So it begins

Jean-Do

2011-06-03T20:07:00.000-04:00

Last month's book club which I did not go to (may I add...) was all about Jean-Dominique Bauby's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon).
Bauby, Jean-Do to his friends, was the editor of the famous French Elle magazine. Almost at the end of 1995, he suffered a massive stroke that left him in a coma for nearly 20 day. He woke up only to find himself a victim of the "locked-in" syndrome wherein his mental faculties were intact but his body was paralyzed (all he could do was blink his left eye). The book is devoid of self-pity or even anger.
He dictated this book alphabet by alphabet and blinking when the correct one was mentioned.

This is a beautiful memoir that shows the authors' courage and wit. A heart-wrenching narrative of what happened to him as a person who can think but cannot say a word. Bauby talks about food, his girlfriend, his children-

"Once, I was a master of recycling leftovers. Now I cultivate the art of simmering memories. You can sit down to a meal at any hour, with no fuss or ceremony. If it's a restaurant, no need to call ahead. If I do the cooking, it is always a success"

A very poignant story that at times is witty and funny even (you wonder the how resilient this man must have been). The English translation is really good- not that I have read the French version.

"Today is Father's Day. Until my stroke, we had felt no need to fit this made-up holiday into our emotional calendar. But today we spend the whole of the symbolic day together, affirming that even a rough sketch, a shadow, a tiny fragment of a dad is still a dad"

Bauby died about a year or so later, you can read more about him here and here.

A must-read, really!

Words from the past

2011-05-31T22:00:00.000-04:00

I found it funny when my mom recently said "think she got a centum in maths"- then I realized that now there are words in my vocabulary that I do not use any more.

maths- mathematics (math)
centum- 100%
stepney- spare tire (see I don't even spell it tYre)
flat- as in apartment
Rubber- eraser
Pass- out- as in graduated
this one's a favorite- carrying- as in pregnant
dicky- trunk of a car

Tell me do you remember any more?!

Help me complete this list and tell me if you have any lost-in-translation-stories with these words!

I don't know if you know

2011-04-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

about Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption. This past weekend, a bunch of us (actually few of us) met at the square to walk for the cause. He has been in the news for a while now and I really appreciate what his crusade has done for the general morale of the country. The recent deluge of scams has left a bad taste and it will be quite interesting to see as to how this movement shapes up.

Every time I go home to Chennai, I cannot help but get angry. I absolutely detest the rowdy DMK rule but at the same time I wonder if it is not the DMK goondas then who else- surely the other party is not any better. The only positive- not as much nepotism in AIADMK unlike DMK where even his बहु की चची के ननदोई* के रिश्तेदारों को भी government post दिए जाते हैं!

If DMK does not already own half of TN, it surely will if they come back this time around. I was never much of a fan of Madras (now Chennai)- always thought that people were extremely narrow minded and culturally very closed. But now over these past few years, I have also added "laziness"to the "why-I-do not-like-Chennai" list.

Anyway back to the corruption issue-

India is ranked 87th (among the 178 nations) on Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index. A report released in November last year found that India lost $462 billion (that is right 462 followed by 9 zeros!) to illicit cash flows resulting from tax evasion, corruption, bribery and kickbacks, and criminal activities (this report is available here). Now this is seriously preposterous- the money that can be put to good use to help people like better education.

So go ahead read all these articles and more- have healthy discussions and arguments with people you know. Talk, talk, talk...

A conversation overheard:

Lady- I am too scared to drive in the US while driving in India is pretty easy.

Guy- really, how is that?

Lady- Oh, even if you make mistakes in India you can bribe your way out!

Guy- Hmm...yeah they made me pay 50 bucks for making a right turn on red. Come on, I did not see the "No turn on red" sign.

Me- an eerie silence at the plight of my fellow Indians!

Some references and source materials that I have used to write this
Corruption threatens India's growth
Wiki entry for Corrutption Perceptions Index
You can read all about his letter to the PM or the lokpal bill
Make giving bribe legal while taking it illegal-Kaushik Basu
Poverty in India-World Bank

Wedding 2011

2011-04-05T08:57:00.000-04:00

Yes so finally it did happen- after being together for almost 6 years, the wise guy and I tied the knot. It has been a very surreal experience so far and in my books- nothing has changed except I now adorn a ring (could have been a lot more of traditional permanent jewelry indicative of a married woman except my lectures on feminism and how such adornments are not really me paid off). Yes, they did spend a ton of money but the family was all smiles and who in their right mind would ever say no to all that attention that is being given? Sure the price tag is huge but hey we can afford it, can we not?

News worthy

2011-01-28T14:47:00.003-05:00

We are the nation that does not deal with what needs to be now, we only know to celebrate dead people and their achievements. No disrespect to the great minds that we celebrate but come on- when do these thugs otherwise known as politicians get away with not doing an iota of good for the people (never mind the people are stupid enough to vote for them everytime!)

The Hindu : States / Tamil Nadu : 151st birth anniversary of Singaravelar to be celebrated

A good read

2010-12-26T15:42:00.001-05:00

Ha Jin's relatively unknown novel "In the Pond" was published in 1998. The book set in Communist China around the time of cultural revolution, takes as its protagonist, a small town Harvest Fertilizer maintenance employee Shao Bin. Bin with his wife and a two year old daughter live in a 12 by 20 foot room. The story begins when Bin's application for a larger house in the employee quarters is rejected despite is seniority in the company. He is rejected because of the rampant corruption at the higher level. A really quick read, funny at times deals with some weighty issues- power, corruption, art and vanity. Shao Bin sets out to seek justice through art (he was a self taught artist), the constant struggle between him the two powerful figures at the company, his alienation among other workers, his wife and her struggles- all these give the story its poignance.
Personally, I did not like Shao Bin- I thought he was egotistical and used everyone to further his own agenda. Doing the things that he did during a revolution, I was surprised at the happy ending, at least for Shao Bin. I did love the book. It gave me a glimpse into a society which I am so far removed from and have never been able to fathom. Can't wait to read Ha Jin's well acclaimed book "Waiting".

James Baldwin

2010-12-12T18:49:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for something to cheer you up- this certainly then is NOT for you! A very simple, yet powerful book written about the isolation felt by homosexual men. This second novel by Baldwin was first published in 1956.
Almost every male character in the book is homosexual and the ways of rich men buying the services of and in fact having a sense of entitlement of the younger, vulnerable out-of-towners was disheartening. There is David, an American so ashamed and afraid of his sexuality- he flees to Paris to save himself from embarrassment. In Paris, with no money in hand, he is forced to get help from Jacques. Jacques was the reason that David and Giovanni meet. Giovanni works at a bar owned by Guillame in Paris. Hella was one odd woman out- David's girl friend who is off in Spain as she takes a break from the relationship and my be even Paris. It was during this time that David and Giovanni's relationship and love for each other blossoms. The end is quite tragic (I will not tell you what happened) but I would just say that I went through myriad of emotions. I am still unsure if I hate David- I was definitely furious with his dishonesty- not just to himself, but he was dishonest with Hella, Giovanni and pretty much every one else! I am also not able to fathom why Giovanni would love David so much and would need him so much for his survival? The title itself has many interesting metaphorical connotations (you have to read it to understand it).

Baldwin himself, as an isolated gay black man in the 50's moved to Paris and when he finished this manuscript his publisher suggested that he might as well burn it. You can read all about it here, here or here.

I will leave you with David's words-

"What happened was that, all unconscious of what this ennui meant, I wearied of the motion, wearied of the joyless seas of alcohol, wearied of the blunt, bluff, hearty, and totally meaningless friendships, wearied of wandering through the forests of desperate women, wearied of the work which fed me only in the most brutally literal sense"

Must Read!

Laura Childs- mystery or misery

2010-11-11T21:00:00.009-05:00

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts"- Charles Dickens

I usually do no pick up books in the spur of the moment from the library, because when I do, I end up picking ones that are quite bad. But we never learn from our mistakes, now do we?

I love mysteries and so I picked this book up hoping for some. The book started off with a good note- Protagonist- Carmela who runs a scrapbooking store called Memory Mine

Her friend- Ava runs a voodoo store (JuJu voodoo, I think)

Setting- New Orleans, a week before Halloween (apparently NOLA is big on Halloween, I had no idea- see I did learn something!)

With two murders in the story you would think it would keep you on your toes- but instead I found myself amidst incessant trivial portrayal of high-society's (both women are reasonably well to-do, especially Carmela who got a big fat alimony pay-out) celebrations culminating with the halloween parade. The descriptions of one party after another without any intelligent mystery-solving, the constant harping about Carmela's mystery-solving abilities and how she always has an eye for where trouble is was quite irritating (I mean come on- she definitely was no Miss. Marple). Not to mention the boring details of how Carmela and Ava go about getting ready for these parties!

May be it was a young adult read, but I love some of those young adult books. Anyway the good thing was there are interesting scrapbooking ideas and recipes (Carmela is supposed to be a great cook!) that I might try. May be I should give another of her mystery series a try- may be they won't be as bad!

Judgement

Read it as your own peril!

Consolations of Philosophy-

2010-10-11T13:06:00.003-04:00

Funny and interesting read

I wonder if anyone has been wondering why this blog has been silent- well there is no good reason for why the silence, could always blame it on me being lazy. Now if you look up this book on the world wide web, negative reviews are aplenty, especially this one by Skidelsky. I sure do not understand Skidelsky's argument about using philosophy as therapy (which is exactly what De Botton does in this book), I mean why the heck can we not use philosophical theories/arguments as theories. I am sorry Mr.Skidelsky but I do not buy your arguments as to why this book was bad. I mean as a person with ample inadequacies I sure thought I could have put to use some of what these great philosophers have put forth and hence lead a fairly happy life. I also thought it was funny and the diagrams/pictures throughout the book added to the humor. It made philosophy an easy read for common people like me Mr.Skidelsky!

This book is a compilation of some of the theories from 6 great philosophers that De Botton says can be used as therapy or consolations for our failures, frustrations, inadequacies and even being unpopular. My favorites were Socrates and Epicurus.

Go ahead read the book and tell me what you think.

A request to the blog readers...

2010-09-19T22:34:00.001-04:00

Hi guys

This post has nothing do with food, so if you are here to get a dose of food fix- sorry not today. I am writing today to raise awareness and potentially some money for the organization I volunteer with "Stop Child Trafficking Now" and an issue that is close to my heart.

My teenage years in India involved feeling helpless and angry at households that employed children as domestic help. Many such scenes have left a deep impression on me early on in my life (they still do) and I remember making my mom promise me that she would never ever hire a child (thankfully my mom never did hire help for a long time). I could not bear the thought of someone my age doing all the household chores while I bask in their labor and get all the education I need to move me forward in life. Only a handful of us think twice before we hire children to perform duties that we are fully capable of handling.

I must clarify here that even though I talk of child domestic labor, in many countries a lot of these children working far from home are easy prey for the sellers, and therefore sooner or later some of them will be trafficked and sold! A majority of trafficked domestic workers are girls, this is especially true in Africa (source: UNICEF). Children are trafficked for sex and slavery.

I do my part in small ways by refusing to buy anything that I know was the product of child slavery. Anyway my anger issues aside- now I have actually started involving my time and effort in learning about various forms of human slavery and more recently volunteering with SCTnow. SCTnow provides me with a perfect platform to help stop any and every child from being trafficked for sex or as slaves.

I am writing to encourage you to take a look at their website- register for the walk, volunteer with the organization, donate any amount of money to support the cause (remember human trafficking is the SECOND LARGEST criminal enterprise after the selling of drugs and weapons). Together lets put an end to the misery of millions of children- it is our duty to protect them.

If you are interested in walking or volunteering, check here. The walk is taking place in over 50 cities worldwide, so be sure to check the list and register for the walk.

You can donate here by clicking "support me" on MY donor page. Remember the walk is happening on Oct 2nd and Oct 3rd in many cities.

Junot Diaz- brilliant!

2010-08-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

Judgement: THUMBS UP!

When I started reading this book, I was not too sure about it- but in the end all I can say is "Wow". The book is about the lives of people in Dominican Republic and how their lives change as immigrants in the US (I thought this part was quite subtle).

Oscar de Leon, (or Oscar Wao as his school mates christen him) an overweight, second generation Dominican- American fantasizes about writing science fictions (called himself the dominican JRR) and falling in love with a girl. The story is narrated in parts by Oscar's sister Lola and his friend Yunior (although the way he acts, you would at times doubt if he indeed was Oscar's friend). Trujillo's regime acts as a perfect setting as the novel- it is not just about the life to Oscar's mother Beli and her parents but also about how the family had to escape from the clutches of fuku (a curse probably).

The language was amazing overall, again one of those novels where I feel like I am part of the story.

The only problem I had was understanding the Spanish phrases- some I could sort of contextually understand but long sentences were out of my league. I wrote most of them down in the hope that I would some day translate them.

The White Tiger-a review

2010-07-31T18:15:00.004-04:00

Highly Recommended

Arvind Adiga has me hooked. I loved this book- his first book for which he won the Man Booker Prize. His writing style is simple yet powerful. This book by virtue of being ironic, was quite humorous. I could not help but laugh out aloud (on a crowded "T", yeah and I did get "the looks") many a times. There were times throughout the book where I would give a knowing grim nod. Balram, a despicable character, did capture my heart. I usually have strong opinions about various characters in any book, especially the protagonist- but here I was not so sure- did I pity Balram, do I fathom his reasons for being the way he is and is he justified in doing what he did? The book is in the form a letter, a narration to the Chinese Premier. Balram escapes his life of nothingness and fear of landlords (with creative pet names such as mongoose and stork!) who collected hafta from the poorest of the poor, to start anew as a driver for a rich family (Amrica-returned golden boy of Stork and his wife). Now the story is all about how Balram gets there, how he learns all about "The Rooster Club" and how in all desperation he wants out of the club.

A beautifully crafted story that will melt your heart and make you laugh.

Read it to feel it!

Sultan's Seal- a review

2010-07-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

This was our book club read for June and the exciting part was that the author Jenny White was going to be at our meeting. But unfortunately, I was unable to attend the meeting (I was enjoying my stay in Chennai!). Set in Stanbul on Bosphorous, close to the end of Ottoman empire, this book was quite a riveting read. It is a mystery novel with a subtle yet beautiful romance between the protaganist Kamil Pasha, the magistrate and Sybil (daughter of the British ambassador, who helps Kamil during his investigation). Kamil Pasha's investigation in to the drowning of an European governess becomes increasingly difficult as he finds out that the lady (Mary Dixon) was a governess in the Sultan's household and that that this murder might be linked to a previous similar murder. The book has its fair share of chicanery, passion and betrayal. I liked the author's style of writing a lot too.
Overall this book was unputdownable.

