19 till I die

Veery Real Khrishen and I were walking towards the car. The students parking lot is at a distance from the Student Carrels and Khrishen's lab. I ogle at the first car, a BMW coupe parked right in the Faculty parking. I almost want to touch it. But then my eyes veer to silver Lexus posing at a different angle. Oh... and how could I miss the Porsche GT Carerra, purring silently in the other corner. I'm thinking "What sheer propulsion it'll give. Raw, smooth power!"... "Do you want to touch it?" sneers Khrishen in his Mauritian French accent. Not quite Poirot, but pleasant anyway. "Nah... it's the thrust of the engine beckons me" I retort... and we smile. Khrishen is a year into the graduate student life and I a day into it. Judging graduate student lives is tough. At twenty four, people have set ideas of what constitutes a good day. Khrishen is happy with his Sunday. He did some clean immuno-staining today and gathered three other papers supp...

An Ode to Colaba Causeway To those who haven’t been here I’d like to to say, You’re missing a glamour-fest Everyday For every inch is glamour doused From Regal Cinema to the Electric House Bracing the Café christened Leopold Is a bustling market, fairly old. Keep your money to yourself Away from predatory merchants They lure you with trinkets and T-shirts And lockets and pendants And telescopes and DVDs And other wasteful commodities. I suggest you trudge along In your head, sing a song For just watching is no sin Plainly, to avoid greed’s din. You’ll see many things be assured And many a beggar have endured But sadly have slapped them aside Like ticks pricking the conscience inside. At night you look overhead And see the sky black and dead “Where are the stars?” They ask sans delight Then look around… Smile And bask in starlight The stars descend everynight To this streach of road: young and neon bright They take every shape, colour and size And boldly drape to please the eyes. Every ...

The Work Culture at DBS, TIFR: A student's view I'm being presumptious when I say that all my contemporary students in DBS will agree with this, but a fair fraction does, and that makes these views non-trivial. Feedback hunters... listen up! TIFR and NCBS arguably offer the best exposure to biological research to their students, the country can afford. The GoI is generous in funding researchers at all stages and levels of their career in these sister concerns. This translates to top notch facilities and hands on experience to all students during the course of their training. The scientific prowess (publication ability) of scientists at these establishments is unquestionable. Their publication profiles are good and the last review of the department conducted by a panel of internationally "BIG" biologists was favourable. Publications are after all the only legitimate yardstick of research output from a lab. The department is scientifically active with regular journal c...