You really think you can predict the weather???

My last post mentioned the unpredictable weather conditions in England. Allow me to elaborate.
Yesterday, it snowed in Oxford. Oxford is beautiful when it snows, everything is washed clean and there is a carpet of white around. The spires and old college buildings are topped with white covers. It is fantastic.
So, it snowed...big deal you say. Ok, then match this.
9:00 am - dark and gloomy sky, forecast rain
10 :00 am - sleet
10:30 am - light snow
10 :45 am - snow stops
11:30 am - Sunny sky, sun shines brightly in clear blue skies
1 : 00 pm - hail. ( try cycling through hail on a punctured bike)
2: 00 pm - hail stops
2 :45 pm - rain
4 :00 pm - clear sky with icy wind blowing
5:45 pm - sun sets

Can you imagine all that in one day. Ranges the entire gamut of meteorlogical conditions. Its amazing and this of course, is only in Oxford in 9 hours of the day. Weather Gods here seem to be rather fickle and we have always been taught about the vagaries of the monsoons!!

I was also enlightened to the English weather code. Here is what is lost in translation :
"gorgeous day, isn't it?" - sunny and dry day
"its lovely today" - the sun is shining but it is also raining
"rather wet today" - rainy and gloomy day
" fresh" - 10 degrees
"nip in the air" - 5 degress
"bracing" - its so cold you couldn't care what the temperature outside was

So, today was bracing and snowing. My own reactions to the weather are a bit strange. I dont mind when it rains because usually rain in this country is a drizzle. But, I hate the rain here as it is usually accompanied by cold weather. I also do not appreciate the frosty temperatures that dominate winter, but I love the snow even though it is colder than normal when it does snow.
I know it sounds funny but like the Squidgy chocolate cake snow addles my brains!!!

To the Winter :

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too.

English Tennis

Yesterday had my tennis match. It was great. The first time I have ever won all four sets. I was partnering Duncan and never even dropped my serve. I think sleeping and not baking cakes the night before a match certainly helps my game.

Now all of you must know the english are quiet, taciturn specimens of the human race and most of the time they are except when you put them on a tennis court.
It amazing how eeryone loves to talk while playing.
If you serve a fault - it can either be " wrong side", "long", "just away" or for the more verbose among them ,"just a bit beyond the line". Now try saying that and you will find it takes slightly longer than going "No" or "Fault" which is what we used to holler in India. And so it goes on, things like discussing the last point in the middle of the game. " Oh that was a great shot. I saw you moving out the corner of my eye, but you had it covered. Maybe I should have gone the other way." All this while the server is trying to collect enough balls to serve.

Coming to balls, I have always wondered why they say Thanks before they get the ball. So, if you want another ball, you dont say "can i have another one", but "thanks". Always wondered whether the Brits are just slightly loony, having been isolated on this island for the last couple of centuries, they seem to have lost touch with normal conversational techniques.

"Good show, chaps", "That was lovely to watch". I played with Chris who when a good shot was hit, started clapping and waxing eloquent ,"lovely play" or "great shot, wonderful,exquisite".
Its rather demoralising when your partner applauds the opponent more than you.

The worst is when there is a disputed call, where people go, " Are you sure? I wonder whether it didn't catch the line. It was going rather fast and I just couldn't get my eye to it". This will then go onto a discussion of the technicalities of whose call it actually is.Of course at the end of all this, you replay the point and I have always wondered what all the fuss was about.

Well, you might look at Tim henman and think all Brits are well mannered on court. Well, you haven't played enough then. I have seen rackets fly across courts, abuses even I shudder to hear and the odd retort to the opponent.

Well, all I can say is that it is definitely more enjoyable and unpredictable playing tennis here and that is without accounting for the weather. Ever played tennis in Snow??? Only in England...

Oxford Tourist

Havent blogged in a while simply because I have been flying from one meeting to another. Also, Ms."Paintbrush" was here with her family and was showing them around. Of course, this also provided me with an excuse of touring Oxford, something I haven't done despite spending the better half of two years here.

I was enthralled ( and so was my date) in the Natural History Museum. It was fantasitc. As soon as you enter there are huge reconstructions of dinasours. As my fact obsessed date pointed out, one had 53 teeth while the T.rex had 61! ( 30 in the upper jaw and 31 in the lower). We then waled around to see the stuffed birds. Ostriches with huge ostrich eggs and a frowning, scornful looking albatross. Of course, no natural history museum is complete without a few scary specimens, and the first floor houses a couple of hundred large Malaysian cockroaches, a emperor spider and scorpion and some stick insects. Even housed in a glass cage, they were horribly eerie.

