I couldve had a baby by now

nine months since my last blog entry?

idk how this happened.

maybe its cuz of facebook. yeah thats prly it. cellphones dont help matters either. Im not Perez Hilton. Im not trying to reach out to millions of people on a nightly basis. just a certain few.

ok enough hullabaloo for now . . .

i guess i should prly cover the last few months for posterity's sake if nothing else.

rest of April - we went to a big fat indian wedding.

May - After I took my finals, the family and I went to Italy (Rome, Venice, Milan, Pisa), Germany (Munich), and India (the usual spots). Spent my birthday with mom and dad and two mugs of beer in Venice. Wasn't exactly Bavaria, but it'll have to do.

June - Came back home and and hopped on that internship. I think in one of my entries below I mentioned Hoffman Estates/Schaumburg? Yeah no. There was a nice one in Naperville that tickled my fancy and with very loose hours. Did I 'learn' as much as I thought I wouldve? nah. But its something to write down on the resume yadadamean?
oh and a run to the stripclub with Neil, Vik, and Akhil, and a roadtrip to Michigan with Aakash and Abdullah to see Faisal, were thrown somewhere in there

July - More or less the same. Except I got to spend a lot more time with Faisal, Parag, and that whole crew of bandits. Made it to the Naperville Ribfest just as my dad and I try to do every year. This year, we took Parag and his brother and was fun as helll cuz not only did I get to chow on some Rasta Joe's which is by and far my favorite vendor, we got completely soaked, played some carnival games haha, and watched the fireworks on the 4th. In the middle of the month, my mom's oldest brother passed away so that was a hit but with the strength and support of everyone, we managed to deal with it, cope with the tragedy, and though we are still a bit reeling, we have been pulling through

August - I started the physical therapy on my knees and feet. Dad and I also drove to Cincinnati to watch the Tennis Masters event there. Got Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer's autographs. I'll elaborate on it a bit more later :]

The summer of 2010 overall was by and far the beST in my life. I complied a list of things that made it memorable, which you can see in a note on facebook

September - school started in fullswing and the buddies all left one by one to school. The usual September school blues hit but they were mixed in with some hardcorexxxx drama with Brandon. You all know the story. In the meantime, I started going to The Foundry with a few people from highschool every Tuesday and Thursday and managed to play tennis with Amar, Ankit, and Preyanshu.

October - Along with Akhil, I visited Neil and Vik's condo on the LakeShore. Made some memories. It was all sort of in highspeed though so cant remember every single thing. We should have taken more pix to jog it. Halloween this year was whatever, though my parents and I managed to go to the last remaining "fests" and took a peek around DT nappy town and their 'All Hallows Eve' stuff. The holiday wasn't a total loss though as I did end up carving my first jack-o-lantern lmao. The other 'big thing' of the month was BU's Garba night, which was a bit gay cuz im not a Gujju. Its hard to keep up with these machines who have been doing it all their lives haha but it was still fun cuz of the people that were there. Sudhamayee showed up which was simply amazing and though there was random drama that night with some other people, it was still very memorable, especially at the end when i started getting the hang of the hit-and-run dance.

November - School started getting HARD. It was my last "real semseter" so in retrospect I shouldve gone full-throttle. Didn't Happen. Thanksgiving Break was a much needed relaxer though after weeks of highly unnecessary projects in every class that ranged from filing income taxes for families, pitching a binder full of ideas and penetrating strategies for marketing, to stock market analysis. Diwali Night was a major fail too. You had to have been there. The highlight of the month was the AMKA 25th anniversary and the subsequent fashion show that we had to partake in hahaha. To the side here, is a shot of the "youth boys" with our choreographer

December - Nishant's farewell party was mos def a highlight because I got to bring Jon Tobin. The two of us were friends in highschool and later were in the same chem class as Nishant at COD. Nishant meanwhile invited a bunch of kids who Tobin and I hadnt seen in years like Hardik and Priyanka. 'twas a good reunion. After that was Finals Week so everyone was pushing the pedal to the metal. I did okay. Only complaint was Anthropology. wtf.

