Needlessly dissecting a good movie

I take my movies seriously. I look for a message in every movie, and I honestly don’t understand how to take that message lightly. That being said, a good movie experience usually leaves me deeply affected. A bad movie experience leaves me untouched.

It’s not that I only like happy endings. In fact I am terribly skeptical of happy endings. I usually fancy myself as a passioned realist (Yes, I am aware of how pompous that sounds), and I hate it especially in love stories, when everything turns out hunky-dory. Like that nincompoop (adjective?) movie of Karan Johar. What was it? That extra-marital affair one with SRK, Rani Mukherji, Abhishek Bachhan and Preity Zinta I think. Okay now when an effin’ extra marital affair plot ends with both scorned halves of the couple ultimately cool with the infidelity, that is ridiculous enough. Unless of course they are genuinely chilled out hippy people, which I assure you NOBODY in a Karan Johar movie ever is. As if mocking the audience, I distinctly remember the last scene of the movie insinuating a possible romantic angle between the scorned husband of one couple and the scorned wife of the other AT THE FREAKIN’ WEDDING RECEPTION OF THEIR EXES! (Google reminds me I'm talking about Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)Now I watched this movie I think some 6 years back so there might be technical glitches in my memory, but if I am mistaken I will be nothing but reassured that this wasn’t the case after all. The main reason I loathe the Karan Johar gang is because they make such fools of the audience. I doubt he’s stupid, but clearly he takes our stupidity for granted and it’s paying off for him, it seems like. Especially with such INANE movies like Student of the Year (which I have not seen, but I’m so livid I don’t care about fair chances anymore) being made. 

Anyway, this outburst wasn’t provoked by Karan Johar. Curiously, it was provoked by a brilliantly made Malayalam movie called ‘Diamond Necklace.’ I’d heard nice things about the movie, and though I am usually a little wary of Malayalam movies set in cities (I can’t stand the way the project ‘modern’ youth, women especially, there are more and more exceptions to this now – 22 Female Kottayam, for example), I decided to give this one a chance.

I wasn’t disappointed either. DN was engaging from the minute is started. Fast moving, excellent acting, brilliant characterizations, Fahad Fazil (or Fahadh Faasil as Wiki spells it) again flawlessly portrays the douchey character of a spendthrift doctor who is a compulsive spender and lets this weakness stoop himself into unimaginable lows. The three women in his life were also nicely played by Samvrutha Sunil, and two actresses who I think are new called Anusree and Gauthami Nair.

I was fast liking the movie more and more, because I couldn’t wait to see how the unscrupulous protagonist was gonna pay for his various misdeeds [SPOILER ALERT!!! which include stealing a diamond necklace from the terminally-ill woman he slept with without telling her he is already married, after making sure she’s asleep by double-dosing her with morphine and consequently getting the nurse in charge (who he also cheated on) fired.] So yeah, I was watching the movie thinking it should be fun to watch all of this bite him in the ass so hard at the end. Except it didn’t! With unimaginable luck, douchebag not only gets away BUT gets away with the goodwill of all the people he cheated.

The same thing happened in Woody Allen’s Matchpoint (the one with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Scarlett Johansson remember?) And I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the inspiration behind this movie. But at least in Matchpoint there is the satisfaction of at least some of the cheat-ees finally realizing that they’ve been cheated. Even if Scarlett Johansson was shot dead right after, at least for that one second Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was hated. Here there’s nothing! Everyone forgives him, and is even grateful to him for things he really had nothing to do with.

ARGH.
Sigh.

When the movie ended, my dad and mum understandably laughed at my outrage. It’s just a movie, he said. Why are you acting like it really happened?

Which is true.

So I should just chill out and go to sleep.

Why the fuss, doc?

Satyamev Jayate's latest episode on medical malpractice has generated much debate as was, I expect, the producers' plan. The latest has been the uproar in the medical community alleging some sort of defamation. On what basis, I'm still confused about. But if the uproar has anything to do with one Facebook rant by a young doctor that is doing the rounds (see here), then I'm not convinced.

Dr. Sheikh’s argument is based on a line of logic that is disturbing. Throughout the write-up he is arguing that it is not fair doctors are having to pay for their community’s flaws when many other professions are just as corrupt. While I’m no fan of Aamir Khan’s flamboyant righteousness, I do not understand why doctors have been offended by the theme of last week’s show. They have as much as a right to be offended as an honest politician has to be, by Anna Hazare’s movement. Suddenly I see too many similarities between Anna and Aamir. Both have, on paper, noble intentions, are highly adulated by the masses, but their techniques highly criticised by the intelligentsia.

Dr Azhar Sheikh is I’m sure an honest hardworking professional. But his arguments weaken his cause. The most bothersome of them I am quoting below.

“Private colleges charge a capitation fee of 40 – 50 Lacs for MBBS, you should have also produced some evidence of such practice. Like you call a victim in all your episodes, why not here? And do the same story Engineering, Architecture, Law and MBA colleges, do you think they are clean? Why target doctors alone?"

This point makes it sound as if Dr Sheikh is skeptical about the practice of capitation fees in medical institutions. But as that would be unrealistically naive of him, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he only took issue with the fact that Aamir Khan presented no proof of its existence. In a news channel or in a show that you would expect some journalistic standard, the absence of evidence to support capitation fee claims would be inexcusable and perhaps even illegal. But as the claims feature on a show that airs on Star World, which is essentially entertainment, there is some degree of impunity.

