BORIIIIIINGGG!!!!!!

one of those weekends of absolutely nothin,,, a complete void without work, lab, pleasure, trips, a despirited pistons game to make it worse ,,,,, nothin!!!!the only thing shaking it up was the earthquake in Indonesia and the self-immolation attempt in delhi,,,,,, bad govt policies this time being fought by the often dead educated class among us,,,,, i salute their efforts and just wish i had the courage and the oppurtunity to be there,,,,,

Defining ourselves by identifying with social groups

today im to start a new series,,, im goin to start writin,,, gonna express opinions and abt a weird array of odd topics,,, lets c how versatile i can be... here goes the 1st one ..... "Defining ourselves by identifying with social groups"

Every human is as much a social animal as he is an individual. Society defines his orientations, his moods, his aspirations and some times just satisfies his need to be heard and recognised. As some one once told me personality in an individual comes from "personna", a mask. A mask that he builds on experineces in the social world, based on the confidence that he achieves over years. I guess confidence again is a product of the voracious hunger in humans to stand up and be recognised and just be an individual. Thats the mix match that defines us- social animals.

Everyone intends to interact and enjoy the company of like minded and some times different people. Just different social groups. All sharing the feeling, the spirit that you feel at different phases in your life. I have been always fascinated by India. The country i belong to and the social circles i live in. The asset of belonging to a developing nation is the growth. I have seen India grow as i grew inch by inch, its society influenced by the market economies and more so by the myriad mindsets of its billion people. Everyday as i grew within this country, in its diverse social groups i felt an association, an association so personal, so real, so me. I have identified myself with the social setup, the Indian way of life and have been affected and have choosen the path i would walk in life.

Another social setup that has helped me grow is the set of lateral thinkers. Thinkers like Ann Ryan or Mario Purzo that have raised the youthful minds, sometimes to a dangerous high. These are the social groups that have changed the way we think and live. My repeated attempts to identify myself with these have been nothing more than an attempt to grow out of the mundane, restricted mindsets, the cliches. Everyone of these attempts towards individualism have been yet another step to form and associate ourselfs to social groups that appeal. These are not our attempts to stand out but rather stand out and form our own circle of lateral thinkers, all a process.

Just the way we hang around in literary circles in colleges and schools, debating and concluding on ideologies and issues in our society that effect us. We make lifelong friendships among these social groups that help us identify ourselves, that allow us to stand out, together. These myriad attempts to belong to societies help us all to associate and realise, to grow and learn and more so to define ourselves within associable social groups.

Reservations

Couldnt stay away from it myself,,,, its sweeping the country with protests,,, or so i hear in the media,,,, one word thats become the symbol of RDB type youth unification,,,, the names like 'Youth for equality', 'AIIMS doctors' have all become a rage in the internet media section if not the conventional media agencies,,,, so wat is my stand on the issue,,,, i gotto have a stand dont I??? Pro or Anti -R,.....

As the youth in the country is divided over the issue,,,, OBC's rejoicing at an increase in opportunites were as the so call 'General' category students beseeching opposition in favour of meritocracy,,,, it infurriates and confuses me ,,,, infurriated by the bold decision of the Govt without realising that 40% of India today is the youth,,,,without considering the cons of an abrupt action that history has shown caused lifes and destruction in the early 90's... the word of those times was the Mandal commision,,, it confused me wen i heard the screams of my seniors on schoold stages,,, "VP singh Hai Hai, Mandal commision hai hai",,,, schools were shut and i had a vacation unexplained for a month,,, but now a decade later in all seems to make sense,,,, the feeling and the protests,,,,,, the anger at the audacity of the govt to try and impose a legislation of such immense public significance on a population made of 40% youth in a matter of days,,,,,

there wasnt a word about it ,,,, there wasnt a discussion in the media,,,, there was nothin and then suddenly.,,,,, BOOOM!!!! 50% of the seats in our best education institutions were out of our reach,,,,, few weeks before the parliament session the news comes out,,,, well i dont blame the protests then,,,, it is a nation outcry at the apathy of the politicians,,,,,

