Just a rant about today's Science in India

So today I read an article about the state of Science in India written by Prof. G. R. Desiraju, a professor of chemistry from IISc. Here is the article.

The state of Science in India is in the doldrums and it is evident from the fact that despite the huge size of the country and the humongous Human Resource that we have, we have yet to get a Nobel since 1930!

1930??!!! 1930 is so ancient that it is frankly even beyond my comprehension! Sure a few scientists of "Indian Origin" did get Nobel Prizes, but by the time they got the prize, they were already citizens of other nations. In every case, the work done for which the Nobel was bagged was not done in an Indian Institute.

Is it that we do not have quality research institutions? I beg to differ. I have been lucky enough to have been in Institutions which had more than enough infrastructure for doing excellent science throughout my education. Yes my BSc college days were a bit cash cramped. But we never had to face shortage of materials for doing quality science. In my MSc at Bioinformatics Center Pune, we literally had gigantic servers lying unused. I cringe at the waste that place is seeing even now. Hell if we wanted we could have done mind blowing science there! And frankly we did want to, but didn't know how! Now that I am in IISc, I see that people are definitely not begging for money atleast. Sure there are a few labs where students are always crying out for this antibody and that fluorescent dye, but even the worst lab in MBU has a set-up that would put many many international labs to shame!

Even if the lab is not rich in terms of instruments, the central facilities in institutes are shared by everyone. Infact it hardly matters what instruments your lab has, for example, the lab in which I am currently working in, is FILTHY RICH in every sense of the word, the instruments we have are state-of-the-art and s*it costly. Still the best papers that we published last year had data derived from instruments in the central facility (like FACS, I don't even know how many millions it costs) or from collaborating with other labs for their instruments (like for an Illumina machine in IGIB - Delhi). We use the Mass Spec facility of NCBS even though we have a MS right in our own department, whenever we need to do a Hydrogen Exchange. The best crystallography papers come from using a National Facility in MBU, or else from Synchrotron data collected in other countries, with the trip being funded by the government. And these facilities are used by students from other State Universities as well.

So then is it the low salaries/stipends of students? I feel we deserve much much more than the paltry Rs16000/- a month we get for the work we do, considering what the private sector pays for the same kind of work. Frankly, the private sector pays thrice what we earn, for work which is so dumb, it shouldn't require even a bachelor's degree for it. The work we do as research students in our labs, has a starting salary of Rs75000/- a month in the private sector which is what we get after finishing our PhDs. But then I always knew there was no money early on in Science anyway. Hell when I decided to do a PhD, people were being paid Rs12000/-, and back when I had decided to do pure Science, people were being paid Rs6000/-. In a way these low salaries are good because they ensure that people do not enter pure Science solely for the money atleast. They would embrace Science either because of their love for it or because of the prestige that a PhD carries with it. And that is fine with me. Besides, with living in ultra cheap Hostels and eating subsidised mess food, Rs16000/- turns out to be more than enough. But make no mistake, it is a meagre existence as compared to what our friends with bachelor degrees in engineering working private jobs earn. Yet I am fine with it! And I cannot label low stipends as a reason Indian Science is doing bad.

I believe that money truly has nothing to do with it! Neither are we seriously lacking in funding at the institute level, nor at a personal level. Yes a little bit more money at both levels would be good, a little bit more money is anyway always good! But in no way are we now anywhere near the streets nor with any more money would be suddenly become super rich. And this holds for all levels.

So then why the abysmal state of affairs? The author in his article above believes this is because of faults in the leadership and the "Indian Mindset" of always being a servant. These reasons are elaborated superbly in the article and it is a must read. While these two reasons are bang on, I believe there are a two more reasons for the status quo.

The first, according to me, is the attitude that students themselves have. Most students that I know have the same ambition. To do a postdoc in a good lab in US. Or any other first world nation. Including me by the way. Why, you ask? Because that way, we would get good papers published in our postdocs, come to India, open a Lab in a government institution and then lead a settled life! But also because, Indian Institutions accept only those scientists who have done postdocs from outside and have a couple of Natures or Sciences. If you want to open a Lab in a govt institution but still want a postdoc from India, then you will have to do it under a very prominent scientist who is estabilished, probably emeritus, very old, has a powerful position in administration, has a large enough clout and thus will be able to pull enough strings/influence enough people so that you get you your own Lab.

The second reason, which is quite related to the first one, is that once the person has opened their Lab in an Indian Institute, it is now time to retire! Because that position is permanent! Even if you do bad science/do not do science at all, no one can remove you from that place! As a results so many labs are simply non-productive.