They were some fantastic mineral specimens. Granite, limestone, ammonite, meteorite were galore, but we enjoyed the fluorescing rocks the most. They shone purple, red, green, lilac and blue... it was a gorgeous display.

The day unfortunately was biting cold, even though it was sunny. There was a strong and icy cold wind blowing throught he day which forced us to spend longer than necessary in Cleos. Ms. Paintbrush had a Summer Breeze crepe which as she put it was Deeeliceeouss!! I had to contend with a Forestiere but declined the chocolate crepe free with every savoury crepe. Instead, I had the Crepe Citron which was just too sour for my ( or anyone else's) liking.

Overall, it was a lovely day and I got to walk through Christ Church meadows and have Crepe Citron for the first time!! It was such a lovely day that I thought it was a pity it had to end.
Tennis tomorrow and I only hope I play better than last time.

Health and Lifestyle

I was cycling down Longwall street today when I realised that my eyesight is definitely getting worse. You see, my glasses (all three pairs) by some malign influence of the stars and my clumsy hands have broken. This of course leaves me with two choices :
1. Go without glasses
2. Buy new ones. In this country it is more expensive to buy a pair of glasses than to stay at a five-star hotel for a night.
Of course, before you think I am some stingy miserly re-incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge, there are some deeper issues involved here.
One of the reasons I have elected to pursue the ascetic course of action is the advice offered to me by female acquaintances. On numerous occasions have I been told that glasses adversely effect my visage. However, often my poor vision has led me to squint and peer at numerous women giving the impression of a letch. It has conspired to occur that I have been unable to recgonise the very same acquaintances whose advice I follow, leading to many an embarrassed situation.

Apart from my opthalmic health, the tories have released their plans for the NHS. I think there are parts of their plan which merit approval and thought.

1. One of the recommendations is to allow matrons to shut down wards if they believe that it is infected. Presently, although matrons can recommend, the power rests with the Chief executive officer. I believe that it is very important that this decision is taken away from the Trust hospital management and given to health workers. As I understand the NHS, it is attempted to run it like a business but with the aim of public welfare. The problem is that it is inefficeint and the hospitals often have more admin staff thannecessary. This decision to shut down wards in management hands is disastrous because factors other than health of the patients and hygeine are taken into account. this is purely a medical decision. Its equivalent to a surgeon deciding for or against amputation.

2. Tories believe that waiting lists must stop and this must be done by involving the private sector. I think this is true as well although I am not in agreement with the specifics. Health is a business, however it is a business unlike any other. Therefore, the private sctor must be involved to meet unmet needs, but it must be regualted. The tories plan of subsiding private care from public funds is ridiculous, its unheard of anywhere in the world.
The reason I believe that involvement of regulated private sector is vital is because if we dont do so now, insurance companies will cash in on unsatisfied customers and patients. Soon, you will find that people will turn to insurance companies as the only alternative and soon like in the US health will be controlled by the private sector creating massive inequalities.


Thats it for now. The tsunami event is progressing better than we thought. Hopefully, we might be able to get a sell-out crowd.

I prefer to forget both pairs of glasses and pass my declining years saluting strange women and grandfather clocks.

Coincidence

I got this rather strange email from Ms. Happiness this morning.

guess what I did this morning? Spent a considerable amount of time looking at your face and trying to classify you as positive or negative. It was such a laugh :). Can you guess what I was doing?

I have always loved detective fiction and in true Holmes and Poirot style spent the next half an hour in deliberation. Other than coming to the obvious conclusion that physiognomy was her hobby I was no closer to the truth.
I also had no idea where she got my photograph from as I have no images on the net. I was also pretty sure that we had never had a photo taken together. The last time we met and had dinner at CM we discussed Karma and books. So, I was thinking along lines of astrology. Of course the fact that she spent V day doing this was not lost on me. Unfortunately, she is engaged and I am otherwise occupied and besides I am sure neither one of us can imagine hanging out with the other for too long.

