or the other in the Diwali party. I have danced .....though i am not a good dancer....who cares....I dont :):)....

first year we danced on a medley.....we had Kaho na pyaar hai (eee mere dil tu...gaaaye jaaaaa)...yes !!! we did the Hrithik step....then...Hum tho muhabbat karega....Aiyla re ladki mast mast...jindha hai hum tho (josh).....piya piya ooo piya piya.....rangde mujhe rangde (last two by only the girls)...and the finale was "Phir bhi dil hai hindustani". It was fun as we had 10 people dancing for the medley. The practices went till like late in the night and we had all kinds of fun.....it was my first year....I was also the food volunteer at the party....heheheheh...any guesses who had the maximum number of gulab jamuns that night ?????

second year there was a lot of enthu junta that came to the polymer engineering program and wince then we have been doing a play every year....our script architect was Hemant....first year he wrote the whole script by himself....though the scenes are usually performed with everybodies suggestions and inputs the idea behind the whole thing was hemants. I even danced for the song in Lagaan...."Madhu ban mei kabhi kanha kisi gopi se mile"....I didnt listen to that song for the next 2-3 months. I was fed up with the song....the same group that performed the song also performed at another diwali party in Cleveland!!!!!! can u believe that !!!!!.....the guys there liked it sooo much that we were asked to perform the same dance twice in a row!!!!!!!!. we were dead tired after that:):)
At the akron Diwali...we did the dance but our play was a big hit as it involved the life of the students that come to teh US.

third year...there were a lot of things to be taken care of.....I was the president of the association and had to do a lot of running around.....but my committee....rajiv, aanchal and harsh were extremely hard working so we had little trouble in organizing it.....not that everything went smooth.....always there is something that has to go wrong....right ???. We decided to do a medley again on the Khan's and we also did a play. This time I was also a part of the script writing. Hemant and I decided to do a play in which a director comes to akron and tries to get inspiration abt his characters from the students in akron.....it was fun play. I danced in the medley......Sheshe se shesha tak raaaye (devdas), Chak doom doom (DTPH), Apun bola (josh), rukh jaaaa ooo dil diwane (ddlj), bole choodian (k3g).....and we did the finale with lamp dance for Ar Rehman's Vande mataram......it was a good show....we did a great job....I enjoyed it.

This year we are still in the planning stages for the play....Rajesh and i are writing the script....we were up till 4 last night trying to finish the script. Both of us are also in the dance...for the song in Hollywood Bollywood......Sona Sona roop hai.....

The night before we were up till 5 in the morning finishing the homework for Dr.Reddy's class. we were pissed big time when he didnt collect the homeworks......welll but we have finshed it so we are happy......Phani had come down the other day from Connecticut.....it was good to see him but unfortunately we couldnt spend a lot of time.....but we met for a little bit at Sindhu's place for Dosas....Sindhu, Renu and Prathyu made some amazing dosas......I hogged on those dosas and went to see the browns game which the went to win 13-7 against the Oakland Raiders. It was fun watching the game with Kiran, Bhaddu, Anil, Kumar and Amru.

I was very very disappointde to see OSU lose to Wisconsin late saturday night.....I had come home early from teh freshers party to watch the game.....but their loss totally disappointed me and I vented my anger on Sindhu.....poor Sindhu....she got angry and I had to make up for my anger later.....

this weekend is going to be hectic as usual with diwali practices and auditions......and also some homeowrk and studing.....hehehehhehe

2003-10-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

Gearing up for the weekend............

With the cricket season coming to an end I have all the time in the world for this weekend. I am getting this much time after a long time. I mean.....we have had some off weeks in the season tooo...but I went out of town or did something that weeekend.....but as of now I have no plans for the weekend. I am done with all the mid-terms and I am done with all the homeworks.....so I mostly have free time....which I think I should utilize in jump-starting my PhD qualifiers preparation. I have been too lazy to do anything in that direction so I guess its time to start it.