The solution to both these problems is simple! Accountability! Who says that just because it is a government job, it should be permanent! If one PI is not good enough and is wasting the taxpayer's money then another should get a chance in his/her place! Heaven knows there are enough deserving applicants out there! This system is in place in NCBS and as far as I know, only in NCBS. And it works beautifully. Almost every lab in NCBS is more productive than the national average. Sure there are dud labs there as well. But they get closed if they remain dud for a long time. On the other hand, a dud lab in IISc remains dud till the PI retires. The lab remains unproductive for an average of 30 YEARS!!! Such labs are a cancer for the whole department, since as that PI ages, s/he starts getting more and more important positions in administration and that leads to even worse things! Good, productive labs will mean that a postdoc will be able to publish equally good papers from within India only, would get to open his/her own Lab and then will have to fight to keep the Lab afloat! This would in turn ensure that the Lab itself is productive!

Sure before these policy changes take effect, the current batch of old people holding the reins of power, the ones who make the policy, will need to die off. Because, unfortunately, that is the only way it works in India. And then the next batch that comes in should have the insight to make proper policy changes. Too many things are stuck in India in a vicious cycle and this nation as a whole is trying to break free of that vicious cycle but is still trapped. Hopefully the process has started, but seeing how things work, it will take a long time if it ever finishes. The only thing that we can do as students and individuals is do good Science inspite of the system we are in. Be adventurous and try and get a Nobel rather than the Indian Academy of Sciences Best Scientist of the Year Award!

Coorg: As it Lives in my Memory, A Year Later

How do you start if you want to convey to someone an experience that has been intense, exceptional, amazing, extraordinary, mindblowing, hard, harsh, powerful, profound, exquisite, emotional and more for you?

Do you start with the title? Or do you start with describing the people who were part of it with you? Do you start at the start of the story? Am just gonna start with what comes to my mind first.

Rays of sunlight filtering through the trees creating a mosaic of shadow on the road, over which the wheels are turning, the engine singing its sweet song, the wind blowing through my hair, between my ears & the head, taking away with it the heaviness of world, the cares & worries of life, the tiredness of my soul, lifting the spirit way above & beyond.

This after a strenuous day of riding about 260km through biting cold & searing heat.

Monday 10/1/11 5:15pm - I see my bike for the first time. Am speechless. There's no one to talk to but i would have been speechless either way. I just look at it, staring, cant take my eyes away. 5:44pm i turn the ignition, the bike comes to life for the first time under me. The bond for life has been made. I fill her up and ride 54kms on the first night itself. My days, my dreams are filled with this Honda Dazzler, my Baby Hornet. Something which I have been wanting, waiting since that first night I rode a bike in my 11th standard, 2003.

I was at Ashwins place & there was talk of going for a trip to Coorg. Wait!! Trip? Is it by road? Yes? On our bikes? Yes! On My Bike? Am Game, period. This was all that registered in my mind. I said yes. Nothing else mattered.

The START:

Friday morning 0430 hrs I frantically tried calling Ashish wondering whether he had woken up or was still hitting snooze. I called up Kishya, he said Ashish had called. We coordinated, met in the basement, I warmed up the bike and we met Himanshu, Kishore, Pandu & Ashwin at the IISc ATM gate. It was damn cold & I didn't have any gloves. I knew my fingers were gonna be dead with pain with the engine screaming at 80kmph, but I didn't care at all!

I see the bike in the streetlight, illuminated by passing high beams, I cant stop myself from taking a pic. It just is looking so bloody sexy!! How can I not take this pic?? We get on our bikes, give a shout out to Ganapati Bappa to look out for us and head off into the night. I just know at this point that this one is going to be special. I assume this as this is my first road trip with MY bike. I only now realise how mistaken I was then.

We leave Bangalore. And that's how the most awesome experience I have ever had starts...

The Journey:

Mysore Road, 80kmph, fingers numb from the 10 deg cold, feels like freezing. I just don't F***ING care. We stopped for fuel. I couldn't feel my phone. But I had to. The bike was looking too good! I clicked a few pics of the gang. We got back on the road. First stop for Tea @ Ramanagara. No one wanted to drink the Tea. Holding it was enough for then. My Tea actually went cold from me holding it. I ordered another one after gulping that one down. We were laughing, eating, happy, it was almost as if this morning everyone in that small place was happy cause there was this group of 6 guys who were having a blast. We got back on the bikes. Next we covered a huge patch of almost 70-80 km. At the round about after Srirangapatnam we stopped for a small water break, where i again got back to clicking pics of my bike & Kishore clicked pics of random hoardings. He is crazy like that. From here on we took the Mysore Bypass.

