Just finished watching two movies... Last exam tomorrow.
Its been wierd this time... never felt as if exams were on. In fact had more fun during the damn exams rather than before. Night time tea sessions at Shivajinagar. Night shows for hollywood movies hindi mein, that too housefull. Plaing silly flash games or watching some movie on the laptop till 1(am), studying till 2, waking up at 9, going to Anna's and complaning had too much to eat, cant possibly study now and after all this sitting for the exam at 2 and then coming out and say "Man that went better than expected!!". Thats the one good thing about not studying, you expect the worst but it always goes better than expected and you come out happy. Thats any day better than studying hard, not being able to do as well and coming out disappointed.
And not just me, everyone in the hostel just did tp for most part. Even when the next day was gonna be shit and I knew it and I just couldn't get myself to study for it. TO give you an idea, I installed NFS Carbon (again) just before the exams knowing full well that man this is THE ONE THING i should NOT be doing, but to hell with it all. AND believe it or not, I have completed the damn career mode and the challenger series has just 5 more gold races left. Its a freaking 5 GB game, and i had exams going on.
As i type this, it is 1am (exact) on Dec the 10th. It has been: 25th Nov to 10th Dec - 16 days, 13 exams, 8 subjects, 7 theory papers, 6 practicals and 3 holidays; MSc Bioinformatics Semester III ends. Didnt feel anything this time, neither the dread, fear nor the high. Thats why its been wierd this time. But still feeling happy that the exams are ending.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Climate Change
This planet is an extremely complex and dynamic system of uncountable interacting elements.
There is a game called as "Life" which is most commonly implemented in C language. It basically creates a 2 dimensional array and "lights" up cells according to some few simple basic rules. However once the code is run, after some time extraordinarily complex patterns are seen and new patterns emerge. As if the code is living, the lit up cells are termed to be alive, hence the name Life.
Its the same with Earth, except that this planet is an infinite dimensional array, and a large number of incredibly complex rules govern interactions between the variables which light up the cells.
One feature of the game was that when the initial pattern changed the subsequent patterns changed drastically. Also the initial pattern decided whether the lit up cells will spread apart, dilute in concentration and die, or they will form other patterns which will be sustained.
Life appeared/arrived/started on this planet 3.2 billion years ago. Then around 2.4 billions years back photosynthesis appeared. And the sheer number of the cyanobacteria was enough to change the composition of the whole damn atmophere of this planet. The air turned poisonous with a new oxidising agent. Level of CO2 fell drastically, temperatures dropped. Climate Changed.
Present day Earth, same process is happening, inhabitants of the biosphere are playing with patterns and the outcome is bound to change the state of this planet and problem is we don't know where these changed pattern will lead to.
But my stand, as it has always been, on climate change is as follows: Cyanobacteria utilized the nutrients available to them to the fullest, in the process excreting Oxygen, which was at that time an extremely poisonous gas to other life forms, which were predominantly Anaerobes. This phenomena pushed anaerobes, which ruled the earth into such places such as seafloor, intestines and bottom of marshes. Today we are also utilizing the resources available to us to the fullest, and in the process we are excreting poisonous waste which is bound to affect the abiosphere and other life forms. However if cyanobacteria didn't stop why should we. This planet has always adjusted to whatever perturbations it encountered, that's how the system works, by simply following the rules. If the changed patterns cause some populations (maybe/hopefully Humans) to die off, well thats how this game of Life works. The rules just cant be changed.
P.s. This is my post as a contribution for the Blog Action Day cause of this year Climate Change. Cant say it furthers the cause, but i registered and so i blogged!! :)
There is a game called as "Life" which is most commonly implemented in C language. It basically creates a 2 dimensional array and "lights" up cells according to some few simple basic rules. However once the code is run, after some time extraordinarily complex patterns are seen and new patterns emerge. As if the code is living, the lit up cells are termed to be alive, hence the name Life.
Its the same with Earth, except that this planet is an infinite dimensional array, and a large number of incredibly complex rules govern interactions between the variables which light up the cells.
One feature of the game was that when the initial pattern changed the subsequent patterns changed drastically. Also the initial pattern decided whether the lit up cells will spread apart, dilute in concentration and die, or they will form other patterns which will be sustained.
Life appeared/arrived/started on this planet 3.2 billion years ago. Then around 2.4 billions years back photosynthesis appeared. And the sheer number of the cyanobacteria was enough to change the composition of the whole damn atmophere of this planet. The air turned poisonous with a new oxidising agent. Level of CO2 fell drastically, temperatures dropped. Climate Changed.
Present day Earth, same process is happening, inhabitants of the biosphere are playing with patterns and the outcome is bound to change the state of this planet and problem is we don't know where these changed pattern will lead to.
But my stand, as it has always been, on climate change is as follows: Cyanobacteria utilized the nutrients available to them to the fullest, in the process excreting Oxygen, which was at that time an extremely poisonous gas to other life forms, which were predominantly Anaerobes. This phenomena pushed anaerobes, which ruled the earth into such places such as seafloor, intestines and bottom of marshes. Today we are also utilizing the resources available to us to the fullest, and in the process we are excreting poisonous waste which is bound to affect the abiosphere and other life forms. However if cyanobacteria didn't stop why should we. This planet has always adjusted to whatever perturbations it encountered, that's how the system works, by simply following the rules. If the changed patterns cause some populations (maybe/hopefully Humans) to die off, well thats how this game of Life works. The rules just cant be changed.
P.s. This is my post as a contribution for the Blog Action Day cause of this year Climate Change. Cant say it furthers the cause, but i registered and so i blogged!! :)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Hey, he is an Indian... nope: of "Indian Origin"
Just recently Dr Venki Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize (2009) in Chemistry for his seminal work in elucidating Ribosome Structure and Function along with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath.
And as expected everybody Indian started celebrating his "victory" and how that he was Indian in origin and was only the 4th Indian to win a Nobel and all what a great thing it was. Celebrations galore.
And then the internet came alive with blogs and tweets as to why all these celebrations, Venki did his Phd from US, his Post Doc from US, his research from US, using US dollars in grants and using resources provided in US by US and US and US. His discovery is beneficial only to the US and not to us in any way. And is he even Indian anymore?? Why the hell Indians in India are going over the top. The main question was why are we raising such a hue and cry over it.
Well I beg to differ. First and foremost, I dont think his discovery is beneficial only to US and not beneficial to us, because his discovery was for Science, something which transcends international boundaries. His work has resulted in understanding the mechanism of antibiotics that work in every Human, not just US citizens.
Secondly I ask, when does one stop being an Indian?? How does one define Indianess?? I mean, now that i live in Pune, i have come to love Mumbai more than before. Bombay is a place where i spent my whole childhood in, and whatever happens and whichever city i live in, there will always be some Mumbai and some Bombay in me. Similarly when and if i leave this country, does it mean i will cease to be an Indian?? That i will drop the values, principles and morals i follow. I feel to whatever different places we go to, we always come from one place, may be birth place, may be where u spent your childhood, may be home town, but mostly a place where u feel u are from. That place stays with you. Always. And wherever you go, you always have some of it in you.
So should we be asking whether Venki is Indian or not?? Einstein was from Germany, but won his Nobel as a US citizen, just like Khorana and Chandrasekhar. Does it make their work any less important or less meaningful??
It must also be noted that we have excellent research institutions in IISC, NCBS, TIFR etc. but look at the papers published from IISC, how many are Nature publications??. NCBS does publish in Nature and Science level journals but at what rate?? These institutions must be given the things they need (chiefly funding) to do such work, Venki winning the Nobel only goes to show that Indians have it in them to achieve such heights, only they have to leave the country to do so, and then face accusing questions by other people.
Instead of celebrating Diwali prematurely as we (Indians) are doing, we should rather try to provide opportunities in India to scientists for doing such fundamental work.
And as expected everybody Indian started celebrating his "victory" and how that he was Indian in origin and was only the 4th Indian to win a Nobel and all what a great thing it was. Celebrations galore.
And then the internet came alive with blogs and tweets as to why all these celebrations, Venki did his Phd from US, his Post Doc from US, his research from US, using US dollars in grants and using resources provided in US by US and US and US. His discovery is beneficial only to the US and not to us in any way. And is he even Indian anymore?? Why the hell Indians in India are going over the top. The main question was why are we raising such a hue and cry over it.
Well I beg to differ. First and foremost, I dont think his discovery is beneficial only to US and not beneficial to us, because his discovery was for Science, something which transcends international boundaries. His work has resulted in understanding the mechanism of antibiotics that work in every Human, not just US citizens.
Secondly I ask, when does one stop being an Indian?? How does one define Indianess?? I mean, now that i live in Pune, i have come to love Mumbai more than before. Bombay is a place where i spent my whole childhood in, and whatever happens and whichever city i live in, there will always be some Mumbai and some Bombay in me. Similarly when and if i leave this country, does it mean i will cease to be an Indian?? That i will drop the values, principles and morals i follow. I feel to whatever different places we go to, we always come from one place, may be birth place, may be where u spent your childhood, may be home town, but mostly a place where u feel u are from. That place stays with you. Always. And wherever you go, you always have some of it in you.
So should we be asking whether Venki is Indian or not?? Einstein was from Germany, but won his Nobel as a US citizen, just like Khorana and Chandrasekhar. Does it make their work any less important or less meaningful??
It must also be noted that we have excellent research institutions in IISC, NCBS, TIFR etc. but look at the papers published from IISC, how many are Nature publications??. NCBS does publish in Nature and Science level journals but at what rate?? These institutions must be given the things they need (chiefly funding) to do such work, Venki winning the Nobel only goes to show that Indians have it in them to achieve such heights, only they have to leave the country to do so, and then face accusing questions by other people.
Instead of celebrating Diwali prematurely as we (Indians) are doing, we should rather try to provide opportunities in India to scientists for doing such fundamental work.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Want, not Need
I asked myself, what do i really really want now, at this very moment?? and the answer left me totally surprised. I thought may be girlfriend?? Nah, high maintenance, then may be some one who i love.. and as it turned out - not really. May be what i want is a good Job.. but then i will be less oriented towards research and i wanted to do research after all. But do i wanna do research NOW??? Nope, not now man, after i complete my MSc and PhD i mean, then i wanna do research as my livelihood, the means through which i earn money.. So what DO i want now?? After MSc i want a project assistantship, which pays 12000/month for a year, that way i dont lose touch with research and can work for getting a good PhD in that one year, and if i am lucky may be i'll also get a paper!!! Yeah alright... but all thats for after the MSc.. the question was, what do i want NOW, ABHI. And the answer - I want my own bike, my own Honda Unicorn. Thats it. At this moment (1:39 am 30-9-2009) i really dont care much about job, RA, PhD, GRE, bioinfo, girlfriend, love, money, scholarship, marks, future, blah, blah... All i want in this world, now, is a bike of my own. Thats it.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Dussera
When we were kids in 6th-7th, Dussera was a big thing. The big Ravan was burnt in a spectacular show of fireworks, all lights and sound. Almost the whole colony would then walk all the way to the basket ball court behind Sector Market (Godavari bldg!) where the huge Ravan would be waiting its impending doom and with the Ram Leela on the stage in the background. I used to go with my whole family, mom always used to yell in the crowd trying to stop me from running off, nobody noticed though, cause everyone would be screaming and running anyways. Almost all of my school friends would turn up with their families. Later after the Ravan was burnt there would be a get together of all the Gujurati families of our group at Patel Uncle's place in Badrinath. There would be Patels, Shahs, Dalals, Panchals, children playing UNO and parents eating Fafda-Jalebi and Papdi and chatni, traditional Dussera food!!
And all of a sudden trying to catch the parachutes (released from the rockets!!) started to seem too childish. Then we grew up a bit more and the fireworks display started to look just as good from our 14th floor flat in Kamet. And then 10th std happened and so we didn't go. Later we stopped altogether.
Now Dussera doesn't mean anything anymore to me, nor do Diwali, nor Holi. This Dussera i was more interested in going back home to get my clothes washed and in the discounts offered on cell phones. And in Diwali i have stopped buying fire crackers long long back and in Holi i would much rather stay at home and sleep till 12.
But I still kinda wish for the old times sometimes...