A trip to remember...

2010-07-25T08:30:00.001-04:00

This India trip was not your, or rather, my usual, run-off-the-mill trip. I did a teeny weeny bit of traveling. Landed in Chennai and rather unusually, my parents were out of town (well I did know that before hand)- so I was off to my uncle's place (my gran was there to pick me up!). The third day I was out of Chennai.
Next stop: Pune, Maharashtra to visit my aunt (mausi/chithi) and chitappa.
Day 1: Talk, talk on the way to Lavassa (a planned hill city) and more talk on the way back since we had to play a guessing game "will we reach the city before we run out of gas and get stuck in the middle of no where?". Since we did reach the city, we treated ourselves first by stopping to get some farm fresh happoos. I also got into fight with a security guard outside the National Defense Academy- I mean the sense of power is so misplaced. So when you see a big bulky canon being promptly displayed- what is your first thought- "I need a picture". Now you would think that this was a harmless endeavor- no not for this security guard, apparently he was guarding the antiquated, hardly functioning canon outside the academy that was in full public view.

Day 2: More talk, on our way to Mumbai to see more people...night show Rajneeti, of the 4 of us that went to the movie, only I thought it was kind of alright- the rest of them hated it!

Day 3: Leave Mumbai, en route stopover at Lonavala. Now as a sight to be seen on "World day against Child Labor"- I saw two little children, a girl (pictured here) and a boy were running a small tea shop that also served roasted corn (of course the mother was there too). I was so distressed with the amount of plastic strewn about in those beautiful hills- I do not even know where to begin and for this I blame no one but the damn people who lack curtsy and even the slightest sense of guilt when they go about throwing their shit around! Funny story: we walk around the "Lion's point" for a few minutes. A Tata sumo with three people, all three of them stuffing themselves with food. The lady drops throws her napkin on the ground. I turned to see what the gentlemen were going to do and I held my gaze on one of them. This guy held napkin for as long as I was staring and smirking at him- the moment I got in the car, the damn guy threw the damn paper on the ground.

Day 4: Early morning flight to Delhi, out of the flight and into the traffic jam! After a considerable talking, it was dinner time which was at some fancy schmancy Dhaba- they even had a truck cut out and dhaba music but sadly food was no where close to a real dhaba food and neither were the people as nice as the people who usually run dhabas! So in the midst of all talking, I even got some pictures of the baby pigeons!

Day 5: DU by metro with cousin, spent a couple of hours there watching students dance their way through a college admission. I was quite impressed with the Delhi metro system. And as usual could not help but get angry with men who could not stop staring at women (age no bar). Dinner at a place whose name I cannot remember!

Day 6: Flight back to Chennai. Appa was there. Thankfully not on his "Hero Winner" moped (I think we are the only ones in the entire country that have this model)

Taken Over...

2010-06-04T09:47:00.000-04:00

Image source is this blog here

I cannot believe I had once vowed to never step into the computer centers at BITS- neither to check emails on that UNIX machine nor to do my coursework (yes, it got quite out of hand and I did land on the infamous notice board!). Today when the Harvard network was down, leaving us all without any access to the world outside for about 29 minutes, I was amused by my own reactions. I had to find out what was going on, why all of a sudden things went wrong- had to find out when will I get my world back. It was quite early in the morning for our lab and people were just strolling in, booting their computers up- I go "aha! I am not alone, soon these people would be join me in my frenzy" but they seemed unfazed by it. I begin to wonder may be something was wrong with my machine and that drove me even crazier.

Well after enough dramatizations, 2 coffees down the throat- I sensed relief, I mean I could feel it. And there it was- I was back on people!

Tell me how much has the world wide web changed your world, do you believe we are in fact all that global as we claim to be?

Boy play or boy dismay

2010-05-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

Image courtesy: Free thinker

A recent episode of Frontline aired this program about boys in Afghanistan. Apparently an ancient practice of Bacha Bazi has been brought into life again. It is a secret (it is an illegal act under the law in Afghanistan) that was never meant to be kept. This Frontline show is called "Dancing Boys of Afghanistan" and it chronicles the lives of poverty-stricken children, either abducted or lured using money, who dress up like women to dance in front of grown men and more often than not perform sexual acts. The boys usually start off at a very young age, around 10 or so- they get trained to sing and dance and when they are ready, they begin to entertain their masters and other people. A boy who does well is quite popular and in demand. There have been boys who have wanted out and well their only way out-getting killed.
It is only in the recent times that this issue has been getting attention, not as much as it should. It is complicated by the fact that government officials and military men also engage in such a preposterous act and amongst them have a boy toy accompany, is a matter of prestige and power.
As far as I am concerned, you do not put children in harm's way, does not matter where you come from. The perpetrators should pay and hopefully the law (I am guessing it is going to be some form of international effort as we all know how well the Afghan system is working) will catch up with them sooner than later.

The Yacoubian Building

2010-05-20T17:15:00.002-04:00

- by Alaa Al Aswany, a dentist by profession. Be prepared to be angered and saddened by the portrayal of the characters' struggles.
The story follows the some of the people living in "The Yacoubian Building"- the building constructed in the art-deco style still exists in Egypt but the description that the author provides in the book is something of a wonderful classical European architecture. The story follows the residents of this building:
Taha-el-Shazli whose frustration at not getting through the police academy makes him vulnerable and eventually he joins the Islamist movement

Busayna, Taha's girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend, enters prostitution (well she has a day job too) after her father dies to take care of the family. She, to me seemed liked the only ray of hope in the entire book!

Hatim Rasheed, a reporter of a leading newspaper in Cairo and a homosexual. His story is quite an interesting one albeit very sad one too. I can only assume that the author has portrayed the life of homosexual people in Egypt as close to reality as possible and let me tell you- I do not like what I see.

Hagg Azzam, an old guy who enters the crooked world of politics- takes a young beautiful Souad as his second wife, of course secretly. He made her leave her son back in the village- that was the deal he made and she took it because the money and gifts were good and she could imagine a better life for both her and her son.

Zaki-el-Bey, an old flirt who had no qualms about womanizing- he would sleep with anything that looked remotely like a woman! But in the end, he does deliver another ray of hope in this forsaken land- I am sorry but I do not know what else to call it. I hope it is better now than when the book was set.

The author does a fantastic job of painting a broad picture of Egypt especailly Cairo. I was really moved by the daily struggles that people go through and somehow they did not look as horrid or sad as they should have been. They seem to carry on just fine...

Read more about this book here or here.

Enjoy!

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

2010-05-06T21:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks to our book club, I got to read my first ever Willa Cather. In a nutshell, I liked the way she played with her characters and all of it in simple, plain English- nothing fancy. She does a brilliant job of bringing out the emotions of her characters! A very interesting and a courageous lady, Willa Cather- she dressed like a man most of the times and most of her strongest relationships seems to have been with women. Her sexual identity apparently is one of contention- remember she was born late 1800's.

Anyway about the book which was originally published in 1923- it is the story of Marian Forrester and Capt Daniel Forrester told to us through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The story is set in a small yet rich railroad community of Sweet Water in Nebraska (this is an almost fictional place- Cather draws most of her inspiration from Red Cloud, Nebraska for the description of Sweet Water in the book but looks like there is also place called Sweet Water in Nebraska). It is story of the downfall of the town- the local elites losing it to the national big guns- the advent of capitalism. It is also the story of Marian Forrester, while she does seem lost after her husband's death, is she really "a lost lady"? Neil Herbert, the narrator, grows up loving Mrs. Forrester- most of all he admires her loyalty to her husband.

" Mrs. Forrester was the only woman he knew who wore earrings of which, they hung naturally against her thin, triangular cheeks"- says Neil in the book.

But as time passes by, he realizes that Mrs.Forrester was having an affair with Frank Ellinger and that she was not what he had imagined- she was a survivor!

"It was what he most held against Mrs Forrester: that she was not willing to immolate herself, like a widow of all these great men, and die with the pioneer period to which she belonged; that she preferred life on any terms. In the end, Niel went away without bidding her goodbye. He went away with weary contempt for her in his heart"

You can begin to wonder at the end- who was lost?

Judgement: Thumbs up for this novella and double thumbs up for Cather!

PS- You can check this or this to learn more about the author. Interestingly one of Fitzgerald's character in Great Gatsby is said to resemble Cather's lost lady!

Savithiri Satyavan

2010-03-29T09:15:00.001-04:00

... well Satyavan is her husband's name. In South India, Savithiri's successful endeavor of bringing her Satyavan back from Yama's grip is celebrated as Karadayan Nonbu. Apparently she knew she was going to die young, yet she marries him. We celebrate this festival for the husbands or husbands-to-be, womenfolk fast the entire day and break their fast with the delectable adais/cakes.

Agreed this mythological character was devoted to her husband and as the story goes her devotion (पति वृथा ) is what brought him back to life. Okay but there is more to her than just a dutiful, unfaltering wife. She was a STRONG, CLEVER and WITTY woman. Should'nt we be celebrating her for just THAT?

Image from Omaha Habitat

May be more of her story might make it clear to you as to why she should also be celebrated (see, I am being generous- I said "also").

Anyway-

Savithiri born to King Ashwapathi, decided to find a husband for herself (1). Her search leads her to a forest where she meets Satyavan, son of Dyumatsen, a king who had lost everything. Even though Satyavan had only another year to live, Savithiri married him (2). She lived in the forest with her husband and his parents. The day that Satyavan was presumably going to die, Savithiri went along with her husband to chop wood. She decided to go without food that day. Yama, Lord of Death, finally descends in the evening and takes Satyavan with him. Savithiri follows them- Yama tells her that she cannot follow beyond a certain point.
Depending on where you hear the story, Yama grants either one or three boons to Savithiri. Nevertheless, Yama blesses her with children and Savithiri says "Oh dear lord, you blessed me with children but how can I have them if you take my husband with you"- Yama pleased by her devotion and wit grants Satyavan his life back (3).

There you have it

(1) She was confident enough to make her own decisions. PARENTS TAKE NOTE!
(2) She was gutsy and she decided to be responsible for her actions
(3) She was smart, clever and witty

Without her Satyavan would have been long gone! So are these good enough for us to celebrate this festival in HER name?! Just asking...

I have so many complaints...

2010-03-14T17:02:00.000-04:00

... that I could

Image source: here

....right NOW!!

That is right, you heard me. I have too many issues with people around me and I complain too much. I wonder "is it me?" or "is there really something worth further investigation?"- and the answer is: a bit of both! What can a girl do people?!

I don't know may be this is some kind of a strange mid-life crisis- but I thought it was the disease of middle aged men that makes them go crazy. I am a woman and I am not even MIDDLE AGED!

Oh whatever!

You can read more about women's midlife crisis here.

English, August

2010-02-23T19:28:00.000-05:00

Judgement: Must read

A book by Upamanyu Chatterjee

The book is a satire about Indian civil services, especially the people who are just starting as IAS officers. While parts of this book are funny, there is a significant bit that is dark (you would enjoy this book even more if you knew about the depravity of the system). The protaganist is Agastya Sen aka Ugu aka August, the son of Governor of West Bengal (I think!) who lived mostly in cities New Delhi and Calcutta. He is being sent to Madna (a fictional town) to be trained as an Assistant collector. The book revolves around how Agastya manages to do just the same. The portrayal of small Indian villages/towns seems accurate and so is the description of a young Indian's dilemma (not just of those who work for the government). A very engaging book where I could even place people from own my life in the story and have a good laugh about it. The author has depicted Agastya's loneliness very sordidly (at least it was really upsetting to me- but I think it was intended to be satirical and funny) what with all the weed-smoking, masturbating and running by the tracks late in the nights. The other characters in the book are quite interesting- the drivers, the superintendents, the collectors and their wives, Agastya's own peers from other towns- I think without them the book would not have had a strong impact on me. The only part I did not like- when Agastya had to accompany a Mr. John Avery and his girlfriend Sita to the place where Avery's grandfather was killed by a tiger (did not see quite the connection with the entire story)

Overall I loved the book, one of those that made me laugh out loud...

The Silent Spirit(s)

2010-02-15T17:00:00.043-05:00

I know a woman. A woman with immense strength and character; a woman whose age is catching on to her. An unexpected call from home, each time, sends shivers down my spine and I hear myself saying "Please, oh my, please, let her be-I cannot let her go just yet".

I consider her the "Martha Stewart" of our family- be it the food she cooks (rather cooked, she cannot do much these days) that tickles ones tongue or an embroidery pattern that flutters ones heart. She does not stop there- she composes devotional songs, the words for which are straight out of her soul and she sings them too. She is a great singer by the way (I learned the little music I know from her). She is unarguably my biggest inspiration during my creative process. I do not think any of her children have her zeal for life (well they are all grown up now and they are different people!).

Dei sub numine viget (Under God's power she flourishes), this woman truly believes that her life would not have been possible but for the help she got throughout her life in various forms. I have not known another person who is forever thankful to God for sending help when she needed it the most.

"Some of the strong women from our family"

It was in 1927, she was brought to life into an intellectual clan in a village by name Mannargudi (in Tamil Nadu). I remember her making it a point to tell me (many times indeed) that she was the sixth child and being the sixth was considered unlucky. I am not sure if it is because she was born after 5 others or not but she definitely could have had a better life and she deserved one just the same.

Leaving a suspicious, jealous, abusive husband who lived off the proceeds from HER family should have been easy- but not in those days- the pressure that society put on women was enormous (it still is, is it not?). She got out of one hell hole only to fall prey to the hurtful things that people had to say about her situation. She kept at it though- got two master's degrees (regrets not having gotten two more), taught high school children and raised her own 4 children. There would days when all five of them would go hungry for months together. But in the end, the five of them came through it all just fine. She even published a book of her compositions.

She hardly ever used to complain about it before, but now with age, her weakened spirits and strength have paved way for self-pity and regrets from the past. She feels lonely, worthless and considers herself a burden on her children. She does know that I love her to death. To me what is very interesting- staying strong for so long (for her children mostly) and not letting her guard down (staying strong as a full time job impacts even the best of us) seems to have an impost on her. I can only imagine the state of one's mind when they go through rough patches constantly in their life, how unfortunate can it get. One can argue that there are people who have done worse, but it really does not give any hope. It breaks my heart when she hurts even a little- no one can hurt her anymore, I will not let them. She is now under my protective custody! So back off demons from her past... let her be, that is all she is asking of you.

