I have spent the whole day in front of a computer screen trying to find a research idea for my masters thesis. I have several ideas and today was working on HIV and malaria interaction. Phew..hard work especially trying to be creative. I wonder how people keep thinking of new stuff to come up with.
I noticed that I have not written anything about the US, berkeley and first impressions. I kept hoping that I would find time to do it and write a day by day account, but things have gone too quickly. So, I shall now bitch and whine about random stuff and daily experiences.
So, I spent my last day hanging out in an "American pub" called the Albatross which was actually quite nice with some friends from class. Its quite a comfy pub with lots of board games which 27 year olds like me decided to indulge in. Anyway, this is not the point.
I found one of my comrades was drinking Jack Daniels and DIET COKE! I did not quite get the rationale behind this. I would like to be fit and not die of strokes, CHD and the diet coke balances for the fact that I am having whisky which might kill my liver. Of course, this overlooks the fact that the man decided to pollute whisky (even blended stuff) with a carbonated drink!
As I understand it, this is a popular drink in the US. hmmmppfff.. I shall act as whisky snob.
On a personal note, I am drinking more beer than I ever have. There are only a couple of places in berkeley which have a beer garden and you can enjoy the sun and a leisurely drink. All the places are breweries and serve a good selection of beers but never a G&T or a nip of single malt. So, I have actually had more beer in these six weeks than I have ever had in 4 years in the UK. Just goes to show you what circumstance can do. I also am beginning to enjoy it and wish I was able to spend more time with MC at the Butcher's. I might have learnt something! oh..I do miss the Butchers, purely for sentimental reasons.
Wednesday, August 15
Avahan Interview HIV in India
Health Affairs Blog
This is a very interesting interview of perhaps India's best funded AIDS program. Ashok Alexander was a McKinsey consultant and now has become involved in NGO work. I was quite interested in reading his views about the epidemic and prevention.
The first question about prevalence estimates of HIV is very interesting because the Indian authorities have consistently argued that the WHO estimates have been inflated and wrong. I must admit that that I did not believe the Indian figures as I never trust the Indian government, but they seem to have come out on the right side of this argument and have found that the numbers are much reduced.
As an aside, there are some seriously weird people in the world. When this preliminary report based on the national Family Household survey was made public there were some civil society interest groups who believed this was a conspiracy between pharma companies and the Indian government to allow pharma companies to patent drugs and reduce the Indian government's spending on AIDS drugs. Here is their point of view and all I can say is considering what happened to Novartis quite recently I cannot see how these intelligent, educated people can make such absurd accusations.
I digress. Returning to this interview, the other interesting observation that Mr.Alexander makes regards the apparent North-South divide regarding HIV prevalence. The southern states have much higher HIV prevalence and he attributes this to greater economic development which leads to increased migration to these states, more slums, sex workers and human mobility. I think thats an interesting argument although I would also argue that your data from the Northern states are probably not very accurate and better education in the south would probably lead to better reporting and surveillance.
He also states "I would go so far as to say India has one of the most balanced and holistic national programs. Now one the biggest challenge is to implement it at scale and with quality. That remains to be done."
The greatest stumbling block in India's public health system is size and therefore I think we are looking at a difficult task in trying to scale up the problem. Take some basic health system indicators and you will realise the problem. USA has 730,000 physicians at a density of 2.65/1000 people while India has 645,000 at a density of 0.6/1000 while China has over 1 million physicians at a density of 1.06/1000. My point is that almost 90% of our doctors are concentrated in the urban areas so in essence you are probably only getting about 1 doctor per 10,000 people in the rural area and thats a conservative estimate. So, there is almost no way you are going to be able to reach the required people simply by using the already existing health set up. It is arguable that you do nor really require physicians for behavioural interventions. I agree and would be even more worried if you look at the numbers of health workers the government has recorded. It is close to 82 for every 10,000 people. This number is almost too small to be able to control, undertake surveillance,educate and implement a health program.
I would argue the way to manage our health system is in effect to break in down into local systems. Alexander alludes to this in the interview indicating the reason why Avahan's prevention program has been so successful. He gives two reasons - community participation and a "basic common policy" which is adapted at the local level. If we are to push our prevention programs forward and scale it up to the national level, perhaps we should try and break every metropolis into smaller sections each having its own unique millieu, issues and social dynamics that need to be understood, leveraged and encompassed for the success of the program. Similarly, the same needs to be done in towns and districts.
I wonder how it is going to happen. If I were the GOI I would look at two national programs to learn my lessons. The polio eradication program which was a massive success and the national malaria eradication program which was a failure before embarking on another and I would argue even more important national health program. The strategy should encourage community participation and build a bottom-up approach.