It is Dr. Sheikh’s “Engineering, Arch, law colleges etc are just as corrupt, hence don’t target us” attitude that is the most bothersome. Instead what he should have or maybe meant to say was that just as the bad guys in medicine have been caught, bad guys in the other fields must be held accountable as well.

“One of your guest (Dr. Gulhati) said that doctors ask for 30% commission from Pharma companies to write their drugs. That is baseless, over-the-roof and sensationalizin g the matter. That is as true as “Most Leading actors ask newcomers to sleep with them”

That is a flawed analogy. In the casting couch scenario the actor endangers nobody but her/himself. Which is totally not the case in the doctor-pharmacompany scenario. By unnecessarily prescribing a drug, the doctors at fault are putting their patients in a financial as well as a health risk. Who's sensationalising now?

“You compared the numbers of Licenses cancelled in England and in India. I must say your team is quite resourceful and please collect and compare following details also – a.Number of doctors beaten on duty by goons from various political outfits.”

Again, this point of Dr. Sheikh’s completely discredits his point of view. What does doctor bullying have to do with cancelling corrupt doctors’ licenses? That’s like saying though only only 1 in 10 corrupt politicians are penalised, it’s okay since many politicians are killed by terrorists. Wtf?

“You said that the most brilliant students who take up medicine, should take it only for service to mankind, they should go to other fields if they want to earn. Why? Are we living in imperialism? Are doctors not allowed to earn and spend a good life? “

Agreed, there’s nothing wrong with doctor’s becoming rich. Why shouldn’t they. But again, at the risk of sounding corny, I think everybody should join a profession they care for. Not just doctors. Maybe there’s more emphasis on doctors and journalists to be ethical over money-hungry because they deal with human life on such a direct level, unlike engineers or accountants. Then again, considering the decades of study a doctor has to undergo to establish him/herself I always thought doctors must REALLY be better human beings than the rest of us. I wonder if Dr. Sheikh would agree.

Now and then within his outburst, I feel Dr. Sheikh has a point buried somewhere, but he seems to be taking his anger out on the wrong people. Shooting the messenger isn’t going to help. Medical malpractice is real. It’s okay to feel a tinge of indignation when your profession is under scrutiny because of a few wrongdoers (I know. I’m a journalist), but don’t go to the extent of attacking the whistleblower and sticking up for the ones who are maligning you in the first place.

Whatever point he was getting at, was completely destroyed for me by the absurdity of his final dramatic statement.

“For every 10 doctors who are doing wrong, there are more than 1000 healers. You owe us an apology!!!” 

The phenomenon of the fleeing flu

Why is the common flu more deadly for some than it is for others? Everybody’s thought about it. How is it that some people can die from something that begins as a measly running nose, while others barely notice it come and go?

The vague answer would be ‘immunity’. At least that’s how I’ve always shut my brother up when he’s feeling inquisitive. But it’s always nice to understand ambiguities. Immunity is not a switch that can be at ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but a complex system governed by millions of pathways, enzymes, anatomical and external factors.

Researchers from a whole bunch of Universities and labs in the US and UK published an article in Nature on the 25th of March that might just have made a breakthrough of sorts in bringing some certainty into the hugely murky world of personalized medicine. Scientists from the Sanger Institute in Britain claim to have discovered the “crucial first line of defense” against the flu.

What they had to work with
In 2009 the journal Cell published a paper that established a protein called IFITM3 as having a crucial role in restricting viral replication, proving to be particularly hindrant to influenza, dengue and the West Nile virus. IFITM3 does this by inducing an immune agent called Interferon to prevent viruses from emptying their poison into cells, and consequently barring replication of the viral DNA in their host. See this for details.

However the study published in Cell was only demonstrated in-vitro, meaning in lab conditions. Usually an observed result only gains enough credibility to be applied once it is sufficiently replicated within a living system, or in-vivo.

It pays to play mice
The recent study from Nature have taken the IFITM3 study to the next level and proved that the IFITM3 does indeed play a highly significant role in determining how severely a flu virus affects its host. They did this by using one of the most efficient strategies to determine the functions of a gene/protein in a body. This involves deducing the role of substance ‘X’ in subject ‘Y’, for example, simply by observing the effect of Y in the absence of X. Since human subjects are not an option, the most commonly used animal model is Mus musculus or the house mouse(The mouse DNA is almost 85% similar to ours). Usually when the function of a gene, or its product -- a protein is to be determined, scientists genetically engineer mice with that particular gene absent or inactive so as to observe the effects. These mice are called knockout mice.

So these researchers used knockout mice which had an inactive IFITM3 gene and infected them with a low-pathogenicity (relatively mild) flu virus. They did the same for wild-type mice (normal variety) as well to compare the effects. They found out that the knockout mice suffered a great deal more than it’s wild cousins. The wild-type mice was tested and found to have increasing levels of the IFITM3 protein following infection, compared to the knockout mice which were unable to produce the protein. Similar results were seen when these two groups of mice were infected with the H1N1 virus which was recently responsible for the swine-flu pandemic.

