Emergent Noise

Yes, I did it again. I have a quiz tomorrow…that means I have test tomorrow. Its a test that actually counts in the final grade of the course. As usual, I was not aware that its going to be tomorrow. Fortunately, this time, I at least have the material on paper. Er, thats more due to Maya’s particularness than anything I did.

However, I am now faced with the task of covering basic chemical kinetics by tomorrow morning. Oh bummer.

I woke up very early today, in fact, we all did – Me, Debbu, Mom and Pooja. And then left for Churchgate at 5.45 am. Janfest ‘05 was on and we went to see Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s performance , but we also had to bear the performance of his two sons. These chaps, are trying hard to be as good as their father, but they’re not even halfway there.

Nonetheless , it was an enjoyable experience. Flag hoisting etc was done. After that, we went for lunch, kind of a small celebration for Devavrat’s birthday, which was yesterday. Basically, we hogged on a 15 inch x 10 inch crab, roasted in a tandoor. I always like sweet meat. Mom ate other things, more suited to her taste ….hehe…

As soon as we were home, the heavy meal and general sleep deprivation , made me doze off into the most wonderful sleep…I woke up at 8.00 pm. This holiday has been well utilised , some recuperation is necessary in periods of high-speed activities. Tomorrow, I start work again for two days. There is enough stuff to keep me busy.

I’m still groggy from the sleep …so I am going to enjoy whats left of today…in my semi-conscious state….Later.

After a few hours of curve fitting and typing out my experiment, I am finally done. All looks well. I am gonna hit the bunk now. Damn sleepy.

I sometimes wonder what a fly must feel like , waiting with sticky threads wrapped around its body…its wings pulsing but unable to break the tension. It gives up hope, I think, and lies exhausted…until the subtle vibrations of the spider’s deathly crawl grow stronger and stronger. Eight glistening eyes peer at it from the void above…descending down.

Does it feel the sharp pain as the spider’s chelicerae pierce into its body…injecting the poison that now liquefies its insides until they become a slush of flesh that the spider draws in…

The insect lets go and succumbs to the undead comfort of its silken grave. The grim reaper looks on.

The web has us all.

But it has different manifestations for all of us. What does it mean to you?

The workload has been substantially reduced because someone up there had the bright idea of letting us file printed literature in the journals. Biophysics experiments have to be completed on the computer…so less and less writing this semester.

Of course, microbiology is still chewing at at foot like a desperate beaver chews tree bark. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. It will be much awaited. Its this excessive work(Yes, I know I dont do as much work as the sincere students in the hostels ) for Generations that has forced me to shift my focus from learning. I was on a role. However, I have decided, this week will be the last. There are too many important things I want to be doing , to leave time to Generations type pursuits.

I must get back to reading, some good sleep, work on software and set up curve fitting and graphing packages on my computer and so on, besides catching up on the courses.

I did manage to woo the Biophysics instructor , I think her name is Deepa, into providing me her lab’s CD (from Chem. Engg) of Origin 7.5 to process data. Its a big thing because labs here are pretty conservative regarding licensing on software.

Ordinary mortals get by on Microsoft Excel, but I shall use Origin 7.5. I shall analyze my data on a $489 mathematics package, just to find out the slope of a few graphs. I beleive the term is “overkill”.

But boy, do I love overkill

Well, that went ok…nothing too invasive. I am glad its done with. Of course, I must return to the duties of the week. Primarily writing down the Microbiology practical results. I hate Microbiology.

This post is now going to be a flame post for microbiolog-y/ists.

IF frustrated = 1 //boolean

FUNC() {

COUT”

Most of what is done is hardly any science! Its just techniques that are designed to pull out the microbes from their natural environment and grow them. Its the dirty work of genetic engineering, protein isolation, enzyme studies and biological research in general. Which also means , that like other ‘dirty work’ , its essential and must be done. But every time I do it, I find a thousand things that I could have been better about the whole affair and another thousand that make the entire testing thing very very doubtable.

”

}

Endfunc

ELSE

End post

There has got to be a better way to go about this….hmm.

Yep..its back…just like it felt before going to Nagpur. I will again be taken from my comfortable sphere of things and hurled into conversations I don’t want to have and such. This moment reminds me of two literary works : P.L. Deshpande’s “Mi aani Majha Shatrupaksha” and a quote from Douglas Adams :

“On the planet earth, man had always assumed that he was more intellegent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

* The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy p156

I’ve said enough before on this before…I won’t make a second copy of it. At least this is not a 10-day long thing. Always the optimist huh?

Of course, between Biophysics practicals for two days, test preparation, Generations 2005 question hunting and delivery of posters, and the general requirement of reading that is necessary before every course lecture, my microbiology journal’s fate looks bleak, and consequently, so does mine at the hands of a certain ‘PP’ . He’ll drive me into the ground. But then , I haven’t been that low in some time …so it’ll remind me. See? Always the optimist.

Its been a busy week and the next one will be too, but this update comes because I felt I must write something about my friends. Yes, this sudden focus on friends is because a good friend of 3 years, Amar, wrote the most touching, full of praise and flattering testimonial on my Hi5 profile.

Join Hi5 here

Amar says: nachiket …. very difficult to explain this guy ! .. humm … we’ve been friends for past 3 years now .. but still after all this time i am not sure that i really know him that well .. but from whatever little I know of him … I can definately say that he’s been a great friend …moreover a true person ! he has been a source of many things for me … science in perticular and then there’s metallica and hard rock .. softwares, computer-games, to learn programming (or atleast to start with some preliminary stuff) … he’s a very influential person .. he presents himself and his ideas really well .. in a very precise manner … he is full of surprises .. you never know what he’ll be doing next. .. he takes ppl for a ride with his “palmestry” ..i know that coz i’ve been a victim of his stupid “this line – that line talk” …. he’s a very self-controlled person i feel..always in control of the situation .. and when it comes to science .. he is someone who knows what science is all about .. what more can I say … hey nachi, just be the same you are .. keep giving me new games (nah ! kidding …) .. Click here to see : Amar’s profile

For that I thank Amar, not just for his kind words, but through his brief analysis of my character, he gave me a sort of affirmation that I am actually becoming the person with the qualities I seek to imbibe in myself.

I must confess , to me “friends” will always refer to a handful of people with whom I’ve shared a few years of my life. I have observed them, learnt from them and they are part of my thoughts more often than they know…

As for Amar, I shall write again , on his profile. Until then, stay tuned.

A week into the new year, the answers have come and I’ve made up my mind. But besides that, a lot is in the process of happening. Tomorrow is a Saturday and usually a holiday but I am going to participate in a quiz on “General Biology” at a local college. I am doing it just for fun though…not really interested , because my experience with events that particular college, has not been pleasant.

Anyway, what the heck?

Besides that, I have to give a talk on “Biotechnology”…to the Xaviers Placement Cell, on Tuesday. I’ve been allotted 1 full hour, thats pretty long as far as talks go. I am wondering though why I have been called. There are several people with better knowledge about the subject that the placement cell can access. I’m supposed to answer questions etc. When did they get the idea that I am an expert on this? Sure…in training, but an expert?

Oh well, I’ll treat this as a good omen.

Thats it for now. In 15 minutes , I have to go to the airport, to pick up my sunglasses, and bro’s t-shirt and towel, that was left at Nagpur. And guess who is Mr. DeliveryMan : Wing Commander A.K Sood. Almost feel awkward reducing a Wing Commander to doing that.

The New Year is here. Best wishes for that…the answers are still coming….