Thursday, July 31, 2008

My Alma Mater

Today evening we had an Alumni Reception of UW hosted by the ECE Dept. It was hosted in sunnyvale and i was there with a bunch of Madison folks at around 6 pm. Professor Parmesh Ramanathan was present there with Lori Burrow. Had a small chat with the two of them. Prof Ramanathan gave a small talk on the ECE Dept, and some of the problems faced by ECE Dept and COE like retention of Professors, funds etc. He was mentioning that the road near Union South (Randall Av) has been completely dug and a research institute is being built there with the 50 million dollars given by an alumni couple.Union south brought images of the irish cream and the cappuccino on winter mornings after a walk from the business school to get to the ECE 756 class. Also my favorite cookies and cream babcock icecream :-)

One thing i would like to talk about which must be true not only about Madison but even other schools in US. The Professors and the other academic staff so overly committed to providing education to students. They have so many different departments like diversity, international students (we had ISS in Red Gym in Madison), student organizations etc all committed 200% to the benefit of the students. Students dont have to encounter any blocks or corruption or bureaucracy at any level interacting with any body in the university. Things like paying tuition, getting resources , getting help , setting up administration stuff like accounts etc, there is hardly any struggle for anything. A job of a student is only to learn, he is given everything else he needs. This is what i can say with full confidence about UW Madison. I am sure its true about other schools in US too. I remember the 4 safe cab rides privilege also given to us every month to use late night to travel from one part of the campus to another. Not just that, when we came in new, we had an orientation and outing hosted by ISS. We were taken around the city of Madison in small groups by a local Madison family. It was fun and gave us a feeling that we were being welcomed not just by the University but by the city. Its an experience that can not be described in words. UW Madison is truly my alma mater.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Kashmiri Dum Aloo


Dum Aloo is a kashmiri delicacy, i gave it a try, here is the recipe:

-Pick up small sized potatoes , peel them and with a fork perforate them all around. Now deep fry them in oil.
-Fry an onion cut into slices in another pan.
-Grind coriander leaves, turmeric, ginger, kashmiri red chillies, cumin seeds, saunf and eliachi in a grinder.
-Once the onions are fried, add the grinded masala to it and heat some more.
-Cut two tomatoes and make a puree out of it and add some curd to it.
-Add the tomato, curd puree to the onion mix and add salt and cook for some time (~10 mins). Also add a cinnamon stick to this.
-Now once the potatoes are fried, add them to the other pan with hot water and cook for a few minutes still the cinnamon smell is strong enough.
-Serve with Tandoori roti or rice.

Bay Bikers

The last time i biked ( bicycle) was in Madison about an year back with the famous Red Bike. Yesterday was a super biking day. Me and another 4 friends B, S, B and K left for San Francisco through the BART around Noon. We rented a Bike from a shop near Ferry building and biked all along the bay. It was fabulous! We saw Alcatraz, then biked over Marine drive , Fort Point... The only problem for me was the uphill roads where i couldnt bike and had to walk and push the bike. But overall a g8 experience. We followed the marine driver over to the Golden Gate Bridge. The winds were extremely strong and opposing over the bridge, that made it very difficult for us to bike especially for the light weight members me and S :-) . From over the bridge i could see the waves hitting the shore below me and the long red structure of the bridge above me. What a view! After crossing the bridge we were very tired , there was a ferry back to Ferry building from Sausalito in half an hour and we werent sure if we would be able to take it as me and S were the slow bikers. We all decided to try , we biked one uphill road to Sausalito and after that every thing was downhill :). We just sat on the bike and it rolled , the view was beautiful. We reached the ferry station and joined the long queue. The ferry people stopped boarding any more bike traffic :-(... We thought we would have to bike all the 10 miles back! I proposed of taking a cab and bikes on top of it , there was another ferry in half an hour and luckily we got a place in that, came back to ferry building, biked another mile to the bike shop and returned the bikes. By this time my legs were giving up but i was proud to have biked all 10 miles :-) the longest biking trail so far for me. We had dinner at Osha Thai right opposite to Ferry building , it was nice Thai food..Nice day!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Beautiful Mount Shasta

After a long time, i went exploring this Saturday to Mount Shasta County. Quite peaceful and serene. We went to Burney Falls which is a waterfall nestled in a state park. Followed by that we drove towards lake Siskiyou which has a beautiful view of Mount Shasta. Driving towards the lake, Mount Shasta peak was visible on and off through the side windows. Since i was driving, i caught a glimpse of it shining with a golden aura in the sun. The few patches of snow on the peak add beauty to it. The Siskiyou lake was a picnic resort and we had lunch. They had amazing pizzas , huge and filled with heavy fillings. We then went paddle boating in the lake enjoying the view of Mount Shasta from the middle of water. The trip was a day trip so was very tiring but still quite a satisfaction on exploring these places!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Few days back

An evening at India gate followed by dinner at Haldirams. That was a day couple of weeks back. Family time it was, every evening outing with parents . Sometimes Dwarka and sometimes India Gate. And i also remember the Pizza Hut day when we had a nice Paneer Makhani pizza and masala lemonade for dinner. All evenings used to start with a badminton game with M. After a long game, we used to head back home for a chilled lemonade or a cup of tea. I do miss those days. I remember droppping the shuttle in the drain every evening while playing and M taking it out :-) . Lovely days, Lovely time..

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A day at CP

This is the memory of one memorable day at CP (Connaught Place) with ma and Mohit. So we met M at the Moti Nagar Metro Station and took the metro to Rajiv Chowk. What a station! Special because its the junction station where the 3 metro lines- red, green and blue meet. Very tidy, exceptional planning, ultra modern, doesnt seem you are standing in India. I was very very impressed. Got out from the Palika Bazaar exit and M dragged me to Thapar to buy some clothes. Then we moved to Keventers and shared a strawberry milkshake from the generation old joint. After that we went around in the CP Blocks window shopping. And then also visited 'Wengers' where we always used to buy the delicious cherry crumble cake every Christmas. And then inspite of the warnings from my mom and M , i ate the aloo chaat by the famous guy in block B corner. We 3 then went to Palika side and had some lemonade and then Mohit wanted to get a Langar being distributed outside Palika. He has this big obsession with Langars :-) . But because of the long lines he gave up, although the Rajma Chawal smelled awesome. We took a round in Palika Bazaar then and i ended up buying a kurta. After that we were tired so we took the metro back to Dwarka and had a nice nap at home.
The day was so special as after long i hanged out in CP with my brother and mom.