After break 'officially' started, I got back to the usual hanging out with Neil, Akhil, Faisal, Binni, and the rest of the usual suspects soon followed. The family also had a nice Christmas party that was quite dandy.

January - NYE was eventful with all of us renting out a suite on Michigan Ave. The rest of the month has been highly irritating to say the least though. From oral surgery, to my computer battery needing to get replaced, to the art mural on my wall not turning out exactly what I had in mind due to fucking oil pastels and their insistence on acting like crayon on dry-wall, its been a frustrating 2011. Most people agree in saying 2010 from the get-go was very special (especially for the ones that were in the infamous 1/1/10 van ride from hell). January for me has always been a downer month, idk if its cuz of the weather (freezing cold with no sunlight and NO SNOW is just plain annoying) or cuz everyone leaves to go back to their old lives or what, but hey when life gives you lemons....throw them back and ask for cookies :]

We still havent completed our Secret Santa since its been hard to get everyone at the same place at the same time. Although this means that on the flip side, I did get to see people I hadn't seen in a longass time like Nandhini, Vikash, Rohit, Rohan, Shivani, to name a few. Parag was considerate enough to give me his gift however. He remembered earlier over break when I briefly mentioned in passing that dad and I were going to take up golf. So Parag went and got me 2 boxes full of high quality balls, hundreds of tees, and even a glove to boot. what a guy <3 c'mon Parag lend me some 'sugggaaa

April Showers

yo yo here we go

i havent really been writing in here as much as I wouldve liked. In fact, not at all. Maybe it was like a 3 day phase I was going through. Really.

ummmm its hard to put into words about what goes on in someone's live for the past month, but I shall give it a try -- Im watching one of the Rambo movies right now. Sly is a funny guy.

First off I got my internship. Yup.
its a small investment firm somewhre in the Hoffman Estates/Schaumburg area so I'm gna be there for pretty much the entire summer. Most likely I'll be driving back and forth from there (not that bad -- just take 59 the whole freaking way). Yeahhh its like 45-hourish of a drive but the way I figure it, if Parag and Faisal can drive 8 hours at a time without blinking from Minnesota and Michigan respectively, then staying on one road shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Am I right? I hope so.

Actually nahh. Its not going to be for the whole summer cuz the family and I are going to India for two weeks and stop off in Italy for a week as well. Not fully finalized which cities in Italy we're gna tackle, but Rome and Pisa are locks at this point. Also I'm psyched about taking Luftansa hahaha. I KNOW I KNOW but trust me all those Air India trips scarred me for life. And it looks as if my parents have felt it as well =]

Summer classes are something that I'm also kindasortaaa considering but given the internship I may be forced to take something online if anything at all.

Last week Shoaib and his friends Saad and Anthony and I went underneath Benedictine and explored the tunnels that connect the campus together. Had to break open a lock and the whole 9 yards. lol it was more exciting than that I'm making it out to be.

Parag's birthday also passed a couple days ago. That means my T-minus 30 days annual countdown is on -- 22 years old. damn. Im not even gna into that right now . . .
But I used to always be one of the youngest in whatever 'crew' I was with. Even if it was with my grade cuz I have a summer birthday. So hanging out with the Benedictine HSA and being one of the oldest is a new feeling. Thank goodness I dont have to set an example or be the 'responsible' or 'mature' one. Dear Lord, what a fiasco that would be . . .
Nishant, Fenil, KD, Rachel, and Janki, are the only ones that have spent more time on this planet than I have. Kaushal, Pinal, Dinesh, Parth Bhatt, etc are all within a few months of me so that makes me feel better -- but when I see that Preyanshu's birthday is coming up and the other Parth just turned 19 its like goddamnnn hahahah
and chillin with Abdullah's posse doesnt help either. To mention a few, Kinza and Abdullah are 19. Rhea, Shachi, and Shoaib are 18. Linisha, Shaan, and Bhaswini are 17. And yup it goes lower. But I think 21/22 and 18/19 isnt that much of a big deal as its cut out to be cuz its not how old you are...its how old you feel ^_^

okay enough of watching my life passing by like the sands of an hourglass . . .

