Gama newsletter november 2014 updated

INSIDE

THIS ISSUE:

Katha

Onam 2014

Gama Game day

Real Estate Note

Onam Ormakal

Bharthruhari

kavitha

Greater Austin Malayalee Association

Message from President

Greetings to all of you.

Holiday season is fast approaching. As you know GAMA Christmas celebra-

tions are scheduled on Dec 6th. Current BODs and volunteers are preparing

feverishly for the same and we hope to finish off the year in a high note. .We

had unbelievable attendance this year for GAMA Onam program. I hope all of

you enjoyed the programs and the excellent food. Your attendance and partici-

pation is what makes this community special. Kudos to hundreds of volunteers

who selflessly helped with scheduling programs to serving food. I want to

thank each of you for everything you have done.

Game day registrations was also a big surprise to us. The participation and reg-

istration has exceeded expectations and it looks like our community has several

sports enthusiasts. GAMA will be announcing new BODs during Christmas.

Second term directors retire and a new team takes over from 2015. This ar-

rangement has worked so well for this organization.

Looking forward to seeing you during GAMA Christmas program.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our readers and their families!

The past year for us as a community has been full of memorable events, our community has significantly

increased with so many folks moving to the beautiful city of Austin..

GAMA has been very proud to host some very successful events in the last year raging from the talented

Saregama, Fun Picnic , a vivacious Game Day and last but not the least the biggest ever Onam. All of this

could not have been success without the support of each and every one of you! We also need to mention that

it was a year full of Mollywood movies which had us entertained and glued to our seats. The Board and

community is looking forward to close the year with a block buster Mamooty movie , an apt ending to the

year that began with a block buster Mohanlal movie.

The editorial board would like to thank all the board member who are retiring and will be supporting us from

the outside. We also look forward to welcoming our new board members on Dec 6th during the GAMA 2014

Christmas event. Based on what some of our reliable sources tell us its going to be another successful event

and we hope to see all of you there!

It has been our privilege to bring to you our readers the stories, the opinions, commentaries, and to share

with you our editorials for the last year and we thank you for this. As we have always said the only reason,

the driving force behind the newsletter has been the readers and we look forward to the New Year as we

continue to bring the news as we see it through GAMAs eyes.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a blessed New Year!

Editors desk

PAGE 2

From Editors Desk

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By,

Sreevidhya

GAMA Onam 2014

Onam 2014 for GAMA was a resounding success and that would not have happened without all the support

the board got from the community! The board would like to take the opportunity to humbly thank every

person of the community, sponsors, and our numerous volunteers who put in their whole hearted effort to

make this a momentous occasion for the community! None of this would have been possible without

your spirited participation and support.

Never before in the history of GAMA has an Onam celebration event been soldout out couple of weeks

before the event- this is a testimony to the growing strength of our community.

Every community when it grows at the rate that we have done in the last year always has doubts if we will

stay as one, and successful Onam was a glowing testimony to the fact that we as a community want to stay

unified and as a big happy family.

An array of colors on our pookalam, a sumptuous Onam sadhya, and professional scintillating performanc-

es from our talented performers made the program all the more a success! Ladies in kasavu settumundu,

men in kasavu dhoti and the kids in Indian attire added all the touches in making this event a memorable

and nostalgic one for all of us. This event was not to be missed and GAMA would like to convey their re-

grets to members who werent able to get tickets owing to event being sold out.

The Onam utsavam started with the lighting of the lamp by our chief guest Dr. Usha Akela who touched

upon the memories of Kerala that Onam invokes in all our hearts! This was followed by a cultural program

that covered all parts of India and bought out the vibrancy of our mother land right onto the stage in Austin.

And in true Malayalee spirit we accepted, acknowledged and enjoyed all the programs! The grand finale

was made even more grand by a Maveli who was enjoying the programs as much as we all were, he kept

the Chenda Melam going, got the ladies on the stage to blush and kids to clamor around him .

Finally we ended the program with a delectable Onam Sadhya that was served in a professional manner

and It consisted of the many dishes served at an Onam feast including theeyal, aviayal, koottukari and

payasam.

Once again the board would like to thank all of you for making this event such a success and we look for-

ward to hosting you all for the upcoming Christmas Program and hoping to make it also a big success with

your support!

Thank you, , , Shukriya, Merci, Gracia

GAMA Board

Onam

2014

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By,

KarmaChandran

PAGE 13

Malayalam Class Party

Gama organized a great fun day for kids those who participated in Onam Exam at Austin Park and Pizza.

