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!

Corruption

Anna is again on a fast unto death to fight corruption. Protests across the country are flying thick throughout and even though people mostly not much bothered by things are talking about it on social networks and amongst themselves.

I am writing this post for my own self, because in all of this I myself am not sure what my stand is. And it is important that I have a well defined and clear stand on this issue.

Corruption is rampant in our country. Everyone knows that, everyone has taken part in it. Almost everyone I know who has a drivers license or PAN card or Passport or a Vehicle has been a part of it. They have paid bribes, asked for favours, broken laws and then tried to pay their way out of trouble. And I have been no different. This is base level corruption which every citizen faces. And the scams that were unearthed in the recent past, money bamboozled to the tune of tens of thousands of CRORES are the other end of this wide spectrum.

The Lokpal bill demanded by Anna has been there on the table since the 70s. The govt. version is absolutely impotent, no doubt. But Anna's version is all powerfull and with too much teeth. Can't there be a compromise? No Anna is not having any of it. Nor are the people.

And what about me? So here is my take on it. Why does the govt shiver in its boots when someone talks of going on a fast unto death? I mean that's a peaceful protest! What's the harm in it. Can't the govt even give some public land for an old man to fast as sign of protest? What if the govt acquiesce? And what if Anna dies of hunger then? Mark my words there will be pandemonium, riots everywhere. Oh and hell this is India, the riots are not just gonna be general good natured looting and burning stuff, this is India, its going to be gruesome, there WILL be murder, there WILL be rape and the communal sentiments WILL get churned and this country is all too familiar with communal riots, which WILL happen. Riots on a country wide scale is exactly what our country cannot afford. The London Riots were a fucked up joke as compared to what we have had in our country in the past. No wonder the govt, scared shitless, arrested Anna. But of course the people are not going to think this far into the future, for them the only prominent fact visible is that the tyrant govt. did not even fulfil such a simple request of an old man. This is what the media is showing and this is what the people see and then agitate against. But they are not realising that in effect Anna IS holding the whole democratic process at ransom. There are ways to bring in change. Yes they are slow. Yes people who try to get things changed get kicked out in due time since the process is too slow thanks to corrupt people slowing it further. But taking the speedier way out by figuratively holding the govt at gun point is absolutely undemocratic. Its a wrong way to bring in change even if the change itself is essential and badly required.

In any case the govt has agreed now to let Anna fast, albeit for 2 weeks. Enough time for the movement to build momentum and strength so that the govt has to bow and accept the Jan Lokpal which Anna is touting.

Which brings us to the bill per se. Its a law against corrupt politicians, how can it be bad? A powerful law against politicians will ensure that they not get corrupted by the power that they get when they step into office. The problem with powerful laws are that they can be very very easily misused. POTA, MCOCA and the Armed Forces Act have been used many times in the past for cover up encounters etc. This law will get misused and a lot at that. The finer details have more subtle coarseness related to the statistics and feasibility of implementation. Just because a law has been drafted and a suitable body made to see that corrupt leaders are nailed does not mean they will. The corruption in the top brass will only get eradicated when we have Leaders with integrity and conscience. Bending a corrupt powerful politician so that he toes the line is not going to work in the long run. This WILL fail eventually. Electing honest Leaders will not. Damn right that's going to take a lifetime, but this bill won't be as effective as we all are thinking. Call me an idealist, but corruption will only stop when every citizen of this country lives with integrity. No one wants to pay bribes and no one would have if people in govt institutions would have worked with a conscience. An office worker would not have bent and accepted bribes hadn't he seen that his/her colleagues do the same work only after taking a bribe. Yes its easier to support Anna than to lead this kind of an ideal life. But there is just a threshold we need to cross, beyond that herd mentality will take care of corruption at ground level. Honest Leaders at the top, which we have to elect, and an honest citizenry is the only way corruption is going to stop.

Probably its all too idealistic for many. And this is not going to happen any time soon, so should I, for the time being, support Anna and the stronger bill? Maybe I should and see where it all goes. Because even though its always better to learn from other's mistake, this seems to me, to be a time when we will have to make this mistake. 'Cause seems like there's no other way to learn. If all this talk of going against corruption would persuade people to have more integrity, not offer or accept bribes, be honest and carry out their Fundamental Duties while enjoying their Fundamental Rights, even then a huge good would have been done to the people of this country. That's what I am going to hope. That's why I am going to support Anna.

