tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-186380432024-03-08T06:20:18.631+05:30To thine own cell...This blog is mainly a collection of things that amuse me, irritate me or intrigue me. Enjoy!samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-80479596401693651662008-12-13T06:47:00.009+05:302008-12-23T03:26:05.513+05:30In which I berate techonological progressDont get me wrong I am a slave to technology - laptops, mice, Youtube, Joost, Hulu, GPS, iPods, Guitar Hero. Chances are if i can afford them I <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> have them. It was in this spirit of being technology's slave-girl that I got an Orkut and Facebook account and signed up for Gmail chat. The honeymoon was great, I loved the way I could keep in touch with my friends on Gmail chat or with scraps (micromail for the attention span challenged) just to remind friends that I am around. I loved the potential for getting back in touch with childhood friends.<br /><br />This followed a period where I aggressively searched for long lost neighbours from my childhood home and in the process met random people from school who were 8 when I was 14. Once I even made <a href="http://tothineowncell.blogspot.com/2005/11/gulf-asian-english-school.html">this very heart rending post</a>, where I asked to know of my school friends whom I had lost touch with. The upside to that was thanks to a combination of that post, Facebook and Orkut, I am now very definitely in touch with them.<br /><br />In fact, I now know whats on the mind of as much as 6 people before breakfast (via status messages on Gmail chat, facebook and orkut) impossible as it may seem.Some of them even have blogs to further subject me to their thoughts and actions during the course of the day, week, year. (Oh wait...!) Not that I am close to any of them. Most of them I have met once maybe twice, few have something stimulating to say and almost all of them have sent friendship requests when I was in a benevolent mood.<br /><br />Subject to this much barrage of information of who is getting married, who had kids, who moved to Australia, who is going to a certain hemisphere, who got a job and where, who crashed a car while learning to drive, who is making pasta for dinner, who hated sky diving and who is bored, I am losing my sangfroid. Schadenfreude anyone?<br /><br />Earlier it was all hail-fellow-well-met and then a vacuum which you really only bothered to fill if you had a crush on that person in question but now even the Facebook updates from my highschool crush are a chore to read as he hops from one debauched Dubai party to another. Sometimes I just wants to disappear into a technological rabbit hole of obscurity and emerge in a few decades and then seek out Nisha, Vikas, Ann, V., A., B., W., and the other endearing letters of the alphabet.<br /><br />Several times I have come this close to deleting my accounts but the addiction persists! I am cursed to live out my life in this Kalyug where friendships after the actual physical proximity criteria is eliminated go from email exchanges, to Facebook wall messages to Orkut scraps to Gchat status messages and finally hang on with the claws of Facebook updates. Welcome to eternal damnation where friendships don't gracefully melt into obscurity but are well and truly forever.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-73964205249841529782008-10-08T12:02:00.001+05:302008-10-08T12:04:28.071+05:30When dreams die....do they make a noise?<br />Like the splash when a frog jumps into a pond or<br />Like the continuous patter of rain on a rooftop or<br />Like the roaring incessancy of a waterfall? <br /><br /><br />Most people would say <br />They don’t make any noise at all<br />Like a glacier melting.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-76019424019359864232008-10-04T03:31:00.003+05:302008-10-04T03:40:09.889+05:30Evolution....is put in perspective by a Youtube video. Have fun!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fIY4zwYBfrU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fIY4zwYBfrU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Thanks to <a href="http://other95.blogspot.com/">The Other 95%</a> for the link!<br /><br />Look out for the monkeys on a typewriter(get it?? :) ) bit somewhere in the middle.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-78620034135047937012008-09-17T07:25:00.002+05:302008-11-19T07:26:35.053+05:30On Muses"O Muses, O high genius, aid me now!<br /> O memory that engraved the things I saw,<br /> Here shall your worth be manifest to all!"<br /><br />- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri" title="Dante Alighieri">Dante Alighieri</a>, in Canto II of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy#Inferno" title="The Divine Comedy" class="mw-redirect">The Inferno</a>samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-14801074722879947792008-09-12T23:34:00.002+05:302008-09-12T23:55:21.959+05:30ShogunI first read <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clavell">James Clavell</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_(novel)">Shogun</a> when I was 16 in the summer of '96 before the Std. XII exams, sneaking time between the chemical reactions we were supposed to memorize and the integrations I was supposed to practice. <br /><br />I was hooked from the first page with his descriptions of Japanese life and customs (boiling of tea leaves during peacetime and boiling of prisoners otherwise). The complex plots and the in depth characterization of even minor players left me reeling. Its descriptions of Japanese concepts of wa and absolute obedience were the closest I could get to escaping the dreary desert sands of the Middle East. All this mind you in the Dark Ages before the days of the Great WWW. <br /><br />Times changed and here I am in the US of A with a <a href="http://www.netflix.com">Netflix</a> account. <br /><br />I find that "Shogun" had been made into a TV series in the mid-eighties! I had it ordered promptly and now the disc is sitting there next the DVD player. I am wondering whether I should watch it at all. Would the watching of this DVD completely ruin my imaginings of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blackthorne">Blackthorne</a>, Lord Toranaga and Lady Mariko? Would these be lost to be forever to be replaced by the budget restricted panderings of three executive producers who may not have read the novel at all?