Aah... iodine

My favourite subject has returned...

What would you do if you found out that you were iodine deficient (let play out a scenario, notwithstanding the fact that individual iodine deficiency is neither easy nor cost effective to determine)...

so, you are in the middle of the desert, starving for iodine (and water and food... run with the scenario, folks). What would you give your left arm for (assumption 10001: you are right handed)? a slice of pizza with feta cheese and caramelized onion topping? you must be mad... iodised salt? nah, it will only make you thirsty... seaweed? in the desert?
No, you should never leave home (and specifically, not for the desert) without your trusty (wait for it, wait for it) 20 oz bottle of Iodine Mineral Water, courtesy your wonderful looking-out-for-your-health friends at Eniva Corporation.
$26.95 for a bottle! HA!

Economist Robert Frank @Google

Its 55 minutes long... get out your popcorn and watch some pop economics on Youtube! :)

Its 9 O clock on a friday...

...and I am still in the lab...

Existential Questions no 1: Why?
Existential Questions no 2: What is the learning curve for someone my age?
Existential Questions no 3: Why dont I get on with the powderin' of rat livers instead of posting on my blog?

Partial answer: I aim to be lab work free by midnight tonight.... weekend plans include a trip to Vermont... Bob left his Infiniti with me, for safekeeping! (Hahahaha... ) I am going to let 'er rip on Route 2 on the way to Vermont on Sunday... If you read my obit sometime next week, be assured I went out in a blaze of glory with a smile on my face! (j/k - but i will still put the Infiniti through its paces... on a short drive it handles like a luxury car should...)

All is not lost...

If this man in France can survive for as long as he did, then I can breathe easy about my future! hahaha...

Tip: Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution who is "second-hat-tipped" by Winterspeak

Moving...

This blog will soon move to Brookline Village... nope, that's not right... the blog stays where it is, the blog author moves to Brookline Village on September 1! I will be back...

What would you do if you got $500?

Tyler Cower, a practical economist, believes that money to individuals makes more sense than through foreign aid (read government bureaucracy). To back this up claim, Tyler will send one Indian $500 and five others $100 each through Western Union. This is in alignment with the principles he writes about in his new book, Discover Your Inner Economist. Those aforementioned principles are:

1. Cash is often the best form of aid.
2. Give to those who are not expecting it.
3. Don't require the recipients to do anything costly to get the money.

Why India?
To no surprise, he loves the country! In his words, "been to India twice and both times I have been received with the utmost hospitality and enthusiasm. I loved the food, the music, the diversity, and the more-than-occasional chaos. Most of all I loved how the people engaged me so directly, and how every moment was so full of human drama and stories."

What do you do?
Find a deserving Indian, and follow instructions on his blog

NOW!

"Careful with that axe, eugene."

...yes, and that liquid nitrogen is badass, only watch out for its cool sting!

So, the key to crushing rat brains into a fine powder is to render them stone-like so that a mortar and pestle can be put to good use! What is the best way to instantly render something to stone, apart from Basilisks?
Enter left: Liquid nitrogen

Ta-daa! Liquid Nitrogen
oh yes, at a boiling point of 77 K (-196 °C or -320 °F), you can say that it is a cool dude!
I used a lot of liquid nitrogen over the last few days... enough to power a mini-AC/DC concert. I used cryo-gloves and protective eyeglasses, for most of the time (i looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself). When apportioning the crushed powder into small plastic storage tubes, the cryo-gloves turned out to hamper more than help. So I had to take them off, and depend on my triple-gloved left hand (yes, lessons well learned from the ole days of surgery and urinary iodine analysis) to hold the mortar and pestle while a spatula in my triple-gloved right hand (i support equal rights for both hands - pun unintended!) scooped brain powder into the tubes. Initially, my fresh virginal cutaneous surface ("skin" to you laypeople) endured the cold very well. Aaah, the misinformation and deception that is a cutaneous receptor! It flattered to deceive. By the fourth day, I had blisters on my pinky and ring finger, and rosy spots on my palm where there is evidence of light cryogenic burns. "band-aids wearing" has been added to my morning preparation. :)
This morning, i decided that to follow that old adage about prevention, pounds, ounces and cure, and adorned my fingertips (all but one finger, which was left free to be employed in "emergency signage") with "protection" ;) hahaha

hence the look below,



I haven't photographed the palmar surface with its rosy spots, that might put you off that muffin that you are eating ("Step away from that fatty (or low-fat, if you are that way) snack right now!") :)

*sigh*

Another day, another 30 rat brains ground to a fine powder... at least this has a purpose (i hope!), unlike the fate of their brethren!
On an unrealated note, Monique and Jerry have decided to open their house in Concord, and the pond next to it, for fun n frolicking... "Sun, Swim and Sweets", they call it...
White Pond 2007 be a sequel to White Pond 2006.
Pat and Lori, we will miss you...

Harry Shearer

Harry Shearer is a funny guy. Even before he was well known as the voice of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle among others, on the Simpsons show, he was involved in creating , writing and starring in "This is Spinal Tap", a classic rock mockumentary (one of my favourites). He is also extremely smart. He won last night's (August 3rd '07) face-off on Celebrity Jeopardy (yes, yes, I am a nerd, I do pretty well, even though some of the categories are way out of my field) against Soledad O'Brien and Isaac Mizrahi.
Here's Harry playing a familiar character....





If you are a link-person, you can follow it at No Cooler for the Scooter
From the site:
"No Cooler for the Scooter
Description: Dick sings one for his Libby, and one for the road."

Some economists fib?

...really? Who would have thought that?
Foreign Policy looks at 5 myths, if you will.
Looks like a 2 plus 2 can sometimes be shown to equal 7. Some economic food for thought.

Tip: Dani Rodrik

Maybe I should become a writer...

Thanks to Dr Sood, my mentor in Endocrinology from AIIMS (that's the much venerated, much hollowed...oops... hallowed "All India Institute of Medical Sciences" in New Delhi, where I whittled away a significant portion of my productive life!), I have been invited to co-author yet another chapter on iodine. Super! After one book (look for No.5 in the National Health Programme Series - yes, yes, I am relegated to a number!), and a couple of chapters in the "Big Book" (which made me famous among the 30 odd people who actually bought the book), I am now embarking on another chapter, this time documenting the endocrine effects of salt iodination. I aim to use high faultin' words and phrases like plasma inorganic iodine and radioiodine kinetics to show that I can slang with the best of 'em! In my iodine tinted world, I am a fabled warrior, armed with nothing more than my wits and an unending supply of iodine replete salt, which I tend to throw over my left shoulder (uh, or is it my right?).

J K Rowling, you had better watch out... wait... isn't she finished with writing? Awright, Stephen King, keep an eye on your rearview mirror, 'coz I am gaining on you!
Teaser trailer: My next book will be set in the land of vitamin B12!

PS: Didja notice the subtle pun in "embarking on another chapter"... nope? no worries - thank you, come again!

Adventures of a Lab Rat. Subtitled: Why me?

"Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake of this creeping malaise
If I don’t stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze? "

- Pink Floyd
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) from "Animals"

For the last month, I have been working in the Neurocognition Laboratory of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Ageing at Tufts University (And no wisecracks, please, about me discovering cognition,finally, or "coming to my senses"). Ergo, the lack of posts. I am trying to refine my hypothesis; let me rephrase that - I am trying to figure out what my hypothesis will be; i am immersing myself in the lab to get oriented with, and learn more about, lab techniques, pick up skills in hitherto unheard of (atleast in ordinary everyday science lives) tests like genotyping, and generally bring some hilarity into the lab atmosphere. I have also been a not-so-proud active participant in the "sacrifice' of 60 rats in two batches of 30 each. The experiment involved seeing the effect of various diets on membrane lipids in various organs, and blood. I remember the rat experiments in school, and the heart and nerve physiology experiments in the torture chamber called "Medical Physiology Lab", and these experiments, which details I will not divulge as I have blocked them out from active memory, fall in the same category. These noble souls have given their lives for scientific progress. They, and their species, will not be forgotten. Here's looking at you, Rainy!
On a cheerful note, when I am not lab-ratting (yes, that is a verb!), I hang out with a cool group of people, enjoying their company, as I hope they enjoy mine.
~Still Alive and Kickin' Lab Rat
PS: I am assuming that the smart readership of mine (all 10 of you; Yay! up from my last census count of 6) must have already discovered the obvious link between my post title ("rat") and the line from Dogs ("maze")... hahaha... but it goes deeper than that... i am talking about a metaphysical maze, and my path forward...if you figure that one out, do send me a telephatic message

Interesting ... and a message

Following sound advice from Big Brother, I started using Google Reader as my choice of an RSS Aggregator. I follow Foreign Policy analysis, Development Economics, US Food Policy, Medicine, News , NewYorker, blogs from family, friends, friends of friends, people I haven't met (but would love to meet), people I have met and would love to meet again, and also a random funny comic strip to balance things out.
My morning does not begin unless I have read through these, even at the cost of less sleep. I was looking at some of the time saving tips that the Reader offers, as time is limited with me, notwithstanding that I will live to be 86 years.

I came across this:



Curiosity killed this Cat! So, I added Next to my bookmark, opened my reader, read all the unread posts, and then clicked the Next on the bookmark to see what would happen. I got this message:


hahahahaha.... alright, I am a sucker. I am going to click on the End of the Internet. What will happen if I reach the edge of the world? Will I fall off?

Nope, I now know that at the End of the Internet, I will come head to head with another funny person! I love it. Okay, Harry Potter, my time is yours now! :)

What happened...

Follow the pictures, and fill in the blanks to create your own magical fairytale wedding story...








And....
Find the needle in the haystack...rather, find the needle and then the haystack...

Coming soon...

... when I have time...
1) Photoblog of "Adventures in Discovery Park" (Not quite Jurassic Park, but it had its own thrill)
2) Lake Washington Kayak-King (Nay, no names will be taken, atleast not in vain)
3) JetBlues a.k.a Return of the Prodigal Son (from Seattle)

Eventful...

...to say the least....

It's 9 pm in Seattle. I am sitting on Kelly's balcony, watching the sun set on Mt Rainier, digesting the quick indian dinner that I made for us (Krish, you missed out on this one but, lose not your heart, tomorrow is our night!)

Big Event No. 1: Pat and Lori got married

Big Event No 2: Pat and Lori got married



alright, alright, the wedding pretty much dwarfed everything else... And to Big Event No 3: I danced at the reception (Yep, all of the two left feet me)
Pat, in his inimitable style, made a presentation of his and Lori's life - funny, poignant, and memorable... and we all featured as the supporting cast; Thanks to our adventures at the Ben Gurion Airport, I got the honor of being represented as a video clip :)
On a related note, the Seattle Times reported that 37000 couples got married on 7/7/07 - i hear that particular day was lucky both from a religious as well as a cultural perspective... I know of one couple who won't need luck :)
It has been a whirlwind visit - Seattle, Redmond, Pasco, Kennewick and Seattle again in 3 days! A shoutout to Kelly, Donna and Krish for making it happen...
I am off to adventures galore, as Krish and I "paint the town pink"(His words, not mine - I prefer the colour red).
Toodles...

Fourth of July

This was my second Fourth of July in Boston, in three years!
Last year, Pat, Lori, Kelly, Char and a bunch of us headed out to the top of the Tisch Library on the Tufts Medford Campus to watch them from afar. Someone had brought a radio and we even got to hear Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the fireworks took off.
Since the last fourth of July, my year has been something of a trough on all fronts , plunging down, rising a bit, dipping for a bit and then plunging even further! Pretty much the toughest year of my life, notwithstanding Year 1 (Oh i forget, that wasn't difficult for me, it was hell for my mater and pater!).
I put a tombstone on that year with a fantastic evening with Noah and Dora, Bob joining in as a late guest. Nothing spectacular, we saw a cute rat movie "Ratatouille", sneaked in our homemade popcorn and raspberry lemonade into the theater, made our own pizzas for dinner, and watched the fireworks on TV :) . To top it all, Nikhil is born
Off I go to Seattle, to meet with the ole Gang, and to "ride with Krish"

Nikhil is born...

Another star is born!
Nikhil Srinivasan was born at 12.21 AM on the Third of July 2007. Mom and baby are doing fine. Big Brother Adarsh is excited about his arrival, and refuses to leave his side. Dad is efficiently managing the whole show, losing a lot of sleep but not showing it.
Yay! I am an uncle again!

Maine...

If you heard that there was a Vitamin B12 conference that had a session in your subject of interest, you would go, right? Even if the conference was a retreat, being held in a sort of "removed from the mainstream" location, and it would be really a tight schedule, given that you are headed out to Patrick and Lori's wedding in Seattle next week. Would you? you bet!

Update: I forgot to add that Bush and Putin are meeting 10.4 mi (~17 mins drive) south of where I am headed; I presume that a single brown male travelling alone would be searched and followed, both by the Secret Service and the KGB. So expect stories about this journey. Fun!

What happens in Vegas...

How has Vegas grown from 1937 to 2006?
Trulia, a real estate search firm, has this cool animation showing exactly that.

Source: FP Passport

Oye, friends...

I spent the evening with Amar, he of the Joslin Clinic fame. We didn't do anything spectacular - dined at Rami's in Brookline, watched a movie at Fenway, and talked... mostly talked. That felt nice. It was good to talk to someone who knew where i came from, where i was going... kosh, wither thou? it's been too long . The reason why they did not base inspirational movie scripts on our (Amar and mine) friendship in the med school days was because we weren't particularly close. We knew each other, and of each other, and I was always the "different" (read weird) kid who hung out with the engineers. But ever since my move to Beantown, we have hung out more often than in all of our medical days! And enjoyed hanging out. Amar used to travel across town to meet up. He trekked across every Sunday (almost!) to watch the NFL on my TV, patiently explaining to me that the "reason why they do not go for an offensive game on the fourth down is because they want to play it safe", and more answers to other asinine questions of mine... i still say that the offensive linemen should pull down the quarterback's pants while he is throwing, which sneaky strategy will work to a team's psychological advantage... Our times together involved talking about life, sports, molecular diabetology, and at some point, we watch a movie! good times...
These thought ran through my head when I was talking to my friend J about.... friends... with whom we are in touch... and i was telling her that my first response to a "need to talk" is to dial India! Why is that? Is it that it is a hardwired response? With the time difference, it can get difficult, but i cling to it (in a good way!)... As much as i love talking to folks back home, I also have close friends here that I can talk to just as easily, and I do talk to them... And my mentors are my best friends!! sharing my times of sadness and joy, of failure and success, of paradise lost and paradise regained, I am here now...
Hurrah for Amar!

Of intentions and results...

Economics has the "Law of Unintended Consequences";
Medicine has "Idiopathic" cause for a disease;
Budgets have a "Miscellaneous" line item;
What term does Life have to qualify the inexplicable or the unexpected?