the international media is equally curiuos,,,, many do not seem to comprehend the protests in a economic power risng against odds,,, an economic power booming with the feeling of development, of upliftment of the less fortunate,,,, they seem to ask... "Y do the people protest against reservations aimed at upliftment of the less fortunate?",,,,well because nothin can be farther from the truth,,,,,

the truth as percieved by those who protest is i feel very simple,..... you go to a regular high school... u have classmates that do not have any caste or creed ,,, they just have names,,, regular students ,,, regular minds, some bright some not so , some rich some poor yet the majority in the so called 'middle class' ,,,, and then we have the understanding,,,, somethin defines the troubles of one section of those friends graver than the other ,,,,, some 'law' defines that one of those needs to study harder, get a better percentile of scores to get into Graduate schools,,,,,, they are divided ,,,,,, thats the truth that the people percieve feel and protest for ,,,,,


i could see the blatant fact flashed on my face ,,,,, "study hard, face the competetion" ,,,, and then one more clause,,,"study harder than the boy or gal next to u , he/she is an SC, ST, OBC"..... it somehow enrages us as we all ride together, go to the movies, attend those pressure cooker coaching centers, hang out for chai ,,,,,,"Y?", "What makes them special?",,,, 'they' would get the seats while peer pressure would kill 'us' all .....'they' would ride on the pulsars and kinetics into the colleges of future glory while we brood at the thout of an uncertain and even bleak and dark future,,,,, we worked together, faced the same pressure, had the same resources, or rather the lack of them..... we went in the same crouded buses, had same hot tempers, yet some loose and others ride to glory,,,,, i was once told ..... "U need to get a 190/200 and u might just make it and yet my friend was told just manage the qualifying score and a few more, a meager 100/200 and you would become a doctor, an engineer or now as it may seem get into post graduate colleges,,,,,

the students protesting today are not holigans or truck loads of uneducated payed political emissaries,,,, these are the 5-10% cream of the India youth,,,,,, these are people that know that their futures are secured and multinationals and the best of establishments wait to gouble them up.... yet they protest......

as i take my stand with these protestors not bcoz the media personifies them as heroes but bcoz i have seen, lived and felt wat they feel now,,,,, bcoz it enrages me even now years later how we had to fight among thousands to get one admission to just begin our lives,,,, just BEGIN.....and now its all going to be doubled,,, everythin,,,, the pressure lbs increased by the double in an ever increasing population,,,another curse that divides us,,,,,, bcoz its never the underpriviledged villagers or small towners on the census that gain the benefit of reservations,,,, its the people in everyday middle class and the students in every city college,,,,, the villagers dont need reservations in colleges they need motivation to go to schools ,,,, to understand wat the world offers them,,,, they need the exposure of wat lies ahead,,,,, all the rest i dare say, is a political eyewash

SO I STAND TODAY "ANTI-RESERVATION",,,, a stand i hope would stop the rediculous partition of colleges around the country based on a concern that first need to be addressed not at the Graduate level but at the primary education level to meet its true ideological goal

routine

lifez a routine ,,,, and im loving it ,,,, its nice to have some work in the summer ,,, the weather is excellent ,,, the gals are prettier and the birds are chirpy,,, im lovin it ,,, research is the key word,,,ebullience stems from my increasing involvement in my work,,, work is good ,,, too much work is better at times,,,, cable tv has forayed back into my house after a year of hibernation,,, warning bells ringing ,,, thank GOD , i have work,,, just knowin that i do not have the time to rite up a blog entry in the summer vacation is cool ,,,, well not that i dont have the time to breathe,,, its just that the creative juices of introspective philosophy somehow flow in the darkness of an empty silent night ,,,,, its a great feelin,,, wen u know that u have so much work coming up the next monin,,,, that u have just enuf time to say a few lovin words to the love of ur life in lunch breaks and early mornins... its just such a great feelin to b busy,,,,