Why this post now,

Violence, especially, against women and children, is pernicious. Several NGOs and government organizations are working toward putting an end to domestic violence around the world. Domestic violence was recognized only in 1983 as a criminal offense under Indian penal code section 498-A and a domestic violence act aimed at protecting women in a domestic set up was passed in 2005. It is shameful that even now about 70% of married women in India are victims of domestic violence. Women are still reluctant to report violence against them. Violence and abuse have a severe impact on the victim's mental health and their self-esteem takes a huge hit. International Women's day is fast approaching (the theme this year is equality)- please do whatever little you can, to spread awareness about victims groups and rights in place to help them through their ordeal.

PS: you can read more about domestic violence here and here.

Shut up...

2010-02-08T20:00:00.000-05:00

Photo source: The malaysian

Do you know the kind who use a lot of words to say something simple or the kind that use the entire breadth of their knowledge of English language to convey something that you still would not understand after they finish their sentences, yeah that kind (I am mostly irritated because they talk too much, their verbosity comes later). Most of the times, I feel like saying to them just shut up but when I have my generous moments I kind of pity them. It seems to be an obsession, a way of trying to prove their worth.

But wait- there might be actually a point to all this talking, says Susan Blackmore. Theories out there from a genetic perspective suggest that talking might soon be a lost cause as it seems to be a waste of energy. Others from an evolutionary standpoint suggest that we are stuck with it today because somehow the advent of language and therefore talking was extremely advantageous to out ancestors. But Susan in her article describes yet another possibility- the spreading of memes through talking (remember memes all ye' Dawkins readers out there). For those who have not read Selfish Genes- memes are essentially a unit of cultural transmission or imitation. Examples include catchy tunes, trendy styles and ideas. Say for example- my hopelessly pathetic book reviews can be at some level considered as spreading memes. I read it, I am telling you all about it and hopefully you will tell someone else about it...so on and so forth.

And as far as talking is concerned- think about our brain filled with ideas. These ideas will get transmitted only when you talk, the ideas that are easy to say and forces the host to say them (like celebrity scandals). So essentially you act as the host for the ideas that need to be heard, the "say-me" memes as Susan puts it in her article.

I want to leave you with what George Washington said-

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter house"

Not an optimist myself, yet I do hope the kind I described earlier would put talking to good use!

When we were Romans

2010-02-08T17:50:00.001-05:00

A book by Matthew Kneale.

Judgement: Must read

I sort of liked it, liked different aspects of the book- loved the narrator (Lawrence, a 9 year old boy) and the narration probably because I am biased (Scott of the To Kill a Mockingbird fame!), hated the spelling errors (may because as a kid I was good at spelling), loved the story and the interruptions about space and Roman emperors such as Caligula. Kudos to Mr. Kneale for doing a great job as a 9 year old narrator, I am sure it is hardly easy.

Lawrence, his sister Jemina and his mother Hannah drive to Rome in fear of the father. Lawrence tells us the story of what goes on in Rome. Only it is not just about that- the author has brought about the innocence, pettiness and frustrations of a 9- year old child. The interruptions I thought provided a firm footing in reality to Lawrence- something that was under his control. There seemed to be a transference effect when Lawrence seemed to sense what his mother felt- he seemed to take on her fears and believe them to be true. I wonder did Franseen ever tell the dad about Hannah and the kids in Rome?! And what about the sister, although a brat, she did seem to bring about quite a few turning points in the story- she does play a subtle yet an important role. I wish I could get into the author's head to understand why he chose to end it the way he did- although it did seem a bit extreme, I think it was a perfect to way to end that part of Lawrence's life story.

PS do not want to give away too much!

Men against Demand

2010-01-25T21:18:00.005-05:00

Something I was asked to write about recently, not sure if it will be of any use but I thought it is important to get the word out. Prajwala, if you all do not know, is an organization against human trafficking founded by Sunitha Krishnan. She is a woman of tremendous courage and will to do the right thing and I definitely feel honored to have been in touch with her at least via emails. They launched the campaign called Men against demand and this article conveys why that is important.

The drawing is a self-portrait by a 15 year old trafficking victim

Photo source: gtipphotos

I am not one of the survivors, I do not know any survivors but in my heart I know they are out there- I hear about them occasionally, I think about them very often and I wonder why, why does this happen at all? What are we doing wrong? We are doing something terribly wrong otherwise there would not be so many innocent human beings thrown out of their cocoons into a ghostly pit of human traffickers. Human trafficking is a modern day term for slavery. It describes the buying and selling of people, usually through coercion or fraudulence, by luring victims out of their homes and forcing them into slavery. Anywhere from 4 to 27 million people, mostly women and children, are trafficked each year. About 70% of the women are forced into the commercial sex industry while the rest are victims of forced labor, something that is quite prevalent in Asia. Interestingly, victims are never scarce- everyone of us is a potential victim. How does such an illegal trade thrive? It thrives because of the enormous demand, demand from a variety of sources that include brothel owners, clients of sex worker ad people like you and me who hire domestic help, adopt babies who have been stolen or kidnapped and buy mail-order brides.

Bhavani's marital bliss was not out of a fairy tale story. She got married to Amar when she was merely 12 years old only to realize that her husband had left her at a brothel on GB road in Delhi and that she was not his first, he had 12 other marriages (rather victims) that year alone. Her resistance was no match to the ordeals of starvation and beatings that her attackers put her through. After a week of struggle she had to relinquish her struggle. She served the clients for about 5 years during which she had numerous sexually transmitted diseases and underwent five abortions. Now a teenager at 17, she is HIV positive.

(Source: http://www.prajwalaindia.com/traficking.html)

Slavery comes in different forms and for Mimin, the nightmare began when she landed in LA for a job as a housekeeper with a wealthy family (she left Indonesia at the age of 17). The family confiscated her passport and threatened her arrests and rapes if she ever left the house. For seven years without pay, Mimin endured the torments and kept at her job as a housekeeper, when she finally found the courage to set herself free.

(Source: http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_867_Enslaved_In_LA.mp3/view)

Recent study conducted by the International Labor Organization in five Asian countries, has shown that most clients who buy sexual services are men, 15-40 years old and from all walks of life. Despite the fact that the number of male victims is on the rise, it is hard to deny the fact that men also play a huge role in the demand side of human trafficking. While many organizations fighting against human trafficking work to prevent or abolish human trafficking, rescue victims from the traffickers and provide a new lease of life to the victims, they pay much less attention to the demand aspect of this whole trade.

It is just as important to fight the demand-side of human trafficking as it is to fight traffickers themselves. Therefore, it is important for men to understand that they have a huge role to play in preventing and may be someday abolishing human trafficking. Men must be educated and made aware of the toll human trafficking takes, not just on individual victims but on the society as a whole. Women and men must join forces to prevent desecration of the sanctity of an individual's right to live.

Gandhiji said "you must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty", let us, men and women, act fast, act now before the victims of illegal trafficking, the many Bhavanis, Mimins, Gurungs and Theresas, stop believing in the existence of humanity, stop believing that there are people who care about them and who would not rest without putting an end to human trafficking.

Parent trap

2010-01-20T22:24:00.007-05:00

They are never boring- my conversations with my mom, that is of course when we are not fighting (well we do not fight much over telephone, only friendly arguments!). They get particularly predictable when I tell her that I would be taking off for the weekend, usually travelling to another city/state/country (Well that last one has not happened much!).

(Photo source: wikitravel)

Me: Ma, I am going out of town this weekend, will be back Monday

Ma: Why my dear, why do you want to spend so much? (In Tamil- ஏன் டா இப்படி செலவு செய்யறே?)

Me: Ma, money is meant to be spent, it is not something that will stay forever

Ma: I know da, but still,

and so our wrangles continue...

I guess I should not tell her that I am planning on a trip that would involve most of my savings and a lot more of my time... shhh!

So there you have it- my parents seem unarguably protective of their finances, they are not miserly (not by any stretch of imagination, well may be a little but I know where that stems from...)- but when it comes to travel, they think it is usually a waste of money and that it should be done as scarcely as possible. Well on why travel is not important (their views not mine, hell not mine at all!)- a. we spend on things that are absolutely essential, b. we help people (family and friends alike) in their times of financial crisis and therefore we cannot afford to be spending on travel, c. we have been in deep financial troubles and hence we know the value of money (in fact this used to be their favourite argument, not anymore), yada yada yada. Oh, I almost forgot-d. these days it is usually we just like to stay put in one place, e. we do not crave journeys to the neverland anymore (Its not just one aspect, is it?!). Imagine if all of the above said arguments are used in one conversation...

There are two things that are interest me here
1. the sense that travelling somehow is akin to the crash of wall street and the feeling that nothing good comes by going around the country or the world (well it is just a vacation, what is the big deal) and 2. try not to spend money on anything other than the most important, well then that leaves us with just food and shelter, does'nt it? (God knows the clothes I have now would last me my lifetime!).

Now, I am curious- are my parents stereotypes, in that, do most people of the older generation feel that way, is it an Indian thing (pardon the lack of words here)- are they too busy or lazy to bother with travelling? Are they so protective of money- saving money is one thing but hey, not splurging once in a while on YOURSELF has got to be bad for the soul, right?

From where I stand, the standard sort of vacationing in an exotic city or a country does not excite me as much as going to a place to spend a considerable time in a place, learning about its people and their favourite haunts, their culture, history, a bit of their language, some of their cuisine, more of this and more of that- something like an anthropologist might do, you know. That is what is fun to me and I hope I can do it sooner than later- have a humble beginning, may be in India first. While I have been toying with this idea for a mere 3 years now, something unknown stops me executing it (my thought on why- I am too afraid that I would not be able to get a job if I quit and go on my little knowledge expedition!).

My parents, well they just have to wait, watch and learn... :D

Velazquez, Madrid, Venice...

2010-01-11T21:11:00.001-05:00

I normally stay away from recent publications and authors I have not read before (well, there is no particular reason, but I do prefer classics). But this book by Michael Gruber, the one I picked up at the library last week, is not all that bad. A novel of suspense, while I did enjoy the suspense part, I had no clue when the author was describing old masters such as Diego Velazquez (before this book, I did not even know he was great painter from the 1650s) or the museums and art gallery scenes in exotic places like Venice, Italy and Spain. What a shame! Towards the end I did get quite confused when Chaz Wilmot would travel back in time and see himself as Velaquez (he even paints the Rokeby Venus as Velaquez, so I am not sure one can call that forgery, or can they?). I kind of rushed through those time travelling episodes to get to the "so-whatever-happens-in-the-end" part. The ending though to me was not super-impressive, may be because I rushed through those pages! But overall it is a decent book and am sure an art lover can relate to it better than me.

PS: Click on the link below to check the book out on amazon
The Forgery of Venus: A Novel

Broccoli and other tales of food and love

2010-01-10T16:48:00.002-05:00

Yes, yes I finally made it to the book club this month- the first one for this year. The book that we read for this month is by Lara Vapnyar- Broccoli and other tales of food and love.

Whether it is broccoli in the third shelf of Nina's refrigerator or a bag (or 10) of puffed rice for which Katya and Vera stood in line, Lara Vapnyar's subtleties about immigrant life impressed me. The simplicity of her choice of words was amazing- while she did not say everything, she did manage to convey the story with as little as words possible. In one members' words the stories in this book seemed economical. While reading this book, one realizes that the men in her stories are losers and it is the women who play a central role. My own reaction when I read the first couple of pages of "Broccoli in the third shelf"- "wow, I could be Nina (a "vegetable lover" as her husband introduced her to his friends)- I love to buy veggies when sometimes I actually don't end up using them. It was interesting for me to hear about the priors some members, who either grew up in Europe or who stayed in Eastern European countries, had about Russians in general. Another thing that struck me was the bluntness of Lara's characters, as one member put it-" they seemed like prickly people".

This book is a compilation of short stories about Russian immigrants, Lara Vapnyar, herself came to the US when she was 23 years old. She hardly knew any English then. And now she writes only in English. You can read more about her and this book here.

Overall I really liked this book and my personal favourites were "Puffed rice and meatballs" and "Slicing sauteed spinach". It is a definitely a good way to start the year with just the right amount of food mixed with love!

Reminisce

2009-12-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

यादों का साथ छोड़ भी नहीं सकते
यादों को मिटा भी नहीं सकते
इन यादों का भी क्या कहना,
कम्बक्त पीछा नहीं छोड़ते।

Think of all those good and bad memories and just before you leave this year to take on the new one, spend a few quiet moments to learn from them. Learn from them to make yours' and others' lives better.

Have you watched CNN lately?

2009-12-16T18:00:00.001-05:00

I am not a CNN-watcher, in fact I hate them-I think they do a poor job of news reporting. They borrow most of their stuff from you tube anyway so why bother with CNN. Anyway that is not what this post is about- recently on one of rare CNN watching sessions (might I add that such sessions last hardly a minute or two), there was this advert. An advert about "Made in China" products, promoting that Made in China actually means Made with China (don't worry even if they take over the world, they would do it politely, placing adverts first!)
So here it goes, watch the video here (I do think that this advert is well made, if only it were an ad for something else I like)

And yeah you guessed it right, the Chinese Government paid for it, and the ads first came out on CNN-Asia (that was not long ago actually). You can read about it here or here.

Well played Beijing, spending millions to make sure your low-quality products are out of your hands and into the consumers'

Do you bond?

2009-12-07T22:50:00.003-05:00

Want people to trust you more or want to make an impression on your first date- try this!

This picture is from here

For someone like me who is in love with the subject of social bonding but not have had the time to stay up to date with it, this seminar was perfect.

Larry Young started his seminar with an introduction to monogamy. Did you know that while ~90% of bird species are monogamous, less than 5% of mammals exhibit monogamy? Anyway his talk focused on molecules oxytocin and vasopressin. They are both hormones and neurotransmitters. If you do not already know, oxytocin is a key hormone in stimlating milk ejection when a baby feeds and stimulating uterine contractions during birth. While these aspects of oxytocin have been quite well characterized, recently it has been shown to be involved in establishing maternal instincts and pair bonding nature (Larry Young studies the neurobiology of pair bonding in prairie voles).

I thought he made an interesting evolutionary correlation by suggesting that in females pair bonding is an extension or adaptation of the maternal instincts while in males it is more an adaptation of territorial behaviour that is controlled by vasopressin, a hormone that is very similar to oxytocin. Males have more of vasopressin which is associated with their territorial and aggressive behaviours. If you paid attention in your high school biology class, you would know vasopressin as the antidiuretic hormone (ADH).

