Celebrations

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 16; the sixteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

It definitely is a week of celebration so far. Celebrated Halloweens with friends for the first time. I was the Crazy Joker with a bloody butcher knife. And to accompany me, some of my friends also masked up in scary avatars. The Zakusi guard, the Zombie with braided hair, the monster who never smiles, the nameless warrior, the headless phantom and the scream guy. Super fun it was!!!

And the big thing to celebrate was I graduated with a degree in MS from Univ of Minnesota after putting in lots of effort. The sweat, the energy and the soul I put in it reaped the fruits.:P This leaves me with the big question, what next? But who cares now? At least for a little while let me enjoy the happiness. I definitely am happy now that I'm done and it should be obvious from my words. Also, bought myself a brand new iPhone4 as a graduation gift. Here is a screen capture from my MS project, and it's a rendering of simulated blood flow through aorta of heart with a mechanical heart valve and the path some of the blood particles take throughout the course represented as lines.

And although we didn't celebrate Diwali the way we would in India, it was a non-stop food celebration. Made vadas for the first time after hours of effort, and here you see our yummy vadas with finely grated onions, chillies and ginger added in style.

But none of these can ever match up with the way we celebrate Diwali in India with family and friends. I hope everyone had a wonderful Diwali!

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A New Beginning

Lotsa new experiences! What do I start with? Where do I begin? First and foremost thing is attending classes after a long gap of 2.5 years, it just reminds me of all the fun I had in good old days of undergrad. But classes here are much different, I find grandfathers taking the same class I take, may be its the 'Gnanam Param Balam' motto that they follow and polish their knowledge every now and then. A special mention goes to the babes out here - somehow i don't feel like calling them gals and addressing them as ladies makes it much formal, so lemme stick to the word babes. But whatever be it Desi gals are the best, last night I attended an Indian students gathering and there is this one cute desi gal who stole my heart. Couldn't stop staring at her until all my friends made fun of me.

The other day I was shocked when an American colleague of mine asked me "Who's your favorite actor in Bollywood?" When I asked how he knew about Bollywood, his answer was "Everyone knows about Bollywood, it makes large number of movies every year, isn't it!" I suggested him to watch Om Shanti Om when he asked me for a movie, because with all the reincarnation, flashy and colorful sets, dancing numbers and all it will give him a good idea of what Bollywood movies are. Americans have a general idea that Indians movies are full of dancing.

What else! Its Minneapolis. A cool place with generous and friendly people, they say its one of the safest places in this country. And at the same time people scare me with all their experiences about the harsh winters here. A few days back watched pre-screening of the movie Death Race, which deals with the extremely fictious state of this country in 2012 after the downfall of its economy. And also had been to Minnehaha Falls, Lake Calhoun and Mall of America here in Minneapolis. When I tell people that I had been to all these places, they say I pretty much covered majority of the places in this city.

PS: Yay, got my brand new Dell Inspiron y'day!! :D
PPS: Thats Stone Arch bridge across Mississippi river in the second pic.