This lab is your lab, this lab is my lab..

For some inexplicable reason, my creative juices get flowing whenever an exam is near.. Wrote this up today in lab :)


This lab is your lab, this lab is my lab
From HSC to CNRCS labs (buildings at my uni where labs are housed)
From evolution to structural biology
This lab was made for you and me

I ran some protein gels, I ran a PCR
I made some cultures, played with some NMR
Mated some fruit flies, ligated DNA
This lab was made for you and me

Has friendly technicians and grumpy post docs
Strict lab managers and eager post bacs
My lovely fellow grads and the best PI
This lab was made for you and me

A morning caffeine fix and mid-morning crispy snacks
Late afternoon lunches and midnight snack attacks
With Ramen dinners to keep me going
This lab was made for you and me

The data’s growing, DNA bands glowing
At weekly lab meetings, the words are flowing
When boss is happy, heave a sigh of relief
This lab was made for you and me.

This lab is your lab, this lab is my lab
From HSC to CNRCS labs
From evolution to structural biology
This lab was made for you and me

To be sung to the tune of 'This land is your land, this land is my land..'

I'm back!

Last night, I realized with a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach that this blog contained several poems that I hadn't written down anywhere else. This morning, after several frantic (completely unnecessary) Google searches and one simple action, I was able to recover my blog. As I looked at the familiar template and read through my old poems and posts, I realized that I loved this blog too much to give it up.. Just like I love my beloved too much to give him up.. We have fought in the past and 'broken up' but neither one of us has been able to last more than a night without talking to the other. What is this bond that binds us, my beloved and I? It is a bond that makes us call each other at exactly the same time, so that we often reach each other's voice mail. This happens too many times to be considered a co incidence. It is a bond which makes one anxious if the other is in trouble and makes us think like crazy about things that will make the other's life easier. In chemical terms, the bond between my beloved and I and this blog and I, is a covalent bond.. There is sharing and caring.. Strong attraction and a little bit of repulsion.. Which ultimately balance each other out and achieve- perfect equilibrium.

Short post.. Big news..

I finally have my visa.. My tickets are booked and I fly to USA today :)

Image from here.

Haul: Jan 14th 2011

I'd bought a few simple tees/ blouses for everyday lab wear (although now I'm not sure if I'm gonna get to wear them in a lab anytime soon). Working in a Biochemistry lab is messy and sweaty work. While working with flames and chemicals, it is a good idea to wear simple, cotton clothes that are safe as well as comfortable. 

The first one.. In Pink because I've been in love with pink ever since I watched Legally Blonde. Just a simple tee with some detailing at the neck, making it asymmetrical. Rs. 199

This tee, which looks bright blue is actually a bluish green color but my cellphone cam has decided it likes this color better. ;) This one has a square neck and some pleat detailing below the neck. Rs. 249

This one is salmon, not orange as it appears (that cellphone cam again..) with a simple, square neck. Rs. 159

And finally, my favorite among the lot.. This one in royal purple with lovely, crochet detailing at the neck (not very clear in the pic) and tapered at the bottom. Rs. 269

Satisfied?

Reading this article about a survey conducted by PayScale.com got me thinking about how the numbers would have varied if the same survey had been conducted in India. According to the survey, almost an equal percentage of Biology and Engineering majors were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their current career paths (48 and 47% respectively) in the US. In India, the Engineering majors are the ones with bigger salaries and guaranteed job opportunities. Biology majors, if they join the workforce soon after graduation, are neither able to find jobs as easily nor earn as much. Therefore, most Biology majors opt for extra years of schooling and join the workforce later. The extra years, however do not guarantee them a job in this country where 'influence' is more important than qualifications or capabilities.

If the survey were to be conducted in India, I guess it would've read something like this-

Engineering- 87%

Biology- 32%

Image from here.

Music and Science..

