Google Holiday Party 2005

Here are some photos we took at Google party in San Francisco.

Holiday Party-2005

Trip to Canyons

We went for a trip to Canyons in south-west US on Thanksgiving. It was totally unplanned trip, we had no hotel reservation and no concrete plan for what to do, only thing we had was 'lonely planet' book. Later on we realized it was really a good idea, given the unexpected delays we faced on road. And.....todo

Here are photos:
Bryce and Antelope Canyon
Grand Canyon
Las Vegas
Death-Valley

Diwali

On Diwali-2005 we had a (mini) extended-fizz get-together thanks to M.P. Singh. I was happily surprised from Nishant's look. Although we missed Kedia we had presence of six fizz members!

Diwali pooja was very smooth, Maggu and MP knew all the Aartis and customs. MP is an expert when it comes to Lakshmi Pooja, that explains his monetarial success. Guess we were worshiping our laptops and credit cards during Pooja. Time has certainly changed.

Here are some published photos - Diwali-2005

Diwali Dinner at Atul's place

Thanks Atul and Shilpa for hosting such a wonderful evening other day. Food was great and we really enjoyed the evening with you guys. I also got a chance to educate people about Google Print, free marketing for Google -:) We really liked all the small decorations, it definitely gave Diwali feeling. And sorry for being late.

Btw here are the photos - Atul and Shilpa

Karva Chauth

Folks, I think this is one of the most important moment of indian married couple. It emphasizes the importance of feelings and emotions for each other.

Here are some of the snaps I tooks that day, that would give some insights into the custom.

Karva Chauth Photos

Maine and Canada trip

We went out for 10-day trip to Maine and Canada and it was really wonderful, I would say one of the best trip I had. I know you want to jump to photographs right away (they are at the end of this post) but let me give you few interesting facts about the trip:

• We drove all the way from home for 2500 miles! After a while we were counting in 100miles only. Average speed on most of the highways > 95 mph. I am sure nobody from police is looking at our website.
• Itinerary was - Princeton (New Jersey) -> Waterville(Maine) -> Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor, Maine) -> Greenville(Maine) -> Quebec City (Canada) -> Montreal (Canada) -> Toronto (Canada) -> Niagara Falls (Canada) -> Niagara Falls (USA) -> Princeton (New Jersey).
• At the end of the trip we were more relaxed than we started with. This must be surprising to most of you, but believe me it was very comfortable to have a mini home in car. Off course you need to have two drivers -:) Also most of the time we drove betwen 6:00am-10:00am. This was less tiring and much faster.
• In Montreal we met Gurman (my hostel-mate from IIT) who reminded us how hard it is just before the wedding! I know he doesn't have time for us - thanks to Simran. Gurmanji thanks for the dinner and grand night tour of Montreal.
• In Toronto we met Anu's Dadaji (R.D. Sharma). It was so nice to stay there overnight. We really enjoyed the company of Dadaji, Dadiji, Gayatri and Vivek. I am especially thankful to Dadaji for very nice breakfast -:)

About Places: -- to come soon.

Photos:

Waterville

Acadia National Park

Quebec City

Montreal

Toronto

Safari Trip

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls (USA)

Dinner with Mota and Chugh

World is indeed very small. I am in Princeton these days and was at a grocessary store and then suddenly noticed somebody similar to Mota, at one point I ignored him because of his new look but it was indeed him! We both were quite surprised!

We met yesterday for dinner with Mota and Chugh, both of them work for ML at Princeton. We tried to catch up with things, but it seems 2-3 hours are not sufficient to catch with 4 years of adventures! Thanks Mote and Chugh for dinner!

Here are some pics. -- Masala Grill

13th Aug 2005 - Monterey Trip

Thanks Anu for so many surprises and gifts!! And more importantly for making it a great day.

We visited Monterey and had lots of fun at fisherman's wharf, bay market, 17th mile drive and driving back home.

I have been there many times but this time it looked surprisingly much more beautiful..........hmmmm -:)

Here are some pictures : 13th Aug Photos

Readings...

Here are some more..

"Knowledge is a burden
if it robs you of innocence.
Knowledge is a burden
if it makes you feel you are special.
Knowledge is a burden
if it gives you an idea that you are wise.
Knowledge is a burden
if it is not integrated into life.
Knowledge is a burden
if it does not bring you joy.
Knowledge is a burden
if it does not set you free."


"Have faith in sound and then move on to have faith in silence. Have faith in sound when it is pleasant and have faith in silence when sound is unpleasant.