As it turned out, she was taking part in an experiment I had contributed to last year. This was a psychology experiment gauging reactions of South Asian women to multi cultural males. I had some snaps of mine taken last year showing different emotions and she was asked to look at them and evaluate them. Very spooky! ( as my lovely friend Mamta used to say)

From my favourite poet, and very often the only author other than PGW who can make me laugh out loud.
Everybody Tells Me Everything by Ogden Nash

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.

Valentine's Day

Now there is only one thing I can think of on St. Valentine's day and that is "Who is this guy"? So, I set out reading and learning about St.Valentine. Only to realise that history in this regard is a bit murky (but as my favourtie history graduate tells me - all history is murky and open to interpretation!). Anyway, supposedly there were three St.Valentine's recgonised by the Church. The famous one is a guy who wrote love letters while in jail - to none other than the Jailor's daughter. I must admit there seems to be a slight conflict of interest here - loving the daughter of the guy who is keeping you in jail. Hmmmm .... I always wondered why love had such a bad name, with a start like this who can blame fortune hunters and gold diggers.
Anyway, it seems there are a lot of tales which you can read here or here.

I have always been a realist who never believed in true love, cupid, sacrifice, Romeo and Juliet( a story I believe would never happen today with the advent of the cell phone) etc. But the last few days have changed me and my thinking.

Prince Charles and Camilla, a cynical lover I shall no longer be thanks to you.
35 years they loved each other, duty pulling them apart, wives and husbands died, people criticised them and yet they stuck it out as one. That, my friends is true love!! All I can say to them is all the best. Those people who criticise Charlie, I pity them. There is a man who is not afraid to lose all he has for the woman he loves ( I swoon and faint).

Ok, so now that I have had the smeeling salts and woken up from this alternate state of mind here are my top ten favourite romantic movies :
1. This is really hard, I cant believe there isnt even one I liked.
Here we go again :
1. Roman Holiday
2. Sound of Music( I know this might not qualify, but I cant have a top ten list without it)
3. Before Sunrise
4. Before Sunset
5. Life is Beautiful
6. When Harry met Sally
7. You've got mail
I have to stop here because I haven't seen Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

This is what people think.

My weekend has been odd. Friday was sent staying up till 4am chatting. This was after a two hour long meeting. It was fun,but tiring. Saturday was the highlight of my journalisitc career. I undertook a video recording of an entire Indian classical music and dance. I haven't yet seen the recording myself, but whichever way it was a great experience. Tiring stuff and expecially hard because you can't discuss the performance while recording.

Then I came home after having a horrible dinner at Nando's. Veggie burger at a place specialising in chicken was always going to be difficult, but when the veggie burger doesn't have any taste at all and needs to be smothered in some lovely spicy Peri Peri sauce, you know you haven't had a great meal.

Anyway, met up with friends and started to chat about things in general. I learnt about Tamil Movies and heard some interesting anecdotes. It being V day we decided to exchange one story each. The most corny and cheesy one was told by Ms. "Dark Chocolate" for which she has been rewarded with the honour of telling us some more.

So supposedly, there was this guy in her class who decided to profess his love for her. So, he conjured this imaginary woman he wanted to ask out and enlisted Ms." Dark Chocolate"'s help. Ms."DC" was as her name says in the dark. She was given a badly wrapped gift which contained no name. Being an intelligent woman she was rather annoyed at this guys obvious lack of competence. I mean, bad wrapping, no name and a gift which felt like a photo stand. She pitied the girl who was to be this man's chosen one. As it so happens, (and doesn't it always happen) the gift was meant for her. But, here is the cheesy part - the gift which was to be opened by Ms. " Dark Chocolate" and convey his deep feelings for her was a MIRROR!! Yes, she was to look into this mirror and realise that she was the intended girl.

I really hate to slur any particular geographic region but I am slowly veering around to accept that men from Ms."DC"'s region seem to be endowed with a noticeable lack of charm.

Anyway, we chatted till the sun came up and in the course of the night baked a slightly burnt brownie for me to take to my tennis match the next day. A match which I promptly proceeded to lose. The worst thing about playing doubles is that you are playing with someone else. Its great when both of you are playing well or badly but when one of the partners plays awful tennis it makes you feel horrible. 2-6,2-6 and 6-7, 4-6 doesn't make good reading, but our opponents liked my cake!

Thought for the day :

When it comes,

will it come without warning

Just as I'm picking my nose?

Will it knock on my door in the morning,

Or tread in the bus on my toes?

Will it come like a change in the weather?

