congrats Venki

It doesn’t happen everyday … an Indian for Nobel … not that there’s any dearth of talent (in fact we have it better), but there are several other factors … anyway, it’s awesome. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, currently in MRC lab in cambridge will be getting the 2009 Nobel in Chemistry ( alongwith Thomas A. Stitz and Ada Yonath ) for his works in the fields of biocrystallography. Although currently an US citizen, he’s originally from Chidambaram, TN. Trained as a theoretical phycisist, he later shifted to bio and did pioneering works related to structures of ribosomes and chromatin-related proteins.

Venki, we’re proud of you man. Carry on.

Slumdog … now what does that mean??

Well, i don’t think this film has its heart at the right place.

Mixed reactions, to be precise. A film well put together, i must say, … story, actor choices, direction, music, editing, … all above average, outside the 3-sigma level ( can’t resist ), especially the fourth one outside the 6-sigma lim (here i’m at it again !), as is typical of dear A.R.R.

But … um, there always remains a but. I don’t want to watch this film again, unlike my gut feelings after i saw TZP or Dasvidaniya, or, to talk of Hollywood, say Memento or Dark Knight. This one’ll go down as many other films isaw and forgot, maybe with an added Oscar zing … “Slumdog what ? oh, the film which got A.R. two Oscars ?” (  Surely, he’ll get at least one.) Bas, that’s the only reason my brain’d distinguish it from the umpteen other movies seen. Sorry Mr. Danny Boyle. You did show us a part of ‘the real america’, but you didn’t fully show them a part of the real India.

You may argue, it got FOUR golden globes, after all. Well, one’s due to A.R., and , hm, … i don’t know how much credibility a f**kin’ award like this holds, which gives this movie a ‘best drama film’ award, handing a trash like Vicky Cristina Barcelona the one for best comedy (maybe just coz Woody Allen directed it) ! I mean, c’mon, at least you should swap their categories !!

P.S. Maybe by now you’re concluding i don’t know a hang ’bout films. Well, i can’t help it.

Rotten egg #2

My second rotten egg jointly goes to -

1. P. Chidambaram, the Indian Finance Minister, for initially putting a brave face and saying large things when faced questions on what the gov is doing to combat the ongoing economic crisis, but at last throwing the towel in and looking all dejected a day before diwali when the Sensex plunged below 9000.

2. The Indian petroleum ministry. When oil prices at international level were skyrocketing they were quick to respond by raising prices of petroleum products in the country. But now, when the international prices are dipping to an all-time low, their voices can barely be heard.

Pritam – the (copied) music sensation of India !

Sample this – a music director, renowned for his variety, and a string of hit songs -
1. Ya Ali ( Film Gangster ),
2. Bheegi Bheegi ( Film Gangster ),
3. Shikdum ( Film Dhoom ),
4. Kya mujhe pyaar hai ( Film Woh Lamhe ),
5. Pehli Nazar ( Film Race ) … to name a few.

Dream career, eh ? Highly talented ? Well, now sample THIS –
all of them were total liftoffs of other songs, generally of oriental origin. The original songs are, respectively, …
1. Ya Ghali ( By the arabic band Guitara.),
2. Bhebe dekhechho ki ( by the Bengali band Mohiner Ghoraguli ),
3. Sikidim ( a persian song ),
4. Tak Bisakah ( by the indonesian band Peter Pan ),
5. Sarang hae yo ( a korean song ).
some others of his hit songs ( like Tu hi meri shab hai ) have also been found to be ‘inspired’, to put it politely.

Why, man ? There is no easy way to fame, my friend. Do you have an ambition to be the next copying prodigy of Indian music after Anu Malik ? Please, for God’s sake, don’t do it. You are cresting a bad name for Indian music. It’s a shame to concede that you are a Bengali like me.

The cream

Now it feels cliche’ to even blog about this.

First you introduce out of nowhere an extended class of underprivileged social rungs, the OBCs. Fine, but what the hell is the need to give THEM the reservation in ( especially ) education. Why ?

The worst thing is that our political gurus do not want to compromise in this matter. At last the reservation is destined to kick off from this yr itself, but excluding the creamy layer, the comparatively better economically privileged ones among the OBCs, – as the Supreme Court ruled in its latest judgement. Reasonable, rationally sound. But … they won’t accept it even now. They want an unhindered, free ‘dadagiri’, nothing less would content them. And the circumstances suggest that they’ll get it, very sooner. After all, who’s the court. If the govt. says it won’t abide by the court’s order, what can the court do after all ??