He showed data to support his argument- basically in prairie vole females that bond there is more oxytocin and in males there is more vasopressin. There are all correlative confirmations. An interesting conclusion comes from a study where they made mice which lacked oxytocin and showed that these mice suffer from something that is known as "social amnesia". David Adam has this to say about that study in Nature News-

"Love is chemical and so, it seems, is remembering it. Male mice missing certain brain proteins cannot recall which females they have had sex with. The forgetful fellas can blame this unfortunate amnesia on their DNA: a missing gene means their 'social' memory fails them."

Yet another interesting paper by Kosfeld and others, suggests that oxytocin plays a role in trust in humans, I know it just gets better and better. They put their subjects in to two groups- investor and trustee, basically a financial situation. The subjects were either sprayed with oxytocin or a placebo. Below is a part of their abstract (their work was published in Nature, 2005)

"Trust pervades human societies. Trust is indispensable in friendship, love, families and organizations, and plays a key role in economic exchange and politics. In the absence of trust among trading partners, market transactions break down. In the absence of trust in a country's institutions and leaders, political legitimacy breaks down. Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic, political and social success. Little is known, however, about the biological basis of trust among humans. Here we show that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions."

I liked Young's talk for one more reason- he was FUNNY!

Having commitment issues, trust issues- the be-it-all-have-it-all hormone might be your way to go.

Better yet banking folks should spray us all with it, may be then we would begin to trust the world financial institutions better! Well a few companies (check the link from the first sentence of this post) have already capitalized on it- a typical capitalistic attitude- BEWARE! Remember it definitely is not the know-all-end-all of this issue, if you wait just a few more years there might be a super-enhanced version of "Liquid Trust" for y'all to try!

Thanksgiving Holiday on I-95

2009-12-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

This Thanksgiving holiday was fun in its own way. Thursday night after a party a friend's place, the wise guy and I decided to take a trip down south. We left that night, stayed at West Haven for the night and reached New Jersey the next morning (of course I must say we started with getting lost- the wise guy could not remember his way out of Boston!). We had great food cooked by the friend's wife in Jew Jersey. We ended with some shopping. Well $100 bucks is all we spent, so we certainly did not become a statistic for black friday shopping! The next morning we left for Delaware to see the little one, we left around 11AM. And this is where our adventure starts with all traffic stopped for about 2 hrs on I-95 about 30 minutes from the Delaware bridge. It was an adventure because I had never before seen people taking a stroll on I-95, not just them- some even took their dogs out for a walk. There was a family playing ball and a couple romancing ahead of us. There were men who could not control their urge and that is definitely a first in this country! I think pictures speak a thousand words, don't they?

Check the north bound route guys, how annoying is it to see others just whiz past you!

I had fun until we started to move and go past the reason for our delay- a completely charred trailer, I think it would be a feat if the driver of that truck managed to survive this crash,...you can read more about the crash here.

Wait, it did not stop there- once we were past the accident, we breezed through to the friend's place. We reached their community and then called them to ask for their house number- guess what neither the husband nor the wife picked up their phones. Okay, so what should we do? we decided to eat (such long delays and empty stomach does not bode well at all with me!)- okay eat where? this place seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully someone actually had their shop open. Believe me when I say a grilled cheese sandwich had not tasted so good ever before. But thankfully once we were done with our sammies, we were able to get hold of the friends and got to see the little ones (friends' son and the brother's daughter)!

We only stayed for an hour or so, we had to leave for Philadelphia to meet another friend. We reached Philadelphia in an easy-breezy-45minutes. We stayed overnight at her place. A good night's rest made only a slight difference for our what seemed like eternal drive back to Boston!

In the end it was all good because we did get to meet so our friends. Well I am back in Boston and back in action again!

A cool crisp morning

2009-11-19T18:10:00.000-05:00

I love such mornings- I walk out the door expecting it to be cold and freezing (it is November already!), but lo and behold- it was a beautiful cool crisp morning. It was very refreshing and I felt awake the moment the cool breeze hit my moisturizer-laden face! It brought back memories of my time in Delhi, it used to be fun getting into a crisp white shirt (crisp as how this morning seemed) and a green skirt accessorized with a tie, a half-sweater and what then seemed like a beautiful green blazer/ woolen coat. It also took me back to Pilani where while summers were dreadful (I would even skip classes to stay indoors), the winters were just absolutely forgiving. It was fun when you could not see what was just a few yards away in front of you while you were riding your bicycle because a severe fog had rolled in that morning. Occasionally, I even rode the bicycle with my book open, as a last ditch effort at cramming for an 8'o clock exam.
Anyway it already feels like Friday today, I don't know why but it beats me that tomorrow I have to get to work but hey may be it will be just as pretty it was this morning!

Farmville- a quest

2009-11-14T22:48:00.000-05:00

Farmville- seems like everyone is doing it! Since I have not even a faintest idea as to why someone would want to play this game or what turns them on when it comes to this game, I decided to do a bit of digging. An important mission, might I add, to restore my sanity. Thankfully NPR had a short segment on it today, that helped and then of course this is why the wide world of the internet exists!
For one, Farmville is THE most popular game on FB with nearly 63 million users (what is it with this game!). One basically manages a virtual farm is all- plant, grow, harvest that kind of thing . May be if these 63 million users did some of their own actual farming instead of spending time playing a game...
Quite interestingly- the games comes free of charge but you do have to use REAL money in order to buy more land and large equipment like tractors (tractors cost 20 bucks a pop). Apparently the creator of this game (and a few others on FB), Mark Pincus has been raking profits even amidst these tough times (yeah, go figure...).
Well as for me, I do not think I can spend any more of my time ducking in a virtual world (I personally feel that I spend too much time on the internet!). So Farmville or any other ville avatars- good luck and beware of the black sheep.

Chennai mazhai

2009-11-12T18:09:00.003-05:00

My mom has been growing her own betel leaves (she loves them like they are her own).

Rain beautiful rain in Chennai- you know what I love about it most and what I wish I could photograph- மண் வாசனை, I remember when I was a little girl (actually even now..) I constantly pester my mom to make me something that smelled like the earth just before it rains!

Criminal wastage of precious rain water in Chennai- people are not concerned about it nor do they care (well neither does the Govt., useless TN government).

These are my grandma's favorite flowers (it has been her favorite for the longest time now), I forget what they are called (she has a name for it). Since they are patti's favorite they are my favorite too! Look at how luscious it is, oh the bright green and the pink flowers...

Give me blue...

2009-10-21T18:03:00.000-04:00

A time will come when no one will want the red ones anymore- check this out

Half of a Yellow Sun

2009-10-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

A book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The book is the second book I think by this author, her first one called Purple Hibiscus (which I have not laid my hands on yet) won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. The story narrated by 13-year old Ugwu (houseboy of an ambitious professor, Odenigbo) is set during the Biafran war. The story is about love, war, ambitions and hopes. Every character has a role to play in the book- the twin sisters Olanna and Kainene, their lives with Odenigbo and Richard respectively, Ugwu and his various escapades into his fantasies, the sisters' parents, Odenigbo's mother and his diverse group of friends, every single one of them are important in the book and I love this about the book.
While there is nothing pleasant about the Biafran War (or any war for that matter), the author has brought out not just the unpleasantness of the war but has also been able to describe the complicated lives of her characters both prior to and during the war very beautifully. In fact at one point I thought I was one of her characters (something I felt when I read Atwood's book), Ugwu's narration seemed matter-of-factly (yet unarguably powerful), seemed like you belonged in the scene with him.

A bit about the War

Biafra was an unrecognized secessionist state that existed between the years 1967-1970 (the country dominated by the Igbos separated from Nigeria a few years after its independence from the English). While early on the Biafran army did make some progress, the Nigerian army struck back more powerfully and their key strategy was to close down key routes. This led to starvation and hence numerous deaths, and as with most other wars children were the worst affected.
You can read a lot of stuff online- just google either about the war or its effects. NY times had an article on the conditions in Nigeria 20 years after the war and BBC had this to say 30 years after the war (they seem to have interviewed Chief Ojukwu, the head of the Eastern region of Nigeria, who in 1967 declared the Republic of Biafra).

To me the most striking thing from the book is when Ugwu writes about Starvation in his own book, it brings out those tears!

Who are Jon and Kate

2009-10-02T17:00:00.001-04:00

or now should I ask who is Kate? It has been bothering me ever since the news media has been hijacked by Jon and Kate- and I ask to myself who are these people and what are they so famous for? Initially my reaction was "Of course, these were celebrity Hollywood couple that I had never heard of"- makes sense right. No, it does not, these are just some random couple who had 8 children through artificial insemination procedures and that is the reason they are famous- they are parents of 8 children and for reasons known only to them they decided to let the cameras into their daily lives!
Initially their show aired on Discovery health and now their show is one highest rated shows on TLC. Now that raises the question- who on earth watches a family take of their children? Surely my mother would not have wanted anyone watching her raise her children (sorry ma, but am sure some of her terror tactics would have led to boos from people). Apparently these guys give tips on raising 8 children and I guess since they have that many they automatically become the best at their jobs!
I really loved this article on American spectator about this show, talking about how hard it is to stay away from such these shows. Two days ago I had no clue about who these people were and now I am in their lives too. I can proudly share with you these few facts- Jon and Kate are separated, Jon has been dropped from the show and Kate is set to air another show next year. In all this melee there is never a talk about the 8 children, I guess there were just means to fame.

PS I was just kidding about me in their lives people, I could not bring myself to even try watching it! And the other thing that annoys me- Larry King interviewed Kate, why on earth, I wonder?!

The Blind Assassin- a review

2009-09-22T18:51:00.000-04:00

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood- I would definitely call it a masterpiece. My only issue with the book- I did not totally enjoy the Sci-fi part (the novel within the novel). The book is masterfully written, the characters are gradually developed- Iris and Laura Chase, their pathetic father (one of the characters I did not like), Richard Griffen and his sister Winifred (the evil ones- I consider them both to be equally bad!), and the darling Reenie. To me the most elusive yet interesting character was that of Laura Chase and actually to an extent Iris Chase, who is the narrator. Iris Chase is married to Richard Griffen and in the book she is putting her memories down on paper for her granddaughter Sabrina (who she has not seen in ages) to read.
Atwood made sure that her readers do no put the book down until they finish. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something beautiful, her words can capture your heart and mind (My eyes even swelled up once or twice during the read).
I leave you with some of her words from the book (various parts of the book)

“What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams. We deny them an existence of their own, we make them up to suit ourselves — our own hungers, our own wishes, our own deficiencies. Now that I’ve been one myself, I know”

“A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water.”

"Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring."

Enjoy!!

A tale of YIM 2009, Boston

2009-09-17T18:37:00.000-04:00

YIM or otherwise known as young investigator meet (this is the second such meeting, first one was held earlier this year in SFO) provides a setting for young investigators (mainly postdocs) working in the US to meet and greet the faculty members from a variety of institutes (mostly biology related) in India. This meeting was essentially to talk to people about the new initiatives that are being undertaken on behalf of the Govt of India to further the scientific agenda (sort of put India on science road map, at least in terms of life science research). One of the main initiative is described here and Martha Gray was one of the organizers of the meet organized this past weekend in Boston. The meeting started with open session of Friday (afternoon) and there were closed sessions held on Saturday and Sunday.
At the open session, the faculty members from India gave brief introductions to "what and how things are changing" nothing so elaborate of course and then people could ask questions. There were a variety of questions ranging from reservation issues when it comes to faculty hiring to the application forms that need to be sent via the snail-mail!
The next day began the closed sessions, for which one had to be selected (I was an observer, please do not ask me what it means, I guess I was supposed to observe). Now here is where I have issues (not all negative I assure you). I will try my best to enumerate them and of course keep this civil. Oh if you want only/mostly positive feedback, you can check the facebook page. I must also tell you that I do appreciate every bit of effort that has gone into the organization of this event- however

1. Two things that struck me- one, there were only 3 or 4 women speakers out of a total of 22 (does this mean many women candidates did not apply, I applied and I was chosen to be an observer!) and two, some of the speakers were either directly or indirectly connected to one of the organizers (Happens everywhere, so why not!)

2. There was no mention of the students who will actually be doing the work- how are they selected, how many students does a PI get, how good are the students in general, how motivated are they and how much effort do they normally put in (I have seen some of the best and the worst students, trust me it is important!)

3. While it might be hard to recruit someone in just two days, it sure looked like a recruitment fair to me (that is fair, am not complaining about it- just wanted to point it out). It did annoy me somewhat especially because I did not know what the hell I was doing there- I was not talking which meant I could not showcase what I have done or been doing. I felt like I sat there "observing" how other people got recruited!! But I must add a word of caution- I am of the shy type and would not venture into "networking" mode ever unless I know the person (in which case I am not sure if it can be called networking at all and I am sure I am going to lose out on opportunities on account of this)

4. I would have liked to hear the faculty present their work before everyone else (to get an idea of how well they are doing) but they did give talks on Sunday for which I could not go as I was sick!!

5. Of the 8 talks I attended on Saturday, I liked may be one (I thought they were not good talks, could have been much better). What irritated me even more was the fact that no one had the appropriate number of slides for a 10-min presentation (may be one guy did)!

6. They kept talking about change and being a part of that change and making a difference and all, but my question is- as the newest member of the institution, how can I bring about any change or difference, why would the underdogs listen to someone junior (hierarchy still exists, does'nt it?), in fact much junior to them? And Satyajith Rath put it- you should join not because you want to make a difference but because you think it is something comparable to other top institutes from which you might get an offer. While I agree for the most part- they are two different career goals at least initially, so that statement is something to think about and is something that might influence peoples' decisions.

7. Some of the seemingly interesting panels could have been held during the open sessions -like the panel on "setting up a lab"

8. It was not totally clear as to what the selection process was for the closed sessions- there were quite a few of the speakers who already seemed to have established some sort of contacts with the Indian faculty.

9. I still do not understand why I was chosen and chosen as an observer!!

One thing , actually two things you could not miss- everyone seemed enthusiastic about the whole thing which was nice and there seems to be a ton of money, which is super-nice!!

This is scary

2009-09-14T20:40:00.002-04:00

Did you see this on BBC, quite scary work on shower heads. Stop showering, what could be next?!
On another note, Federer lost US open!

The Congress booed....