the best of me comes out,,, there would b shortcuts offcourse,,, excellence in work may never be achieved with the multitaskin, but still its good to get things going,.... i just love to multitask,,,, its great wen u have so many thouts in ur mind in the middle of a sensitive cell culturing step,,, wen u find time to go to the lab only at 11 in the night after 14 hours straight of manual labour,,,, i loved it ,,, a lazy weekend doesnt always stem thouts,,,,i have always reared for that little extra time in tight schedules but then i have always made the schedules tighter by not utilising that little extra time ,,,, wouldnt have it ne other way

yet there r so many thouts,,,and those dreams,,, these disturbed nights of hollywood sequences often make me wonder wat lies in the subconciousness of the neural network,,, i has once told that i would love to study neurology from the angle of the sunconscious,,,, dont know if id ever be able to get to that but, science is ever exciting,,,, wats the best part is that the era of dumb struck scientific curiosity has passed me ,,,science has taken a new meaning between the opposing forces of career competition and scientific zeal,,,, its the making of a scientist that has moved from theories of evolutionary proteomics to the figures of merit of a simple mass spec proteomics expt,,,,moved from the fascination of complex apoptosis cascades to the intricasies of assays, cell lines and expression,,,,

its different to know that this was all a part of it and its different to realise it now ,,,, its been a journey,,,,,,, from the routine of a avid reader of hindu science section to a critical reviewer of the JBC technical articles,,,, as my dad used to say ,,,, "As we specialise, we know more and more abt less and less",,, funny how my dad always seems to be on the right side of reality ,,,,, but then u know me,,, "Excellence i can can try and reach for, and perfection is Dad's business"
and life makes a full circle again,,, from past to the present thouts,,, from abstract thouts to the "routine"

to be an Indian man

Men,,,,,another species with its oxymorons in their plenty..... Indian men,,,, add another dozen of those,,,,crossing seven oceans and a zillion different ideological barriers the modern age Indian men in america,,,, no longer a species that can blame the vast cultural divide for the 'shock',,,,the so called americanisation has flooded every urban setup in the 21st century india,,, rgt from the sony to the GE ,,, from the nike to the wilson,,,, name it and ull find it in the largest consumer market in the world,,,, quarter of a billion young minds rearing to enter the horizons,,,, but are they all 'in' for what awaits them,,,, and im not talking abt the knowledge,,,, science has never been new to a education stuffed Indian youngster,,,, the product of the pipeline education system, this breed of highly 'educated' youngsters are all 'in'...from the corridors of SAP to the intracies of the DNA, they know it all,,,

wat is the one thing that still separates them from them all,,, well i say its the crowd that they all are ,,,, yes the crowd,,, the same set of ideas, emotions and beliefs,,, the attitudes, the actions, the hangouts,,,,, in short a DESI,,,,, an identity of the indian diaspora ,,,, a breed of people rgt in the middle of everywhere,,,, too open and relaxed to belong to the class of hardworkin, focused asians and at the same time closed enuf to be identified away from the rest of the western world,,,

i forever believed that its the curse of the non-resident citizens to be in the middle of nower,,,, well i stand corrected. It isnt in the middle of nower its in the middle of everywer,,,, it aint on curse nemore,,,, its a bliss,,,, the bliss of the eighties born generation,,,, we saw it all ,,,, born with the fundamentals of the babudom, grew up to understand and visualise the ironies of the peers, and rgt wen we came to the helm of it all,,,, BOOOM,,,, the economy opens up,,,,, shattered in shackles lie the myths of past era ,,,, out with it all ,,,,

we have been blessed,,,, yes blessed i say to love thy country and love the world ,,, to love rahman and appreciate the rafi era..... to love it all, to get it all ,,, yet its fast ,,,,, too fast for a few still,,,, shouldnt have been that crazy a transduction.,,,, transformation to a being that could agree to disagree,,, that could understand and assimilate to the power of a asbestos filter,,,,

in the middle of all this excitement lies the cynical mind,,,, a realist speaking it out,,,,, were r we headed isnt the question nemore, its were we stand today,,,, its all about abt that ,,,, its today that matters.... bcoz its WE THE PEOPLE that r free to head were we might,,,, its up, up and away,,,,