When we set out to do something, and it never seems to work, do we give up with "It's my fate" or "It's my destiny" or "I am just not good enough"; When do we know its time to cease, to "realize" your weaknesses, to know when you are batting out of your league? Can we rise above our deficiencies (and million of dollars have been spent and made on that premise), and what does it take (Ditto on the millions here too!)? Books just don't cut it, they can never adequately describe the heartbreaking failures or the deep soul searching that one must go through before realization hits home...
When there is so much to achieve, so much at stake (not just in your life but in the lives of so many others), can a failure (or two) be the reason to stop and say, "no more"... Can I rise above the ego bruised by failure, and recognize that mid-course corrections are the need of the day, not a change of course... I have had it easy so far; are recent events the evidence of my cumulative difficult moments hitting me at the same time? Or was Peter right? I can only rise to the highest level of my incompetency? Jim calls it a "blip", and I trust his judgment implicitly, as mine is a bit screwy right now... *sigh* What does it take to do the good that you want to do? *sigh again*

Watch this...

...


Or you can follow the link, if you are that way...

When thing change...

When things change... in my playlist...

So... I am sitting at home, working on this survey instrument that was due to be edited 2 weeks ago... Jim probably thinks I am the worst student ever... I wonder why I took so long; its not like I was too busy blogging to write!! My lazy Jeans seem to have kicked in over the past year, and they feel spray painted, hard to remove.

I finally finished editing it, and as I was finishing up, one of my old faves came on in my playlist - Alannah Myles' Black Velvet. On the spur of the moment, I wrote this parody set to the same tune...

To the tune of Black Velvet

Blog Omelet

My blogging's in the middle of a dry spell.
So I started up the computer nigh.
Got my Netgear blinking its blue light.
And my nerdy soul giving a long sigh.
If I could boil words, knew how to fry, everything.
Always a scramble, but I'm left longing for.

CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

Last year long, Its like I have been in a cave
Like a nomad, living on the wild.
A writer's block, a fear that made my doubts unfurl
family and friends helped my ascent from ruin
The harder i climbed, it felt so good, mo matter if I am blue.

Always a scramble, but I'm left longing for.

CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

Every word of every song that he sang was for you.
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon,

What could you do?
CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

...If you please
If you please

Good deed for the day...

"It was a dark stormy night...."

No it wasn't... 'twas a cold and dreary morning in Jamaica Plain. I was walking to the T when I espied a cute furry animal ahead of me. It was a golden retriever who seemed to be going upto the door of all the houses on the street, sniffing around, walking out, and then onward to the next house. He seemed lost. You would think that a golden "retriever" would not have any issues with finding his way home. As I walked past him, he gave me the "puppy dog look of hopelessness". Anyone who has been on the receiving end of the puppy dog look of hopelessness will testify that its effect is immediate, and your invovlement in erasing the look from the doggy visage is a "lock-in". I went upto him and he immediately sat down and shook my hand. I kid you not, this dog was a player, "stringing my emotions with his actions"! Obviously, his training to retrieve consisted of finding the nearest human with a GPS and then cutely rolling over for you to scratch his belly. well, with me , all he got was an easily influenced human with a phone (I am thinking of getting one of those GPS phones - "Take a left in 20 yards and you will find a public restroom").

Someberly shaking hands with the mutt, I tried a variety of names, checking to see if he responded to any of them. Jake, Buddy, Cody, Duke, Hunter, muzzles, Tiger, rex, hobbes, went by with nary a bark out of him. I found a phone number on his collar, which turned out to be the Quincy Animal Hospital. I called them, gave them his collar ID and they said they would ask the owners to contact me. I waited for 10 mins, entertaining the dog with my antics and trying out new names. I found that he responded best to "Good Dog" , so he was renamed by me at the intersdection of Woodside Av and Washington St in Jamaica Plain. I got a call from the owner, and she came to pick him up. I found out that "Good Dog" would need to be changed to "Clyde".
Clyde is now safely ensconed at home (his home). May he have many more adventures in his life.

FP Passport

I am now an avid follower of the FP Passport (Foreign Policy Passport), a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy . One of the links in todays daily feed seemed interesting in that India did not figure on the US map. A closer look at the source confirmed it. Hmmm...

iRack...hahahaha

iSee it all...



Sat-ire, Sun-ire, Exp-ire!

The clip is here

Its all going down the Youtube...

... my only distraction while studying...
this guy is a fine copycat...



You can find it here

More Frank Caliendo here , here, here, here and here

America's Next Top Statistical Model

I get a call from Jess, who was excited about this idea that has been conceived by her friend Andy. Andy who goes to the Harvard School of Public Health wanted to spoof the show "America's Next Top Model" and make "America's Next Top Statistical Model"!! Given that I am used to making the most pathetic statistical puns, even in Data analysis class, Jess thought that I would enjoy getting my hands dirty with this... and she was right... we sat together one sunny Sunday and made the whole thing!! it was great fun!
Andy got together a class cast to act out the characters and with about 6 practice sessions, they were ready... cool... i added background effects and we were good to go for Harvard School of Public Health's International Night! they were amazing on stage and i loved watching the abstract puns come to life...hahaha

The background of the play:
There are 8 statistical models and the compere, Ion T-test, gives them a task based on which one will be chosen "America's Next Top Statistical Model". The email (ahem..."STATA MAIL") outlining the task:
Hey Ya’ll, I need some help. My grandmother has come down with some serious heartache. I need you to help me lessen her risk. So ladies, it’s time to pimp my relative’s risk. In this challenge, you will each have to build a model that will fill her aorta and balloon her heart with love. Please turn your output and syntax into me by midnight.
In Confidence,
Ion T-Test

the fun begins soon after!

This is not the whole play and it is missing bits, as you can make out, and this was shot with a handheld so the audio is a little screwy, but enjoy it all the same!




It links here

Mascot? Cute, cuddly, fun?

Some of them, maybe.... but not all...

I loved Wired's presentation of Mascots Gone Wild!!

"Your so vain, you probably think this post is about you..."

... or maybe it is!
Have you had the the following phrases, or modifications thereof, thrown at you?
"I think your a great guy [/girl]"
"You're doctors scribble is atrocious"
"You're contribution is acknowledged"
Do not forget the classics: "Their is no one who can beat me"; "Dogs love to chew on they're bones"; "Is there meeting going to be long?"

hmmm...Who do people spell by pronunciation alone?... I wonder if this is why i run across personal (as in HR), dumbell, its vs it's, momento, greatful, bellweather, pronunciation, among others, so frequently!

Here's a WikiHow step-by-step instructional page on getting your yours right!!

I like the use of thereof, wherein, notwithstanding.... even if it makes no sense to use it... especially if it makes no sense to use it...

If I were in trouble....

...I would call ADG!!!




Or you can check it out here

UPDATE: This video has been taken off Youtube... pity... they cant take a joke anymore!!

Who's your Lead User?

Last week I bumped into an Innovation researcher, Eric Von Hippel, who is a Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. I heard some fascinating case studies of "pioneers" or "lead users", leading me to look it up, and after the journey of a thousand steps, I found myself becoming a member of "The Instructables Squad"
And look, they have a "Not Liable" section too!!!! hahaha

"Yesterday was 1st April, so???"

"...and what has that got to do with your post?"
"oh....Aaaaaaaahh"

Ironically, the bait reeled in all of the fish only on the 2nd! *ow ow ow* Ducking from all the brickbats thrown his way

Thank you for the wishes and the request for details! I will take a raincheck on answering them! For there exists no question without an answer... unless it is "What is the meaning of life?"... hang on.. thats taken...42, isn't it?

"I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes..."

... "Love is all around me, And so the feeling grows..."

There's a song always running through my head, I skip when I walk, whistle a melodious refrain while on the train, smile at strangers, have this goofy happy face look all the time, I can't stop thinking of this one person, she finally said yes....
Diagnosis, Doctor?

hahaha... this is hilarious...

If you are having trouble opening it, follow the link

Wow, it's been a long time...