This is not democracy, this is self-centered hypocrisy.

An alternative ending to the Long Bad Australian Summer, eh?

It’s long been sort of a ‘tradition’ of the Australian team, — every summer, bring foreign team, get them minimal acclimatization, with practice matches against lowly domestic teams, and before they get the hang of things even minimally, they are 1-0 down in the 4-test series against the ‘Gods-of-Cricket’ home team, losing cheaply in the Boxing Day test. By the time the test series ends, the confidence meter of the visitors runs in negative. And after routing in the prelim matches of the long ODI tri-series, the tired and shattered lot would have no desire to win left in the multiple ‘finals’, they would only want to return home. A well-planned arrangement to provide quality amusement to the summer-holiday home crowd, and to bolster averages of home players. And also, everyone knows that the Australian cricket board can NOT make such an itinerary, tailormade to their own requirements, without any bias from the ICC.

And behold, the tradition is broken. The indication was clear from the Indian team’s  last tour, especially in the test series, though they were outplayed in the ODIs. But this time, it’s win-win. Any rational person would call it a moral victory for the Indian team in the tests, after the Sydney test fiasco. And now, in the ODIs. Ours was the least experienced team of all the three teams, having only one of our famed batting quartet in it, and leading from the front a young gun with limited captaining experience at the international level. Still, the hosts were beaten on straight matches in the feared ‘finals’. All the ‘arrogance-personified’ players of the Australian team were hung their heads in shame after the last defeat. And the leader of the lot, Ponting, had to concede that they were simply outplayed in both the matches.
Now everyone down under is singing a different tune. The local media has at last understood that we people ARE tough nuts to crack. Now we do not just give the home team a chase for their money, we play to win, unlike the meek days of Azharuddin. Now India are the ‘Dada’. And hats off to the original Dada, of course, for he started all this ‘evolution’, … the controlled aggression bit, the passion, the exemplary team spirit in crisis, … everything.

P.S. Cricket Australia now accuses Bhajji called Haydos  a ‘liar’ and Gilly ‘no saint’, well, ‘an obnoxious little weed’ ( hayden said this of Bhajji ) is by no stretch of imagination more sober in calling names than ‘liar’.

Boo reservation

The topic has died down now a bit, eh ?

Again, it’s a lot about generalizing at wrong place ( see Interpretation is everything ) . Hey govt, what you do is in general apply some relaxations to reserved categories candidates, in almost all places where you are directly involved. How do you know that all of them have intelligence below average ( speaking of  lowering qualification / pass  marks in exams, interviews etc. ), or all of them have less income, or, say at large, all of them are less privileged ? Especially, when our country has crossed 60 yrs of independence ? And that also overlooking the constitution, which says to continue with the policy for 50 yrs after it ( the constitution ) comes to effect. So it should have been done away with in 2000 ! then why not ? Okay, the condition of the reserved category people was BAD then, but is it so still ? If not, then why the policy ? And if yes, then what did YOU do in the last 50 yrs ??

And those who are benefiting, they are ashamed to concede their ‘reserved’ status, yet battle to earn the privileges. Even the well-to-do part among them not leaving out their own chances for ethical reasons. Gujjars are now fighting to be ST from SC! Huh.

The govt is not only not abolishing this practice, it is now encouraging it, even, I believe, pressurizing at some places to implement it. No prizes for guessing why. Actually that very reason prompted me for this post. I am is ISI, the only institute in the country outside the HRD or education ministry that can award its own independent degrees. Its entrance tests are one of the country’s toughest, and no fluke can get you through. Until last yr, our ‘reservation policy’ was only limited to paying travel expense of coming to the institute after selection in any course. It was well nigh okay, in an institute of such national importance. But suddenly, this yr it has stopped being an outlier, halving prospectus prices and bold-facing ‘due consideration will be given to SC/ST candidates’ in every ad. Even the institute website now displays an elaborate ‘reservation policy’! Shame. Why such change? Can’t at all eliminate chance that any pressure was not given.

Okay, excellence is the last word here. Even if someone un-deserving gets in, he CAN’T survive in ISI. I have that belief.

 

Actually, I am not against reservation. But that must be case-specific, person-specific, circumstance-specific, … not general. That’s the actual ‘the-govt-cares-for-you’ gesture. Policies must be flexible, if they are implemented for some good of the country.

