t’s that time of the year again, when the sun shyly starts peeking out, and those freezing temperatures don’t seem that freezing any more. Yes folks, winter’s coming to an end! Time to start putting away that bulky winter wear, and bring out our shorts and sunglasses. Could there be a better time than this for us to bring some cheer into the life of the Drexel Desis? I will take this opportunity to intro-duce myself the editor, Kali Prasad, and my co-editor, Priyadarsini to the Drexel Desi community. As I write this piece, we’re now well into 2006. The previ-ous year has been a really eventful year, especially for us on Pragathi’s working committee. Earlier boards have done their jobs exceedingly well, and the desi community has high expectations of us. So far, the working committee has been going great guns! Watch this space for more news about Pragathi!

Even though we editors feel that this newsletter must be the best thing that has ever happened to the desis in Drexel, there are still some people out there who don’t know much about us yet. We are the Indian Graduate Student association at Drexel University. Our chief ob-jectives are to increase the awareness of Indians on cam-pus and in Philadelphia and to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of India. This newsletter is meant to be a voice for the Indian community, and a means for us to increase awareness among Drexel students about India and Indians. On behalf of Pragathi and all of us here on the editorial board, I would like to welcome all of you to a wild and rocking year ahead of us. We wish all the desis out there good luck for the midterms. This newsletter is for you, folks! All you people rock, and this newsletter rocks too!

Inside this edition...

● The World This Week

● Coffee! by Sameer Kalghatgi

● Blinkered Learning, by Mahesh Kamat, Harriet Pais

● The Monkey Paradigm

● Picture Gallery - with photos from Graduate Student Orientation, Diwali Dhamaka and more..

● Sudoku Section

And much more!

January 25th, 2006: Hamas wins Palestinian elections. Palestinian militant group Hamas scored an upset victory over incumbent Fatah in the parliamentary elections. As Hamas is a militant group proscribed by the U.S, trouble lies ahead for Palestine. January 28th, 2006: Upset in Karnataka. HD Kumaraswamy is all set to form the government in Karna-taka after he engineered a surprise split in the Congress-JD(U) coalition, causing the alliance to fall.

February 2nd, 2006: Iran in UN trouble. Iran has been referred to the UN Security council following its refusal to cooperate with the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency. Iran faces potential sanctions in the future if disagreement persists. February 4th, 2006: Egypt ferry disaster. At least 1000 people are feared dead after the sinking of an Egyptian ferry carrying 1400 passen-gers, supposedly caused due a fire and explosions on board.

The World This Week

The Desi Newsletter @ Drexel University February 2006

www.pragathi.net

Coffee!

By Sameer Kalghatgi

My very first encounters with coffee, as far as I can stretch the precious few neurons in my overworked brain, remind me of the lazy Sunday mornings at home and the warm aroma of freshly brewed MR coffee spiced with nutmeg powder. This once a week affair was the only time I was allowed to drink coffee. Other requests to drink coffee were politely turned down with not so polite reasons: "You'll turn black if you drink too much coffee!" - Can you believe that?, "Coffee is not good for health" - How could I be so naive? Research has proved that 3-4 cups of coffee a day is good for health, and the mother of all reasons, "Coffee is bad for small children" - Ok mom. Now I am big enough. So coffee is good for me now! Baah! The ill thought of reasons which parents give to us children! I graduated from coffee once a week, to coffee thrice a week and finally to coffee twice a day. At one time I was so ad-dicted, that I used to have severe headaches with one missed cup of coffee. But being a coffee worshipper, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Don't believe me? Drink a cuppa and you'll know what I am talking about. I think coffee is man's biggest discovery or should I say invention. I can’t imagine studying for those engi-neering exams without cups of coffee drunk nine to the dozen. Or for that matter the numerous cups of coffee drunk with your buddies in the college canteen while bunking as many lectures. The best way to break ice between you and a new acquaintance (the cute girl in your class, or the hot babe in office) is "You wanna go for a cup of coffee?”. Ok, I think I am old- fash-ioned, but it still works. Nothing like a hot cup of cof-fee on a rainy day, or a cold coffee on a hot and humid day. Once I hit the road, post graduation, in the land of salaries, company coupons, credit cards, I started ex-ploring the fascinating world of coffee. I, at this point, while working in TATA Motors happened to meet an ardent coffee lover, Arun Kamath. I must say he is a connoisseur, when it comes to coffee, and he is as ec-centric as his coffee drinking habits are. We used to make fun of him for the sheer amount of coffee he used to drink and still manage to stay sober. A person who can drink 3 shots of neat coffee, without changing the expression on his face, in 15 minutes is one crazy coffee drinker. I still reminisce the days we used to haunt Barista and Cafe Coffee Day in Pune. Each weekend jaunt used to revolve around unwinding in these cafes. Drinking in-sane amounts of coffee and getting high on it was an altogether different experience.