A flavour of soon-to-be-released stories...
1) Vitamin B12 kicks ass!
2) Adventures of Moving Out - A Remote Story
3) Ajanta - the Journey of a 2nd century B.C. to the 21st century
4) Delhi Roundup
5) Aah... to be with family and friends again!
6) Bike Angel
7) Back in Boston *sigh*

"It's all coming back to me now..."

...Or is it that I am going back?
A bit of both...
My next post will be after a trip across a few seas, if not all the seven!
Boston-Mumbai-Lonavla-Aurangabad-Mumbai-Delhi-Bangalore-Vellore-Bangalore-Boston...whew!!!

A Big Thank You...

...to the Shpais - Girish and Lo, Ram and his deep pockets (and I am not talking about Pita bread), Dinu-saurus and Lachchho...
...for keeping me afloat, solvent... for "dissolving" my pain :)

Eventful...

January 2005: Jim and the impromptu "Happy Birthday to You" rendition @ the Boston Symphony Hall!
January 2006: Ram, Shalini, Nunu and Sitara @ Asmara... and how did that cake get sneaked in under my very nose? Brilliant!
January 2007: Afsan, Tara, Mo, Caroline, Magali, Greg @ Addis and follow-up with sleigh bells, cake and "funny" (atleast he thought he was!) waiter at Garden of Eden....

Yep... eventful, wonderful, memorable... its what we live for, isnt it? *sigh*

Weirder and Weirder!

I have been tagged by the Axe-man and I have the not-so-popular task of listing 6 things about me, myself and me that make me weird... so here goes
1) I go banannas over banannas but I sometimes whine for grapes
2) Sense of humour
3) When I am on a concrete sidewalk that has been carved into large rectangles, I have to take equal number of steps on either side of the dividing line... it drives me nuts when they cant ensure that the rectangles are of the same size as then my walking pace varies... go figure that weird one out... something to do with my mathematical brain (i dont want to hear any more talk of "huh? dude, you? brain?")... and its not OCD if it does not happen all the time; only the times when my blood serotonin levels are the 98th percentile values
4) I have the attention span of a baby dodo (No backtalk about - "Did you know that the reason why the dodos went extinct was because they experienced an acute shortage of baby dodos?")
5) I want to join the Space Monkey Mafia :)
6) What lies beneath...

The Prodigal Son....

...Returns!

A shout out...

...to the dinu-saurus, who turns 16 today, or a multiple thereof!
Highlights of my New Years Eve:
1) Evening out with Mo, Beaudry and Chris at Boston's First Night
3) making calculated guesses on which part of the Pegasus Ice Sculpture was going to melt first... I put my money on the tail
2) Missing most events due to the really really slow progress of the T
3) Interpretive Dance performance by the Eva Dean Dance company
4) Bowling on the Nintendo Wii with MIT super-geniuses at a gathering
5) Making Aloo Parathas with the aforementioned New Years Eve gang on New Years Day, followed by Monty Python hilarity

All in all, a quiet time!
how was your day?

Conversations with Ella

Doggies are your unconditional best friends, but they've got the "puppy dog" look down pat! Ella, though, has more than a puppy dog look in her repertoire, and i received all of them during my week taking care of her. We also indulged in staring contests, mano a dogo, and to my credit, i won a few of them. Our conversations mainly went like this:
-----
Ella (with mournful look): Can I have a doggie treat?
Me: Didnt I give you one a few minutes ago?
Ella (deepening mournful look): I am a big doggie, the treat is a small treat; we suffer from a inadequacy of matching sizes
Me: I have my orders; your next treat comes with your medicine
-----
Ella (during our walks): Let's go near that man who is walking that tiny dog?
Me: I thought you didnt like other dogs?
Ella : No i dont. I want to tear that mutt limb from limb
Me: oh, sorry; I have my orders
-----
Ella (while I am cooking Indian food): What is that curious smell? Can i have a taste?
Me: Didnt you just polish off a bowl of your doggie food?
Ella : yep. pleaasee, pretty please with whipped cream and cherry on top
Me: Dude, I dont think you can handle this. Believe me, you are better off without it.
-----
Ella (squeezing herself onto my bed): Hey mister.. make space for me on your side
Me: Go lie on your bed
Ella : (puppy dog and mournful doggy look sent my way at the same time)
-----

Since Roslindale, MA was almost next door to Norwood, MA I took this opportunity to spend time with "Nunu Baby". Toddlers never tire of the peekaboo game, as I have learnt during my extensive pediatric training and reinforced over the last week with Nunu. And they love Bow-Bow, atleast Nunu does; and is not scared of her. The boys also make a sponge cake which was no too bad!

It was a relaxed week!

HoHoHo...

No, I am not cursing you out, girl!
Is a merry christmas to y'all, Happiness in the Hannukah and Kwanza in da house!
I am taking care of a wonderful little doggie mutt... ahem.. not so little but wonderful all the same... Ella... And missing being in India like crazy... and other random things that make me sad... questioning why I am here doing what I am doing... My aim is solid... but my goals looks distant... I want to translate all this knowledge that is bursting out of my head into action... NOW... but waiting teaches you a great lesson... its called Patience...
and "everybody needs a little patience"...
stream of consciousness thought is pooling into a lake of nonsense!

Chad Vader

I found this hilarious series on the adventures of Chad Vader, Darth's less than impressive younger brother...

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Hahahaha...

I discovered this here

" Weapons of Math Instruction

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a protractor, a T-square, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney general John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. The man is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search for absolute value. They use secret code names like x and y and refer to themselves as unknowns, but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, there are 3 sides to every triangle," Ashcroft declared.

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes. I am gratified that our government has given us a sine that it is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs who are willing to dis-integrate us with calculus disregard. Murky statisticians love to inflict plane on every sphere of influence," the President said, adding: "Under the circumferences, we must differentiate their root, make our point, and draw the line."

President Bush warned, "These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor-in random facts of vertex."

Attorney General Ashcroft said, "As our Great Leader would say, read my ellipse. Here is one principle he is uncertainty of: though they continue to multiply, their days are numbered as the hypotenuse tightens around their necks."
--
This fractured my punny bone!

This is the first day of the rest of your life...

Aah...

Daniel PowterBad Day

Daniel Powters MySpace Page

Vitamin E

I have been notified that Vitamin E is a good thing! So go gorge on Vitamin E... and Vitamin D... and random other alphabet soup items :)

"Fall of the House of Dents"....

.... occurs in exactly 24 and a half hours when I am told the results of my qualifying exams! Edgar Allen Poe, eat your heart out! This tale of suspense has no equal!

Sometimes....

You are looking at the questions,
But the answers don't come to mind,
You wonder if your head contains a brain,
Or that got left behind,

Supply and demand - those are mean curves,
More inelastic than fungible,
Are the externalities on my life,

Oh, show me the light, If I am right,
I am not going down without a fight!

Done, Done, Done, Done, Done .....

Just sent in my written answer.... I havent slept in 30 hours!!!!
BUT
I am Done, Done, Done, Done, Done, Done, Done.....
with the written part... i decided to change my study design on the 6th day as the first one was not "flamboyant" enuf! ha!that will teach me! And decided to adopt a different country to do the study in... double ha! i am sooooo tired!
YAWN!

Bang in the middle....

I am exactly two hours and 12 minutes from reaching the halfway mark in this marathon that is disguised as the written part of my qualifying exam... I have two words and a punctuation mark for the world out there....

"Why Me?"

Was it not sufficient that they cancelled Bharat Ek Khoj and The Office (UK)? Wasn't it enough to make me cry at the end of Forrest Gump , when Jenny dies? (oh shoot, did I give away the suspenseful ending... is there anyone in the house who hasnt seen the Gump???)


Did I ask for this level of stress and tension? Absolutely! Do I love it? YES!