<br /><br />Hmmmm....samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-79346877843863333212008-09-09T10:35:00.003+05:302008-09-09T10:41:01.305+05:30A Sexee Witch....is my new <a href="http://estore.vzwshop.com/chocolate3/">LG Chocolate3</a> - a 3G 1GB CDMA with iPod like sound quality and a 2 megapixel camera with two screens all for 40 bucks. Me is in love!samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-64121055750268411972008-05-21T11:18:00.003+05:302008-05-21T12:26:00.532+05:30Recycle bin therapyI cleaned out my office desk today in preparation for the Voyage to the Great Beyond.** <br /><br />Aside from that, I threw away a lot of stuff. I mean lots. <br /><br />- Old Cd covers (why did i ever keep them in the first place?), <br />- Old paper reprints (God when did i ever read this?) <br />- Xeroxes of my certificates (i was OCD case once and to apply to any place i would carry three xerozes or more of all my certificates all the way back to my tenth), <br />- Non-working mosquito repellants (mosquitoes in the lab?) <br />- Hand santisers (wtf?) <br />- Binoculars (wtff?)<br />- A photograph of a person reading a girlie magazine (this was used to blackmail him by his friends and then left in my possesion. yes i have/had weird friends)<br />- a blank greeting card that was never sent.<br />- a new york momento got by Certain someone which i had forgotten. it shows the World trade Centre towers still standing. <br /><br />All the bins in my lab and adjacent labs are overflowing with my discarded stuff. <br /><br />I feel as if I am suddenly free of cares and don't have attachments anymore. Its a wonderful feeling. Perhaps this is how ascetics feel when they renouce the world. <br /><br />** - the Pacific Ocean not the River Styx.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-65050830499800801372008-02-20T12:58:00.002+05:302008-02-20T13:03:56.589+05:30A Shloka<blockquote>अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्याघ्रं नैव च नैव च अजापुत्रं बलिं दद्यात् देवो दुर्बलघातकः<br /><br />Not a horse, not an elephant, and never a tiger. It is the son of a goat that is sacrificed. Even the Gods are against the weak. </blockquote><br /><br />A Shloka I came across on my wanderings. Of course the interpretation of these things is always a subjective issue but I like to look at it as a subtle agnostic snub. <br /><br />Right now I have no idea which text it is from. Help would be appreciated and acknowledged.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-61179912509120775752008-02-12T21:43:00.000+05:302008-02-12T22:22:01.205+05:30The Unwaba Revelations - A ReviewI rarely review books or movies because I am sure that there are other people who do. But in my wanderings on the great www I did not come across a decent review of the "<a href="http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Bookdetail.aspx?bookId=6861">The Unwaba Revelations</a>" therefore this post is born.<br /><br />Before I start this I must confess that I have not read the first two novels. But I did not think that it mattered because novels even if they are part of trilogy must be enjoyable on their own without resorting to what happened before. I wonder if this was a factor is my actually enjoying the book only half way through it when I had managed to get ravains, vamans, asurs, humans and other myriad life forms that inhabit the book sorted out in my head.<br /><br />I started reading it with a lot of expectations, considering reviews on the net and all that though I must confess that Samit Basu’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitav_Ghosh">state-mate’s </a>brushes with science fiction one of which produced the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calcutta_Chromosome">Calcutta Chromosome </a>should have made me wary but nevertheless in the quest for fiction that is based in my reality and not <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a634">Central Park</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_a_boy">contemporary London </a>or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bellarosa_Connection">post WWII Jewish Boston</a>, hope springs eternal from the human breast.<br /><br />I was hooked from the first page when not only was Aishwarya(Rai?) was compared to a duck but she was also given a species name. (<em>Viduci olwwasysac</em> – Why does she always ask?) My favorite is the Kaos butterflies used by Kol(get it?) to defend itself against enemies, which can create thunderstorms by flapping their wings. (Get it? Get it?) Some other allusions that I came across. - Regal Eagles(?), Streakers in Central Kol Park. (Quite obvious), Free States (USA!) ,Xi’en (China?) [<a href="http://oook.freeshell.org/">Oook </a>tells me that the Kaos butterflies bit is borrowed from Terry Pratchett.]