People seem to have more faith in chatting and gossip rather than in chanting and knowledge. When someone says something negative, you immediately believe it and your mind becomes more disturbed. Believing in an unpleasant sound creates turmoil in your mind. When this happens, shift your faith to silence.

Have faith in sound like the chanting of mantras. Have faith in knowledge. Have faith in silence."

Readings

I am reading a book "Celebrating Silence" by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Art of Living founder and here are some of my favourite writings from the book.

"Normally you offer your anger freely and your smile rarely. In ignorance, anger is cheap and smile is costly. In knowledge, a smile is free like the sun, air and water, and anger is extremely expensive like a diamond. Make your smile cheaper and your anger expensive. "

"Joy is love for what is. Sorrow is love for what is not."

"How can you always be happy? Forget about "always" - then you will be happy.
In always wanting to be comfortable , you become lazy.
In always wanting perfection, you become angry.
In always wanting to be rich, you become greedy.
Fear arrises, when you don't realize that only life is for always. This projection of the nature of self - which is "always" - onto the temporal - which can never be "always" - is called maya."

Atlantic City

One thing that I learnt in East coast is one can drive anywhere without any map or direction's knowledge! We drove between princeton, manhatton, point pleasant beach and atlantic city without a single map -:) It was lots of fun to ask people for directions to a place 120 miles away!

We didn't have much chance to take photos..here are some from Atlantic City. Photos

26th May @New Jersey

26th may, 2005 was a very special day for us, being birthday of Anu as well as her graduation day. Here are some graduation photos. Graduation ceremony

Here are some more pictures we took during new jersey trip. New Jersey.

Reception Photos

Finally they are here...

Photos

Comments are due.

Happy Birthday to My Sweetheart!!

Directions to Timoshenko (Reception Venue)

Date: 16th of April, Saturday. 7:00pm.

Place: Timoshenko Launge, Rains Houses,
796 Escondido Rd, Stanford CA 94305

Directions:

1. If you are coming from 101 take Embarcadero Rd exit towords Stanford University and continue on embarcadero for about a mile. Embarcadero Rd turns into Galvez Street once you hit El-Camino, continue on Galvez. Take left on Campus Dr. E.

2. If you are coming from El-Camino take left(if coming from South)/right(if coming from north) on Serra St. Continue on Serra till you hit Campus Dr. Take Left on Campus Dr.

3. Once on Campus turn left on Bowdoin St (it is a T-intersection and comes just after you hit Escondido Road cross section) and look for Parking on Bowdoin. If you don't find parking on Bowdoin look in the parking lot on otherside of campus drive.

Walk till Timoshenko:

From parking come back to Bowdoin and Campus intersection. Walk on campus towards Rains buildings and turn right on first T-intersection (Ayrshire Ct). Timoshenko is in second entrace to Rains building on your right.

Don't forget to bring the copy of following map. I have marked possible parking places. You can park in C-permit spots as it is enforced only during weekdays.

Map

Link on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=750+Bowdoin+street,Stanford+CA+94305&hl=en

Another map:
Map - (Red square is Timoshenko Launge)

In case you get lost feel free to call us:

1. Somik Raha - 510-508-4877
2. Gaurav Garg - 650-804-1899
3. Sorav bansal - 650-387-6310
4. Pramod Sharma- 650-450-3585

See you tommorrow!

Wedding Photographs

Finally we have been able to scan the wedding photos. Sorry for the delay.

Wedding Photos

I am going to put some details about each ceremony sometime later. Do visit us again! Enjoy!!

Ganesh Photos

Following are some of the nice photos I found on web for Ganesh.

Ganesh Photos

Pictures @Faridabaad

These are some of the photos at Anu's home.

=========> Photos.

Post marriage photos@bharatpur

Here are some of the photos we took at Bharatpur. We promise to publish lot more photos of marriage (currently blocked on photo scanning folks) soon.

Europe Trip Photos

Here are some of the photos we took on our recent trip to Italy and Greece.

Venice, Italy
Rome, Italy
Athens, Greece
SFO

Marriage

We are marrying on jan 30th, 2005 at Faridabaad (Near Delhi) in India.

Details about the ceremony: Will come soon.

Address:
Ashirvad Palace (Near Sabji Mandi) ,
Sector-16, Faridabad,
Harayana - 121002, INDIA

Contact phone numbers:
Jaidev Sharma - 91-98-7309-1516
Vanu Sharma - 91-98-1827-0066

Maps:

Please let us know if you need any more information. See you soon!

Reception

We will hold a reception ceremony at Stanford, CA. We are in the process of deciding dates for the same in the month of Feb/Mar, 2005. If you have any preferences please let us know.