Ask me again in three and a half days time, and do a paired t-test to see if there is any significant difference in my response... Your results, though, are not valid due to sample size issues, and the fact that you are cocking a snook at the body of statistical literature by even contemplating the use of a paired t-test with a sample size of 1...unless... your population is "you, yourself and not-irene"

The writing hand, having writ, goes into spasms...

43 hours and 20 minutes before I receive my written question for my PhD qualifing exam... the question on everybody's mind is....
"Who let the dogs out...to take PhD exams???"
The question on my mind is...
"What is the meaning of life? Does the ends of life justify the means or do they only affect standard errors and test statistics" (Duh, sorry, statistics joke.... All Ye Awake, Stats nerd in Da House!)

Its official...

Its good to be back... the last three weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster... an intermingling of the personal, academic and social sides of this hunka cheesecake ("Who? Me?!!")...

Some updates:

I now run three miles every morning (for the metric folks, which *sigh* still includes me - its 5 kilometres)... I wake up at 5 AM, jump out of bed (i take that back.. I limp out of bed), and start running... The average tempretures outside range from 46-56 F(7 - 12 C)... Father Winter is around the corner... By mile 0.5 the tip of my nose is frozen and by mile 0.75 i can't feel my hands... To paraphrase Calvin's Dad (of the Calvin and Hobbes fame/notoriety): "Its good to be alive"... by Mile 2 I am panting and sweating... by mile 3 i am dead... but i feel alive

I am the Teaching Assistant to a Data Analysis class... and I love molding young minds (Read as, messing around spreading misinformation and humour)

I take the written part of my PhD qualifying exams next Tuesday (Nov 1) and the oral exams on Nov 21 (9 AM to Noon)...

I still do not know when I get to go home (Since that hasnt changed in the last few months, I guess that does not qualify as an update)

I make a presentation on Nov 9 to the PhD seminar on some ideas that i am entertaining for my PhD...

I entertained one lone stray thought of leaving it all and coming home.. but that was a fleeting moment of weakness at the nadir of the rollercoaster, and that very thought is now banished forever...

I will not be posting as much as I wish, for reasons that are purely and wholly academic (Again, not much of an update point, is it??)

Later...

Break

I am on a short hiatus from blogging (both the reading and the writing varieties)... this is for the information of all my readers (yes, all four of you!)
How short? Only time will tell :-)

Lost posts...

It looks like Blogger has dropped two of my latest posts because they were getting so many hits that they clogged every available internet server! ...
I switched templates.. and voila... the posts are visible again
Ha!

Tag? As in the TAG Hardware Store in Porter Square, Cambridge?

Alo, in all her Glorious Wisdom, made me a part of this curious phenomenon called Tagging. Social Networkologists believe that Tagging it is a by-product of ...duh... social networks (some even go to say that it is THE product), and all that jazz. I think it is a refined version of the "hoax mail", you know, the one where, "if you love your friends you have to forward this mail to atleast 20 friend units in the next five minutes" and "earn $280 million because Bill Gates is giving away his fortune"!! HA
Alo's "pass on the TAG" TAG exercise needs the the TAGee to answer the following in brief:
1) Say who tagged you
2) Say eight things about yourself
3) Tag 6 people

Answer:
1) Alo
2) Since this is an "anonymous"(HA to that too, since my name and my naked torso have made guest appearances!) blog, the chances of me putting in eight true things about myself is as high as the chances of me finishing a four quarter NBA basketball game (or should I amend that to me playing in the NBA???) ... if you want to get to know me, meet me; no better way.
a) I was once the Michael Jordan of the school Basketball Court, I am now the Adonis of the Food Court
b) Dents is my nickname; I do not possess the strength or skill to induce temporary distortions in the continutity of gleaming automobile surfaces; and no, I dont repair dents either
c) I have "literally" bowled a maiden over on the basketball court
d) I watch horror movies from under a thin sheet of fabric; that way you can see whats creature from hell is going to eat the poor half-naked girl wandering about in the forest on a freezing winter night in her negligee (in my opinion, she deserves to get eaten, only to "improve the genome" - Darwin Awards) without jumping up startled, and spilling all of the popcorn over the couch
e) I am doing a PhD in Conversational Physics
f) I have used theorems of Conversational Physics in actual conversations (ha ha): "I know about this Newton guy, wasn't he the one that invented gravity" to "Kneels Bore is a medieval torture instrument"
g) I once bought and spilled a Grande cup of Starbucks coffee all over meself; no, it was not a lab experiment in "How to get started with Conversational Physics"
h) I am funny; not the weird kind of funny, the amusing silly kind of funny... notice the number of HAs expended in this area of cyberspace
....whew... done
3) TAG Away... the new brand from the makers of precision timepieces. I am TAGging Vee, Taz, Axe and Ozzy's Mom. Now for the best part: I am putting a kink in the Network by reverse TAGging Alo and self-TAGging Dents. Notice the insidious plot to create a infinitesimal (degree of importance to the existence of humanity) infinite (degree of boredom induced by trying to understand me) loop - The IIL of humanity; might I add that this self taggin' has been done on a closed course with professional nincompoops, DO NOT TRY IT AT HOME. Take that, you netTAGologists!

Wining and Dining

Its Boston Restaurant Week 2006 out here, a chance to dine fine, and pay less! We were at Vox Populi last night. It was nice to kick your heels back, and chill out!! Last night's success might push me in the direction of Cafe Fleuri at Langham Hotel or the Avenue One at Hyatt Regency Boston next week. Anyone care to join me? :)
Pat's weather report from Texas: "Its 112 F (45 C) here. Who turned off the AC in Texas?" ... hahaha
Further Update from Weatherman Pat: "Its 113 degrees Kelvin here"

I'm back...

... and full speed ahead!
I submitted my application to take my PhD qualifying exam today... written: November 1 2006; Orals: November 21/22 2006.
Getting upto speed on a lot of academics... I'm in the zone right now...

Back to Beantown..

*sigh*
Its going to be a tough day today.. i take leave of Lori and Pat...
*sigh*

We are in Texas...

Arrival @ Benbrook, TX: Tuesday 8th August 2006 @ 3.54 PM Central Time
No of Small furry creatures converted to Road Kill: 0
No of other co-travellers on the highway scared into a senseless mass of quivering protoplasm: 1234
Number of times I had Patrick praying for his life as a result of my beautiful driving abilities: 6
Number of times we were pulled over by various State Police personnel: 0
Number of times we were gives rude finger gestures: 0 [Hey, this is the nice midwest, not Boston]
Onwards to Dallas and then I head back to Beantown

On the road again...

Pat's car is the center of attraction once again....


Reached Little Rock, Arkansas last night... Watching the reality show called "30 Days" on TV last night, I experienced a moment of irony! This show is by Morgan Spurlock, the creator of Super Size Me. The show idea is to put a person outside his/her comfort zone for 30 days. On last night's version, an American Enginner named John spends a month with an Indian family in Bangalore, working in a Call Center. The moment I am talking about occurs with John teaching the daughter-in-law of the family he is staying with, to pronounce Arkansas...
... Here I am, sitting in Arkansas, USA, and there she is, trying to say "Ar-kan-saw"


We are now watching "Saved By The Bell" on TBS!

Free wireless in Ohio!!

Reporting Live from AmeriHost Inn Jeffersonville!!!



View from outside our window in AmeriHost Inn Jeffersonville

10160 Carr Road N.W. * I-71 at State Route 41 exit 69, Jeffersonville, OH 43128, US
Phone: 740-426-6400 * Fax: 740-426-6500
Reached safely and soundly last night... and soundly fell asleep... we aim to reach Little Rock by this evening... a day for goofy fun, wacky road videos, and Denish singing... yes, if there is one way to spur Pat into reaching the destination earlier, it is the vision, audio and all, of me singing!!!
So far, we havent been shot at, yelled at (though the person I cut in front of, and apologized to, in New York state doesnt count!!), chased by police or picked up hitchhikers! So the objectives of the trip still lie unfulfilled :)
More from the home of the Bill Clinton Museum.... I have two words.. White and Water!!!