The lungs of the mice without the protein (-/-) and with the protein (+/+) Image from Nature


From mouse to man
After collecting sufficient evidence of the protective role of IFITM3 in mice, the scientists proceeded to test their theory on human beings. How they did this is by examining influenza-ridden patients who have had to be hospitalized.

Now all human beings have the IFITM3 gene; the main differences lie within the gene itself. We’re all different from each other despite being more than 99% genetically similar. A large chunk of that variation is due to something called SNP’s or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms.
SNP into it

Picture two chains of colour beads, each about 1200 beads long. The two chains are almost exactly identical except for example the 500th bead which is red in one chain but blue in the other. This would now be called rs500 (rs stands for reference SNP). And snp500 has two variants or alleles ie. R (red) and B (blue). In this analogy, the chain = IFITM3 gene, a bead = a nucleotide. Our cells are diploid, meaning we have two sets of each gene. So a person can either be RR (both red), BB (both blue) or RB (one of each). Of course in reality, our DNA is made of not color beads but nucleotides named A (adenine), G(guanine), C(cytosine) and T(thymine).

Example of an SNP. Image from Riken research.


Sometimes the type of SNP, or the variant that you have on a particular gene will markedly affect the kind of protein that gene produces. One particular variant (‘CC’) of an SNP called rs12252 on the IFITM3 gene, results in the formation of a shortened version of the usual IFITM3 protein. This ‘CC’ variant of this SNP is much less prevalent than the more popular ‘TT’ and ‘TC’. Now if the IFITM3-flu virus hypothesis is true, the shorter protein produced in people with ‘CC’ in their IFITM3 gene will not be enough to resist the flu virus, and such a person would be more likely to have a severe attack than a person who is able to produce the usual protein.

They tested the hypothesis by selecting patients from various hospitals who were struck with severe influenza and testing their DNA to detect whether they were TT, TC, or the rogue CC. Then they compared this distribution to the normal frequency of these alleles in the population and concluded that the faulty variant CC is indeed more prevalent in severe flu patients than it is in normal circumstances.

A pie chart representing how the rogue allele CC is more likely to occur in hospitalised flu patients than in the general European population Image from Nature.


Frankly my dear, should I give a damn?
This not only favours the hypothesis that the IFITM3 protein does indeed play a role in the progress of the flu, but also gives us a potentially useful way to predict a person’s susceptibility to a killer flu.

This also can explain why during the swine flu pandemic for example the virus was deadly for some and barely perturbed others.

With more confirmation, perhaps there could be a day when people can take informed decisions on whether or not he/she should take extra precautions like vaccines against the disease.

Even more in the future is the possibility of developing a drug that is similar to the IFITM3 protein so that it can curb the flu virus the same way.

But hold your horses…
There’s still a lot more to be done. The number of patients studied was only fifty three, hardly a large enough sample. The researchers themselves emphasise on the need for these results to be replicated in larger studies to hold good.

Another fact to keep in mind is that a living body is too complex for simple cause-effect relationships. Though the role of IFITM3 stands out, it is not the only gene that plays a role in our overall susceptibility to the disease. Other genetic and environment factors too interfere.

Other references
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17474197
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/26/study-why-flu-hits-some-people-harder-than-others/
http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/report/2005/flu/78.pdf

How is a painkiller curing cancer?

Cancer has been one area of science that the Indian media is willing to spend space on. Sadly, I couldn’t come across too many reports -- forget Indian reports -- that would lure a lay-reader to go beyond the ‘Aspirin a Cancer killer’ headline and bother to find out what was actually done here.

What is Aspirin?

Aspirin belongs to a class of drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs which is usally called ‘Dispirin’ in India. The main use of Aspirin is as a pain-killer, though more recently it has shown to prevent cardiovascular (heart) problems and now cancer.
How does it work?

Aspirin blocks the activity of an enzyme in our body called cyclo-oxygenase. Cyclo-oxygenase is needed to produce various chemicals in our body like prostaglandins, prostacyclins and thromboxane.

Pain: Prostaglandins are chemicals produced during injuries because of which we get swellings, inflammation and thereby pain. A high dose of aspirin (300mg and over) prevents the enzyme cyclo-oxygenase from producing these prostaglandins. And Voila! No pain.

Cardiovascular diseases: A lower dose of aspirin blocks cyclo-oxygenase too, but not enough to prevent prostaglandin production. At lower doses, aspirin prevents cyclo-oxygenase’s role in the production of another chemical called thromboxane. Thromboxane is usually produced by blood cells called platelets (with the help of cyclo-oxygenage) to help clot our blood and prevent too much bleeding, when you hurt your knee for example. But clotting of blood within your blood stream can obstruct free flow of blood and result in a stroke or a heart attack. So by preventing the production of thromboxane, blood is less likely to clump together in your blood vessels and cause complications.

Cancer: While the above two uses of Aspirin are relatively well established, it’s role in cancer prevention/cure has been debated since the 70’s by Bennett and Del Tacca. But three recent studies on the topic conducted by Peter Rothwell of the Oxford University however have silenced some skeptics. They conducted a randomized, controlled trials and concluded that a daily low dose of Aspirin for just 3 to 5 years is enough to lower risk of certain cancers, particularly bowel cancer in people who are at risk.

