Emergent Noise

Sleeping though the evening means you’re going to stay up the night, and today I watched “Men of Honour” , starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. It’s a great movie, about doing things because they say you can’t.

In a time when the U.S Navy is just de-segregated, ‘Men of Honour’ is the story of two men – De Niro is Master Chief Sundy , a Navy Diver having a problem with authourity, and consequently bearing the brunt of demotions and turning alcoholic; Gooding is Carl Brashear, a black farm-boy who dreams to be a Navy Man, and fights racism, red-tape , administration and eventually his own handicap to become a Navy Diver, because of his conviction to do what everyone says he cannot do. He even has to prove his competence in court lugging a 290 pound Navy diving suit on land for 12 steps.

It’s been days since I watched a good movie and this one was an enjoyable experience.

Sleeping though the evening means you’re going to stay up the night, and today I watched “Men of Honour” , starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. It’s a great movie, about doing things because they say you can’t.

In a time when the U.S Navy is just de-segregated, ‘Men of Honour’ is the story of two men – De Niro is Master Chief Sundy , a Navy Diver having a problem with authourity, and consequently bearing the brunt of demotions and turning alcoholic; Gooding is Carl Brashear, a black farm-boy who dreams to be a Navy Man, and fights racism, red-tape , administration and eventually his own handicap to become a Navy Diver, because of his conviction to do what everyone says he cannot do. He even has to prove his competence in court lugging a 290 pound Navy diving suit on land for 12 steps.

It’s been days since I watched a good movie and this one was an enjoyable experience.

Today was the appointment at the German Consulate in Mumbai. And I thought I was more or less prepared with the Visa form filled up, photocopies of the ticket, insurance everything. I land at 9.00 am. No problem, I think, my appointment is at 9.30 am. Park the bike … make my way to Hoechst House 8th Floor, Visa Section. It turns out, the appointment, is not really an appointment. I mean, the appointees do not get to see the appointers at the said time. You just take a token, with a number on it…and wait…wait…wait…as the bunch of people who haven’t read instructions on the website…keep finding out their mistakes and arguing and finally leaving in a huff. One guy even argues about something to the point that the counter lady calls “Security” on the public address system. Man, you should know when to take a hint and leave.

So anyhow…finally this chap comes and says “Tokens 40-45, to the 10th Floor please”. The counter upstairs has only asked for 5 individuals. Tokens are allotted for individuals and groups. The guy on the 8th floor says “5 tokens”. The next moment 20 people are heading upstairs.

The security fellow upstairs gets upset. Keeps bitching about how this is the Consul-General’s office and there cannot be any crowding here.

A certain Mr.Gupta….who was feeling rather good about himself…stirs up a little ruckus. But it’s easily subsided with conversation remaining civil (people haven’t waited THAT long yet.)

So anyhow…I wait until my turn… (I’m no.41). Lady at the counter is co-operative. I am thinking it’s just 7 days…they’re inviting me. It shouldn’t be a problem. But as I have realized, that, is the bane of all visa applicants. Everyone thinks “I don’t have a problem”. Visa Officers, on the other hand, are hand picked for their talent to find problems with the most perfect of applications.

So anyway, even though the letter mentions I get paid for accommodation and travel. She says you’d be carrying cash, so I need I.T returns and get them faxed. I am like…ok, whatever you say (charming smile, too late to have a hassle-free experience, but on time to make her feel bad about making me run around.)

So I go get the faxes that are faxes of photocopies…with nothing other then black quibbles on the paper. I present it to her just in time, while a Ph.D from TIFR Basudeb is finishing up. He recognizes me from Orkut. And we exchange pleasantries. Well, whaddaya know…this Orkut thing is working in more ways then one.

So anyway, he is off the counter and I give my documents to the visa lady again. Takes one look at the faxes, and says “Good..Collect your passport on Monday”.

Now upto now, I thought I was having a pretty inconvenient day, but as I found out in the evening, Basudeb has been spending a lot more time hanging around the consulate then I have and has interesting experiences to share…which has detailed on his blog

So anyway, after running a small errand in Vile Parle, I was back home. Supposed to read 22 papers provided by TIFR’s Dr. L. C Padhy for his test tomorrow. Don’t think that is happening soon…

There is a thing about Marathi people….we’re hopeless at Hindi. There used to be a joke about how in Mumbaiyya Hindi “Listen to me!” is “Tum mera aiko!!” . For the uninitiated “Aik” = listen in Marathi. Aiko is a marathi word with a Hindi inflexion.