Will its greeting be courteous or rough?

Will it alter my life altogether?

O tell me the truth about love.

Lent

Check this out!
We had a Mardi Gras party on Tuesday at Rhodes House. It was a very informal event with the Warden inviting all the Scholars to dinner and pancake racing. It was great fun, everyone having to wear a hat or mask. I wore my Santa hat, but it was great to see the various hats and masks around. There was Ms. "The Queen's partner", wearing this absolutely outlandish piece of cardboard on her head. It seemed like someone had actually placed a bloody ostrich there!! Then there was Mr." the Queen's partner", who has a reputation for engaging with women slightly longer than they wish to, wearing a court jester's waistcoat and a similarly colorful top hat. I often wonder how they never feel embarrassed.

Anyway, the point of all this background is that Ms. "the person with no surname" refused to attend on grounds of it being a religious event. How pancake racing is Religious, especially as it was celebrated by Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Muslims and Oh the five or so odd Jews I am too ignorant to understand!! If this was really a problem to someone as liberal minded as her, I am left to wonder what her notions of religious harmony are ?
My advice to Condoleezza Rice - all you need in Egypt is a PARTY - Mardi Gras Party!!
Wonder what Ariel Sharon would wear - batman mask, Rice - catwoman and Mahmoud Abbas -a spiderman mask.

Once again, I digress. The upshot of all this is that in defiance of Ms."the person with no surname" and after being overcome by a wave of religious fervour, I have decided to observe Lent. Lent as all of you know is the 40 days of fasting before Easter, and Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday is the day before the beginning of Lent. In solidarity with Jesus who spent 40 days fasting(starving) in the middle of a desert (well, what did you expect him to eat - cactus???) we ( I am one with my fellow brothers....ummm and sisters) fast as well for forty days.

Those of you who know me must be stunned, but you all know me as one who loves his fellow man and this is for the larger cause of world (religious) harmony!! Never forget.I can see from the smirk on your disbelieving face that knowing my fondness for gastronomic pleasures you are sceptical. I shall therefore not attempt to rid the world of evil by completely fasting, but only attempt to bring world peace by VOWING TO ABSTAIN FROM CHOCOLATE AND CRISPS for the period of Lent. I know, I know...But don't try to change my mind.
"Hail Bhisma - the one with the toughest of vows". And so I believe that at the end of these 40 days the world will be a better place to live in.

There's a place in your heart,
and I know that it is love
And this place
could be
much brighter tomorrow

Of course, Lent like any other festival has its own customs and traditions. Pancake racing, Skipping in England, Mothering Sunday and Simnel cakes (whatever that is). The one I like the most is my Danish lab mate's narration of flogging the cat. This is a fantastic activity where a cask or wooden barrel is placed in the centre of the lawn and a cat( yes..CAT) is put into it. After this, attempts are made to suffocate the cat by filling up the barrel with sweets. How touching. Then everyone lines up with a plank of wood in their hand and proceed to give the cat a huge headache by banging on the barrel. Not content with attempting to suffocate them, they flog the barrel. One hit at a time, till one of the staves comes off. The first person to undo a stave is a Queen and the last person a King! The cat by this time probably cant care what with having a migraine, multiple bruises and suffocated. I have just been informed that this is no longer practiced. I wonder why???

Ok, that's enough rambling for a day. Its a gorgeous day outside, blue skies, not a hint of cloud, the sun finally asserting its moral right to supply this part of the country with some light.


A SATURATED meadow,
Sun-shaped and jewel-small,
A circle scarcely wider
Than the trees around were tall;
Where winds were quite excluded, 5
And the air was stifling sweet
With the breath of many flowers,—
A temple of the heat.


There we bowed us in the burning,
As the sun’s right worship is, 10
To pick where none could miss them
A thousand orchises;
For though the grass was scattered,
Yet every second spear
Seemed tipped with wings of color, 15
That tinged the atmosphere.

We raised a simple prayer
Before we left the spot,
That in the general mowing
That place might be forgot; 20
Or if not all so favoured,
Obtain such grace of hours,
That none should mow the grass there
While so confused with flowers.

Science tidbits

On a personal front, I passed my PLAB 2. A lot of the credit must go to the live mannequin I had in the form of Antara who never complained while I conducted knee, hip, RS examinations and CPR on her. "Are you Ok? Are you allright?" Of course, she often carried he simulations too far as in the case when she was Ms. Ganglion with facial palsy and of course proceeded to have Bitemporal hemianopia and R lateral rectus palsy. I have never witnessed worse hamming.
Of course, she also contrived to make it very hard for me by "making loud noises while asleep" on the night before my exam. Thank you anyway!!