Dig ‘em up !

The umpires could’ve awarded the match to Australia for Harbhajan’s ‘racist remarks’ on Symonds, … that would be better. Even better, why play matches, we give walkaways, and you win 4-0, you so-called world-beaters, you unsporting gits. Even if Brett Lee declares, “It all ( the controversial umpiring decisions ) evens up at the end”, anyone with little rationale, even the aussie players themselves, that it is NOT so at the end of the SCG test. Australia have virtually been awarded this match that they were going to lose within FOUR DAYS. True, even barring the umpiring ‘dadagiri’-s, Indian batting was spineless in the last innings, but then, they showed more spine than Australia on first 2 sessions of day 1. And how much unfair pressure can you tolerate? This aussie side is one of the weakest ever, yes, and would easily buckle in such a condition. This may sound outrageous and more of an outburst, but the fact is that barring India, the handful of teams in test cricket grossly overestimate them and get overawed, and …… sigh, get chewed. India also does surrender sometimes, but still, we are the only team they fear.

For us, playing is primary, winning is secondary, and for them it’s just the reverse. That’s why they get frustrated by a 50-something 8^th wkt stand of us, and start chirping away. As Harsha Bhogle rightly pointed out, they were no longer sure that they were gonna get a wicket. And, most importantly, their theme of this series is a severe panic, which started in the first test, when our ‘inexperienced’, ‘incapable-of-taking-20-wickets’, grossly underestimated bowling line-up shook them. They forgot that of late on away tours, the contribution of bowlers was more than the ‘best’ batting line-up. And, …… ah yes, umpires, … why they have surely been tapped, because even in MCG, Billy Bowden looked ‘dubious’ (to put it politely), and this Sydney test, well, it has been rigged, just like the CPM does in the polls of Bengal (btw, notice the nice and befitting analogy of ‘have-to-win-at-any-cost’ pack of potheads ) ! None of them except than Gilly is a gentleman, and ‘MoM’ (don’t know if he’s really been declared, but he certainly is the all-round ‘hero’ of this match ! ) Symonds gets a special mention among them.

Now, digs at the England team. England, just like their soccer counterparts, is a team that is much hyped, overrated and least delivering. Gavaskar’s right, their county cricket is of the standard of our plate group ranji matches.

And now, …… the ICC. The epitome of bias, especially against the sub-continental teams. Clearly a desperate offshoot of the dying, cliched colonial superiority complex.

A year which didn’t seem that long

Dard mein bhi yeh lab muskuraa jaate hai
Beete lamhein hamein jab bhi yaad aate hai ……

Hmm,…… true, just another year added to my life, but this one will of course be very special. 2007 has been quite off-beat and I did enjoy it.

SPECIAL BECAUSE …

1. Only thrice in my life I have been genuinely very happy and content, and 2007 gave me two of them. Once in March, when I got the news of my selection for the Bio-olympiad camp, and another in June ( 29th to be precise ), when learnt of my selection in ISI. Both are special because they were long-cherished dreams come true. I was fed up with the gimmicky lab-works in school, and the bio-camp will be memorable for the vital hardcore lab-exposures I was badly yearning for, AND the camaraderie there. The rest of the year has been pretty drab in terms of labs, in fact I guess this is the only sacrifice I had to make by opting out of medical even after allotment in counseling. But the next yr for sure is going to make up for all this, yes. In fact, at the end of the year I may end up better off than the 2nd yr college counterparts!Well, what can I tell about the enormity of selection in ISI? It is literally future-defining. My first love has always been maths, and I badly wanted to be here. Yet, only due to lack of practice, the orientation was slipping away from me all the time, from end-11th. True I finished the maths syllabus by June last yr, but after that I left doing maths altogether, barring a few special ISI-types, …… and, the grades suffered. I couldn’t even qualify the regional math Olympiad in 12th, which I did in 11th! Though I recovered completely, my future with maths was very much depending on this very result, because not getting in ISI means going on to study medical, where it is an unknown territory. But after getting in ISI I can still can go on with bio, my second love, maybe not here, but elsewhere. And above all, this institute is a totally different ball-game. After all, some try and try and try to be the best, some are born to be ISI-ans.