This Friday is BU's India Night. I got suckered into partaking in the Fashion Show. Still not sure what the dress code is. I mean the guideline was 'anything' but I dont wanna be the douchebag in a suit when everyone else has indian garbs and threads on ya'kno? I mean this IS india night after all. But the thing is that most of these kids grew up in India and have more of that type of clothing than I do haha. And so as far as garments go, I got no bullets left in my barrel. okay now im sounding like the guys from Queer Eye, but its something to kinda sorta think about. And as far as my 'runway' goes...ima be obnoxious about it. Its a fashion show for god's sake. Lets not act as if we have sticks up our asses people.

School is going fine. Its rumbling along -- After this week I think its gna be easy pickings for me till the end. Cruise Control if you will. This is the final hurrah for the semester. I gotta start looking at some GMAT crap soon though.

And I'm getting back into the groove of things as far as tennis goes. The time off has made my elbow get pampered -- basically its sore and it never used to be. Right now I'm smackin' some balls (yeah i know) with my buddy Neil but Ankit and Amar apparantly also play so0o0 theyve asked me to hit with them as well. Will let you know how that plays out.

Unofficial, Tennis, Volunteering

Damn.

I was supposed to turn it up a notch and post more shiiiiz on this. I did throw a couple over the past few weeks but realized they just made me sound like a tool. One of my posts was while I was having my annual once-a-year emo moment. And the other post was about how I felt while going to U of I for Unofficial...about how I feel like I sort of got the shaft by not going to a Big 10 school. But I got over it within 24 hours so no need to bare that nonsense to the world.

ANYWAYYYY

HmM. U of I's unofficial st. patrick's day weekend ----> actually im not even gna touch that. It was slightly ehh compared to last years and yet

It was what you expected. 'nuff said.

But I got some random bad news. Apparantly the Men's tennis team at BU is not getting as much support as it once did. There were a lot of people all gung-ho about it earlier and wanting to play, but now when push comes to shove and I guess the fact that they may have found out that you need to pay $50 for uniforms, they've dropped like flies. So for the few people that truly have the passion to play, sort of got screwed. Not a huge deal cuz its not like I'm losing an athletic scholarship or anything but it still irks me. Im not gna be screaming piss and vinegar but when you commit to something, you should see it through. I just feel that it's one of the tenants to being honorable.

Volunteering at the Woodridge Community Food Pantry was a lot better than I thought it would go. Its such a team effort there, and everyone who partakes in it is doing it from the kindess of their heart--so it is difficult for that to not rub off on you in some way.

We are kind of an assembly line. The REAL BASIC way to put it is:

• There are "shoppers"who put groceries -- cereals, canned goods, etc. -- into little trollies and bring them to tables.
• There are 6 tables, with a person assigned to each one. That was my job. The person on the table as well as the shopper unload all the groceries onto the table.
• Then you wait for the people who bring the dairy. Then the ones who bring the meat.
• Once you load all sorts of other items such as juice and stuff the needy patron comes in.
• They are each assigned to a table. They tell us what they dont want and then we take everything they DO want and put them into brown boxes and load them onto these two leveled carts (there is a proper way to load the things).
• We roll them out to the guys waiting outside and they load them into the cars of the customers, and then we start over again.

There are also multiple stations (bread, then diapers, then catfood, yada yada) that the customers go to, after they come to your table and once in a while, some have special coupons and vouchers which have to be taken care of, but its nothing too major. The emotion and glee on the faces of the patrons is truly amazing. Cliche I know.

But also, no matter what, no matter how pissed off they are at you or impatient they seem you should ALWAYS be courteous to people in those situations. You do not know what they have gone through so always treat them with dignity.