The first HIV Vaccine clinical trial began in India yesterday. It is being conducted at Pune at the National Aids Research Institute under the direction of Dr.Sanjay Mehendale. It is a Phase I clinical trial which means that it is a safety study on asymptomatic volunteers looking at the safety profile of the vaccine. Of course, the vaccine has already gone through pre-clinical trials in animals. Unfortunately, I have never read any stuff about it in any papers. Its a AAV vector and again there has been no information about the antigen being used.
I have no problems against running this trial in India, except that there are certain areas of concern :
1. How much money is India getting to allow this? By this I mean, is the NARI getting a large grant which will allow it to build and develop its own research activites?what is the MoUthat the NACO and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed with IAVI( International AIDS Vaccine Initiative)
2. Why have no details about the vaccine been made public? The company making the vaccine Targeted Genetics are obviously shy about divulging the details, but it seems surprising to me that they are conducting this trial in Belgium, Germany and India. I dont understand the logic, unless the HIV-1 clade C is prevalent in these countries.
3. Its very surprising that there has been no human clinical data generated in these countries first before they come to India. I mean for a safety study, can be done anywhere and should stand up to geographical and genetic differences. This is what Adrian Hill does with malaria. First does the Phase I in Oxford and then takes the vaccine to The Gambia.

I think this is an important trial and a landmark one. It is the first time that such a responsibility has been entrusted to India and Indian scientists. IAVI is a respected organisation and I have no doubt that all the necessary precautions have been taken. I only hope that the vaccine is actually immunogenic and useful. I think that Indian scientists must firstly give priority to developing thier own vaccines and vaccine candidates and apply for funding to international organisations. Also, they should become more selective about the vaccine candidates they use. I have asked people in the lab and they were slightly sceptical about AAV. Its hasn't been shown to be as immunogenic as other viral vectors.

Dont misunderstand me, I am all for vaccine trials especially as I sort of do that for a living, but I am sort of suspicious of this clinical trial outsourcing. I am slightly wary that this will allow pharma companies to outsource their clinical testing to Indian companies. With ethical guidelines and standards not yet firmly in place in India, it might allow pharma companies to get away with some unscrupulous trials.

I also found this interesting feature that the WHO is running. As part of the Maternal and Child health initiative for World Health Day 2005, they are featuring 6 mothers-to-be from different countries and are following them through the entire duration of their pregnancies.

Also, Ellen MacArthur finally came back to Falmouth yesterday after 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds and was immediately conferred the title of "Dame" by the Queen. I think it was truly a remarkable achievement and she fully deserves all the accolades and adoration she is getting at present. As many have concurred, she is probably the world's best solo sailor today - quite a feat.

Oh Yes, before I forget. Heard Mark Haddon, the author of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time talk today in Oxford at the Richard Hillary Memorial Lecture. In case you haven't read the book, I strongly urge you to read it. Its a lovely book, touching, funny, quirky and odd. I remember reading the book and after three pages or so going," There is something odd about this book". I wont tell you what it is and spoil it for you, but some gossip from the literary world.
His next book is titled, " Blood and Scissors" and his first book is going to be made into a movie by Heyday Films, the people who made Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

He spoke really well and talked about his motivations to be a writer and what it takes to be a writer. As he puts it, its not something you can learn or be taught unlike being a barrister or something. He believes that you suddenly learn it about yourself like realising that you are gay. Interesting, especially because I always thought that like Garp you could actually decide to be a writer.

Ok, enough for today, better head to bed.

Thought for the day :


LOVE is a breach in the walls, a broken gate,
Where that comes in that shall not go again;
Love sells the proud heart’s citadel to Fate.
They have known shame, who love unloved. Even then,
When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking,
And agony’s forgot, and hushed the crying
Of credulous hearts, in heaven—such are but taking
Their own poor dreams within their arms, and lying
Each in his lonely night, each with a ghost.

Some share that night. But they know love grows colder, 10
Grows false and dull, that was sweet lies at most.
Astonishment is no more in hand or shoulder,
But darkens, and dies out from kiss to kiss.
All this is love; and all love is but this.