Again we rode with the wind. On Hunsur road we stopped at a place called Hotel Annapoorna for Tea. The tiredness was creeping in by now. We kept it at bay with the strong tea. It had been 181.6km since morning. Coorg was still a healthy 70km from us. We hit the road averaging a healthy 70-80 kmph. But we took wrong turn somewhere and soon enough we were in the rural back roads of Karnataka. No signs, no vehicles, no people either. Just trees, our 3 bikes and the fields. This part actually turned out to be a refreshing change after the fast highway runs we had had since morning. Me and Ashish got down to discussing science and philosophy. I guess such roads have that kind of an effect on everyone.

Bylakuppe:

Soon we rejoined the highway & after riding for a decent 40-45 kms we stopped again. This time to decide whether to go on to Coorg or to stop by a village called Bylakuppe. Since we had quite some time in hand we decided to go and visit the "Golden Temple" of Bylakuppe. We knew the Bylakuppe was some sort of Tibetan Town but the place really took us all by surprise. Out of nowhere it felt like you were right inside Tibet. It even had its own monastery & Buddhist University. The place was filled with monks but also with normal Tibetan people. There were very few kannadigas. We visited their Monastery. It was a serene and peaceful place. Clean & well maintained, everyone who came there just calmed down automatically. Even the Shrieking Indian Tourists. We spent a lot of time here. But evening was approaching and we needed to get to Coorg!

Coorg:

The road after Bylakuppe to Madikere is Biker's heaven hands down! The air is cool, the sun plays hide and seek with the leaves, clear blue skies above, smooth black tarmac below and the best ride ever in between.  I entered a trance!

And it was while I was in this trance that I saw the beauty of Coorg for the first time. A whole series of hills covered with lush green forests for miles around. It was ethereal.

The road is a grey ribbon flying beneath me as if in a zephyr, sometimes twisting gently, sometimes turning sharply. I am one with my bike. In my elements. The bike sways from side to side, tracing a clear arc of a hundred degrees. Am devouring the corners at insane speeds doing 60-70, never going below 40 on these mountain roads. This feels safe, like how it should be, like how it has always been. I see the trip meter, we are nearing our destination. The sun glints off the shiny tank extensions, the Armour Gold was created for just this kind of light. My mind feels light, there is nothing weighing it down. The tiredness of the 250km we did has already evaporated with the sweat. The sound of the engine is more than music to my ears. Its a symphony. I am in a dream. This is nirvana.


We reached Coorg and like every hill station consumed by commercialisation, this one also was filled with crowd, honking and chaos. We chanced upon a very sincere agent called Reena who showed us a couple of rooms in nearby hotels but we were really put off by the prospect of staying in a room overlooking traffic and smoke! Then she dropped a bomb of a deal on us. A home stay kind of arrangement inside the jungles of Coorg! No connection to the civilized world for 2 days. No traffic, no people, no newspaper, no cell phone network, absolutely nothing! It was 22km outside of the main Madikere town and we had to ride 9km into the jungles. Boy were we game for it.

From Hell:

By now we were dog tired. We had been riding the whole day, we were hungry, dirty but what the hell, it was only 22km more man! Unfortunately the last 9km turned out to be burning HELL for us. The moment we took a road to enter the jungles we realised this was no road. This was a trail! I was literally crying for putting my bike through this kind of torture. It took a lot of time. I was particularly slow with heavy Pandu behind me, but we managed it. Soon we were in Valley Due. The sun had set. It was pitch dark. Not a single light anywhere except our place. "Gentlemen", I thought, "We have made it!".

To Comfort:

Food was a simple affair. But it was made in authentic Coorgi style and for the record I have never ever tasted rasam better than what I had there. And this comes from a person who hates rasam! We played carrom, literature. Sat around the bonfire in freezing cold. It was paradise.

Next morning the plan was to trek up to the top of the highest mountain nearby. While coming down there was a water fall we could splash about in and plenty of pepper and coffee fields to see on the way.

Me, Ashwin, Ashish, Himanshu, Pandurang & Kishore. There was a plateau a little way below the actual peak. Getting up this peak was downright tiring and so only the six of us climbed all the way to the top. Me and Himanshu making a run for it and racing to see who reaches first! Sitting on the rocks with the wind picking up now and again just the 6 of us, all quite, all lost in thought.