And all of a sudden trying to catch the parachutes (released from the rockets!!) started to seem too childish. Then we grew up a bit more and the fireworks display started to look just as good from our 14th floor flat in Kamet. And then 10th std happened and so we didn't go. Later we stopped altogether.
Now Dussera doesn't mean anything anymore to me, nor do Diwali, nor Holi. This Dussera i was more interested in going back home to get my clothes washed and in the discounts offered on cell phones. And in Diwali i have stopped buying fire crackers long long back and in Holi i would much rather stay at home and sleep till 12.
But I still kinda wish for the old times sometimes...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Personified...
For centuries together the only things he had seen were its own insides... He had lived a long life, had struggled and fought, as time scarred him, so badly that he looked like something else altogether; Had become something else altogether.
And all of a sudden he felt a change, something was different, again. And out from the deep abyss where he lived, he was hauled all the way up to where the pressure dropped so much he thought he would blow up. But he didn't. Soon he was back in his usual pressure. But this place was different. There was lots of food, and all kinds of creature comforts, he went into over drive, lest it all vanishes just as it had appeared. Molecules came and went, some collided, others mounted him and still he kept on doing his work, more efficient than ever.
And then some thing changed, again. This place was different, bad. He felt his impending doom. The pressure dropped, but the temperature rose. It became very hot and still the temperature rose. The alkali burned his near and dear ones, but it was the temperature which was his bane. And he said goodbye to the world and to the long life which he had lived well.
Slowly, as if a new life was infusing in his veins, he woke up. This wasn't where he was used to be. None of his usual mates were visible. He heard people talking about "wet" lab. But stuck to this polycarbonate plate, he had never felt any drier. However he was glad he was alive, still. He looked down and a big molecule, unlike any he had ever seen, was stuck to him, glowing, pulsing, intimidating. It became very dark. But the molecule glowed brighter than ever. A sharp laser blinded the wits out of him, but the molecule attached to him seemed to enjoy the attention it was getting.
And then something changed, again. This environment was totally different all together. There were many like him here. All seem to had gone through the same fate as him. It was a dynamic new place. Some used to disappear for sometime and then out of nowhere come back looking pretty proud of themselves. He found a long lost really good friend with whom he had exchanged bits of himself when the going had become really tough, thousands of years back. It had proved a bit too much for his friend though and he thought he would never see this friend again. His friend told him that they now inhabited a database, some called it GenBank. And that people called them and copied them in their own "in-silico" systems. There was a lot of scope for replicating into other peoples' systems, but there would be no personal development here. He came to know that this was a place unaffected by time, and the forces which had scarred his own self. An El Dorado of tranquility. He had a mundane but secure future. And he wished for the excitement of the real world. But he was consoled by the thought, that there were many like him out there.
And there would be no stopping time and forces which scar...
P.s. This post has been inspired by another post in my friend Supriya's blog titled Personified...
And all of a sudden he felt a change, something was different, again. And out from the deep abyss where he lived, he was hauled all the way up to where the pressure dropped so much he thought he would blow up. But he didn't. Soon he was back in his usual pressure. But this place was different. There was lots of food, and all kinds of creature comforts, he went into over drive, lest it all vanishes just as it had appeared. Molecules came and went, some collided, others mounted him and still he kept on doing his work, more efficient than ever.
And then some thing changed, again. This place was different, bad. He felt his impending doom. The pressure dropped, but the temperature rose. It became very hot and still the temperature rose. The alkali burned his near and dear ones, but it was the temperature which was his bane. And he said goodbye to the world and to the long life which he had lived well.
Slowly, as if a new life was infusing in his veins, he woke up. This wasn't where he was used to be. None of his usual mates were visible. He heard people talking about "wet" lab. But stuck to this polycarbonate plate, he had never felt any drier. However he was glad he was alive, still. He looked down and a big molecule, unlike any he had ever seen, was stuck to him, glowing, pulsing, intimidating. It became very dark. But the molecule glowed brighter than ever. A sharp laser blinded the wits out of him, but the molecule attached to him seemed to enjoy the attention it was getting.
And then something changed, again. This environment was totally different all together. There were many like him here. All seem to had gone through the same fate as him. It was a dynamic new place. Some used to disappear for sometime and then out of nowhere come back looking pretty proud of themselves. He found a long lost really good friend with whom he had exchanged bits of himself when the going had become really tough, thousands of years back. It had proved a bit too much for his friend though and he thought he would never see this friend again. His friend told him that they now inhabited a database, some called it GenBank. And that people called them and copied them in their own "in-silico" systems. There was a lot of scope for replicating into other peoples' systems, but there would be no personal development here. He came to know that this was a place unaffected by time, and the forces which had scarred his own self. An El Dorado of tranquility. He had a mundane but secure future. And he wished for the excitement of the real world. But he was consoled by the thought, that there were many like him out there.
And there would be no stopping time and forces which scar...
P.s. This post has been inspired by another post in my friend Supriya's blog titled Personified...
Friday, August 28, 2009
Appreciating the dimensions of a PDB File
A pdb file contains the x, y & z Cartesian coordinates of all the atoms constituting the protein molecule. Thus when rendered by visualization softwares like the RasMol, SPDBV or the Jmol, we are able to rotate it around various axes, visualize it in different colours, surfaces etc.
Most of us have come across 3D movies, like the recently released Ice Age 3D, which give a very real depth to image and videos as if they are not ON some screen but rather hanging in the air, thus truly making them 3 dimensional. This was achieved, in olden times, by using the green and red filters on spatially apart cameras and merging them via colored goggles. Now a days more sophisticated techniques of polarized light using polar filters is used which gives better resolution.
Here I am giving a method which enables a user to achieve that kind of depth without any fancy goggles or image, in fact I'll be using a normal PDB file and SPDBV as visualizing tool, you can use whichever tool you like.
Please follow the steps:
1) Obtain any suitable PDB file:
For this, Google the RCSB site, in the search bar type your favorite protein name, I am using myoglobin (though it is not my favorite). U can get the myoglobin pdb file here.
2) Open this pdb file in any suitable viewer, I am using SPDBV.
In SPDBV you will get 'Stereo' view in the 'Display' tab in the menu bar at the top or else press Ctrl + T to toggle stereo view.
Important note: The viewer MUST have the option of displaying in Stereo view.
3) Display this file in the Ribbon view.
For this go to 'Window' tab in menu bar and select on 'Control Panel' or else press Alt + , . Now right click on any of the "v"s in the 'show' & 'side' columns and right click in the empty 'ribn' column. This will replace the early model by a ribbon model.
4) Colour the ribbon structure suitably.
For this go to the 'Colour' tab in menu bar, go to 'act on.... ->' and select 'Ribbon'. Now again go to 'Color' tab in menu bar and select 'Secondary Structure Succession'.
Note: If your structure is in mesh form then you can 'Render in Solid 3D' by going to the 'Display' tab.
Now you should be looking at something which looks like the screen-capture below:
Here comes the hard part:
What I want you to achieve is a third image, in sharp focus, which has popped out of the screen and is hanging in the air about half way between your eyes and the monitor.
For this:
Sit about 1&1/2 to 2 feet from the monitor screen. Concentrate on the monitor screen, and move your eyeballs towards each other by trying to look at the point in between your eyes.
When you do this the 2 images on the screen merge to form a third image, stop!! and try to focus on the third image (if you keep going the three images will further separate into 4 image!!)
Now, first thing is getting the third image in between the 2 original image.
Second thing is focusing on this third image. For this move the protein molecule, a moving third image will help you get a sharp focus on it.
Once you have got the middle image into focus, you can see that it has become absolutely 3 dimensional and now no longer sits on the monitor but has popped out and is hanging in the air. Rotating the molecule you can actually see that the alpha helices are on top or behind those in the front.
Have Fun!!!
Why does this happen??
Well the effect is the simple stereoscopic effect which is more commonly encountered in sounds. Often when we are listening to MP3s using ear phones, sounds seem to travel from one ear into another essentially meaning the source is moving.
In case of vision also it works in a similar way. We have two eyes separated by some distance. Whenever we focus on an image, we actually see 2 different images by each of the eyes, these are super imposed on top of each other by our brain to form the one clear image. We also perceive depth because of this.
When we view the PDB file in stereo in the visualizer, it shows two seemingly identical images, but look closer, they are actually slightly different.
When you merge the two images and try to focus, the brain does the rest of the work and renders the image 3 dimensional.
Most of us have come across 3D movies, like the recently released Ice Age 3D, which give a very real depth to image and videos as if they are not ON some screen but rather hanging in the air, thus truly making them 3 dimensional. This was achieved, in olden times, by using the green and red filters on spatially apart cameras and merging them via colored goggles. Now a days more sophisticated techniques of polarized light using polar filters is used which gives better resolution.
Here I am giving a method which enables a user to achieve that kind of depth without any fancy goggles or image, in fact I'll be using a normal PDB file and SPDBV as visualizing tool, you can use whichever tool you like.
Please follow the steps:
1) Obtain any suitable PDB file:
For this, Google the RCSB site, in the search bar type your favorite protein name, I am using myoglobin (though it is not my favorite). U can get the myoglobin pdb file here.
2) Open this pdb file in any suitable viewer, I am using SPDBV.
In SPDBV you will get 'Stereo' view in the 'Display' tab in the menu bar at the top or else press Ctrl + T to toggle stereo view.
Important note: The viewer MUST have the option of displaying in Stereo view.
3) Display this file in the Ribbon view.
For this go to 'Window' tab in menu bar and select on 'Control Panel' or else press Alt + , . Now right click on any of the "v"s in the 'show' & 'side' columns and right click in the empty 'ribn' column. This will replace the early model by a ribbon model.
4) Colour the ribbon structure suitably.
For this go to the 'Colour' tab in menu bar, go to 'act on.... ->' and select 'Ribbon'. Now again go to 'Color' tab in menu bar and select 'Secondary Structure Succession'.
Note: If your structure is in mesh form then you can 'Render in Solid 3D' by going to the 'Display' tab.
Now you should be looking at something which looks like the screen-capture below:
Here comes the hard part:
What I want you to achieve is a third image, in sharp focus, which has popped out of the screen and is hanging in the air about half way between your eyes and the monitor.
For this:
Sit about 1&1/2 to 2 feet from the monitor screen. Concentrate on the monitor screen, and move your eyeballs towards each other by trying to look at the point in between your eyes.
When you do this the 2 images on the screen merge to form a third image, stop!! and try to focus on the third image (if you keep going the three images will further separate into 4 image!!)
Now, first thing is getting the third image in between the 2 original image.
Second thing is focusing on this third image. For this move the protein molecule, a moving third image will help you get a sharp focus on it.
Once you have got the middle image into focus, you can see that it has become absolutely 3 dimensional and now no longer sits on the monitor but has popped out and is hanging in the air. Rotating the molecule you can actually see that the alpha helices are on top or behind those in the front.
Have Fun!!!
Why does this happen??
Well the effect is the simple stereoscopic effect which is more commonly encountered in sounds. Often when we are listening to MP3s using ear phones, sounds seem to travel from one ear into another essentially meaning the source is moving.
In case of vision also it works in a similar way. We have two eyes separated by some distance. Whenever we focus on an image, we actually see 2 different images by each of the eyes, these are super imposed on top of each other by our brain to form the one clear image. We also perceive depth because of this.
When we view the PDB file in stereo in the visualizer, it shows two seemingly identical images, but look closer, they are actually slightly different.
When you merge the two images and try to focus, the brain does the rest of the work and renders the image 3 dimensional.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Swine Flu ONLY infects Swine!!!
Life is going on, as it so normally does, as it is supposed to, it is so silly when we say life is going on, after all if it had stopped we wouldn't be saying anything. YET it makes the world of sense to me - that life is going on.
Meanwhile Swine Flu is going strong in Pune. Initially it was only in Pune. Then the nearby Symbiosis closed for a week. Then a girl died. The media went over board. People flocked to medical shops for buying surgical masks. Swine Flu came ever nearer all the time. All of a sudden everywhere people were walking masked. 4 girls from the girls hostel went to get themselves tested and even before the tests were done they were Swine Flu patients. Then 3 boys from the guys hostel were supposedly down with the Swine Flu. Huge posters were put up at the Univ gate which warned people about the Flu. But the Flu came ever nearer. Now a friend of a friend is down with the Flu, then it will be my friends down with the flu and then it will be me. I am pretty sure of that. But so what, every year this happens with other Flus and other viruses and other diseases.