Random Thoughts

Really dont have anything interesting to say. The weekend was rather boring and nothing really exciting happens to me on weekends. Played a bit of tennis and realised how out of shape I am.

Turned the clock back a few decades and rekindled teenage memories of romance and drama by watching "Jo jeeta Wohi Sikandar". If you watch movies today they are so slick and technology dependent. I dont think producers even make movies like Dil, Jo Jeeta, QSQT nowadays and that might reflect altered audience tastes. When I was a kid, soppy romatic melodramas with one bad guy and an uncomplicated story line was the norm. Today audiences want the glitz,glamour and the slick hollywood style hindi movies. Not that I am really complaining, I loved movies like Kaante, Company, Khakee which are really the same old story made better. I suspect that like me, the Indian audience has also matured.

I met up with this young friend of mine, who I had last met before Christmas. He had been to Cuba and his only comment of the place was that people there CAN REALLY DANCE! He also provided me with my first insight into how a divorce affects children. We were talking about girlfriends and marriage when he said something to the effect that its all rubbish. So we decided to point out 5 good things and 5 bad things about marriage.
His five points against marriage :
1. you get divorced
2. you hate each other
3. you scream at each other
4. you leave

Its frightening to see a kid say such things because it makes such an impact on their lives. It would be fantastic if he actually believes in healthy relationships, but I can only imagine the monumental effort he would have to make to actually practice and believe that.
This is my number one reason against divorce and bad marriages. You scar your children forever. My advice to couples : if you want to divorce, do it before you have children or after they have grown up.

Anyway, its good night for now. Have got a no from Rockefeller.
Have much else to write about next time. Rhodes Scholarship, WHO's mother initiative and Ellen MacArthur finally breaking the record.

Thought for the day :

Failure

BECAUSE God put His adamantine fate
Between my sullen heart and its desire,
I swore that I would burst the Iron Gate,
Rise up, and curse Him on His throne of fire.
Earth shuddered at my crown of blasphemy, 5

But Love was as a flame about my feet;
Proud up the Golden Stair I strode; and beat
Thrice on the Gate, and entered with a cry—
All the great courts were quiet in the sun,
And full of vacant echoes: moss had grown 10
Over the glassy pavement, and begun
To creep within the dusty council-halls.
An idle wind blew round an empty throne
And stirred the heavy curtains on the walls.

Around the world in 72 days!

As part of the Linacre Ball committee, I watched "Around the world in 80 days". It was a hilarious movie, made in the 1970's starring some British actor as Phileas Fogg. I am a huge fan of Jules Verne having read Around the world, Journey to the center of the earth and 20,000 leagues under the sea. I love the guys books. The guy was a visionary. Each of his books predicts things which happens 50 years later.

Submarines, rockets to the moon, aeroplanes, world travel all in 1902. What imagination. Surprisingly most of his ideas do make sense. The submarine for example is made of reinforced steel, has a generator all components of todays submarines.

I hate science fiction, in fact I cant read Asimov, Clarke et al, but somehow Jules Verne, HG Wells appeal to my sense of adventure in a rather old-fashioned way. Its so exciting when you are about 10 years old to read about martians, submarines, lost treasures and cities under the sea and climbing down a volcano to reach the center of the earth. I also think they are slightly easier to imagine than spacecrafts flying around the planet Xysos on the 15th galaxy of Andromeda...it just sounds wrong!!

However, co-incidentally came across someone who is presently doing just that. Ellen MacArthur is attempting to break the record for the fastest solo sailing trip around the world and seems to be right on target. She is looking to make the trip in 72 days,22 hours,54minutes and 22 seconds. She started from Britain on the 28th of November and will return some time this week. Presently she is two days ahead of the record, previously held by Francis Joyson. I think it is fantastic that she set out to do this, it must be so difficult to live alone on a boat and eat canned food for 72 days.
You can follow her progress here.

Thought for the day :

Travel, which was once either a necessity or an adventure, has become very largely a commodity, and from all sides we are persuaded into thinking that it is a social requirement, too.

Arsenic

Have not blogged for a few days, was very busy running from one meeting to the next. I never realised how tiring meeting people and making decisions could be.
Some good news, Narain has secured his Formula One drive. He is the first driver for the Jordan team and partners Portugal's Tiago Monteiro. Other sports news, the second ODI between SA and England was a tie. SA are the biggest choker in the game,they should have easily won this match but messed it up. Reminds you of Allan Donald running down the pitch against Australia in the 1999 World Cup, one of the most unforgettable pictures in cricket history.