the indian man of the eighties born,,,,, love it all ,,,, commited yet single in its patriotism to thy country and the world,,,,, global player should i say with the DESI touch,,,,,,

perennial oxymoron

just me or is it 'the world' as we know it.... a perennial oxymoron,,,, forever the two faces of everythin has made me feel one of them all.... its strange to c how we all meander our way thru the oxymorons of life,,,, how we have views and contradictions surpassin the imagination of the creator,,,, the creator who might have been repentin or probably rejoicin in the glory of his oxymorons,,,, just the way einstein would have rejoiced at makin the most powerful deterent of all wars,,, the nuclear bomb,,,, wat happnd was for all 2 c,,,, so y is it that i still am an oxymoron,, a perennial one of all,,,, is it the continous hunger that drives a curious mind or the helpless escape of a dazed and lazy inside,,,,is it the spice of life or the acidity of a stomach ulcer...but i still njoi every moment of it all,,,, agreeing and disagreein,,, debatin and observing,,,,,the oxymorons as they come out of a drunken evenin of red wine,,,,,the faces and ideas of people,,,, some high on 'spirits' and others high on the pungent spirited room full of ideas,,,, we have all passed thru the age of the 'dil chahta hai' syndrome,,,,three assumed 'huligans' on the streets at night,,,, high not on 'spirits' but high on the the spirit of just that hour,,, that hour in the middle of nowere in the glory of eternal friendship...... yet the ugly face of the 'oxymoron' surfaces itself years after the glorious night,,,,, the prejudices and melee's ....once a friend told me 'I maynot love u forever, but ill always love the days i loved u'..... that stuck to me like a piece of gum under the benchtop,,,,, thats the beauty of the oxymoron,,,,, its not abt u and me ,,,, its abt the love, its abt the days ,,,, its abt the beauty off wat we all may be or atleast wat i am,,, a perenial oxymoron,,,

back again

yes im back and back again,,, back into the world of my thoughts,,,, doesnt matter if neone reads this or not ,,,, its finally nice to jabber away with no one to interupt :-)..... my thoughts have always run faster than my words or my writin,,,, passion is the first word i learnt in my life ,,,, im passionate abt GOD, anu, abt my country, abt my dad, abt everythin that i think is perfect,,,,, wen i say pefect its perfect in my scale,,,, i love this one ,,,, "I remember never to confuse excellence with perfection, excellence i may reach for, perfection is GOD's business",,,,, well thats how i percieve perfection,,, i live in the forever gray land... lookin down at the black and lookin forward, hopin and aimin to get to the white,,,, but always relishing the comfort of the GREY... would never come out of the grey of my life ,,, and as many put it,,, 'im lovin it',,,,, TIME.... thats another scale of life,,,, ive never been somehow short of time ,,, never really felt that i wanted to go back in time ,,,, maybe it has to do with the fact that i have never believed in doing BIG things,,,,, just small and big things ,,,, nethin that keeps me occupied till the next stroke of mood and time......

arrived finally

yes i have arrived finally on the blogging circle.... the world of the often perennially bored,,,,, had the thoughts to put in ,,, had the topics to talk abt ,,,, had the philosphies and ideologies broomin up ,,,, now ive taken the plunge ,,,,, its strange how i have so much to do and talk abt and also have the time and enthu to put it all in words,,,,,, its always been a strange hobby to talk ,,,, the handicap of language or the speed of my typin is probably stopped me from gettin into blooggin a long time back,,,, now things have changed,,,,, got a laptop over a zillion hours of typin experience and another zillion hours of time in spring-summer ,,,,

abt me ,,,, im an oxymoron personified,,, a gemini my birth, belief and life,,, two's of everythin,,,,,,,,, known for my waghraism's in select circles and unknown for everythin else in every other circle......

isnt this the paradise of life.....a laptop a 54mbps speed, freedom of time and a houseful of confused ideas,,,

yes i have arrived and hopefully unlike most other things in my life,,,, ill stay