This happened to me one night!

It was past midnight.... I had to go to my lab to take care of a small experiment. I had just finished watching Monday Night Football although I don't quite remember which teams played that night. I went to the lab and finished my experiments and came back home a litter after 2 am. Brandy was fast asleep in my bed. He looked very tired.




I tried to sleep but had a tough time getting any sleep. So I thought I will watch TV for some time until I feel sleepy. I went into the dark living room and found the remote lying on the floor. I tried to turn the TV on but I couldnt. I turned the lights on and was amazed at what I saw.

What was a fully functional remote an hour ago was now reduced to half. I gazed at it for a minute and soon realized what my Vet said during Brandy's first visit - ' Labrador's eat almost anything '. What I didn't know was that anything included unsavory electronics. Surprisingly, Brandy showed no signs of discomfort. He was peacefully sleeping in my bed.

I scrambled to find my Vet's number. Luckily Brandy's hospital has a 24 hour emergency service. I called up the Vet and explained what i think had happened---

Me : Hallo Ma'M. You must remember Brandy.. Well, I think he just ate my remote.

Doctor : What do you mean ? Did he chew on the remote ?

Me : No, I think he has swallowed a big chunk of the TV remote

After some umm... and ahh's..

Doctor : Well, what is Brandy doing now ?

Me : He is sleeping as if nothing has happened.

Doctor : Okay, wake him up and them forcefeed him with about half a pound of wheat bread. He should be fine by tomorrow morning. If he shows any sign of discomfort, then bring him in and I will take a look.. One more thing, did he swallow the batteries.

I rushed back into the living room to see that the batteries were untouched.

Me : No, he didnt get to the batteries.

Doctor : That's a relief. Just feed him bread and call me back in the morning.

So I woke Brandy up and then fed him all the bread I had. I think he was confused at my generosity but he ate everything anyway. After he dozed off again, I went to the living room to check for any bits and pieces of the remote. I found nothing...

I tried to watch Brandy but soon fell asleep. I got up in the morning and took Brandy to the backyard. Almost immediately he did the usual 'circling around' in the grass and pooped. Curiously, I looked at the poop to kind the pieced of the remote that were missing- green circuit board, few pieces of wire, gray and black plastic.. all accounted for. When I told the Vet what I saw, she said that dogs cannot digest wheat bread. And any sharp pieces of remote that brandy ate would mix with the bread and pass through his intestine without harming the walls.

So.. wheat bread saved the day for me. And now I understand and respect the potential of the recycling machine that lives with me.. Brandy.. my soon to be two year old.. adorable black lab.

Never Regret!

'Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience' - One of my friends uses this quote as a signature in all emails. I usually put little effort thinking about such quotes but this one caught my attention. In retrospect, I have unknowingly tried to face many circumstances in my life by this rather profound 'rule'. I want to pen down the difficulties I faced in abiding this rule and the outcomes of choosing to do so.

Simply, one should never be deterred by the bad experiences of the past nor one should solely rely on the previous success-especially, in the present, when u are required to make a crucial decision about the future. One has to realize that your past need not dictate what you can or cannot do in the future. Life presents limitless opportunities and the way in which you handle these choices will eventually shape your future - regardless of how you have led your life until then.

When I graduated from high school (college in India) with a major in sciences, I was confident that I will be successful as an engineer or a doctor. I thought so only because I had excelled in my academics. Deep inside, I probably liked archeology much more than anything else. Unfortunately, the most lucrative careers were in engineering or medicine. Relying on my 'previous' academic success and the opportunity of a decent career, I chose to major in biology in my undergrad and then went on to graduate school in the same field. Graduate study is a long time in one's life and halfway through my grad school, it struck me that my marriage with science was on shaky grounds. Only then, I understood that my previous academic sucess and the choices that I made have taken me on a path that seemed to end in a steep drop off a cliff. I wanted to pursue a different path, one that would take me away from the cliff and along the sunny beaches. The difficult part here was first to convince myself that I had no regret of spending about one fourth of my life pursuing a dream which was soon not going to realized. Moreover, I had to find a new path which was going to take me to my destination. As I said earlier, Life presents limitless opportunities; and I have now made one such choice to move away from graduate school to pursue a career in health science. To sum up, success in the past has not always led me to realize my dream. The experiences were sweet and the journey wonderful. Previous success has mainly helped me shape my thoughts about the things that are definitely not meant to be.

On the other hand, bad experiences have helped me understand myself and the dynamics of humanity better. I think of myself as a person who will do everything possible to help somebody who is close to me. And on multiple occassions, I have indulged in things that have seriously affected my day to day life. In the end however, making little compromises in my own life to better another being has left me feeling betrayed of my trust and often left a scar on my personality. After a period of remorse and reticence, I have gone back to being the same person I was before. The difficult part in handling bitter circumstances is very similar to facing success. One has to get over the euphoria of success or the dejection of a failure in deciding how to act in the future. I hope bitter experiences have not deterred me from looking at life in a negative way.