<br /><br />Yes "<a href="http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Bookdetail.aspx?bookId=6861">The Umwaba Revelations</a>" is chock full of these weird references. Some of which I am sure I did not get. Though two friends tried to convince me that forest Ekyavan whose leader pretends to sleep but is actually meditating is a reference to Vaijpayee. But in retrospect it might be referring to Area 51 as later in the novel some fancy alien ships are found there.<br /><br />An interesting new literary device the single paragraphed conversation between two people was original. Sly references to Mumbai in the form of Bolvudis(Get it?), which I applauded. The hero(Kirin) who prefers sex to saving the world and outwits the gods by mere argument I liked.<br /><br />At some places his language seems strained and sometimes too much of a college cliché especially the conversations between Maya and Kirin. A little cutting and snipping would have made it perfect. Towards the end the complex battle scenes had my head reeling and wondering when it would all end. There are a lot of names common between the people he acknowledges and some characters in the book. I wonder if they are in-jokes. That would be poor taste.<br /><br />I went in looking for a book that would represent our cultures our inflences in a sartorial way like Terry Pratchett. (the Gods here so speak like Death from Terry Pratchett - ALL IN CAPS.) I was slightly dissapointed but still it is a great effort overall - perhaps I enjoyed it a little bit more because reading of said book was punctuated by the reviewer meeting with the author at a book lauch where he most graciously returned her pen after signing her book (the high moral standards thus displayed had impartial reviewer swooning.) Now if only he wrote a novel about a great city named Mum with meandering roads by the sea where great rains come once a year and a cold wave paralyses the city’s denizens, then I shall deify him.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-15428945277960196592008-01-27T18:20:00.000+05:302008-01-27T18:25:21.032+05:30A cold wind this way blowsNow a days I dread the setting of the sun when the darkness takes over.<br /><br />It is unusually cold in Mumbai right now. I am told the temperature was 10C yesterday. It is fine if you are well equipped to deal with the cold but Mumbaikars are not. I mean cold weather in Mumbai lasts for <em>two days</em> in a year. And my hostel room has been carefully chosen to be shielded from the sun so that it is the coolest in summer. Problem is it is also the coldest room in winter!!<br /><br />I have resorted to ad hoc techniques which involve not opening my windows of my room at all and sleeping with three sheets, one sweater and a pair of socks. This has been happening for the past two weeks with hopes that it will get better soon. I hope this goes away, or pretty soon I will have to actually *buy* a blanket.<br /><br />To add to this some bright peeps (read people from the North who were in their element) came up with the idea of going to Marine Drive yesterday. I acquiesced. There we were hanging out on windy windy Marine Drive in the coldest day in the year for an hour almost. It was when ice-cream at Natural’s was suggested that I drew the line. A cold Mumbaikar is a disgruntled Mumbaikar and that is one thing you would not want to mess with.<br /><br />On the plus side, after a long time, I have come across Hindi music which I have listed to in a loop (you know when you play the song/song track again and again and again and again and again.......) Ladies and gentlemen, I present <a href="http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/hindi_bollywood/s/movie_name.9539">Jodha Akbar</a>. Listen to the magic of Rahman!samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-56018327993258987592007-12-02T16:21:00.000+05:302007-12-02T16:30:00.821+05:30Coat UncoatA quote that deserves more visibility.<br /><br /><blockquote>"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter and enlightened self-interest."<br />- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%27Kar">G'Kar</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5">Babylon-5<br /><br /></a></blockquote>samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-43826286769460689572007-11-30T14:46:00.000+05:302007-11-30T15:00:29.041+05:30MEI dinnersAssume two people A and B, both of whom are standard MEI students.<br /><br />A is in the last stages of having his dinner in the famed East Canteen with live entertainment (in the form of scuttling rats) and candle light ambience (on all days but in certain corners only). B joins A. Now A’s dining ritual is tending towards completion yet B in his ignorance, feigned or otherwise, has still joined A.<br /><br />How long should A, whose dinner is almost done, wait for B in such a situation?<br /><br />Keen observation and several MEI dinners later, scientists have deciphered the factors that determine the time that A will wait for B.<br /><br />The time is directly proportional to<br /><br /><br /><ul><li>The size of the intersection of their social circles. i.e. the number of mutual friends that they have.</li><li>The days that A has not met B.</li><li>The number of favors that B can do for A. (e.g. exchange of library duty, giving competent cells, helping with assignments etc.)</li><li>The number of favors that B has done for A.</li><li>The number of treks that they have been together on.</li><li>The number of technical terms that B uses frequently and which A understands. E.