However, it must be noted that all these studies have been epidemiological studies. Though statistics have been proved to be immensely useful to establish correlation between two factors, is it enough? From what I have explored, not many biological reasons for this phenomenon have emerged. If they have then, nobody seems to be talking about them enough.

How is Aspirin doing this?
The biological processes involved in this correlation have still not been established. However there have been some explanations proposed.

As mentioned, Aspirins thins blood, makes it less likely to clot by its effect on blood clotting platelets. Now platelets, save us from bleeding to death no doubt, but they have been show to play a sinister role as well. They prime cancer cells for metastasis ie. They help cancer cells spread from its site of origin. How it does this is detailed in this easy-to-understand article .
So since Aspirin is anti-platelet, and platelets are pro-cancer, this could be one of the mechanisms by which Aspirin cures cancer.
Last month Australian scientists made another explanation.

Co-lead author Tara Karnezis said tumors secret proteins and compounds called growth factors, attracting blood and lymphatic vessels to their vicinity and allowing the cancer to flourish and spread. These growth factors also encourage lymphatic vessels -- or "supply lines" -- to widen, which enables the spread of cancer, she added. "But a group of drugs reverse the widening of the supply line and make it hard for the tumor to spread -- at the end of the day that's what kills people," Karnezis said. "This discovery unlocks a range of potentially powerful new therapies to target this pathway in lymphatic vessels, effectively tightening a tumor's supply lines and restricting the transport of cancer cells to the rest of the body."

Reality checks
So whatever the reason, this doesn’t mean we can simply start gobbling up pills and expect to be Cancer free. There are several concerns that haven’t been addressed.

Aspirin has been known to have side-effects, one of the more serious though rare one is stomach bleeding.

Some critics have noted that some of the doses given in the study were much higher than the 75mg dose typically given in the UK, said a BBC report (Since the article is Lancet, read Elsevier, stuck up folks aren’t letting me read it for free and verify this myself).

The benefit of Aspirin for healthy people is yet to be quantified. The lead author Prof Rothwell himself has said that for most fit and healthy people, the most important things they can do to reduce their lifetime cancer risk is to give up smoking, take exercise and have a healthy diet. Aspirin does seem to reduce the risk further – but only by a small amount if there is no risk factor.

Links

http://press.thelancet.com/aspcomment.pdf
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/prevention/aspirin-cancer-prevention/Page1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17443454
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/mar/20/cancer-drugs
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/health/research/studies-link-aspirin-daily-use-to-reduced-cancer-risk.html
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/4/252.long
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/14/aspirins-role-in-cancer-mystery-explained-by-scientists/

My First Rage Comic

It's not enough to live in Anugraha apartments or Brihadeeswar Flats anymore. Even Sunflower apartments and Fern Hill just don't cut it. THIS is the new status symbol

#100WaysToDieInIndia

As of now (03-Mar-2012, 17:48 IST), #100WaysToDieInIndia is trending on Twitter. Globally that is. So I thought it would be amusing to see what people outside of India know about India.. In fact, so enamoured did I get with this notion that I abandoned my dissertation work in this noble pursuit.

What I found out:-
1) Indian food is deadly spicy.

2) Indians hate Pakistanis

3) It is unheard of to not love SRK

#100WaysToDieInIndia say Sharukh Khan is the shittest actor ever and he's an overrated egghead

— akbarghhhh (@akbar_0) March 3, 2012

4) Indian elders regularly beat kids with chappals

5) Cows, goats and elephants trample on us frequently. Cobras also.

#100WaysToDieInIndia get run over by a renegade Elephant.

— Taronish Elavia (@Taro_Elavia) March 3, 2012

#100WaysToDieInIndia get run over by a cow

— Henry Austin (@henryaustin) March 3, 2012

#100WaysToDieInIndia Provoke a cobra.

— Jack Brien (@JackBrien1) March 3, 2012

#100WaysToDieInIndia Trampled by a random sanjay and his elephant.

— Liam Boyle (@LBoyle33) March 3, 2012

6) Indian parents have no tolerance for their wayward (read non-engineering/medically inclined) offspring.

#100WaysToDieInIndia "I'd rather be a hairdresser, don't wanna be a doctor" *Dad prepares shotgun*

— Denzil Safo-Antwi (@DenzilSafo) March 3, 2012

7) Indians are all vegetarians

'#100WaysToDieInIndia Kill a cow and you'll be toast.' fact.

— emmanuel mwisa (@Red_AlertMe) March 3, 2012

8) Indians all have long names

#100WaysToDieInIndia GO TO MACCIES ON JALANDHAR RD AND LAUGH AT THE WORKER CALLED "ALBERT" WHEN CLEARLY HIS NAMES TO LONG FOR THE NAME TAG!!

— TWEETHOOLIGAN (@RandyBhambra) March 3, 2012

9) Indians often sell body parts to buy cricket tickets

#100WaysToDieInIndia Sell ur kidneys to buy an #IndiavPak cricket match ticket

— Mishal (@MishalHere) March 3, 2012

10) Indian men don't cheat

11) Abusing a Sardar is frowned upon.

#100WaysToDieInIndia abuse a sardar and u will die of guilt

— Chemical Locha (@DilFake_aashiq) March 3, 2012

12) We all marry our cousins. And Sanji is a real name.

