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
\
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..

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

"No Complaints"...

The Monday gone by was the Labor Day here in the US. That meant that it was a long 3-day weekend. One of my room-mates' sister was here for the same. And on Sunday night, we all went out to Santa Monica to have ice-cream at a very famous place. There was a huge line - ten times the length of the shop - outside the place :D But the ice-cream was totally worth the wait :) Thereafter, we drove up to within a mile of the Hollywood Sign, at about midnight.. The iconic letters looked beautiful in the night light..

On my first shift at my part-time job thereafter, my co-worker asked what I did at the weekend and I told him  After that I asked him how he spent the weekend - and he said he worked on two of the three days. But he finished it by saying that he had "No complaints".. The reply certainly set me thinking.. I had been told a couple of days ago that I manage to find depressing stuff in all things. But, I am very adept at making myself feel happy whenever I can.. I can control my mind.. Yet, and I guess that's the big point, never have I ever said "No complaints"..  Two simple words with very deep connotations..

A couple of other interesting things have also happened over the last couple of weeks..  I found someone rather similar to Aamir Khan's Rancho in 3 Idiots :P .... There is this Chinese girl who lives near my house, so we run into each other in the university bus a fair bit.. Now, what she does is that she comes to attend the class on Operating Systems - she isnt registered for it but just likes the subject so is there without fail.. Apart from that, she told me, she has also attended a class on Screenplay in the Cinematic School!! She said she liked that class too but it was too long - 4 hrs - due to an included movie screening.. (Me thinks it would be a fun class :) )

And I guess one last thing I should note is the "Please and Thank You " culture, here in LA, or at least in USC. Everyone is really polite and helpful here, and almost seem sorry if you are made to wait before your work is done. That is really good to see..

PS> I also had an Amreeki Paratha with choori and kaanta, or Pancake with a fork and knife : D Its good but not even a patch on our dear desi home-cooked Parantha :D 

Living in LA between an ocean and a desert, with hills for company :)

So I am here at Los Angeles. It was a long journey, with three well distributed flights - 5.40hr from Delhi to Singapore, 7.40hr from Singapore to Tokyo and 9hr40 from Tokyo to LA :P

Me @USC :)

To say that USC is an international university would be an understatement - it takes in more foreign students every year than any other university in the US. And my first few days here have been nothing if not full of international exposure :p. My first visit to the university campus laid down the marker to be honest. While looking for a photocopying machine I ran into a couple of Frenchmen who were also looking for the same. They are here on a semester-long exchange program from their French B-School. The first thing I was asked after I told them I was from India was if I played field hockey. Woah, I thought, Europeans talking about hockey!! Even we dont do that much back home in India, unless we are playing Pakistan :D Apparently T really enjoyed playing hockey and had seen some big stars play in the European league. And the surprise didnt end there -  he had even played cricket!! When I finally asked him if he had played football (or, soccer as its called here) he told me he didnt like it much because it is a very rough game. It was quite interesting to speak with a French guy who would rather play hockey and cricket than football!! A slight shame was that he was unaware of Major Dhyan Chand's iconic statue in Austria. He was also surprised to know that Delhi's hockey stadium, named after the great man, has a capacity of 25000 ppl - about 30 times that of the stadium in his city :p

The next day I ran into a drunken immigrant who seemed to think I owned the shop next to the bus stop :p Wonder what gave him the idea? :p The same day I received a Namaste from a local bus driver - he was very helpful too and guided me to the nearest eatery, something that my grumbling stomach badly wanted :p
Earlier that day, me and my roommate had helped a Vietnamese student open her bank account. Suffice to say the international nature of the university pretty much hit me in the face straight up :P And then, something something else hot me - the jetlag and the gigantic 1230hr time difference from Delhi. I would sit somewhere and couldnt keep my eyes open.

That weekend I went to the Gurdwara here- the langar was awesome :D. I also went to the Griffith Observatory thereafter and bought a ticket for the space presentation there but pretty much slept right through it :p Only remember the last part - the orator said, "We are all made from star dust. So when we travel to the space in our space trips, with our telescopes and in our minds, we are going home." (Note to self - Visit the Nehru Planetarium next time I am home in Delhi :D )

The view from Griffith Observatory - with downtown LA in background

And the other side offered a good view of the world famous Hollywood Sign!!

Hollywood Sign!!

The next week the experiences continued - this time at the International Student Orientation at the university. And that brings us to the title of this post. By a stroke a chance, I seated myself on the same table for lunch as the guest speaker for the orientation herself. She was one of the Board Members of the Alumni Association and enlightened us with some interesting facts about the city of Angels during lunch. She said that LA witnesses weather unlike any other city because it has the Pacific and sea-breeze on one side and the Nevada desert and its hot winds and the other. So it is bright and sunny here and there is hardly any rainfall. And to top it all off, the Big Bear mountain in the vicinity offers snow-capped peaks near Christmas time even as Malibu Beach enjoys a warm sunshine - All in the same city :O

Beach, Ocean, Hills and Skyscrapers: LA has it all :)
(Taken at Santa Monica Beach)

 She also said that public transit here is awful - made me feel happy that the Metro back home in Delhi ensures Delhites can never complain about public transit being poor :)

What was also interesting during the orientation was that all the students working with the orientation team were undergrads, and seemed to be lively personalities and studied subjects such as East Asian Culture, Theatre and Cinema.  The self-confidence that those guys portrayed left me wondering if any undergrad, or grad student for that matter, in India could be so self-assured. And to think that I am a good three years elder to them, with an year-and-a-half industry experience, but nowhere as self-confident as them.
The orientation day also saw me meet more foreign students - including a Chinese student who, although was not good with English, was here to study Music. Wow, I thought!! A piano player coming across the world to study music - just incredible.

Also, met a Mexican student and discussed food - she really liked Indian food with all its likeness to Mexican food in terms to spices (something I was able to observe that first-hand when I ate at a a Mexican place the next day :) ). She also said LA is like half-Mexican and half-everyone-else - and in my little experience here so far, hard to disagree with that :D

The next day, as the Orientation continued, I met a Dutch grad student here to major in Communications. She used to work at the Amsterdam Arena back home in the Netherlands and it was great to discuss football with her :) Though I have to say she didnt really want to talk about her team's defeat in the WC final :P But she quite liked it when I told her how I had lost a bet, and made of several friends lose it too :p, when the Dutch beat Brazil at the QF stage :p :D (Didnt discuss the FB backlash though :p)

A big difference in LA from Delhi is of course the traffic system. Pedestrians have the right of way here (a HUGE change from Delhi :p ) but they can be fined as high as $200 if found to be abusing this right by jaywalking!! And of course, US follows a left-hand drive system. So to take a left you basically have to wait in the middle of the road for the traffic going straight to slow down and give you space to move. I have absolutely no doubt that such a system cant work in an overpopulated India, where everyone is in a hurry - all the time :P

This post is already very long but my experiences arent done yet :p - I have also enjoyed the company of some amazing fellow Indians as well. The bakar at my resistance has been amazing - covering topics ass diverse as US and Indian education systems, the economic recession here, and Anna Hazare and corruption in the country - there have been some heated discussions I must say :p A weird thing here though has been the gutbaazi - Chinese students stick with other Chinese students, Koreans with other Koreans and Indians with other Indians - with other people from their own regions.

My classes will start next week so I will probably not get time to write again - agle 2-3 baar ki kasar nikal di issi post mein :P

PS> A big discussion is on again here :P