Car Maintenance Manuals

2006 Mazda 6 : - https://sites.google.com/site/ejvyas/2006Mazda6OM.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

2010 Prius 3 : - https://sites.google.com/site/ejvyas/MY_10_Prius_WMG.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

Ek chidiya

To my wife with love...

It's an uncertain world that we live in 

where so much keeps changing so fast 

and that we thought we could count on

too soon become things of the past...

So with all my life I feel grateful 

for the precious part of my life

that is there for me always, no question - 

my wonderful beautiful wife

What better day than today to tell you

how much I appreciate your understanding and support

you always give me. 

The way you put up with my faults and

still love me inspite of them!

You bring so much joy to my life 

just by being the beautiful, 

caring person you are

I am a very lucky man to be your husband.

It pays to know your customer

A disappointed salesman of Coca-Cola returned from his assignment to Saudi Arabia.    

A friend asked,   "Why weren't you successful with the Saudis?"
The salesman explained, "When I got posted, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch.  
But I had a problem. I didn't know how to speak Arabic. So I planned to convey the message through three posters.  


First poster : A man lying in the hot desert sand totally exhausted and fainting.  
Second poster : The man is drinking Coca-Cola.  
Third poster : Our man is now totally refreshed.  
And then these posters were pasted all over the place.

"Terrific! That should have worked!" said the friend.

"The hell it should have!" said the salesman.  "No one told me they read from right to left!"  

Greetings from Asha for Education

As the 2010 comes to an end, we at the Asha-Boston/MIT chapter wanted to reach out to you and provide some quick insight into our work & the impact it has made in several people's lives – none of which would be possible without your support! Here are a few examples of the amazing work that has been done through your support and the relentless efforts of our volunteers.

Deenabandhu Girls Home:  An environmentally friendly home, with a generous grant from Alstom foundation was inaugurated in April.  It houses 30 girls, and plans to grow to 50 girls.  These girls have no parents to care for them, and many were found destitute on the streets with a bleak future ahead of them. At the Deenabandhu home they are able put their harsh years behind them and embrace a life of affection and caring in a home filled with laughter and light, and have the opportunity to lead a successful and fulfilling life.

Defining Success: Success can be scoring 98%.  It can also be something very different. This year, Seed Narpanigal, who has several students who come to the center without even knowing the alphabet fully (even when they are enrolled in primary or middle school), shared with us their success this year: all class X students are continuing on to class XI, all class XII students are continuing on to college, dropouts happen in class IX and retaining every one of them is a success.  Students who come to the center ashamed to show their class books and marks get the confidence to speak, to learn, and to stay on in school.

Growing strong: Asha-Boston supported three residential schools run by Navsarjan, a grassroots organization dedicated to upliftment of the Dalit people. With help of Asha-Boston, Navsarjan is expected to triple enrollment of girl students from 2007-2008 to 2010-2011. At these residential schools, teachers and staff do "more with less": multi-functional rooms are used classrooms during the day and as lodging during the night. A student's typical day includes activities such as prayer, sports, exercise, in addition to education. In 2010-2011, Navsarjan enrolled girl students earlier than other students to ensure a higher percentage of female students.

Your support: As you know, Asha is truly a grass-roots organization; from fund-raising to project management through thousands of well-wishers, donors and volunteers. A lot has been done in the last few years with this support but a lot still needs to be done. This is only possible through a continued support and commitment from your end. If you wish to make a charitable contribution and know more about Asha please visit:

http://www.ashanet.org/mit/

Please note: Your donation is fully tax-deductible.

Volunteers: Last but certainly not the least, kudos to all the volunteers who have done an amazing job running this institution ensuring minimal overhead so that every dollar you donate can create the maximum possible impact. Special thanks to the Marathon runners this year who have raised a record amount - highest in the last 7 years.  Thank you all for your support and best wishes for the new year!

Asha For Education

http://www.ashanet.org/mit/

PS: Please pass this along to your friends/families who are interested in participating or donating for a great 

Indian Domestic cricket season

Ever wondered why people do not care for domestic season in India - cause they do not necessarily go for the win : http://www.espncricinfo.com/indiandomestic2010/engine/current/match/465452.html
http://www.espncricinfo.com/indiandomestic2010/engine/current/match/465457.html
http://www.espncricinfo.com/indiandomestic2010/engine/current/match/465496.html

I have no clue why the team batting third did not declare early. Granted they are the group leaders but I would go for victory as opposed to match practice and personal records.