The commoradorie there was simply unbelieveable though. If one of us is straggling behind on a table, someone will come and lend a helping hand. And jesus christ almost ALL of these people are genuinely funny! Some of my co-workers (if you can call them that) have their own issues with alcoholism, sexual abuse, neglect, etc but there is no way you could tell by looking at them. Yup, they even bring in treats for all of us. Today's was a dish that contained some ground beef and vegetables. Genuinely good folks through and through.

Usually the customers are done at noon and then we unload boxes, sort stuff, take out the trash, things like that till about 5 when the next wave of people come. You can leave at anytime since this is such a team environment. No pressure, No worries. There is also some random work to do in the backroom once in a while, such as loading the freezer, crushing boxes, sorting products, stuff like that, but nothing too severe. There is also a man who is 69 years old working just as hard as us. How can you NOT feel like doing something useful when you see that level of dedication?

The one thing I do have a bone to pick about though was the amount of food that is wasted. BOXES...no CRATES of fruits, vegetables, bread, etc is just casually thrown away everyday rather than donated somewhere else. Not sure why but I will get to the bottom of it lol

Spring Break is officially over. Not as off-the-charts as compared to ones in years past BUT super relaxing nonetheless. Saw some movies, read some books, did some origami, drew some stuff, made it to the gym a couple times, Parag and Faisal came in from out of state, and we just took it eZe

And that's what life is all about -- you worry too much, you're not gna get anything done. Just sit yourself down and take a seat :)

Month of celebration and other tomfoolery

Sorry for the slight gap in posts. I would like to try and post an entry every week or so, but sometimes time never lets it happen.

FEBRUARY is always a sight to see at the Nayak house.
the 9th is my moms bday
the 19th is my dads bday
and the 25th is their anniversary

The thing is that our family really is not conventional when it comes to giving gifts to eachother or even saying "I love you" because we feel that we dont need to prove to anyone out there about how much we care for eachother. For us, it goes without saying. We dont need to 'shower eachother with affection' when we all know that it's there. Yes we will stay up till midnight and sing happy birthday, do a song and dance and all that fun stuff, but that's pretty much it. No breaking the bank cept a small token or two.

However with that said, this year was my dad's big 5-0 =]

My mom and I wanted to do something special for him, so we threw him a surprise party! hahah and luckily it went off without a hitch. There were between 50-70 people at any given point and was just an amazing night overall, especially considering I had not seen so familiar faces for such a long time. It got to the point where many people came and asked me when I started to grow facial hair haha. But super good food and even better people easily made the night VERY memorable. The cake itself was unbelievable because it was a three-layer ice cream cake that was half cookies&cream and half strawberry cheesecake. And believe it or not, but they even 'roasted' my dad for some time haha. I had no idea how truly and genuinely funny some of these 'uncles and aunties' were lol. Lucky for me, I have some video (that I also showed Faisal) so the memories will last for a lifetime.

On the 13th I also managed to go to Pinal & Rachel's Valentines/House warming/Nishant's bday party !
Again at the risk of sounding repetitive, it was A BLAST! you name it_we did it.

Yes, even a pushup contest in the middle of the dance floor lol

There is also a badminton tournament going on right now at Benedictine and my partner Parth and I are sitting at 5-2 which is decent. There's a few teams that I know we have absolutely no shot at defeating but as long as the bottom line shows that we've all had fun, that's all that matters right? Its not exactly life or death and at the end of the day, its just a game :)

My hunt for an internship has taken a bit of a stall lately, as I have not really had much time to be actively pursuing leads into various companies. I still think i need to pad my gpa up anyway. But I know I can IF I drop my second major of Accounting and just take some b.s. classes like Astronomy or Weather Patters or something you know? Its just that I came to BU to get a degree in Finance. I pretty much have that all sewn up for all intents and purposes, but everyone needs to take some 'extra' classes to fill up the 120 credit hour requirement, and instead of taking some blowoffs I decided to try and do the double major. Right now it is proving to be quite the challenge. So single major/higher gpa or double major/lower gpa? You win some, you lose some.