I am looking forward to the OSU football gamel....I have been following OSU as we (akron) dont have a great team....they are the defending national champs.....this weekend they play Wisconsin....an old rival.....OSU has a lot of rivalries with the teams in the Big ten. U Mich....Penn State....MSU.....Iowa.....Wisconsin....etc etc. OSU has been the envy of most of the teams this year as they have been on a winning streak.....17 games....which started last year....they went undefeated last year to win the national title and this year they have been undefeated so far.....

This weekend the cleveland browns (the professional football team) plays the Oakland raiders....I have never seen the Browns play the raiders....Raiders came in second last year and the browns 9th. Both the teams have not been doing great this year...so it should be an interesting match.....any guesses which team I would be supporting????.....hehehhehe....ofcourse the browns!!!!!!!!!! Last week tim Couch (Browns quarterback).....the quarterback is the offensive captain who runs the plays and throws the ball....played an amazing game to beat the traditional rivals.....Pittsburgh Steelers....the rivalry is one of the oldest in NFL...browns trashed the steelers.....33-13....it was good game to watch.

I will be playing badminton again tonight ....there is this chinese kid (14 yrs old) who started coming to play at Akron....he is nationally ranked 4th in the US .....i have already lost to him three times....but I am getting back into playing Badi tooo.....so I hope I can give him a better fight tonight.

I worked this morning at a Health Expo......it was like a manufacturers exhibition......i volunteered for a couple of hours and then went around to pick up the freebies..........i got a bouncing ball.....cool key chains...frisbie....water bottle.....There was registration for a marathon....it was a 5km run.....but the entry fee was like $100.....it was for fundraising for the cancer patients....I was thinking of running...but once I found it was $100.....I backed out....may be 10-15 was ok....but $100 was tooo much

Last night in Wallyball......we won against Sigma Nu (a fraternity team).....we won 15-2,15-0.....the best part of the match was that in the first game rajesh served for straight 9 points....from 6-2 to 15-2 !!!!!!!!! Then at the start of the second game......I started serving.....i served for 15 straight points!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is the second time I am doing that in 2 yrs!!!!!!!! It is a fun game....Luay and Shadi (our other team members).....we merely spectators for most part of the game....but they will hold the key in the next game....we are playing another undefeated team.......that match will decide who willl top the league and who will get the top seeding for the playoffs

well.....I am off for a quite and a peaceful weekend (atleast I hope).......

2003-10-09T02:46:00.000-05:00

Done with Mid Terms !!!!!!!!!

I have just finished with my mid-terms......I had a test last week and another one today....I didnt do too well on the Advanced Engineering math exam but I guess I did decently in the Finite Element Analysis exam today.....but could have done better (common words after an exam :):) )......The FEA exam was a total bouncer as we were all expecting huge matrices with difficult governing Differential Equations but the whole exam had very few numerical questions.......it was alll theory or theory based to our surprise....I know that i screwed up in a couple of questions but I am hoping for the best. Getting back to classes has not been easy as I have not taken any exam or a class for over an year.....I am taking time to get back into the study mode....for the past one and half years I had beeen in programming and research mode. In the classes that i have enrolled for....I get more homework than I used to in my previous classes...thats getting hectic too....in the math class we have submitted 5 homeworks in 6 weeks and have also written an exam!!!!!!!!!! Well....PhD is not just research and project.....thats what I found out....it even has a lot of coursework which i didnt anticipate......I was hoping that I would done with 36 course credits but now I found out that I have to take 48 course credits that is .....6 courses after this semester !!!!!!!!!!!

I watched Koi Mil Gaya ....i got the cassette from Rajesh. It was a good movie...Hrithik wasnt overacting for a change for most part of the movie....he did a good job of acting as a retard. Zinta was gorgeous as usual.....the special effects....spaceship and the alien look for real....unlike most of the bollywood films.....it was good to see some good shots of the spaceship....they reminded me of Independence Day....welll, I guess thats why they hired the same guy...to replicate the spaceship outlook. It was cool anyway.

