I am finally leaving for home! After 2 years I am going to eat Sambhar rice everyday!
Friday, December 30
Wednesday, December 28
Year in Review
I would love to sit and write about my year except that I am as amnesic as they come. So, I cant remember anything that happened more than a month ago - if I am lucky. Many people walking with me complain that I speak to strangers too often. The truth is I have met these people before but I can't remember their names. So, I have a educated,general conversation with them steering them away from personal topics and we both leave each other happy. For all I know, the other person doesn't remember me at all.
Today is shopping day and I am seriously going to go mad buying and thinking of stuff to buy for people.
Will blog later today about the success and failures of my high-street experience.
Today is shopping day and I am seriously going to go mad buying and thinking of stuff to buy for people.
Will blog later today about the success and failures of my high-street experience.
Monday, December 26
Eat,Sleep and Movies - Xmas in brief
My Xmas was a bit of a lazy day. We had got loads of movies (cheap deal) and loaded up on food. Oxford on Xmas resembles a ghost town. Nothing is open and you wont find anybody on the streets. In a very bizarre way, I love Oxford during the holidays. The magnificent buildings, their splendour and beauty are unobscured by the mass of humanity on Broad street. Each street looks clean and forces you to pay attention, to stop and look at it. Walk down Broad street on a normal day and you are more concerned about avoiding barging into people but now you can stand and stare without having to look out for people walking, cars trying to park and cyclists intent on fracturing your foot.
Anyway, Xmas saw me watching bits of lots of movies, eating some great Thai curry cooked by the Little One, had some ice cream and slept after all that exertion. Today is Boxing Day and all I can think of is the Tsunami!
I saw this programme yesterday on ITV1 titled, Where was God? The Tsunami. The aim was to examine how different faiths perceived the destruction and death caused by the Tsunami. There were some Jesuit priests who run an observatory who believe that God caused the Tsunami because he wanted to address the weather imbalances in the world. One part was becoming warmer than the other and therefore the Tsunami occurred to redress this temperature balance.
The creepiest piece of information I received thanks to this programme is about a Baptist church in America which thanked the Lord for killing over 5000 Swedes during the Tsunami. This hatred for Swedes stems from the liberal policies of the Swedish government towards homosexuality. They have de-criminalised it. If you wish to be appalled and disgusted by the lack of human empathy and tshocked by the force of people's hatred towards one another, have a look at their website here.
Towards cheerier things - I am back in the dark room and nearing the completion of my mammoth experiment. Day after shall be spent shopping - not that I am looking forward to it. Brother dearest has become addicted to sainsbury's baked chocolate goods and requires massive supplementation! Will do, although cookies have been in low supply proabably because of decreased demand since he left!
Went to watch some Morris Dancing today, but didn't find SP so left early. Its quite fun and the dancers do a pub crawl of sorts.
Little One's sis et al are here and shall head off in the evening for dinner etc.
Looking forward to New Year now!
Anyway, Xmas saw me watching bits of lots of movies, eating some great Thai curry cooked by the Little One, had some ice cream and slept after all that exertion. Today is Boxing Day and all I can think of is the Tsunami!
I saw this programme yesterday on ITV1 titled, Where was God? The Tsunami. The aim was to examine how different faiths perceived the destruction and death caused by the Tsunami. There were some Jesuit priests who run an observatory who believe that God caused the Tsunami because he wanted to address the weather imbalances in the world. One part was becoming warmer than the other and therefore the Tsunami occurred to redress this temperature balance.
The creepiest piece of information I received thanks to this programme is about a Baptist church in America which thanked the Lord for killing over 5000 Swedes during the Tsunami. This hatred for Swedes stems from the liberal policies of the Swedish government towards homosexuality. They have de-criminalised it. If you wish to be appalled and disgusted by the lack of human empathy and tshocked by the force of people's hatred towards one another, have a look at their website here.
Towards cheerier things - I am back in the dark room and nearing the completion of my mammoth experiment. Day after shall be spent shopping - not that I am looking forward to it. Brother dearest has become addicted to sainsbury's baked chocolate goods and requires massive supplementation! Will do, although cookies have been in low supply proabably because of decreased demand since he left!
Went to watch some Morris Dancing today, but didn't find SP so left early. Its quite fun and the dancers do a pub crawl of sorts.