(Continued on Page 3)

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

Blinkered Learning By Mahesh Kamat (MS Biomedical Engineering)

Acknowledgements: Harriet Pais (MS Biomedical Engineering) Another day in front of this damned desktop trying to use a Black-Box software that supposedly solves differential equa-tions for spatial problems. Though this thing does give me beautiful pictures of physical solutions, I try to think of the blending of several concepts in physics, math and chemistry that go into this software. Though the individual components of science are learnt well in school, the ability of putting these things together is usually a hurdle for most of us. As learners in the present research-oriented environment, we try to analyze various problems in such a narrow minded man-ner, that we realize the consequences of being part of a parti-tioned education system. Our learning from the very first day of school has been divided into courses which might be con-venient to teach, but eventually put us up on dead ends. Our education system is so “structured” into courses like physics, chemistry and mathematics that we tend to think restrictively towards a problem in context of the subject. Ask a student to solve a differential equation and that would not take long, but ask how this be applied to a physical system and this guy turns nursery grade. Our education system never seems to integrate the “disjoint” fundamentals taught to us and mostly forgets that all these are just based on a few physical laws. It’s typical to see students specialize in the fields of chemistry and physics just to realize that the crux of all of it is the same. A different education sys-tem, based on the integration of all the fundamental principles, explained in a manner not localized to a particular “direction” can build students of greater caliber and potential. With no intention to digress too far, we currently notice an emerging need for Out-of-the-Box thinking. The ability of only some rare minds to see things in a different way by intuition is not because they have any exceptional abilities. That rarity exists because of this system, which keeps us in a box and restricts us from thinking outside of it. Simply put, the next time you think of a problem, you will place it in each of these boxes (called sciences) and try to fit them in. It is surprising to find complex situations with simple solutions, where you say “how come I never thought of this!!!!” In perspective this windowed development is irreversible and the potential of a human mind is almost lost; maybe why they say we use just 10% of our brains. My purpose of penning down these thoughts is not to fret about our knowledge seek-ing process but to put a proposal for those of us who would, in future have the capability to change the system and produce a revolutionary alternative that would bring out the best from the young minds.

(Continued from Page 2) My knowledge of coffee is attributed to "Mr. I am so high on Coffee all day long". I was introduced to the aromatic, intoxicating and flavor filled world of coffee by Arun. I got to know the many different blends, fla-vors, colors, aromas and last but not the least the vari-ous temperatures at which coffee is served. Cappucci-nos, mochas, lattes, espressos were all experimented with and I drank coffee in all different colors and tex-tures, brown, creamy, frothy, milky while slowly gradu-ating to flavors like Irish cream, Hazelnut and Caramel and risked some international blends of coffee, the best being the 'Ethiopian Coffee'. Check out the range of coffee available at Coffee Bean. The range of temperatures at which coffee is served is a sure indication of how good the coffee maker is. We drank coffee scalding hot, hot, warm, lukewarm (this is when we asked for a replacement, you cant possibly serve lukewarm coffee when you charge Rs. 35/- a peg) cool, cold, chilled, ice cold bone chilling coffee (this is when you can’t possibly talk). The coffee drinker’s club was formed when we managed to splurge Rs. 200/- on coffee in a single day and were rewarded with a personalized Cafe Coffee Day Dis-count coupon, valid all over India. No one apart from us would have had a more worn out card. I still have that card as a souvenir. The next time we met was only after 4 months and coffee was once again the uniter. This time it was Delhi's Connaught Place Ba-rista. We haunted that place so frequently that we were on first name basis with the host there. I guess the next time I am in India the rendezvous would be at some coffee place in aamchi Mumbai. On coming to the USA I completely changed my out-look towards coffee. Back home in India, I neither liked nor relished the prospect of drinking black coffee. Who knew my outlook would take a 180 degree turn? Circumstances had a lot to do with my switching over. One freezing winter morning cut from the rest of the civilization due to a blizzard, it dawned upon me that we were out of milk. Faced with the prospects of get-ting no coffee, I was staring into the dire conse-quences of skipping coffee. I could feel a dull throb-bing in my temples, foreboding of something bad to happen. This spurred me into action, whipping out my favorite coffee and coffee mug, I brewed myself a cup of strong black coffee. I had never ventured so far in my coffee drinking career; I was treading into forbid-den territory. Its coffee's way of saying: “Enter at your own risk”. The aroma of fresh coffee in its basic form was overpowering. I simply couldn't resist taking a swig. The first sip of black coffee was enough to shock me pleasantly. I was instantly awakened, all my senses sharpened. I was feeling light and heady. Since then, if its coffee it’s black, else its not coffee "no cream, just sugar". It’s almost time for my coffee break. Until I brew another post lets take a break.