Over the weekend we played a six-a-side tournament in Colombus which was a partial success for the team as we came in second...we finsihed second even the previous year.....it was very very frustrating for finish second again but something is better than nothing right ????? we got a trophy and 6 panama hats....those round ones which the cricketers wear (Jadeja, gavaskar etc...). It was a fun weekend....but it was very very cold, our hands were hurting when we caught the ball......usually I dont drop straight forward catches on the boundary but on that chilly day I dropped 3 !!!!!!!!!!!! that was very very unusual but I am not very concerned abt that as i know the reason for dropping the catches (the cold made my hands numb!!!!!!!!). Hari, Baji, Gabroo and Sunny were brilliant in the bowling department.....i had a bad day as I got hammmered for nearly 55 runs of the 3 overs that I bowled in the 3 matches......Bharat from CCC (winnners of the tournament).....Player of the tournament....hit me for 5 sixes in the 12 balls that I bowled to him.....that was impressive batting performance by him....Kiran destroyed the ECC attack in the semifinals when we chased 60 runs in 3 overs !!!!!!!!! (they were all 6 over matches). It was brilliant hitting. One good thing abt the weekend was that we had a close game with Absar CC (last year's winners)....which we managed to win on the last ball !!!!!!! it was a pretty close game and it was a sweet revenge......they were eliminated from the tournament with that loss !!!!!!!!!!

Dont have any great plans for the weekend other than playing badminton on friday.....i am looking forward to that !!!!!!!!!

2003-10-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

Eventful week......

I had just written a long blog and the computer crashed!!!!!!!!!!! why does this happen only with me.....

Ok..now I will make it short.......grrrrrrrrr.....

I started playing racquetball with Kiran the past week.....he is a very good player......initially I used to lose to him under-5 but then started learning from him.....now we mostly split games.....he is the only person right now in the University (that i know of)....that can beat me on any given day!!!!!! I lost interest in playing the game over the past 3 months.....but now I started playing again with Kiran...so enjoy the game....the first day itself I could see a marked difference in my game....basically my approach to the game....now I have to win every point....no free points !!!!!

I got my wireless card configured with the University network!!!!!! thats a very nice feature as the whole campus is wirelessly connected...so i can be anywhere on campus and stilll access the net....but there is a problem with that too....hmmmm...ever since I got the wireless card I have been having a lot of problems.....the card I bought works at home but doesnt work in school !!!!!!!! so i had to borrow another card from a friend which works at school but didnt work at home....there was some network compatibilty problem......so in the process of configuring the card at home I worked till 3 in the morning on wednesday......it was a futile effort....my friend also had come to help me but it didnt work....we tried everything possible....including system restore ....but it didnt work...so we gave up and went to bed......the next day my roomie tell me that the network was down on wednesday due to a router problem!!!!!!!!!!! grrrrrrrrrrr.....all night wednesday i was trying to get the wireless card working when the router itself was down !!!!!!

I got a new phone.....nokia 3650...my new number is 330-289-4901.....u can contact me at this number from now on....I gave my old phone and service to a friend so from now on if u call at 330-322-7896 she will be answering the phone!!!!!!

2003-09-29T01:58:00.000-05:00

Wireless at last...........

Anil (my roomie) and I have been thinking of getting a wireless router and a wireless card for my laptop for quite sometime........but that was all planning and no implementation. this weekend (thanx to the postponment of the cricket tournament) we decided to finish our mission.

So our mission for the weekend was "Going wireless". We set out to accomplish our mission by getting the necessary hardware. We bought the wireless card and router from BEST BUY, an electronic goods store. we were glad that we got some rebates on the stuff we bought.....so now that we had the raw material for the project we had to set up the network....once we got home both of us got to work.....he started setting up the router and I setup the wireless card for my laptop.....as expected my job was easier than his as my laptop detected the wireless card immediately but we had difficulty setting up the router and configuring it. But we managed to get the whole thing working by evening.....then we realised that we were HUNGRY !!!!!! ......we had not eaten any thing since breakfast so we ordered pizza. We had a satisfactory meal as we had the network up and running....yeah!!!!!!! But all this came at a cost.......I could not see my favorite College Football team...OSU....play and win against Northwestern.