Little One's sis et al are here and shall head off in the evening for dinner etc.
Looking forward to New Year now!
Saturday, December 24
Merry Xmas
Merry Xmas everyone. Hope you have a great day and a good year ahead of you!
Due to logistical reasons I shall not be celebrating New Year so please have an extra glass of wine and slice of cake for me.
As you can see, the arrival of The Little One, Xmas and my diminished excursions to the dark room have led to a decreased frequency in blogging. Will blog on boxing day as I am going to be sequestered in the dark room in a vain attempt to finish 150 samples in a day.
SP has invited me to see her husband do the Mummers play in headington quarry. Its a traditional english thing so might pop around from work for a bit.
The year has flown by and I must admit i cant remember anything. Last Xmas I was in east ham and london. the Tsunami struck and we were sitting in this small room with poor access to the net. Somehow it took us some time to really appreciate the scale and enormity of the disaster. We organised a tsunami fund raiser in February, had great fun with everyone then working like mad. March saw me working hard and April was my 25th B'day. Oxa was born in May, everyone had exams in June and July. July 7th bombings. Cricket and the Little one arrived in the summer. World Cup mania took over. The ashes were great fun and very exciting. Then there was Berlin and visa hell. Hurricane Katrina and George Best died. November saw me in Harrogate sampling the local pubs while learing about dendritic cells and co-stimulation.
And the last few weeks have been mayhem. No outside interest. Sleep, wake up, lab, eat, sleep.
So, for all those people who I should have emailed by now and wished and haven't because I am Mr. Procastinator and the laziest bum in the world - Merry Xmas and A Happy New Year!
Due to logistical reasons I shall not be celebrating New Year so please have an extra glass of wine and slice of cake for me.
As you can see, the arrival of The Little One, Xmas and my diminished excursions to the dark room have led to a decreased frequency in blogging. Will blog on boxing day as I am going to be sequestered in the dark room in a vain attempt to finish 150 samples in a day.
SP has invited me to see her husband do the Mummers play in headington quarry. Its a traditional english thing so might pop around from work for a bit.
The year has flown by and I must admit i cant remember anything. Last Xmas I was in east ham and london. the Tsunami struck and we were sitting in this small room with poor access to the net. Somehow it took us some time to really appreciate the scale and enormity of the disaster. We organised a tsunami fund raiser in February, had great fun with everyone then working like mad. March saw me working hard and April was my 25th B'day. Oxa was born in May, everyone had exams in June and July. July 7th bombings. Cricket and the Little one arrived in the summer. World Cup mania took over. The ashes were great fun and very exciting. Then there was Berlin and visa hell. Hurricane Katrina and George Best died. November saw me in Harrogate sampling the local pubs while learing about dendritic cells and co-stimulation.
And the last few weeks have been mayhem. No outside interest. Sleep, wake up, lab, eat, sleep.
So, for all those people who I should have emailed by now and wished and haven't because I am Mr. Procastinator and the laziest bum in the world - Merry Xmas and A Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 20
Havent blogged because, yes, you guessed it. I havent been in the dark room of Fox FM torture for the last couple of days. Today I am back in and starting off count from no.280.
Not much happening. Met Halim the other day. Has his transfer tomorrow so I hope it all goes ok. Traveled to London yesterday to pick up my tickets. My dear father who usually travels business class has booked the cheapest airline but the worst travel schedule for me. I pick up a 6.55am flight on the 31st( lets hope the X90 is running on New Year's Eve) to Vienna with a 3 hour layover and then travel to Mumbai from there. What time do I reach BOM? 11.55pm on the 31st!!!
YAY...(with all the sarcasm I can muster) theoretically I will be on land to bring in the New Year! Anyway, its fine as long as I get to go home. The little one is coming here but I am going to be swamped with work.
I need to (This is list-mania again):
1. set up a VNA
2. use MACS beads for ELISPOT
3. have one experiment to finish
4. clone and grow virus
5. challenge experiment
And..I have just deleted all the emails in my herald inbox. I cant think of anything important there.It was full of rubbish Rhodesmailing list stuff but there was some stuff which I needed. Damn!! Might have to go down to OUCS to ask them to retrieve stuff.