This is a very interesting interview of perhaps India's best funded AIDS program. Ashok Alexander was a McKinsey consultant and now has become involved in NGO work. I was quite interested in reading his views about the epidemic and prevention.
The first question about prevalence estimates of HIV is very interesting because the Indian authorities have consistently argued that the WHO estimates have been inflated and wrong. I must admit that that I did not believe the Indian figures as I never trust the Indian government, but they seem to have come out on the right side of this argument and have found that the numbers are much reduced.
As an aside, there are some seriously weird people in the world. When this preliminary report based on the national Family Household survey was made public there were some civil society interest groups who believed this was a conspiracy between pharma companies and the Indian government to allow pharma companies to patent drugs and reduce the Indian government's spending on AIDS drugs. Here is their point of view and all I can say is considering what happened to Novartis quite recently I cannot see how these intelligent, educated people can make such absurd accusations.
I digress. Returning to this interview, the other interesting observation that Mr.Alexander makes regards the apparent North-South divide regarding HIV prevalence. The southern states have much higher HIV prevalence and he attributes this to greater economic development which leads to increased migration to these states, more slums, sex workers and human mobility. I think thats an interesting argument although I would also argue that your data from the Northern states are probably not very accurate and better education in the south would probably lead to better reporting and surveillance.
He also states "I would go so far as to say India has one of the most balanced and holistic national programs. Now one the biggest challenge is to implement it at scale and with quality. That remains to be done."
The greatest stumbling block in India's public health system is size and therefore I think we are looking at a difficult task in trying to scale up the problem. Take some basic health system indicators and you will realise the problem. USA has 730,000 physicians at a density of 2.65/1000 people while India has 645,000 at a density of 0.6/1000 while China has over 1 million physicians at a density of 1.06/1000. My point is that almost 90% of our doctors are concentrated in the urban areas so in essence you are probably only getting about 1 doctor per 10,000 people in the rural area and thats a conservative estimate. So, there is almost no way you are going to be able to reach the required people simply by using the already existing health set up. It is arguable that you do nor really require physicians for behavioural interventions. I agree and would be even more worried if you look at the numbers of health workers the government has recorded. It is close to 82 for every 10,000 people. This number is almost too small to be able to control, undertake surveillance,educate and implement a health program.
I would argue the way to manage our health system is in effect to break in down into local systems. Alexander alludes to this in the interview indicating the reason why Avahan's prevention program has been so successful. He gives two reasons - community participation and a "basic common policy" which is adapted at the local level. If we are to push our prevention programs forward and scale it up to the national level, perhaps we should try and break every metropolis into smaller sections each having its own unique millieu, issues and social dynamics that need to be understood, leveraged and encompassed for the success of the program. Similarly, the same needs to be done in towns and districts.
I wonder how it is going to happen. If I were the GOI I would look at two national programs to learn my lessons. The polio eradication program which was a massive success and the national malaria eradication program which was a failure before embarking on another and I would argue even more important national health program. The strategy should encourage community participation and build a bottom-up approach.
Tuesday, August 14
Tea issues again
I spent an inordinate amount of time in the past trying to get the right tea brewing procedure and I got lots of advice.
Now LA has sent me this BBC recipe for making masala chai. This Anjum Anand lady obviously has not made a cup of tea in the hostel has she? Issues I have with this procedure:
1. She uses a tea bag!! Eeks..sin committed, I don't know whether I should go on further.
2. Then, she uses 10 pods of cardomom for one cup of tea. Is she making tea or rasam?
3. She says adding salt is optional! Have you ever in your life heard of anyone who makes tea by adding salt? what was she thinking when she wrote this?
4. It takes her 15 minutes to cook the milk for tea? My god..can you imagine boiling ginger, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon for 15 minutes - there is a chance in hell that you will ever be able to taste the tea.You probably are having masala milk or masala water.
So, I hope you will not use this recipe to make tea or else at least make sure you call it "hot jal jeera"
Now LA has sent me this BBC recipe for making masala chai. This Anjum Anand lady obviously has not made a cup of tea in the hostel has she? Issues I have with this procedure:
1. She uses a tea bag!! Eeks..sin committed, I don't know whether I should go on further.
2. Then, she uses 10 pods of cardomom for one cup of tea. Is she making tea or rasam?
3. She says adding salt is optional! Have you ever in your life heard of anyone who makes tea by adding salt? what was she thinking when she wrote this?
4. It takes her 15 minutes to cook the milk for tea? My god..can you imagine boiling ginger, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon for 15 minutes - there is a chance in hell that you will ever be able to taste the tea.You probably are having masala milk or masala water.