Times are Changing

Scam after scam being unearthed, money totalling into billions known to be swindled. Money which people like our fathers and mothers pay as taxes to this government, money like that paid by you every time you watch a movie or every time you eat a pizza. It seemed like there wasn't even one avenue which wasn't dug up by these corrupt machines.

And then came Anna. Like a shining beacon, guiding that energy, that dissatisfaction of the people towards their politicians, into something constructive. Something called CHANGE. Few people understood this change, me included, but almost all wanted it. The status quo was so bad that it seemed better was the only way things could move. People rallied with Anna. Me included. We said down with the hubris of politicians. We want a body who can investigate independently. We want the Jan Lokpal. To attack this cancer of a government Anna went on a fast unto Death. We all believed in Mahatma, still do, have always abused him, still did. Fasts, silent marches, candle light vigils, the works. The results were splendid. The government baulked. People were ecstatic. Time passed, the government evaded the bill and is now trying to make it impotent. Anna has understood this. He says he is going on a fast again if by Aug 15th nothing is done about this. But that's besides the point.

All this while people were being vocal of their support for Anna. There were some who disagreed with his tactics. They were countered by saying: "COME ON now..!! This is the Gandhian way. If we don't do this the politicians will never listen to us". I thought so too. And I said so too. On facebook, on Twitter, with people during coffees and lunches. I too went and lit candles.

And then Baba Ramdev happened.

And everything changed.

Baba Ramdev, scantily clad in saffron, showing his hirsute body on TV, encouraging people to do Yoga. Yoga is good for the body, proven. Millions follow him. Take his "Ayurvedic" medicines in the hope that their diabetes, their failing kidneys will get better than new. But is his bhasma, churan really going to cure 3rd stage cancer? Some quantity of ash curing terminal patients with GENETIC diseases? I am a student of Science and these claims are just hogwash for me.

This self proclaimed godman with a business empire worth hundreds of crores wanted to open a political party some time back. We should have been alerted then itself that the power this person holds has already corrupted him.

This man now resurfaced, in style, walking down a private jet, meeting none other than the PM of this country. Threatening he will go on a hunger strike if all the black money hoarded outside is not brought back. Good cause. Would have been better if the cause hadn't been about money but any cause out of about the 100 other equally important issues, but whatever, good cause, seemingly. In short the demand wasn't met, he went on a hunger strike, didn't have to wait too long, 'cause the police broke this peace protest in the dead of the night and caused absolute mayhem.

Ramdev is now hogging as much of the 'limelight' media time as possible in print, tv, news, whatever. When the media did not follow him to Haridwar, he went to them to Noida. He now addresses 'his brothers' in the media rather than the people in his rallies.

Godman? Yoga Guru? Or a powerful man with an agenda? You decide, because you can decide now, since its a democracy, tomorrow if someone holds a fast unto death against your decision then you wont even be able to decide anything then. Like our flaccid government cant decide anything now. Its besides the point that it couldn't decide anything anyway, either because of the coalition threats or because of some other reasons.

Anna unfortunately supports Ramdev and so they are now anna and ramdev. These are the leaders of the revolution people want.

I wonder was it like this during independence? Which leader of the 1900s was even remotely similar to any of our present leaders? If the present leaders lead us into a revolution then what will be the purpose of that revolution? Is anyone clear about that? Do not say corruption, because the present leaders are ALREADY corrupt, like our hairy baba.

Real change cannot be brought about by changing people, but by replacing people. Replacing a corrupt leader with an honest leader is change. Forcing corrupt leaders to not be corrupt via a Jan Lokpal is not change, its calibration, manipulation, adjustment. Replacement of leaders in our democracy occurs every 5 years. Unless leaders who are not corrupt, have integrity, are honest and do care about this country stand up for elections, and we elect them, there's going to be no change. Currently no such leader stands up, but then we all don't vote either. Saying there's no good leader. And I don't blame you. I don't vote either.

What is happening now, people following blindly, as they always do, some man who has set out to 'blackmail' (sic) the government, will only result in the destruction of our democracy.

We desperately NEED real leaders, not the ones who will eventually turn corrupt but the ones who will have the integrity to see this country through whatever comes its way during their tenure. We NEED to elect them, we NEED to Vote. I now realise that holding candles is really not going to help at all.

Change can be for the good but it may as well be for the bad. Be Aware.

Is it worth the effort?

I am asking this question to myself in particular and to everyone in general.

Is it worth finding cures for rare genetic diseases which affect just 100s or 1000s out of the 7 billion of the worlds population?