Definitely, I have learnt the ways in which things are meant to be from such setbacks in life.

Every new day is the beginning of the rest of my life. My success and failures are leading me to understand how to take life as it comes. I do not regret the life I have led nor the tough lessons I have learnt. I only hope that I make the best of all the available choices and realize my dream.

Living on the Edge

Mother Nature is one of the greatest textbooks ever written. The immense knowledge that divine Author wanted to convey forbid him from using any language. Silence was the universal language He finally chose and silence has stood the supreme test of time. Silence is what we have today to teach us the best lessons of life.

Recently, on a road trip with my friends, we visited many places that took us closely through the pages of Nature. Each page was vivid with the entire spectrum of colours one could possibly imagine. One of the best chapters of this trip was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the banks of the mighty Lake Superior. The chapter was a cruise to witness the marvellous sculpture Nature has patiently carved over millions of years. The relentless Nature created this marvel with one of its most sophisticated yet simplest tool - Water.

The landscape was astounding and each page was a centerfold by itself. The sculpture resembled many things one comes across daily. One of the rocks was in the shape of a Indian's (Native American) head with the trees on top of the rocks resembling his hood made of feathers. There was one other rock that resembled the hull of a warship. None of these were named by the author as silence is the language in the book. It was entirely upto the reader to understand what the author implied.

As we went through the chapter, I kept thinking if there was something subtle hidden beneath the pages. The trees on the rocks defintely had a lesson to teach. Most of them were precariously standing on the edge of the cliff and seemed as is if they would fall off the precipice any instant. Some of their faces seemed to depict the constant fear of falling down into the deep waters and facing a frigid death. Nonetheless, they were still brave to flourish on the cliff. The author was possibly telling us that one should be brave enough to overcome the difficulties of life. Only when you put all your heart to overcome these adversitites, one can fathom the unimaginable. The trees silently portrayed this wonderful lesson.

As I neared the end of the chapter, I thought that I have happily comprehended the days lesson. When you Live on the Edge, you face difficulties that actually make you better. But I realised that the lesson was more than 'Living on the Edge' when I saw this lonely tree. The tree was on a rock that was somehow cut out from the rest of the land mass. The rock was surrounded by water forming a minute island. The island's only inhabitant has apparently lived there for a century now. The rock island had nothing to offer its dweller apart from a place to stand. In this perfect 'Cast Away' situation, our lonely tree was forced to stretch out its arms and find a way to surive..... and amazingly, our friend managed to extend his arms over the island to the adjacent mainland. Through this bridge of arms (roots), he managed to transport life from the mainland to the inhabitable island and support himself. He was not only 'Living on the Edge' but he was also ''Living Over the Edge''.... The tree was more than willing to survive in the worst adversity and he found a way. He was content with the house the Author encaged him in and through his will he made the house a beautiful home. In essence, the author also meant that 'Life' is what you make out of it. One can crib about what you dont have and suffer or one could be strong and put to use all your resources to make your Life better!

The chapter had thus elucidated that by Living 'on' the Edge and Living 'over' the edge, Life brings out something better than the best. And it still amazes me how the best text book Nature offers Life's best lessons only through silence... Possibly, Life's lessons are best learnt through silence!

PS: This one is for one for my good friends who continually inspires me by Living over the edge!

Living on the Edge

Living over the edge

Living over the edge again

Indian head rock

'War ship hull' rock

I believe I can FLY.....

I have not been a particularly adventure-seeking/loving person but there has always been one thing I wanted to do - FLY! In India, I never tried flying because it was expensive and there were not many places where one could fly for pleasure.

After I finished one of my exams last semester, I was desperate to do something different. As I walked out of the examination hall, my eyes fell on a flyer for the university gliding club. It claimed that one could fly for fun and even train to be a pilot. And moreover, it was not very expensive. So I decided to give it a try. After few mails and phone calls to the club president, a day was decided for my first flight in a glider. This process took almost a month since gliding is totally dependent on the weather and Michigan weather is most unpredictable.

As I drove to the airport last week, I pictured a lot of things. My only previous experience with airplanes of any kind has been a large Airbus/Boeing that can accommodate hundreds of passengers. I had never traveled in a smaller single/dual seater before. I also expected a huge airport with many aircrafts, tight security and people all over the place. But as I first passed by the airport, I could hardly recognize it but for a small signboard that read Rosettie Airport. The place was nothing more than a small house with few cars and a large grass field behind the house. I wandered through the deserted place looking for some help when suddenly from nowhere a glider came down from the skies and landed in the grass field. The landing was fairly short and the glider hardly made any noise one would expect from a aircraft. Slowly, I walked towards the grassfield and I could see small yellow pyramids lined up in two parallel lines. This was the only runway and the airport was merely an airstrip!