So, I hope you will not use this recipe to make tea or else at least make sure you call it "hot jal jeera"
Sporting news
I really miss being in England right now. I remember the last time India came to England, it was 2004 August and chatting with LA who was the only person in the group who followed cricket. Of course, now we have JF who also follows cricket and tries to convince people that a five day test is really interesting. When India played Pakistan I spent my day in the lab glued to the computer refreshing cricinfo every five minutes or attached speakers and listened to commentary. During that series people thought that I was some Indian weirdo with serious nationalistic issues and hating Pakistan but during the Ashes when I unashamedly had the commentary on in the lab rooting for england (as was everyone else in the world except the Aussies), I think people realised that I was mad! Of course, after the fateful smack on the eye I quickly acquired the label of "cricket representative" of the group.
Now, I get emails from LA saying the cricket is going badly. Oh if only I could have spent the day in the lab watching cricket once again,especially this series with India winning, my life would have been perfect.
Congratulations to Dravid and co. I woke up to watch the fourth days play and I remember thinking that I would have a bat and not enforced the follow-on for the same reasons that Dravid did. I agree with Andrew Miller's piece that endorses Dravid's decision to bat again and suggests that had he lost this test and in effect the series then the same fans who are pillorying him for his "cowardly" decision would be the ones that burnt effigies of him and called for his resignation.
In all likelihood we might have won the game if Dravid enforced the follow-on, but equally there was a risk considering India's last innings shenanigans we might have contrived to lose the game and I suspect memories of chasing 123 in Barbados in 1996 must have risen in Tendulkar's mind. In the long run nobody will remember this drawn test but will definitely remember the series win, just as few people today remember the exact sequence of Kapil's 1986 series win.
My only regret is that it isn't a five match series. We now have seven meaningless one-dayers which in my opinion are worthless compared to another couple of tests. For all I could care, we should eliminate one-dayers completely from the cricket schedule and have test series like these with sporting wickets like the ones prepared for this series. I am really looking forward to the Twenty-Twenty WC and see how that takes the Indian sub-continent's imagination as that will probably decide its fate on the international sporting calendar.
Other sporting news - Woods wins again and manages to avoid a major year drought, cycling needs to revamp their entire athlete list and rugby union had some great matches over the weekend. The All Blacks have still to have a warm up match while France,Wales, Ireland,England and Scotland have all had a couple already. No betting man would like to bet against the All Blacks reaching the finals of the WC and no betting man would like to bet on them winning it given their horrendous history in the WC. C'mon NZ for once, please win!
Now, I get emails from LA saying the cricket is going badly. Oh if only I could have spent the day in the lab watching cricket once again,especially this series with India winning, my life would have been perfect.
Congratulations to Dravid and co. I woke up to watch the fourth days play and I remember thinking that I would have a bat and not enforced the follow-on for the same reasons that Dravid did. I agree with Andrew Miller's piece that endorses Dravid's decision to bat again and suggests that had he lost this test and in effect the series then the same fans who are pillorying him for his "cowardly" decision would be the ones that burnt effigies of him and called for his resignation.
In all likelihood we might have won the game if Dravid enforced the follow-on, but equally there was a risk considering India's last innings shenanigans we might have contrived to lose the game and I suspect memories of chasing 123 in Barbados in 1996 must have risen in Tendulkar's mind. In the long run nobody will remember this drawn test but will definitely remember the series win, just as few people today remember the exact sequence of Kapil's 1986 series win.
My only regret is that it isn't a five match series. We now have seven meaningless one-dayers which in my opinion are worthless compared to another couple of tests. For all I could care, we should eliminate one-dayers completely from the cricket schedule and have test series like these with sporting wickets like the ones prepared for this series. I am really looking forward to the Twenty-Twenty WC and see how that takes the Indian sub-continent's imagination as that will probably decide its fate on the international sporting calendar.
Other sporting news - Woods wins again and manages to avoid a major year drought, cycling needs to revamp their entire athlete list and rugby union had some great matches over the weekend. The All Blacks have still to have a warm up match while France,Wales, Ireland,England and Scotland have all had a couple already. No betting man would like to bet against the All Blacks reaching the finals of the WC and no betting man would like to bet on them winning it given their horrendous history in the WC. C'mon NZ for once, please win!
Over
The first quarter of my Berkeley experience is over. My summer session is over and now I have a two week break before the real thing starts. I must admit that the summer session wore me down after a point. I was spending close to 7 hours at a stretch in class either in front of a computer or listening to lectures and had homework and tests to study for over the weekends.