#100WaysToDieInIndia not marrying your cousin sanji

— chris pennicott (@cpennicott) March 3, 2012

13) If not that then at least we must do arranged marriage

#100WaysToDieInIndia Not agreeing to marry the girl you've been arranged to marry. #MummaGonnaBeatYou

— Matthew Morgan (@MatthewMorganx) March 3, 2012

As if all of this wasn't enough, we've got these to worry about -

whatever they are..

Would you stop to listen to the music?

Back in 2007, Gene Weingarten, a journalist from the Washington Post thought of an interesting experiment to study human behaviour. He managed to convince a world class musician to exhibit his violin expertise dressed as a homeless person in busy Washington DC metro. The idea was to observe how differently people would accept the same product outside its society-assigned place of belonging - the concert hall.
Joshua Bell, the musician, had just played for a fancy audience - each of whom had paid around $100 for a ticket - a few days ago.

This is what happened.


Bell managed to earn about $32 (excluding the $20 bill he got from a fan who eventually recognised him) from more than a thousand commuters who passed by during that 45 minutes.

How screwed up is that? Imagine how differently we would look at the world if we had no set notions.

There's 2 ways to interpret this.
1. It's possible to wonder if the talent in question is overrated. Maybe Bell is just a mediocre violinist who got a series of lucky breaks. If the crowd didn't listen, does that mean the music wasn't really good?
This is a very valid point, especially in this age where a video of a dog twitching in it's sleep can go viral.
There are so many chance happenings that serendipity has lost its charm today. How do you know if Justin Bieber would be where he is today even if Scooter Braun hadn't 'discovered' him? What is Braun had not updated his flash player or chose this guy instead?
I could go on...
It's all arguable i suppose, but maybe I'm being naive in saying that talents like Joshua Bell, AR Rahman and others are the few for whom luck might not have played as much a role as their gift and their hardwork did.
For them not to have been noticed would have taken life full of lousy luck and bad decision-making.
Which brings us to the second point of view.

2. Let's say these famous guys are really talented (Okay, excepting Snooki, the Kardashians, anybody in Bigggg Boss and Zayed Khan), so there's nothing wrong with a little bit of luck helping them out right?
But imagine if the same amount of luck was given to everyone. How many potential superstars are lurking in the world with no chance of recognition? The supremely overdone example ofcourse is 'How many Sachin Tendulkars might exist among the millions of galli cricket players'.

ACTUALLY

this was not even a point with which I began this blog entry. I meant to write about how shackled we are by our responsibilities and by perceptions of the society as a whole. How without realizing it, most of us form most of our opinions based on already formed ones.

Sounded really deep in my head, but like wannabe trash on paper. Will publish this still because I'm self destructive that way.

FAIL.

Cramped.

Some things in nature seem so unnecessary. Like menstrual cramps. As if it isn't enough that women give birth, we have to be reminded about it every 30 days. Knowing why it happens may not really make it worthwhile (hah!), it may even piss you off more, but if you're lucky it'll at least distract you for a few minutes.

Every uterus has a bloody lining
So us mammals have this thing called the uterus aka the womb and in lay terms that's where the baby hangs out for nine months. Unfortunately, even if you're not pregnant, things are still happening in there.
The protagonist in this violent story is a slimy fellow called the endometrium (ENDO-MET-RIUM). So the endometrium is the inner lining of the uterus which gets recycled every month since your first period - which is from when, as unnecessary as it sounds, a woman is ready to bear child. So every month, your body is (somewhat stupidly) prepping itself to get pregnant. And since pregnancy is signalled by the embryo (egg+sperm=zygote -> embryo) embedding itself on the uterus wall, the uterus wall needs to toughen up in anticipation of this happening at any moment. After about four weeks of waiting and no victorious sperm emerging even after ovulation (monthly release of eggs - best time to get pregnant, unless you're Monica and Chandler Bing), your uterus finally gets the hint and realizes it thickened the endometrium for nothing. And apparently, the endometrium has to be fresh to successfully embed the embryo so we can't just have it getting stale waiting for you to get pregnant. So now the body has to get rid of this tissue doesn't it. And what better way to do this than bleed through your privates! Hormone levels (in this case decreasing estrogen and progesterone) signal the endometrium to get swollen and begin shedding. That, in a nutshell, is what happens every month during your period.

'If suffer we must, let's suffer on the heights'
Pain, blood's loyal ally, has a good reason to be here too. As the old lining starts to weaken, chemicals called prostaglandins are released. Prostaglandins prod the old lining into actual disintegration. They do this by causing the uterus wall to contract (imagine flexed biceps) and thereby restrict blood flow and oxygen to the outdated endometrium. The endometrium, as a result wither away and die. To get it out of our system, the walls keep contracting so that the waste tissue ultimately gets squeezed out of the vagina. As you can imagine, this squeezing is nothing but the cramp that we love to hate, made further painful by clots of bloody tissue trying to escape the narrow cervical canal (that leads the uterus to the vagina).

That's all there is to it. Of course this is highly simplified and each step I've described is actually governed by dozens of hormones and regulatory mechanisms, some of which illustrator Wendy Bryan has described in a fun way here. A more detailed account can be got here.