Media of this country is the most irresponsible of all institutions. Seriously the most idiotic of all. It sucks so big f$#*ing time that I am falling short of expressing my disdain and disgust at the media. They advise all who have Flu like symptoms to get themselves tested. They do not advise that people with SWINE FLU LIKE SYMPTOM ONLY go and get themselves tested.
As a result 3000 people turn up at Naidu hospital. People sneeze, they cough, they touch and convert a thousand square feet of area into fomites with their dirty hands. The H1N1 floats every where, it mixes in warm bodies harboring other viruses, improves its own offense and defense, many of these warm bodies would grow cold as a result. More people get infected there than were before. Thats how the virus spreads. The media never gives clearly what are the exact symptoms, how to differentiate between a normal Flu and a Swine Flu, and different sources cite different experts and say different things.
And YET surgical masks are sold at signals for 5 a piece (Half to Quarter of the Price u get in Medicals). Most probably used and not disposed off properly. And YET people in crowded buses and trains cough and sneeze at other peoples' faces with gay abandon. The other person doesn't seem to mind as such anyways.
And some die, but YET some live, and thus STILL life goes on, as it is supposed to. And thats why it makes so much sense.
Meanwhile Swine Flu is going strong in Pune. Initially it was only in Pune. Then the nearby Symbiosis closed for a week. Then a girl died. The media went over board. People flocked to medical shops for buying surgical masks. Swine Flu came ever nearer all the time. All of a sudden everywhere people were walking masked. 4 girls from the girls hostel went to get themselves tested and even before the tests were done they were Swine Flu patients. Then 3 boys from the guys hostel were supposedly down with the Swine Flu. Huge posters were put up at the Univ gate which warned people about the Flu. But the Flu came ever nearer. Now a friend of a friend is down with the Flu, then it will be my friends down with the flu and then it will be me. I am pretty sure of that. But so what, every year this happens with other Flus and other viruses and other diseases.
Media of this country is the most irresponsible of all institutions. Seriously the most idiotic of all. It sucks so big f$#*ing time that I am falling short of expressing my disdain and disgust at the media. They advise all who have Flu like symptoms to get themselves tested. They do not advise that people with SWINE FLU LIKE SYMPTOM ONLY go and get themselves tested.
As a result 3000 people turn up at Naidu hospital. People sneeze, they cough, they touch and convert a thousand square feet of area into fomites with their dirty hands. The H1N1 floats every where, it mixes in warm bodies harboring other viruses, improves its own offense and defense, many of these warm bodies would grow cold as a result. More people get infected there than were before. Thats how the virus spreads. The media never gives clearly what are the exact symptoms, how to differentiate between a normal Flu and a Swine Flu, and different sources cite different experts and say different things.
And YET surgical masks are sold at signals for 5 a piece (Half to Quarter of the Price u get in Medicals). Most probably used and not disposed off properly. And YET people in crowded buses and trains cough and sneeze at other peoples' faces with gay abandon. The other person doesn't seem to mind as such anyways.
And some die, but YET some live, and thus STILL life goes on, as it is supposed to. And thats why it makes so much sense.
Donating Blood
The other day some of my friends had gone to our usual coffee hangout when they saw a Blood Donation Van there. All of them donated blood and came back proud with their certificates and Donor ID cards. So the rest of us too decided to go ahead and donate blood the next time that van turned up.
I have never donated blood in my life, even though I am O+ve (Universal Donor), a healthy individual and almost 4 kilos overweight. And it hasn't been because I do not want to donate blood or because I am scared or anything. Its simply because I have never had an opportunity to donate blood and I never took the pains to create one by going to a hospital and doing the needful. So I was pretty much determined that this time come what may I am donating blood. Well anyways we had taken the phone number of the guy who managed the van, and the next time it came, we knew it one day prior and thus I was mentally prepared to give my blood.
However when the time came to actually enter the van and get hooked to the bag, my resolve totally faltered and eventually I couldn't do it. I don't exactly don't know why.
But mostly it is because I do not trust the system. In a country where people are inherently unsanitary, where biohazardous waste lies in heaps outside hospitals, where people lack even the basic civic sense, how can I go and agree that some one without even wearing gloves, poke a needle into me and draw my blood.
The van was pretty well equipped, no doubt about that, but the guy doing the tests which are conducted before donation, was doing them near the open door without any gloves. Two girls in lab coats were just sitting there without doing anything. How do I know that the needle is indeed sterile?
Donating your own blood is an extremely noble thing to do. Whether it saves someones life or not is immaterial. And even though we never know who receives our blood, I feel it is one of the most personal of all transactions.
I know people will say that even in a big hospital, there is no way of knowing for sure if the needle is sterile or not, that the doctor wearing the gloves would have worn them since morning handling loads of patients in between. That one can go to donate blood and very easily become unsuitable to be a donor for ever thereafter.
You might say this is a figment of my imagination, well I ask what if it is not. And if there is even the smallest possibility that this is not my imagination at work, then, well I do not need to donate my blood to anybody. After all I have my whole life ahead of me.
I have never donated blood in my life, even though I am O+ve (Universal Donor), a healthy individual and almost 4 kilos overweight. And it hasn't been because I do not want to donate blood or because I am scared or anything. Its simply because I have never had an opportunity to donate blood and I never took the pains to create one by going to a hospital and doing the needful. So I was pretty much determined that this time come what may I am donating blood. Well anyways we had taken the phone number of the guy who managed the van, and the next time it came, we knew it one day prior and thus I was mentally prepared to give my blood.
However when the time came to actually enter the van and get hooked to the bag, my resolve totally faltered and eventually I couldn't do it. I don't exactly don't know why.
But mostly it is because I do not trust the system. In a country where people are inherently unsanitary, where biohazardous waste lies in heaps outside hospitals, where people lack even the basic civic sense, how can I go and agree that some one without even wearing gloves, poke a needle into me and draw my blood.
The van was pretty well equipped, no doubt about that, but the guy doing the tests which are conducted before donation, was doing them near the open door without any gloves. Two girls in lab coats were just sitting there without doing anything. How do I know that the needle is indeed sterile?
Donating your own blood is an extremely noble thing to do. Whether it saves someones life or not is immaterial. And even though we never know who receives our blood, I feel it is one of the most personal of all transactions.
I know people will say that even in a big hospital, there is no way of knowing for sure if the needle is sterile or not, that the doctor wearing the gloves would have worn them since morning handling loads of patients in between. That one can go to donate blood and very easily become unsuitable to be a donor for ever thereafter.
You might say this is a figment of my imagination, well I ask what if it is not. And if there is even the smallest possibility that this is not my imagination at work, then, well I do not need to donate my blood to anybody. After all I have my whole life ahead of me.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Greenpeace
Today 2 representatives of Greenpeace had come to our department to spread general environmental awareness and to distribute pamphlets. They also screened a movie which showed how the glaciers feeding the river ganges are retreating due to global warming.
Something about Greenpeace. Its an international organisation which fights for environmental causes and drags private companies to courts for violation of environment protection laws, spreads awareness about reducing greenhouse gases, sustainable clean energy generation, protection of endangered species etc etc etc.
A commendable effort by all means and perfectly justified from their point of view.
In fact I myself was a cyberactivist signing petitions and distributing them to save the Olive Ridley turtles being harmed by the supposed construction of a port by the Tatas.
And I say "was a cyberactivist", because now I am not. And what did prompt this role reversal?
Greenpeace advocates CFL lamps and in fact has a case in courts of India which will ban yellow bulbs by 2012 to be replaced by energy efficient and long but finite lifed CFLs. Does it know that CFL also contain copious amounts of mercury and lead and that disposing them will cause just as much trouble.
Why does not Greenpeace push for the holier than all LED bulbs?
Greenpeace invented a car which gives a fuel efficiency of 26-30kmpl according to this representative. Why do not i buy the Tata Nano which will give me comparable efficiency with its small 600cc engine?
Why is not Greenpeace pushing for better public transport?
Greenpeace wants subsidies on fertilisers to be removed since excessive use of fertiliser has damaged the soil and is a hazard.
Does it know that the green revolution, this country is so proud of, was solely because of induction of chemical fertilisers in the Indian agriculture system. Because go to any village we still use old equipments, bulls, ox and a hal (plough). The only thing that works is fertiliser.
Greenpeace proudly proclaims that because of its efforts more than 1000 insecticides have been banned by the Indian government which were toxic.
Has Greenpeace carried out a survey of insect reproduction rates?, ever seen a locust invasion and what is left behind.
If we do not grow crops (for which we NEED fertilisers) and if we do not protect them from becoming insect food (for which we NEED insecticides) how the f*%# are we going to feed the billion people of this coutry??
Will Greenpeace feed us?
Greenpeace dragged Hindustan Lever to court for inappropriate disposal of toxic waste, it is now dragging the Tatas to courts for making the port, does it know that combined these two companies have done much much more for social welfare that any politician has done. That both companiues employ and feed a huge workforce and their families, that the premier research institution of this coutry the TIFR was started by Tatas, that the city of Jamshedpur runs because of the Tatas, that around 40000 people of Gujarat will be directly or indirectly given jobs because of the Nano project, that this country needs more of such companies??
Greenpeace wants a ban on coal based production of electricity. Has it carried out any surveys on where and at what cost (both financial and environmental) renewable energy based power projects can be set up in India??
It opposes nuclear power plants, by the example that this representative gave us of chernobyl and 3 mile island. Does it know that Nuclear reactors have an efficiency of 70-80%, that they use negligible amount of fuel as compared to coal, are extremely, EXTREMELY safe, are MUCH MUCH cleaner than coal and can cover the power deficit of this country.
Nuclear power plants produce concentrated radio active waste, it is from this waste that radioactive medicines for treating cancers are derived, ever thought of that?? Or will you want to die of cancer?
Does Greenpeace know that the state of Kerela is so rich in uranium ore, which is mixed with the soil, that Geiger counters regularly keep ticking there, but still people walking, sleeping and living on that soil have not been affected by that natural radioactivity?? That there is no increased incidence of cancer in Kerela. Has Greenpeace considered that radioactive waste is disposed of much more safely than e-waste or bio-hazardous waste from hospitals?
Why does Greenpeace target private companies, can it not sue the government for not enforcing the waste disposal laws??
Every chemistry lab uses Chromic acid as oxidizing agent and a cleaning agent for glassware. That chromic acid goes in the drain where it forms hexavalent chromium. This happens in every college, every industry. Anyone who has see "Erin Brokovich" knows what hexavalent chromium is and what it does. ever wanna do something about that?
Why campaign against the Tatas port, does Greenpeace not realize that the builders in mumbai are slowly but surely encroaching on the mangroves. What about them, or the poachers selling tiger skins and ivory and rhino horns in corbette?? They might say its the governments job, but since the government is not doing anything why doesnt Greenpeace do anything about it.
Why target multinationals?? Why target private enterprises?
And who the f*%# is Greenpeace anyways to fiddle with nature?? Does it campaign against the lion for eating the deer. NO!! But hey the lion is meant to do that other wise how will it survive>??? Right??
Well Humans kill Seahorse Crabs "the oldest organism on earth" to derive life saving drugs against cancer. Are we not trying to survive. Why protect Seahorse Crabs. The Humans who get a job and a mode of survival by the Tata port, do they not deserve to "kill their deer" and survive. Why protect Olive Ridleys??
The Tatas port is just another selection pressure for the Olive Ridley Turtles. If they can evolve to travel so many miles in the sea to come and reproduce in India they can also evolve to withstand the Tatas port. They better, if not, well they came and got extinct just like the million other species that have come and gone. If humans are their own destruction, so be it, the orangutan will be the new Human, no worries, time does not stop for anyone, nor does Evolution. So why is the Greenpeace Organization playing with nature?? What does it gain anyways?? I do not know if it is a non profit organization or not, but it thrives on donations, and perhaps money extorted from industrialists, advertisements, selling Greenpeace wares like T shirts and diaries etc. Why does it not distribute T shirts for free, i like collecting freebies!!! i haven't come across free t shirts!!
Greenpeace is definitely a strongly funded institution, but then why is it wasting the money fighting useless cases? Why does it not promote research on new technologies which will help it to ultimately succeed in its goal.
