HIV-Current status.

HIV-Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The epidemic that spread rapidly in the 1980's in India is a dreadful disease. According to the current studies, there are about 5 million people in India who are suffering from this disease. This number is almost close to Africa which has the maximum no. of cases in the world.

Some interesting facts from the Wall Street Journal

Our vacation

Our Vacation (July 4 - 9, 2005)

Day1: Reached Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to Los Angeles.

Day2: My CSA exam. Met our cousins, Neelam and Kabir, in the evening and had dinner at a Greek Restaurant. Had a nice evening. Drove around Beverly Hills in LA and got lost in the world of sheer opulence.

Day3: Universal Studios - Welcome to the world of Hollywood movies. What a fun place to be in - very creative! Some of the great hits from Universal include Terminator, Shrek, Waterworld,The Mummy and Jurrassic Park. The park has rides based on famous scenes from some of these movies, has 3D movies with special effects and interesting characters like Spider Man, MarlynMonroe, Flinstones. After experiencing some of these rides and movies, we took a tour around the Universal Studios in a tram and the guide showed us the sets from famous movies. We saw the sets from "War of The Worlds", a new movie that just got released on July 4th. They also showed us how the film-makers convert a little swimming pool into a big ocean. Overall a fun experience.

Day4: Disneyland - Where dreams come true! O' what a wonderful place. Everything about Disneyland is beyond words. The park itself is divided into various sections - Adventureland, Mickey's Toontown, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland. Each section is just like it sounds.

The Adventureland has a) The Indiana Jones Adventure, which is a very scary ride and you feel as if in reality, you are seeing what Indiana Jones experienced. When we were towards the end of the ride, we saw a big rock heading towards us, O' My God! That was it! We thought we were dead but suddenly something happened ( but I wont tell you what) and we were saved. (Thanks to our stars :)). Phew, that was something. 2) Jungle cruise, a boat ride and a chance to see the wild African elephants (a very rare species, only found in Africa and Disneyland :)), and the other wild animals open and roaming near the river side. Dont get scared if the wild animals throw water on you when you cross them. 3) Enchanted Tiki room, what a cute room! Have you ever seen singing flowers? Well, we saw them in this room. Talking birds entertained us for a full 20 minutes. 4) The Pirates of the Caribbean, again a very horrifying place.We encountered pirates who were about to shoot us but again our stars saved us :) We were really amazed by the sets and the sounds. The way they have made everything look so real is just unexplicable.

Mickey's Toontown - the House of Mickey and other Disney characters. We got a chance to meet Mickey and got our pictures clicked in his house. Mickey was also very happy to see us and promised to visit us someday. Minnie was tired, so she was resting (lazy Minnie). Roger Rabbit's Car Toon spin, a ride that spun us all over up and down. Thank god, we had our seat belts on!

Fantasyland - It had everything we had always fantasized in our childhood, starting from Alice in Wonderland, A Flying Elephant, Snow White, Pinocchio and Peter Pan. We were in wonderland too. Best of all was a ride called "It's a Small World", it was indeed a small world of dolls from all over the world singing, playing and dancing. Unfortunately, you can't take 'em home :(

Tomorrowland - where the future lies! It had all the high tech stuff full of interesting rides like Space Mountain, Innoventions, Star tours and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. It was so much fun, we got a chance to shoot the robots with our personal guns sitting in a minicar. Unfortunately I lost to Alok by 12000 points as Alok was able to shoot more robots than me but I know he cheated. This was actually inspired by the film "Toy Story 2" from Pixar Studios.

Then came the two best parts of Disney - "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" and "Fireworks Spectacular". These two shows are a must see at Disney. The parade is absolutely mystifying. You can see Disney characters and others live in front of you dressed colorfully, dancing and singing. The fireworks are just magical. 30 minutes of lighting in the sky over the Sleeping Beauty's Castle is electrifying. Overall Disney was a beautiful experience where all my dreams came true.

The same day, back from Disney, we met our friends Sarika and Sheetal and stayed with them. It was nice meeting them after such a long time. Thanks to them for hosting us for a night.

Day 5: Sea World (San Diego) Another adventure park. The main attraction of the Sea World is Shamu, The Killer whale. We started from Shamu adventure where Shamu takes you on a wild and wet adventure. It was fun getting wet by Shamu... well, not really! There was a Dolphin Stadium too where we joined Dolly Dolphin and friends for high flying thrills, excitement and few surprises. The Clyde & Seamore show at the Sea Lion Stadium is a hilarious deep dive to deep trouble that drenched us in laughs. The Sea Lions were very well trained. World of Pets, is one of the most exciting places in the Sea World. It was amazing to see dogs, cats and even dumb animals like pigs and chicken perform in a coordinated fashion.

The Cirque de La Mer at the Cirque Stadium was another mind numbing experience. The creatures from the fantasy land of Amphibia entertained us with their extreme acrobatics and whimsical acts. We also interacted with Clydesdale, the world famous Budweiser horse. The Aquarium de La Mer is a place where you can find fish and colorful invertebrates from around the world. The Freshwater Aquarium has Piranhas (a fish about 6" long, Piranha Fish are illegal to import, to sell, or to own in the state of California), four eyed fish, upside down catfish and others. The Penguin Encounter is an icy polar environment where more than 300 Antartic penguins and arctic alcids (Birds similar in shape to the flightless Penguins, are wonderful for diving and swimming but clumsy in the air) are kept. It was really COOL! Then we saw one of the world's largest display of sharks while walking through a submerged acrylic viewing tube. There was also World of the Sea Aquarium: undersea communities of coral reefs, kelp beds, schooling fishes (it's a group of fish swimming in unison, changing directions in an instant, yet never colliding with each other) and gamefish ( steelhead, trout and salmon ). The most interesting was the Polar Bear and the White Whale, they had kept them in an ice cold polar environment. I had never seen a Polar Bear before so it was really exciting for me. Overall an adventurous experience where we got wet more than we had expected to.

Day 6:Las Vegas- Now what should I say about Vegas, you have to go yourself and find out. But Vegas is indeed the City of lights that lighten up your hearts and of course your pockets. It is a glamorous place, full of casinos and night clubs.The most spectacular ones are: Luxor, MGM Grand, Bellagio with its musical fountains, Excalibur, Paris, New york-New york and many more. I wont tell you how much money we lost but we won a few dollars which were enough to buy a Margarita :).

Overall our trip was good but tiring. We think these places are worth visiting atleast once. We will post our pictures soon on my weblog. We know most of you have been to these places already, so, tell us if we missed something. What were your experiences like?