And off to Texas we go....

We leave in 20 minutes... 3 relaxed days of driving... 1887 miles... I am going to see a lot more of Americana than I have seen in the last two years!
Patrick and I decided to make a "Road Trip" movie out of this... Release Date: Sometime in the Fall of 2006!
Watch the national media outlets for hot breaking news of our wild adventures:
Day 1: Boston, Mass to Columbus, Ohio
Day 2: Columbus to Little Rock, Arkansas (This day will be tough!)
Day 3: Little Rock to Fort Worth, Texas

I bid thee adieu!
coz we are gone in 60 seconds!

The Red Sox

Boston's favorites take on the Cleveland Indians this evening at 7.05 PM. I will be one of the non-Cleveland Indians there.
Yipeeee! Thanks to Francis, for getting the tickets!

*UPDATE*The Sox lost 6-3. I had a good time but I guess I was not the only happy Indian in the Park :-)

A weekend of fun...

*Start of Report*
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Finally, family time!
It was a "getting together time" for the Rastapeth family! A day of Adarsh's T-ball, Ananya's attempts at walking, Denish's first time driving in the US (Yes, I do have a license!!), and 18 holes of mini-golf (Note to self: Excellence in computer golf does not translate into any degree of skill in real life mini-golf). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Another fun day with Patrick. I finally met his fantastic sister and brother-in-law (Genius and laughter runs in famillies, i believe). They were visiting from New York and we had a good afternoon at Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. The afternoon was finished off in style with back-to-back, multiple games of Ping Pong and Basketball.

*End of report*
UPDATE: Monday, July 31, 2006: Pat and I are heading out for a few sets of Tennis... boy, my blog reads like a filled out physical activity questionnaire!!!
Did I mention that I went to a Bon Jovi concert on Thursday, 27th July? Good gig!

Death to the Bot programs...

I spend one day in New York and come back to a friggin' bot leaving messages on every post of mine!!!! Its time to call on my favorite Blog Superheroes: Word Verifier Man and the Comment Moderator Woman!
On a related note, it was humid in New York, but the when I reached there, there was a fine mist hanging in the air... it was beautiful! I made Anand and Pandu walk 40 blocks from 42nd West to 82nd West, to the Met. Brave soldiers, they did not complain! We did the tourist things after that, given that both of them had not been there before... yes Axe, we were one of the millions on the street looking up all the time!!
Its a beautiful day here in Boston... Anand is here and we are going to enjoy it to the hilt!

The Indian Challenger takes on the Fillipino Basketball King

One fine July evening, the Filipino and the Indian, walking back from work, decide to indulge in a bit of Basketball one on one. The Indian dude is in his casual attire with sandals and absolutely refuses to wear shoes ("It is against my culture to do so... and besides, it will take me 15 mins to walk home to do that, so you will have to take me as I am")
The War of the Basketball World ensued... And our tiny camera lens captured this epic contest...



The Clip is available here , courtesy of Patrick "I-have-to-go-to-work-in-5-hours" Productions!

"Ooh, what a feeling..."

"When we're dancing on the ceiling..."
Why is this song running through my head for the last two days???
Mike joined us for a lunch hour ping pong break... He is warming up after many months of not playing the game, and I see another tough opponent (after a few more warm-up games).

The light at the end of the tunnel...

After a long chat with my advisor, Jim and another with one of my mentors in the program, i have some insight into what I need to do now... and that is to study... which I am doing... I met with my study group (rather one person in the study group!!) and decided to set out a schedule...
In the meanwhile Patrick has been wiping the floor with me in table tennis (a.k.a ping pong)... His cutting/chopping smash kill shot is deadly (pun intended)... Anyone out there with suggestion on a counter shot? i.e a counter shot that does not involve guns... And history repeats itself on the basketball floor... I aim to try to reverse the trend in Tennis but unless i lose about 15 kilos, that is not going to happen... Operation Weight and See is on...
On an unrelated note, my friend K asked me to see two movies that she had - Singles, 1992 and Prime, 2005 . Loved Singles (Dir: Cameron Crowe) and so-so on Prime. See it and tell me what you think... Who do you identify with? or, as Rick says to Ilsa, "Who are you really, and what were you before?" *nudge grin wink*

One word: WOW!

Thanks to Raj and Lachchho, I got to see one of my heroes live (*okay, okay, also a teen crush*), and within a spiderman leap from my seat too! Shock and Awe, thats what the show was all about and I am still reeling from the after effects of short term acoustic trauma!! She is 48 years old and she can still do splits!!
We had Balcony seats *behind* the stage. When we went to get seated, we were offered seats on the floor, about 50 feet from the catwalk. Guess the All-Star Baseball game kept many away.. Raj paid $65 each for our seats and we got to sit in $350 seats ... how lucky can we get... I must be our "Lucky Star" *grin grin* (She did sing it!) because the same thing happened a year ago when we went for the REM concert

I give up...

I have been trying to read about the vitamin B12 deficiency, cell expression, intracellular and mitochondrial effects of B12 deficiency, and I have to say that it is not working... I am averaging one page a day (or less, sometime) and that is not helpful... I think I need a vacation.. and Chicago and Seattle look really good right now!

The Jewish side of Me...

The Hindu Brahmin from Bangalore,
Participated in Jewish ceremonies four,
A memorial service, a burial, a Bat Mitzvah and an unveiling,
While Jim was rabbinically "hitting for the cycle" and winning
The Indian's adventures are now part of Marlboro folklore

Ask me about Hitting for the cycle bit! Over the weekend, one movie that brought back old memories was The Party, 1968 with Mr Hrundi V. Bakshi and his "Birdy Num Num" ... *I laughed till moi guts hurt*... Not to forget the idli sambhar and coconut chutney dinner night! Aah...

"Run to the Hills..."

Heading north to the cool climes of Jim's house in Vermont... His house is a part of a small community in Marlboro, in the hills above Brattleboro, Vermont....
Did you notice the 0.41% Asian population in the census data in the link? My arrival will add significantly to that :)
Its a quaint town with a close community of neighbours... Whoopi Goldberg has a house nearby! There will be more swimming and Kayaking but Pat will not be around to film me playing the role of stupid, so there will be no record for posterity :(
L (Jim's wife) has planned for dosa and coconut chutney; hence I go armed with coconut and mint leaves ... Looking forward to a week of no TV, no cable, and dial up... my break from the world continues....

Monique, Jerry, Pat, et al

If the "random screenshot" from Youtube is not enough of an indicator [honest, I was not responsible for that... i guess Youtube just picks the most delectable shot ;)... they have to sell themselves, right?], then I must warn you that this is a NSFW clip! Thanks, Neha vish !!

Pat deserves a pat on the back for this short notice filming and editing ... We (the Gang!) spent the Sunday afternoon in Monique and Jerry's (gracious, wonderful and kind, take a back seat - Mo and Jerry are here!) lake front house in Concord, Massachusetts. Result: swimming, diving, jumping, floating, kayaking, silly antics and the video... you will see all of us in the video at various points...
Watch and enjoy!

Its all about the movies....

What, you may ask, have I been upto these last few days?
Well, ask away!
Among other things, I have been steadily devouring a constant stream of movies from my Netflix subscription! So without much ado (or I do!), or fanfare, I present:

Movies watched over the last four weeks that you must see:
If you have seen them, see them again!