Dont tell me to not use coal, give me a new technology as cheap. Dont tell me to not use my car, give me good public transport solutions.
A lot can be done which makes a lot more sense than what is being done now. So do it.
On the whole Greenpeace is an outfit which is misdirecting its energies, which will eventually not only harm this countries economy but also its people. Its will be much better for this organization to work in new directions and tackle problems at their core. Fighting legal wars will never-ever solve Environmental Problems. It is not the private companies that want to destroy environment. It is the existing technology which is inherently environmental unfriendly.
Only and Only creation of new environmental friendly technologies is a solution to this global problems. It would be much better if Greenpeace addressed this issue rather than creating a ruckus and becoming a farce that this organization is now.
Something about Greenpeace. Its an international organisation which fights for environmental causes and drags private companies to courts for violation of environment protection laws, spreads awareness about reducing greenhouse gases, sustainable clean energy generation, protection of endangered species etc etc etc.
A commendable effort by all means and perfectly justified from their point of view.
In fact I myself was a cyberactivist signing petitions and distributing them to save the Olive Ridley turtles being harmed by the supposed construction of a port by the Tatas.
And I say "was a cyberactivist", because now I am not. And what did prompt this role reversal?
Greenpeace advocates CFL lamps and in fact has a case in courts of India which will ban yellow bulbs by 2012 to be replaced by energy efficient and long but finite lifed CFLs. Does it know that CFL also contain copious amounts of mercury and lead and that disposing them will cause just as much trouble.
Why does not Greenpeace push for the holier than all LED bulbs?
Greenpeace invented a car which gives a fuel efficiency of 26-30kmpl according to this representative. Why do not i buy the Tata Nano which will give me comparable efficiency with its small 600cc engine?
Why is not Greenpeace pushing for better public transport?
Greenpeace wants subsidies on fertilisers to be removed since excessive use of fertiliser has damaged the soil and is a hazard.
Does it know that the green revolution, this country is so proud of, was solely because of induction of chemical fertilisers in the Indian agriculture system. Because go to any village we still use old equipments, bulls, ox and a hal (plough). The only thing that works is fertiliser.
Greenpeace proudly proclaims that because of its efforts more than 1000 insecticides have been banned by the Indian government which were toxic.
Has Greenpeace carried out a survey of insect reproduction rates?, ever seen a locust invasion and what is left behind.
If we do not grow crops (for which we NEED fertilisers) and if we do not protect them from becoming insect food (for which we NEED insecticides) how the f*%# are we going to feed the billion people of this coutry??
Will Greenpeace feed us?
Greenpeace dragged Hindustan Lever to court for inappropriate disposal of toxic waste, it is now dragging the Tatas to courts for making the port, does it know that combined these two companies have done much much more for social welfare that any politician has done. That both companiues employ and feed a huge workforce and their families, that the premier research institution of this coutry the TIFR was started by Tatas, that the city of Jamshedpur runs because of the Tatas, that around 40000 people of Gujarat will be directly or indirectly given jobs because of the Nano project, that this country needs more of such companies??
Greenpeace wants a ban on coal based production of electricity. Has it carried out any surveys on where and at what cost (both financial and environmental) renewable energy based power projects can be set up in India??
It opposes nuclear power plants, by the example that this representative gave us of chernobyl and 3 mile island. Does it know that Nuclear reactors have an efficiency of 70-80%, that they use negligible amount of fuel as compared to coal, are extremely, EXTREMELY safe, are MUCH MUCH cleaner than coal and can cover the power deficit of this country.
Nuclear power plants produce concentrated radio active waste, it is from this waste that radioactive medicines for treating cancers are derived, ever thought of that?? Or will you want to die of cancer?
Does Greenpeace know that the state of Kerela is so rich in uranium ore, which is mixed with the soil, that Geiger counters regularly keep ticking there, but still people walking, sleeping and living on that soil have not been affected by that natural radioactivity?? That there is no increased incidence of cancer in Kerela. Has Greenpeace considered that radioactive waste is disposed of much more safely than e-waste or bio-hazardous waste from hospitals?
Why does Greenpeace target private companies, can it not sue the government for not enforcing the waste disposal laws??
Every chemistry lab uses Chromic acid as oxidizing agent and a cleaning agent for glassware. That chromic acid goes in the drain where it forms hexavalent chromium. This happens in every college, every industry. Anyone who has see "Erin Brokovich" knows what hexavalent chromium is and what it does. ever wanna do something about that?
Why campaign against the Tatas port, does Greenpeace not realize that the builders in mumbai are slowly but surely encroaching on the mangroves. What about them, or the poachers selling tiger skins and ivory and rhino horns in corbette?? They might say its the governments job, but since the government is not doing anything why doesnt Greenpeace do anything about it.
Why target multinationals?? Why target private enterprises?
And who the f*%# is Greenpeace anyways to fiddle with nature?? Does it campaign against the lion for eating the deer. NO!! But hey the lion is meant to do that other wise how will it survive>??? Right??
Well Humans kill Seahorse Crabs "the oldest organism on earth" to derive life saving drugs against cancer. Are we not trying to survive. Why protect Seahorse Crabs. The Humans who get a job and a mode of survival by the Tata port, do they not deserve to "kill their deer" and survive. Why protect Olive Ridleys??
The Tatas port is just another selection pressure for the Olive Ridley Turtles. If they can evolve to travel so many miles in the sea to come and reproduce in India they can also evolve to withstand the Tatas port. They better, if not, well they came and got extinct just like the million other species that have come and gone. If humans are their own destruction, so be it, the orangutan will be the new Human, no worries, time does not stop for anyone, nor does Evolution. So why is the Greenpeace Organization playing with nature?? What does it gain anyways?? I do not know if it is a non profit organization or not, but it thrives on donations, and perhaps money extorted from industrialists, advertisements, selling Greenpeace wares like T shirts and diaries etc. Why does it not distribute T shirts for free, i like collecting freebies!!! i haven't come across free t shirts!!
Greenpeace is definitely a strongly funded institution, but then why is it wasting the money fighting useless cases? Why does it not promote research on new technologies which will help it to ultimately succeed in its goal.
Dont tell me to not use coal, give me a new technology as cheap. Dont tell me to not use my car, give me good public transport solutions.
A lot can be done which makes a lot more sense than what is being done now. So do it.
On the whole Greenpeace is an outfit which is misdirecting its energies, which will eventually not only harm this countries economy but also its people. Its will be much better for this organization to work in new directions and tackle problems at their core. Fighting legal wars will never-ever solve Environmental Problems. It is not the private companies that want to destroy environment. It is the existing technology which is inherently environmental unfriendly.
Only and Only creation of new environmental friendly technologies is a solution to this global problems. It would be much better if Greenpeace addressed this issue rather than creating a ruckus and becoming a farce that this organization is now.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Trip to Lonavala
26/7/2006, a date which no Mumbaikar will ever forget. It was a day when it rained, rained, rained and then rained much much more. It kept on raining, and it just didn't stop. For some it proved fatal, for others fateful, but it proved to be something significant for everyone.
Do events repeat themselves? I read in "The Alchemist" that if a thing happens just once, it will never happen again. But if anything happens twice, it will happen for the third time. The catch here is, we never know if an event is going to occur the second time or not.
And then 26/7 became a thing of past, something which every Mumbaikar has a story about, something to remember every monsoon, something to relive every time Dadar stn and Sion circle floods.
Well anyways:
This Sunday our class decided to go on a trip to Lonavala. Nothing novel in that you might say, after all half of Mumbai and Pune bathes in Bushi dam every Sunday. We were all gonna go on two wheelers, using the old Mumbai-Pune highway, the NH-4. I was gonna meet up the gang at Lonavala since I was reaching there from Mumbai while the others were coming from Pune. This is a trip which has been undertaken by people umpteen number of times, there are two wheeler groups like us every Sunday reaching for Lonavala.
So in such a mundane trip, to such a popular and heavily visited location, using time tested modes of transport, what can possibly go wrong????
Everything under the sun and beyond, as it turned out in our case.
Since I was traveling to Lonavala alone for the first time, I had instructions to report my coordinates every hour, only thing my cellphone was stone dead. Battery completely discharged. None the less I reached Khopoli without anything particular happening. Here I called up home, said I was starting the ghats now. Then I called up the folks at Pune (Ashwin). Apparently one of the girls (Pradnya) scooty had a punctured tire. So that's it, I thought, they are easily gonna be late by an hour. I started the climb and reached Lonavala in 40 minutes. I called up home, then I again called up the Pune folks (Anil this time), puncture repaired, well on the way. Good, seemed as if they would make it pretty soon I thought. Little did I know that two of the other girls (Sonal and Satpreet) had got loose motions (though Satpreet claims to have controlled the urge, which according to me is not the smartest thing to do!!). So I entered a restaurant, did my chai-nashta. Talked to a few trekkers, got to know from the paan wala that all networks except of idea were down in Lonavala. Now what, so I called up Pune folks again (Anil), where are u guys (rkdkbkj,pcr,acp and other nonprintables!!). Well we are still on the road will reach in half an hour guarantee. OK I thought. So I went into A1 chikki. Took out my wallet. Tasted choclate fudge, coconut fudge, different types of chikki till the guy came to know I wasn't gonna buy anything. So I had to leave. Now what, they should be here any minute now, I thought. So I called them up again (Ashwin), now I was seriously running short of chillar to call these people up from the PCO. Well they had been caught by the police without licenses and some (Nilesh) had turned back to get the licenses. DAMN. I decided to go towards Pune and meet them half way. Luckily for me these people were only about 5-10 minutes from where I was waiting. And FINALLY I met these people. Here I came to know that one of the bikes had run out of petrol (Nilesh), one of the other bikes would stall if it went slower than 30kmph (Suraj+Anil), and these people had stopped in between for samosa and drinks and what not. We asked Suraj and Anil to proceed to Bushi dam since their bike was stalling.
We proceeded towards Bushi dam after having tea only to encounter traffic, people and drunk people. Progress was excruciatingly slow. What would have been 5 min drive took half an hour, that too on 2 wheelers. There were just too many people. And all of a sudden every one stopped. Dead stop, not a single vehicle was moving, something had happened ahead. And soon it became apparent as we saw a Skoda stuck into a truck. A fight was going on. Out of nowhere a group of drunks turned up, started shouting and the crowd started beating the driver of the Skoda. He is not going to visit Lonavala ever again that much I am sure of. Soon enough the Skoda moved, we decided to park nearby and just head into the nearest waterfall.
And while we were climbing Pradnya had a great fall, so great in fact that she chipped her front tooth. And two of her upper front teeth came loose. One down. More will go down, don't worry!! Guess who was next?? None other than yours truly, and how!! I went down in style, a drop of 15 feet almost. I was doing hero giri up a water fall and the rock surface was slippery due to all the algae, and all of a sudden I lost grip and I knew then I was going down. And I slid down onto a few rocks, luckily I could break my fall with my legs which in turn got badly bruised. For the rest of the trip I was pretty docile!!
Next to go down was Dhiraj, and if it was possible in more style than me!. His record was a straight 25 feet down another waterfall higher up, his antics were in fact so bad that if he had not broken his fall by grabbing a rock we would have found his half dead body in the parking lot below. So much for stunts!!
Enough accidents we decided. And it was getting late. So we decided to turn back considering Pradnya's now drastically changed oral topology and the rain which was by now pouring. We all were totally soaked, chilled to the bone and facing a ride back to Pune in wet underwears.
However all of us were scattered here and there. When we finally regrouped we saw that one of the bikes was missing (Umakant's)!! OH damn. But then Umakant was also nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did he go?? He was definitely up there on the waterfalls with us. And that's when it struck us that Suraj and Anil had gone to Bushi dam where we never reached. We called up Umakant, he would not pick up the calls, we called up Anil, he would not pick up his calls either (Later we came to know Anil's cell was with Umakant, and as i write this Anil's cell is still with Umakant only). And Suraj's cell was with Pranav (Who was with us and who also had Praveen's cell, point to remember at a later point in the day, not much of which was left btw). So Suraj and Anil did not have their wallets, did not have their cellphones and had a bike which was faulty. Bad.
Anyways we decided to start our return journey then without Umakant, Suraj and Anil. Because of the traffic Nilesh's, Pranav's and Praveen's bikes got separated from the rest of the group. When we finally regrouped where we had tea in the morning (afternoon actually), Praveen and Rajnish were missing. And Praveen's cell and wallet were with Pranav. And Rajnish's cell was also with Ashwin. So these two were totally non-communicable (is that a word?). Well so we had 5 missing!!
