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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.
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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
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From Editors Desk
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By,
Sreevidhya
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PAGE 7
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
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Onam
2014
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By,
KarmaChandran
PAGE 13
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PAGE 14
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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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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