Kids had a wonderful time there.

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By,

Dr.Unny Sugunan

Gama Game Day

This years Gameday was awesome. We started off slow with the normal games but after seeing the high

level of enthusiasm, decided to add new games like Ping-Pong, Badminton and Tennis. We had more par-

ticipants this time around than in any other year.

Game day was inaugurated by Dr.Unny Sugunan with the Introduction by Sunny Thomas and Sathish Kumar. Ping pong was a big hit with plenty of participants. The registration came with an "all you can play" option and encouraged everyone to participate in all games. Kerala snacks were another instant hit as participants munched on Pazhampori,Samosa and sipped hot tea

while playing..

A couple of the games like badminton and tennis were played on later dates. The GAMA program commit-

tee provided the fixtures and amenities for the racket games. The participants were amenable to finishing

the games within the stipulated time frame.

Game day would not have been such a hit without the awesome volunteers from the committee. We got lot

of positive feedback and valid suggestions from the community. We will be looking into adding more games

next year to bring out the sport enthusiast in everyone.

Gama.

Science Corner

Graphene breakthrough could trigger electric car revolution: Proton discov-ery paves way to super-efficient batteries

Graphene is the world's thinnest and strongest material that is impermeable to atoms and molecules

Researchers from the University of Manchester were surprised to find that positively charged hydrogen atoms - pro-tons - can pass through it Discovery could boost efficiency of fuel cells for cars generating electricity from hydrogen, by using a graphene-based

membrane

Scientists have discovered a surprising new property of graphene the worlds thinnest and strongest materi-al that could accelerate the development of electric cars and other green technologies. Researchers have found that the newly discovered type of carbon graphite, which is found in pencil lead, al-lows positively charged hydrogen atoms or protons to pass through it. Their discovery could increase the efficiency of fuel cells for cars, because the cells generate electricity from hydrogen.

The researchers, led by Nobel Prize winner Sir Andre Geim of Manches-ter University, who discovered gra-phene, said their finding raises the possibility that, in future, graphene membranes could be used to sieve hydrogen gas from the atmosphere to generate electricity. This is because the one-atom thick material acts like a filter to allow protons to pass through it, while blocking the passage of other atoms. At just one atom thick, graphene is the thinnest material on Earth and is also 200 times stronger than steel. It was first isolated in 2004 by Sir An-dre and his fellow researchers, who received a Nobel Prize in 2010 for their work.

The material is impermeable to all gases and liquids, giving it the potential for a range of uses such as corro-sion-proof coatings, packaging.

The discovery could increase the effi-ciency of fuel cells in cars, because the cells generate electricity from hydrogen. While hydrogen is being used to fuel concept cars (pictured) the technology has a distance to go before it is widely commercialized

Fuel cells, used in some modern cars, use oxygen and hydrogen as fuel and convert the input chemical energy into electricity. But a major problem is that the fuels leak across the existing proton membranes to reduce the cells' efficiency. This problem could be overcome by using graphene.

The discovery could increase the efficiency of fuel cells in cars, because the cells generate electricity from hydrogen. While hydrogen is being used to fuel concept cars (pictured) the technology has a dis-tance to go before it is widely commercialized

Fuel cells, used in some modern cars, use oxygen and hydrogen as fuel and convert the input chemical ener-gy into electricity. But a major problem is that the fuels leak across the existing proton membranes to reduce the cells' efficiency. This problem could be overcome by using graphene. The team found that graphene membranes could be used to extract hydrogen from the atmosphere, suggest-ing the possibility of combining them with fuel cells to make mobile electric generators powered just by tiny amounts of hydrogen in the air. Essentially, you pump your fuel from the atmosphere and get electricity out of it, Sir Andre said. Our (study) provides proof that this kind of device is possible. Dr. Sheng Hu, a postdoctoral researcher and the first author in this work, added: Because graphene can be produced these days in square meter sheets, we hope that it will find its way to commercial fuel cells sooner rather than later.

By,

Manoj Mohan

First Time Home Buyer

Home buying process is little complex and sometime it gets very frustrated. I as an experience and profes-

sional realtor try to make things easy on my buyers by providing some valuable information as a road map

toward the home ownership journey, some of this information are:

Get Approved: First and foremost step is to get approved and know your purchasing power; I highly recom-

mend contacting your personal banker and start the loan process. Only one bank at a time because calling

different lenders will lower your credit score. Once you find the home you like and your offer is accepted

than you can shop with couple different lenders.