Man this trip was turning out to be eventful. Somehow, as if by providential intervention, nothing happened on the highway and we reached Akurdi, still no sign of the missing 5. Here some decided it was better to eat cause we were famished by this time, it was night and drizzling. While we were going to the restaraunt, Modak took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else altogether. We had to wait till he turned up, after we finally called him up and gave the right directions. Here I ran out of petrol. But thankfully my reserve tank was full, so no worries for at least 30 more kms. When we eventually reached the restaurant, it was getting really late and Pradnya wanted to get home fast (obviously her new smile being the reason). Some people did not want to eat, others just wanted to get home. So we left for university. On the way, as if my antics in the day were not enough, I hit a cycle wala who was attempting to cross the road in the dead of the night in front of the car ahead of me, which is why of course I did not see him, well he didn't get hurt, nor did it leave so much as a scratch on my scooter, though I am sure he will have to replace his rear rim and serves him right.
We reached university in another twenty minutes or so. The one restaurant where we went was full so we had to wait, in the meantime me and Ashwin had 3 dabelis each since we were hungry.
Still no sign of the missing 5. When we finally got a table and ordered, out of nowhere Rajnish and Praveen turn up. Apparently they were in front of our whole group and in fact had reached before us. Next the dinner came and so did Suraj and Anil!! They had reached Bushi dam before the Skoda accident and had fun there. And had come back. And just as we were thinking that at least we did not have any really bad accident they told us that they had skid at a speed of 50kmph. It is really a miracle how neither Suraj nor Anil was injured and the bike which was already faulty still worked after the fall, especially when we consider that neither of them had their cellphones or wallets with them!! We now called up Umakant and he finally answered, he had to reach Pune by 7 so he had left us at 5 itself without telling anyone, the bloody dunderhead that he is. And so the missing 5 were accounted for.
While eating we were just recalling all the things that had happened, we had punctured tires, people having loose motions, people falling from waterfalls, breaking their teeth in the process, people vanishing, going missing, going out of contact, accidents, bikes running out of petrol, licenses being misplaced, being caught by police, plus all the riding in the cold, wet conditions that too on empty stomachs, and we all were in a pretty pensive mood thinking that such a hell lot had happened when Pranav said the one thing that shocked me to the core.
Today's date was 26/7/2009.
Do events repeat themselves? I read in "The Alchemist" that if a thing happens just once, it will never happen again. But if anything happens twice, it will happen for the third time. The catch here is, we never know if an event is going to occur the second time or not.
And then 26/7 became a thing of past, something which every Mumbaikar has a story about, something to remember every monsoon, something to relive every time Dadar stn and Sion circle floods.
Well anyways:
This Sunday our class decided to go on a trip to Lonavala. Nothing novel in that you might say, after all half of Mumbai and Pune bathes in Bushi dam every Sunday. We were all gonna go on two wheelers, using the old Mumbai-Pune highway, the NH-4. I was gonna meet up the gang at Lonavala since I was reaching there from Mumbai while the others were coming from Pune. This is a trip which has been undertaken by people umpteen number of times, there are two wheeler groups like us every Sunday reaching for Lonavala.
So in such a mundane trip, to such a popular and heavily visited location, using time tested modes of transport, what can possibly go wrong????
Everything under the sun and beyond, as it turned out in our case.
Since I was traveling to Lonavala alone for the first time, I had instructions to report my coordinates every hour, only thing my cellphone was stone dead. Battery completely discharged. None the less I reached Khopoli without anything particular happening. Here I called up home, said I was starting the ghats now. Then I called up the folks at Pune (Ashwin). Apparently one of the girls (Pradnya) scooty had a punctured tire. So that's it, I thought, they are easily gonna be late by an hour. I started the climb and reached Lonavala in 40 minutes. I called up home, then I again called up the Pune folks (Anil this time), puncture repaired, well on the way. Good, seemed as if they would make it pretty soon I thought. Little did I know that two of the other girls (Sonal and Satpreet) had got loose motions (though Satpreet claims to have controlled the urge, which according to me is not the smartest thing to do!!). So I entered a restaurant, did my chai-nashta. Talked to a few trekkers, got to know from the paan wala that all networks except of idea were down in Lonavala. Now what, so I called up Pune folks again (Anil), where are u guys (rkdkbkj,pcr,acp and other nonprintables!!). Well we are still on the road will reach in half an hour guarantee. OK I thought. So I went into A1 chikki. Took out my wallet. Tasted choclate fudge, coconut fudge, different types of chikki till the guy came to know I wasn't gonna buy anything. So I had to leave. Now what, they should be here any minute now, I thought. So I called them up again (Ashwin), now I was seriously running short of chillar to call these people up from the PCO. Well they had been caught by the police without licenses and some (Nilesh) had turned back to get the licenses. DAMN. I decided to go towards Pune and meet them half way. Luckily for me these people were only about 5-10 minutes from where I was waiting. And FINALLY I met these people. Here I came to know that one of the bikes had run out of petrol (Nilesh), one of the other bikes would stall if it went slower than 30kmph (Suraj+Anil), and these people had stopped in between for samosa and drinks and what not. We asked Suraj and Anil to proceed to Bushi dam since their bike was stalling.
We proceeded towards Bushi dam after having tea only to encounter traffic, people and drunk people. Progress was excruciatingly slow. What would have been 5 min drive took half an hour, that too on 2 wheelers. There were just too many people. And all of a sudden every one stopped. Dead stop, not a single vehicle was moving, something had happened ahead. And soon it became apparent as we saw a Skoda stuck into a truck. A fight was going on. Out of nowhere a group of drunks turned up, started shouting and the crowd started beating the driver of the Skoda. He is not going to visit Lonavala ever again that much I am sure of. Soon enough the Skoda moved, we decided to park nearby and just head into the nearest waterfall.
And while we were climbing Pradnya had a great fall, so great in fact that she chipped her front tooth. And two of her upper front teeth came loose. One down. More will go down, don't worry!! Guess who was next?? None other than yours truly, and how!! I went down in style, a drop of 15 feet almost. I was doing hero giri up a water fall and the rock surface was slippery due to all the algae, and all of a sudden I lost grip and I knew then I was going down. And I slid down onto a few rocks, luckily I could break my fall with my legs which in turn got badly bruised. For the rest of the trip I was pretty docile!!
Next to go down was Dhiraj, and if it was possible in more style than me!. His record was a straight 25 feet down another waterfall higher up, his antics were in fact so bad that if he had not broken his fall by grabbing a rock we would have found his half dead body in the parking lot below. So much for stunts!!
Enough accidents we decided. And it was getting late. So we decided to turn back considering Pradnya's now drastically changed oral topology and the rain which was by now pouring. We all were totally soaked, chilled to the bone and facing a ride back to Pune in wet underwears.
However all of us were scattered here and there. When we finally regrouped we saw that one of the bikes was missing (Umakant's)!! OH damn. But then Umakant was also nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did he go?? He was definitely up there on the waterfalls with us. And that's when it struck us that Suraj and Anil had gone to Bushi dam where we never reached. We called up Umakant, he would not pick up the calls, we called up Anil, he would not pick up his calls either (Later we came to know Anil's cell was with Umakant, and as i write this Anil's cell is still with Umakant only). And Suraj's cell was with Pranav (Who was with us and who also had Praveen's cell, point to remember at a later point in the day, not much of which was left btw). So Suraj and Anil did not have their wallets, did not have their cellphones and had a bike which was faulty. Bad.
Anyways we decided to start our return journey then without Umakant, Suraj and Anil. Because of the traffic Nilesh's, Pranav's and Praveen's bikes got separated from the rest of the group. When we finally regrouped where we had tea in the morning (afternoon actually), Praveen and Rajnish were missing. And Praveen's cell and wallet were with Pranav. And Rajnish's cell was also with Ashwin. So these two were totally non-communicable (is that a word?). Well so we had 5 missing!!
Man this trip was turning out to be eventful. Somehow, as if by providential intervention, nothing happened on the highway and we reached Akurdi, still no sign of the missing 5. Here some decided it was better to eat cause we were famished by this time, it was night and drizzling. While we were going to the restaraunt, Modak took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else altogether. We had to wait till he turned up, after we finally called him up and gave the right directions. Here I ran out of petrol. But thankfully my reserve tank was full, so no worries for at least 30 more kms. When we eventually reached the restaurant, it was getting really late and Pradnya wanted to get home fast (obviously her new smile being the reason). Some people did not want to eat, others just wanted to get home. So we left for university. On the way, as if my antics in the day were not enough, I hit a cycle wala who was attempting to cross the road in the dead of the night in front of the car ahead of me, which is why of course I did not see him, well he didn't get hurt, nor did it leave so much as a scratch on my scooter, though I am sure he will have to replace his rear rim and serves him right.
We reached university in another twenty minutes or so. The one restaurant where we went was full so we had to wait, in the meantime me and Ashwin had 3 dabelis each since we were hungry.
Still no sign of the missing 5. When we finally got a table and ordered, out of nowhere Rajnish and Praveen turn up. Apparently they were in front of our whole group and in fact had reached before us. Next the dinner came and so did Suraj and Anil!! They had reached Bushi dam before the Skoda accident and had fun there. And had come back. And just as we were thinking that at least we did not have any really bad accident they told us that they had skid at a speed of 50kmph. It is really a miracle how neither Suraj nor Anil was injured and the bike which was already faulty still worked after the fall, especially when we consider that neither of them had their cellphones or wallets with them!! We now called up Umakant and he finally answered, he had to reach Pune by 7 so he had left us at 5 itself without telling anyone, the bloody dunderhead that he is. And so the missing 5 were accounted for.
While eating we were just recalling all the things that had happened, we had punctured tires, people having loose motions, people falling from waterfalls, breaking their teeth in the process, people vanishing, going missing, going out of contact, accidents, bikes running out of petrol, licenses being misplaced, being caught by police, plus all the riding in the cold, wet conditions that too on empty stomachs, and we all were in a pretty pensive mood thinking that such a hell lot had happened when Pranav said the one thing that shocked me to the core.
Today's date was 26/7/2009.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Regarding the 2 posts below.
The 2 posts below were written in the month of May 2009.
At a time when I did not have access to internet connection, which stretched for a long time. Thus now that i am back online here they go, to a place where the world can see them, where they rightly belong and not in my hard disk.
Enjoy!!
At a time when I did not have access to internet connection, which stretched for a long time. Thus now that i am back online here they go, to a place where the world can see them, where they rightly belong and not in my hard disk.
Enjoy!!
Who are we kidding anyways??
We live such insignificant lives on this planet. Life has been here for 3.2 billion years, there have been 5 mass extinctions already and multiple ice ages have come and gone. Still all we care is about is a good lifestyle for a life which lasts as long as a second.
We wreck whatever we set our hands on and we contaminate everything. We fear what our actions will do to this planet but we keep on doing the same things, we keep on acting the same way. Thats the kind of hypocrits we are. We are scared of the next katrina, the next tidal wave and the next earthquake. We have absolutely no regards for other species who share this planet with us, we have no regards for this planet either. So i say lets speed up this process, lets pollute, burn, plunder, kill, rape, poach as fast as we can and lets kill ourselves as early as we can. Cause if there is one species which i don't want to preserve, its us.
Life will go on. Please let us not kid ourselves here, we are NOT powerful enough to destroy this Earth. A nuclear holocaust will only kill us and cause some collateral damage, no big deal!!. Its not even gonna tickle earth. Earth has seen much much violent forces, of magnitude which cannot even be imagined by mankind. The kinds which have pockmarked the moon for ever. Please do not be afraid to pollute, the volcanoes pollute much more than we do in much smaller time period, only they are a bit rarer.
We were not here some time back and we are not gonna be here some time later. Evolution will never stop, and new species will populate this planet, after all evolution has all the time in this world. So it is ok to pollute, please feel free to feed toxic chemicals to the rivers and the seas. Before long YOU will be drinking it. Do not feel guilty, or scared for this planet. Do not pray for the well being of this planet. DO NOT try to "save this planet".
This planet was never in any danger.
Its WE who are in danger.