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokinesis">cytokinesis</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckling">Euler buckling</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld_sandpile">Sandpile model</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_space">Euclidean space</a>, etc. (Putting it another way whether or not they are from similar fields)</li><li>The number of social causes B espouses.</li><li>The number of books, movies, etc that B owns that A is interested in.</li><li>The number of mood altering substances they have had together.</li></ul>On the other hand, the time is inversely proportional to<br /><br /><br /><ul><li>The time that A had been sitting at the table before B joined.</li><li>The number of people at the table other than A and B.</li><li>The difference in the years of their joining. (e.g. 2002 – 2007=5)</li><li>The number of days B has not taken a shower.</li><li>The number of favors that A could theoretically do for B</li><li>The distance between their respective home towns. (See Addendum below)</li></ul>A special case is if A and B are of the opposite sex. In such a case, the time thus obtained after these computations is to be doubled. (The time may be quadrupled if B and A are single). The time is also doubled if A and B share the same mother tongue.<br /><br />Admittedly the actual relationships of all the factors are complex and involve other emotional factors which cannot be quantitated but this is major step in deciphering the complex social dynamics at MEI and will help in understanding that greatest of enigmas - the MEI student.<br /><br />(*** - Addendum - Consider a line drawn between the two respective hometowns and an imaginary mid point at the exact center of this line. It can now be said that the effect of “distance between hometowns” factor is more complex as its effect in turn increases exponentially as increase in the distance of said imaginary midpoint from Mumbai, location of MEI. A very subtle jibe there if you can get it!)<br /><br />[Some creative inputs from S.J., P. S. and S.S. MEI here standing for My Esteemed Institute - a place of some repute I am told.]<br /><br /></li><ul></ul></li><ul></ul>samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-9852372736272812292007-11-23T13:55:00.000+05:302007-11-23T15:07:50.810+05:30Eleven thingsEleven things I want to do before I die<br /><br />1) Read "The Lord of the Rings". All three parts.<br /><br />2) Visit Paris/Vienna.<br /><br />3) Bungee jump.<br /><br />4) Become a size 0.<br /><br />5) Drink <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe">absinthe</a>.<br /><br />6) Own a Joni Mitchell CD. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_%28Joni_Mitchell_album%29">This one</a> to be precise. <br /><br />7) Write a short story- in Marathi. Just to prove a point.<br /><br />8) Direct a film – horror preferably set in my institute. Its long corridors with multiple doors and desolate areas are a perfect setting.<br /><br />9) Listen to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Philharmonic">Berlin Philharmonic</a> perform <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen">Carmen</a> live.<br /><br />10) Meet my high school crush.<br /><br />11) Put up <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Entertainment-Poster-Print-24x36/dp/B000EEGD62/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1195810495&sr=1-3">this poster</a> on the wall on my room.<br /><br />Someday. Someway.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-15118771216042996382007-11-06T13:58:00.000+05:302007-11-06T14:04:03.327+05:30Unofficial Department Mottoes in MEIFirst Department – What we do is great and what others do is junk.<br /><br />Second Department – What we do may not be great but what they do is definitely junk.<br /><br />Third Department – We should get noticed. Somehow.<br /><br />Fourth Department – We don’t know and we don’t care. We are going to Bangalore anyways.<br /><br />Fifth Department - We know but we don’t care. Pune is great at this time of the year.<br /><br />Sixth Department – We know and we care very much but we don’t know what to do about it.<br /><br />Seventh Department – We earn so much more than the rest that we don’t need to care. So we play badminton.<br /><br />(S.S. to be credited with the first two. MEI stands for My Esteemed Institute.)samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-1153561939670875782007-10-18T15:19:00.000+05:302007-10-18T17:54:14.796+05:30On being cynicalWhen I joined the insti, the fifth/sixth years were this hallowed tribe you could make out from the others. They were always worried, always serious, never smiled. They did talk to you occasionally to give you advice like “go home more often” or “time flies like an arrow” or something more practical “if your flies don’t mate, sing to them.” (huh??). Some lost their temper on the silliest of things – like when I overshot my time and then invaded into theirs on the confocal microscope or when a lizard entered the culture room. ("Get it out! Get it out! It will eat my flies. I have to finish in two months!")<br /><br />Something about the hard phd life that makes them like that I used to think. Now I am beginning to wonder whether I am like that too.<br /><br />Lets see. In the past ten days I have..<br /><br />Intensely worried - check<br />Never smiled or laughed - no.<br />Screamed at junior - check<br />Screamed at junior for no reason - check<br />Given unsolicited advice - check (this was about fly mating, for the record.)<br />Been in a bad mood - check (but that was because of a hangover. That does not count, does it?)