Now lets help someone else for a change....

I have been thinking about writing for this for a while now. Finally I got the moment to put down my thoughts...

I want to send this message specially to people like me, who have already graduated from school( yeah thats wat they call here, even if u do your masters, it is still called that you are going to school...;)) and are working currently...I think we have had enough months to earn money and save a little bit for a good cause.....There are two things I absolutely love doing....

KIVA
According to its website..Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.
I love this concept...Basically you register at the site and then you find people you are interested in loaning money to..You can look people up by the country, or the work they do or the amount of loan needed or the repayment terms. They are basically enterpreneurs in underdeveloped countries, who cannot apply for loans from the government..You basically loan to them and they repay your loan back...There is very little chance of delinquency, so in most cases you get your money back, depending on the repayment term the enterpreneur has...With the money you get back, you can either lend it to someone else or even withdraw it....I loved this concept and have been a fan of KIVA since last few months...I encourage all of you who are capable to spare few hundred dollars to visit their site at http://www.kiva.org and start lending....You can start with as little as $25....

Humane Society of the United States
According to their website....The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization—backed by 11 million Americans, or one in every 28

Their mission is Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty...

I initially joined them when someone sent me an email regarding the cruel treatment of animals and below was the website to sign the petition...I have been excited for the work they do ever since. Recently they had worked to prevent the killing of seal babies in canada...There are couple of things you can do here..You can sometimes donate some amount, can start with as little as $5, at other times, you can help by signing the petition or sending letters to your US representative( Don't worry you don't have to write actual letter, there is a written letter, you just need to sign in with your name) to take actions against the cruelty of animals....Whether you are vegeterian or a non vegeterian, I am sure you would not prefer the cruel treatment of animals...If you are interested let me know and I can forward you some of the emails from Humane Society......
http://www.hsus.org/about_us/

Together we can acheive peace and happiness in this world..........

Equity, Equality and Egocentrism..

I was reading a book and something the author said just struck me....Here it goes..

For example :

You are working 7 hours and paid 25 dollars. You have another colleague who is working 10 hours. You feel they should be paid about 30 dollars for the work since they are working 3 more hours....

Now, the situation is reversed. One of your colleagues is working 7 hours and is paid about 25 dollars and you are working 10 hours and you expect to be paid 35.7 dollars............

Quite interesting..isn't it...when it is someone else, its ok to be unfair, but when it is you, you want all the fairness in the world.....

Another example the author gave was:

You are job applicant...You are offered a job by two companies..Company A and Company B.

You come to know that you have been offered 75,000 by company A and another colleague at company A is offered 95,000.

With company B, you have been offered 72,000 and another colleague is also offered 72, 000...

Which job will you take???

I will look forward to your answers on this one..as this will give me an insight on the authors view......

Priyanka's Surprise Birthday Party- 7th June 2009

Sunday, 7th June 2009 was priyanka's 22nd and the 1st birthday in the USA, so I wanted to make it special for her. I talked to one of my friend's sunny about the idea to have a surprise birthday party and then the rest happened. The party would have been impossible without friends like Chintan, Prashant and Sunny, who helped me with everything from the food to the plans and without the support and presence of friends like Dhavnit, Nileshbhai, Nimishabhabhi, Disha,Mira, Mitul and Nirav. Mira was a special guest since she has just arrived as a surprise from australia couple of days back on friday, so on friday when she called me up about her surprise arrival, I told her about the party and requested that she definitely had to be there. I sent out an email to all our common friends about the party and told them not to mention to priyanka. I tried getting number's of Priyanka's UTD's friends, but she always kept the phone close to her, so it made it impossible to get those numbers. Luckily, I had one of her friend's , Meghal's number when she initially came to the states and had no phone of her own. I knew he was in florida, but called him up to get mitul's number, to know which of her friends are in town and who would come...Still I could not get everybody because of the lack of phone number, so from her UTD group on Mitul and Nirav were able to make it...

It all started on friday night, Nileshbhai had a booth at the frisco mela and had asked for priyanka's help with the stuff, so she was planning to stay at their place friday night..I went and got the basic things for the party like plates, cake bowl etc..make come in the night and baked the cake..I figured if it was going to be a total surprise I will have to make two cakes for her, one for cutting at midnight and the other for cutting at noon during the surprise party...On saturday morning I woke up early and went shopping to buy gifts for her and then to the indian store, kroger and walmart to get the groceries and all the needed stuff...Priyanka was little bit fishy that I was not with her at the event, but I told her I had to go to arlington to get the quotes from the dealers since my car was hit a month back...So she agreed and I had decided to save all the food at Forestglen 55( Sunny, chintan, dhvanit and prashant's place and my second home in dallas), so after the eventful shopping day I reached their place around 6:30 and we started asap..Had to cut the leaves of coriandar for undhiya, cut the paneer cubes and fry them and then make the chapati flour....All of us were at work constantly and we finished making the total rasoi, udhiyu, mutter paneer and puri's(some puri's were still left, but I had to reach home by 12 since priyanka was returning from the frisco mela at that time and so we would celebrate at midnight, prashan'ts cousin dhawal had made all the gourna's and chintan had pressed all the puris and then he fried the remaining puris) around 11:15 pm....and I worked to decorate the cake...Finally I finished decorating the cake and left for home..Reached home around 12:15 and priyanka had just reached 5 minutes before me..so she cut the butter pecan, almond and fruit cake I made for her that afternoon and then we cleaned up the home a little bit, talked and slept around 3 am...

The next morning I woke up early and made rice and stored in the laundry room so she could not find out, made some gaucamole, and then went to the indian store to get the ras and yogurt for making chaas and kadhi..When I came priyanka was already awake and I told her Nileshbhai is coming home around 11:30 to wish her and collect the GPS she had brought the day before with her. She asked me why I brought so many ras cans and I was like, because this is new indian store, they are only available in quantities..Being naive, she totally believed me..I made a jugful of chaas and she was like why did u make so much and I explained that we could drink chaas throughout the day..I told her she should get ready since we planned to eat out for dinner..In the meantime I made kadhi....Around 12, Sunny, chintan, prashant, dhvanit, mira, mitul and nirav arrived and entered the apt..Priyanka was totally surprised....She was still unaware of the food and the cake prepared....Finally when nileshbhai arrived she cut the cake and then she was covered in chocolate from the cake decorations. After that we started eating the ras, puri, undhiyu, mutter paneer,bateta vada, chaas, papad,kadhi and rice...




After we finished eating we cleaned up and then talked and played slide5(amazing card game) till about 7 in the eve....It was a great weekend and the fun would have been impossible without such a group of good friends like Sunny, Prashant, Chintan, Dhvanit, Disha, Mira, Nileshbhai, Nimishabhabhi, Mitul and Nirav...Thanks you'all for making the party such a fun.....

Colorado Trip- Memorial Weekend..

I will reserve this spot for the wonderful colorado trip we had during the memorial day long weekend. I will update the information as soon as I get some time....

Till then,
xoxo
bhumika