Oh and there's this totally stoner menstruation video i found that's highly annoying but so damn funny I just have to share. It could be useful to visualize but i'm not entirely sure what that egg is doing there.
Oh, and I'm not a doctor so do let me know if i'm wrong or if any of you know anything I don't.

About Me

I never know how to fill the About Me sections in social networks. I still fill them up, but most of the time it embarrasses me later. As probably will this one

Dear Self,

I’ve always considered my tendency to admire traits in people so instantly and intensely as a weakness. It doesn’t sound healthy to constantly harp on in your mind about one person’s integrity, another person’s straightforwardness, another’s free spiritedness, and yet another’s genuine don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass-ity, does it? What’s confusing is diagnosing this condition. Is it even admiration at all? It could very well be envy (How can they be this perfect?) or perhaps insecurity, a kind of defense mechanism (I can’t be them, so I look up to them), maybe it’s simply the easy-to-please nature of my character (I like everybody) or maybe it’s harmless perennial infatuations. Each of those explanations is progressively less appealing than the last.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be just one of those. Different circumstances call for different theories. Take All India Radio jockey for example, back in high school. He was clearly a teenage infatuation. On the other hand, in the uncle(s)’ case it’s the kind of admiration that is strong enough and real enough to make me try to be like them. But with that arbitrary boy/girl in college who you barely even know but feel an inexplicable pang of respect for, that’s when it gets tricky. How do you justify reverence by observation? Simply reading someone’s writing, following their tweets, listening to their music and looking at their arty Facebook photos sometimes instill in me an unwarranted awe.

It could be that this is a positive way to channel envy. Instead of childishly feeling resentful to someone who’s got something that you want really badly, it makes more sense to make the competition your ally.

If I’m easy to please, then I think that too need not necessarily be a bad thing, as long as it does not cross the fine line to naiveté. I’ve never been overly competitive or ambitious and I guess that has its perks. It makes it easier for me to appreciate the good in most people. I can get real critical; those who know me really well should be able to vouch for that, but my wariness for an individual is often easy to ignore when there’s some amount of good stuff in them.

See, I’m a fiercely guarded person. People who’ve been on the receiving end of my infinite supply of fart jokes, over-active virtual life, and verbal diarrhoea may scoff, and I understand. But most of what I talk about myself is the bits I don’t care about. I don’t care about being ladylike, in my pursuit of making people laugh. I don’t care about people branding me an exhibitionist, my virtual life is the easiest way for me to communicate with the world and I need to communicate.

With this comfortable distance between me and pretty much every person I meet, it becomes easy to bring a degree of subjectivity to personal relations. It’s easier to respect, easier to take it easy, and easier to not be disappointed when you realize the person in question isn’t all you made him or her out to be. In my case, this reality check is most often accompanied by a sense of closure; there’s some sort of relief in realizing even that person is only human. I don’t mean it to be sadistic, but truth is that I feel more at peace once I know their human side.

Depending on the nature of the so called ‘human’ quality, I either like them more, or feel myself falling out of awe with them. Clinginess is one human quality I find myself unwittingly shying away from. Vulnerability makes me feel fonder. Kind of contradictory, but that’s just the way I can articulate the situation, for now.

Love,
Me

Image from New Yorker

Ammu

A Photo I took at the neighbourhood government school. We caused a minor stampede. Everybody wanted their picture taken! The headmaster told us most of these children come from broken homes. They eat their only meals in the school that is in itself grossly undermaintained and underfunded. The headmaster Mr. Lukeman Durai and a teacher we met called Ms. Violet-something-Julie are very well spoken people. They've dedicated close to a decade of their lives to teach these kids, a significant percent of whom drop out at grade 8. Stories of inspiration like these are everywhere.

We were just leaving the area - Pannanthope colony in Ayanavaram - content with the information we had collected for our documentary, yet still missing that crucial component that would thread all the disparate bytes of visuals and voices. But that crucial component usually turns up during the last minute frenzy, or so I hoped.

A scrumptious lunch on our minds (a treat for our pampered selves, soiled by the interaction with poverty), we headed towards the bus stop. On our way we spotted a particularly miserable stretch of slum dwellings; a long compelling shot of that would be fantastic for the documentary, wouldn't it! So we took on our flipcam and began to do so. I was slinking around, trying in vain to look as inconspicuous as I could; taking photos of personal properties always makes me uncomfortable.

An old-ish woman carrying a naked infant seemed to have appeared from the depths of the slum. I went towards where she was hovering.

'Amma, if you know of any hostels then please let me know,' she said in Tamil.
'Enna?', I asked, handicapped by my shameful grasp of the language I ought to know.
'My daughter has gone missing and I have no idea where she is. We have filed a complaint many times. She's been gone since September. She was a grown girl. Now I have to take care of my three grandchildren,' she lamented, 'all girls,' she added with a sad smile.

By then my journalistic radar was ringing. I'd asked my friend to start recording, and the woman seemed to not be bothered.

'The children do not have a father. He was very abusive, beat her a lot. I do not know what to do with the children. We live off my younger daughter's meager pay.'

As taken in as I was with her tragic story, cruel pragmatism made me try to steer her conversation to the general state of her slum and what authorities had done about it; which was what we were supposed to uncover.