So, I spent the weekend reading Sackett and Hopalong Cassidy novels and doing nothing else. Its been a lazy weekend but the real work begins now. I need to finish my last two chapters of my thesis, write my CK exam and prepare a research project in the next two weeks. So, the plan is to go to office everyday and work from 8 - 8.
On the other hand I hope these two days of rest have given me enough time to recharge my batteries and get ready for the big battle. I shall know by the end of the week. Not much else going on with life really. Am cooking almost everyday unless I get chinese takeaway :) Made rajma the other day and since then have not made a big meal, generally omlette, pasta or upma.
Cook, eat, sleep, surf and write..thats my life!!
So, I spent the weekend reading Sackett and Hopalong Cassidy novels and doing nothing else. Its been a lazy weekend but the real work begins now. I need to finish my last two chapters of my thesis, write my CK exam and prepare a research project in the next two weeks. So, the plan is to go to office everyday and work from 8 - 8.
On the other hand I hope these two days of rest have given me enough time to recharge my batteries and get ready for the big battle. I shall know by the end of the week. Not much else going on with life really. Am cooking almost everyday unless I get chinese takeaway :) Made rajma the other day and since then have not made a big meal, generally omlette, pasta or upma.
Cook, eat, sleep, surf and write..thats my life!!
Friday, August 10
The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: Entertainment
The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: Entertainment
This is an incredible story. I love small book shops and small publishers. They give a chance to unknown authors and I love spending time in random small niche bookstores because you can often find the most interesting stuff in them.
I am glad someone is willing to stand up and take a stand against these big monopolising book stores. I must admit I miss Blackwells and have yet to find a bookstore in Berkeley where I can sit with a coffee and spend the day either people watching or my head deep in a fascinating book. I remember finishing (almost) "the Ayrton Senna Story" and getting hooked onto the Philip Pullman Lyra Trilogy in Blackwells. I also remember studying for my PLAB exam in Blackwells every Sunday while sipping a coffee,tea and polishing off some lovely chocolate cake. I cannot imagine the day when we no longer have bookstores and amazon or internet book buying takes over, I suspect my weekends will be spent shriveled up in front of a computer instead of enjoying a refreshing cup of tea in a bookshop.
Can you imagine Bombay without Fountain pavement book sellers? or Delhi without Daryaganj? or London without Charring Cross?
Thank you Mr. Rakusin
This is an incredible story. I love small book shops and small publishers. They give a chance to unknown authors and I love spending time in random small niche bookstores because you can often find the most interesting stuff in them.
I am glad someone is willing to stand up and take a stand against these big monopolising book stores. I must admit I miss Blackwells and have yet to find a bookstore in Berkeley where I can sit with a coffee and spend the day either people watching or my head deep in a fascinating book. I remember finishing (almost) "the Ayrton Senna Story" and getting hooked onto the Philip Pullman Lyra Trilogy in Blackwells. I also remember studying for my PLAB exam in Blackwells every Sunday while sipping a coffee,tea and polishing off some lovely chocolate cake. I cannot imagine the day when we no longer have bookstores and amazon or internet book buying takes over, I suspect my weekends will be spent shriveled up in front of a computer instead of enjoying a refreshing cup of tea in a bookshop.
Can you imagine Bombay without Fountain pavement book sellers? or Delhi without Daryaganj? or London without Charring Cross?
Thank you Mr. Rakusin
Wednesday, August 8
50 greatest sporting insults | Football - Times Online
50 greatest sporting insults | Football - Times Online
This is not a very good collection but still fun to read. I particularly like the one about Shaq in the comments. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece: "I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to."
Cannot wait for Aug 9th and the first test to begin. Should be interesting. I dont know whether India is going to be able to shrug off the win-lose curse. I sincerely hope they do considering that I have to wake up at 3am everyday to watch the match, the least they can do is draw. Anyway, I suspect a lot of it is going to have to do with winning the toss. Do not expect the Oval pitch to be dry and crumbly, rather a green top and crumbling on day 4 and 5.
Lets hope its a good match and that Sreesanth can stop acting like an idiot and instead bowl like he did in South Africa.
This is not a very good collection but still fun to read. I particularly like the one about Shaq in the comments. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece: "I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to."
Cannot wait for Aug 9th and the first test to begin. Should be interesting. I dont know whether India is going to be able to shrug off the win-lose curse. I sincerely hope they do considering that I have to wake up at 3am everyday to watch the match, the least they can do is draw. Anyway, I suspect a lot of it is going to have to do with winning the toss. Do not expect the Oval pitch to be dry and crumbly, rather a green top and crumbling on day 4 and 5.
Lets hope its a good match and that Sreesanth can stop acting like an idiot and instead bowl like he did in South Africa.
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