I have observed that there seems to be a connection between music and science.. A lot of the Profs at the Uni where I did my M.Sc. enjoyed music and were extremely good singers. Our HOD had an extensive collection of  old Hindi film songs from which he would play selected songs at the end of his lectures.. 

I have recently begun reading blogs of people involved in research and it surprised me to notice that once again, many of these researchers seem to have some sort of affinity to music. I am also someone who has a love of both music and science. I wonder.. Does having an aptitude for science and research give us a better appreciation of music?

Suite life III

I had a wonderful dream the night before last. I don't know if I had this dream since I have been thinking and blogging about hotels or because I am psyched about an upcoming trip.. Whatever the reason, I dreamt that my parents and I had been invited to the opening of a new bar in an existing hotel, which was rather unusual since I don't drink and my parents would kill me if I did. Anyway, I was dressed in a rather cool party dress and once we arrived at the hotel, I was on my own. My parents somehow went MIA after that.

I began to wander in the hotel in search of the bar. Along the way, I passed some rooms which were very much unlike hotel rooms. In fact they looked like students' rooms in hostels. They had comfy beds and study tables in them. Above the study tables were book racks filled with the most amazing books, mostly teen fiction like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys etc.

After passing the rooms, I found myself in some passageways which were lined from floor to ceiling with books. It was truly my 'dream' hotel ;) Then I felt that the bar was nearby. Beyond the passages was a tiny hall in which some employees of the hotel were sorting books. I asked them the way to the bar and they said it was just a little way ahead.

When I reached the bar, I found that it was an 'all male, no females allowed' kind of a bar. The decor was all dark wood and leather, dim lights and lots of tiny tables scattered around. The bar seemed to be open already since there were lot of people in it but I don't what I did in there or beyond that because that was where my dream came to an end. 

Slightly weird dream but not too unusual. I tried find an interpretation of this dream. According to two different websites that are devoted to dream interpretation, dreaming of hotels and bars signifies the need to escape from daily routine and stress. To see books apparently indicates calmness and moving towards goals at a slow and steady pace but to see a book shelf represents various levels of the mind where ideas, concepts and memories are kept. It also suggests the need to acquire some information or knowledge in a situation before making a decision.

I take these to mean that I want to escape from the rut my life has fallen into right now. I truly can't wait to get a job or get into a doctoral program and move away from home. Also, I need to collect more information regrading the courses I am planning to apply to whereas I am already moving closer to my goals through the programs I have already applied to. Come to think of it, that was not such a bad dream to have :)

Second article

A first and a second in the same day.. Either I don't blog for weeks at a time or do two posts at once.. Am I an Arien or what? :D Anyway, I submitted my second article for publication an hour ago and feel totally great about it. I badly want it to get accepted and soon. This article has been three years in the making.. Not the actual article of course, but the whole process that led up to it. I began working on this project during that fateful month of October 2007 and though the project was completed just six months later, in March 2008, work on the first article took time and it was finally published only in April 2009, nearly one year later. And almost one year after that, I sit here, talking about the submission of the second article. Time is slipping from my hands and I have nothing to show for it yet. The only possessions that are truly my own are my certificates- my degrees and those of various competitions I have won and my only treasures are my beloved and his love for me..

The SOP that never will be.

All grad school applications require an SOP or statement of purpose, a piece of writing that allows the selection committee a tiny peek at your past, the person you are now and the future you visualize for yourself and your work.

Although SOPs are thus an excellent way for the committee to decide whether you will be a good grad student, there is a lot that cannot be said in an SOP. Though I possess the kind of background and ambitions that a committee would look for, like dedication and love for my subject, a burning desire to pursue a doctoral degree in a particular area of interest, some incidents in my life that developed these desires and this love and dedication in me, there are still many other reasons for my fierce desire to pursue a PhD that cannot be given. So, here it is, the rest of the story- the SOP that never will be:

I want to be in a grad school so that I may have a better and more secure future. In my present situation, i.e as just a postgraduate, I am unable to find a job or gain the respect that the effort and time that went into earning this degree deserve. Thus, I wish to gain a doctoral degree so that I may then be assured of a job and the respect that a PhD holder invariably receives.