<br /><br />Not bad. 4 and a half out of 6. I pass!samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-19510399301292029592007-10-11T14:48:00.000+05:302007-10-11T17:39:25.384+05:30MEI storiesThings you must do to be grep ('geekily hep') in MEI<br /><br />1) Music - Must profess a love for Pink Floyd, Bob Marley or Leonard Cohen. Denver is too pedestrian and Billy Joel is too 'whatever'. Britney Spears and her ilk is definitely a no-no. Though Eminem will do if you can say something suitably clever about his lyrics. To be truly eclectic you can say jazz. But pure classical rules as always.<br /><br />2) Books - non-fiction - Must have read all of the following books - selfish gene, blindwatchmaker, nobel dreams, tao of physics. Reading them means being able to discuss them or trash them with sentences that begin with "looking at it like a scientist........"<br /><br /><div>3) Movies - Must have watched (and enjoyed in an explainable, virtue extolling kind of way) a movie in a foreign language - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403358/">Russian</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409904/">sci-fi</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111495/">French romance</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118849/">Irani social commentary</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/">Japanese anime</a>, or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457430/">Spanish fantasy</a>. </div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div>4) TV- Must watch one or more of the following series and profess and undying love for them - Star Trek, Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd">IT crowd </a>or something more geeky. On the animation side, South park or Simpsons but then you will have discuss their social relevance.<br /><br />6) Books - science fiction - Terry Patchett, Isaac Asimov or you might want to say Ray Bradbury just to show your predeliction for the dark side of things. Non-science fiction - late 19th century fiction if you want to be differently different, or something dense like Nietzsche, Chekhov or Chaucer. Say "I like Rowling" and you will be wandering in the dreary desert sands of MEI social wilderness for years.<br /><br />5) Graphic novels. They are the IN thing these days. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(comic)">Persepolis</a> is a good start though <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnath_Banerjee">Sarnath Banerjee</a> is a close second due to his bong connection.<br /><br />7) OS - "Never judge a book by its cover, a man by his shoes or a geek by his operating system.", so said a wise man. but who listens to wise men anyways? Be warned, you WILL be judged by your OS. You must know UNIX/LINUX or at least pretend to use it even if you cannot use the command terminal and prefer a mouse. OSX is a close second. Mention Windows XP you will be summarily eliminated from the conversation. Vista and you might as well jump into the sea.<br /><br />8) Dress - dress is everything. This has to be carefully casual. A hopelessly crinkled kurta or shorts. Just to show the world that you are so fracking devoted to your science that you dont have the time to dress properly. Maroon is currently very much in style, replacing black as the t-shirt colour of choice. However, at any given time in MEI there will be at least one maroon or black shirt in a gathering of 5 or more people.<br /><br />9) Must espouse some social cause, which is a good thing.<br /><br /><br />10) Must be a blogger or a blogger to be. The latter mainly means reading blogs.<br /><br /><br />11) Should be able to discuss the pros and cons of the iPhone versus the Blackberry versus any other PDA, even if you have never seen them. All this within hours of their release. Time is critical. If you discuss it before release you will be labelled jobless, if you discuss it the next day it will be yesterdays news. Literally.<br /><br /><br />This combined with a healthy dose of the relevant recent research in your field of interest and there........you are all set to tackled the behe'mouths' of MEI.<br /><br />The very idea of 'grepness' involves refusing to be defined. So these very things might just be non-grep tomorrow. You have been warned.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-45760905883833898652007-09-28T02:38:00.001+05:302007-09-28T02:45:11.955+05:30Dreamer of Dreams(Stumbled on this poem from <a href="http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/">this site,</a> where it was just two lines at the bottom of the page, but after that it has been stuck in my head. It is what can be called a poet's poem. What haunts me the most is the last two lines. )<br /><br /><span><span style="font-family:Courier,sans-serif;"><pre><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">We are the music-makers,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And we are the dreamers of dreams,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Wandering by lone sea-breakers,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And sitting by desolate streams.</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">World-losers and world-forsakers,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Upon whom the pale moon gleams;</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Yet we are the movers and shakers,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Of the world forever, it seems.