The Monkey Paradigm (Based on an actual experiment conducted in the UK!) Put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room there is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling. Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder. One of the original monkeys is now removed, and a new mon-key put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvi-ous. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the lad-der. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder. A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys gather and beat him black and blue. This in-cludes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating be-cause all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey. One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the lad-der. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who t r ies , wi thout hav ing any idea why. And this is how most company policies get established in to-day’s world. Funny isn’t it?

We would like to hear from you! What did you like about this newsletter? What did you not like about this newsletter? Would you like to have your voice heard by all our readers out there? We would like to hear from you. If you have an article, an opinion or a suggestion, please email it to hpn23@drexel.edu or priyazzz@gmail.com . We promise to put your contribu-tion in the newsletter in forthcoming editions. And for all you people who feel their English isn’t up to scratch, well not to worry folks! That’s what we’re here for! So keep them contributions coming in! “No man is free who is not master of himself.” - Epictetus (Greek philosopher, 100 AD)

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

Picture Gallery Pragathi’s Graduate Student Orientation

Dandiya

Diwali Dhamaka

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

Picture Gallery

Diwali Dhamaka and Penn Skating Rink

iPod By Sameer Kalghatgi

In September 2005, when Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPod video, along with millions of other iPod enthusi-asts I vowed to lay my hands on one as soon as possi-ble. Now I am admiring the sleek black model in my hand, yes my new iPod. It’s awesome. It’s even smaller than the palm of my hand, but can hold much more than my closed fist. I am now one of millions of music freaks enjoying listening to music on an iPod. How did this all happen? Read on. A complete gadget freak, I couldn't imagine myself without the new iPod. After debating in my mind the feasibility of going in for the new iPod vis-a-vis my meager PhD stipend, finally I decided to order the new iPod with a custom engraving and Apple informed me that my iPod would be shipped within two weeks. In a few days I got an email telling me my iPod has been shipped and I could track its status via FedEx. What a wonderful world it is! I click a mouse somewhere, bits fly through fiber optics, go to some unknown destina-tion, money electronically changes hands and then atoms in useful arrangements are flown in airplanes and hand carried to my doorstep. This is sort of mi-raculous. Then I wonder where my new iPod is. Can I expect it tomorrow, or will I have to wait for the next week? I am surprised to discover from FedEx that my new iPod is in a pick up station in Shanghai, China and just missed the pick up deadline. Well, seems like I am go-ing to have to wait for a while. Two days later there is new tracking information from FedEx. My iPod is on the move, but now it is in Tash-kent, Uzbekistan. I have to look this up to find where it is, and I discover it is marginally closer to Philadelphia than it was in Shanghai. I am resentful. What is my iPod doing in Uzbekistan? A few days later my iPod reaches London. I know where this is, and I am encouraged. Still later I get good tidings that my iPod has reached Memphis, Tenn. - the center of FedEx's universe. In my mind I see the plane landing and unloading its contents and one of them being my iPod. It is practically home. After two days of limbo, I am delighted to find that my iPod is in a truck 8 miles away. Within an hour my iPod is on my doorstep. Now I am admiring my new iPod and realizing that in the new world economy the earth is truly flat. In Phila-delphia I order an iPod from a California-based com-pany, but it is assembled in China. Some of the inte-grated circuits are probably fabricated there too, while other chips might have come from Japan, Korea or Taiwan. A lot of design must have been done in Cali-fornia by brilliant American, European and South Asian

But where did the ideas come from which made this machine possible? Just consider some of the brilliant and complex con-cepts that are embedded in this little box. It can play music, screen videos, display pictures, organize contacts and calen-dars and store tons of gigabytes of data. It must have been made possible by the millions of lines of code, computer-aided design tools for the integrated circuits, and by sheer brilliance of some technically advanced minds from all over the world. This iPod epitomizes the world of technology today - designed by brilliant minds, ordered electronically, assembled with worldwide parts, delivered via a sophisticated logistics system and replete with ingenious ideas. Yet in a world of commodity products, this brilliance is largely unappreciated. And if this iPod dies on me one day, I'll stop appreciating it too.