I attended this really interesting talk by a SpR in Haematology. As part of the medical grand rounds on Thursday he spoke about Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. This slightly rare condition makes up about 10% of all Acute Leukemias and is usually treated by chemotherapy and ATRA(All-trans retinoic acid). However, in refractory cases and relapses, ATRA and chemo does not show good rates of complete remission, so they decided to POISON the LEUKEMIA.
They used ARSENIC as a form of treatment. Now, before you go,"Oh! My God!", arsenic has been used in ancient times as forms of treatment and is also used in Uclerative Colitis nowadays. Obviously, they use a different chemical form of Arsenic than the one that is poisonous.

Arsenic Trioxide acts as a anti-neoplastic agent, by activation of differentiation and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. It is very good in relapses and refractory cases giving a CR rate of ~ 75% in most studies conducted, compared with a rate of 20% with chemo and ATRA. For more details, look up this article.

But, this has obviously led me to do some serious research on arsenic poisoning and arsenic. I remember learning about arsenic in second year forensic medicine and it was an examination favourite because of two reasons.
1. It is considered as the ideal homicidal poison, for the following reasons :
a. It is tasteless, white in colour, dissolves in milk and is cheap, available as rat-poison.
b. the symptoms of the poisoning mimic natural diseases, acute arsenic poisoning mimics
gastro-enteritis, and chronic mimics dermatitis and peripheral neuritis.
It was known as the "king of poisons" and in France was known as poudre de succession, for obvious reasons. In fact in the good old days before chemistry took off, arsenic was a favourite poison as it was impossible to detect and the only way to detect poisons was to feed the remnants to an animal, of which they were very few( where were the animal rights activists then??). Then came the MARSH test and it became easier to detect Arsenic from dead bodies.

Anyway, the other reason it was a favourite was that the poison arsenic oxide is different from the chronic poisoning that is prevalent across the world especially in South East Asia. In fact there is a group at Harvard which is working on the effects on chronic arsenic poisoning as a result of contaminated drinking water. The examiners loved to confuse us by asking what are the effects of Arsenic (contaminated DW) vs this white powder (poisonous arsenic oxide).

Ok, before you begin to believe that I am some morbid sociopath murderer, let me change the topic to happier issues (now I cant think of something happy, but that doesn't prove anything!)

Let us end today on this awkward note:

"To a suicide: You just poisoned the wrong person"

Motorsport

Great News!! Narain karthikeyan might finally make it to Formula One. The 28 year old dude is obviously deserving especially after the fact that he was offered a F1 ride by Minardi in 2003 but was unable to garner enough sponsorship.

Here is what he has to say about it.

I believe that this is a good sign. Maybe now the M&M ( money and more money) and attention can be diverted from that all encompassing game of bat and ball.
Dont misunderstand me, I love cricket as much as the next man. Nails are bitten and in one infamous episode benches were burnt(India v Pak, 1999 World Cup).But, I am sick of the accolades and coverage that these guys( and it is only guys)get.

I can only hope that Sania Mirza and now Narain can bring about a mini-revolution in Indian sport with diversion of patronage to other sports like tennis, table tennis, badminton and football.

The "Binding agent" hypothesis

I have finally decided that with A away, leaving me lots of free time(no cooking, making tea,watching Chic flicks!) to waste, I shall re-start my blog.
I have no idea what to write on, or if anything interesting at all happens in my life, but as I have already stated this is my hour and space to ramble.

My "Binding agent" hypothesis was propounded to A on her last night here between sips of Chaing mai's fantastic Tom Yam soup.
The hypothesis is pretty simple and obvious : " every relationship needs a binding agent"
The criterion for a binding agent are :
1. They should be activities
2. Each of the partners must enjoy the activity independently of the other
3. It should be activities that can be performed together
4. They should enjoy undertaking the activity with each other
5. After a fight, they should be able to undertake the activity in the presence of the other

I think most activites fit these criterion. Reading, cooking, watching sports,excercising all are good binding agents.However, in my opinion the best binding agent must be sex. If a couple enjoys having sex with each other then it is perfect as it fits all the criterion,including the most difficult one of undertaking the activity after a fight.

Thought of the day:

The pleasure of love is in loving. We are much happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.