Photos of Recent Events:

Co-op desis have been involved in various fun filled activities in the past year. Below is a short account of some of these activites.


The Noodle Time:



When night falls, the hungy desis prowl the cafetaria in search of Ramen noodles. After having eaten some cheap ramen, the desis finally tasted some korean ramen, and ever since their blood thirsty instincts  have only increased. Seen in the picture are some parasitical desis devouring on the prey cooked by one. It is in our nature to share our victims, slurp !
Korean "Kim shim" spicy noodles are highly recommended by us, and we can assure you that once you consume the MSG from this one, you would never feel like eating the "top ramen" or "maruchan" ones. Bought from a grocery store in Korea town for $10 for a box of about 20 noodles.

Under-Arm Cricket:

Cricket is in our blood, so we play cricket wherever possible. This was an underarm cricket day part of a series of cricket events during the december break, to build up the tempo for the coming world cup.



Above:Kushagra appeals with the bemused umpire Abhay, as Raman and Ashu seem to have caught something more interesting.




Abu Gani in action here, playing the innings of his life. Chasing an impossible target in the second innings, he gave the team a dream start scoring more than 30 runs for the opening wicket. A Middle order collapse followed, and finally it was left to Siddharth, to get more than 50 runs for the last wicket. Another dream innings followed, but in the sight of victory, siddharth was given out with under 5 runs to go. The victorious team celebrates in the photo below as siddharth takes the long walk.




World Cup Time:

Watching the world cup was fun, with slogans, comments, cheering and also betting throughout the world cup. The final deserved more respect for the Indian team and so our artist "Josh" had to do his bit in painting faces with the Tricolor flag and other indian symbols like trishuls. Josh in action below.







The Final Product of the "Josh Machine".

The worl cup final starts:
Photo below shows the start of the world cup final, as everybody stands up and sings the Indian Anthem.



Look at everybody's face, this was after Zaheer Khan's First over !!




Temple Visits:

Every other sunday, the desis frequent the temple to wash their sins (we split into two cars so that the extreme sinners are separate, since they take a long time to wash their sins). Also there is the good temple food (sambar rice and curd rice). The drive to the temple is really pretty scenic, going through mountains and then right next to the coast. Ofcourse, there is a freeway route too, sometimes taken to save time,




Some of us, in front of Malibu,




Diwali Celebrations:

Diwali celebrations were conducted in a very grand and traditional way. We started by decorating a room with diyas and other ethnic articles. Arun harnoor conducted a pooja so good, that attendees would surely remember it for a lifetime. This was followed by some food cooked by the co-opers, including huge chunks of "gajar halva". We also got sweets from outside. The event culminated in a drive to the beach, where around 15-20 people played antakshari with a supply of samosas. pakodas and soft drinks and chips.
Unfortunately, the photos for this event are in LA and currently i am out of LA so I cannot post it till September. :(

Antakshari:




On many occasions, we have conducted long antakshari sessions with a group of around 10 people (sometimes Abu gets his guitar). On a few occasions, we were lucky enough to have raman get his Tabla. The most commom place is the terrace or the beach, after dark.

Over-arm Cricket:

We have formed a group of Indian and Pakistani guys who play overarm tennis ball cricket in UCLA in front of the Architecture building. The ground is perfect for cricket, and field restrictions prevent placement of fielders in the "V" behind the bowler. We have had intense, closely faught 8 over games here on a few sundays. We plan to conduct an open "5 a side" tournament sometime in fall 2003. If this goes well, then we can have a tournament every quarter.
Photos missing :(

Soccer:

Desis along with some Turkish co-opers are also involved in soccer on some sundays. The fun filled soccer games are played on the Intra-mural fields or on the ground in front of Powell library. So far, it has been prety good, and we have only one reported case of multiple ankle fractures (June 2003). The injured desi is said to be in stable condition and raring to take the field again.

Taste of India:

We have struck discount deals with Taste of India, on venice and for every desi co-oper, there is a discounted rate and special meal plans available. We frequent this place quite often and sit there and watch latest hindi songs. Co-op desis prefer Taste of India over "India Sweets and Spices", due to lots of reasons, which cannot be listed on site.