So feel scared for yourselves, pray to your god for your own well being. Try to save yourselves. Cause what you do is not gonna do any damn shit thing to Earth. Only to you.
We wreck whatever we set our hands on and we contaminate everything. We fear what our actions will do to this planet but we keep on doing the same things, we keep on acting the same way. Thats the kind of hypocrits we are. We are scared of the next katrina, the next tidal wave and the next earthquake. We have absolutely no regards for other species who share this planet with us, we have no regards for this planet either. So i say lets speed up this process, lets pollute, burn, plunder, kill, rape, poach as fast as we can and lets kill ourselves as early as we can. Cause if there is one species which i don't want to preserve, its us.
Life will go on. Please let us not kid ourselves here, we are NOT powerful enough to destroy this Earth. A nuclear holocaust will only kill us and cause some collateral damage, no big deal!!. Its not even gonna tickle earth. Earth has seen much much violent forces, of magnitude which cannot even be imagined by mankind. The kinds which have pockmarked the moon for ever. Please do not be afraid to pollute, the volcanoes pollute much more than we do in much smaller time period, only they are a bit rarer.
We were not here some time back and we are not gonna be here some time later. Evolution will never stop, and new species will populate this planet, after all evolution has all the time in this world. So it is ok to pollute, please feel free to feed toxic chemicals to the rivers and the seas. Before long YOU will be drinking it. Do not feel guilty, or scared for this planet. Do not pray for the well being of this planet. DO NOT try to "save this planet".
This planet was never in any danger.
Its WE who are in danger.
So feel scared for yourselves, pray to your god for your own well being. Try to save yourselves. Cause what you do is not gonna do any damn shit thing to Earth. Only to you.
Into the Wild
Its that time of the year again, exam time. Semester 2 is drawing to a close and we have 2 holidays in between the exams... next up is SBMM, 4 credits... perhaps thats why i watched a movie today, titled - Into the Wild.
Its about a guy who gives up civilization and retires into the wild at the age of 23.
Does it make any sense to simply give up civilization? To just leave the life you are living and go...?
Well the movie definitely makes sense to me. And i recommend this movie to all, and if u like it, please tell me. This might sound odd but thats' the way it is. Cause i think that maybe everyone might not like this movie.
Here's the story.
The movie starts with Christopher McCandeless starting his journey into the Alaskan wilderness at the start of winter. Definitely not the best of the time to move in. He finds a bus abandoned in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home, he spends the rest of his short life in that "magic" bus. The movie then flashbacks to his graduation day. His proud parents offer him a new car in place of his perfectly good Datson, he is anyways pissed off the material things in life. He donates his life savings to charity, burns the change, cuts all his identity cards, destroys his social security card and drives to the Arizona desert. Here he abandons his car, burns whatever money he had and walks away, from his old life, from the people he knew, from civilization and perhaps from hypocrisy, deceit, lies, society.
He assumes the new name of Alexander Supertramp. Along the way he meets up new people, 2 "Rubber Tramps", works for a farmer as an combine, elevator operator, spends a few days with an old man living alone. His way leads north, to Alaska and he rows kayaks, walks the plains and freeloads on freight trains and takes rides. No money. He is a voracious reader, and reads Tolstoy etc., Dr Zhivago is one of his favourites.
He always hated the sick, hypocritic codes of the society. He lived his life on the lines of his own codes, he measured other people by them, most failed. But the one person he trusts and respects is his Sister, who narrates the movie. He discovers that his mom is not the legally wedded wife of his father. This makes him and his sister bastard children.
But he is not running away from lies and deceit. He is leaving them behind.
He writes and quotes: "Mans' spirit is made by the experiences he has", "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape", "The simple beauty is just too good to pass up", "A man can only truly become one with himself when he is all alone with nature, with just his hands and his head" . Once he kills a moose for food but is unable to preserve the meat. He labels this event as the "biggest tragedy of my life". In the end he wants to return back to civilization, to his defunct family, but is trapped in the wild because of the weather. He runs out of food and has to eat edible plants, he by mistake eats a poisonous plant which paralyzes his digestive system. He dies of starvation. "everything must be called by its true name", he dies not Alex but Chris. "Happiness is real only if shared".
Things are not what they seem. Sometimes i feel totally lonely when i am with my friends and the hostel is crawling with a 100 guys. You can be totally lonely when in a crowd. Being alone does not mean being lonely. Its like you are best hidden when out in the open. Today i was all alone in my room and the hostel was almost deserted, and i was looking into the woods behind my room and the shadow of the tree was shimmering on the ground like light shimmers on water. It felt really good just listening. Once i was at 12500 feet atop on Gulmarg, all alone with not a souls in sight, and boy could i see far!! Loneliness can strike anytime, it is a weird thing.
A man who has to hide cannot leave the society. He hides but in the society. Only that man leaves who has nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. Seems like Alex was that kinda man.
Sometimes difficult questions need to be asked, and moving "into the wild" seems to be the only answer.
Its about a guy who gives up civilization and retires into the wild at the age of 23.
Does it make any sense to simply give up civilization? To just leave the life you are living and go...?
Well the movie definitely makes sense to me. And i recommend this movie to all, and if u like it, please tell me. This might sound odd but thats' the way it is. Cause i think that maybe everyone might not like this movie.
Here's the story.
The movie starts with Christopher McCandeless starting his journey into the Alaskan wilderness at the start of winter. Definitely not the best of the time to move in. He finds a bus abandoned in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home, he spends the rest of his short life in that "magic" bus. The movie then flashbacks to his graduation day. His proud parents offer him a new car in place of his perfectly good Datson, he is anyways pissed off the material things in life. He donates his life savings to charity, burns the change, cuts all his identity cards, destroys his social security card and drives to the Arizona desert. Here he abandons his car, burns whatever money he had and walks away, from his old life, from the people he knew, from civilization and perhaps from hypocrisy, deceit, lies, society.
He assumes the new name of Alexander Supertramp. Along the way he meets up new people, 2 "Rubber Tramps", works for a farmer as an combine, elevator operator, spends a few days with an old man living alone. His way leads north, to Alaska and he rows kayaks, walks the plains and freeloads on freight trains and takes rides. No money. He is a voracious reader, and reads Tolstoy etc., Dr Zhivago is one of his favourites.
He always hated the sick, hypocritic codes of the society. He lived his life on the lines of his own codes, he measured other people by them, most failed. But the one person he trusts and respects is his Sister, who narrates the movie. He discovers that his mom is not the legally wedded wife of his father. This makes him and his sister bastard children.
But he is not running away from lies and deceit. He is leaving them behind.
He writes and quotes: "Mans' spirit is made by the experiences he has", "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape", "The simple beauty is just too good to pass up", "A man can only truly become one with himself when he is all alone with nature, with just his hands and his head" . Once he kills a moose for food but is unable to preserve the meat. He labels this event as the "biggest tragedy of my life". In the end he wants to return back to civilization, to his defunct family, but is trapped in the wild because of the weather. He runs out of food and has to eat edible plants, he by mistake eats a poisonous plant which paralyzes his digestive system. He dies of starvation. "everything must be called by its true name", he dies not Alex but Chris. "Happiness is real only if shared".
Things are not what they seem. Sometimes i feel totally lonely when i am with my friends and the hostel is crawling with a 100 guys. You can be totally lonely when in a crowd. Being alone does not mean being lonely. Its like you are best hidden when out in the open. Today i was all alone in my room and the hostel was almost deserted, and i was looking into the woods behind my room and the shadow of the tree was shimmering on the ground like light shimmers on water. It felt really good just listening. Once i was at 12500 feet atop on Gulmarg, all alone with not a souls in sight, and boy could i see far!! Loneliness can strike anytime, it is a weird thing.
A man who has to hide cannot leave the society. He hides but in the society. Only that man leaves who has nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. Seems like Alex was that kinda man.
Sometimes difficult questions need to be asked, and moving "into the wild" seems to be the only answer.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Michael Jackson.
The news of his death was a shock.
Your music will ensure u remain immortal... always a legend.
This Post
Dedicated to one of the greatest sensations of all times, the king of pop culture,
the guy who was a "smooth criminal" but "thrilled" "bad" "black or white" guys, and unfortunately "beat it" in the end,
To Michael Jackson.
may you rest in peace.
Your music will ensure u remain immortal... always a legend.
This Post
Dedicated to one of the greatest sensations of all times, the king of pop culture,
the guy who was a "smooth criminal" but "thrilled" "bad" "black or white" guys, and unfortunately "beat it" in the end,
To Michael Jackson.
may you rest in peace.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Fake IPL Player
So there is a fake IPL player amongst them players in SA. Yeah and s/he is watching you day in and day out. So beware before you booze off with that babe into the night after loosing the match; And accepting that "fee" for "performing" in the next match will be definite foolishness. Nothing escapes our Fake IPL Player's notice... The Games Have Begun (Already)!!!
I came to know about the Fake IPL Player today when i read it in the papers... so i checked out the blog. My blog, in turn, dissects this IPL ANONYMOUS.
I don't know what inspired this person to start such a blog, but it was a brilliant idea. What makes it so popular? I think the media has hyped it a bit now plus the blog is slanderous, its filled with finger pointing, "inside scoops", inside gossip. And the public in general loves this kind of shit... in fact this kind of shit is exactly why series like Roadies, Splitsvilla and BigBrother turn out to be such TRP winners. What is surprising is that IPL ANONYMOUS has categorically stated in a disclaimer that whatever s/he writes is fictitious. And still i know for a fact that this is gonna be a hit till the end.
But dishing out shit isn't enough for me to get hooked. What makes this blog really interesting to me is that this person has written his accounts really well, the English is cool, groovy, filled with slang, the fake names given are funny and make you think of some character in IPL. Reading the blog makes you feel that the author is really out there in SA, sitting on benches, handing Gatorade to players, listening in, being there, doing that!!
Initially this started out as just some time pass activity i feel, but soon it got bigger and bigger, this is when our IPL ANONYMOUS got scared (read PI**ED in his pants). So s/he put up the disclaimer. Now our IPL ANON is enjoying the attention.
Well i have a few requests to make/advise to give to IPL ANON:
1) Start advertising on you blog and make money dude!! don't be a dud!!
2) Don't reveal your identity till the end, this secret is the only thing which keeps this blog alive, but come out in the open (through you now very famous blog) after your very last entry, cause otherwise you'll never be famous, always remain anonymous!!
And keep it up buddy, you are doing a damn good job out there, better than most at least!!!
I came to know about the Fake IPL Player today when i read it in the papers... so i checked out the blog. My blog, in turn, dissects this IPL ANONYMOUS.
I don't know what inspired this person to start such a blog, but it was a brilliant idea. What makes it so popular? I think the media has hyped it a bit now plus the blog is slanderous, its filled with finger pointing, "inside scoops", inside gossip. And the public in general loves this kind of shit... in fact this kind of shit is exactly why series like Roadies, Splitsvilla and BigBrother turn out to be such TRP winners. What is surprising is that IPL ANONYMOUS has categorically stated in a disclaimer that whatever s/he writes is fictitious. And still i know for a fact that this is gonna be a hit till the end.
But dishing out shit isn't enough for me to get hooked. What makes this blog really interesting to me is that this person has written his accounts really well, the English is cool, groovy, filled with slang, the fake names given are funny and make you think of some character in IPL. Reading the blog makes you feel that the author is really out there in SA, sitting on benches, handing Gatorade to players, listening in, being there, doing that!!
Initially this started out as just some time pass activity i feel, but soon it got bigger and bigger, this is when our IPL ANONYMOUS got scared (read PI**ED in his pants). So s/he put up the disclaimer. Now our IPL ANON is enjoying the attention.
Well i have a few requests to make/advise to give to IPL ANON:
1) Start advertising on you blog and make money dude!! don't be a dud!!
2) Don't reveal your identity till the end, this secret is the only thing which keeps this blog alive, but come out in the open (through you now very famous blog) after your very last entry, cause otherwise you'll never be famous, always remain anonymous!!
And keep it up buddy, you are doing a damn good job out there, better than most at least!!!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
M.Sc. Bioinformatics
The following question was given in one of our practical sessions for the subject Immunoinformatics. I wrote the text while i was doing the practicals - in Real Time. Nothing has been changed from the original text (though this text wasn't submitted for evaluation). This is just to give you guys a glimpse of bioinformatics and how I go about doing my pracs. DISCLAIMER: I very rarely resort to the following protocol for doing my pracs, very rarely.