Here is the points table : http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague2010/engine/current/series/465376.html?view=pointstable

Rendezvous with cricket

About 18 yrs back I had watched my first Test match : http://bit.ly/fg3Yxj. It was Ind v SA. Ind lost the series disastrously

SAVE AS WWF, SAVE A TREE

2010 in photos - The Big Picture - Boston.com

2010 in photos (part 1 of 3) - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I-495 construction

The horrible I-495 construction which has been creating traffic jams since one and half year has finally cleared lanes in the North Direction. This is great news! I was wondering what would be the situation in the snow. Just the thought is scary.

The lane shift which was on the north side has shifted to the south side now.


I can't wait for the construction to end this Summer next year when the construction would be completed : http://495bridgebundle.mhd.state.ma.us/index.html

Mass Fall Colors

This time we could not make it to the northern states of New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine for fall colors. So we decided to take a ride in Mass itself. The roads were a little difficult to find and there were no space to stop but we saw beautiful colors on the back roads as we wound our way through Central Massachusetts. Going through 200 miles of back roads in our Prius was quite an experience.
You also find some carrots in there which we bought from a local farmers market. The pictures at the end are actually fall colors in our own backyard!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Central Massachusetts Region

Route 128 to Quabbin Reservoir through Apple Country
-- Enjoy superb color at a relaxed pace when you drive along the less frequently traveled routes to the Quabbin Reservoir. This route begins near the town of Waltham on Route 128, the right road that surrounds Boston and its western suburbs. The route travels westward through farm and orchard country to the Quabbin Reservoir in the heart of Central Massachusetts via Waltham, Stow, Hudson, Berlin, Clinton, Sterling, Princeton, North Rutland, Barre, Barre Plains, Hardwick, Templeton, Gardner, Ashburnham, Ashby, Townsend, Littleton.

■ Starting on Route 128 near the town of Waltham, follow Route 117 to Stow.
■ Take Route 62 in a southwesterly direction through the towns of Hudson,Berlin, Clinton, and Sterling, arriving in Princeton
■ Turn north on Mountain Road to Wachusett Mountain Reservation. There you can drive, hike or take a skyride (check on scheduling) to the summit for a sweeping view of the countryside
■ Return to Route 62 and head west through North Rutland to Barre
■ From Barre, take South Street through the town of Barre Plains, to Barre Road to the town of Hardwick
■ Turn north on Route 32A, which runs along the Quabbin Reservoir toPetersham.
■ At Petersham follow Route 101 East through Templeton, Gardner andAshburnham to the junction with Route 119
■. Head east on Route 119 through the Willard Brook State Forest in Ashby andTownsend
■ Follow route 119 back to I 495 near Littleton
Nearby Points of Interest:
♦ Princeton -- Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, Mountain Road, 978-464-2987
♦ Belchertown – Quabbin Reservoir and Visitor Center, 485 Ware Road (Route 9), 413-323-7221

Completed Milestone 2 for Rajdhani (Asha for Education)

We officially completed Milestone 2 of Rajdhani project at “Asha for Education”. The alpha site is up and running here. We started off with the following team charter :-

 

1. Database access to Chapters
2. updating the main pages http://ashanet.org
3. Building In house application for programs such as SAC (Support A Child)
4. Helping Chapters setup donation channels for Events
5. Installing commonly used application such as this wiki
6. Protecting the site from hackers and rogue scripts
7. Access to youtube channel http://youtube.com/ashaforeducation

And the following email says where we stand. Long way to go… as they say : Don’t concentrate on your goal so much that you don’t enjoy the journey !!

---

As we all go about looking at the enormity of the task ahead, sometimes, it helps to look back and see how far we have come. Here is one such moment. Congratulations to us on the fantastic job we have done closing Milestone #2. It has laid the foundation for the work we are about to do.

Here are some things we did that I remember do let us applaud ourselves for all the effort.
1. We set up an SVN. For all these years, Asha has been operating without any source code control. It is virtually impossible to do collaborative work without this infrastructure. We finally have it in place and have actually been able to do distributed work. Without this, source code can and has gotten lost in the past.
2. Learned to work without meeting each other. This might seem like a small deal now. But in the early days, it was impossible to relate to people in a completely different part of the country (even world ). We had no idea how we would ever go through with the complicated technical discussions that seem impossible without face time. But with the conf call, the web-dev group, TeamViewer and the wiki, we have built a foundation for the future. We will really be able to harness talent from anywhere in the world because of the foundation we have been able to build.
3. We added JIRA task tracking system that we actually use - that is not vulnerable to attacks.  http://support.ashanet.org
4. We have created a wiki system that will scale across all chapters in the world.   http://wiki.ashanet.org
6. We brought down our setup time down from 6 months to a couple of weeks.

7. We stayed together as a team - through a heck of a lot of differences rough patches in all our lives.
8. We built a foundation for the website with a lot of the core controllers in place.
   - User Management
   - Donations
   - Meeting Minutes
   - Articles
9. We reduced the maintenance time on the webmaster's alias considerably so we can all have more time for development.

