For the many years that I have seen at my home, mom would setup the Gollu every year and celebrate Navaratri with such pomp and flair. Things to do would be planned in advanced. Gift novelties would be purchased in advance to be given to the women folks visiting every evening. Dining tables, wooden planks, empty boxes would be used to make the 9/11 steps. Our home would be busy in the evening with people coming to visit the Gollu and taste the yummie yummie sundal that she used to make. We brothers always used to sneak into the kitchen and get our share of sundal earlier than the rest of the crowd.

After marriage, we got tagged to have Gollu festival. Last year we picked up Gollu idols during our vacation to India and this year dear MIL mailed us a big box of more bommai for the Gollu. Initially I also planned to use my mom’s idea of using up the dining table , coffee table, books & empty boxes to make the shelf but me being an engineer and big fan of the HGTV, decided to make a wooden shelf.

After goggling to check if anyone sold Gollu shelf’s in the US or if anybody had blogged about making a shelf, the result was fruitless. My first year engineering drawing and AUTO CAD certification came handy, made a 3-D picture of the shelf that I was planning to make along with the dimensions. Decided that it would be a weekend project, I headed to Home Depot. After roaming through the aisle’s of lumber section, I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I got a rough idea off how much the price of wood varied from 1-end of the aisle to another. I approached a gentleman who was quite friendly in explaining to me the various type of wood and what would be a easy DIY project. Things started getting crystal. I decided on what wood I need.

Home Depot is the place to be if you love doing home improvement projects. I paged for a handyman and gave him the dimension. He picked up the straight piece of wood for the side frame, wooden plank and cut them according to my specifications.

So below is the list of things for DIY Gollu Shelf @ home:

1. Power Drill( I already had it, if you don’t have it u could manage with a screw driver).
2. Dry wall nails (the smallest box has 50 plus nails and cost roughly $5).
3. Level meter (picked up a 3 feet level meter for $5.50).
4. 6 no of 1X2X6 No 2 Wood (for the frame $8).
5. 1 no of 1X6 No 12 Wood (for the platform $7).

Total cost of the project $26. Time taken 2 hrs. Check below to see the shelf.

[click here] to view the gallery.

Time to enjoy the Sundal !!!

Technorati Tags: Navaratri, Gollu festival, AUTO CAD, DIY, Home Depot, home improvement, Gollu Shelf, Sundal, navaratri gollu stand, gollu stand in usa

A great scientist said India will be SUPERPOWER in 2020, well its just 2007. Congrats MIB.

Technorati Tags: India, 2020, MIB, 20 20 cricket world cup, India 20 20 world cup champions

Summer is kind of over on the eastern sea board and the 2007 formula 1 season is getting over. Today was a day when all the better half’s of formula 1 fans were asking, do you still need to get this early and watch the race where everyone is stealing information and running the race. Is it worth the time & money ???

Well, as always I have the same answer for Mrs. Formula 1 is my religion, whether people are honest or not, I will watch it (unless American television decides to stop broadcasting if the rumors of 2008 US Grand Prix is off the schedule comes true).

So coming to the 100 million dollars fine imposed on McLaren Mercedes on the Ferrari spying case is like peanut to them. A team that roughly spends 300-400 Million dollars would easily pay it off. But as McLaren has decided to talk it out, the fines might be even less so over all this is nothing but an eye wash by Bernie Eccelstone & FIA cronies.

I would say suspend everyone from McLaren, including the team & driver for the entire season. Let them start fresh next season. I suppose Bernie let the rookie kid “Lewis Hamilton” & “2006 Champion” Fernando Alonso go lose thinking about ratings & revenue. My gut feeling is that the drivers also had information about the Ferrari document. So with out the cars, drivers are nothing. So if the cars did have some technical design stolen from its competitor and helped the driver win races then it means the driver(s) were also part of the espionage. Its truly disappointing to see the season turn this way. Hope their is plenty of stuff to hear over the weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix.

What is this news about Vijay Mallya biding 30 million dollars on Spyker F1 team and Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok not part of the drivers list and the team being called “Team India”.

Technorati Tags: 2007 formula 1, 2008 US Grand Prix, 100 million dollars, McLaren Mercedes, Ferrari spying case, Bernie Eccelstone, FIA, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, espionage, Belgian Grand Prix, Vijay Mallya, Spyker F1 team, Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, Team India

4 guys, different goals. First guy wants to follow his father’s foot step & participate in the Olympics. 2nd guy wants to move out to Jamaica. 3rd guy is not happy with career and wants to follow his heart & the 4th is the coolest of the coolest of the all. A true inspiring movie based on the Jamaican bobsled team that participated in the Winter Olympics without practicing on the snow till they landed @ the Olympics site. Okay let me get to the main post.

As my client needs me quite often they decided to get me a used car ( second hand car is a no no word, dealers / owners selling it hate it). Since we car pool @ home we are a single car family.

Surprise, surprise the client informed me that they were shopping for a car so that I could come anytime to their place. With so many cars available in the market I was sure I would be able to find a decent car. Well dreams don’t last long, I was handed the keys to a 1995 Geo Metro with roughly 50 K miles on it. I felt like kicking & screaming but the true purpose was to travel from Point A to Point B, safely. After googling the Internet I found that many bought Geo Metro as a commute car & have tested it to the max and it had proved that it was worth the money.

The dealer topped up the tank & handed the keys. I took the seat, ohh bucket seats for some luxury. Damn no power window, damn no radio, It just had a steering, a lawn moving engine & 4 wheels to move. As I started the engine I heard a loud noise, it was the fan, full blast. The fan’s slow speed button was busted & the parts were ordered. I thought by the time I reach the client I would turn deaf. Wasn’t impressed with the first few minutes, but after I got onto the highways I really started to enjoy it. Felt as if I had a traveled through time to the period when automobiles were introduced.

So far I have had the car for a week, I have logged 800 miles on 25 gallons of gas, hit 80 miles/hr speed, raced with 2 corvettes traveling from Canada into US and the final word is Cool Runnings. I would try to update weekly on my experiences with the Geo.

Technorati Tags: Cool Runnings, Olympics, Winter Olympics, Jamaica, Bobsled, WMATA, Geo Metro, Kicking and screaming, Highway, Canada, Corvette

After being on the CDMA network for a decade, finally we have moved, moved to GSM. I am yet to say GSM is great but my device is way better than my CDMA device. I don’t want to name the company in specific but they treat their old customers like dirt and don’t care much about doing business with them. Since I am on road quite often this days I wanted to upgrade and the GSM guys provided an awesome deal which I couldn’t pass on.

Technorati Tags: CDMA, GSM, Blackberry pearl