Excellent News for Baroda

Students of M.S. University of Baroda will soon get education at par with prestigious Universities of United States, e.g. the Ivy Leagues, University of California, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell University!!!! MSU has been selected for an Indo-US collaborative project to start inter-continental courses. The project was proposed by PM Manmohan Singh’s to George Bush during his visit to the US.

This project would make quality education available to a large number of students’ at the most cost effective rates and they would not have to travel half way across the world for education. Currently most students from the engineering and science fields leave India to study abroad. World class education and corporate contacts can help retain India’s best talent in India.

In addition to this, the Municipal Corporation of the city plans to spend over 1,600 crores (approx. $355 million) for a city makeover. So by 2012 the city should have wider roads, sufficient water supply, fly-overs, and beautiful landscapes. (Considering that currently only 70% of the city has drainage, this is excellent news!)

So it’s not only the rest of India that is benefiting from all the growth & development, Baroda will soon join the race! Cheers

Pramukh Swami

Pramukh Swami is in Baroda for a few days to set the foundation stone for a school he is building in Baroda. The iron & steel required for the building are of course from my dad's factory. By a fortunate turn of events, where my dad met the organizers at a traffic light and we got invited to meet Pramukh Sawmi at the temple today morning. I went along with my dad. Both of us didn't know much about "BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha", but we took the time to read about it will waiting to meet Pramukh Swami. The work they have done is pretty impressive.


Also, he immediately recognized my dad. It seems they had a close association in the past. It turns out Pramukh Swami used to take iron & steel from my grandfather in the past. The spiritually inclined person he was I am sure he had a lot to talk with Pramukh Swami. :)

We got special treatment all throughout the event. There was such a long queue of devotees, its not even funny! They say, in Swamiji’s presence, doubts dissolve, confusions clear, hurts heal and the mind finds peace. People find answers to life's toughest questions. When he touched me on the head I could feel this energy surge through the body. They work they have done is commendable, something we can all learn from. :)


Interesting Links:

About Pramukh Swami
Kalam & Manmoham Singh Inaugurate Swainarayan Akshardhan

sniff sniff :( and a New GUITAR!!! :)

Amita is off to foreign lands. Soon she will be a double masters and traveling the world. It’s a brilliant and fresh start but it comes at a price. And I will miss her. Ofcourse I can’t even imagine what Ashkirat would be going through now. He seems to be handling himself well for now, or maybe he is just not being able to express himself. I hope it is the former.

It was challenging for me to sit with him today and teach him when to use “a” and “the”. However challenges dealing with English grammar and other subjects I will manage. It was brilliant to see mummy switch gears from a Nani into the mother figure – a magician at work!

In the middle of all this I managed to get an excellent deal on a new guitar!!!!!!!! Was waiting to buy it for some time now, and nothing could have pleased me more. Got it directly from the dealer and managed to get loads of free accessories along with. Spent the evening looking for my old guitar notes. Didn’t manage to find them, but I did find (very surprisingly!!) notes for “Hit me baby one more time – Britney Spears”. Thank God I stopped playing guitar at the time I did. What was I thinking?!?! That was some 7 years ago, and thankfully now I have a much better taste in music :D

Tips for BCCI

India was slightly unfortunate with the outcome of the ODI today with Pakistan. Our batting and fielding is definitely looking in good shape, but with this bowling attack we are definitely not winning the World Cup! With Bhaggi not playing and Irfan not swinging it is too slow and non-threatening!

Some ideas on how we can change things:

• Get a bowling coach ASAP! Greg Chappel is excellent but we could do a lot with a bowling specialist.


• Anil Kumble needs to make a come-back in ODIs


• Our swing bowlers need to learn how to swing the ball! :p They should all give it a try in the nets before the start of the game. Whoever can manage to swing the ball (by mistake) should be allowed to play. Irfan can opt to just bat full time.


• BCCI is the richest cricket council in the world. I think we should just buy off 3 of the best bowlers in the world. (Asif could be an excellent investment, Bret Lee can give us the pace and we need someone to provide some more variety.) The council definitely has the money, and the Indian citizenship would not take more than a day :D