Welcome to the World of Bioinformatics guys...
----------*----------
Q. Select a viral pathogen. Search the literature database to identify the known antigenic protein(s). Search the sequence/genome databases and compile the dataset of viral protein(s) from various strains/isolates. We will be using this dataset for studying the extent of variations (in the next practical) as well as for prediction of epitopes in due course of time. Document the references using the standard style acceptable for publication of papers in the journal Nucleic Acids Research (see instructions to authors).
Ans. The Hepatitis B Virus was selected as the pathogen of choice to build the sequence database because its replication cycle is weird and consequently damn interesting and i am supposed to take the hepatitis vaccine sometime in this week and because its as good a virus as any other to do this stupid activity.
The antigenic proteins of this virus were identified using the most useful website in the world viz. en.wikipedia.org, since sites such as PubMed weren't of much help. And please don't give me crap like u-don't-know-how-to-search... cause the search string - "Hepatitis B Virus" in wiki led me to its genome map and the antigenic proteins while it had led me to more than 30000 "HITS" in PubMed, what shit is that???
NEways... the antigenic proteins are:
HBsAg
HBcAg
HBeAg
So now to get their sequence i move on over to one of my other fav site called : SwissProt...
First search: HBsAg and i get hits for loads of strains: those infecting squirrel, monkey then one of genotype D,A2,B and etc etc. I guess these 5 strains are good enuff and so i stop and move on to the next Ag - HBcAg......done...Sweet. Need i say more...That's why i like SwissProt. I finish HBeAg in record time.
Well there might be more antigenic proteins in HBV after all that are not listed in Wiki... But then the dratted "Literature database" doesn't want to tell me anything either...its "hitting" on me and so its d good ol' wiki.
But just to be sure i run a google search. This time it does not throw up any new antigens and besides i am happy with the 15 seq from 5 strains that i have in hand to do my analysis.
So now i turn my attention to the documenting and ahem' referencing part. Well wiki even though its a jewel of a site isn't exactly acceptable by the folks here who evaluate me and gimme marks.
So... i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigen protein" in PubMed and i get 9232 hits... too many so i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigenic proteins" mark (only) the extra (3 letters) 'ic' and 's' and my hits reduce from 9232 to 320... Much better but not good enuff but then i make the same search this time only for reviews and i get 25 hits...voila!!! Perfect...
What these 25 reviews have to say is that HBV has got a few antigenic proteins some of which are HBsAg, HBcAg and HBeAg...(Isn't that what wikipedia was trying to say all along!!??) Only 1 review is of note from among these 25: "Hepatitis B surface antigen variation and protective immunity". So at least the search part is taken care of.
What "NAR: instructions to authors" link has to say on the subject of accession numbers is : "Accession numbers may be cited either within the text or in the form of a reference". Well my accession numbers (from SwissProt) are there in the file names of FASTA format itself for anyone and everyone to see so no worries for me. With this i let references be.
Which leaves the documentation part in "Standard Style" (refer the last line of question). The above text is enough documentation for me in a style which btw is so good that it ought to BE the Standard Style followed universally!!! (This Author takes a bow and acknowledges the appalause!!!)
----------*----------
This post is published in the blog: www.apna-gang-blog.blogspot.com
Welcome to the World of Bioinformatics guys...
----------*----------
Q. Select a viral pathogen. Search the literature database to identify the known antigenic protein(s). Search the sequence/genome databases and compile the dataset of viral protein(s) from various strains/isolates. We will be using this dataset for studying the extent of variations (in the next practical) as well as for prediction of epitopes in due course of time. Document the references using the standard style acceptable for publication of papers in the journal Nucleic Acids Research (see instructions to authors).
Ans. The Hepatitis B Virus was selected as the pathogen of choice to build the sequence database because its replication cycle is weird and consequently damn interesting and i am supposed to take the hepatitis vaccine sometime in this week and because its as good a virus as any other to do this stupid activity.
The antigenic proteins of this virus were identified using the most useful website in the world viz. en.wikipedia.org, since sites such as PubMed weren't of much help. And please don't give me crap like u-don't-know-how-to-search... cause the search string - "Hepatitis B Virus" in wiki led me to its genome map and the antigenic proteins while it had led me to more than 30000 "HITS" in PubMed, what shit is that???
NEways... the antigenic proteins are:
HBsAg
HBcAg
HBeAg
So now to get their sequence i move on over to one of my other fav site called : SwissProt...
First search: HBsAg and i get hits for loads of strains: those infecting squirrel, monkey then one of genotype D,A2,B and etc etc. I guess these 5 strains are good enuff and so i stop and move on to the next Ag - HBcAg......done...Sweet. Need i say more...That's why i like SwissProt. I finish HBeAg in record time.
Well there might be more antigenic proteins in HBV after all that are not listed in Wiki... But then the dratted "Literature database" doesn't want to tell me anything either...its "hitting" on me and so its d good ol' wiki.
But just to be sure i run a google search. This time it does not throw up any new antigens and besides i am happy with the 15 seq from 5 strains that i have in hand to do my analysis.
So now i turn my attention to the documenting and ahem' referencing part. Well wiki even though its a jewel of a site isn't exactly acceptable by the folks here who evaluate me and gimme marks.
So... i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigen protein" in PubMed and i get 9232 hits... too many so i try "Hepatitis B Virus [AND] Antigenic proteins" mark (only) the extra (3 letters) 'ic' and 's' and my hits reduce from 9232 to 320... Much better but not good enuff but then i make the same search this time only for reviews and i get 25 hits...voila!!! Perfect...
What these 25 reviews have to say is that HBV has got a few antigenic proteins some of which are HBsAg, HBcAg and HBeAg...(Isn't that what wikipedia was trying to say all along!!??) Only 1 review is of note from among these 25: "Hepatitis B surface antigen variation and protective immunity". So at least the search part is taken care of.
What "NAR: instructions to authors" link has to say on the subject of accession numbers is : "Accession numbers may be cited either within the text or in the form of a reference". Well my accession numbers (from SwissProt) are there in the file names of FASTA format itself for anyone and everyone to see so no worries for me. With this i let references be.
Which leaves the documentation part in "Standard Style" (refer the last line of question). The above text is enough documentation for me in a style which btw is so good that it ought to BE the Standard Style followed universally!!! (This Author takes a bow and acknowledges the appalause!!!)
----------*----------
This post is published in the blog: www.apna-gang-blog.blogspot.com
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Thats My Girl!!
My Honda Eterno turns 3 today. It was delivered to us 3 years back one afternoon all shiny and new, without any identity. And while she's just a tad bit less shiny, she's better than new. Her tacho displays 13832. Seen a lot of this world. A punctured tire on top of a flyover has been the worst of it. No accidents, no mishaps. Only loads of memories.
My thoughts are a whirlwind filled with adrenalin, calm, shock, ecstasy, fear, happiness, frustration, bliss, speed, guilt, life... everything that happened with the road flying beneath me. My Eterno now has her own identity, she has a soul. She'll never betray or desert me, nor ever break my trust. Yes I always wanted a bike. But this scooter showed that its better than any, in many respects.
Its a pleasure simply revving it up and listening to its silent purr. No growl or roar, just a silent vibe of raw power, nothing flashy about her, but watch out for her on the road; cause at 90kmph she is the most silent machine on the asphalt, you will never hear her footsteps then!!! Polishing her smooth contours i own her.
Thousands of kilometers still to span, new roads to discover together, many destinations remain. But with my Eterno it will always be the journey that counts.
My thoughts are a whirlwind filled with adrenalin, calm, shock, ecstasy, fear, happiness, frustration, bliss, speed, guilt, life... everything that happened with the road flying beneath me. My Eterno now has her own identity, she has a soul. She'll never betray or desert me, nor ever break my trust. Yes I always wanted a bike. But this scooter showed that its better than any, in many respects.
Its a pleasure simply revving it up and listening to its silent purr. No growl or roar, just a silent vibe of raw power, nothing flashy about her, but watch out for her on the road; cause at 90kmph she is the most silent machine on the asphalt, you will never hear her footsteps then!!! Polishing her smooth contours i own her.
Thousands of kilometers still to span, new roads to discover together, many destinations remain. But with my Eterno it will always be the journey that counts.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
This Business of Publishing
These days whenever I am in search of a research paper, invariably I end up with one which is mighty interesting but unfortunately not free. And I don't understand this tax on knowledge, levied on those in Humanity, who are the only ones carrying it forward. If there is some interesting article then why don't I have the right to read it for free. I want to ask the scientists the question that: Why do they do research? Why do they work and solve problems and answer questions? Is it not because students like me and other people know about it? Now, I know for a fact that many examples from this race don't care about protein folding, isn't that all the more reason why those who do (like me) should get access to that information?
I agree that publishing costs must be covered somehow. But if radio can cover cost of broadcasting by advertising and donation then why not research journals. Journals with really good research are read by a lot of people and that's how they get their high impact factor. This should be the reason why they should charge extra for advertising cause their ads are being read by so many more people. Publishing Science should not be a profit making industry, it must try and become a no-profit-no-loss-industry.
But I am not just raving and ranting about the cost, I also want to point out the outrageous amount of cost of some papers. For example what justifies the atrocious amount of $200 for a paper?? (A friend of mine saw this one)
Unfortunately the most interesting papers (often from Nature) are also the ones not free. I feel that papers, if they have to be charged, then must be charged for finite amount of time, say 6 months or so. This way all scientists who are doing literature survey will pay for it cause they must be updated with all the latest research, and a lot can happen over 6 months. After this period expires, the paper must come into public domain. This way a lot of good research will be accessible to a lot many people and students.
After all Science belongs to the whole of Mankind.
I agree that publishing costs must be covered somehow. But if radio can cover cost of broadcasting by advertising and donation then why not research journals. Journals with really good research are read by a lot of people and that's how they get their high impact factor. This should be the reason why they should charge extra for advertising cause their ads are being read by so many more people. Publishing Science should not be a profit making industry, it must try and become a no-profit-no-loss-industry.
But I am not just raving and ranting about the cost, I also want to point out the outrageous amount of cost of some papers. For example what justifies the atrocious amount of $200 for a paper?? (A friend of mine saw this one)
Unfortunately the most interesting papers (often from Nature) are also the ones not free. I feel that papers, if they have to be charged, then must be charged for finite amount of time, say 6 months or so. This way all scientists who are doing literature survey will pay for it cause they must be updated with all the latest research, and a lot can happen over 6 months. After this period expires, the paper must come into public domain. This way a lot of good research will be accessible to a lot many people and students.
After all Science belongs to the whole of Mankind.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Computational Biologist Arrives.
Biology started off as a descriptive science. There was a lot of observation involved and description of observed data. That was the day of the Naturalist. He/She went afield with telescopes in hand or a magnifying lens perhaps and waited hours patiently for the glimpse of that rare species. With the classification of life into kingdom animalia and plantae, evolved the Botanist, concerned chiefly with plants, and the Zoologist, concerned chiefly with animals. Then one day Antonie van Leeuwenhoek directed his microscope to a spoiled food item and a whole new world of the microorganisms was discovered. As understanding about the variety of flora and fauna increased interest grew in the behavior of these organisms. This was still a descriptive science.
Observation of behavior lead to observation of other phenomena and Mendel was the first to explain the concept of heredity. I consider the time between the early 1900s to mid 1900s the golden age for biology. Not only was the structure of DNA, which by then was proven to be the information carrier, elucidated but also the mechanism of coding this information found out. This period saw the birth of the experimental biologist. No longer did the biologist have to roam about in the fields, he explained fundamental biological phenomena in the laboratory. However unlike the experimental physicist who first builds a hypothesis, and then designs experiments to verify it, the experimental biologist has no hypothesis. Instead the experimental biologist asks objective questions about a particular phenomena and then designs experiments which will give him the answers. He uses these answers to then explain the phenomena. However the tricks and tools of his trade were not refined and were unwieldy.
Then came the revolution called molecular biology. This science is predominantly tool and technology based. The molecular biologist again works differently than the experimental biologist. The molecular biologist generates data which he then analyses to come to his answers. As the technology of molecular biology matured, the molecular biologist soon started drowning in the flood of data, in stepped the Bioinformatician to the rescue.