Enthusiastically she began relating her woes in a manner that was both undramatic and stirring at the same time.
'Nobody has agreed to help us. The politicians promise us things but nothing has improved. The waterlogging and garbage overflowing makes the kids sick. The police have not managed to find anything about my daughter's whereabouts.' I noticed that every passage of conversation kept finding its way back to her missing daughter.
'I don't know what to do. I can't bring myself to go to work thinking about her and these kids I have to take care of.'

In those two minutes she covered so many nuances of poverty. The burden of the girl child, abuse of women in the household, children growing up in broken homes, diseases, hopelessness, desperation, resilience, her missing daughter.
At no point in this heavy conversation did we have to egg her on. Neither did she ask us for anything material. For food for the baby, money, nothing.

'Please pray for my children. Just pray that is enough.'

We made empty promises to try and help. I know I shall forget about this soon, succumb to the cosy ignorance of richness.

What is your name, we asked her.
'Mine? Jessy' she said. I saw a glassy eyed smile; mine or hers I could not tell.
'Ponnu peru Ammu. Japam pannungo ma'

Ammu is her daughter's name. If you're not going back, Ammu, I hope you've found a better life than what you left behind. I'm not that optimistic about your three daughters.

Twitteretiquette, Self Importance and Being judgamental on a perfectly pleasant Sunday

Shashi Tharoor retweets a LOT.

Tell him it's Jhansi Rani's birthday, Please RT. He'll RT.
Real Example 1
ABC
@ShashiTharoor Today is the Birthday Anniversary of Rani Laxmibai. Why No media reporting freedom fighter birthday. http://on.fb.me/slBGB3
1 hour ago
Retweeted by ShashiTharoor

Tell him it's your birthday and the best gift would be a RT. Oh he'll RT.
Real Example 2
XYZ
A RT from our beloved @ShashiTharoor would be the highlight of my day... my birthday.... U guys think ill get it?
23 hours ago
Retweeted by ShashiTharoor

And why shouldn't he, you may ask. I thought about it, though and I've come to the conclusion that it takes someone enormously pig-headed and filled with disillusioned righteousness (not to mention a LOT of time.. though to be fair, I'm not one to talk about that) to do that.
See, it's fine if you think Jhansi Rani should be given her due. I think so too. But do you actually think it makes any difference if you retweet it? If you actually care, write a tribute. One click of a mouse is not gonna make the media sit up and take notice. They have better more profitable things to do.
Obviously this is a manifestation of a need to be praised constantly, to be adored, to maintain a set of unwavering fans who fawn over every noble tweet. Don't discredit your intelligent followers with such double faced patriotism.

And wishing me on my birthday. See, sometimes we regular folk get carried away by celebrities. I, for instance, think you write well; I even bought your book for my best friend's pregnant sister. But let's say I was completely crazy about you (hypothetical situation) I might be driven against good judgement and self respect to request you for a retweet like Mr. XYZ did. I might even feel a few minutes of thrill if u retweeted. But trust me, unless I was an exceptionally sad human being it would NOT be the highlight of my day. If i said it would i was simply being melodramatic. And you should know that you are not making the world a better place for me. And let's say XYZ was an exceptionally sad human being, then it's completely thoughtless of you to encourage his groveling. XYZ deserves better than that, but I suppose it makes you feel better about yourself.

Then there was this tweet..
Shashi Tharoor
Those who sneer at politicians attending weddings shld see how happy people r that u chose2b part of their special day. Glad2share their joy
13 Nov

I'm sorry you're so filled with this feeling that your presence is so special. I'm sorry but I'm still sneering.

Image from www.kindofcrap.com

The American Poor

We have a new professor called Steve Ross who takes a week long module for us. It's Day 2 and boy has he shown up in my life right when he was needed!
It's been a rough few weeks. Too much work. Too many annoyances. And dissatisfied professors. So for Steve Ross, who taught at Columbia University for more than a decade to manage not to be completely stupefied at our stupidity comes as a BIG encouragement.

So anyway, I could go on about him, but I don't wanna ramble cuz i'm not nearly as FANTASTIC as he is at that area (I swear i've never met anybody who could start off talking about a nuclear awareness website and branch off into the working of a battery made from cowdung and ACTUALLY make sense before. Is it still rambling if you paranthetise? Is paratherise a word?)

So Professor Steve Ross was showing us some pictures that his wife Rachel Ellner took for a feature series on the homeless in America. And it was amazing.
I don't mean the photographs, which no no doubt were, but it was the people in the pictures themselves. New York, according to Mr. Ross has thousands and thousands (I remember him saying 150,00, but thats seems so big I'm gonna have to double check) homeless people! Not what you think of when you think of New York sitting here, is it? But what stood out is the in-your-face difference between the poor in America and the poor in India.

In the photos he showed us, it might sound callous (I've been told I sometimes sound so), but the instinctive reaction was to dismiss their suffering. They all wear clothes.. they may look unwashed yes, but it's all there! shirt jacket jeans cap.. some goth homeless girl had some pretty kickass accessories and black nailpolish! Seriously!