2. I am someone who very much likes to sit for exams. But 2007 has managed to exhaust even me. Erm, …… appearing in 40 exams and 4 interviews doesn’t seem less, eh? ( Not to mention the ‘countably infinite’ mock tests! ) April holds the ‘most in one month’ record, 11 exams! It looked like this …
April 1st – CBSE PMT prelims,
April 2nd – Biology practical board exam,
April 3rd – Physics practical board exam,
April 4th – Chemistry practical board exam,
April 11th – Maths board exam,
April 16th – Environmental Studies board exam,
April 18th – Bengali board exam,
April 22nd – WB Joint ent. ( 3 papers of 2 hrs each ),
April 29th – AIEEE ( All-India Engg. Ent. ).

3. I started blogging. Now I am a competent programmer. My FM radio adapter was repeatedly ‘getting ill’ last yr, so had to spend a very boring new-music-less 6 months or so, but now, thanks to the net facilities in our institute, I am growing my collection.

A FEW GOOD MEN …( Of course not in any order )

Those I would be leaving behind ……

1. My maths teacher, Tapas Sir ( Or rather, Tapasbabu, the Bengali way! ). An enormous source of inspiration and positivity. He kept faith in me, when even I was losing faith on myself.

2. My chemistry teacher, Samirbabu, the ‘headsir’ of our school. An encyclopedia, a genius of good-old type chemistry, though maybe tad weak on the MCQ front ( for muggles, MCQ means multiple choice questions, favorite in India for competitive exams ).

3. My bio teacher, Abhjitbabu. I’d call him the human face of biology. Not flawless, but more importantly, a person to quickly concede any error if pointed, he taught the subject with a certain passion, and curious nuggets of information.

4. P.G.Kale, a professor at the bio camp. An endearing fellow to all of us there. His heartfelt cordiality impressed me.

Those I would be going with ……

5. B.V.Rao – Our probability teacher in ISI. Well, he’d top this list. You can’t dislike anything about this short, elderly person. A world-famous probabilist and measure-theorist, he’s literally a man with no enemies, a perfect gentleman, a great teacher, and above all, very close to the students. He’d be in the ‘a few good men’ list of each and every ISI-an, I can bet.

6. Saurabh Ghosh – Our young, short and chubby Statistics teacher, dear ‘sau-daa’ of us all. Again someone close to students, yet very professional and straightforward in academic matters.

ON PERSONAL FRONT …

I have grown up.

Homeopathy, …… we’re still not there

Surely I am not taking sides.

Just as ‘once upon a time Biology was termed ‘voodoo science’, now this branch of the so called larger group ‘alternative medicine’ is branded pseudoscience, thanks to some stubborn docs and equally, perhaps more, stubborn medicine-giants.

Of course the underlying basics of homeopathy are somewhat ‘holistic’. To the current level of intellect that we humans have acquired, we can’t find out how on world can perpetual dilution and more and more shakes make the medicine more stronger, especially when the basic ingredient is often a harmful thing. And more importantly, at such dilutions in a given amount of the medicine the probability of finding even one molecule of the base is practically zero. The famous Lancet study has even bravely by experiment dismissed the whole great saga of homeopathy as a mere ‘placebo effect’ gimmick. But then, that disapproval is also not universal.

You can’t disprove it yet. We all know homeopathy cures, sometimes, if not often, even better than the conventional ‘Allopathy’. You won’t say the good old ‘Arnica’ doesn’t reduce pain. The concept has since Hahnemann gained a large amount of trust-base, surely it is not totally standing upon fluke and eyewash, that isn’t a stable ESS ( Evolutionary Stable Strategy, ala Selfish Gene, thanks to Richard Dawkins and John Maynard Smith). It doesn’t even violate our scientific notion, it challenges. We are still in our toddler stages when we talk about the minuscule world, the world of atoms. The domain of electromagnetic (broadly) ‘interactions’ remain vast and unconquered before us. Our science doesn’t have a concrete, that is, provable base. Lots of peer-reviewed studies have proved efficacy of this branch of medicine, and though debated, sometimes of infinitely diluted solutions.

Docs are supposed to be nice to patients, and most homeopaths know it very well that the psychological factors of an ‘I care’ attitude can do a whole lot of good to the patient as well. Although overstretching of this is never supported. And then, the ideas of ‘paper remedy’ (“Write the remedy and potency on a piece of paper and place the paper on the left hand side of the body with the writing towards the body.”) ^[is nothing but a placebo, and thunderstorm or Berlin wall supposed to be related to homeopathic medicine, are damn ridiculous. This is of course unacceptable.