Photos

TITLE: "People with paper plates"
Here are the photos from the last party. Thanks to Mallik.


Title: "The Men"

• A very happy Sridhar
• Very focused Vikram..
• Where's Andy & Suds??

• Title: "How to make best friends in 60 minutes".
• Mr. Dale Carnegie, author of 'how to win friends and influence people', needs some tutorial from these girls.

• Title: "Ladies: Photo I".

• Title: "Ladies: Photo II".

Poker this weekend?

Who would like to host the poker night this weekend? I dont mind hosting, if you guys are okay driving to my place. If we dont have any volunteer's and you dont want to drive to the slums ( Ramesh's noun for Midlothian), we always have Vikram's bachelor pad. Atleast, until the 23rd;).

Poker @ Anakals

Update:
Few corrections.. This is one reason, why I should not be writing these emails when on a conf call :) …
Arrivals: Satish & Familia came before Anil… One more reason, why the Kannada flag did not get to flutter !
Kids: Anaga played with Satya (not Aditi..).. Mallik, Sorry for getting the names wrong!
Poker:
Andy won back his money. He yelled at me for missing out on that, as its been a while since he has won, and I missed to notice that ;)… Yella's lost 5 and Vikram made 15 (not 20)..
I guess, I was too busy counting my own money and forgot much about what others made..
Still waiting for pictures from Mallik.

_______Original Message____________

Thank you all for coming to the party and for your wishes. We really enjoyed hosting it.
Minutes of Friday's get together:
Arrivals: People started to come in at 9'O. The Prasad's were the first to arrive. Padakis came right behind them.. Sunil who came along with Anil, stopped us from flying the Kannada flag… Devaraju's, Vikram and Ajoy soon followed. Yella's, Lanka's and Meenakshisundaram's trickled in.. By around 9:45 everyone that were expected were there… ( Why did I even bother to write this! )
Kids: Aditi and Satya got off to a good start and cliqued well together.. They holed up in Rithvi's toy room and played there.. Siddarth started to enjoy the spidey tent and then the girls encroached it. Rithvi was busy smooth talking the dads with girls (Anand, Anil and Mallik). And when they were busy looking away, he sneaked towards the beer bottles.
The Ladies: I really don’t know what the girls were talking about.. As long as Haritha doesn't get any new ideas on clothes & jewelry, I don’t really bother much about it.
The Men: After popping the champagne, it was same as usual… beer, smokes & juvenile chat…
The POKER Game: ( Deliberations in the order of the seating)===================================
Yash (+55) : The most I ever won! Got some real good cards..
Sridhar (-20): Sridhar was busy thinking about the "Presentation" training schedule.. Forgot to play poker.
Ajoy (-20) : 20 down but not out.. Still up when counting the last few weeks of winning..
Vikram(+20) : Started with $10. Got some good cards.. But when Vikram played, others didn’t.. If he played past the first round, everyone were throwing away their cards… He had to win quite a few rounds to make the $20.
Andy (-20) : Won couple of rounds.. Ended up loosing.
Lanka's (-20) : Luck was not on his side.. Anand was ;) !!!
Lavanya (-20) : Sitting next to Sudhakar did not help..
Sameera (+25): Sridhar lost and Sameera won.. I noticed that Sameera sitting far away from Sridhar.. And then heard someone saying "When Sridhar helps, Sameera loses".
Sunil : Enjoyed the show and Vikram's one liners...
===============================================

Good luck for the next one..
Thanks
Yash

Invitation to Anakal's place for poker

_____________________________________________
From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:01 AM
To: Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Singh, Subir; Mahankali, Vikram; Lanka, Sudhakar; Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Padaki, Anil (CONT); Devaraju, Satish; ajoy.ranga@anthem.com; Prasad, Mallik (CONT); Kannalli, Rajiv (CONT)
Subject: Get together...
When: Friday, February 23, 2007 7:30 PM to Saturday, February 24, 2007 12:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: 837 Coalbrook drive, midlothian

We'd be pleased to be your hosts this Friday for dinner! Please let me know if you could attend.
Your presence will be much cherished.