Another reason why I wish to join a doctoral program, also related to a secure future is my love for my beloved. As stated above, our future right now is neither predictable nor pleasant. Therefore, we cannot be together unless we feel that we won't be jeopardizing any opportunities the future might hold for each other and which might have been available to us had we been single and unfettered. A doctoral degree will grant us peace of mind and the freedom to be together.

The highest degrees ever held by anyone in my family have been master's degrees. There is no PhD in the family. I wish to be the first one in the family to ever hold a doctoral degree. There are many people who would be jealous of this achievement and it would be my pleasure to provide them with the opportunity to be jealous.

Whenever my Mom wants to encourage me to do something, she invariably adds this piece of caution, "Do not stumble in front of those who will laugh at you when you do." This is a huge step for me and I do not intend to stumble. I hope the selection committee will take this statement of purpose as an indication of the brutal honesty and ruthlessness that I will be demonstrating in my research and grant acceptance into the doctoral program.

Applications to grad schools.

So, I'm finally putting the big wheels in motion.. I've begun the application process for three grad schools for now.. Gotta finalize three more.. Six is the limit I've set 'cos I'm still unemployed and the cost of application to each school along with the costs for reporting GRE and TOEFL scores comes to about $100- 120 and the application costs for six schools is all I'm willing to burden my parents with..

1320

That is how much I scored on my GRE.. not a spectacular score, but not too bad either.. Let's see where my magic carpet of a score takes me :)

In a jam

Why is it that in my life either nothing happens for really long stretches of time or everything happens at once?

The moment I booked my date for GRE, every other opportunity that I had been waiting months for suddenly decides to present itself to me at or around the same time. I get a call for interview from II effing T, an interview that I would give an arm and leg to attend but cannot because it is ON THE VERY SAME DAY as my GRE in a completely different city. Great timing or what? IIT would never agree to change the date of the interview, in fact they say so in the letter and I would have to spend an extra $45 to change the date of my GRE which is pretty expensive. So, that one goes down the drain. The irony of it is that while I require the GRE in order to apply for PhDs, working in an IIT  would almost guarantee that I get in..

I had planned on staying at my cousin-who-also-happens-to-be-my-best-friend's place for a few days after the exam. What with her job and my studies we never get to spend as much time together as we used to. So, I was really looking forward to visiting her. But, another interview decides to happen two days after my GRE. If that one had been on the same day too, I would've been back to square 1- with no job and no possibilities of getting one in the near future..

It's not like I don't have the qualifications or skills for the sort of jobs that I want. It's just that in India, just those are never enough. In fact, if you have the right contacts, you can even do without those. I hope I can do something to change this rotten system in any small way that I can, some day..

I haven't posted in a long time.. That's because nothing worth posting was happening.. I didn't have a job.. Still don't have one (not counting the tutoring job).. and was not getting any closer to my PhD and hence, to being with my beloved.

But I have taken a tiny step towards my goal today.. I finally booked the date for my GRE.. I'm gonna take it this month.. I hope I do well..

Valentine's Day

Guess what my beloved and I did this Valentine's? We wrote an exam together :D That's right. There was this entrance exam that both of us wanted to write, which is held on the second Sunday of Feb. every year and this year, that just happened to be Valentine's Day. So, we couldn't celebrate as such but since my beloved decided to take the motorcycle to the exam, we rode to the exam and back. He picked me up a little distance from my house (my parents don't know about us yet), we had breakfast on the way (which he paid for) and dropped me back after the exam. It felt nice to be taken care of. Don't get me wrong.. He always tries to take care of me but I don't usually let him. I am more of an independent sort of a girl; for example, even though we've been together for almost two years now, I still insist that we split the bill when we go to restaurants (which he doesn't agree to most of the times). But today, it just felt really good to be taken care of :)

Hooray!!!