The main job of the bioinformatician was to arrange the data in meaningful structures which could be made sense of by other biologists. Bioinformaticians soon became indispensable, especially with the advent of the Internet and its associated services. With the Human Genome Project and the subsequent easy availability of data in public databases, understanding of biology progressed by leaps and bounds.
However even with the advances in molecular biology techniques many questions remain unanswered. A new school of thought has emerged which argues that further understanding of biology will only take place if the whole organism is studied as a single system rather than understanding different phenomena independently. The Systems Biologist tries to take a broader view of the problem at hand. Unfortunately with the level of detail known today, multiple phenomena can be analysed only by the modern day computers. The number of variables involved is so high that the human brain cant analyse it.
This is when the computational biologist arrives. He is an expert in handling computers. The Computational biologist not only needs to understand the softwares being run on his machine but also the hardware that his machine is made up of. The computational biologist, infact, uses his machine as an extension of his own mental capacity to solve a problem. He is an expert in programming and biology at the same time. Computational Biology is the future of Biology which will solve problems of a global nature, where the whole organism is involved. This revolution might not come about overnight. The level of complexity known today is so much that even superfast computers take a lot of time to simulate a protein-protein interaction for a small time interval, as much as 1 day of computation to calculate a time interval of 1 pico sec. None the less trying to solve these problems experimentally is, in some cases impossible, and in other cases, not financially feasible, especially now that funding is so hard to come by. The Computational Biologist has definitely arrived on the scene and with advancement in computer hardware and software, tough biological problems will be tackled only by the Computational Biologist.
The inspiration for this article comes from:
http://www.geocities.com/letapk/physics3.html
Observation of behavior lead to observation of other phenomena and Mendel was the first to explain the concept of heredity. I consider the time between the early 1900s to mid 1900s the golden age for biology. Not only was the structure of DNA, which by then was proven to be the information carrier, elucidated but also the mechanism of coding this information found out. This period saw the birth of the experimental biologist. No longer did the biologist have to roam about in the fields, he explained fundamental biological phenomena in the laboratory. However unlike the experimental physicist who first builds a hypothesis, and then designs experiments to verify it, the experimental biologist has no hypothesis. Instead the experimental biologist asks objective questions about a particular phenomena and then designs experiments which will give him the answers. He uses these answers to then explain the phenomena. However the tricks and tools of his trade were not refined and were unwieldy.
Then came the revolution called molecular biology. This science is predominantly tool and technology based. The molecular biologist again works differently than the experimental biologist. The molecular biologist generates data which he then analyses to come to his answers. As the technology of molecular biology matured, the molecular biologist soon started drowning in the flood of data, in stepped the Bioinformatician to the rescue.
The main job of the bioinformatician was to arrange the data in meaningful structures which could be made sense of by other biologists. Bioinformaticians soon became indispensable, especially with the advent of the Internet and its associated services. With the Human Genome Project and the subsequent easy availability of data in public databases, understanding of biology progressed by leaps and bounds.
However even with the advances in molecular biology techniques many questions remain unanswered. A new school of thought has emerged which argues that further understanding of biology will only take place if the whole organism is studied as a single system rather than understanding different phenomena independently. The Systems Biologist tries to take a broader view of the problem at hand. Unfortunately with the level of detail known today, multiple phenomena can be analysed only by the modern day computers. The number of variables involved is so high that the human brain cant analyse it.
This is when the computational biologist arrives. He is an expert in handling computers. The Computational biologist not only needs to understand the softwares being run on his machine but also the hardware that his machine is made up of. The computational biologist, infact, uses his machine as an extension of his own mental capacity to solve a problem. He is an expert in programming and biology at the same time. Computational Biology is the future of Biology which will solve problems of a global nature, where the whole organism is involved. This revolution might not come about overnight. The level of complexity known today is so much that even superfast computers take a lot of time to simulate a protein-protein interaction for a small time interval, as much as 1 day of computation to calculate a time interval of 1 pico sec. None the less trying to solve these problems experimentally is, in some cases impossible, and in other cases, not financially feasible, especially now that funding is so hard to come by. The Computational Biologist has definitely arrived on the scene and with advancement in computer hardware and software, tough biological problems will be tackled only by the Computational Biologist.
The inspiration for this article comes from:
http://www.geocities.com/letapk/physics3.html
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Ringa Ringa
I am assuming that by now you must have heard the raunchy number from Slumdog Millionaire called Ringa Ringa... Its about the story of a Khatmal (Bed-bug) which crawls under the skirt of (I assume) a beautiful lady and the things she experiences consequently.
(((Ek Khatmal tha sayaana, uska tha mujhpe nishaana!!)))
But as i can testify the experience must've been bad casue last night not 1 but 12 Khatmal had crawled under my blanket reducing my normal sleep time of 7 hrs to a pitiful 2 hrs and reducing my total blood volume by a healthy 10 ml or so!!!
Alas my room has been infected by these god-damned Khatmals... my bedsheet has 3 colonies of these damned bugs with loads of white eggs and baby bugs as small as dandruff... These baby bugs are the most irritating since they are difficult to spot and kill, though their bite can be ignored... the big daddys that i killed last night though bite rough and drink a lot of blood, more than i can spare... plus the area itches... infact after last night i can now even predict the size of the khatmal by looking at the boil signature that it leaves behind on my skin...
Anyways... last night the khatmals i encountered were almost as big as small cockroaches which is sumo wrestler size by bed bug standards and they were filled with my blood... i literally squeezed the blood outta them (though it was all mine) and killed a healthy dozen... still their progenies on my bed sheet survive and they must be taken care of... So heres my plan... the bed sheet goes... so does the 2 beds... the mattresses will have to be cleaned so as to remove all eggs and kid bugs... The room will be cleaned to remove dead bugs (which have live eggs inside them), Naphthalene balls under the mattresses will hopefully ensure these buggers dont come back again...
Theres this curious thing about bed bugs that they stink real bad when u kill them and cause of that I have cultivated such a loathing for bed bugs after last night that i just cannot tolerate anymore bugs in my life...
I feel sorry for the damsel in distress in Ringa Ringa... may she never come across another Khatmal ever again :-)...
(((Ek Khatmal tha sayaana, uska tha mujhpe nishaana!!)))
But as i can testify the experience must've been bad casue last night not 1 but 12 Khatmal had crawled under my blanket reducing my normal sleep time of 7 hrs to a pitiful 2 hrs and reducing my total blood volume by a healthy 10 ml or so!!!
Alas my room has been infected by these god-damned Khatmals... my bedsheet has 3 colonies of these damned bugs with loads of white eggs and baby bugs as small as dandruff... These baby bugs are the most irritating since they are difficult to spot and kill, though their bite can be ignored... the big daddys that i killed last night though bite rough and drink a lot of blood, more than i can spare... plus the area itches... infact after last night i can now even predict the size of the khatmal by looking at the boil signature that it leaves behind on my skin...
Anyways... last night the khatmals i encountered were almost as big as small cockroaches which is sumo wrestler size by bed bug standards and they were filled with my blood... i literally squeezed the blood outta them (though it was all mine) and killed a healthy dozen... still their progenies on my bed sheet survive and they must be taken care of... So heres my plan... the bed sheet goes... so does the 2 beds... the mattresses will have to be cleaned so as to remove all eggs and kid bugs... The room will be cleaned to remove dead bugs (which have live eggs inside them), Naphthalene balls under the mattresses will hopefully ensure these buggers dont come back again...
Theres this curious thing about bed bugs that they stink real bad when u kill them and cause of that I have cultivated such a loathing for bed bugs after last night that i just cannot tolerate anymore bugs in my life...
I feel sorry for the damsel in distress in Ringa Ringa... may she never come across another Khatmal ever again :-)...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Adrenalin !!!
Some things in life are so ironic that one wonders what trick is fate playing with them. For example the fact that i have a rear wheel drive VAN !!!!
I guess most people wont understand this....so let me explain. Nowadays i am watching a Japanese cartoon series (with English subtitles) called Initial D which is about a young guy who is an expert drifter but totally oblivious of his skill, the world of cars and that of street racers. The series is about his self discovery and how he turns into the most skilled street drifter.
Things like these appeal a lot to me. The thing that i want most at this point is a good machine under me. When i ride my friends' Honda Unicorn, the raw acceleration gives me a rush i cant describe... once me and Panse had taken a Pulsar 180 for a spin at 12 in the night in the colony and i had touched 105 kmph on the Raagmala road. The Adrenalin kick that i got was so awesome i couldn't sleep till 2 that night. I got the same rush when i first wheelied on my Eterno and then on Belo's Hero Honda CBZ... Theres no feeling like the one you get when an Engine is revving at 7500rpm under your seat and the air is rushing through the small gap between the top of your ears and the head, your eyes watering coz' of the roaring wind!!!! :-)
Well so i want to drift a car now. I really really want to do this infact nowadays i dream myself drifting.... am thinking about how to drift when the lectures go dead, am thinking where and for how much will i get a good rear wheeled drive car in Pune, what modifications it will need. Now the GOD DAMNED irony is that i own a car with just that FR layout....only thing its a VAN.... and with 37 bhp how is it gonna drift??? I am happy that it has enough torque for wheel spins...and it does go to 113 kmph... but it handles really badly.... ofcourse i wouldn't try a drift on that car... but where do i get an FR car in Pune which i can afford??? my budget being 25000 bucks!!!! :-(.... I guess my best bet would be a modified premier padmini or ambassador... thats not happening somehow!!! Why the hell does not India have more FR layouts cars man....it pisses me off sometimes.... and look at the sedans we have...SX4...its a man....damn cars are supposed to be sexy (read female)... i will never buy an SX4 precisely because its masculine... whatever happened to the breed of esteems and balenos....if only they had been rear wheeled driven!!!
Also maybe i should point out that it is possible to drift a FF layout car... but i refuse to drift in a FWD...thats it...
Anyways cars are too costly... and the first thing i am gonna buy with my money is gonna be a bike... something with good performance... no compromises...
May be these are dangerous tendencies... but i am so young i refuse to acknowledge a fact called Death.
I guess most people wont understand this....so let me explain. Nowadays i am watching a Japanese cartoon series (with English subtitles) called Initial D which is about a young guy who is an expert drifter but totally oblivious of his skill, the world of cars and that of street racers. The series is about his self discovery and how he turns into the most skilled street drifter.
Things like these appeal a lot to me. The thing that i want most at this point is a good machine under me. When i ride my friends' Honda Unicorn, the raw acceleration gives me a rush i cant describe... once me and Panse had taken a Pulsar 180 for a spin at 12 in the night in the colony and i had touched 105 kmph on the Raagmala road. The Adrenalin kick that i got was so awesome i couldn't sleep till 2 that night. I got the same rush when i first wheelied on my Eterno and then on Belo's Hero Honda CBZ... Theres no feeling like the one you get when an Engine is revving at 7500rpm under your seat and the air is rushing through the small gap between the top of your ears and the head, your eyes watering coz' of the roaring wind!!!! :-)
Well so i want to drift a car now. I really really want to do this infact nowadays i dream myself drifting.... am thinking about how to drift when the lectures go dead, am thinking where and for how much will i get a good rear wheeled drive car in Pune, what modifications it will need. Now the GOD DAMNED irony is that i own a car with just that FR layout....only thing its a VAN.... and with 37 bhp how is it gonna drift??? I am happy that it has enough torque for wheel spins...and it does go to 113 kmph... but it handles really badly.... ofcourse i wouldn't try a drift on that car... but where do i get an FR car in Pune which i can afford??? my budget being 25000 bucks!!!! :-(.... I guess my best bet would be a modified premier padmini or ambassador... thats not happening somehow!!! Why the hell does not India have more FR layouts cars man....it pisses me off sometimes.... and look at the sedans we have...SX4...its a man....damn cars are supposed to be sexy (read female)... i will never buy an SX4 precisely because its masculine... whatever happened to the breed of esteems and balenos....if only they had been rear wheeled driven!!!
Also maybe i should point out that it is possible to drift a FF layout car... but i refuse to drift in a FWD...thats it...
Anyways cars are too costly... and the first thing i am gonna buy with my money is gonna be a bike... something with good performance... no compromises...
May be these are dangerous tendencies... but i am so young i refuse to acknowledge a fact called Death.
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