As a means of just clearing my mind and just taking a break from it all, I've been fiddling around with the 'Garage Band' application on the mac and laying down some vocal tracks. Some English, some Hindi, but still nowhere near American Idol quality yet hah. I have not drawn much either although I did buy some new tools to help me with getting the hair in a realistic manner. Its all about the white reflections that shimmer off it. Dunno what I'm talkin' bout? hah me neither . . .

Im also not too much of a 'videogamer' but I am going to get back on the guitar hero bandwagon. Neil and I NEED to play his Beatles Rockband. Quite tragic that we havent yet :/
ho hum
we were decent-ish back in the day. Lets see if we can bring some of the old magic back :P
BioShock 2 also seems to be a lot of fun especially now that you can play as the 'Big Brother'
Anyone love MAG ? Havent heard too many fabulous things about it yet though.

But as far as REAL guitar goes...As I said I was going to start playing it again but honestly Im just getting too lazy. UNFORTUNATE I KNOW! these are precious times which we will never get back but its so hard to get motivated. gRRRRR

I think I'm going to get an Air Hockey table. Kriti always had one at her place and me and Ashok used to always have legendary struggles on it but I was always a 'pool' guy. But playing it on Abdullah's phone made me wanna get the actual thing now. Compulsive I KNOW but games are my anti-drug =]

I also met R. Madhavan, the man who played "Farhan" in the movie 3 Idiots =]

What a truly amazing and inspirational guy. He's one of those people that would be good at anything he does. He just has that "It" quality which the majority of us lack. From being one of the best and natural 'talkers' on the campus, which led to him opening up a tuition class where he taught hundreds of individuals in the art of English and Public Speaking (which led him to being wealthy by the age of 22), to joining the Army, to coming to Canada and learning how to Rodeo, to dating a Canadian model, to asking around in India about how his headshots would look to model, to immediately getting a role on a small Tamil tv series, to eventually getting to the big time after years of hardwork. Talking + Street Smarts + Dedication will get you anywhere in life.

The plan right now in March is to volunteer at the DuPage Shelter/Food Pantry for atleast 10 hours, have my friend Amar (and whomever else) from BU come over to my place and chill for a day or two and also go to Unofficial round 2 with Neil and the rest of the clique. I'll take life from there =)

oH yeah I also need to try and work on my story! Only Justin, Pinal, and Faisal have seen it so far. I really need to get my bum going on that one.
I have a collection of short stories as well. Some for kids, some more dark.
Maybe I will eventually turn my short stories and longer ones into screenplays for tv shows and movies lol. i got big DREAMS hahah =D

More Pizza, Internships, and other honky tonky business

In this job market, an internship to add to one's resume is almost a necessity. Needless to say, other than working for a year and a half at Sports Authority (which in all honesty is much harder work than any clerical people sitting at a desk and answering phone calls....if you can surf facebook at work...dont even talk about how 'demanding' your job is whether it be a receptionist or whatnot).

So I was talking to my parents about it and since my dad currently works at the Deutsche Bank, he wants me to get an internship over there. The thing is that, I personally do not feel ready. It's almost like a real job and I honest to god do not want that type of responsibility right now. An internship at small firm is what I would like...but we all know parents and their 'high' aspirations for us young ones. We'll see what happens. Right now the kettle isn't boiling just yet, but the flame has been set.

I tried Braconi's pizza with my friend Neil last weekend. Amazing. Don't know how I missed out on all this goodness all these years. Stupid mainstream shit.

Anyone catch the Australian Open this year? The Fed Express marched on as he proved again why, without a shadow of a doubt he is arguably the greatest ever. I was always a big Sampras guy, defending him against those who said he was inferior to Mr. Roger. But after this performance, against a player who was pretty much ON for the entire fortnight...just shows us how much gap there is between him...and the rest of the 6.8 billion people on the planet.

The one thing that got me upset though were the tennis rankings. The analysts were muttering something about if Raj (Roger = Rog = Raj) had lost in the Quarterfinals and Novak Djokovic had won the title, The Joker would have become the new world's #1 player, leapfrogging over Nadal and Federer. I found that hard to comprehend.