My TOEFL scores were finally available online today and I scored 118/120!!! I just couldn't believe my eyes.. In fact, I logged out of my account and logged in a couple of times just to make sure there was no mistake.. I'd lost 2 marks in only one of the four sections i.e full marks on the other three!! It felt so good to have done so well at something after a long time :)

Its been kind of hectic lately.. It began with going to Mangalore to get an application to a certificate course in teaching english for my sis.. And two days later, I had to go back to return the filled application.. 1.5 hours each way for two days in a bus, on really bad roads is no joke but I did survive the test of endurance.. What made the second trip bearable, even enjoyable though, was that my beloved accompanied me this time.. We had a fun day in the town with our usual movie and lunch date.. But that simple date is so special and magical, just because I'm with my beloved and we're in Mangalore.. I just love our Mangalore dates.. :)

After that, I had to begin preparing for my TOEFL exam scheduled for the 12th in a big hurry because like always, I'd put off prep until it was almost too late.. I had to go to Bangalore to give the exam.. A 13 hour long journey.. but thankfully, by car and completed over two days.. The exam went well I think, compared to the way I'd prepared.. The results come out in 15 days.. Waiting for exam results is a torture.. I have absolutely ZERO patience with that or anything else.. But wait I have to.. Sigh..

On the second day following my return from B'lore, that's today, I had my interview for the post of a Junior Research Fellow at MLSC.. I feel it went well and am almost certain I'll land the job.. Keeping my fingers crossed..

First application to PhD.

That's right.. I completed my very first application to a PhD program today.. And I'd begun a week back.. Whew! Getting all my certificates in order, scanning them, converting them to pdf according to some highly specific specifications (would never have got this one done without my beloved's help), the essay and finally putting it all together.. man, I'm so glad it's done.. My beloved commented when I told him about the accomplished Mission Phd1, "I think you are happier about completing the application process than you will be if you are accepted." You said it, beloved :)

Convocation blues

So I'm finally and officially a postgrad but where's the excitement, the satisfaction? MIA!!

I might have been happier if I'd got good pictures of the 'much anticipated event'.. On the previous day of the event there was a row with my parents about the camera, with them accusing me of not having reminded them to get film for the camera (yes, we still own a stone age camera that needs film while everyone else I know has gone digital) and with me accusing them of having forgotten my reminder.. all of which was unnecessary coz there was plenty of time the next day to get film and I was gonna go get it myself the next day.. But parents will be parents.. they will get anxious and flustered and worried and then blame you for being the cause of it all..

What was the result of it all was that dad went off in a huff and must have got the film loaded in a big hurry at the shop and the film was not loaded properly.. So I never got any candids.. All I have are the stuffy pictures we had taken in a studio and I look absolutely horrible in them..

Things never seem to go right just when you want them to..

Convocation 2009

My convocation is just a week from today and I'm super excited about it.. I hadn't attended the convocation after B.Sc.. So this is the first time I'll be getting my degree in a graduation gown and cap rather than through the mail.. I began my preparations a week ago.. My sari, the accessories, make up, hairstyle.. the works :) If only I manage to find a job by then, my happiness will be complete (fingers crossed).. But I'm not gonna worry about that.. I'm gonna enjoy my special day completely.. :)

One thing at a time?

Turns out there are no vacancies whatsoever in my university.. I had hoped to get a job close to home coz it would be easier to prepare for the PhD entrance exams I'm planning to take.. the reason why I haven't applied for jobs anywhere else.. I guess this means that I can concentrate better on my prep for the exams.. But I'm not really doing that either.. Not very seriously anyway.. The problem is, this feels like a vacation.. which is not right coz I've nothing to go back from vacation to.. I've really got to stop being so lazy and get serious about where I'm headed..