In nature, say in a population of wild bison, such rare genetic disorders would just manifest themselves and soon the individual will die, if the disease is terminal that is. Or else it will just maintain the low gene frequency. Not altering the robustness of the gene pool in general.

But what about Humans?

Finding a cure to ANY disease involves millions if not billions of dollars. Pharmaceuticals do not invest in such diseases primarily cause they will never recover the cost of finding the cure due to the limited market. Such diseases rely on academic research for possible cures.

Looking at it from the larger gene pool point of view, is it beneficial to just let these individuals die before they procreate? Sooner or later the faulty gene will be extinct. And 100s of people is not a large number, after all that many have died in terrorists attacks in Mumbai alone. Many many more have died in natural disasters in the past year alone.

But what about diseases which are not terminal? They will be passed on in the children of the patients. Should the patient be responsible and not procreate by their own will?

And what about the patients themselves? They will ask me : What if you had this disease instead of me? Would you be writing this blog?

However less be their numbers, they do have a right to life. And if the bigger whole is being examined, then they are fighting for their survival just as so many others in nature do. Despite their illness. If they survive and procreate then they have won. Despite their illness. Who am I to decide whether a cure should be found or not?

This is a sensitive issue no doubt. And I don't have an answer to this question. I don't even know if I am aware of all the factors which affect this issue. And I am the least qualified person to declare what should and should not be done.

All I can ask of you is to give this question some thought.

The year that Was... The Most Awesome Year yet

On a High after giving the Dec2009 CSIR when we all got back to Pune in Jan, all the whole of bioinfo batch wanted to do was: Masti. January seemed to be dedicated to it. The batch went to an overnight trip to Vasota. Considered by far the best by many, not me though. The guys next went to Purandar Fort. One of the cheapest and definitely the most spontaneous of our treks. Not satisfied yet, our next trek was to Dhak Bhairi. The most toughest trek ever and that is a unanimous opinion. By now we all had got our guides and projects. Buried somewhere within the GBs of Pics that we took, was our Literature Review which we were supposed to be doing. But hell May was far off, who cared about the project anyways? :)
Next came Feb. We took the first Sunday off from trekking. Bad decision: in the evening we guys got robbed at gunpoint by Somya at Chatuhshrungi. What a start to the month. Bloody ended every damn plan prematurely, before we even thought of it. It was a bad bad experience. Well in any case it put an end to all our masti. Everyone came right back to their ground states, I infact went into an underground state not being able to bear the loss of my Corby!! Feb went off with rounds of police stations, people, contacts, hell we even got to talk to Somya through a contact in a desi bar. Said he had sold our phones coz he needed 2 laks.
March came and i applied for my passport. On Holi the good news came that Somya had been caught by the police and they had recovered our phones. Man the joy and happiness of it all. That was a gr8 holi! Like the first Fri of every month, this one had already been taken up by Wangikar Sir. I had a lot of preliminary data processing to do. On top of this the police tells us to get orders from the courts to get back the phones. March went in courts and coding.
April started and i started to actually code on the real algorithm of my project. I thought I could finish it in 2 weeks. The rounds of the courts and police stations continued. I kept on coding. I took a whole month to write down 750 lines of code and it ran terribly. It was slow, it was buggy, it was bad coding. By mid april i was supposed to get my passport. But Hell it had gotten stuck in the Police Stn! More rounds of Police Stn then. But we got our cell phones back finally :)
With May the temperatures started getting really oppressive in the Lab. I Optimized my code so that it ran like a sports-car. It was lighter - 450 lines and faster. Time had come to run it on my whole dataset. This was also the time when all my interviews were gonna take place and the sem end theory and practical exams were scheduled as well with the Project presentations. Unfortunately the class performance was so bad that the project presentations were shifted to Jun end. Which was good :) May was a crazy crazy month. I literally jet setted my way about Mumbai Pune and Bangalore for PhD interviews. Whats worse is that i failed in all of them :(
June: I finished up whatever was my project. The results turned out to be bad unfortunately. Next scheduled was a trip to Bangalore for IISc interviews. This was a do or die moment for me. The story of how i did it is for another time and place but point is i DID it :) After that when i came back to Pune for the Project Presentations there was just no looking back. I had gotten the passport cleared as well by "donating" stationary to the police stn passport office. But atleast i did not have to pay money upfront in this corrupt country of mine! June ended MSc ended, a chapter of my life closed, a part of me remained back in Pune, the rest of me walked on.
July was the Month of Meeting Everyone. Met all the old friends. Relaxed at home cause the future was secured in IISc. July 28th touched Bangalore! New chapter started!
August. New place, new people, new food, heck even new clothes thnx to mums insistence. Pankaj was the only thing I already knew about IISc and am glad he was there. Made new Friends. Realised that again I had got a gr8 batch. Went for trips. Weekends at Ashwins. Exploring Bangalore. Meeting up with long lost childhood friends in a city stranger to all of us. The best Freshers ever!
September, broke the shell completely, lost control completely, exams came, i failed completely! On top of that personal complaints against me by A**HOLE profs with bloated egos coz of plugged A**HOLES. Was a bad time towards the end. To the rescue came Friends from Pune. It was time to go back to my roots. Go to a place where i could just be me. Turned out the name of that place was Urli Kanchan, a small village 35km from Pune off the Pune-Solapur Highway.
October: thats how it started, In Urli Kanchan. One of the most unforgettable nights ever. The night was crazy. No other word for it. 7 bikes, a field, more than 6 kilos of food, liters of a potent drink, 5 deg Cel, one small bonfire and 11 guys. After I came back from Pune I knew everything was gonna be just about fine.
November came and with that exams. Ones which I couldn't fail, infact a few in which I had to do exceptionally well. A month of some cold calculations and hard work regarding exams. A month also of the One Plunge taken with the eyes closed without gauging how high the fall was, how deep and cold the water was. And mid Nov! a gamble which paid off. Probably an event which has already changed my life forever ahead! Exams came in, I just gave em. And the ones in which i needed to, I just DID. Again!
Dec: This month had FAMILY written all over it and that too in BOLD! Came back home. Drove to Ahemdabad in the brand new SX4. The best car i have driven till date surely! Came back drove to Mahabaleshwar. Relieved some of the FYBSc Botany memories. This was the most offbeat vacations with the family. And now in the wee hours of the last day of this great great year, this blogpost.