Yesterday though, Pooja revealed Parlekar-ness by saying “…tell them to STOP…!! Thaambo !!

Imagine my delight as I pointed it out to her )

Anyhow, on other fronts, I am right-now doing a visa app. and the exams are trickling in one by one (like I told one of my friends recently, my grammar died in immuno class). Just about 12 days to go… The heat is getting rather too much these days. My forearms are already tanned 4 shades more compared to me. Result of the biking.

It’s done. Well, it’s not exactly as complete as I would have liked it to be, but it’s off my hands…and it’s got about a year of exploratory work into N-glycosylation.

The hanging sword of having to submit your thesis is the worst feeling ever. The working part is so much more enjoyable. There is excitement as you discover something new (often only to you), talking to the labs, and try to put together a story of how it (what you are trying to figure out) must be…well… figuring itself out.

Ah…but when it comes to putting it on paper, all those thoughts you have in your head must be captured in words. I take it quite literally, for thoughts on paper are rigid. They loose their capacity to flow and intermingle with other ideas. Worse still, nuances of language start biting into them, often requiring a lot thought on how to most accurately, precisely and succinctly put your thoughts down. It’s just a messy process.

So all in all one down…a couple of more things left to …presentation on Friday…and then the main presentation on April 27th…This is getting busy.

In all of this, I managed to attend my first and last function as a student of IIT, a validatory function from the department. Twas a good experience, but the ride on a jungle road in the wee hours of the night was the coolest.

Summer night, cool wind, no light, swift speed, and dead quiet all around…now that is something you shouldn’t miss.

This is when I left the Powai check post…

It’s done. Well, it’s not exactly as complete as I would have liked it to be, but it’s off my hands…and it’s got about a year of exploratory work into N-glycosylation.

The hanging sword of having to submit your thesis is the worst feeling ever. The working part is so much more enjoyable. There is excitement as you discover something new (often only to you), talking to the labs, and try to put together a story of how it (what you are trying to figure out) must be…well… figuring itself out.

Ah…but when it comes to putting it on paper, all those thoughts you have in your head must be captured in words. I take it quite literally, for thoughts on paper are rigid. They loose their capacity to flow and intermingle with other ideas. Worse still, nuances of language start biting into them, often requiring a lot thought on how to most accurately, precisely and succinctly put your thoughts down. It’s just a messy process.

So all in all one down…a couple of more things left to …presentation on Friday…and then the main presentation on April 27th…This is getting busy.

In all of this, I managed to attend my first and last function as a student of IIT, a validatory function from the department. Twas a good experience, but the ride on a jungle road in the wee hours of the night was the coolest.

Summer night, cool wind, no light, swift speed, and dead quiet all around…now that is something you shouldn’t miss.

This is when I left the Powai check post…

Flavour of the week is completing the draft of my thesis. Good thing about computational projects in that you can generate a lot of leads into your problem and basically you have field day with ideas and imagination. Very often, checking out an idea does not take much time. Plus, there is no such thing as “It did not work” . Computational projects always give you a result for your analysis, whether positive or negative is not the question. Also , standardization is not an issue. And it saves you from doing a lot of non-scientific work. I mean, I am not going to learn that much from autoclaving the plates for my cloning. I can’t be a better autoclaver . But even if I write a script/program for some computational procedure, I damn as well will be a better programmer.

So here I am, writing this blog, because I am feeling a little too tired to get started on the report writing straight away. The things to be done after this weekend are kind of piling up already. Got a presentation next week on Wednesday. And then end-sem exam, and then finally the presentation for the project. Then incorporate what the committee recommends and then that’s it. I can smell the novelty in the air.

Flavour of the week is completing the draft of my thesis. Good thing about computational projects in that you can generate a lot of leads into your problem and basically you have field day with ideas and imagination. Very often, checking out an idea does not take much time. Plus, there is no such thing as “It did not work” . Computational projects always give you a result for your analysis, whether positive or negative is not the question. Also , standardization is not an issue. And it saves you from doing a lot of non-scientific work. I mean, I am not going to learn that much from autoclaving the plates for my cloning. I can’t be a better autoclaver . But even if I write a script/program for some computational procedure, I damn as well will be a better programmer.

So here I am, writing this blog, because I am feeling a little too tired to get started on the report writing straight away. The things to be done after this weekend are kind of piling up already. Got a presentation next week on Wednesday. And then end-sem exam, and then finally the presentation for the project. Then incorporate what the committee recommends and then that’s it. I can smell the novelty in the air.