Thats what my biology teacher asked me in 8th grade. She caught me reading a book on aeronautics and propulsion technologies. I was so excited to read about airplanes, jets, rockets, cryogenic engines, satellites etc., The teacher was busy teaching Principles of Genetics that day. I found it boring to learn about genes, alleles, dominant, recessive, blah blah blah...all that was Greek and Latin to me! I was confident I can go back home and read about it later (if it was absolutely necessary for the test/exams). That day I was more enthusiastic to learn about all the cool stuff... how things fly and which is the fastest man made engine.
The teacher caught me with me book... that was completely unacceptable to her. To her, learning Biology deserved undivided attention and due respect. So to embarrass me in front of the class, she asked me one of the problems she had just described on the board. Obviously, I hadn't paid any attention to what she was saying... so you can imagine what happened next. I hated Genetics!
Few weeks later I met a professor who taught Genetics at a college. He was very excited about Genetics and I think he was on a mission to teach Genetics to everyone who met him. He probably saw my distaste for it and took extra interest and gave me a classic book on Human Genetics (by Winchester). The word Human piqued my curiosity. A few pages into the book, I was completely hooked! Its was an old book and I was amazed by the depth of knowledge when it came to understanding human diseases. This made me read more and more books on Genetics.
My best moment came in a Biology class few weeks later. I pointed out a mistake and then explained an exception (to the rule) what the Biology teacher was teaching. I was super delighted to have learned something more than my teacher! Since then, I have never turned back. I have Masters in Applied Genetics and a Ph.D in Genetics and Molecular Biology... But I still love rocket science... I was in Washington DC twice and spent an entire day in National Air and Space Museum on both occasions ;-)
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Some random thoughts...
The other day we had an interesting lunch table discussion. It all started with the story of octuplets born in California to an unmarried single mother through in-vitro fertilization. What pissed many people is the million or so worth of medical bills becoming public (tax payer's) responsibility. All this when she already had 6 children (also by IVF).
I am at loss to figure out what was she thinking! Many of my friends felt she needed some kind of counseling. Almost every morning we wake up to TV channels talking about this story and they come up with new and small useless bits of information. They had exclusive interviews with the mother and the grand mother too. There were also rumors that she had undergone cosmetic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie!
There is also talk about selling her story and book contracts and fee for appearances etc., What has media come to?...its disgusting to think someone is willing to shell out huge amounts money to get her story....she hasn't thought about the public humiliation it will cause her, her parents and all her children due to this. I really feel sorry for those children. People can go a very long way for few minutes of fame!
What surprises me is the Doctor's willingness to comply with patient's request when clearly she was not in a position to provide good care to her children (present or future). We are told the California Medical Association is looking into possibility of medical misconduct in this case.
Unfortunately, medical costs have become very high, partly due to very high (malpractice) insurance cost for the doctors.
A colleague of mine was telling me story of one of her relatives who was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma. The family was thinking of suing the doctor for some ridiculous money for not detecting this cancer early enough! This person was a chain smoker who smoked more than 2 packs of Cigarettes and day for more than 20 years. Small cell carcinoma is one of the most difficult to diagnose and Smoking is a significant etiological factor. Unfortunately for them the cancer is very malignant and the person did not survive long enough to sue anyone.
In general, insurance costs (Home, Auto, Property, Health, Life, Personal, Travel etc.,) have become so expensive these days due to the fear of being sued for anything and everything. This reminds of a wonderful cartoon of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson ;-)
I am at loss to figure out what was she thinking! Many of my friends felt she needed some kind of counseling. Almost every morning we wake up to TV channels talking about this story and they come up with new and small useless bits of information. They had exclusive interviews with the mother and the grand mother too. There were also rumors that she had undergone cosmetic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie!
There is also talk about selling her story and book contracts and fee for appearances etc., What has media come to?...its disgusting to think someone is willing to shell out huge amounts money to get her story....she hasn't thought about the public humiliation it will cause her, her parents and all her children due to this. I really feel sorry for those children. People can go a very long way for few minutes of fame!
What surprises me is the Doctor's willingness to comply with patient's request when clearly she was not in a position to provide good care to her children (present or future). We are told the California Medical Association is looking into possibility of medical misconduct in this case.
Unfortunately, medical costs have become very high, partly due to very high (malpractice) insurance cost for the doctors.
A colleague of mine was telling me story of one of her relatives who was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma. The family was thinking of suing the doctor for some ridiculous money for not detecting this cancer early enough! This person was a chain smoker who smoked more than 2 packs of Cigarettes and day for more than 20 years. Small cell carcinoma is one of the most difficult to diagnose and Smoking is a significant etiological factor. Unfortunately for them the cancer is very malignant and the person did not survive long enough to sue anyone.