Next Year: Jan is gonna start with a Bang called Honda Dazzler! Life is gonna be sweet. And like Calvin says: The Days are Just Packed!

Cocktails and Dreams

I have no idea why I put that as the title. Except that theres a feeling associated with that phrase. Its from the Movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise in which he is a bar tender and he dreams of opening his own bar one day; which he does eventually and names it 'Cocktails and Dreams'. The phrase has always evoked a success-content-happiness-bliss kinda feeling. The kind I am feeling now. Life has become one long stretch of euphoria interspersed with satisfaction and I am gonna savor it for as long as it lasts.

1st sem in IISc, the first 4 months have been a whirlwind of course work, assignments, exams, failures, successes, late nights, early morning boring lectures, new friends, movies in library, dominoes orders, tp with tp gang, CSIR jhol and what not.

I have started getting my stipend. Will buy my own bike next Jan. Hopefully. Finally.

Life next year is gonna be just awesome.

I realised i have never blogged about IISc before. Maybe sometime later i'll tell the story of how i made it to IISc.

Maruti Omni-E 1998 (Dec-14)

First Day: It was a saturday (I think) and Sis had won some competition in school (extempore?), Mom had a half day, I was at home as well, Dad comes in, says : Lets go for a drive..! And we were like - in whose car? And he says he just bought a new car!! Hellooo??!!! :D

And tomorrow that car is gonna move on to its new owner, a car dealership.

I don't know what to say, feeling really melancholic about it.

When we bought the Omni, we were the only people I knew who had a Van. Mom was always asking WHY are we buying an EIGHT seater vehicle which is most commonly seen as a taxi? She still doesn't know the answer, but am sure she stopped caring long back.

There have been so many events where that car was central to the outcome.

I still remember the day when Dad had beat the shit outta me when I had refused to wash the car. And the time when he drove it like Schumi from Ruia to Colony because I had forgotten my documents before admission.

The trip to Goa - dad drove all the way alone, no other car could have been more comfortable with the space we had. The trip to Nagaon with JD, Kamlesh. And to Lonavala with JD, Kamlesh and Vidhi.

It was the car in which I learnt to drive. Dad taught me. I had none of the Balaji Motor Driving School bullshit. First Lesson, lasted for 15 min. I learnt - start the car, put it in first gear, move ahead, stop, put it in reverse gear, go back, stop. That's it. Definitely come a long way since. Guess I passed my driving the test when I drove the family back from Nagaon on a learners license.

Ferrying all the relatives from Dadar and Churchgate Stn to colony. Driving to Kharghar to see our new home under construction. Picking up Sis and her friends from the Stn everytime it was raining. I remember a crazy drive in a flooded Belapur when the water was so high all brakes failed and the floor carpet had gotten wet. The drive from Kharghar to Colony when the engine overheated near Nerul. The one time it punctured the tyre near Sion Circle.