With Christmas coming, here's wishing everyone a merry Xmas!! I will never forget my Xmas last year - attending a course in East Ham in London. That place is a hell-hole and nothing else. I get so angry with Indian doctors who come all the way from India and live in miserable conditions in east ham, get exploited by their own countrymen in the UK and are too proud to go back home with nothing to show to their eagerly awaiting families. I know people who borrow upto 10-12 lakhs to come to the UK and linger here for a year or so without a job in the most pitiable conditions. Why would you subject yourself to a life like that?
So, Christmas last year was spent in Arjun's house in Russel Square with lots of alcohol, chocolate fondue and early mornings. I remember next to nothing of the time. I was spending 9-6 in class. Head back to Russel sq by 8ish and then spend the night whiling away time at night watching movies and attempting to finish the crate of wine bottles that Arjun had from BA.
It was idyllic! I felt awful at the end of the day and in the morning but what an experience.
Ok, shall head back to sample no.286!
Not much happening. Met Halim the other day. Has his transfer tomorrow so I hope it all goes ok. Traveled to London yesterday to pick up my tickets. My dear father who usually travels business class has booked the cheapest airline but the worst travel schedule for me. I pick up a 6.55am flight on the 31st( lets hope the X90 is running on New Year's Eve) to Vienna with a 3 hour layover and then travel to Mumbai from there. What time do I reach BOM? 11.55pm on the 31st!!!
YAY...(with all the sarcasm I can muster) theoretically I will be on land to bring in the New Year! Anyway, its fine as long as I get to go home. The little one is coming here but I am going to be swamped with work.
I need to (This is list-mania again):
1. set up a VNA
2. use MACS beads for ELISPOT
3. have one experiment to finish
4. clone and grow virus
5. challenge experiment
And..I have just deleted all the emails in my herald inbox. I cant think of anything important there.It was full of rubbish Rhodesmailing list stuff but there was some stuff which I needed. Damn!! Might have to go down to OUCS to ask them to retrieve stuff.
With Christmas coming, here's wishing everyone a merry Xmas!! I will never forget my Xmas last year - attending a course in East Ham in London. That place is a hell-hole and nothing else. I get so angry with Indian doctors who come all the way from India and live in miserable conditions in east ham, get exploited by their own countrymen in the UK and are too proud to go back home with nothing to show to their eagerly awaiting families. I know people who borrow upto 10-12 lakhs to come to the UK and linger here for a year or so without a job in the most pitiable conditions. Why would you subject yourself to a life like that?
So, Christmas last year was spent in Arjun's house in Russel Square with lots of alcohol, chocolate fondue and early mornings. I remember next to nothing of the time. I was spending 9-6 in class. Head back to Russel sq by 8ish and then spend the night whiling away time at night watching movies and attempting to finish the crate of wine bottles that Arjun had from BA.
It was idyllic! I felt awful at the end of the day and in the morning but what an experience.
Ok, shall head back to sample no.286!
Saturday, December 17
Cricket
I am now officially half way through my experiment...No.250 is loading up now! Yay, only another 15 hours of this mind-numbing insomnia treatment. I cant even read anything as its too dark and I am sick of playing billiards and camperstrike.
So, I shall now rant about rubbish. Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of Lok Sabha, the highest parliament in the land has offered to discuss the non-selection of Mr. Sourav Ganguly in parliament.
With the WTO conference just completed in HK, surely India has more pressing issues than its cricket team. Does he realise the message he is sending to the world? He terms it a "great injustice"!! I shudder to think what he would term female foeticide,farmer suicides,child trafficking.
What a mockery of Indian democracy - a shambles.
The moot point here is not a single person who is agitated about the issue has ever played competitive international cricket or is a stakeholder in the teams cricket results. Simply put,neither the Indian government or Mr.Pawar or BCCI will lose their jobs if Ganguly is reinstated and India lose the test. The coach and captain are the only members whose reputation and future are at stake in this game. If Ganguly is to be reinstated( and discussing this in parliament can and should not have affect selection decisions) for the next two series ,makes no contribution (as he has been doing for the last year or so) and India lose there will an absolute outrage in India with calls for the captain to step down and the "firengi" coach to be sacked!
So, why should anyone without any technical expertise, cricketing competence or stake in the outcome of the result be allowed to have a say in the selection process??