10. We have also serviced existing php code, social networks including - facebook & youtube.

It has been a tough year and a half. This is an acknowledgement and a small tribute to our journey so far.

Programming Without Fear: Best Practices for New and Existing Software

Programming Without Fear

Best Practices for New and Existing Software

Seminar presented by the Greater Boston Chapter of the ACM

Writing new code is one of the joys of programming. Modifying existing code is often one of the nightmares of programming. Unfortunately, you will spend more time modifying existing code than writing new code.

Modifying existing code often results in Whac-A-Mole Programming - you make a change in one part of the code, and a problem crops up in another place. You fix that problem and two more pop up. You quickly find yourself trapped in debug hell!

There is a better way - a sane approach to dealing with both new code and legacy code. A framework for bringing order to code chaos, for making changes to existing code that are actually improvements. And this seminar provides a powerful approach to developing and modifying code.

In this seminar you will learn reliable, sustainable and enjoyable software development practices which you can immediately put to use. These techniques, first popularized in Extreme Programming (XP), have been proven, refined and extended for more than a decade. By using them you will produce working code faster, increase its quality, and reduce technical debt — the demon that snarls later development.

Presented by Gil Broza of 3PVantage, this seminar covers key areas including Code Smells, Refactoring, Microtesting, Test-Driven Development, Dependencies, and Test Smells. You will move from hacking at code - perhaps creating more problems than you solve - to code craftsmanship.

When: November 13-14, 2010
Where: MIT Building E51
Cambridge, MA

Price: $495 through October 13, $545 through October 31

Details: www.gbcacm.org

Thanks for your support!

Dear Asha patron,    Thanks to the enthusiastic support of donors like you, Work an Hour 2010 has been successful in raising close to $89,000 online and $16,000 in checks and other donations.   Honoring requests from patrons, the donation interface at www.workanhour.org will be open till the end of September. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to visit our website to know more about Asha and Work an Hour.   We thank you once again for your support to provide the underprivileged an Impetus to Succeed.   With warm regards, The WAH 2010 team

Last day of WAH 2010! Donate Now!

As the sun sets on the campaign ....... Dear Asha patron,   Today, we bring an end to the 13th annual Work an Hour campaign. Thanks to the support of generous donors like you, we have raised more than $79,000 so far. An additional $11,000 has been raised in checks and other donations. But we are still short of our target and we need your help.   We are in the last day of the campaign. Spare a minute. Donate Now!   .... let the rays of hope shine on.    13 Projects 28 Schools 2214 Children     Raised: $79,093   Goal: $200,000   Help Empower. Work an Hour.

Mail Checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo

Last 3 days of WAH 2010!

Dear Asha patron,   Through the last 8 weeks, we have showcased 13 projects which are making significant strides to empower underprivileged children in India and providing them an impetus to succeed. Thanks to the support of generous donors like you, we have raised more than $68,000 so far. But we are still short of our target and we need your help.   We are in the last three days of the campaign. A worthy cause, a perfect time. Donate Now!   13 Projects 28 Schools 2214 Children     Raised: $68,748   Goal: $200,000   Help Empower. Work an Hour.

Mail Checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo

Act now! Last week of WAH!

An Hour of your time is the key to their success ..... Greetings! Work an Hour (WAH) 2010 is in its last week of the campaign. Thanks to the support of generous donors, we have raised more than $62,000 so far. But we are still short of our target and need your help. Your support is crucial in supporting 2200+ children shape a better future. Just an hour's worth of your salary guarantees them a year of education. Best of all, it takes just a minute of your time to donate. A worthy cause, a perfect time. Donate Now!   13 Projects 28 Schools 2214 Children     Raised: $62,398   Goal: $200,000   Take a minute, Donate an hour, Change a Life...

Mail Checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo

Happy Teachers Day!

Happy Teachers Day

"A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry B. Adams        13 projects 28 schools 2000+ students   wah@ashanet.org www.workanhour.org

Ever looked at an old class photo taken with a favorite teacher and wondered where you would be without him/her? Ever wondered how important guidance has been in shaping our future? These men and women have dediated their life to learning, paving the way and molding our existence. Our TEACHERS! They have transformed our lives through education and taught us the basics on which our success rests. Former president of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam once said - 'A student spends 25,000 hours in the campus. The schools must have the best of teachers who have the ability to teach, love teaching and build moral qualities.' On September 5, as we celebrate Teachers Day and reflect on those who have influenced our lives, let us create the same experience that we cherished long, for the less fortunate.   Asha for Education, rated 4/4 by America's premier independent charity evaluator – Charity Navigator, has been working since 1991 to bridge the socio-economic disparities through education. Work An Hour (WAH), the annual fundraiser organized by Asha for Education, has made a difference to tens of thousands of marginalized children since 1998. In its 13th year, WAH 2010 has chosen 13 projects from all over India, addressing the issues of child labor, disabilities, and access to education. WAH 2010 sends 100% of your donation directly to the 28 schools and 2214 children supported by these projects. By contributing to WAH, you can bolster our commitment to bring hope to thousands of underprivileged children in India.  Donate now, share a Teachers Day Gift - the gift of education! With warm regards, Asha for Education

Mail Checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo

Tiny drops of water ......