2009-09-09T20:42:00.007-04:00

Did you all hear that- the Congress booed when Mr. Obama said that the health reform bill does not extend to illegal immigrants. Nancy Pelosi seemed to give an expression of "WTF is going on?"! (I want to say to the booers "Smile, you are on national television!!!")
The President kept harping on the fact that nothing would change for people who are happy with their coverage, that a public option will keep the competition healthy and so on. He has made a lot of promises- he said that he would not sign a bill that "adds even one dime to the deficit". But I wonder where the money is going to come from- curbing the wastage in the existing health care system is what he proposes (he would have mentioned this at least thrice in his speech). He did touch upon the much needed (I think!) malpractice reform, doctors should not withheld care because of they are scared they might be sued!
I agree that the system needs to change, I also wonder as to how far ahead into future can you predict things. At this point any bill would be better than nothing and would definitely be a huge step up!! Just do it folks...

PS He never once denied the-pulling-the-plug-on-grandma bit! I am sure Sarah Palin would do that bit for him though.

wannabe consultant, anyone?

2009-08-21T12:31:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I went for this interesting presentation from McKinsey and Co. organized by the postdoctoral affairs office. I was totally blown away by the fact that Biology PhD's like me need not rule out a shot at consultancy. Pretty cool eh! In fact the guy who gave the presentation (Associate whoever, cannot remember his title but he is one step closer to being a partner) used to be a postdoc in a stem cell lab right here at Harvard. Well I just wanted to put it out there for everyone else that there is this option of working as a consultant for Mckinsey. Apparently you would be called an APD consultant (which means you have an advanced professional degree) and you join as an associate. You go through an interview process and if you do get in you go through a mini MBA program for about 3 weeks at some fancy resort somewhere in Australia!
So that is it... check it out may be one of you might be interested.

Just one more reason to legalize

2009-08-13T16:50:00.000-04:00

....well legalize pot folks! Check this article here in BBC that talks about the effects of cannabis on bones (very preliminary findings, might I add). I must admit that I am not sure still as to where my loyalties lie in this issue. But for now I think I will keep taking my calcium supplements that in turn will hopefully control my urge for some good pot....oh yeah!
If you want to know more about this - check here.

Three cups of tea- a lone man on a mission

2009-08-08T14:17:00.000-04:00

Three cups of tea is about a larger than life man who went about building schools across various parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Reading this book about Greg Mortenson has been very inspirational- a lone man with a lot of will can pretty much do anything otherwise how could it be possible that someone who goes to climb K2 ends up building schools in the remote parts of "forbidden" lands! The very first project he completed was out of sheer will and goodwill of a few people, especially Dr.Hoerni, was a bridge to the village by name Korphe (a village in the Balti mountains). The book also describes the trust, loyalty, respect and friendship that Greg shared with the Korphe village chief and many other such tribal leaders. His journey from the climb to the creation of Central Asia Institute is all in that book.

So if you are looking for some inspiration, read this book!

Steinbeck mania

2009-07-31T15:19:00.004-04:00

"It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth"- John Steinbeck

I do not know why but I have this burning desire to read Steinbeck's Grapes of wrath or may be Of mice and men again, what can I say!

STORIES OLD AND NEW- 2

2009-07-30T18:00:00.000-04:00

कथा, नई और पुरानी -२
She landed in Delhi from a far away land as a naive confused little child. The first of day of school was terrifying- she had to fit in, she had to make friends, there was so much to do. She was just a little girl. All her worries faded the moment he met her, the moment he took her hand and showed her around the school. We would be together forever, she thought. Soon he was her best friend. They laughed together, ate together and much to the dismay of his mother, he would always spend time with her at her house. One day much to their chagrin, her mother announced that a move to a new place was in order (you know one of those government agencies that keep transferring their employees once every few years). She was heart-broken and furious. She could not feel anything any more, she felt like her world came crumbling down on her and now rested on her little shoulders. What would she do without him- her best friend? They won't be together forever afterall, she would muse to herself. She pleaded with her mother, teary-eyed, she would say- "ma, let us not move, let us just be here", "what about my friend?", "how can I live without him?", "माँ, क्या उसको भी ले जायेंगे अपने साथ?". She knew they had to go, that she would have to leave him and go- but she was just a little girl, she was not supposed to bear separations like these. Yes indeed-they did move to a new place, and after many such moves, she let go of him or at least she thought she did. She did not write to him, she did not talk to him- he was gone from her life. It did sadden her the first few years but it is amazing what time can do- she had grown into a beautiful young teenager and she now had other "best" friends in her life. I am sure somewhere deep in her heart, he was still present. Otherwise she would not have recognized him at the park, she would not have frozen in time- he approached her rather quickly, so quickly that she could not get a hold of herself, so quickly that she let out a gasp and tears started flowing down those cheeks bringing down all the make-up, the make-up that her best friends had taken so long to adorn her face with.

Miracles, do you say

2009-07-29T18:00:00.002-04:00

She stood there alone in the meadow amidst the wild flowers that were in full bloom. She seemed pensive, the flowers did not cheer her as they normally do. "What should she do?"- that was the one question she kept asking herself. She loved them both dearly and wanted to be with both of them. But the time has finally come, the time to choose one and only one. How did it happen so quickly? The questions outnumbered any answers she could come up with. She has taken to the much trodden path of trading reality for something as exquisite as being in a meadow pregnant with colorful blooms. As though somehow being there would miraculously help her decide. The day went by and she simply stared. The day was drawing to a close, she had to head back home just as the birds were returning to their nests. She took one good look at the sun going down and gasped- she now knew exactly which one it was going to be...

How can I forget about Potter movie

2009-07-19T20:35:00.001-04:00

Yes yes....thanks to O & I at Harvard, a lot of us got to watch the movie even before it got released!!! Yippee....
I really liked the movie despite missing a few important and interesting things from the 6th book. Ron was quite funny, and as usual my favorite Hermoine did not disappoint me! I am so glad I saw it..and loved it too!!

What about free speech?

2009-07-16T16:00:00.000-04:00

So a leader (Rita Bhaguni of Congress) issued such a statement about rape compensation policy in Uttar Pradesh (the great Mayawati's government!)
"She said rape victims should offer to compensate state chief minister Mayawati were she ever raped herself."
Her house was burnt down apparently and she was arrested-
for what
"charged specifically with making provocative statements creating "disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will" between people of different castes or communities."
Oh my GOD!!!!! Are you kidding me- how did this take a casteist twist? Is there anything in India that will not boil down to caste (well when the irresponsible crooks called politicians can castify education, they can do anything?) I mean she said something (stupid or not), her house got burnt and she GETS arrested. What about the thing called freedom of speech or don't we have any of those any more in our land?
How are we ever going to get better as a nation if we pin everything to religion and caste?

PS I sincerely wish there would be some day when men and women forget the existence of religions and caste. May be we could mass-erase the 6 billion (and counting...) memories of religion on this earth...!

this is really absurd

2009-07-14T13:27:00.004-04:00

This is a bit of totally unsupported theory (this is excessive even for me who does not question the existence of media conspiracies!). This was a rediff article/slideshow (slash whatever!)

"Why India is an ideal target for the Chinese

To offset this adverse scenario, while overtly pretending to side with the West, the Chinese covertly ordered their other proxy, North Korea, to test underground nuclear explosion and carry out trials of missiles that threaten Japan and South Korea."

While the comments seem nonsensical, no one seems to be bothered about this allegation about China covertly ordering N.Korea, I mean there is no basis for this piece of news Rediff article writer!!! Agreed there is a lot going on between the two countries for one China is the major food supplier to N.Korea but still if you are writing a piece of article for media that millions are going to read you should at least get your facts right or the very least- put a warning saying "not all that is written is true, some may be theories or hypotheses!"

July 4th

2009-07-11T12:06:00.004-04:00

July 4th was mostly a usual day except for two things- I did not have much work in the lab and we watched the fireworks from the roof terrace of a friend's apartment. That day I lost any hope at all of Boston getting warmer. It was freezing that night (pretty cold and windy!) Come on it is July, should we be sweltering around this time of the year.
Well that aside I do make hoo-hahs about fireworks, how many of those have I seen during Diwali!! But it was nice to get some good pictures which I did not take by the way- Ashok did!

Allegations....

2009-07-08T21:26:00.004-04:00

This was on Nature medicine recent issue

Nature Medicine 15, 723 (2009)

Indian universities face misconduct allegations

Killugudi Jayaraman

A report by the Times of India newspaper alleging that admissions to medical school might have been sold for money at two private institutions has stirred controversy in India. The newspaper has said it caught officials on tape demanding as much as Rs 4 million ($80,000) for admission to medical degree programs without providing receipts.

In the wake of these allegations, the country's education ministry has ordered an official probe into the claims. The two institutions, Sri Ramachandra University and Sree Balaji Medical College, affiliated with Bharat University—both in the south Indian state of Tamilnadu—risk derecognition if found guilty, education ministry spokesperson Mamta Verma told Nature Medicine.

Dayanand Dongaonkar, secretary general of the Association of Indian Universities in New Delhi is waiting for the outcome of the probe, saying that "we will decide about what action to take on our members once the government investigation is over."

Ramachandra University's vice chancellor S. Rangaswami did not reply to request for comments. The university has an ongoing research alliance with Harvard University in the US.

"We have been in contact with the leadership of Sri Ramachandra University, with which we have a professional services agreement, and have expressed our wish to see the matter resolved in appropriate fashion," says Chris Railey, director of communications and marketing for Partners Harvard Medical International.

Balaji College, the newspaper found from the college's website, was chaired by S. Jagathrakshakan, a junior minister in the government.

But after the exposé his name reportedly disappeared from the website. Nature Medicine was unable to reach S. Jagathrakshakan for comment.

The admission scam has prompted the education ministry to review the functioning of 123 universities, including 55 medical colleges that obtained the 'deemed status' in last five years."

I do not believe that this is the first time SRMC has done this. Back in the time when I was applying for a medical seat I was also asked to pay a sum. Now I really hope (I think it would probably remain one because such institutions are capable of doing what it takes to keep their name and remember money matters!) that these colleges lose their recognition not because they did not give me a seat (duh...) but because good education should not be borne out of corruption. Cannot believe Harvard has tie-ups with such universities but then how would they know about the internal goings-on.

Seemantham

2009-07-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

So this Sunday was my friend's சீமந்தம். The family had gone to the temple early in the morning to finish up the rituals after which they came back home. The womenfolk then adorned my pregnant friend with bangles (her choice of color of course and we get a set of bangles for ourselves too...yippee!!) after which was the much awaited FOOD.. which was delicious by the way (it was a mixture of home-made and minerva-made food).
But there are few interesting things about the whole ritual that was performed at the wee hours of dawn in the temple. Check this out, although here they do not clearly explain the importance of certain processes. I also found this piece here

"Seemantham is performed during the period between the fifth and the eighth months of pregnancy. The specific materials used during this Samskara, that are for the lady only, are, the quill of a porcupine, an ear of ripe paddy and some Udumbara leaves. Manthrams are intended to purify the foetus and to request Brahma, Agni, Raga (Rika), Vishnu, Soman and Ganga to protect it, to make the delivery smooth and to make the son intelligent. The main deity invoked is Raga or Rika, the presiding deity of the full-moon. The implications of the manthrams are: that the pregnancy should be fruitful; the child should be endowed with sharp and penetrating intellect (like the sharp quill of the porcupine). The child should be beautiful like the full-moon. The gist of the main mantra is: "I beseech the goddess Raga(Rika). May she make this ceremony blameless. May my son be endowed with sharp intellect." In some regions music is added. Also sometimes the ladies are asked to sing: "Be a mother of heroic sons" thus creating a heroic atmosphere. The mother fasts and keeps silent after the ceremony till night time when the stars become visible. At the close of the ceremony she touches a male calf, symbolizing a son. At the time of
pregnancy this is performed for the health and wealth of baby and also for normal delivery.
The unique aspects are parting of the hair, udagasanti, homam, valaigappu, and touching a male calf. The most important part is the udagasAnti. After the sactification of the jalam, the expectant mother is asked to bath in this
sanctified water to remove doshAs."

The thing that annoyed me- the mantras all seem to glorify male heirs. I thought mantras and shlokas were beyond gender and I have a huge amount of respect for these (I love chanting mantras- gives me immense peace)- well it just went down a notch, unless the interpretations from these websites are wrong and may be a Sanskrit scholar can clarify it!

wow..really

2009-07-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Check this piece of news!
I guess it must sad for the Shah's descendants especially during history lessons- I mean come on, the guy has money and power and these people are left with all but a tea stall in Calcutta. Pretty tough!!

That was one hell of a weekend

2009-06-30T17:09:00.002-04:00

The week ended somewhat like this-
Pack an entire apartment-Friday all day
Movers move our stuff to new place-Sat 8AM to almost noon
(bear in mind-no food was chowed down during these hours)
Quick burrito at Qdoba
Leave for old house- pick up camera bag and something else (already forgotten what it was- never mind!)
Leave for airport in the hope to catch the 2:30 flight to BWI, that will remain a hope for the next 6 hours (there have been huge delays for unexplained reasons)
Reach BWI around 9PM-eat and sleep
Wake up 6:30AM
Leave for rockville- attend the சீமந்தம் , eat all day
Leave for Greenbelt at 9:45PM
Sleep and leave for airport at 4:30AM
The adventure did not stop there- our flight at 6:30AM, left on time but in mid-air the pilot found a minor technical anomaly and brought us back to BWI. We finally landed at 11AM
Yeah BWI to Boston- almost 5 hours!!!

BOO HOO to the airline industry...

Go back in time

2009-06-16T10:15:00.002-04:00

I have this fantasy- I guarantee that it is an absurd one indeed. So I want to go back in time and live the Victorian life (may be pre-victorian, oh only about 300 years or so. Well if I can go back in time, I sure can live for 300 yrs). Well not just Victorian but the period between 17th and early 20th centuries right until after the second world war. Come on have you not read Austen, Dostoyevsky (both technically pre-victorian!), Dickens, Bronte sisters, Lewis Caroll, Virginia Woolf, Hemingway and many more great writers (by no means have I read all these authors). What strikes me most when I read these authors- gaiety and expanse of that era, the sheer etiquette and quiet strength adorned by the women (not to mention the beautiful gowns and the oh-so-horrendous corsets underneath), constantly pensive social reformers and great thinkers, poverty and wars of that era. This is the idea I have of the centuries that predates ours. It will be so much fun to be dancing around in ballrooms, so much fun when the sole purpose of a woman or a man's life is to find a suitable spouse (I am not sad at all that, that is not true anymore folks!), not so much fun when wars were waged and the upper class seemed completely ignorant of it, not so much fun when people were deposed of their lands and had to settle in places that did not belong to them.
Anyway it is not like it is going to happen....my only solace- there are millions of books of which I could become the characters.
Ciao..off to la-la land!