Later that night we were going to attend the "garba" organised by ISA and ICAGA (indian students and community associations of Akron)......Bhaddhu had come home and Anil said that we wasnt interested.....so Bhaddu, Sindhu, Prathyusha, renu and I decided to go to the Garba at 7:15pm. Most of my friends were attending the Garba organised in Cleveland...but we decided that we will attend the one in Akron.....if we dont attend that then who will......also I know how much effort goes into organising an event of that sort. but at 7:10 i get a call from Rajesh (secretary for ISA) that there were hardly anyone at the Garba in Akron........he wanted to know if we would be interested in going to the cleveland one with Hari, Sunny, Sirish, Dhanraj and Avinash !!!!!!!! So we had a change in plans and attended the Garba in Cleveland.......the entry fee for Garba was $5 (per person) and $2 for a set of Dandiya's. man!!!!!!! that was expensive. But its fun attending the event as it was paisa vasool !!!!!!! All of us had fun. I find Garba very very confusing.....I mean the normal steps are fine.....but the ones which need u to turn confuse me a lot. How many ever times I learn that dance I always forget the steps.....but thats ok....I usually get a hang of it in 10-15 minutes...

there were a lot of people at the Garba.....mostly Gujju's...we had fun....all the guys from Akron formed a small circle for ourselves and we had our on version of Garba.....Some of us had the courage to join the main circle....but it was very very hard to follow the steps...as they were changing them every 5-10 mins....i mean, we are not experts...so by the time we got hang of the steps they used to switch to another one. but it was fun....then after a break we had dandiya.....it was fun too (expect that I got hit on my knuckles with the stickes).....it still hurts.After the dance they had arranged for "Aarthi"..for Ambe maa

After all the ceremonies...Nisha, Amol and the rest of us went to Eat-n-park for dinner. we were very very hungry and our order was delayed due to the large crowd atthe restaurant. Sindhu and I then dropped Prathyu and Renu home and joined Bhaddu, Amol and Nisha for a game of Monopoly at Bhaddhu's place....It was a fun game...Nisha had the most unfortunate game I had ever seen.......Initially she went into Jail and repeatedly went back into it...the effect was such that she coudlnt manage to get a single ticket on the board...eventually she gave up...but there was some consolation for her as Amol won the game !!!!!!!!

2003-09-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

Its already an year......

On Saturday night at 2:00 am Sindhu and I celebrated our first anniversary (the day she said yes to my proposal).......ever since my life has changed.....I cant say exactly how its made a difference.....but it has been different. Before we even realised one year haas flown by and now at the end of the first year we feel that we have known each other for a long...long....time. We wanted to celebrate the occasion at 2 in the morning becoz that was when she actually said YES to me..... uske pehle mera chehra dekh ne laaayak tha....pooora phata hua halat mei that mei.....but the relief and happiness I experience afterwards was unbelievable.......

On saturday....I went to Columbus...to play cricket !!!!!!! What a way to celebrate the occasion.....that too alone....she had to study for her class and also had to attend her friends Mehendi.... Our cricket team hasn't had any luck over the past year when we travelled to columbus....this year we are still without a win in Columbus after 5 games!!!!!!!! The last one was no different.....we got there at noon....and had to park 15 mins away from the ground due to the OSU home football game....great!!!!!!! BUt Hari, Rajesh and I had a great time in the car....we had discussions on many topics but the conversation used to always end up with us talking abt cricket.... Phani....was the visiting captain of the team from Connecticut ......yes .....he was the visiting captain as he had driven 8hrs to Akron on Friday to play on Saturday and then drove back for 8 hrs on Sunday!!!!!!....thats what is called...Enthu....