Thanks,
Yash

Invitation to Vikram's place for poker

_____________________________________________
From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 5:21 PM
To: Mahankali, Vikram; Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Lanka, Sudhakar; Singh, Subir; Padaki, Anil (CONT); Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT); Kannalli, Rajiv (CONT); Vishwakarma, Amit (CONT); Raina, Namish (CONT); Agarwal, Rahul; Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Raj, Suraj (CONT)
Subject: Poker/Potluck night..
When: Friday, February 16, 2007 10:00 PM to Saturday, February 17, 2007 2:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Mahankali's

Hi Everybody,

On popular demand, read Ajay's cajoling Vikram for a Game night, Vikram is hosting a potluck* party this Friday. As you may remember, Ajay won $$$ the last time we met at Mahankali's, and ever since Vikram has been getting calls on a daily basis, enquiring on "WHY" we are not having these game nights more often. It’s a different story that Ajay stood us out on the Superbowl party.. Ajay, hope to see you guys there.

*: Vikram is making Hyderabadi Biryani for the people who will want to eat when we reach there. Suds, has announced that he will be getting some food too. .. I can tell you by first hand experience that the food will be great. Vikram's Biryani is known for its authentic taste and Lanka's lunch has been tasting great these days. That’s the extent of potluck. Everyone is welcome to bring anything they like :).
I will be bringing some Beer (Heineken BTW.. Thanks Andy).

Preview/Expectations (a.k.a. Bunch of crap from Yash)

Vikram (+) : On a loosing streak.. Few weeks ago at the Docs, almost had it all until the last round, but Suds blew him over (don’t think dirty here). As per the theory of the Law of averages, he should be coming out of the loosing slide..

Doc (Even): I have a feeling that he will win this week.. But with Doc, its safer to select him to go home in the Red. It happens that way, more often than not..


Yella's (-) : Just won a bunch of $$$ on the SuperBowl day… Yet to collect the other losses from the past month and a half. I guess, the Yella's will have to wait for one more week.

Lankas (+) : I'm guessing that the Lanka's would be tired, after Cooking food for such a large number of people :). I don’t know if it is just me or anyone else noticed , that Lanka wins more in games, when he is almost sleeping or seriously watching TV.. Ex: Diwali's party (nodding off now and then) & @ the Docs watching all of Serena Williams. I'm calling the Lanka's to come out on the up. And now with Lavanya being here, one more team that plays "Zone" defense now.

Ajoy "Where's the party Dude" Ranga(-) : Very excited? In a "bring it on baby!" kinda mood? I guess we'll have the pleasure of meeting your brother, and that makes us one more team playing zone this week! I'd say back to you "Bring it on baby" J

Subir/Anil/Sunil (The Game Boys) : Subir, Need your Great Margarita's.. Anil, don’t tell me that you are too tired with all the prod cr*p going on this week and want to take rest.. BTW, Where is Sunil these days??

Andy Chettiar (-) : Lost the last two rounds.. Time to bring on your "A" game buddy!!

Rajiv (+): Lost on a lot of close calls on the superbowl day. Seems like, he was just messing with us.. Well, more Rummy to play on Friday.. So, I'm guessing that he will go home a happier person.

Amit (-) : Personally, I've not seem him win much.. But heard it happens a lot more than I imagine.. Calling this his "warmup week" for the next big one.

Namish (+) : The "Silent Assassin" . Have you seen him talk while playing cards..

Rahul (-) : Proclaimed "POKER KING", and heard (from Rahul himself) that he plays great Texas Hold'em.. Note to self : "Not to call Texas Hold'em while being the dealer this week".

Suraj (-) : Don’t really want to scare him away by telling "Your money is ours".. Crap, did I say it aloud?

Yash: Don’t want to call my own game.. Anyways, I don’t usually win much or lose much! BTW, please don’t tell this to Haritha.. I've been telling her that I have been winning a lot ;).


Thanks,
Yash

SuperBowl Party

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Tue 2/6/2007 3:19 PM
To: Padaki, Anil (CONT); Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Singh, Subir; Lanka, Sudhakar; Devaraju, Satish; Raina, Namish (CONT); Prasad, Mallik (CONT); Kannalli, Rajiv (CONT); Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT)
Subject: thank you...


Thanks to all the guys who came to the Super Bowl party and thanks for the food. We had a nice time and hope you did too..