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">With wonderful deathless ditties</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">We build up the world's great cities,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And out of a fabulous story</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">We fashion an empire's glory:</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">One man with a dream, at pleasure,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Shall go forth and conquer a crown;</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And three with a new song's measure</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Can trample an empire down.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">We, in the ages lying</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">In the buried past of the earth,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Built Nineveh with our sighing,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And Babel itself with our mirth;</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">And o'erthrew them with prophesying</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">To the old of the new world's worth;</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">For each age is a dream that is dying,</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Or one that is coming to birth.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">-<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Arthur O'Shaughnessy.</span></span></pre></span></span>samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-1139592649686961502007-09-11T22:59:00.000+05:302007-09-11T20:22:51.448+05:30All our lifeAll our life we chase a dream<br />when we get it we realise<br />it it not what we wanted.<br />With these words I set you free.<br />And in doing so I am released too.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-82316328565531960732007-08-16T19:09:00.000+05:302007-08-16T21:10:21.268+05:30The week that wasI have had the nicest week ever.<br /><br />It started with a play at the <a href="http://www.ncpamumbai.com/home/home.asp">NCPA</a> – <a href="http://mumbai.sulekha.com/events/Play/2007/07/cotton-56-polyester-84-hindi-play.htm">Cotton 56 Polyester 84</a>. It was brilliant. It is a play about the Mumbai mills, the culture they spawned and the way it died. There were several references to real incidents – the rise and fall of communism in Mumbai, the underworld etc. It hit home is more ways than one, as my grandfather worked in the mills. Interspersed with some traditional Marathi music it really made me nostalgic.<br /><br />Then mid week for no reason we went to <a href="http://mumbai.burrp.com/establishment/establishment.html?id=11165229&page=3">Theobroma</a> and I had a huge choco fudge cake sponsored by S. The only thing better than chocolate cake is a free chocolate cake. Hmm..<br /><br />This was followed by a movie – <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459293/">Gandhi my Father</a>. One of the more ‘intellectual’ movies to come out of Bollywood and I love Akshaye Khanna and since it has been sometime since a handsome guy graced my blog here I put his pic. Muah! He acts well as usual. So does the guy who plays Gandhi (except for his unintentionally funny prosthetic ears). The actors are great. The sets are fantastic. But the film is smaller then the sum of the parts and whole thing just does not gel together. You would be better off watching the play with Naseeruddin Shah and Kay Kay.<br /><br />A telugu movie on Friday night – It was called <a href="http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/archive/mr-jagadam.html">Jagadam.</a> Technically it was a brilliant movie, the way it was shot, the scenes, the background etc. The first half hour was actually entertaining like entering a whole new universe. A few minor hiccups. The heroine wearing a short white skirt falls for the tapori hero after he molests her at the theater. Huh? Are we still living in the middle ages? And their way of expressing love? Ok wait for this. The girl sucking water off the heroes shoulder before he has a bath with a straw. This scene is shown three times in the movie for added effect. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2026533,00.html">Meh! </a><br /><br />Then a trek to <a href="http://deepabhi.tripod.com/mahuli.html">Mahuli</a> – possibly my first trek. And yes the very idea of Samudrika trekking was enough to send some people into hysterical laughter. But pox on them! The high point was a well wishing co-trekker whose idea of de-stressing was making up rhyming couplets as we climbed up. Ah yes dear readers I made up the rear of the trekking group but I managed it. This was followed quickly by a promise to me to not go on another trek ever, until I build up my stamina. To add more interest to the whole thing, it was raining when we climbed down, when all the rocks became slippery and suddenly the trek was non-trivial.<br /><br />On Sunday I went to judge to St. Xaviers for a science project competition for Malhaar, which is arguably the most popular college fest in Mumbai. It was the first time the famous college fest actually had a science based competition. That was heart warming. The topic was "Novel perceptions of time and its measurement". How thrilling! I am told that Malhaar usually involves judges like John Abraham, so I am in exalted company. Yes, you may have my autograph!<br /><br />That brings me back to my manic Mondays. Not bad at all. Time to buckle down and get to work or else my pre-thesis seminar is going to be DOA.<br /><br />AAAAAhhhhhhhhhh!!!!