Let's review for a moment Federer and Nadal's body of work in the past 7 grand slams.

2008 French - Nadal def Federer in Finals

2008 Wimbledon - Nadal def Federer in Finals

2008 US Open - Federer def Murray in Finals (Nadal lost to Murray in Semi's)

2009 Australian Open - Nadal def Federer in Finals

2009 French Open - Federer def Soderling (who def Nadal in the 4th rd) in Finals

2009 Wimbledon - Federer def Roddick (Nadal skipped the tourney due to injury)

2009 US Open - Del Potro def Federer (Nadal lost in Semi's to Del Potro)

2010 Australian - Novak could have become the world # 1.

Why? Because these days its all about "defending" points. So if Federer gets 1000 points for winning the US Open in 2008, he would have won ZERO for winning it again in 2009, but instead lost 300 for losing in the finals. It doesn't make sense and it is a crock of shit. It forces players to play every tournament over and over again, all year round. For quite a long while last year Dinara Safina was ranked #1. Did anyone really think she was better than the Williams sisters?

Who all watched the Grammy's? I skipped the ProBowl to watch it and was glad. Amazing performances by Eminem and all the singers who performed the Michael Jackson tribute. I'm sure you all know how much he meant to me, but especially my mom. She practically learned English by listening to his songs. After I finished that drawing of him, he passed away two days later. It still is surreal.

Other than that, the acrobatic stunts by Pink were amazing and totally unexpected and the little kid who came up with Rihanna and Jay-Z was hilarious hahaha. And I'm really getting tired of Taylor Swift's "omg this is a dream come true" speeches.

How about the annual WWE Royal Rumble?

No takers Im guessing :P

in case you care Edge won. And yes I am elated =]

Pizza and Community Service

Hey guys! Thank you Parag, Faisal, Varun, and Hiral for following my blog!

Without any further ado, I was informed that I have to partake in Community Service. No no it was not a drunken escapade gone wrong, but the result of me signing up for a Humanities Class. It's not a big deal or anything, only ten hours by the end of April. I used to do community service all time when I was in highschool and even through my first year of college. But unfortunately now, it cannot be anything of my choosing. It has to be something that requires a lot of dealing with people and cannot be clerical work, hospital stuff, doing things behind a desk, etc.

Working with people is not an issue but I just kind of want to get in and out of there. Because it cannot be a 'business type' environment where I can use that time to put on my resume as an internship opportunity, I am slightly at a loss as to what I should put my foot towards.

So she honestly recommended something like the Big Brother/Big Sister program. How irresponsible could she be? When one makes a commitment like that, it is supposed to be something will last for years because one is trying to make an impression on that child's life and at the same time try to fill a void. So to say that we should just burn 10 hours on that, will just be a waste of time for me and almost like a teaser for the kid. So I am thinking possibly volunteering in the soup kitchen. I used to record for the blind and dyslexic in high school but as aforementioned that does not count since its just me with a tape player. If not the soup kitchen I will figure something else out. I have till the 9th to let her know.

My other classes are okay. They are as follows:

Monday / Wednesday -- Stats II 8am - 9:15

Personal Finance (Similar to Consumer Ec in HS) 9:30 - 10:45

Advanced Managerial Finance 11-12:15

Break between 12:15 - 3 which I use to either hang out with people, go eat something, or just go sleep for a couple hours.

Cost Accounting (Accounting 3, part of double major) - 3 - 4:15

Tuesday/Thursday -- Humanities (Required to graduate) 1:30 - 2:45

International Business (Part of Minor) 3 - 4:15

Lately I've also been obsessed with trying a lot of local pizza joints. As a Chicagoan I believe we should know a decent amount of pizza/hotdog places. I mean in terms of food what else are we known for? Nebraska has their corn and Idaho has their potatoes, am I right?