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."   - Anne Frank      Prepare. Help Empower Work An Hour     13 projects 28 schools 2000+ students       Raised: $54,333 Goal: $200,000   Contact Info: wah@ashanet.org www.workanhour.org

Dear Asha patron, Education is the key to unlocking the door to socioeconomic change. Women and children with seemingly no way out of the cycle of poverty are given a chance by the means to educate themselves and better their lives. This year's Work An Hour Initiative funds many projects that bring the gift of education to the impoverished communities of India. This week, we highlight two innovative centers that serve communities in Manipur and Tamil Nadu helping them bridge the gap. SACSAS Academy The SACSAS Academy in the Laishoi and Maobam villages of Manipur influences change for the underprivileged and downtrodden children (up to the age of 8) that make up a large part of the community. Providing them with quality education , SACSAS Academy offers children a way out in areas where there is no formal schooling system. Generally the illiterate parents never feel the importance of getting their children quality education. SACSAS instills the habit of going to school  in children so that they will compel their parents to send them to schools in nearby villages once they are finished at SACSAS Academy. Read more. People's Action For Transformation (PAT) PAT provides a number of unique and innovative services for the slum community of Trichy in Tamil Nadu. It offers the women of the area micro-loans at reasonable interest rates along with guidance on financial management and other microfinance programs. Women put these loans to use by starting small enterprises or expanding their existing enterprise. The interest from these loans is used to fund the primary education and day care of the women's children. Read more about this circular pattern of operation which has enabled PAT to make large strides towards self-sustenance. WAH 2010 is in the last two weeks of its campaign.  We have a fair way to go. You can help us reach our target and continue supporting innovative projects that focus on socioeconomic change in India. Donate your hour now ... With warm regards, Asha for Education www.ashanet.org

Please mail checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo

Support the differentially-abled ....

Asha for Education's Work An Hour (WAH) 2010 campaign features 13 projects across India aimed at catalyzing socio-economic change. Change is an uphill battle for the 10 million children with disabilities in India as they continue to be treated with indifference, pity and revulsion. Government schemes such as Integrated Education for Disabled Children reach out to only a fraction of affected children. In a society where the disabled child is looked down upon, ostracized and subject to discrimination even by their own parents, the two projects showcased below aim to give differentially-abled children  the resources they need to break free of the confines of inequality. By your contribution to WAH, these projects will receive much needed support to make a difference. At WAH, 100% of your contributions are utilized towards these projects. Every contribution counts. With only 3 weeks left in the campaign, take a minute now and contribute towards a better India and a better life for these children. Read on about these projects and feel free to contact us for more information.   13 Projects 28 Schools 2214 Children     Raised: $45,681   Goal: $200,000 Samarth Ganjam District, Orissa Set out to eliminate discrimination of disabled children in the Ganjam district of Orissa, Samarth educates the children with the aim of eventually bringing them into the fold of mainstream schools. Here, aside from the gift of education, children are offered free meals and residence. The project aims to train and educate the disabled children in order to eventually mainstream them into educational institutions and society. Liaison and interaction with the local schools to create awareness towards the needs of differentially-abled students and special teacher training to work effectively with these children have made this project very effective. Samarth gives disabled children a true second chance. Read more .... Hariksha Avalurpet, Gingee Taluk, Tamil Nadu Harishka is a learning center serving Avalurpet and its surrounding villages in Tamil Nadu. Catering to approximately 30 children with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities, Hariksha teaches these children basic skills regarding hygiene, motor capacity, physical therapy, special education and more. The project is in a rural area with high incidence of mental disorders and a callous attitude from the society due to a lack of awareness. These children, who used to be ill-treated and seen as a burden are being taught basic life skills at Hariksha. The staff also conducts periodic workshops to increase awareness amongst  the parents and enables continuing care of these children when they return home from the learning center. Since its inception, the quality of medical care provided to children has consistently improved and the children show improvement in their daily activities.  Read more .... Take a minute, Donate an hour, Change a Life... With warm regards, Asha for Education
Mail Checks to: 'Asha for Education', PO Box 1287, Princeton, NJ 08542. Mention 'WAH 2010' on the memo