<br /><br />That was me screaming my stress off. So if you hear some random screams over the next four weeks (I have only four weeks!! Damn! Damn! Damn!), that would be me. Please be kind!<br /><br />Currently listening to – Don’t worry be happy – Bob Marley.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-75357233567931710402007-06-28T14:05:00.000+05:302007-07-16T19:10:04.628+05:30Peter Pan-esqueIt has been a dreary couple of months - the last week has been the worst. A friend is sufferring from a illness which has no physical manifestations, and an illness which most people would make fun of.(the D word darling!) Sometimes I feel partly responsible because I ignored my friend when I was needed the most. Wrapped in my own thoughts, I did not bother to enquire about hir** at all. But hir is "limping back normalcy" slowly and hopefully all will be soon be right with my world.<br /><br />Also lots of people leaving MEI - people I knew, people I loved, people I liked. With each leaving, an era ends. MEI becomes slightly more different than it was before if that oh-so-familiar face is not in the canteen, collonade, seashore or library. What is life if there is no one to share late night multi-hour 'information exchanges' with?<br /><br />Perhaps all this is just a symptom of the high stress life that being in fifth year entails. you know post doc searching, thesis writing, paper writing, boss fighting, recco getting and all that. interspersed with frantic searches on Pubmed to see what your batchmates have been upto for the past five years, regretfully realising that they have done better than you while you devoted yourself to wine, man and song. Literally.<br /><br />Now its time face the world. start worrying about money, housing, stock options, money, babies, jobs, visas, passports, money, some serious work perhaps, mid-life crises, in-laws, etc and money too.<br /><br />** - hir - new article which is gender independant. could mean him OR her. can also be used in place of he OR she.<br /><br />*** - MEI - My Esteemed Institute - a well known and reputed research insitute in India which I study in, but I will not name, lest Google give me away.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-32746151647133029472007-05-21T11:42:00.000+05:302007-05-21T12:54:31.213+05:30Summer time(This was written last year when the visiting summer students arrived. I have no idea why I never published it then. But today being the day that the summer students start their six week thing, I figure I would post it today. )<br /><em></em><br /><em>Summer time and weather is fine.<br />If you stretch right up you can touch the sky…<br /></em><br />Thus spake Peter Andre – the one with the six pack abs.<br /><br />However, summer time for a research scholar means something entirely different. This heralds the arrival of the species which in polite terms are called the short-term students. The people from various undergrad institutes that makes their way into My Esteemed Institute ostensibly to learn something new. This is of course all a part of the great initiative of a government funded research institute to encourage science aptitude in the undergrad.<br /><br />I don’t know how it works in the theoretical sciences but it the experimental ones they get tagged along with some (un)lucky grad student.<br /><br />Some of them are quite nice and I have had quite an enjoyable time with them. But these days all the summer students come with one thing – attitude with a capital A. I don’t know it is just me , or just me getting old, or some radical shift in perception.<br /><br /><em>Situation one</em><br /><br />Here I am. We use carbon dioxide to make flies sit still so that we can work on them. The CO2 comes from huge cylinders outside the lab. One of these got over. Me poor me standing there with a spanner in my hand trying to move these huge things and fix them right.<br /><br />This VSRP comes, makes whistling noise as if he pities me and then he just stand there and watchs. Just watches. All this while i have this huge spanner in my hand and I am trying to move these big cylinders because the helpers have all gone for the day.<br /><br />“Why don’t you use some other less cumbersome method of anesthetizing flies?<br /><br />Pregnant Pause.<br /><br />Are you sure you are doing it right?<br /><br />Another Pregnant Pause.<br /><br />“This is really dangerous. What if it explodes?”<br /><br />I had these mental images of crushing his skull out with my spanner. But then I gave him my <a href="http://tothineowncell.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-requiem-for-dream.html">MEI sneer</a> and he went away.<br /><br /><em>Situation two</em><br /><em></em><br />Then the irritating guy (from IIT) of larger than average proportions who comes into the lab.<br /><br />Opens the door. Door bangs against some book shelf kept behind it. Then he asks why don’t you get rid of that thing? And gives us a look of supreme contempt. Like the morons that we non-IITians are should have fixed that problem earlier.<br /><br /><em>Situation three</em><br /><br />Trying to make some lunchtime conversation – you know the situation where no one knows anyone and you are trying to pass time while you chew the grub. This fellow happened to be working in a certain s***** theory dept - which MEI is supposedly famous for.<br /><br />Him: So who do you work with?<br /><br />Me: XXX<br /><br />Him:Oh I don’t know him.<br /><br />That is good thing.<br /><br />Me:What do you work on?<br /><br />Him: You would not understand.<br /><br />End of conversation.