I may not have believed in god then, m not sure i believe in the concept now either, but i realized then that I had been incredibly lucky. So much of good fortune had befallen me lately that I was kind of shocked by it all and scared by it, actually, a little bit. Its like, when you have everything you ever wanted, there's a risk of losing it all! But listening to the silence and looking into the distance I realized there is no point in sweating over it. The past really does not matter and the future is just an abstract concept since there are just too many variables involved. The only thing we can do is make sure the present we are living in, matters, that we make it count!

It was time go head back down. We came upon the waterfall. The water was so clean and sweet it was better than what we drink in Bangalore. But boy it was cold. 1 in the afternoon and the water was probably 10 degrees! I literally had to pool up my courage to enter it! We were just goofing around when a large group of girls come in! Bless the powers that be! Anyways since we were all in our undies, it was we who were shy rather than them! And infact Ashish forgot his undies at a place where the girls were playing around! Poor guy was so embarrassed we had a ball of making him get his undies back!

Chill Maadi:

Back at our rooms we had a filling whole lunch after which it was time for Literature. What followed was the definition of EPIC when it comes to any game. The sun was going to set and we decided to head off to a village called Mandalapatti which was famous for many movie scenes being shot there. In anycase the owner of the Valley Due, Manu ensured us that it really was the best place to see a sunset.

That EPIC Pic:

I was a bit apprehensive of taking my bike over the bad trail which we had ridden up while reaching here. But then we decided to see the sunset and so we got back on the bikes and started. But this time it was decidedly different. Sure it was the same road. But our bones weren't rattling. Sure it was bumpy in some places but hey this bike was really built to take all of it in its stride! And sure enough my eyes wandered from the road/trail onto the breathtaking views and scenes which were rolling by. This place was untouched! The sunlight coming in at an angle which illuminated every bush, every leaf and every blade of grass in such a way that it seemed they themselves were emitting light! Was this the same road really. I was shocked!

Our 3 bikes were the only thing rolling. The sun was rapidly setting and we were hurrying on our way. We were climbing the mountains but we had no idea how far Mandalapatti was. Reaching a place where we could just about see the sunset, we stopped. The sunset was nothing less than spectacular! Again the six of us drifted out into our own worlds, me, Himanshu and Ashish talking on the phone, updating our parents that all was good. Kishore and Ashwin clicking pictures and Pandu just staring off into the distance, looking at the colour transitions of the sky...

Here in the middle of nowhere, with not even a hint of civilization anywhere near or far, the light fading fast, just like that we all knew that this moment just needed to be captured in some way. The bikes were lined, the camera was set on the gravelly road, a stone propping it in place, timer set for 10 sec and CLICK! This one will remain special in all our hearts! There is nothing more that can be said, period.



It was time to head back and head back fast! In these jungles there wont be even a sliver of light from anywhere. Soon it was just our head lights illuminating the road in front of us. And boy my bike rocked when it came to this. With the light on dipper when I flashed the high beam the whole road in front of me was bathed in light so strong, I was crying tears of happiness thanking the Japanese for such fantastic engineering! But all said and done, the ride in pitch dark on the curvaceous, crooked, contoured mountain road was definitely challenging. But we reached our abode all right.

This was to be the last night of ours at this paradise untouched. As we freshened up and gathered in front of the bonfire, all of us were unusually quite. somehow this whole trip had affected each of our psyche in a profound yet undefined manner.

What is life if not but a series of experiences? What is the point in living in the same old rut and never really testing new grounds, seeing new light? But then again what is the point of living through experiences one after the other in a never ending line if there is no one to share them with. What then is the point of all the new experiences then? And that is what this life then boils down to. Yes new experiences are essential to keep the spirit soaring but happiness is meaningless if not shared with anyone.

We talked about what the last couple of days had been like. We all agreed that this trip had by far been the best trip any of us had ever had! :) But we couldn't quite pin point what it was that made it so. We all agreed that each of us would pen our account of this trip down. Only Ashish kept up his promise. And now me, finishing up what I had promised a year ago. The date on Ashish's log is 18th Jan 2011, and as I write this, its 18th Jan 2012. This trip was yet to end, but boy was it already EPIC!

Pack Up Time:

It was time to leave next morning. I warmed up my stone cold bike, cleaned it as best as I could. We bid adieu to our caretakers and hit the road! We had come to Coorg all the way from Bangalore, not seen a single conventional touristy type spot and yet had encountered Coorg's beauty in so direct and intimate way that we were frankly quite overwhelmed by it all.

As we set out, the plan was to visit Dubare an elephant park on our way back. Unfortunately, and what proved to be the only lemon in our whole trip, it was closed! Plus there were too many people, and the crowd just shocked all of our sensibilities. I for one was just not acclimatised for so many people! So we made a hasty retreat from there. Unfortunately the sun was up and burning down on us. I had crossed 500km and was ripping the engine up. I got a top speed of 115kmph and it was insane! And this with Pandu behind me!