Subir,
Thanks for the Jalapino Poppers, Butter Chicken and Thai Ca Ri Ga. Pass on our regards to AZ and Nidhi..

Anil,
You guys have to be careful now... Rithvi has his eyes on Malavika. Bisi BeLe Bath was awesome.

Sudhakar "The Bindi" Lanka,
You can really cook the Bindi. It was awesome. I was happy to see you guys not taking all our money away again. Just kidding, anyway it was not my money you were going to take away!

Namish,
Thanks for the Rajma... It was great... When r you hosting "Wipro Happy Hour"? Gotta spend the 15$ you won.

Yella,
You have to thank Andy Chettiar, Bindi and Rajiv.. You won most of their money now... :) . Like I said earlier, it was not whether but when the Yella's make their money back...

Rajiv, Thanks for coming. Without you, the poker pot would have been much less ;) . Kidding apart, we really enjoyed your presence.

Mallik, Missed you in the poker game. I guess that is good news for us, coz, I heard you win all the time. :)

Andy, Thanks for the beer .. And the poses with Suds.

Sunil "The Shrimp" Macherla: Never saw that Shrimp..ever... :) ..

Ramesh, Vikram & Satish, Missed you guys at the party. Would have had more fun with you guys in the party.

Thanks,
Yash

SuperBowl Party Invitation

From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 1:56 PM
To: Padaki, Anil (CONT); Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Singh, Subir; Lanka, Sudhakar; Devaraju, Satish; Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT)
Subject: RE: Super Bowl Party the old style..

Forgot about Subir.

On popular demand, Subir will be getting "Butter Chicken". Sorry Subir, Anil called in on your behalf.

_____________________________________________
From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 1:45 PM
To: Anakal, Yash; Padaki, Anil (CONT); Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Singh, Subir; Lanka, Sudhakar; Devaraju, Satish; Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT)
Subject: RE: Super Bowl Party the old style..

Potluck entree's discussed this afternoon:

Anil Padaki - Bisi Bisi Bele Bath
Sridhar Yella - Dhal
Suds 'The Enigma' Lanka - Bindi
Yash : Chicken Curry, Tandoor and Rice
Sunil : TBD (as in whatever he cooks the previous night)
Satish:TBD (count on Vegetarian stuff here)

*Andy - I sent this invite to a diff Anand. Let me know if you would be joining us.
Forgot to add poker to the games we would be playing! (We will make sure that Suds wont be taking away all our money this time)

Yash

_____________________________________________
From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:26 PM
To: Anakal, Yash; Padaki, Anil (CONT); Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Singh, Subir; Lanka, Sudhakar; 'Ananda Krishnan Kandasamy'; Devaraju, Satish
Subject: Super Bowl Party the old style..
When: Sunday, February 04, 2007 3:00 PM-11:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Anakal's Home..

Super Bowl PotLuck Party the 'old style'*:

Know your football before the party. We will be playing the following games at the least.
Football charades (dumb charades)
100 box pool (don’t know this game? Don’t worry. Its one form of gambling which I will explain before the game starts. Each box is 25cents).
Super Bowl Wagers
Each wager will cost $2.
The bets you can make is
Which team will be ahead at the end of 1Q
Which team will be ahead at half time
Which team will be ahead at the end of 3Q
Final Winner
(Normally there would be wagers for defense/special team points,, but we will keep it simple.)

Today at lunch, we shall discuss the menu and what you want to bring. (for those who wont be joining us for lunch, we will be deciding on what you can bring J. So Sunil, be there at lunch today, or I imagine you to be making lot of Biryani this Sunday )
Please come early, so we can get warmed up and get ready for the game. For dem bewadas, there will cocktails. If you insist on drinking beer and beer only, then I will be forced to get Milwaukee's best. For those guys who don’t know what this beer is, you need to go to your grocery store and look for the cheapest beer. It comes in cans.J Just kidding.

* Just be aware, that I don’t have the latest TV or Cable/Dish in my house. That is what I mean by "Watching Football the old style" ;) .

