Diwali..

It was Diwali last week - even though it was my first away one from home it was a rather happy week with some great moments :)

And top of that list was the wonderful Diwali celebrations we had at our home - 2148 Oak Street - as for the first time ever I was part of a Diwali Aarti; and what more, youtube was our lead pandit :D

Bhai Log - at 2148 Oak Street :)

A lot of effort went into the party - the house was cleaned, food stuffs were bought and some amazing Indian food was dished out in our very own kitchen.. The party ran till 3am as we were totally overcome by the Diwali spirit.. 

And later in the week got better, I got to see my niece :D :D My bhabhi came to LA with her PhD advisor for a week-long seminar. It was great to see her and my niece - completed the family feeling on Diwali.

My niece strikes a pose :)

She's enjoying the company of Uncle J, even as Marilyn Monroe looks on :)

She was staying at a hotel in Hollywood, whose walls adorned a lot of movie-related photographs. One of Marilyn Monroe can be seen above.. Bhabhi's parents had accompanied her to LA and her brother and his wife joined us during the night. They also have a daughter. Fair to say that my niece and my Bhabhi's niece, with a combined age of less than 3 years cooked quite a storm during the night :D
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Interestingly, my Bhabhi's brother is a PhD, his wife is a Physician and of course my bhabhi and cousin are both PhD students. So I was in very august company for a few hours. Hoping to draw some inspiration there :D

And also I won myself the offer of a trip to Hawaii form my Bhabhi - condition being I must wind a life partner to go on that trip with :P I guess I should use this offer as a bargaining tool to win over potential suitors :D

And after I came back, there was the tailgating at the USC v Stanford NCAA football game at the LA Coliseum. What amazing atmosphere - people here really do well at setting up an atmosphere.

Balloons in USC colors..

Last time I had seen a game but not been to tailgate, this time I did the opposite. It was the wrong game to miss though - USC took Stanford, unbeaten this year, to 3 over times before tiring out. Hopefully next time I will watch the game and tailgate as well..

Happy Birthday sis :)

Happy Birthday Sis :)

Love you :)

Gameday, B'day and The Rainy Day

To say that I have much to write and too little time would be an understatement. So here's a post that should have been here 3 weeks ago :P

I went to see a (American) Football match at USC's stadium - the aptly titled LA Coliseum.. I had gotten a free ticket to the USC v Arizona Univ game from where I work part-time and went for the experience - and what an experience... To say that Americans know how to enjoy a sport would be putting it all too mildly...

To begin with, they didnt seem too interested at getting into the stadium even, simply taking in the atmosphere from outside. But slowly and steadily they began to take seats.. To be honest, I had a horrible time in first half - had no idea about the game and was sitting too far up in the stands (as my complimentary tickets allowed :P) But by the second half I was just a row from the action as I was allowed to make my way down to the student section..

And what atmosphere, or rather Maa-haaul as my roomies would have called it :D. .. Nearly all spectators were in cardinal and/or gold - USC's colors and cheered on by the cheerleaders in front of us were kicking up quite a storm - home support like it should be!!

Something really interesting about the stadium seemed to be a sun deck behind one of the touch down places - the place had been allocated to the USC band, and big-spending ticket holders :P.. The band was in fine form throughout... And so were the cheerleaders and the mascat - the horse Traveller.. Traveller ran around the stadium every time USC did something special..

But the best part was -- coming on TV, TWICE!!! and oh yeah, I was also showed on the GIANT SCREEN  at the stadium when that happened,\... The next week, a couple of people from my part-time job even recognized as the guy on the giant screen - as Furobiker would say, main to star ho gaya :D :D

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, literally dancing in the aisles :D

And a little after that was THE Birthday.. of a close friend my roommates, in a house we frequent even otherwise.. What a party did we have!! Details? Some things are best left unsaid :P

And later that week was my first experience of a rainy day here at USC.. What sublime sublime weather!! The drizzle felt great - everything looked oh so awesome in green... Nothing beats rain as the perfect weather but LA just doesnt get enough of it - As our Prof said that day, "we just had all of LA's monsoon" :P :P
But it was a special rain though.. Towards the evening, news came that Steve Jobs had expired.. It had rained  right across California that day; but hasn't since... Guess the heavens were crying - made for an outstanding weather though..

And sadly, Steve Jobs wasnt the only great guy to die this week. Dennis Ritchie, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Jagjit Singh have all left for heavenly abode this month.. May their souls rest in peace..

PS> #nowPlaying Hothon se choo lo tum by Jagjit Singh...

Smile nahi toh Smiley sahi :D

I have been in LA for about 2 months now. Fair to say, homesickness has well and truly arrived :P So while I speak with my parents every other day, and try to see them on Skype (whenever their internet/mic/speakers are working :P) there are whole lot of wonderful people who  I no longer get to see with any sort of regularity. Having spent the best part of last 2yrs in their company, sharing their joys and sorrows, capturing them on camera, laughing with them and indulging in some of the most amazing bakar I could come up with -well, I really miss 'em.

And so here goes a big thank you to dear Internet for keeping them around :D Unki smiles nahi toh Smileys hi sahi :D

Thankfully my life has some real smiles as well and is not stuck on smileys... Everyday here brings something different to smile about - Today being Friday, the greeting (from some complete strangers) of "Happy Friday, Have a Great Weekend.." definitely gave me something to smile about :) But the absolutely hilarious moment was when I was filling up a form to get myself photo ID, which required a guardian's signature for ID for a sub-18 yr old's driving license - "In case they have joint custody, both signs are required" :D  Oh America, poor you :P

On a slightly different note, my encounters with USC continue to be awesome  - In the week week gone by I saw first hand Videshi movie making (albeit those of cinema students here and not a Hollywood blockbuster :P ) and gyrated ridiculously :P, after what felt like an awfully long time, to Bollywood music at an Indian students association party (not the most happening party though).. And that wasnt all - I discussed linguistics, American journalism, (haywire) immigration laws and the world's view of USA with a fellow student worker, who is studying journalism.

First to the movie making: The idea was to shoot a restaurant scene where a police brings a handcuffed con-man and asks him to share some details. They probably took just 10mins of footage in 4 hrs of trying :P - Setting up lights, fixing camera positions - the scene was shot twice with 2 different angle, across and behind, and I am guessing it will be used one after the other. Interestingly, a third artist was used when shooting from behind one of the people to make it show that there were people in restaurant.


The most interesting thing in the last two weeks was undoubtedly the conversation with the journalism student - her knowledge of the world was excellent - she knew Latin and had even had a go at Hindi as part of her Linguistics class (which sounded like a key application of CFG form compilers). Being an undergrad student here in USC sure opens up people's minds :D

There was also the small matter of a really deep fear coming into fruition, one so deep I couldn't even have imagined it happening, thankfully no harm done :P