In general, insurance costs (Home, Auto, Property, Health, Life, Personal, Travel etc.,) have become so expensive these days due to the fear of being sued for anything and everything. This reminds of a wonderful cartoon of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson ;-)
Life isn't fair to men
When we are born, our mother's get the compliments and the flowers.
When we are married, our brides get the presents and the publicity.
When we die, our widows get the life insurance. What do women want to be liberated from?
-------------------------------------------------------
The average man's life consists of
Twenty years of having his mother ask him where he is going,
Forty years of having his wife ask the same question;
and at the end, the mourners wondering too.
--------------------------------------------------------
When we are married, our brides get the presents and the publicity.
When we die, our widows get the life insurance. What do women want to be liberated from?
-------------------------------------------------------
The average man's life consists of
Twenty years of having his mother ask him where he is going,
Forty years of having his wife ask the same question;
and at the end, the mourners wondering too.
--------------------------------------------------------
Monday, February 9, 2009
What it means to have an Indian girl friend...
All in the spirit of Valentine's Day...
A NORTH INDIAN GIRL FRIEND ;-)
1. At the time of marriage, a north Indian girl has more boyfriends than her age.
2. Before marriage, she looks almost like a bollywood heroine and after marriage you have to go around her twice to completely hug her.
3. By the time she professes her undevoted love to you, you are bankrupt because of the number of times you had to take her out to movie theatres and restaurants. And you wait longingly for her dowry.
4. The only dishes she can think of to cook is paneer butter masala, aloo sabji, aloo gobi sabji, aloo matar, aloo paneer, that after eating all those paneer and aloos you are either in the bed with chronic cholestrol or chronic gas disorder.
5. The only growth that you see later in your career is the rise in your monthly phone bill.
6. You are blinded by her love that you think that she is a blonde. Only later do you come to know that it is because of the mehandhi that she applies to cover her gray hair.
7. When you come home from office she is very busy watching "Kyonki saas bi kabi bahu thi" that you either end up eating outside or cooking yourself.
8. You are a very "ESpecial" person to her.
9. She always thought that Madras is a state and covers the whole of south india until she had a south indian boy friend.
10. When she says she is going to "work out" she means she is going to "walk out"
11. She has greater number of relatives than the number of people you have in your home town.
12. The only two sentences in English that she knows are "Thank you" and "How are you"
13. She thinks Govinda can dance better than Michael Jackson.
A SOUTH INDIAN GIRL-FRIEND ;-)
1. Her mother looks down at you because you didn't study in IIT or Madras /Anna University.
2. Her father starts or ends every conversation with " ... I say..."
3. She shudders if you use four letter words.
4. She has long hair, neatly oiled and braided (The Dubai based Oil Well Company will negotiate with her on a 25 year contract to extract coconut oil from her hair.)
4. She uses the word 'Super' as her only superlative.
5. Her name is another name for a Goddess or a flower.
6. Her first name is longer than your first name, middle name and surname combined.
7. When she mixes milk and rice you are never sure whether it is for the Dog or for herself.
8. For weddings, she sports a mini jasmine garden on her head and wears silk saris in the Chennai heat without looking too uncomfortable while you are melting in your singlet.
9. Her favourite food is dosa though she has tried North Indian snacks like Chats
10. She bores you by telling you which raaga each song you hear is based on.
11. You have to give her 22 karat gold jewelry, though she has already got plenty of it
12. Her thali (Mangal Sutra) weighs more than the championship belts worn by WWF wrestlers.
13. She is more educated than you.
14. Her father thinks she is much smarter than you...
A NORTH INDIAN GIRL FRIEND ;-)
1. At the time of marriage, a north Indian girl has more boyfriends than her age.
2. Before marriage, she looks almost like a bollywood heroine and after marriage you have to go around her twice to completely hug her.
3. By the time she professes her undevoted love to you, you are bankrupt because of the number of times you had to take her out to movie theatres and restaurants. And you wait longingly for her dowry.
4. The only dishes she can think of to cook is paneer butter masala, aloo sabji, aloo gobi sabji, aloo matar, aloo paneer, that after eating all those paneer and aloos you are either in the bed with chronic cholestrol or chronic gas disorder.
5. The only growth that you see later in your career is the rise in your monthly phone bill.
6. You are blinded by her love that you think that she is a blonde. Only later do you come to know that it is because of the mehandhi that she applies to cover her gray hair.
7. When you come home from office she is very busy watching "Kyonki saas bi kabi bahu thi" that you either end up eating outside or cooking yourself.
8. You are a very "ESpecial" person to her.
9. She always thought that Madras is a state and covers the whole of south india until she had a south indian boy friend.
