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.
Showing posts with label Pune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pune. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Hey, he is an Indian... nope: of "Indian Origin"
Just recently Dr Venki Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize (2009) in Chemistry for his seminal work in elucidating Ribosome Structure and Function along with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath.
And as expected everybody Indian started celebrating his "victory" and how that he was Indian in origin and was only the 4th Indian to win a Nobel and all what a great thing it was. Celebrations galore.
And then the internet came alive with blogs and tweets as to why all these celebrations, Venki did his Phd from US, his Post Doc from US, his research from US, using US dollars in grants and using resources provided in US by US and US and US. His discovery is beneficial only to the US and not to us in any way. And is he even Indian anymore?? Why the hell Indians in India are going over the top. The main question was why are we raising such a hue and cry over it.
Well I beg to differ. First and foremost, I dont think his discovery is beneficial only to US and not beneficial to us, because his discovery was for Science, something which transcends international boundaries. His work has resulted in understanding the mechanism of antibiotics that work in every Human, not just US citizens.
Secondly I ask, when does one stop being an Indian?? How does one define Indianess?? I mean, now that i live in Pune, i have come to love Mumbai more than before. Bombay is a place where i spent my whole childhood in, and whatever happens and whichever city i live in, there will always be some Mumbai and some Bombay in me. Similarly when and if i leave this country, does it mean i will cease to be an Indian?? That i will drop the values, principles and morals i follow. I feel to whatever different places we go to, we always come from one place, may be birth place, may be where u spent your childhood, may be home town, but mostly a place where u feel u are from. That place stays with you. Always. And wherever you go, you always have some of it in you.
So should we be asking whether Venki is Indian or not?? Einstein was from Germany, but won his Nobel as a US citizen, just like Khorana and Chandrasekhar. Does it make their work any less important or less meaningful??
It must also be noted that we have excellent research institutions in IISC, NCBS, TIFR etc. but look at the papers published from IISC, how many are Nature publications??. NCBS does publish in Nature and Science level journals but at what rate?? These institutions must be given the things they need (chiefly funding) to do such work, Venki winning the Nobel only goes to show that Indians have it in them to achieve such heights, only they have to leave the country to do so, and then face accusing questions by other people.
Instead of celebrating Diwali prematurely as we (Indians) are doing, we should rather try to provide opportunities in India to scientists for doing such fundamental work.
And as expected everybody Indian started celebrating his "victory" and how that he was Indian in origin and was only the 4th Indian to win a Nobel and all what a great thing it was. Celebrations galore.
And then the internet came alive with blogs and tweets as to why all these celebrations, Venki did his Phd from US, his Post Doc from US, his research from US, using US dollars in grants and using resources provided in US by US and US and US. His discovery is beneficial only to the US and not to us in any way. And is he even Indian anymore?? Why the hell Indians in India are going over the top. The main question was why are we raising such a hue and cry over it.
Well I beg to differ. First and foremost, I dont think his discovery is beneficial only to US and not beneficial to us, because his discovery was for Science, something which transcends international boundaries. His work has resulted in understanding the mechanism of antibiotics that work in every Human, not just US citizens.
Secondly I ask, when does one stop being an Indian?? How does one define Indianess?? I mean, now that i live in Pune, i have come to love Mumbai more than before. Bombay is a place where i spent my whole childhood in, and whatever happens and whichever city i live in, there will always be some Mumbai and some Bombay in me. Similarly when and if i leave this country, does it mean i will cease to be an Indian?? That i will drop the values, principles and morals i follow. I feel to whatever different places we go to, we always come from one place, may be birth place, may be where u spent your childhood, may be home town, but mostly a place where u feel u are from. That place stays with you. Always. And wherever you go, you always have some of it in you.
So should we be asking whether Venki is Indian or not?? Einstein was from Germany, but won his Nobel as a US citizen, just like Khorana and Chandrasekhar. Does it make their work any less important or less meaningful??
It must also be noted that we have excellent research institutions in IISC, NCBS, TIFR etc. but look at the papers published from IISC, how many are Nature publications??. NCBS does publish in Nature and Science level journals but at what rate?? These institutions must be given the things they need (chiefly funding) to do such work, Venki winning the Nobel only goes to show that Indians have it in them to achieve such heights, only they have to leave the country to do so, and then face accusing questions by other people.
Instead of celebrating Diwali prematurely as we (Indians) are doing, we should rather try to provide opportunities in India to scientists for doing such fundamental work.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Want, not Need
I asked myself, what do i really really want now, at this very moment?? and the answer left me totally surprised. I thought may be girlfriend?? Nah, high maintenance, then may be some one who i love.. and as it turned out - not really. May be what i want is a good Job.. but then i will be less oriented towards research and i wanted to do research after all. But do i wanna do research NOW??? Nope, not now man, after i complete my MSc and PhD i mean, then i wanna do research as my livelihood, the means through which i earn money.. So what DO i want now?? After MSc i want a project assistantship, which pays 12000/month for a year, that way i dont lose touch with research and can work for getting a good PhD in that one year, and if i am lucky may be i'll also get a paper!!! Yeah alright... but all thats for after the MSc.. the question was, what do i want NOW, ABHI. And the answer - I want my own bike, my own Honda Unicorn. Thats it. At this moment (1:39 am 30-9-2009) i really dont care much about job, RA, PhD, GRE, bioinfo, girlfriend, love, money, scholarship, marks, future, blah, blah... All i want in this world, now, is a bike of my own. Thats it.
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