Saved by a Hair's Breadth:

I was doing probably 95kmph on a wide, downhill road when all of a sudden an old cripple of a man in a rickshaw just came on bang in the middle of the road out of nowhere and stopped! On a direct collision course with the rick, I braked hard. The rear wheel locked and I lost all traction. The bike skidded almost 60 meter, I had lost traction, but not control. By releasing the rear brake I regained balance and then again braked hard. Again the bike skidded but then this time everything was in control and I knew I would miss the rick barely but safely. That is what happened and when I stopped, we had actually missed the rick by just about half a feet. Pandu was livid and I thought he would start beating the man. Even the onlookers agreed that it was the old man's fault. But then the man himself was apologising in Kannada, so I asked Pandu to let it go. There was absolutely no damage done to the bike or us. And thankfully none to the rick or the man either. So then all's well that ends well. Pandu was a little shaken up but somehow I was feeling quite all right and in my element so we hit the road again in all the glory of 80-90kmph. We stopped for lunch at Hotel Annapoorna, same place where we all had become addicted to Literature in the first place!

Crazy Traffic:

By evening we had reached just Mysore. There was still 190km to go. And the sunday crowd returning to Banglore from Mysore made riding crazy. The three of us were anyways separated. Plus all the riding had taken its toll on our butts. Me and Ashwin stopped for our Tannin and its structural analogue break. Soon enough Himanshu and Ashish came in. We had regrouped but then with the crazy traffic we decided to push off independently since it was futile to stick together.

The Race:

Me & Ashwin relaxed a bit more as the other two left. The sun was still up. After getting totally refreshed, we got back onto the road. The traffic was fast and rolling with no discipline at all. People were changing lanes like crazy. I decided that the only way to actually make progress and ride safely was to ride faster than everyone else! I told Ashwin to hold tight cause this may be scary and gunned the throttle. Soon the traffic seemed slow as I was flying at 90kmph overtaking everything that came in my way. That is untill the large KSRTC Volvo came up in front. I had seen it go by when we had stopped for tea! After tailing a bit I found an opening and went for it. The Volvo was over taken. But I knew this wont be for long. So i used the agility of my bike to its advantage while the Volvo used its power. On an empty stretch I would give way & the Volvo would gun and overtake me like a mountain flying by at 120kmph. The moment it slowed down I would find a gap & overtake it at 100kmph! Soon it was evident for the driver of the Volvo as well as its passengers that me and them were racing! I would wait up if I got too ahead for the Volvo to catch up and surprisingly, or that's what I felt, I thought the Volvo slowing down on long empty stretches to wait for me to catch up. This exciting cat and mouse game kept up for a good 20-25 min and I think we must have covered almost 40km this way  when we reached the town of Mandya with a proper traffic jam. I of course went up ahead. And anyway stressing my engine for extended periods of time wasn't a good thing so I decided to let the Volvo go if it overtook me again.

It had gotten dark by then and some way beyond Mandya I was doing a steady 80-90kmph on a relatively empty road when the Volvo came up behind me and flashed its head lights! :) But since I had decided not to race I waved my hands and signalled him to go ahead. The Volvo surged ahead leaving Me and Ashwin behind...

The Last Leg:

With paining butts we stopped at Bidadi for another tea and some respite from the pain. It was just 40km to Bangalore now and we decided to finish off no matter what. That was it then, the last leg of our fantabulous journey.

Bangalore greeted us with a crazy traffic jam but really I was not bothered. Nor was Ashwin I guess. We were both quite, lost in our own thoughts. We had come back to our daily life of grind and rut. Mundane, routine, same old, same old. But our spirits were refreshed! Alive again. We had brought back with us something from Coorg that couldn't be quite pinned or named. But whatever it was would fuel our spirits, would pump our engines for quite some time to come.

Epilogue:

As I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, scenes from the couple of days gone by flashing, it struck me like a blow. Yes this trip had always been about me and my bike. MY bike. Mine. Paid for by MY money. Registered in MY name. Not my dads. This was MY love! And this trip was OUR honeymoon. Me and My Baby Hornet. And sure beyond all the images i was seeing, the most clear of them all was that of my Baby Hornet. But this trip will forever remain etched in my memory because along with a beautiful destination and the most awesome bike were some of the best people I have had the good fortune of being with. Ashwin, Ashish, Himanshu, Pandu & Kishore. And that's what our lives are all about ain't it!