10. When she says she is going to "work out" she means she is going to "walk out"
11. She has greater number of relatives than the number of people you have in your home town.
12. The only two sentences in English that she knows are "Thank you" and "How are you"
13. She thinks Govinda can dance better than Michael Jackson.
A SOUTH INDIAN GIRL-FRIEND ;-)
1. Her mother looks down at you because you didn't study in IIT or Madras /Anna University.
2. Her father starts or ends every conversation with " ... I say..."
3. She shudders if you use four letter words.
4. She has long hair, neatly oiled and braided (The Dubai based Oil Well Company will negotiate with her on a 25 year contract to extract coconut oil from her hair.)
4. She uses the word 'Super' as her only superlative.
5. Her name is another name for a Goddess or a flower.
6. Her first name is longer than your first name, middle name and surname combined.
7. When she mixes milk and rice you are never sure whether it is for the Dog or for herself.
8. For weddings, she sports a mini jasmine garden on her head and wears silk saris in the Chennai heat without looking too uncomfortable while you are melting in your singlet.
9. Her favourite food is dosa though she has tried North Indian snacks like Chats
10. She bores you by telling you which raaga each song you hear is based on.
11. You have to give her 22 karat gold jewelry, though she has already got plenty of it
12. Her thali (Mangal Sutra) weighs more than the championship belts worn by WWF wrestlers.
13. She is more educated than you.
14. Her father thinks she is much smarter than you...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Alien Technology ;-)
Couple of days ago a middle-aged man sitting next to me in the bus started a conversation and quickly went on a tangent. I couldn't do anything to stop him. He was enjoying it immensely while I was polite but not encouraging him in anyway and waiting for him to stop. Before I could pull out my iPod and indicate that I am no longer interested, he asked me if I knew about "Anti gravity car". I said I didn't. He pulled out his iPhone and started searching youtube and all the while muttering about aliens visiting and abducting people and area 51 and all the stuff no one wants to talk/ listen. By then I knew what I had got myself into. My fellow passengers understood my predicament. Some felt sorry that I couldn't find some excuse to get away from there, while others pretended that this conversation was not happening. Finally he got the video he was searching for on youtube: Anti Gravity Car
I looked at it and said it might be CG (Computer Graphics). He strongly disagreed.
Then he went on to show another video about "Holographic text messages"
Luckily by the end of it my stop had come and I got down. Car was probably filled with Helium and Holographic text message was well done CG. There were also comments on youtube that suggested this.
He strongly believed this was all product of some "alien technology" which was kept hidden by the government all this time. He so much reminded me of the character Steven Hyde from "That 70s Show". While smoking weed in the circle (in Foreman's basement) his most famous and repeated statement is "Do you know man...there is car that runs on water instead of gas....and the government doesn't want people to know that. Because then water will become very costly and people will start drinking only beer.....and beer will set us free". I was thinking if Hyde was a teenager in 70s he would be very much the age of the man talking to me ;-)
I would also like to see cars that defy gravity and holographic communications in the future.... but I do hope they will be due to innovation of humble earthlings!
Eastern-Eunoia
I looked at it and said it might be CG (Computer Graphics). He strongly disagreed.
Then he went on to show another video about "Holographic text messages"
Luckily by the end of it my stop had come and I got down. Car was probably filled with Helium and Holographic text message was well done CG. There were also comments on youtube that suggested this.
He strongly believed this was all product of some "alien technology" which was kept hidden by the government all this time. He so much reminded me of the character Steven Hyde from "That 70s Show". While smoking weed in the circle (in Foreman's basement) his most famous and repeated statement is "Do you know man...there is car that runs on water instead of gas....and the government doesn't want people to know that. Because then water will become very costly and people will start drinking only beer.....and beer will set us free". I was thinking if Hyde was a teenager in 70s he would be very much the age of the man talking to me ;-)
I would also like to see cars that defy gravity and holographic communications in the future.... but I do hope they will be due to innovation of humble earthlings!
Eastern-Eunoia
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Superbowl Sunday....
For a Cricketer...
I am watching the NFL super bowl 2009 on TV right now. I am sure more than 90% of Americans (of my gender at least) will be watching it. I don't completely understand the rules of the game. My knowledge of American Football, till very recently, came from watching some hollywood football movies, most notably, "Remember the Titans". But I very much enjoy watching every time someone (doesn't matter which team) makes a touch down. Its just fun to see them run with the ball like that!
I come from India and we are a Cricketing nation. Cricket is not just a game in India its more like a religion in the subcontinent. Indians are die hard fans of Cricket and funnily enough, they can be very superstitious about it. I have seen many people who do weird things like:
- sit through the entire match without even taking a break
- not speak a word to anyone or move from their position
- wear a particular color cloth/ hat on that day
All this- hoping that anything they do might affect the performance of their favorite player and even worst lose that all important wicket!