Phani lost the toss....useless fellow....they always used to curse me for losing the toss...but FYI....PHANI hasnt won a toss so far......4 out of 4 losses!!!!!!!!! I am much better...... we were put into bat....for the first time I was without any pressure.....its true....believe me!!!!!....it did make a lot of difference to me mentally...thru out the game....I was much more relaxed and enjoyed the game like never before in the season.....though there were some incidents which did upset some of us. Brijesh and Kiran opened.....Brijesh has been trying to find form for some time....he has been scoring runs but not very comfortably....he needed to spend some more time in the middle.....but he went for an extravagant (I didnt see the stroke..it was described by the others)...and was caught behind....In came "Hurricane" Hari....he has been struggling too....Kiran on the other end has been gaining confidence with every knock.....Hari was bogged down by some good bowling....he couldnt get his usual singles...so he went for an attacking stroke and was caught in the slips (rather short thirdman).....he made 8(33) that was very very unusual of him. Phani..who had not touched the bat in 3 weeks...walked in....he wasnt very comfortable at the beginning but he started middling the ball pretty soon...all this while Kiran was playing bea...u..tiful shots and scoring freely.....Phani then came into his usual self and was settled...all was going well.....when he suddenly decided to take on the bowling and got caught at the long-on boundary.....the fielder was moved up so Phani was decieved...10(30). I walked in with the score reading 83/3 in 20 overs. Kiran in his usual way asked me to stay till the end (well...thats what I usually try..heheheh). A spinner was bowling.....I got a short ball...my eyes lit up (pull..by the way is my favorite shot)...I pulled the ball to the legside boundary.....yeah!!!!!! That was a confidence booster...i always like it when i get off the mark straight away.....Kiran then finished his fifty.....thats his 3rd fifty as an opener...way to go Motu!!!!!!! immediately....he got caught in the short thirdman region off the spinner....that was a meek dismissal...it was a tame end of an attacking knock 55(57)....in came avinash..both of us have a good understanding for running between the wickets...that fact that both of us trust the other person's call helps a lot while running....we started running aggressively and started pushing for 2's and 3's where there were only 1's and 2's. we decided not to slog till the 28th or the 29th over...it didnt make sense to heave at the ball miss it and then heave at it again....instead play sensibly and get 2 runs of those 2 balls and save ur wicket tooo. I was playing welll.....I hit my first boundary on the off-side......yes....my first off-side boundary in 3 years!!!!!!! can u believe that....the second one soon followed......I was delighthed.....avinash started lofting the ball too.....he plays the lofted shot brillliantly by going down on his knees....its a treat to watch that shot....in the process of increasing the run-rate in the 29th over....i got a top edge and was caught...welll...no regrets....31 (28)......Avinash soon got out tooo he played extremely well for his 25 (23)....Sunny tried to use his long handle shots but wasnt very successsfull......Hemant went in but never got a chance to play....we finished with 155 runs (5-10 runs short of what I was expecting).......

We didnt bowl well and didnt field well either...we gave a lot of wides initially and on the whole dropped 5 catches (one of a no-ball)....but a catch is a catch...and missed an easy run-out chance. Raj bowled very well and sirish showed some glimpses of good control with the new ball..he needs practice....we lost it in the last over....i didnt have a great day with the ball I must have gone for 6 -7 runs an over.....i think i need to do something abt this bowling thing..i havent been bowling well lately.....Phani was pissed off due to some decisions made by the people on the field against his liking....over all...we had another close match which we lost....time to win some...

on our way back....Rajesh, Phani, Hari and i ....had a blast...we took a 1 hr break at waffle house to have dinner and we had non-stop non-sense and fun in the car....once I got home I met Sindhu and we spent the rest of the evening (10:45pm to 2:30 am) together.....I made up for this the next day.....Took her to the temple and took her shopping and for a movie!!!!!!!!

2003-09-19T09:22:00.000-05:00

Classic Definitions & Cool Meanings:

1. Cigarette : A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end & a fool at the other.

2. Love affairs : Something like cricket where one-day internationals are more popular than a five day test.

3. Marriage : It's an agreement in which a man loses his bachelor degree and a woman gains her master

4. Divorce : Future tense of marriage

5. Lecture : An art of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the students without passing through "the minds of either".

6. Conference : The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.

7. Compromise : The art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece.

8. Tears : The hydraulic force by which masculine will-power is defeated by feminine water-power ..

9. Dictionary : A place where divorce comes before marriage.

10. Conference Room : A place where everybody talks, nobody listens & everybody disagrees later on.

11. Ecstasy : A feeling when you feel you are going to feel a feeling you have never felt before.

12. Classic : A book which people praise, but do not read.

13. Smile : A curve that can set a lot of things straight.

14. Office : A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life.

15. Yawn : The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth.

16. Etc. : A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.

17. Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.