So I tried the Aurelio's by the DMV on 75th a few weeks ago, had a few different versions of Old Town which is around 59 and 87th, and today I brought home some Pieroni's which is located on Modaff and 87th.

But needless to say since one of my resolutions for this year was to cut my 'eating-out' down to 2-4 times a week, this definitely is not helping my cause.

I have not watched any new movies lately after watching Eastern Provinces (with Viggo Mortensen), The Lovely Bones, Master Ip, Up In the Air and some of This Is It in a one week span.

Why have I toned it down? Because of school, all you ladies and jellyworms.

And the Australian Open hah

Anyone else watching it?

TOnight we have Roddick vs Cilic and Murray vs Nadal.

Im thinking Roddick and Murray both gut it out in 5 sets, but Im hoping the other two win.

By the wayyyy me and the Siddiqi brothers got into a heated debate about the fact that women get equal pay now at the grandslams. What do you guys think? Fair or not? Spin the wheel and let me know =]

God, Muscles, and Legacies

School has started and so far so good.

I guess after three days if things were already headed south I would had to have a long hard look at myself in the mirror.

But considering it was the first week there was the usual nonsense -- mainly the bookstore.

Okay really ->>>> Humanities 250 requires 7 (yes SEVEN) books and then two more "supplementary" ones. Grand total easily exceeding $400 for that class alone. So Im skipping out on the extra texts and 'only' going with the required ones. But take that class and the ones from other classes such as 3 more for International Business and whatnot, my total was $768.85

absolutely disgusting and highly unnecessary.

So last night I decided to go fishing online and try and see what I could dig up and I can happily say I returned about $580 of it back and bought it for $240.

We have not had a Finance Club meeting yet but HSA stuff is going well. Although I am not on the board, and not to brag, but they are pretty much using all of my ideas to freshen up the stagnant pool. Last semester all they did was talk about the next event for 3-5 minutes (India Night, Diwali Show, etc), then go to youtube and hook it up to the AV to put it on the white screen, light an open flame, have the aarti for a half hour and then leave.

It really got me questioning as to whether or not most Hindus truly know about their religion or are they just blindly following it. Not just the kids in our association, but even our parents/adults both here and abroad.

Now 75% of the kids in it are what you would call "fobs." But with that said I was surprised that they would not even bother WANTING to discuss the Gita, Puranas, Vedas, or even common misconceptions or how it is like to be a Hindu in America rather than India. A few weeks before break we took a vote whether or not people wanted to discuss topics. I got completely shut down, except for a select few such as Nishant and Pinal who are always glad to try something new. I guess if you were raised in India does not necessarily guarantee that you are more in tune or aware of the knowledge and meaning behind the religion that you follow. I went to Chinmaya for about 6 years so I know my way around it a bit. I may not know every shloka or aarti in the world as they do, but I believe I can hold my own on just about any topic.

So I thought maybe we could watch some movies, considering they have so many now such as Hanuman and Ganesh.

I decided that it would be up to me to bring all this up, so I talked to Pinal about it and she brought it up again and now I guess after some arm twisting it's finally happening and I'm happy that we are evolving.

They are also going to have a table at Quad Day on Tuesday and I suggested that we give out something free. Not necessarily kumkum or anything but possibly something edible. Let's see how that pans out.

I also worked out today for the first time since about September. Yeah. Tell me about it. I feel so terrible. Not physically but I went to the gym and I randomly had low body image because I have lost almost everything I had gained over the past year. It was sickening. I know slowly I will get it back, possibly within a month due to the phenomenon known was 'Muscle Memory' but it sucks when you have to go back to the drawing board. The worst part is the people who were weaker than you, or even beginners, are now jacked because they are more dedicated (or insecure and superficial). And I never took creatine or anabolic supplements that so many of my close friends around me are currently taking so I know I am going to be slower than them in refinding my mojo. But as long as I have Eye of The Tiger blasting I'll be back to normal come March.

How many of you also know the website bleacherreport.com ?

I am going to try and post some articles on that, and try to get published. Am I trying to establish some sort of legacy? Possibly.