Nine years later

2009-06-12T09:03:00.007-04:00

It had happened unexpectedly. Of course one does not expect such things to happen, do they? The night of June 10th 2000, after a hearty dinner at my mum's cousin's place- we left for home by different modes, since there were so many of us. My sister and I on her TVS, with me driving it- pretty mundane isn't it? Except it was not and am sure since I am writing this and not my sister you all can guess what might have happened. She had just turned 18 that April and we were just getting closer putting behind our sibling rivalries, yeah it had indeed taken me 20 odd years to accept that she is a part of my being, that she is me only a few a few years younger. I loved and hated her fiercely as a teen, took a long time to resolve my emotions (well what do you expect, I was a child and apparently not a smart one at that). I normally don't talk about it- but we (the family) talk about her as though she still exists and we all converse with her in the depths of darkness. Me for instance, I strongly believe that she is my guardian angel.
In retrospect, I do wish I had some sense back then to go through some sort of trauma therapy as a family. It is quite interesting psychologically that it is not just me with an intense survivor's guilt (which unarguably affects my everyday life) but my parents and my grandma all have their own reasons for why they could not see it coming....and why her and not them!
Nine years now and my biggest fear- I might not remember her as I grow old, I might not remember her laugh after a good joke, the twinkle in her eyes after a successful prank or her tears after a not-so-well-done exam.
We love you and we miss you sweetheart!

Check this headlines

2009-06-05T17:00:00.001-04:00

This is what comes up under the "India" tab in TOI
"oh my god, I am coming down with WTF-where-is-my-daily-movie syndrome" (LOL)

It has been ages since I even bothered to check TOI but somehow today I am feeling sappy (I remember TOI from BITS!). Anyway nothing much has changed with the paper- if this is the headline news...

Imminent

2009-06-04T11:00:00.001-04:00

This article is on the latest Outlook India about how water crisis in drier parts of the Indian subcontinent has led to violence. I am quoting the excerpt below directly from this article.

"What is the Centre planning to do about the crisis? T. Ramaswami, secretary, science and technology, says the August deadline is unrealistic. "This problem can't be solved in months," he says. "For the past three weeks, the science and technology ministry, with 15 partner ministries, has been holding meetings. One solution can't be applied countrywide. It has to be a national effort and everyone has to contribute."

No offence Mr. Ramaswami but for as long as I can remember this issue has not gotten past the meeting stage (just like most other issues, so I am not sure why this would be any more important than the other important issues that the government refuses to deal with or deals with by way of organizing periodic meetings!). Shame on us sir!

At least we had one great visionary among us who (yes Mahakavi Bharatiyar) talked about water distribution systems when the country was still struggling to be free from British reins.

வங்கத்தில் ஓடி வரும் நீரின் மிகையால், வையத்து நாடுகளில் பயிர் செய்யுவோம்

We can keep arguing about technicalities of better ways of ensuring single person receives that he or she needs but at some point the thing called action needs to be taken too (hell I don't even think there are arguments at such so-called meetings). It is a pity that while states like Andhra and Orissa drown in excess water every year, the regions of Rajasthan and Tamilnadu drown in their own dried, caked lands due to lack of just that- Water!

Do the dance!

2009-05-28T14:03:00.004-04:00

Watch this video, first alex and now snowball.
What do you see- well a parrot gone crazy, yes...but also the fact that the bird moves its body to the different beats it hears- it is called rhythmic entrainment, which us humans took pride of as a unique gift bestowed only upon us. Clearly how much more egotistical can we get. Apparently we are not so unique anymore...
Anyway scientifically it is a very interesting aspect because apparently there are no videos of dogs or other mammalian pets doing the moves!

Here is what the author of the dispatch section had to say

" it also raises fascinating questions about the species that aren't on the list. The most obvious gaps are domesticated animals like dogs or horses: despite their pervasive exposure to music, not a single convincing demonstration of mammalian pet dancing was found. This negative evidence supports the everyday observation that dogs can't dance, and the outstanding question is why not. What is lacking?

Another group conspicuous by its absence are nonhuman primates. The absence of any true ‘dancing chimpanzees’ is surprising, not just because chimpanzees are our closest relatives but because they naturally engage in ‘drumming’ in the wild [7]. Chimpanzees often drum with their hands or feet on rainforest trees in the wild, generating far-carrying, quasi-rhythmic signals. Similarly, gorillas beat their bodies, and occasionally objects, with a rough ‘beat’. Thus, our nearest living cousins exhibit a behaviour suggesting that some form of propensity to drum was present in our common ancestor, making the lack of evidence for ape entrainment surprising. But given that most humans do not interact with chimpanzees regularly, and that most chimpanzee owners (in entertainment or science) do not post videos online, this negative evidence does not yet provide compelling evidence of absence. An open mind concerning apes remains warranted."

Biology of Music: Another One Bites the Dust, Volume 19, Issue 10, 26 May 2009, Pages R403-R404

They also go on to acknowledge the fact that one cannot rule out the possibility that pet-dancing may simply have not been uploaded to YouTube! Nevertheless it is an interesting evolutionary question. So next time you see your pet dancing away to rock and roll music, film it and put it on YouTube, someone might actually use it for something useful!

Below are the references of the two papers

A.D. Patel, J.R. Iversen, M.R. Bregman and I. Schulz, Experimental evidence for synchronization to a musical beat in a nonhuman animal, Curr. Biol. 19 (2009), pp. 827–830.

A. Schachner, T.F. Brady, I.M. Pepperberg and M.D. Hauser, Entrainment to music requires vocal mimicry: Evidence from non-human animals, Curr. Biol. 19 (2009), pp. 831–836.

Looking to rent..

2009-05-25T11:39:00.004-04:00

I had to obviously write about it when I saw it, "Rent a room in someone else's life?" That statement is big, innit. The character Sai in "The Inheritance of Loss" ruses about this when she sees she has missed out on some grand childhood. To me it is big because I feel it sometimes, when I see people who are smarter, more creative, much more nicer and have a distinct identities (Note: need not be anyone famous, I use my discretion to define these values!!). But think about it- how cool would it be to rent, even for just a little while, a room in someone else's life!!

What am I

2009-05-19T22:23:00.006-04:00

What am I? I think about this more often these days, you know. What do people mean when they say "I am an Indian or I am American or whatever". I mean are they identifying who they are with where they are from? I am not belittling the fact that where you are shapes you up as a person but that cannot be the whole story, can it? May be it does but for me that is not all. I don't think I can associate a country and its traditions with who I am, it is mostly a mixture of the ideals, principles, and traditions that I have garnered from various parts of the world. Of course some by being in those parts of the world and some, you may not believe it to be true, some from books I have read over the years. What is interesting is that I have taken this thought a step that has led to me being more and more saddened by the existence of boundaries between countries. I don't understand why we need them. I know I know, governance issues, cultural issues, and whatever other issues one can think of....but I can still wonder about it, can't I? Is it that hard of people from a gamut of cultures and geographical locations to be together....won't it be fun? We can learn so much...think about it!!!

A beautiful read

2009-05-07T15:54:00.004-04:00

Rebecca- a beautiful read indeed. But I must admit I read half of the book yesterday while I doted on the first half for about a month, not because I was in love with it or anything, might I add! Somehow there seems to have been a "I-can't-believe-so-much-detail" threshold that I never crossed in the first half or may be because I was too dumb to understand the beauty of Daphne Du Maurier's writing. Contrary to the first few hundred pages, the second half of the book was amazing. In fact, yesterday, there were parts of the book where I was almost in tears. It is a romance-mystery novel of sorts. Although the book is just ridden with too many words (duh..!!) there were a lot of catchy, interesting and rhetorical phrases. Like this one below

"I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end."

My verdict: go ahead it is a masterfully crafted suspense novel but you have to bear through the first 100 pages!!

Guys seriously why could'nt you?

2009-05-06T08:03:00.003-04:00

Guys, come on! Why could'nt I get a job like this? Anyway this led me to think- what are some of the best jobs around, like living on an island and making friends? Let me know if you can think of any- may be I can switch my profession!

Insect love

2009-04-28T10:45:00.000-04:00

Normally I would not say I love insects, but one look at his gallery- I am in love with these scary monsters!

Earth day was yesterday folks

2009-04-23T16:45:00.002-04:00

If you Earth day is something that was instituted very recently, you are wrong. April 22nd was declared the Earth day in 1970 in the US. It is mostly celebrated as Earth week these days. The International Earth Day is different and is celebrated on March 21st, the equinox day. Whichever day or week it is, I am really proud that Harvard is really big on reduce, reuse, recycle policy and I am proud of myself because I don't throw anything that can be recycled or reused (no, I am serious, not even the tiniest scrap of paper gets thrown in the trash). In fact Harvard does much better than a lot of other universities. So do Boston and Cambridge- these cities are far more advanced in terms of their sustenance policies than most other.
Quick diversion here: I am proud of my parents too because they are big on the three Rs so much so that my dad made a usable mug out of a milk bottle!
For some of us, it might not mean anything at all. But think about it- how hard is it really to recycle folks? Plastic recycling can be harder because there are codes but paper, come on!!! We all can do that much at least for our part.
The other thing I believe everyone can do is to plant SOMETHING, ANYTHING really! I live in an apartment and would love to have a big (or small really, अरे कुछ भी चलेगा भैया) garden। But I have decided it is too hard for me to not have green living things as my pets so decided to grow my own apartment garden. Since space is a limitation I am not planting a lot, obviously. But the big question now- will the seeds I sowed, germinate?!
People do so many creative things though- be it Dervaes's homestead in Pasadena, CA or the brainchild of Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, Terracycle Inc.
To me Earth day or Earth week is just a reminder about how beautiful this place we live in is and it also reminds me that I do not have to hike or trek along the thousands of trails spread across various parks to enjoy the bounty that is nature.

FOR ME EVERYDAY IS EARTH DAY FOLKS AND I AM PROUD OF THAT!!

PS I must say in this tech age, I have not encountered a slower site than Terracycle Inc. I hope they read this post and get a better page that loads faster!
Wow yesterday was all gloomy post, today all earthy...seriously this must be mid-life crisis...

Meltdown

2009-04-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

While the world is facing a financial meltdown, I think I am facing an existential meltdown. Well maybe meltdown is a strong word- may be I could call it existential crisis. You know the usual- "நான் ஏன் பிறந்தேன்" (I think that is the correct spelling in Tamil- it means why was I born, used to be our favorite phrase in BITS) type issues. So I am a great believer of a few things, among those are these two "every person is here for a reason- you just have to find out for yourself what yours is" and "everything that happens, happens for a reason".
But I find myself in this whirlpool of incessant thoughts about "what I should be doing?"
I thought science is what I should be doing but something has changed (well me getting really excited about good science and great research minds has not been tarnished yet!) and I don't feel like I belong! But I feel like I don't belong anywhere. I am at a stage in my career now where I have to decide on something and ACT on it. I am failing at the first step, decision-making. Here I am wavering about it all, thought this ended like ten years ago! Its asking the question "what should I become when I grow up?" all over again and that feels strange.
I think I will play along, ponder over such questions and hope that once it is actually time to make the big decisions, everything will miraculously fall into place.

PS Aha..picture is worth a thousand words, so now will you believe me?!! May be this might be what others call "mid-life crisis"?!

Yeaah..go ahead replace us

2009-04-08T18:24:00.001-04:00

Beware we will all be soon replaced by machines or may be perhaps we can sit back and relax while we let robots like Adam do our experiments for us (smell a long vacation here). Adam has been developed by Amanda Clare's group in the UK. He can come up with hypothesis and test them too. How cool is that people?! But he still needs somebody to add more lab consumables and of course clean the waste he generates. May be I should get an Adam- since he can perform all those things that I am doing right now.

The Automation of ScienceRoss D. King, Jem Rowland, Stephen G. Oliver, Michael Young, Wayne Aubrey, Emma Byrne, Maria Liakata, Magdalena Markham, Pinar Pir, Larisa N. Soldatova, Andrew Sparkes, Kenneth E. Whelan, and Amanda Clare (3 April 2009)
Science 324 (5923), 85. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1165620]

Close proximity

2009-04-07T15:50:00.001-04:00

What do you do when you are in close proximity to people like her? She is only 4 years older than I am and she already features in the top 100 living geniuses (see the article here). She is one of the three women who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School. You can read her profile in
Science 25 April 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5875, pp. 442 - 443, DOI: 10.1126/science.320.5875.442
Her foray into stardom came about when she found a novel way to identify targets for positive selection during the course of evolution. It is a pretty neat technique, although the math part goes over my head.

PS I am mediocre but at least I am not surrounded by it! Here I am, can't even get a PCR to work...

Schadenfreude, hope not

2009-04-03T17:26:00.002-04:00

Schadenfreude is a German word that describes the pleasure that one derives from others misfortunes. It is very closely related to envy. In this nice paper, the authors show that despite the two emotions being correlated they activate different regions of the brain. While envy activates neural connections related to pain, sch.. activates the reward center of the brain. But can anything be ever so simple.....of course not. The authors show the interplay between social pains and pleasures.

Taken from

NEUROSCIENCE: Pains and Pleasures of Social Life

Matthew D. Lieberman and Naomi I. Eisenberger (13 February 2009)

Science 323 (5916), 890. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1170008]

Analyses of brain activity reveal a link between social and physical pains and pleasures.

"If maintaining one's social value is a need like other physical needs, then the greater the pain caused by negative social comparisons, the greater the pleasure in response to seeing the comparison target socially devalued (schadenfreude). The authors found that greater envy and dACC activity in response to a negative social comparison was associated with greater schadenfreude and ventral striatum activity when learning of that comparison target's subsequent downfall."

Basically what it means is if you envy someone, you get greater pleasure when misfortune strikes them. In fact Leiberman and Eisenberger think of this as something akin to physical needs such as food when you are hungry! What is even more interesting is the fact that the brain is treating things as important as lack of food and water similar to social pains such as envy. Now why would that be?

If you have access you should read the article (don't worry if you don't understand much of it) and for people who are not used to neuroscience jargon, you should read the perspectives that is referenced above.