18. Experience : The name men give to their mistakes.

19. Atom Bomb: An invention to end all inventions.

20. Philosopher : A fool who torments himself during life, to be spoken of when dead.

21. Diplomat : A person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.

22. Opportunist : A person who starts taking bath if he accidentally falls into a river.

23. Optimist : A person who while falling from Eiffel Tower says in midway "See I am not injured yet."

24. Pessimist :- A person who says that O is the last letter in ZERO, Instead of the first letter in word OPPORTUNITY.

25. Miser : A person who lives poor so that he can die rich.

26. Father : A banker provided by nature.

27. Criminal : A guy no different from the rest... except that he got caught.

28. Boss : Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early.

29. Politician : One who shakes your hand before elections and your Confidence after.

30. Doctor : A person who kills your ills by pills, and kills you with his bills.

31. Computer Engineer : One who gets paid for reading such mails......

2003-09-17T11:51:00.000-05:00

Roomie's Birthday

Its my new room-mate Anil's B'day today....we had the usual midnight b'day celebration by having all our friends over to our house. We had fun.....especially becoz Anil wasnt suspecting anything of that sort.....he had gone to bed and I had not come home till 11:40pm...he thought something would happen but when he didnt even see me at home he went to sleep peacefully....at 11:40 Adi, Sindhu and I sneaked into my apartment with the cake and the party supplies.....at 11:55 all my friends had come over without making any noise....then we woke him up with 2 mins to mid-night.....he was surprised and was forced to get up in the middle of his peaceful slumber.....then we had the usual cake lit with candles and the happy b'day song....but the absence of Mr. Ravi Ayyer was felt...mainly becoz he is the expert in singing the "Happy B'day song"....but Bhushan made up for that by singing the normal song and adding "Many Girl friends to you......".

My Apartment is a small one...in the sense...it doesnt have a living room....it has 2 bed-rooms, 2 bath-rooms and a kitchen.....so even if we have 2 friends come over the palce looks crowded.....and yesterday we had 15-20 people in the same house....just imagine how it must have been!!!!!!!!! It was like a market place back home in India where you have to invariably rub shoulders with the person next to you when you move !!!!!!!!!

Before all this happened there was a mystery......when is anil's b'day.....I mean 17th or 18th ???...me moving into the house only a month ago didnt know when his B'day was......I asked mikki....Anil's old roomie....he said "shayad....17th ya 18th but pakka yaad nahi hai "....so I called Adi...." shayad 17th ko hai"...but not sure....so how do we know when his b'day exactly is ???? I thought I will ask Badri....anil's roomie 2 yrs ago...but he lives in arizona .... a different time zone and he was at work...I only had his home number....what to do???....then the Genius in me and Adi agreed to the same thought.....he solved the mystery!!!!!!!! guess how ???..... we asked Anil himself when his b'day was !!!!!!!!!! can u belive we did that !!!!!!!! but anyways we had fun at his b'day thanks to adi...who invited all the friends home as I had gone to the cleveland temple in the evening....

2003-09-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

New blogger

Hey guys....welcome Rajesh to the world of blogging....he has started writing blogs too....I guess like me he has been inspired by our own Hemya... hey buddy u have introduced the world of blogging to the desis in Akron...hats off to u. Rajesh has taken over from me as the official match report writer...check his blog out for the match report on the Saturday game.....

I heard a great deal abt the performance of the team on Sunday.....I have been told by some that it was the best performance given by an Akron team.... i am glad to hear that....as now I am happy that my decision to step down will not have a great effect on the team. The team did better when I wasnt the Captain...probably thats what the team needs.....a new captain....though I feel happy that the team has started coming togther...I feel sad that i could get the team to perform at their best. Had we seen the level of enthu and team spirit that we have been seeing of late we would have done much better in the Mid-west tournament.

well....In life everything doesnt go how u want it to happen....so here begins one more chapter in my cricketing years at Akron......