Party @ Vikrams

From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:54 AM
To: Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Raj, Suraj (CONT); Bandlapalli, Seshikanth [CONT]; Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT); Padaki, Anil (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Singh, Subir
Subject: RE: Poker night

Weekend Update :

We had a lot of no shows, which was expected. We know there are a lot of dependency relationships in who comes and who does not.. Suraj and Family not coming (legit reasons), caused Yella's to skip the night.
Sheshi, as he had communicated earlier, had a guest who was too tired to party. Something tells me that Sheshi's no show is again linked to Suraj not coming (not completely sure though). YesNoYesNoSubir ended up NOSubir..
And lastly, SUNIL.. Of course, he did not give any reasons for the no show… Unrelated to this discussion, heard that the weather in NOVA was better than in RIC. ;)

Winners & Losers:
Doc - As predicted before the night, he won some $$ on Friday (~$60). With the Yella's not around someone else had to win. Lost all in Poker but made his money in the first round of Rummy. Thanks to Ajoy, almost half of the pot was funded by him. Won a lot of money in this round, coz Ajoy pulled a "Ramesh" in this round (i.e. rejoined, and again rejoined, and rejoined.. and eventually lost).

Ajoy - Against my predictions, he was the biggest winner of the night.. Won $25 in poker and had it all in the second round of Rummy. Totally he went home ~$80 richer.

Vikram - Even though he won some money in poker, he ended up being a looser (~$30).. Meager amount in Doc's standards ;) ..

Andy - "The biggest loser" @NBC - Was not in his strings. Without the Yella's around, he was the favorite, but ended up in the red ($48).

I Started off good in poker by winning $8.. Got my $20 back in the first round of Rummy, but lost $20 in the second round. At the end of the day ended up in the red ($12).

Looking forward to the next one..

Yash

Invitation to Vikram's place for poker

From: Anakal, Yash
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 4:19 PM
To: Yella, Sridhar (CONT); Reddy, Ramesh (CONT); Mahankali, Vikram; Raj, Suraj (CONT); Bandlapalli, Seshikanth [CONT]; Meenakshisundaram, Anand (CONT); Padaki, Anil (CONT); Macherla, Sunil (CONT); Singh, Subir
Subject: Updated: Poker night
When: Friday, January 12, 2007 10:00 PM to Saturday, January 13, 2007 3:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: 3510 corum dr, apt # 621 .. (Broadmoor Building 6.)

I was corrected, the Raj's had won big once, and heard they were on a shopping spree the next day. Suraj has declined this invitation, as he is not feeling well.
On an unrelated story, the Raj's have cancelled their shopping spree that was planned for tomorrow (just kidding).


Poker night at the Mahankali's .. Come with a lot of cash, so that you can win more :)…
Location: Vikram stays in the next building as that of The Yella's, towards the clubhouse. Call 934-0181 if you are lost coming over here.

My take on the chances tonight:
=====================================================
Yella's : The Yella's have now recorded a 3 week loosing streak.. We all know that, its not whether but when they are going to catch up and recover their losses.. Bet your chips that they are going to go home richer tonight!

Doc: Law of averages does not have a chance here.. He plays big, wins big and looses bigger. Is he going to fund the night again? I don’t think so. But I wont bet a lot of my chips here.

Vikram Mahankali: He lost a Jackson( $20) last week.. Don’t have enough data to call this one.

Ajoy Ranga aka Ajay : One more on a loosing streak. Like Vikram, he too lost a Jackson but had more fun doing that, if that’s anything of a solace. Will he come off this loosing streak? I don’t think so.

Anand: He's never lost any till now, when playing with this group. Will he continue to win tonight as well?? I think so.

The Raj's: If it was just Suraj, I would say that $20 is in the pot for the takers.. But, here's another team that plays by committee and they have not won or lost much till date.


Mr. Bandlapalli: The new kid on the block. Says he plays Rummy well.. But tonight we will be playing poker more, just to make sure that he is not going to take all our money home.. :)

Anil/Sunil aka "THE YAKUZA": They don’t gamble.. Its against their principals. They play good bankers and have fun along the way. We trust them to hold our money and no one else.
Is Anil going to be there tonight? Depends on how much he loves to get away from changing the diapers :) .
Is Sunil going to be there? I plead the Fifth.

Me, Myself and I : I've had a good streak of luck this year, the year of the pink pig (2007 is the year of pink pig in the Chinese calendar). I guess, the "Law of averages" is going to catch up with me tonight.. But again, hoping that the Yella's and Doc play a little scruffy tonight, that would increase my chances.