Location: Location, location and location is very important in any type of real estate. When it comes to resi-

dential real estate important factors: Commute to the work is very important since gas price is going higher

and higher. Good Schools are the deciding factors in this task. Please visit http://www.greatschools.org/

texas/texas-city/ for schools rating. Distance to high way, where ever you live but your house should not be

more 2 or 3 miles from the highway.

Floor plan: Floor plan must be functional and fit to your needs. How to know which floor plan is good for

you? Here are some examples: If you have big family but small kids than you need to two story with a game

room and all room upstairs. Your family is big but dont want stairs or you have some guest who visit you

frequently than you must have one bedroom downstairs and it can be master or guest room. Or if you have

small family than you can have one story or if you have small family but you work from home than one story

with an office. Try to come up something nonnegotiable which help to shorten your search to find a perfect

home. If you like to discuss with me more on floor plan options please feel free to call me and we sit down

and figure it out which floor plans will be the best for you and your family.

Type of homes: When first time home buyers starts there search, they will find variety of homes such as:

New Homes: This kind of homes usually expensive than old (resale) homes and most of the time there are

far from the city center. But those homes build at current city and county codes which are more energy effi-

cient and have durable fire safety elements. Builders also offer higher concession and closing incentives

compare to average home seller.

Traditional Re-Sale homes: If the seller is owner occupant and want to sell their home, in Realtors termi-

nology we called it Re-Sale. Those are just standard home seller s who are selling their homes for variety

of reasons and most common either they have job transferred or they are upgrading / low grading them-

selves. There price depend on how much they have equity in their house so price check is very important. I

will provide you my broker price opinion, considering current market condition before we ready to put an

offer.

Short Sale: This kind of homes are under the water, means seller is behind on their mortgage payments and

they owe more money to their lender compare to current home value and seller dont have enough money to

pay off their current lien so banks usually released the property lien after the closing and go after the seller

for the difference amount usually bank issue them 1099 or get credit judgment against them. In this deal

basically sellers lender are the one who approved the offer. I never recommend any first time home buyer

to consider that kind of home because usually they take up to 6 months to close and it come with lots of sur-

prises.

Foreclosure homes: Foreclosure homes often called REOs are those when occupant stop making their

monthly payments and bank took over the property from the court. Those homes not always a good a deal

most of them need work. There are three sub categories of foreclosures:

HUD Homes: Seller bought the home with loan which was insured by USDA (United States development

authority) when was initially purchased. After seller stops making the house payments, Housing Develop-

ment Authority which is government entity take over the house and they dont spend any money on the

property. Buyers can only submit their offers online, this is not an auction they collect all the bids for first

10-14 days and on the bid open date they will accept the higher offer, so buyers never get a second chance

to increase their offer. Than buyers agents which will be me, have to jumps some hoops to get closing on

time, since listing agents ONLY LIST THE HOMES. After offer acceptance buyers have only 48 hours

to do inspection and is buyers responsibility to turn all the utilities on for the inspection in most cases it is

very hard since home is closed for more than year or 2 years. If there is any issue after our offer acceptance

and before closing no one will there assist to resolve those issues. For example if there is Gas on the proper-

ty and its shut off from more than 12 months now gas company need permit from city and city will do the

inspection and they are not able in 48 hours, or after offer accepted and there is a wind storm which damage

the roof so buyer either take AS-IS or back out from the deal, there is no other option.

Bank Owned: When the original owner of the house gets conventional loan and after the default of pay-

ments property goes to the court for auction and bank buy those properties from court and they become

owner/investor of the same property which there were lien holders. After acquiring this properties bank try

to keep house bring in reasonable condition for showings. Those home are little better in condition than

HUD homes. If both parties agreed on the price than usually transition toward closing is very smooth. Turn-

ing the utility on for the buyers inspection is much easy process compare to HUD homes.

Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac: Those foreclosures are those when owner acquired the loan which are in-

sured by FHA or also known as Federal Mortgage loans. These kinds of homes are fair deals comparable to

others: (i) Those homes are on FHA livable standards i.e. all the essentials like A/C, heater, dishwasher,

cooking range are in workable conditions (ii) Most of the time they have fresh paints and new flooring (ii)

If buyer try to attempt getting loans from there HOME STEPS program then they will get very low rates.

I hope above information very helps you to start your home hunting with right direction. If you have any

question please feel free to contact me.

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Gama newsletter november 2014 updated