Sudoku Priyadarsini Seshaadri

Sudoku sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a logic-based place-ment puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the canonical puzzle is to enter a numeri-cal digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various digits given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Com-pleting the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. Al-though first published in a U. S. puzzle magazine in 1979, Sudoku initially caught on in Japan in 1986 and attained in-ternational popularity in 2005. (Source: Wikipedia) Instructions: Just fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

Visit www.dailysudoku.com for more puzzles, solutions, hints, books and other resources.

A day in Drexel By Sameer Kalghatgi

6:30 Wake up and lie awake in bed. 6:31 Realize you spent $18 on last night's dinner, means no eating out for the next 6 weeks. 7:00 Wake up suddenly with heart in mouth when you realize you didn't hit the snooze button--you turned it off. 7:01 Fall asleep again. 7:44 Wake up with heart in mouth again. 7:45 Ready to go to school, will shave tomorrow, bathe day after, will eat early brunch at (Taco's/John's/Daily Deli/Mike's whatever cafeteria). 8:03 Arrive at school. Realize your lab mate arrived earlier today as usual and must have got more work done. 8:04 Pass by Advisor's office, chat with Secretary to find out if he is coming in today. He is, darn. Need to start work on the draft due this afternoon. 8:15 Read electronic mail. 8:20 Delete mail from prospective students regarding questions about the funding, courses, profs, univ. Darn these inquisitive freshers. Depression: too much work to do today. 9:00 For jumpstart: go to Pepsi machine. 9:05 Kick Pepsi machine; promise yourself to call up the company and ask for your money back. Wonder why they would believe you. 9:33 Start printing out loads of stuff that may be vaguely related to your work. 9:41 Early morning stupefaction. Mutter racist com-ments to yourself about your officemate. 9:43 Curse your officemate in a low tone he would not comprehend. Feel good about him not grasping English well. 10:19 Feel sleepy, should not have stayed late writing this post last night. 10:43 Make a daily schedule to be followed from to-morrow, which means never. 10:59 Drop in at advisor's office and borrow something you don't need & and kinda make him aware you are working hard on your project. 11:05 Perverted daydreams 11:11 Read electronic news. Mid-morning yawn time. 11:34 Start typing junk at a very high key-in rate to pretend you are working hard as your advisor passes by from outside. 11:35 Press the Backspace key for one and a half min-utes until all the garbage you typed in is erased. Real-ize that you can type more than 256 characters per half minute. 11:41 Flirt with the new girl in the department. 11:45 Print out some slides for afternoon's draft + presentation. 11:47 Print them again, you forgot to change the date from last presentation. 12:15 Hunger pangs:

cola from your desk. Ch-Ching, you just saved 35 cents by buy-ing bulk cola. 1:00 Group Meeting with advisor. 1:14 Sudden awareness of one's resentment towards foreign officemate for sucking up to your advisor. Get reminded by your advisor that you need to do some more work for your literature survey. 1:51 Advisor hands you the reddened copy of your draft for corrections. 1:51:02 The 49 second urge to murder advisor begins!! 1:51:52 Realize that he controls your assistantship/grade/ graduation possibility/graduation date/all job opportunities and the rest of your life. 1:52:53 Thank him 1:52:54 Thank yourself for not saying something stupid to your advisor 1:59 Check electronic mail, don't reply though, you are too busy to do that. 2:17 Oh No, it is my turn to cook tonite :-( 2:30 Sit through the class you were told to sit through. 2:39 Look outside the window make unrealistic plans to quit this degree program and take up a job. Wonder why blonde girls are so pretty. 2:48 More perverted day-dreams. Close office door and open a few .gif files. Sharpen pencil. 3:06 Worry about never graduating. Time to write an email--NOT! No time for that. Rearrange desk. Call up bank, see if you have any money. Fear of losing aid next Fall ;) 3:43 Watch the clock. Make plans to do an all-nighter tonite. Vow to watch only 2 TV programs. 4:58 Notice advisor leave. 4:58:01 Sudden sense of freedom. Go home for quick, short dinner break and a power nap. 9:00 Come into the office 9:01 The hard working grad student you are, you have to come to the office late at night to "get the work done." 9:03 Check electronic mail. Decide it would be a good time to attack those ftp sites since network won't be loaded. Run into "since network won't be loaded" traffic and get the pictures into your machine. Compress all the unwanted research/class directories to make space. Back up all your pictures. 10:11 Admire pictures. Begin work; Realize you need refer-ences. Realize its too late today to go to the library. Sudden feeling of having wasted the day. 10:49 Sudden feeling of possibly having to waste the night, decide to turn in early and come back very early tomorrow morning. Decide to complete this blog to put yourself in a good mood. 11:15 Darn what should I write. 12:20 Tap away to glory and finish off the post. A sense of achievement!! Yes, today was not wasted!! 12:45 Return home to find your roommate watching the netflix movie u wanted to watch. Tell him about the "hard working grad student day you had. Discuss philosophy with roommate. 1:09am Think about becoming a philosopher. Argue with him about politics, why people prefer Japanese cars and whether it is good to have salad or chicken cheese steak for lunch 2:04 Forget about getting up early. Turn the alarm off and go to sleep!

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

Ganapati Pujan By Sameer Kalghatgi

Far away from home, four roommates, one amateur priest with lots of devotion, on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi de-cided to conduct aarti at home to invoke lord Ganesha's blessings. What follows is a narration of the sequence of events. Read it just for fun and it is not meant to hurt anybody's sensibilities. Two of us, me and Sriraj got busy in making prasad. Saurabh, the priest was busy learning the shlokas and the fourth guy, Shubham, started downloading Anuradha Paudwal's Ganapati aarti. Just then we realized we did not have semolina to make the prasad, after frantically rummaging in a never opened cabinet, we found some semolina used for making idlis, big difference, and so we decided to test our skills at making prasad. Sometimes you just go by instincts. After struggling with the semolina and adding sugar countless times the prasad finally was made and looked yummy. It was time for the aarti and all of us were really hungry. We lighted camphor and asked Shubham to wrap it up fast. Anuradha Paudwal's melodious aarti soothed our senses and we were lost in the aarti until a loud alarm shrieked and made us jump out of our skins. We suddenly realized the holy smoke from the burning camphor was too much for the fire alarm to handle. All of us attacked one fire alarm each and managed to stop it from screaming. Whew! Guess lord Ganesh saved us and we did not have to evacuate the entire building. Before we could partake the painstakingly prepared prasad, Saurabh stopped us and asked us to chant Lord Ganesha's names after him. He took out a tattered piece of paper with all the names scribbled on it in a hardly legible writing. Here he goes "Om Ganpatay Namah", "Om Gauriputraya Namah", "Om Vinayakaya Namah", "Om Gajananaaya Namah", till this point our amateur priest managed to pronounce all names and we obediently chanted after him, "Om Skanda”, “Om Skaandaraj”....yeh kya likha hain?"...Om Skandaraajay Namaha,"Om Sarva...Om Sarvasidhh....yeh kya likha hain? "Om Sarvasiddhantaya Namah"....after stuttering through another 5 names we all burst out laughing. We just couldn’t take it anymore. Saurabh's stuttering recitation of Lord Ganesha's names was drowned in our laughter. Finally good sense prevailed and we asked him to recite the names in his mind and we would wait till he finished. Within five min-utes he was done. I am sure he was stuttering even when he was saying the names silently and I bet he did not go through the entire list. Till today we tease him for his miserable take at reciting Lord Ganesha's names. He is never go-ing to ever ask anybody to chant after him. The day ended on a sweet note with all simply loving the prasad and then we enjoyed ‘Shudh Shakahari Bhojan’ pre-pared by Shubham, to the strains of Lata Mangeshkar’s melodious aarti. I am sure Lord Ganesha would never forget such a memorable aarti. I believe the Lord Ganesha just loved the aarti and helped me in clearing my qualifiers! Gana-pati Bappa Morya!

The Drexel Desi www.pragathi.net

NASHA 2006

April 8th, 2006 Main Auditorium, Drexel University

Watch this space for more. Coming Soon….