One of our friends from Boston had come over and we were planning to visit some place and we decided to visit Grand Canyon for two days. I had a busy sunday completing all my project work and assignments so that i could leave on sunday night with my friends for Grand Canyon. It is surprising that when i have deadlines and i am working towards finishing it, my productivity increases manifold. I was free at 8:30pm with all work done and ready to leave. We hit the freeway at around 10pm and reached the canyons at 5 in the morning. We booked a room for ourselves in Holiday Inn and slept till 10am. Got ready and left for visiting the various points in the Canyons. Visited the Yavapai point, Grand View point and did a 2 mile trek on that day from Hermit’s Rest point. The trek was well maintained and it was fun trekking after a long time. We were pretty tired from the trek and hungry too. We had dinner at McDonald’s. We were considering rafting for tuesday but we were saddened by the part that rafting is only allowed in the Colorado River from Mar 15th till Oct 31st. Still, keeping the spirits high, we decided on trekking for the next day too. We woke up around 10am and checked out of the hotel and driving towards Desert View where we get to see a panaromic view of the Grand Canyons. The view was awesome and some of the pictures i took are amazing. You can check the pictures in my photo gallery. We started trekking at around 1 in the afternoon on the Tanner Trail which is an un-maintained path and the trek was really steep but it was adventurous. We drove back home starting at 4pm from there and reached home at around 11pm. All in all a wonderful trip with great friends. A much needed break is what i wanted to start studying in full for my upcoming final exams starting next week. Here’s wishing me luck with my finals. Have a great Thanksgiving break. Stay Happy 
Paras Mamania.
Abe saale dhakkan, kyon time khoti kar rahela hai? Cut to cut baat karne ka, apun ko faltu bakbak karne ka aadat nahin hai. Jo kuch kehna hai, jaldi bol aur phoot le. - [Translation: Hey fool, why are you wasting my time? Speak to the point, I am not in the habit of idle chatter. Say what you want to, and scoot] 
I miss speaking this language so much… lol. I have made it a point to read wikipedia articles and when i searched for Bambaiya Hindi, i was so surprised to find an entire page full of Bambaiya Hindi slang dictionary words… Read it and i am sure if you have love for Mumbai or have lived in Mumbai anytime your life, you will love it. It refreshed so many memories. This post is in memory of the great 21 years of my life i spent in the city i love the most “MUMBAI“.
Chalo Chalo.. gotta get back to studies.. so much to do and so less time… See you guys soon. Keep reading. Njoy.
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks (traditionally to God)(now to family and friends) at the close of the harvest season in the United States but i am sure other than remembering friends and family, everybody looks for big bargains and discounts during the Thanksgiving week and “Wah-LAH” here i am giving you a link to all the popular bargains at the major stores in US. Please follow the link Thanksgiving shopping bargains and download the pdf file for all the stores and you will be able to see the big big bargains available. I don’t expect gifts or commission for sharing the link 
but a thanks or a comment on my blog will be appreciated.
Paras Mamania
My existing Dell B130 laptop battery had started giving problems as to whenever i use my laptop in battery, it used to start from 40% and last only half an hour. I was going crazy with all my friends able to use their laptop entire class and me only half an hour 
But then, i called Dell Tech support (1-800-BUY-DELL) and guess what? after a series of long waits and tests in the bios, that fella from New Delhi, India agreed to replace my battery at 0 cost to me. yay!!! yipee…. He said that it will reach to me in 3-4 business days and again guess what? I had the battery delivered to my doorstep the very next day. That’s called Giving a late deadline to the customer and making him happy by delivering products earlier than the scheduled date. I was impressed. This new battery is “Made in Japan” compared to the existing “Made in China” label.. Hope this one lasts longer. That’s the benefit of being in full warranty… It is 4am in the morning and i have had a very busy day working and tomorrow i have an interview with Reifer Consultants at 2pm so i better go to sleep and catch y’all later.
Yeah!!! That’s the organisation that we have started at USC. Yash and Parag sprung up with this idea that we should have a group of Jains at USC and he started enrolling people into this idea and thus the group formed. Today we are a group of 21 young, dynamic grads and undergrads calling themselves the Jain Student Association @ USC. We had our first performance as a group in the Interfaith Council event @ USC. We performed a skit on the five main values of Jainism.
1. Ahimsa - Non Violence
2. Satya - Truth
3. Anekantvad - Multiciplicity of view points, keeping an open mind.
4. Aparigraha - Non possesiveness
5. Bhramacharya - Celebacy
I am attaching a word file which you can download and go through it. It contains the Jain Student Association flyer and the skit that we performed. Please read through it and give me your feedback. Download the document
That’s all from me for now. I have a busy week till thursday with predictable night outs.
Paras Mamania.
Imagine you are at an Airport. While you’re waiting for your flight, you notice a kiosk selling cookies. You buy a box, put them in your traveling bag and then you patiently search for an available seat so you can sit down and enjoy your cookies. Finally, you find a seat next to a gentleman.You reach down into your traveling bag and pull out your box of cookies. As you do so, you notice that the gentleman starts watching you intensely. He stares as you open the box and his eyes follow your hand as you pick up the cookie and bring it to your mouth. Just then he reaches over and takes one of your cookies from the box, and eats it! You’re more than a little surprised at this. Actually, you’re at a loss for words. Not only does he take one cookie, but also he alternates with you. For every one cookie you take, he takes one.Now, what’s your immediate impression of this guy? Crazy? Greedy?He’s got some nerve? Can you imagine the words you might use to describe this man to your associates back at the office? Meanwhile, you both continue eating the cookies until there’s just one left. To your surprise, the man reaches over and takes it. But then he does something unexpected. He breaks it in half, and gives half to you. After he’s finished with his half he gets up, and without a word, he leaves.You think to yourself, “Did this really happen?” You’re left sitting there dumbfounded and still hungry. So you go back to the kiosk and buy another box of cookies. You then return to your seat and begin opening your new box of cookies when you glance down into your traveling bag. Sitting there in your bag is your original box of cookies - still unopened.
Only then do you realize that when you reached down earlier, you had reached into the other man’s bag, and grabbed his box of cookies by mistake. Now what do you think of the man? Generous? Tolerant? You’ve just experienced a profound paradigm shift. You’re seeing things from a new point of view. Is it time to change your point of view? Your comments are welcome.