Soon, I was greeted by three people. My instructor, who also happens to be a regular pilot, the club president and a student. After the initial pleasantary exchange, I was ready for my first flight - meant to figure if I would really like to take gliding seriously. I was going to fly a Schweitzer 2-33 - a two seater trainer glider along with the club president. The club president went over the controls briefly. The biggest surprise was that the glider had no engine!! So we had to be towed by another plane to a certain height and then let loose to glide. We towed the glider to the end of the runway with a golf cart and then we tied it to our tow plane with a nylon rope. Soon we, were towed to 3000 feet and then after unhooking from the tow plane, we were able to glide for 20 min before we started losing height and had to land. I did not maneuver the plane as it was just a test flight. After I touched the ground, I was just waiting to go back up and feel like a bird. So I decided to join the club and train to become a pilot.

Last Sunday, I took my first lesson. I was going to learn all that takes to get a plane into the air. First we had to get our gliders out of the overcrowded hanger. Three of us slowly pulled the glider out. We had be cautious not to bump the long wings into the walls of the hangar. Now one has to do a detailed and laborious 'Pre-flight Inspection'. First, the gauges- Altimeter : this tells us high above the ground we are. For some reason, it already showed 200 Ft. So we had to correct for the zero error. Variometer - tells us the rate of ascent or descent and the speedometer tells us our speed. Apart from this, the Schweitzer has a rusty compass. Then the controls. The riding stick which is almost like a joy stick and controls most of the flight. The rudder pedals for direction and the trim for controlling the speed. After ensuring that all the controls were in place, it was time for the integrity check. We had to check if all the nuts and bolts are fastened. Each bolt had a safety clip to ensure that the bolt does not accidentally come off. As we went through every joint, I realized that the glider was actually older than what I thought. Few parts had some rust and there were a couple of patches on the body. The main wheel was the size of a scooter wheel and my instructor told me that the wing wheels were actually hockey pucks!!!! To be honest, I was actually more nervous than the previous time as the glider seemed more fragile than before. Despite all these flaws, our plane was airworthy and it had passed an inspection a couple of months back.

After the 'Pre-flight inspection' it was time to tow the plane to the runway. The glider takes off and lands in a direction opposite to the wind. The windsock pointed north and so we headed south. The tow rope was then fastened to our tow plane. Once the runway was clear, we took off. Since we are being towed, one has to always follow the path of the tow plane. And we need to be slightly below the tow plane. It was a bumpy ride as the wind speed was high! I felt that one needs to be very skillful to follow a tow in the air as the pilots in the tow plane and the glider have to be coordinated! After 15 minutes, we reached a height of 3000 Ft. I felt queasy whenever we were pulled up by the tow plane. Somehow, I was more nervous than the first time. Now, we separated from the tow-plane and began our gliding adventure. Since we do not have an engine, the only way to stay in the air and glide is to find 'thermals'. Thermals are hot columns of rising air which condense and form clouds. So we started hunting for thermals beneath large clouds. However, even after 10 min, we could not find a suitable thermal that could give us a lift in our altitude. The variometer said that we were descending and pretty soon we were at 2200 Ft. We had almost given up hope as the wind was strong when we suddenly hit turbulence. The glider shifted right and the nose dipped forward rapidly and I could see the ground right in front of my face!!! For few seconds, I thought that we were going to slam into earth. But my friend, managed to stabilize the plane and get out of the turbulence. He informed me that we were bordering a good thermal where there would be difference in air temperature and hence the turbulence. I was relieved as I was somehow convinced that there was some technical snag. Even if there was one, we cannot send a SOS as there is no radio. And we cannot jump from the glider because we do not have parachutes!! Parachutes are useless in a glider as they would not open from such a low height. So the only way out would be to crash land! The turbulence and the wavering in a glider is definitely more enhanced if one has traveled only in larger planes before. I experienced drift in all possible directions and the scariest was the nose dive!

Going back to our flight, we were now beneath a good thermal and to get a lift, we have to circle within the thermal and spiral upwards with the help of the rising hot air. My friend steered the plane in relatively sharp circles and slowly we ascended about 500 Ft. I was less nervous now and realized that I was actually flying high up in the skies without wings! I was exhilarated. After gliding for another 10 minutes, we started losing height again. This time we could not find another thermal and we had to come down. The landing was smooth though we landed at about 100 km/h.

I know that I am far off from flying the glider solo and there is a vast sea of knowledge and skill that I need to acquire before becoming a pilot. Though gliding seems to be a risky adventure, I am dying to get back into the air...... because for now... I Believe I Can Fly! ... I Believe I Can Touch the Sky!