When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain Is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schadenfreude

Hidehiko Takahashi, Motoichiro Kato, Masato Matsuura, Dean Mobbs, Tetsuya Suhara, and Yoshiro Okubo (13 February 2009) Science 323 (5916), 937. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1165604]

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5916/937

Time well spent with friends

2009-03-31T18:11:00.002-04:00

This weekend, my time was well spent with friends. We were all very cheery, cheery to the point of being hysterical, I am guessing it is because of the baby boom. Yeah...I am so excited, and I ought to be, a friend of mine is pregnant. I surely exposed everyone to my dual neigh-cum-laughter, really I used to laugh hysterically and usually it used to sound more like a horse's neigh. Life changes so fast, one minute you think "well that is it for now, no BIG changes" and then boom there is the jolt again! If I feel that way, I can sure understand how the soon-to-be parents might feel. What was interesting was each of us had our own vices to teach to the newborn, including the "mum n dad"- Ashok wants to give it shots of tequilla, another friend wants to pick it up and spank it. So we will have to wait and watch how the kid grows up despite our presence!!
For now we are all super-charged when it comes to this couple...and of course the would-be mom gets the say in most matters.

Que pasa amigos?

2009-03-24T09:53:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we were in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It reminded me of home junta. Warm weather, fruiting mango trees, coconut trees, hibiscus and other beautiful flowering plants of the tropics, people strewn about in roadside stalls doing absolutely nothing, traffic, the houses...everything reminded me of home. It was an interesting blend of India and US.

So the trip began with a bit of a drama- we landed 15 minutes or 60 miles away from San Juan at St. Thomas. We were not aware of the fact that our flight was just going to stand in the airport for 2 hrs and we were not going to be allowed to get out of the aircraft. Oh well, we did get to SJ eventually! Thankfully that was the only drama!
We spent a day traveling to El Yunque (took a really small hike to some random waterfalls) rain forest and then to Fajardo (Seven seas beach). It was a very quite place but weather played a spoiled-sport, as I was settling to take a nap under a tree, it began to rain....
Well that was that, after randomly driving around we got to Condado, where we stayed. The evening was spent walking around the area. Next day we did have a good plan. But like all good plans ours was busted too...we spent nearly an hour waiting for our burgers (Worst service at Chicago burgers in Old San Juan) that were not even worth the wait!!! I liked old San juan- had a very spanish feel to it. The image on the right is the fort at old SJ, again built by the spaniards, essentially a fort to protect the city.The streets were narrow and the buildings were beautiful. My only crib: I could not go around the city more and do some shopping.
We spent the rest of the day at the beach (Isla Verde), I found a spot under the shade and took a wonderful nap. There was just enough breeze and just enough sun!!
That evening there was some sort of a festival going on- which we did enjoy along with some decent chinese take-out. Called it a night around 11PM.....had an early flight to catch the next morning

A lab of almost 100

2009-03-10T11:39:00.001-04:00

Wow, I have only heard about Bob Langer cursorily. He has about 80 people in a lab that spans about 1300 sq. m. at MIT.He is almost 60 years old and has a CV that is about 75 pages long. He has received several awards including the 2008 Millennium Prize. Nature has this to say about him. Boy, at almost 60 years of age, that man is quite something. I was truly awed, not as much as I was when I read "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" (this was when I fell in love with Richard P. Feynman). What was interesting and amusing to me in that profile by Nature- at the end of the day "on his way home, he stops for an ice cream — coffee chip frozen yoghurt with hot fudge sauce". Goes to show how important stopping to enjoy a cup of icecream is- no matter how successful you are!

On redaction

2009-03-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

Onion had this to say about redaction of documents by the CIA. Pretty cool, I thought!

The BIG read

2009-03-09T13:32:00.000-04:00

In April 2003, BBC launched a search for England's best loved book, you the most popular read if you will. English loved the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's mega-book was the best-loved book.
I have not read Lord of the Rings or any other book pre- and post- LoR by Tolkien (I loved the movies though!). Anyway I was intrigued by this list and decided to see how much of those books have I read- (I must say I got this idea from here although the BBC actual book list seems to be modified a bit). I took a look at the original list and guess what I have read only 34 of those 100 books. Ow, when am I ever going to finish reading especially when my reading list already has a back log of about 30 books. That list is the one that seems to be expanding at an alarming rate!
See below for the list, and do let me know how many you have read and what you liked best.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen-X
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling-X
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee-X
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell-X
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger-X
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens-X
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott-X
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy-X
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell-X
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling-X
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling-X
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling-X
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck-X
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll-X
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez-X
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens-X
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson-X
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen-X
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald-X
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas-X
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell-X
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens-X
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck-X
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy-X
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth-X
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky-X
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden-X
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding-X
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding-X
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy-X
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo-X
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho-X
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer-X
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez-X
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Bacteria are the best indeed

2009-03-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, there was a talk by Bonnie Bassler (Priceton University). Her talk was absolutely great- she was extremely energetic, enthusiastic and seemed very passionate about her work. She also seemed to absolutely love bacteria. When I listen to a talk I want to hear the speaker's passion for his or her work show in their talks. I cannot stand talks that are drab no matter how good the person might be. Just does not give a good impression you see.
She spoke about quorum sensing in bacteria and I was blown away by how the concept of multicellularity may not be new at all.
But I do have questions about it- while the bacteria produce auto-inducer(s) specific to their own species (say a regional language) and a common auto-inducer (universal language) made across a wide variety of bacteria, the evolutionary aspect of why bacteria need such a mechanism is unclear to me, especially if they are invovled in only one downstream signaling process.

We were not this bad, what happened

2009-02-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

Obesity cases have been steadily rising in the Indian subcontinent. The consumption of processed foods and fatty goodies are on the rise and, therefore, unarguably so is obesity. We were doing alright all these years, what happened? You walk into a mall in any Indian city, you would be drawn to the same sugary, fatty junk that we have now deemed "not healthy" here in the western world. Things like donuts, potatoes drenched in oil and many more unhealthy products are flooding the Indian households. It would not be fair if I just blamed it on the foods, we are becoming a LAZY bunch people! Not only do we not go out and actively exercise, even the little we did around the house has been replaced. What with so much domestic help and all...

The good thing here in the US is that a lot of the people are very conscious and awareness about obesity as a real health issue is ever-increasing.

I am not sure how best to warn people of the dangers of such a rapidly changing lifestyle. But people please if you read this post, educate your friends and family so they can educate their friends and family and hopefully we can make people realize that by slightly modifying our eating and exercising habits we can actually lead healthier lives.

PS You can read this article and this one to learn at least a little more about obesity in India. Not that a lot of research is going on right now.

You are not alone...

2009-02-13T14:03:00.000-05:00

I find this amusing and annoying at the same time, I understand when you work you want to left alone but science is all about mingling- sharing ideas, sharing crazy hypotheses, sharing work space and more. I think science would have remained rudimentary if the iPOD was discovered 200 years ago. I am not sure I can embrace the idea of come to the lab, turn your iPOD on and do whatever it is that you might be doing- surfing the net, working on an experiment or reading papers. My old lab was different that way and I liked it- we did not flaunt the "oh-look-wires-coming-out-of-me and so glued to my ears I cannot take it off" thingies. We talked incessantly, our thoughts constantly collided with one another giving rise to better experiments, we would badger the newbies in the lab calling it the "we would love to get to know you" phase.
This iPOD fetish might have something to do with being in a big lab, your bench spaces themselves are so far apart that there is very limited extent of interaction.
Anyway, I think as scientists we should limit the use of such devices- use it albiet sparingly, at least when at work. I am just a fly on the wall but I hope I am making sense here. I think this is not just true about science, you walk on the road all you can see are people either talking to themselves (back in the old days we used to think such people had the crazies!), or talking to a cell phone or concentrating on the music that is playing right into their heads.
So long people...man is a social being afterall, is he not?

Start your day GRUMPY...

2009-01-30T15:25:00.000-05:00

This morning something odd happened- well it might not be that unusual but it seemed a bit unnerving to me anyway. We came to the car parked on a busy road (especially crazy at 9:00 in the morning). He got in to drive while I waited for him to pull out of the icy mess and give me some space to get in. Incidentally he did not see the bicyclist. She thought he was going to stop for her but he did not see her. She was yelling out "stop for the bicyclist" but of course he did not hear her. He pulled out really slowly, while she also kept at it- and all that happened was she stumbled a bit. Okay mistake probably was his- I don't know, she saw him driving and not stopping and so she decided not to stop either... anyway she got really worked up and started screaming like crazy. Things like "Jacka**, can't you stop for a bicyclist" and much more. So nothing odd about it, right?
Well, while she yelling I was watching her in awe. I could not understand how someone could actually be so grumpy early in the morning. I mean come on, how do you yell like that with such loathing in the morning. After a presumably good night's rest, Yyou wake up, have coffee and breakfast, wash, get dressed and leave for whatever it is that you are going to do for the rest of the day. Amidst all these things what happens that makes you crabby like that? Then what happens to the rest of your day? May be she is going through something genuine...
I sure felt sorry for the next person that came in her way.
I cannot fathom such emotions, can you?

Its snow holiday again...

2009-01-27T16:10:00.004-05:00

...not for me anyway
Now I understand how poor Maryland's snow cleaning system is- it was supposed to snow only 1 to 2 inches. Guess what, UMD closed at around noon. And here in Boston, it snows about 8 to 12 inches every time and people act as though its JUST another thing. Usually the pavements and roads get cleared up rather quickly and that is all that matters, innit? Everything is seemingly normal, well me being the exception. Nothing is ever normal for me during winter. So far its been not so bad, while it was snowing outside, I stayed on inside! But there is going to be a snowstorm tomorrow. We will see how that goes, eh!!

I could go on and on...

2009-01-18T21:02:00.002-05:00

Hmm...I have never felt so strongly about anything political. But today as I incessantly pour over the news about Mr. Obama's inauguration ceremony, I feel like I should have been there, where all the action is. I feel terrible having left DC before this great event. I must tell you though, I am not sure if Mr. Obama will be a successful president but there is something about him that tells me that he will do good. I love his speeches, I love his simplicity and I hope his actions are as sincere as his words. I also for some strange reason believe that he is a good man (let me tell you I have a blanket hatred against world's politicians- to me they are necessary evil!).
The only thing that has been on my mind these past few days is the fact that I am not in DC to witness this good, honest man take oath to the highest office in the United States. Also, I would not get to see "the beast" too! I want to be a part of this grandeur, seems like 2 million people are expected, too bad I am not one of them. What more, I want to kick myself for having left DC, I could have stayed on until the inauguration ceremony. Work calls right!
Well, if you let me, I would go on and on about how badly I want to be there. Does not matter now, I will be there in spirit, I guess!

PS: After all this rant about Mr. Obama, I guess it is only fitting that I read his book!

American exceptionalism

2009-01-16T20:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on Diane Rehm Show (npr.org), the guest was Godfrey Hudson- the author of the book called The Myth of American Exceptionalism. I have not read the book and after that interview with Diane, I want to. This book seems to be provocative and is bound to offend a lot of people. In fact there was a caller who said that the author was the most condescending guest ever on the show. Well it did not seem that way to me, but then I am NOT an American. What struck me most was when a caller asked the author if saying "God Bless America" was a sign of such exceptionalism. Interestingly, the first time I heard that phrase in this country I thought of it as the weirdest thing- why would you want God to bless only a select few, why not God Bless the World or something like that. Anyway, Prof Hudson did not seem to have an answer to that question but he too had thought it was a bit strange. He is an English guy and it is impressionable that he would write such a book (well he has been studying this country for more than 3 or 4 decades I cannot remember). He argues that America is not exceptional after all and the idea of being exceptional, sort of you know, a keeper or a custodian or even the protector of the world in a sense, could prove dangerous.
I think Prof. Hudson kind of speaks out what has been going on in my mind but I guess I would definitely read it to get his perspective.

PS: I love Diane Rehm show and the thing I hate most about Boston is I can only to listen to recorded versions of her show on the radio. So I take advantage of npr.org and listen to 88.5 online.

My first few days at my NEW JOB

2009-01-08T17:36:00.001-05:00

Finally I am working again- started this Monday.
Pa walked with me (he would rather say he was walking me to my bldg on Oxford St, just like when I was a little girl except then my mum used to do it!)- the icy pavements made it very treacherous and my dad cautioned me by falling down himself. It was only a 3hr work-day, getting done with all the paperwork (was not much at all).
The next day I met with the boss for about 15-20 minutes, and since then I have been reading and reading and read.....
Cannot believe that the FIRST week of the new year is coming to an end. Hopefully I can come up with a good project and that too within a reasonable amount of time coz I need to get back to the bench, y'all.

take care
hope you all had a good week

My trip to San Diego

2009-01-03T19:36:00.010-05:00

Last year that is Nov 2008 after I submitted my thesis and successfully endured the 9 hour ride to Boston from College Park (It felt like I was the one who drove). Anyway the next day I left for a trip to SD (I stayed in SD for a week) and Boulder (this was only for two days, thanks to the single runway-high traffic-useless SD airport combined with a foggy morning).
The first 2 days I was by myself, took the trolley tour around San Diego. And thanks to my host there, I ended up on a shopping spree (he left me alone for the two days and what better thing to do than SHOP!!)
One thing I realized in San Diego- I love Mexico- the people, the culture, the crafts. The one place I loved in there is SD is the Old Town San Diego, a place that is considered to be the birthplace of California. While, they still have a few original structures made of Adobe bricks, a lot of the buildings are reconstructed. Despite this you do get an 1800's feel when you visit the Old town State historic Park. Other than SD was just alright.
For Thanksgiving we drove down to Mammoth lakes park. I don't ski and Renga could not snowboard or ski (you see the day I landed he broke his finger playing cricket, coincidental eh?) and Ashwin decided to give us company- therefore we put on a pair of snow-shoes to hike but it was totally unnecessary because it had not snowed that much. The next day we took a long detour via Death Valley and this is another place I instantly fell in love with. How very DEAD, you might think but then just as any desert landscape there are a few survivors. The photograph one the right was taken from the lowest point in the Northern Hemisphere, this place is about 86 meters below sea level and therefore has salty flakes all over.
I am not sure if people might agree if I call Death Valley beautiful but believe me it was to me and interestingly it reminded me of Denali Natl Park, except one was lush and green while the other was brown and dry. So it was fun thanksgiving and I must thank the guys for such a lovely trip.

I then flew to Denver, CO to meet a newly married couple. Spent a couple of day with them in Boulder and then headed back for a short stay in Boston, a stay that lasted for two days. I was off to India in two days.

