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

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


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

Ganesh Chathurthi

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

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

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

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

Back to School.....

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

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

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

Moving to Brown St.......

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ayyer and Anil with Adi... 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cricket.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

continued....

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

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

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

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

Back in the US of A...

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

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

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

.....to be continued :)

Home sweet Home

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

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

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

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

End of a glorious era in AP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Respond instead of reacting: Azim Premji

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ultimately, your only competition is yourself.

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

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

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

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

Dhanraj Pillay Issue....

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

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

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

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

"We need Dhanraj Pillay for Olympics"

A blog atlast!!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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