It may have been a grossly under powered car, with bad suspension and huge body roll and no AC and whatever. For all its worth it was a car which always delivered what was asked of it. It was an awesome car. And apart from all this it gave our family 12 years worth of great memories.

Water

We know it is important, we know it is crucial, we know it is indispensable and yet we remain irresponsible while using it.

I can harp on and on about how it is important to conserve water, make sure that potable water is available to all etc. etc. except that I fail to identify with anything that has to do with people anymore. I mean at least in India do what you want but people are just not gonna improve. Fine the government never really made dams or divert water to areas which are perennially under drought, but what did the people do? They are just as content making the women do the walking and getting the water.

What interests me though is the chemical itself. The molecule, their collection, its properties. For example I was left amazed that the IR spectra of pure liquid water is not yet explained. For a molecule which is so simple, this is mind boggling. And what about the very weird physical properties? Expands on cooling, expands on heating as well!!! Weird melting and boiling points and so on. And that too so neat 0 as freezing, 100 as boiling (is this coz of the scale itself?? I dunno!!)

But something of even more interest is the structure that liquid water has. The molecules are always in association with on another via hydrogen bonds and thus liquid water isn't just loosely packed water molecules but instead a proper dynamic lattice of water molecules. This has huge implications in protein folding. No one quite knows exactly how a protein folds and attains its native structure. I have a few ideas of my own on this, one of which involves lots of water molecules..!!

I guess like last year, my this years Blog Action Day post is also defeating its own purpose, but then if this has gotten me back to my old blog then the purpose is served, at least for me!

The Professor Index

I realized that very few people actually have the power to stop time in its very tracks..!! And all of them are College Professors.

But how do you quantitate the power of such people? So here is an index - The Professor Index, which is the ratio between Real Time : Apparent Time
Professor Index = Real Time/Apparent Time

Real Time is the duration for which the lecture was actually held.
Apparent Time is the time you thought the lecture went on for. Analogous to Feels Like Temperature.

The index is most accurately measured for a real time of 45 minutes because that is the average attention span of most individuals.

The higher the index the better is the professor.

Professor Index > 1 ---- Very Good -> Excellent -> AWESOME -> Start ur Own Religion
Professor Index = 1 ---- Good -> Fairly Decent
Professor Index < 1 ---- Bad -> Very Bad -> Pathetic -> Die -> Kill Me

This post was actually inspired by the man who is so powerfully strong in stopping time that his Index touches Avogadro's Number albeit in the negative power of ten.
Every morning from 9 onwards (till 10 real time) he stops time infinitely and I am left asking the question 'what am i being punished for??'.

Be the Maxwell's Demon

While reading up on Shannon's Entropy and Information Theory today I chanced upon the term "Maxwell's Demon". A term like this i find to be irresistible, so there I went to Wikipedia to read up and holy mother of god guess what did i find...??

Before venturing further allow me a discourse on Maxwell's Demon. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system, which is not in an equilibrium, will increase over time to reach a maximum when the system attains equilibrium. But why does this happen? According to Maxwell it was because of statistical improbability. Let me elaborate, suppose there is a container with an opaque, insulating partition in between. Both partitions are filled up with the same gas; however there is no way the gases can mix or temperature change because of the partition. If the gases are at different temperatures then they will remain in the same state because this system is defined to be an isolated system.

If there was a small hole in the partition then the gases would start to mix, there would be temperature exchange and before long the gases will be in equilibrium, as would be expected by anyone familiar with second law of thermodynamics. Now instead of gases being in different temperature start with a box in perfect equilibrium. But there's a small change - we are gonna introduce the Maxwell's Demon inside the box. He is a small creature who is the gatekeeper of the hole. And he has decided that fast moving molecules are allowed to enter one compartment but slow moving molecules are not. Slowly the Demon will filter all fast moving molecules to one side of box and slow moving molecules will be on the other side. This will increase the temperature on one side of box and reduce it on the other side, entropy of the system will decrease... poof goes 2nd law.

Coming back to holy mother of god exclamation, it struck me amidst all this that my Blog actually has a game which enables player to BE THE MAXWELL'S DEMON.

The "Separate the Green and Red" game has been rechristened "Be the Maxwell's Demon". Cause essentially it represents the system described by Maxwell and while it is not an exact representation of the system (regarding speed of molecule - here its the color), in essence it can very easily describe the concept!!