Another year

2008-12-31T20:35:00.004-05:00

Well the truth is now the New Year means nothing to me- one more year have passed by, nothing around me has changed much (although a lot of things have happened in general around the world- mostly the kind that bring sadness). I am still the same crazy person, well a year older and waiting to go bald any day now!!! The beginning of a new year only reminds me of the fact that I have not accomplished anything in the past year- same old same old mediocre life! The only thing that I always have trouble with is writing the dates correctly especially in my lab notebooks, apparently I like to be stuck in the past!
As a little girl, I used to want to celebrate the arrival of a New Year with all my friends and family - you have fun and all that, you know; but that never happened. In fact for most of my life- it was just the four of us and grandma sometimes; then it came down to the three of us and grandma. These years have dragged along with them, the very little fun-side I once used to possess (I believe I had a fun-side!!). Now, I don't understand why one should celebrate- apart from traditions, I realize that people celebrate the hope that the next year will be better than the one that passed. It could also be because people want to forget all their woes last few days of the year and be happy. I do respect all these sentiments and traditions but I just don't understand what the big deal is!
So those of you who already are in the next year and those of you who soon will be- whats the point, its just another day, innit?!
That was not pathetic was it- well this however does not mean that I would not WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR, I do wish all of you the very best in life (but I do that almost everyday)
LOKA SAMASTHA SUKHINO BHAVANTU (Sorry blogger does not yet have the Hindi translation thingee for Mac!)

Now I really am in Boston

2008-12-25T10:36:00.002-05:00

A 10-day trip to San Diego, CA and Boulder, CO; a week-long trip to Madras, India; and an eventful 4 day trip to College Park, MD, I am back in Boston. I have so much to write about and hopefully will get to all of them before I forget what I wanted to pen.

Am DONE!

2008-11-12T21:21:00.002-05:00

People accomplish various things in life
Oct 8th , Chalfie, Shimomura and Tsien won the Nobel Chemistry
Oct 10th, Paul Krugman won the Nobel Economics
Nov 4th, Obama became the President of the United States
Nov 11th, Abbhi defended her PhD (normally I do not talk in third person!)

So those are some pretty big ones I can think of!!

What should I be doing

2008-11-04T18:13:00.002-05:00

This question has been creeping for a while now- should I stay put in Science? I don't think I am capable of staying put for a simple reason that I am very absent-minded. Though not always, but the times that I am not myself, I make mistakes in my experiments. It might be normal, no one is perfect but in Science the feeling I get it you have no room for that. Being yourself, the worst self is just not an option. The other thing is, for a person like me who takes experimental failures as personal ones (oh trust me nothing can be more stressful than using your work to gauge you as a person- it almost always becomes existential!) , science may not be the best option.
Since this is one of those "why-am-I-doing-what-I-am-doing" moments, I took this test that tells what careers suit one's personality- and the things it came up with are pretty much what I would love to be

Artist- YES
Historian- who does not love history
Banker- yeah right!
Novelist- have been thinking about it for a while now
University Professor- I don't think students will like me
Photographer- can call myself an amateur
Vet- thanks, but no thanks
Paralegal
Graphic Designer
Online Content Developer
Webmaster
Producer
Managing Director- hmm, this might just be perfect
Nutritionist- I need to use it on myself
Advertising
Nursing

This test did not get me out of my bad mood completely but it sure did boost my morale, after all I have a shot at being a novelist!!

PS: OK back to preparing for defense, hope it goes alright!

So long Greenbelt

2008-11-03T22:53:00.002-05:00

I love this quite little city- one of the first cooperative housing ventures in the US. The people are as beautiful as this quaint place. A stroll on a gorgeous summer evening would always entail cheerful hellos and heys from the passers-by. The Roosevelt center, my favourite haunt, has great food with places like New Deal cafe and Generous Joe's deli. Oh I definitely will not forget the smells of freshly baked pastries at Chef Lou's (that is if you can catch a slice before he closes for the day and I don't think he is open everyday!). The center has a lot of activities in the summer.
And recently we have even started having our own farmer's market, that is all that was missing...
So why would anybody not like a place with great food, a good movie theater (don't expect an AMC, but I sure love the Old P&G), a farmers market and a "yummo-baked goods-anytime"and all of this you could just walk to....come on now!!!
I/We are out of Greenbelt (I am a temp acco at a friend's in College Park) as of yesterday and I am already feeling miserable. I love Greenbelt!!

Kudos to all those who still value such cooperatives and take the efforts needed to maintain it.

PS I cannot believe I spent nearly 10 minutes writing this post instead of preparing for my defense. One week to go junta

Weird

2008-10-07T19:30:00.002-04:00

How come when we desperately want something to work it NEVER works. Is that an anomaly only in my life, I wonder!

I don't understand this

2008-09-30T22:03:00.003-04:00

Okay, so everyone wants a bipartisan bailout deal worked out. "They" keep saying we got to do what is best for the country, put the country first yada yada yada (isn't this McCain's punch line?!)
So how come Nancy Pelosi's statement about how Republicans have failed in their economic policies is the biggest reason for the failure of the trillion dollar bailout deal? Both sides should have put country first and worked out something out, right?! It just seems so appalling to me that the politicians can be so hypocritical, on one hand all we hear is "this is the biggest crisis, akin to the great depression" so on and so forth and on one the other, both parties have been using this crisis as the biggest marketing strategy, pointing finger at one another...quite annoying actually and I am not even the one voting!!!

PS Aim for bipartisanship, try not to be an elitist...

say, can I do this again later sometime

2008-09-06T21:25:00.000-04:00

Boy, that is one question I won't ask myself, may be I will consider it if someone offers to write my thesis for me! Its so hectic, I can hardly think about anything else. I guess part of the problem could be that most of next month will be spent doing experiments for my last chapter and writing my thesis. And of course it does not help when your boss says "you are going to stress yourself and you are going to stress me out; you brought it on yourself" yada yada yada......so its like a Law and order CI episode- Will Goren and Eames catch the killer? Will I finish on time so that I can defend on the date I have set for in October? I tell you similar emotions- people who catch killers should be made to write a thesis (not necessarily theirs, that would be more fun I suppose)

So the latest development, I postponed my defense by a month (so hopefully November folks) and now I am hoping that I will be actually done by then. Not that much has changed because of that, you know work expands to fill time, so am back to nervously muttering "oh god let my experiments work and please please let me finish at least in November!"

Frankly work is the only thing right now in my life and not that I mind it but sure don't mind easing up a bit!

So about Denali

2008-08-09T11:53:00.004-04:00

Denali Natl Park- really beautiful, mountains do have character don't they?!
Drive was just filled with amazing views. We stayed at Savage river campground- mosquito free zone. Can you believe we actually socialized with a bunch of people who were also camping- 2 of them go to school in Fairbanks I think and there were 2 more of their friends from California- the point of telling this, we were so loud apparently that we got shushed...how can someone go to sleep when it was nice and bright outside? So the first day was mostly spent on a bus from the visitor center to Wonder lake (private vehicles can go only up to a certain point in the park) but we got to see so much of the wildlife- grizzlies, a fox, caribou, moose and its calf (oh the calf was really cute), sheep, sheep, more of sheep!! I must tell you the ground (tree?) squirrels are ugly. We hiked a little bit at the end of the bus drive (had to stretch a bit)- took the McKinley bar river trail, our first and only encounter with huge mosquitoes! And by the way, have you ever seen a person walking, well more like a stroll, fall face down in a slush- too bad you should have seen me- all covered in mud..
It does not matter- we got to see the double peaks!!! It happens only 3 or 4 times in a month and we were there, magnificent double peaks.
The next day was more on a less trodden trail- it was fun, just drove up to Talkeetna and started walking in one direction. It was fun to cross those little creeks, the water felt really good. After that little bit of well hiking around, we decided that was that and got back to the car where the ranger told us interesting stories about fightin' off bears and how he saw a bear chasing a moose, he was pretty vocal, I am not exactly sure if I felt like believing everything he said but it sure sounded adventurous. It was kind of disheartening that the trip was getting to its end.
Untainted beauty is what it was and I sure want it to stay that way. I would love to see how the place looks like in winter (only I am not sure if I can brave it!) But it would be fun to go back again and again and again folks!!!
ciao

Alaska- the last frontier

2008-07-07T17:14:00.003-04:00

So we are back from Alaska. That was a long time ago and this post is way past due!
I flew into Anchorage on the 26th of June, well it took a while since I had flown all the way down to Dallas and then up to Anchorage. On the way to Anchorage, we saw Mt.Rainier- oh what a pretty sight, magnificent! Reached there at around 7:30PM. Sun never sets in the Alaskan empire during summer- interesting trivia, the moon was around only for about a maximum of 1h. Anyway-
June 27th- (not many great snaps from this trip because it was raining, and the camera was fogging up pretty bad!)
~2h ride to Seward for the cruise to see some cool glaciers. But the weather had to play spoilt-sport. I guess I should not complain since the cruise did not run the day before due to really high ocean. And also because I got to see an Orca pass by at about 10feet!!! Oh most amazing, it was this close- I could have jumped on it and rode!! We could not go down to the glaciers, there were people on the boat who did not have the stomach for it, no literally they were quite sick.. and the waves were pretty high. Oh ours was a small boat- she was called misty, went upto 25knots (or layman-22miles/hr) pretty fast I would say. We saw a lot of wildlife- humpback whales were quite sight, lone bald-eagles high up on a tree, penguin-like puffins adorning the island (the name of which I have forgotten) and the same island there were a harbor seals, man these are some lazy creatures! The glacier that we did see was one of the Aialik- Holgate glacier, quite massive, very blue! There were some interesting world war II stuff too. It was really cold though, I mean after the first 5-6 h of the journey, I was pretty much inside the cabin the whole time.
The next day was at Anchorage- went to the state's largest flea market. It was beautiful weather and seemed like everyone was outside. That evening we left for Denali national park.

But I will blog about it in my next post folks! Be patient and trust me Alaska is worth spending money on!

So the end is in sight folks

2008-06-23T21:00:00.003-04:00

The end is in sight- I now have a job, well if you can call getting a postdoctoral position as having a job. Anyway what is important is I finally get to move on but hold on- who is going write my thesis? I cannot think of anything else that I dread so much- oh-the-no one-reads-this part of my PhD. But it has to be done, and I will have to get it done somehow.
My labmates have been nice enough to give me the wildest suggestions but unfortunately using any of those would be deemed as plagiarism (LOL). The only hope for me- I have a job and I need to start sometime in October (hey hey, I did not come up with this, my boss said so!)

A journey

2008-05-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

Trains have been a part of my childhood and most of my teen years. Over those years I have developed a strange bond with Indian Railways. Other countries might have better trains but none can offer "the journey" that our trains provide. There is something about traveling by trains. I remember the time in BITS just before holidays- I used to be so eager and excited to being my journey back home, I initially thought it was due to homesickness but I got the same feeling of excitement when I left home (well, I was sad to leave my family and go far north to study...!!). Those oh-about-2days of train journey were a bliss. Sit by the window muttering a song to yourself, once in a while humor your fellow passengers with a story or a joke (inquiries about where they are coming from-great starters!)- somehow when I am on a train, sorrow/sad is not an emotion- usually its laughter, solitude and happiness!! I pretty much get down wherever the train stops- very important, get a taste of the local food. Oh..those matka chais in Kharagpur, jamuns (the fruit, if you have never had these you have missed something great), vadas in vijayawada, not-one-of-my-favorite-srikhand, guavas (when they are in season)....Not just food but somehow getting down at a stop, I felt like I belonged there and that to me was way cool!
I used to stand the door taking in all the air and smell of the earth as much as possible- as if I were going to die tomorrow or something. Interestingly, there were ticket checking guys-some of them just warned me, there were others that yelled but there were few others that always had a gruesome story to tell about young boys and girls getting killed by standing alongside those giant iron doors. When I am on a train there is always sense of urgency- finish a good number of books, taste all the food you can, oh sleep, I forgot that, sleep as much as you can!!! T might be dirty, my co-passengers might be annoying, hey but all that.. cannot keep me from enjoying my train journey. Live a little, let go of your comfort for a just a few hours and you will be the happiest passenger in the world!!

PS my dream- to travel the Indian subcontient by trains, stop at every little station and explore the villages nearby- and take a shot at writing about it!

Fear...

2008-05-12T22:03:00.000-04:00

Here is another one borne out of my thought-experiments!

She sat on the couch- TV was on, music was playing on her laptop, phone was ringing. She sat still on the couch, unmindful of all the noises that surrounded her. (gosh! how I wish I could do that...get away from all the noises) She was scared- scared of what, that she could not tell. Fear of the unknown possibly, her mind wandered, it was as if taking a stroll in Central Park. Why do people fear the unknown? Why do we as humans have to know everything? This was her chance, chance to be happy and not worry about the unknown. After all she had everything that she could ever want, well may be not ever want but it was more than enough for the time being. Then why could she not get the unknown out of her mind? She knew giving up things she loved doing most or the people she loved was not helping either. It was debilitating. What is her way out, when her thoughts are chockablock with the unknown?
Well, her mind seemed to have fagged off after the stroll. She jolted and was greatly stricken by the noise around her. She decided to take a stroll herself and find the comfort she needed under the starry skies.

One world, one language

2008-04-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

As a lover of languages, such articles always make me fret a bit. Not that I don't understand the importance of learning English, after all it is soon to become the ONLY language (even with a billion + population each of China and India). But my only wish is to not see such a thing happen in my lifetime! I take pride in the fact that Indians are very multilingual- we somehow do not even realize this fact, most of us can speak at least 3 different languages including English. Isn't that quite a feat?
So why do I think trying to do our bit in saving the languages from totally dying out is important? Quite simple really- I consider English to be a language of stinginess- alphabets have been stripped down to bare minimum. English lacks the bounty of some of the other languages. Well, I can only imagine that it would not be too long before we start using Newspeak as the "world official langauge". We can see it heading there, can we not? What with A and Es being replaced by whatever?!!
So folks go on learn as much languages as possible and don't forget your own native tongue!!

Thats it 4 2nite, BCNU soon

PS Orwell, IMAO was one of the best!!!!

Finally...

2008-03-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

Hold on...I am not graduating....well at least not yet. Finally my/ our paper has been accepted.
It is a suspense as to where it got through but I can assure you- its big ladies and gentleman (please people don't spoil the surprise and crse others can take guesses)!!!
But you know what, there is hardly any excitement left in me, may be because I am tired and it just took too long, too many people and too much of work (most of which first ended up in supplementary section during the first review process and then removed altogether from the paper after the 2nd review!). It was very funny, here I was thinking I could relax a little, but the reverie was spoilt when my boss comes to me the next day and goes "so- any-data-for-me".
Anyway am back to work, well it never stopped actually.

PS Next time I give this title, I probably means that I have either graduated or just left the country