1) The Usual Suspects : Its all about Kevin Spacey and Bryan Singer (X-Men anyone?)
2) MASH: Season 1: Disc 1,2,3 1972; MASH: Season 2: Disc 1 1973: Hawkeye, Trapper, Radar, Blake, Frank, Hotlips - Can you say no?
3) Lost Boys of Sudan, 2003 : A touching story
4) Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, 2005 : This woman is so baaad, but this is sooo good! She can sing, dance and be so funny - some kind of intellectually risque funny one, she is!
5) The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: Watch out for a surprise ending
6) The Hudsucker Proxy, 1994: Tim Robbins and Paul Newman are unmissable
7) The Yes Men, 2003: The antics and what they got away with - hilarious
8) The Boondock Saints: Thanks to Schpai and Lo for pointing this one out
9) Elizabethtown, 2005: Can Kirsten Dunst be any more chirpy?

Update: Just finished with Cool Hand Luke, 1967 - "What we got here is a failure to communicate" - Paul Newman again... he was 42 when he made this movie... where does he go wrong?...

And continuing in the opposite vein, here are Movies watched over the last four weeks that you must absolutely NOT see:

1) Aeon Flux: Special Collector's Edition, 2005 : Arrgghhhhhhh... against my better judgement, i selected this!
2) Osmosis Jones, 2001: This movie is by the farrelly brothers, gross out kings par compare... there was a point in my life when i enjoyed this... not so much anymore, though i do regress sometimes

There you go, kids... details of other naughty events and happenings will be made available with a subscription fee.

Tracers

Just got back from Philly, having spent three days in a hospital... aah nostalgia!
I discovered that my friend T is on the web now! You can find her here . She is the most talented jewellry designer I know (In fact, she is the only jewellry designer I know but that doesnt take away from the fact that she is fantastic!). She also has an online design studio . I know where I am going to get my sparkles made :)
More later... This Master is Doctoring his travel details!

You can now call me Master

Whew!
Step 1 is over. I graduated from my Masters Course yesterday. The commencement was fantastic!
Lance Armstrong was the University Commencement Speaker and Prof James Levinson was the Nutrition School Commencement Speaker. Fantastic speeches by both, though Jim's speech was more personal. Photos and Videos will be put up as soon as I get back from Philly.
Summer's on, and I may be seen streaking on the Boston Common!

An Era Ends and Another Begins...

My grandfather, who has been such an inspirational part of my childhood, died last weekend, in Bangalore. He had lived a fullfilling life, and enriched our lives to the maximum extent possible. His legacy remains in the form of his wonderful family. May he rest in peace!
Another day, another milestone! I graduate from the Masters program this Sunday, May 21, 2006. James Levinson is the Commencement Speaker, and I can think of no better inspiration for fresh graduates! Having heard him speak at Marlboro College, I am looking forward to his speech! My journey has only begun! The huge PhD mountain looms before me! Before I start scaling it, I think I need to see more of this country. I start with a trip to Philly next week for a Positive Deviance training workshop at the Albert Einstein Medical Center . After that, the world is my oyster!
Given that my knee could navigate the 20 mile walk for hunger, I have decided to train with F and her friend A, for a 10K run in July. For obvious reasons, they would be training to run it in the shortest time possible, while I will be training to just complete it!
Today is Day 2 of my epic battle with Jerry and Monique's computer, trying to get it to work without crashing, sending weird pop-ups, messing up the display, and generally being a Windows machine!
The struggle continues...

"Time, Ladies and Gentlemen"

As the Chair Umpire announces the end of the break, and the start of the final nailbiting game to decide the Champion at the 2006 Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, little does he realize that the chain of events that led to that last game began on the sunny morning of May 7 2006. On this day, a brave group of souls from an august institution set out on a journey with 40000 other heroic beings, to raise awareness on the most acute of all human miseries - hunger!
*end*
I hate to leave you dangling, but I trust you will find the thread connecting the two events (pun intended)!!
My Walk was not as body a-aching and mind a-numbing as I thought it would turn out. It helps if you are walking with a wonderful person who has just completed the Boston Marathon and can tell you the hows and whens of stretching and resting. F also shared some of her Marathon secrets, kept me smiling throughout the journey and *poof* 20 miles were over!!! J joined us halfway, and she is also a bright beam of sunshine (not that we needed the sun - it was a glorious day for walking!) and tons of fun to walk the walk!
F, J and I didnt bring our walk sheet; so at each of the 8 checkpoints, we had the back of our hands "checked off". the results are the for you to see



On a different note, I tried my hand at Salsa last week and found out that my mind, body, and mouth do not communicate with one another, leave alone the need for coordination!!! I have decided that I prefer the Jalapeno variety!!

For all you Star Wars Fans...

"The legend never dies"

Enjoy!

If you thought Baywatch sucked...

... you aint seen nothing yet!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting David Whatsisname

Let us Cleanse our "Collective Soul"

Link to Clip on YouTube

I lost...

... in the second round of the 2006 Tufts Spring Ping Pong tournament
:(

funny stuff!

My friend sent this to me because she though I would find this funny (note the Indian character in the cast!)... and I did find this funny... hilarious... the guys at wongfuprodutions.com are good! This clip is about 15 minutes long... enjoy!




If the embedded video player doesnt work, then follow this link

What A Day!

Have you had a day where everything falls into place?
I got up this morning with a zero balance and ended with a 'full house'! "Cut it out"
I finished my part of the evaluation of the M&E presentation. The big shindig is on tomorrow morning at 8.30 AM!!! I hope I get some sleep!
Sooo, this work which was going to take 5 hours took only 3 1/2. So I was able to mosey on home and take a breather before my match up against the "giant killer" sophomore who was going to take me out of the 2006 Tufts Spring Ping Pong tournament. Looks like I go forward to the second round... live to survive the tale or is it survive to live the tale... or whatever... its a tall tale!! I WON :)
I go home, add finishing touches to the presentation slides that my friends have sent me, and then Bob comes over to play the trivia game at Johnny D's trivia night . SO we are running a bit late... we walk in and everyone is already settled in.... its the third question of the first round as we enter and the song is nearing its end (the time for a question is the length of the song)... we ask what the question is and we are told "unit of pressure that is represented as newton per meter square and which is also a computer language"... i immediately thought of krish, kosh and their struggles with fortran and pascal (while I had my own internal struggles with the anatomy of an earthworm)... and voila, ve vere voff!!!
the picture round messed us up... lead singers and their bands... not our cup of tea... BUT Bob killed the competition with guessing the middle names of ten presidents that were read out... and the best part of it... as the QuizMaster (QM) was reading out the questions, Bob was telling me the answers and i was writing it down... and poof! when the QM finished the tenth name, we had our answers in his lap and he was stunned!!! "This has to be the closest game in the history of trivia night" "This is the first time in my life that I have seen two guys, who came in towards the end of the first round, staged an amazing comeback to win"... Yay! We won a $30 gift certificate...'Pies R Us' Rules!!!
The only blight spot was that I couldnt see my friends F & L finish the Boston marathon! *sigh*... but hey, we cant win them all, can we?
I have broken my unsaid anonymity rule.. because Bob deserves more than one round of applause! Bob Choo, Ladies and Gentlemen!!!!

Explorations, discoveries, serendipity

I am overwhelmed!

My Project Bread Walk for Hunger Walk Page is an affirmation of the lovely qualities of moi friends - kind, selfless, and generous. I have updated my collection goal 5 times, and each time, my friends and family have helped me meet it!!! What about that? Fantastic indeed! :) Talking to, and mailing, some of them, brings up memories that just choke me up. I guess I must also be homesick :) And I found the Menon after a long long time, through the Walk page! Now I have to catch up with him . God (or any other force that one believes in, even if it is your own life force) Bless them!