To think an exercise in rigid body simulation in java could turn out to be so similar to some totally different concept all together...!! What can i say : It really did happen to me...!!! :P

P.s. : Such real life Demons do exist. Think about Dialysis membrane, membrane proteins etc. But they are ALL pseudo demons, because the systems are not perfectly isolated and the act of separation causes entropy to increase elsewhere in the universe, most of these require energy in some form or the other.

Driving Forces of Evolution

What is the driving force of evolution??
What makes one species evolve into another??
Why does evolution occur??
Is it natural selection? or is it perhaps mutation?

The points below are what I understood after a bit of reading and thinking.

Natural Selection drives evolution. Since irrespective of the repertoire of different genes present in the gene pool, if one gene is not chosen above another gene (based on some criteria) then the relative frequencies of genes in gene pool will remain the same and consequently there wouldn't be any evolution.
So clearly some gene has to get selected over another, this selection criteria is called Natural Selection.

However for Natural Selection to work there must be sufficient diversity in the gene pool itself so that some or the other gene is good enough to pass the test proposed by selection. Thus rate of mutation also is a factor at driving evolution. Its observed that viruses mutate at a higher rate and (thus?) evolve at a higher rate too.

However, mutations can either make a gene better at passing the present selection test, or make it worse at it. If they make the gene worse then it will fail the test and disappear into oblivion. But generally mutations don't cause any significant change in the capability of a gene to pass a selection test. These 'neutral' mutations can accumulate to a large number over the span of time. Random drifts in such neutral mutations can result in some gene being replaced by another as result of random event. Might seem a little far fetched, but in the timescales that evolution works under its definitely plausible. And so random drifts in neutral mutations may drive evolution too.

Is there any bias for or against some particular mutation? Is it more likely for an 'A' to convert into 'G' or 'C' rather than a 'T'. Or for that matter any other combination of 'ATGC' in the above sentence. I don't know if such bias is proven, but this bias has been implicated as the reason for the observed GC content variations among closely related prokaryotic species.

Of course all these mechanisms are not mutually exclusive w.r.t gene or time. For different genes different factors would be responsible for evolution. But these forces probably are the reason why one species evolves into another with passage of time.

Censorship

Open your eyes, take a look around you and count the number of things you are restricted to do. Is the hoarding you are looking at torn? Is the movie theater closed? Is the image blurred? Now ask yourself, is it required that you be restricted??

Obviously I am not talking about laws or road traffic rules here. I am talking about censorship we are not even aware of being subject to. I am talking about the so called moral police who wish to control everything from images to ideas that we are exposed to, I am talking about the ban on books because it irked some narrow mind albeit with wide connections. I am talking about censoring of the internet search results, blocking of websites, search terms, word filters etc.

Who is anyone else to decide what should and should not be seen by you?? Ask yourself this question.

Dear Blog

I wrote the title spontaneously... perhaps because i have been feeling guilty. Feeling guilty that i haven't been paying much attention to the blog, that twitter and facebook have so totally side tracked the blog.

Its just that twitter is so straight forward and simple, u update from anywhere and its out there. Facebook on the other hand is so interactive. But i have always known that its the blog which will last, which will record and which will be read every time i feel nostalgic and want to reminisce. The fact that it can be vice-versa is just another feature... :)

So many things have happened since last post. 4th sem started, results good enuff. Got a good project under a good guide. Already went for two trips Vasota and Purandar (more on that later... ;) ). So i am pretty much relaxed; as i have always been, in MSc. No worries, no tension. Of course the future remains an open question, but somehow it doesn't bother me much, definitely not the way it bothered in BSc. I mean i am kinda used to it. In 10th they told me to rub my a** off so i get electronics. I opted for biology anyways (opted, since i didn't want electronics which i was getting btw). In 12th they told me to rub my a** off so i get engineering. I opted for BSc anyways. In BSc they told me to rub my a** off so i get a good MSc. I got not 1 but 3 good MScs. Now they tell me to rub my a**off for a good PhD. Well, there's not much left to rub anymore i guess. I know something will come along, that it will be good and what more do i want?? :)

I notice that i blog mostly when i am feeling happy. Perhaps when i read this in future i will only be reminded of the good things that took place. That's definitely a good thing, who wants to remember the bad things anyways. This blog was intended for only one reader, and this post, thus, is meant only for him. Cheers buddy!!!... :)

Third Sem Ends...

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.

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!! :)

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.

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.

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...

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...