<br /><br /><em>Situation four</em><br /><br />Then there was the story of the student who thought he knew everything. And then he would catch people at the time when they had the most work and ask "what do you do?" Most people like to talk about their work so someone would start explaining about drosophila spermatogenesis and then he would say “Yah yah I know.” But he does then you start explaining something else and then he would say “yeah I know that too.”<br />Can’t you just listen? And no you don’t know these things.<br /><br /><br /><br />And just when you think that you have got it all figured out and you are finally exploiting them to full glory – pat comes the news. Their six week training period is over and they have to leave and you end up finishing all the experiments that they have started.<br /><br />Truly speaking they do provide us a whole bunch of jokes to laugh at for the rest of the year. Don’t get me wrong some of them are quite useful. and there are the incidental advantages. Some lucky peeps have found mates this way. But most of all they do remind us wizened old souls about why we started science in the first place – for the wonder and joy of it.<br /><br />Just when you start to forget them, comes a new bunch of them bigger, brighter better - with attitudes to match.<br /><br />Here's to another six weeks with the peeps that arrive today!samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-41869068728896637692007-05-20T23:28:00.000+05:302007-05-20T23:32:53.848+05:30Death of an obsession(Emotions are such fickle things. One day I am desperately in love with Tracy Chapman. I play her songs again and again. Next day, I am bored of her. Bored to death. Therefore a poem is born! If there is one thing I am consistent with is the fact that at any given time I <em>will</em> be obsessed - just that it will be with different things.)<br /><br /><br />The gossamer wings of a butterfly<br />The silky web of a black spider<br />A dewdrop within a dewdrop<br />A dream within a dream<br />Transient, evanescent<br />An emotion, a feeling<br />There for a second<br /><br />And in a flap<br />Gone forever<br />Not a trace<br />That it ever<br />Existed?samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-39990455625218322062007-05-15T22:47:00.000+05:302007-05-15T23:44:02.727+05:30Psychedelia<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFUdqmkop5Ip6c9xzlXOjofzvOQz80riGs8yIk4Xune_DDhdlXE1PKGFS4PGOXfaB3z3Sbo6aPWDY5RMR3riOkCA0QTb_wEvQ5bbm6E3gJ-W62UGulg_AN1hLtoJGxSs_EKjN/s1600-h/Untitled-2-web.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064851284396282626" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 209px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 226px" height="266" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFUdqmkop5Ip6c9xzlXOjofzvOQz80riGs8yIk4Xune_DDhdlXE1PKGFS4PGOXfaB3z3Sbo6aPWDY5RMR3riOkCA0QTb_wEvQ5bbm6E3gJ-W62UGulg_AN1hLtoJGxSs_EKjN/s320/Untitled-2-web.gif" width="241" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The wonders of Adobe Illustrator. I wanted to make a schematic illustrating a stage of Drosophila spermatogenesis - something like the diagram on the <em>left</em>.<br /><div><br /><div></div><div>But then I started fiddling around with Illustrator and somehow ended up with the picture on the <em>right</em>. (a psychedelic 's view of the Drosophila testes perhaps?). I did not have the heart to delete it so I do the next best thing. Blog it!</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div> </div></div></div>samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-79967353192373625092007-05-10T21:57:00.000+05:302007-05-10T22:13:18.555+05:30Ode to Spot(I came across this poem supposed to have been written by Data - the android from Star Trek for his cat. For some reason, I found it very funny, thought right now I cannot recollect why. Text courtesy Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.)<br /><br />ODE TO SPOT by Commander Data.<br /><br />Felis Catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,<br />An endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature.<br />Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses<br />Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defences.<br />I find myself intrigued by your sub-vocal oscillations,<br />A singular development of cat communications<br />That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection<br />For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.<br />A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents:<br />You would not be so agile if you lacked its counter-balance.<br />And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion<br />It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.<br />Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display<br />Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array,<br />And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend<br />I none-the-less consider you a true and valued friend.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18638043.post-22385914554257163892007-05-09T20:33:00.000+05:302007-05-09T20:45:10.790+05:30Science writingI have started blogging at another place. <a href="http://oook.freeshell.org/index.html">A friend</a> invited me to join a group blog to write about science and other related things. This blog will be pretty much restricted to not-so-serious issues.<br /><br />You should hop <a href="http://greyareamusing.blogspot.com/">over there</a>. We have real fun discussions sometimes.<br /><br />Currently listening to - New York state of mind - Billy Joel.samudrikahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14642454049950920872noreply@blogger.com0