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.