What I would love to see is the outcome of parliamentary discussion. If this discussion has some effect, I can only hope that we can use it as a precedent for parliamentary debates leading to concrete action. What can MP's do? Lobby Pawar - what will Pawar do? Does anyone realise that the selection committee includes the coach and captain? If they were to rescind this decision they will engineer the most fractious and polarised dressing room in international cricket.
Lastly, what is their basis of reinstating Ganguly in the team? He is neither a good enough batsmen to fit into the middle order or young enough to be given a long trial period. Yes, I agree he should have been given the choice to step down or get a farewell match but Ganguly has never wanted to quit. He believes that he is good enough to be in the team but the selectors dont. End of story!
He has been dumped like any other player. What is wrong with that. Why wasn't this hue and cry when Dravid was dropped from the ODI side or Laxman dropped from the Test side. Give me one advantage of Ganguly over Laxman. Yuvraj is in better form than Ganguly. If he loses form and Ganguly scores in domestic matches I can't imagine Dravid or chappel ignoring him. But, he needs to prove his worth to the side.
As an aside, I am slowly developing a deep loathing for the Bengali cricket fan. It was embarrasing and disgusting to see an 80,000 large crowd boo off the Indian Cricket team captain. I think Eden Gardens must never be given a test match/ODI again to host. Either that or play the game with closed doors like they do in European football after crowd misbehaviour.
It has always been my dream to watch a Indo-Pak cricket match at Eden Gardens, but I shall never go to that stadium to watch cricket.
Ok, enough of a rant. Back to robotic activity.
So, I shall now rant about rubbish. Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of Lok Sabha, the highest parliament in the land has offered to discuss the non-selection of Mr. Sourav Ganguly in parliament.
With the WTO conference just completed in HK, surely India has more pressing issues than its cricket team. Does he realise the message he is sending to the world? He terms it a "great injustice"!! I shudder to think what he would term female foeticide,farmer suicides,child trafficking.
What a mockery of Indian democracy - a shambles.
The moot point here is not a single person who is agitated about the issue has ever played competitive international cricket or is a stakeholder in the teams cricket results. Simply put,neither the Indian government or Mr.Pawar or BCCI will lose their jobs if Ganguly is reinstated and India lose the test. The coach and captain are the only members whose reputation and future are at stake in this game. If Ganguly is to be reinstated( and discussing this in parliament can and should not have affect selection decisions) for the next two series ,makes no contribution (as he has been doing for the last year or so) and India lose there will an absolute outrage in India with calls for the captain to step down and the "firengi" coach to be sacked!
So, why should anyone without any technical expertise, cricketing competence or stake in the outcome of the result be allowed to have a say in the selection process??
What I would love to see is the outcome of parliamentary discussion. If this discussion has some effect, I can only hope that we can use it as a precedent for parliamentary debates leading to concrete action. What can MP's do? Lobby Pawar - what will Pawar do? Does anyone realise that the selection committee includes the coach and captain? If they were to rescind this decision they will engineer the most fractious and polarised dressing room in international cricket.
Lastly, what is their basis of reinstating Ganguly in the team? He is neither a good enough batsmen to fit into the middle order or young enough to be given a long trial period. Yes, I agree he should have been given the choice to step down or get a farewell match but Ganguly has never wanted to quit. He believes that he is good enough to be in the team but the selectors dont. End of story!
He has been dumped like any other player. What is wrong with that. Why wasn't this hue and cry when Dravid was dropped from the ODI side or Laxman dropped from the Test side. Give me one advantage of Ganguly over Laxman. Yuvraj is in better form than Ganguly. If he loses form and Ganguly scores in domestic matches I can't imagine Dravid or chappel ignoring him. But, he needs to prove his worth to the side.
As an aside, I am slowly developing a deep loathing for the Bengali cricket fan. It was embarrasing and disgusting to see an 80,000 large crowd boo off the Indian Cricket team captain. I think Eden Gardens must never be given a test match/ODI again to host. Either that or play the game with closed doors like they do in European football after crowd misbehaviour.
It has always been my dream to watch a Indo-Pak cricket match at Eden Gardens, but I shall never go to that stadium to watch cricket.
Ok, enough of a rant. Back to robotic activity.
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