I had my share of misfortune too...for some reason, every time I was watching the game...India would lose wickets continuously, whereas if I was watching the opponent team, then they did better (because our players did worse). My younger brothers realized this and made fun of me saying I had some kind of evil eye that only worked against our team. So they made me go to my room (and sometime locked me up) if it was a crucial match while they watched the game. They would continue to shout out the score. I was content watching the highlights of the game later in the night. I enjoy playing cricket than watching it...unless it is really interesting...so I didn't mind this very much. In fact, I was happy if our team did well due to this superstition. Its been a while since I have played or watched cricket. I haven't after I came to the US.
Almost every kid in India would have grown up hoping to be a Cricketer one day and play for the nation...I did too. Soon enough like million others Indian kids you will realize that your parents are only interested in getting you to do well in studies and become may be a Software Engineer or Doctor or something good professionally so you have a stable job and any time playing as a kid trying to hone your sporting skills is simply a waste of time. The percentage of Indian parents who are proud of their child's sporting prowess is unfortunately very small. This probably explains why India with such a huge population and almost perfect weather round the country produces so few Olympic medals every year. It will take a long time for the current generation of parents and soon-to-be parents to realize that its important to support what your children really want to do. In most cases, I guess, they know the sad truth- their children hate to do what they want and they would hate what kids really want.
Eastern- Eunoia
I am watching the NFL super bowl 2009 on TV right now. I am sure more than 90% of Americans (of my gender at least) will be watching it. I don't completely understand the rules of the game. My knowledge of American Football, till very recently, came from watching some hollywood football movies, most notably, "Remember the Titans". But I very much enjoy watching every time someone (doesn't matter which team) makes a touch down. Its just fun to see them run with the ball like that!
I come from India and we are a Cricketing nation. Cricket is not just a game in India its more like a religion in the subcontinent. Indians are die hard fans of Cricket and funnily enough, they can be very superstitious about it. I have seen many people who do weird things like:
- sit through the entire match without even taking a break
- not speak a word to anyone or move from their position
- wear a particular color cloth/ hat on that day
All this- hoping that anything they do might affect the performance of their favorite player and even worst lose that all important wicket!
I had my share of misfortune too...for some reason, every time I was watching the game...India would lose wickets continuously, whereas if I was watching the opponent team, then they did better (because our players did worse). My younger brothers realized this and made fun of me saying I had some kind of evil eye that only worked against our team. So they made me go to my room (and sometime locked me up) if it was a crucial match while they watched the game. They would continue to shout out the score. I was content watching the highlights of the game later in the night. I enjoy playing cricket than watching it...unless it is really interesting...so I didn't mind this very much. In fact, I was happy if our team did well due to this superstition. Its been a while since I have played or watched cricket. I haven't after I came to the US.
Almost every kid in India would have grown up hoping to be a Cricketer one day and play for the nation...I did too. Soon enough like million others Indian kids you will realize that your parents are only interested in getting you to do well in studies and become may be a Software Engineer or Doctor or something good professionally so you have a stable job and any time playing as a kid trying to hone your sporting skills is simply a waste of time. The percentage of Indian parents who are proud of their child's sporting prowess is unfortunately very small. This probably explains why India with such a huge population and almost perfect weather round the country produces so few Olympic medals every year. It will take a long time for the current generation of parents and soon-to-be parents to realize that its important to support what your children really want to do. In most cases, I guess, they know the sad truth- their children hate to do what they want and they would hate what kids really want.
Eastern- Eunoia
Friday, January 30, 2009
Mike testing 1,2,3... ;-)
My first blog... just to see how it works ;-)
Well today is the first time I am blogging... mainly encouraged by the success my wife (Brahmin in Boston) has had doing so....Do check out her blog as she is quite serious about it. It has been taking a while to think what I will write in this first blog. I know, I know its the usual starters problem. The reason for the difficulty is because I am slightly serious (but can be humorous) kinda person and as my wife put it candidly, I don't get irritated quickly and I don't have much to crib about in life...I guess thats why girls/ women can blog a lot. Actually if there was a "Blog marathon- a Blogathon" of some kind -they would leave men (at least, ones like me) far far behind. I hope I will be able to catch up some day... all depends on how frequently and how nicely I will be able to write. Your comments will reflect that!
I hope this blog will provide me a great platform to voice some of my opinions and ideas. In the last 3 years, to a large extent my wife has been bombarded by these on a daily basis (it will be 3 years since my marriage and she has been great). At the same time I feel the circle of people with whom I can interact will expand tremendously with this blog. I am sure there are lot of like minded people inhabiting the blogosphere. This will be my effort to tap into those interesting minds ;-) Personally, I like all the beautiful and intelligent things in life...a kind of "bon vivant" (for a want of better word) minus the luxury and hedonism....I simply can't afford it. I like simple (and affordable) things like good food (only Vegetarian), traveling, reading, art, music, dance, movies and the list goes on...
You will get to hear more about my daily experiences and may be some events from my childhood that have been responsible for shaping me the person I am today....hope you will enjoy it.
Eastern-Eunoia
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