Among other things, my friends F and L are running in the Boston Marathon with the Tufts Team along with 198 other dedicated runners from Tufts. I have to admire their courage and am looking forward to seeing them come over the finish line!

A-ha, I am also part of the 2006 Tufts Spring Ping Pong tournament . I am drawn against a Sophomore, who, I guess, is faster, quicker, younger (for sure) and more talented than me. She is sure to sweep me out, but hey, I am going to have fun playing!!

My lovely professors, who I work for, and TA for, are amazing. When their good friend, Dr Singhal visited Boston from Ohio, they took him, and F and I for a visit to Walden Pond, and their upcoming house in Concord . Its a beautiful house, on the banks of a pond, and I am promised summer fun there!!!! Woo Hoo!

Bob and I are also doing the Johnny D's trivia night on Apr 17. We need team players, so join us if you can!

Blogthings

Excerpts of some Mass humour from Blogthings ! Follow the Link for more!

"You Know You're From Massachusetts When...
The person driving in front of you is going 70 mph and you are cursing him for going too slow.
You know how to pronounce the names of towns like Worcester, Billerica, Haverhill, Barre and Cotuit.
You think the rest of the country owes you for Thanksgiving and Independence Day.
You have never been to Cheers. (True! Never been there!)
When the words 'WICKED' and 'GOOD' go together.
The curse of the Bambino is taught in public schools.
You own a "Yankees Suck" shirt or hat.
You do not recognize the letter "R" as a part of the English language.(Never a truer statement has been made)"

How many esses are there in Massachusetts?

1, 2 3?? As many as you want to put in? These spelling syntactical and philosophical issues come to the forefront when I look am on the T, and leave the conscious part of the brain the moment I exit the metallic snake.... ah, the frivolous vagaries of fate and faith...
I am taking this very interesting course in my school called "Theories of Public Policy"
Its a very hands-on course in US Policy and I just love the stories that Kathleen, our Professor, has up her sleeve... In the first class, I get asked "Why do you want to take this course?" Without a funny repartee coming to mind, i decided to stick to the boring truth and said,"Because I think it is going to be fun"!!
And fun it has been; in addition to reading about some interesting cases from the field of automotive and agriclutural policy, we paid a visit to the Massachussetts State House, the seat of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to hand our "citizen legislation" on eliminating the use of non-therapeutic use of antibiotic in animals to State Representative J. James Marzili, Jr..
What a hoot!!!

Project Bread and the Walk for Hunger

Every year, Project Bread holds the annual Walk for Hunger, the largest annual one-day fundraiser to alleviate local hunger in Massaschusetts. The 20-mile Walk route weaves through Boston, Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge.
I walked the 20 miles last year and will do so again this year. This is a plug for your support of my Walk and you can do so on my Walk Page . I also want to take this opportunity to thank all those who visited the site and made a contribution to Project Bread.
All of us have altruistic intentions, though not all of us get an opportunity to convert our thoughts into action. The Walk for Hunger is one such effort that resonates with me, both in terms of the purpose and the process. If I am in Boston on the first sunday of May every year, you know where to find me.

PS: I am really excited about, and determined to complete, the walk because my almost-three year old niece is supporting my walk!!!! How cool is that??? She turns three on the Fourth of July!

Pump Up the Volume

Turn up your volume and watch this!

Chicaago!!

Just came back from the Windy city... tons of stories, pics and, a *ahem* embarassing new video clip of me (as I told one of my good friends, its a "family" video...involving me, a spoon and a bowl of chocolate) from my three days there... watch this space for more... winding down with homework and entering spring recess break...

Presenting Kaili

My good friend Kaili is a new entrant to the blog scene, one of the reamining Few Good Women (*immediately hides from the bricks, bats and stones hurled in his direction*)

I am honoured to be listed on her blog. Enjoy her blog as it matures and blossoms!

This weekend, I am headed Chicago way - a reunion that is many years in the making! The Original Three Musketeers - 22/7, Peedus and I - will walk the dark streets, and the light streets, dispensing summary justice to one and all! I will get a chance ot catch up on old friends, WHO allies, and Doctors in the making!

UPDATE: Kaili's blog is offline. Watch this space for more

The Mother of Game Nights

Wow!
The evening of Friday the 3rd February 2006 was a watershed in Mason Street history. At a unique event this day, we had citizens of varying nationality, with diverse educational backgrounds coming together to participate in the largest (to date) Game Night of 23 Mason Street. Gingerbreak cake and baked nectarines hobnobbed with bhel puri and tortilla chips and salsa while Oreo cookies complemented the fantastic Tiramisu. Japanese graciousness and Korean humour kept the night alive while the Filipino brain and the American supercomputer raced to victory. There were taboos left unspoken and pursuits made trivial . It was also the celebration of the day of birth of one of our own - A doctor-to-be, a Mason-ite of long standing. Suffice to say, our expectations (I refer to the 23 Mason-ites - G, L, T and I) were exceeded with nary a backward glance!!
Yesterday my friends and I paid a visit to the new kid on the block and picked up this and this and this. What fun, all this!

Universal Truth: family and friends... You can't do without them!

My friend P turns to me on the T, and says "How is your 'sup dog' doing?"

I look at him quizzically and say, "What's sup dog"?

* One evil grin * later, he says

"Nothin, wassup wid you?"


... i fell for that, hook line and sinker...


We have an ongoing cat and mouse game where we try to sneak into each other's office and scare the heebie jeebies out of the person on his chair by suddenly shouting "Boo" into the back of their head.. I have to say, I have succeeded a few times while he has had me jumping out of my skin, not just in the office but also at home!! The War continues...

... continues on to the table tennis table... My knee is back to being fully flexible and "operational" (pun totally intended) and in addition to the physical therapy exercises, I have been indulging in a few games of TT now and then... Dont tell my doc, he will have a fit!... Thats the problem with docs, they are so busy playing God that they forget that their patients are human... one advantage of being a doc and not being allowed to be a doc is that, at the same time, I can be sitting in, looking out and sitting out, looking in... doubly so if I am a patient!
ah, life is wonderful

On unrelated issues, Dr Nevin Scrimshaw speaks on the urban legend that was the protein gap . My good friend Lau and I will moderate the discussion. All are invited!

Phew!

Its been a hectic holiday! After Vermont, New Years in Boston and North Reading, I had a lovely evening of Tan Dun at the BSO, a good weekend with Chet and Bop in NYC, and now, am in a blissfully ignorant state at the start of the academic term!
New England weather is at its worst! 10 C one day and - 2.5 C the next, one has to "look no further" to see how nature is toying with humans!
Update Snow this morning... followed by bright (but cold) sunshine ... "we are your puppets!"
Whee! I am actually a teaching assistant!! *muhahahaha*
To quote from the site :
"
NUTR 291PD: Positive Deviance for Behavior Change: A Course for Practitioners
Description:
Positive Deviance provides a unique approach for solving problems that require social or behavioral change. At its heart is the belief that in every community there are a few individuals – “positive deviants” – whose uncommon practices or behaviors enable them to outperform or find better solutions to pervasive problems than their neighbors with whom they share the same resource base. Identifying the positive deviants’ special practices/behaviors reveals hidden resources already present in the environment, from which it is possible to devise solutions to pervasive community problems, solutions that are sustainable as well as cost-effective. Students will read and discuss positive deviance and behavior change literature, review and critique studies and programs, and design and carry out positive deviance inquiries in the Boston area. Grading is Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U). Course enrollment is limited to 12.
Credit: 1
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or instructor consent.
Course Director: Sternin
Day/Time: Wednesdays 1:00 - 3:30 pm
Location: Jaharis 155, Boston Campus
Enrollment Number: NUTR291-PD
Call Number: 03750
"
My first! :-)

"This is the End"

An Era has ended..... here

Another just begins... here