Ciao! Pizzzaaa!

Its 12.40pm. Lunch time.

I had nothing from the morning so I could not work anymore without something in my stomach. So, for the first time I checked out the menu of Commons (medical center dining area). Water side..expensive, Sushi..naaa, Hugo's taqueria...not now, ciao! pizza!...YES YES. Thats what i am looking for. Hello! Pizza!..I am coming. On my 14 seconds journey of 11 floors, i had these mouth-watering thoughts..courtesy: Papa John's, University drive, College station (i miss it :( ).

Commons is usually pretty busy at this time, but there is nobody at Ciao!. I am lucky. So I reached the counter as fast as I could.

And in thick-accented English:

Q: Can I hv two slices of veggie pijja.. (oops! i am supposed to say peeet-jaa)
A: She scratched her head. Twice.

I am enough to guess that she dint understand my question but understood that I am damn hungry.

I must help her. My accent got better now (it happens if i want to). Repeat. Communication succeeded. She has only spinach kind. "Sure", I said. (I would eat anything right now).

I don't usually ask too many questions on food. But i guess, due to my thoughts about Papa john's, I asked about crust selections they have. Reply: "we have the best!". Excellent. She passed the box to me which is closed. I couldnt see the slices. Paid. Table with a good view of water falls.

Now is the moment. I opened the box. NOWAY!!!. The slices look like they have been air-dried from a long time. I saw 3 and 4 big, dry green spots on them. It is spinach. I must eat this and I started. The 'best crust' is the hardest crust i ever had. After few hard bites I finished it. I understood why there is nobody at the counter during the busiest time.

Goodbye! Pizza! Never to return!

Ciao means either hello or goodbye. But for me its goodbye for Ciao! Pizza!

-Hari

Hari Kishore-Shaped Hole

I left college station today for Houston, for Internship, for a Career, for a Future. On the way, in the back seat of widely known Ground Shuttle, I was thinking about the difference my absence would make for anybody in college station. I am not sure whether there will be any 'Hari Kishore-shaped hole' in college station for months (or days) to come. But I will try my best to make sure that there will be a hole in Houston when I leave.

HK TM

Devotional Culture of Indians in U.S

I was in Dallas with my friend for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Thursday is an auspicious day for praying Sri Sai Baba (one of Hindu gods). So I started my day by visiting a temple of Sri Sai Baba. And these thoughts crossed my mind while I was at the temple.

Every year thousands of Indians are coming to USA for many reasons. What are they doing regarding devotion as Hindus?

From what I have seen at the temple, no wonder that they are trying their best to adhere to the devotional culture(s)(I cannot possibly explain the differences in devotional cultures for it would be a big study). I immediately started thinking about the persons behind the existence of this temple. One obvious thing about them is their motivation and persistence.

The temple I visited is in a business complex, to its right is Driving License office and to my surprise(also ironical) there is a church on its left(Y?!!).

I thank those people who have worked hard to set the temple there and also thank the people who are not forgetting the culture and passing it to the next generation. I am very happy with these developments and would like to be a part of it soon. I had finished the rituals before I could pray. The prayer would have been the same as above thoughts.

Did I mention that the 'prasadam' was as great as the view of the Sai Baba? :)

21 Years 265 Days Old. I Still Don't Know How To Approach A Girl I Like. HELP ME!!

Where do I start?

Let me introduce myself as a dumbest adult guy in this world.

So guys and girls out there...Help me how to do it.

Globalization

Globalization has been a buzz word between 2000-2005. Now the world seems to be accepting, adopting and adapting it.

What happened to those who defined globalization as 'a threat to USA'?
In 'The World is Flat', Thomas Friedman wrote 'America as a whole will benefit more by sticking to the basic principles of free trade, as it always has, than by trying to erect walls.'

Perhaps these people have not succeeded in erecting those walls. When everybody is trying to understand globalization as a new form of force, such as the freedom fight by Gandhi in India, which will not harm anybody but can hurt. It certainly did.

And now, in 2007, Everybody (who tried it!) seems to be benefited from globalization except USA. Spending power seems to be decreasing, imports are greater than exports from a couple of years. Nope, i don't believe these measures reflect the effects of globalization. Certainly, many people are attributing globalization to the recession in American economy. I believe that USA is glittering but not a gold anymore.

As far as I can think of, the reasons for USA less of gold is:

1. Motivation of the people
-- During cold war Russian Sputnik motivated USA to pursue engineering, science and math to surpass Russian missile. Today, there is no such force that could unite USA.
2. Education
--Certainly, students from Asia seems to have upper hand in at least engineering education. Their long investments into education seems to payoff now. I see most of the students pursuing either biological sciences and engineering thorough masters and ph.d are from Asia. They definitely would prevail in long-term.
3. Dog-bone politics
--Before coming to USA, I was amused at the political system of this country. I am irritated by politics in my country and was excited to see the system here. Without any objections, political system in this country has been a good one. Now, like an iceberg in Antarctic drifting due to global warming, very slowly, politics in this country are moving (precisely 'drifting') away. The direction of this 'drift' is difficult to understand but nonetheless needs attention. I do not know how to get that attention.

Today, I joined one form of globalization: facebook.

Have blast on Thanksgiving!!

Networking seems to be working!!

Today....Networking day of my life.

I e-mailed one person of my friend and got a positive and positive reply. I am happy. I want to keep this contact alive!

Deepavali - I love this day!!

Ttoday, the Friday, the day of lab meeting and TA meeting, the day of joy in USA.

For me and People in India, today is Deepavali....

I started my day with sleeping. got up and called home, another home and my friend who changed my life 6 years ago....This friend sounded very sad, may be because of sleepiness, but could be due to what to happened to her life. Like many girls in rural India, she has aspirations and ambitions. But could not really make it. Marriage and unsupportive in-laws made it difficult to reach her ambitions. Yet she has that undying zeal for life, not found in many other rural Indian girls, to achieve many things in life. may be my writing skills are not effective in describing her and her motivation, but you got it. didn't you?