Pics of Cold Spring Harbour

Vanevar Bush Lecture Hall : The place where Dr.Watson first presented the double helix to the world

Jones' Laboratory: The oldest functional biology laboratory in the US housed in a Victorian house. Presently, it houses a Neuroscience lab.

View of Cold Spring Harbour from one of the labs

Artistic rendition of the double helix

Wawepex: the warehouse for storing whale oil

Another view of the harbour

Wawepex

About two years ago, I started looking at various graduate programs in US. There were many universities that I dreamt of getting into - some because they were highly ranked, some of them had excellent faculty of high repute and some of them were amidst the most picturesque surroundings. Among all these, one place offered everything a student could ask for - Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. I did not apply there as I was sure of not getting through. And my dream remained a dream.

Recently, my courteous boss asked me to accompany him to a meeting at CSHL. Having seen the posters of the meetings at CSHL for the past few years, I knew that this would be a great place to meet many people who have inspired me through their work. So this blog is dedicated to my impressions of this great place.

I traveled to New York and took a cab to Long Island. My co-passengers, some scientists from Colorado, were furiously arguing about their exciting research findings. I was too tired to engage in any form of socializing, so I chose to look at the passing cars. In my mind, I was picturing CSHL with huge labs and lots of people swarming the place. But, the place was totally different . The lab is located in a green belt on the shores of Cold Spring Harbor. The place looked more like a popular tourist resort. The lab was a whaling town and was named Wawepex in the past.

I was put up in a old Victorian house called the Robertson House. The house was a good 20 min drive into the woods from where the talks took place. Everything in the house seemed to have a history. Apparently, the place was home to many scientists in the past. The furniture, the antique clock belonged to one of them in the past. But one of my other friends was not lucky enough to get good accommodation. So, I felt even more pleased.

The talks took place for 5 days with sessions starting early in the morning and extending into the night. The amount of work that went into research was evident from each talk. Sitting there, I wondered if I would ever be able to carry out quality research of such standards!

On the second day, while having breakfast, I happened to notice an old man talking to people as if he were enquiring their whereabouts. Some people seemed to greet him with respect. I wondered who he was. Only later did I come to know that he was Dr. James Watson!! - one of the scientists who presented the double helical model of DNA to the world. As I explored the campus, I learnt how each laboratory housed a famous scientist in the past. The labs, named after a scientist stood as a mute evidence for many basic discoveries that have revoultionised Biology today. The double helical model of DNA, restriction enzymes, transposons and many more...

Apart from listening to talks, I got to taste some amazing food and free booze. I would have had more variety if my diet was not restricted to veggie stuff!

As I left CSHL, I hoped that someday I would be able to come back and present my work. And someday, I would also be one of the thousands whose work is engraved on the walls of Cold Spring Harbour.

Improbable research

As i was walking through the stacks in the library, the cover page of one of the journals caught my attention. It was a picture of Mona Lisa with red eyes - just like the glistening eyes of an animal in the dark. I have read the Da Vinci Code and i am eagerly waiting to see the movie in a few days. So i presumed that the picture of Mona Lisa had something to do with Da Vinci.

However, the journal was titled "Improbable research". I quickly scanned inside, again hoping to read something about Da Vinci. But surprisingly, I read the 'research findings' of an improbable scientist which made me wonder if there has to be some discretion in taking up a particular subject for research.

In this study, the scientists apparently examined the effects of exposing the picture of Mona Lisa to more than 200 dogs of different breeds under different lighting conditions. The study was conducted over an extended period of time with dogs of different ages. And finally, the brilliant authors concluded that dogs are actually not indifferent to the picture of Mona Lisa. This is probably the first instance that proves that canines of certain breeds appreciate artwork.

I would defintely not classify their findings as definitive or scientific because the canines may have behaved the same way to any other picture. But I still cannot fathom why Mona Lisa's picture was chosen for this study and why this study was taken up in the first place.

The findings seem to be insignificant and does not better our understanding of animal behaviour. In all, the authors have wasted resources that could have been used to do fruitful science. Such studies are done mainly to satisfy the inquistiveness of an eccentric human mind that does not seem to understand the purpose of Science.

Scientists have spent billions on trying to find if there is/was any life on Mars. But sadly, they have overlooked billions of people who are trying hard to live on earth. A fraction of the money spent on Mars exploration may have actually lighted many lives.

So i wonder if one has to actually think of the larger picture - Why do we need Science? What purpose should it serve? Do we need to prioritize research?...... I wonder....

The primer

At last, i find myself venturing into something which i think i am inept at - blogging . BHAAVANA is an attempt to pen down my thoughts. Though I should be studying for my upcoming PhD premilinary exams, I have spent the past few hours creating my blog and trying to write and re-write my first blog. A certain friend's blog enticed me to create my own and the outcome is Bhaavana. I hope that i would be able to truly reflect my life through words.