Photo from stock.xchng

One of the reasons for this I gathered was the reasons for their poverty. In India, the urban poor are poor because there parents were poor. Except for maybe the disabled ones and the mentally challenged who are abandoned. In America, from what little I saw, poverty was due to a whole variety of other reasons. Lisa ran away from an abusive home. Scott has a severe drug habit. Elise and Roger and drug addicts and broke. All the stereotypical American names are made up btw. The rest is real.

I can't imagine that happening (exceptions prove the rule) to Urban youngsters here. For example, I was not fiercely independent/rebellious/stupid enough to actually run away from home and live on the streets when my parents wanted me to apply for a PhD. My parents would never kick me out of my home even if I had a drug habit (I hope that's not just wishful thinking) and if I ever lost my job, I would probably succumb to the temptation of living off a kind relative, even though I would hate myself for it. I give examples of myself because I can't talk for anybody else. But I dare say there are people who can relate. It's not even that I'm actually that spineless. As a matter of fact I often fancy myself to be a pretty fiercely independent for a 23yr old who still lives with her parents. Might not sound like much but I know more and more people who are a lot more infuriatingly submissive than I am.

Also the American homeless often hang around the streets with boards saying 'Need Work' and other more creative alternatives. Whereas I've never bumped into an Indian homeless person who's asked for a job and not money. Not that any of us rich folks would ever 'risk' employing someone we found on the street (what would the neighbours say!)

Image from http://kjwonka.hubpages.com/hub/New-Yorks-hot-new-export---homeless-people

The difference between the Indian and American homeless is even more emphasized when you look at this NY city website i found for their Dept of Homeless Services. So in this site they have a section called 'Homeless Now?' Can you imagine that! They are actually in a scenario where they can expect homeless people to log into the internet and find this page!

The very notion of having a website for homeless beggars to log on to here in India seems absurd at best..

Dissecting my Conflicted Brain

No wonder Science is misunderstood[Image from omglog.com]

Sometimes I wonder if I should've chosen less taxing electives in my course. Science journalism classes are really engaging but a ton of work. Environment elective is equally engaging but surprisingly very emotionally taxing. Now and then I find myself a little confused. From 8.30 AM to 10 AM I'm lost in the wonder of science and how it's shaped our lives. Then from 11 to 12.30 I find myself acknowledging how in the craze for economic 'growth', science and engineering is sucking all the life out of indigenous people and their surroundings. Not to mention the time in between where I'm attending our Covering Deprivation class which makes me uncomfortably aware of how hypocritical it is to get distressed by the poverty around us, sitting in my Levi's Jeans in an AC hall. So that's my Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in a nutshell.

Pretty intense stuff in itself, but made even more hard-hitting by the fact that all are taught by such amazing teachers. You can't imagine how new this is all to me. Studying in crappy institutions up till now, my view of the Indian education system tends to be pretty dismal, perhaps unfairly so. So the emotionalness of classes only makes me grateful.

Particularly distressing though is the possibility of the optimism of Science classes and the pessimism of the Environment classes ultimately canceling each other out, and having a net effect of nothing on me. Somehow, our Science class outing today to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences quelled these fears somewhat.

Thanks to our super-proactive lecturer, we got to meet a theoretical Physicist called Prof. Murthy (of course he probably has a proper name) who along with some other scientists is spearheading a project called the 'Indian Neutrino Observatory'. Now theoretical physics is pretty much the most hardcore science of all in a way. It's all about understanding the most fundamental basis of everything that exists. Now I wasn't the biggest Physics buff in school by a long shot but I always figured unlike Chemistry and Biology which had some kind of direct tangible effect on our lives (eg. Coca Cola, Cancer), Physics was kind of unnecessary. I mean, come on. Till maybe electricity level physics is forgivable. But what possible need do we have to find know whether the Higgs Boson really existed? Or spend millions on research in the hope of assigning a mass to a sub atomic particle that might not even exist?? And do we really need to know what Jupiter is made of? Seemed a bit frivolous. Something that would interest and affect only geeks and physics fanatics. And nuclear energy? Oh that's gonna spell doom anyway.

It's easy to form those kind of judgements without really knowing what the deal is.
And I'm beginning to realize how horribly wrong I have been. Every possible technology we take for granted now is in some way a spin off from particle physics experiments. That XRay you took for your broken toe? Physics. That cell phone near you that just beeped? Physics. Waiting for Glee to air on TV? Physics. Oh wait who wait's for stuff to air on TV these days with the Internet? PHYSICS!
Really! i feel pretty stupid about my previous attitude. Imagine if teachers in school actually told us all this in school. In not doing so, I think it's pretty probable that we lost out on thousands of potential scientists, who are probably stuck in high paying jobs they hate.

Anyway, back to Professor Murthy. Now the Indian Neutrino Observatory sounds pretty fancy. To reemphasize its fanciness is the fact that it's set to be built more than a kilometer under a mountain in Theni, Tamil Nadu. Basically it's gonna house this thing called a detector that will try to capture and detect neutrinos emitted from the sun (they're underground to filter out the background 'noise' that is also emitted. Neutrino's, unlike the unwanted noise is not affected by the kilometer of rock in between). So this sounds like a hell (no pun intended)lot of work eh? And you'd probably expect the whole baggage of displaced villagers, angry activists, adamant scientists to follow. But these guys really seem to be different!

Dr. Murthy was disarmingly transparent to us, revealing all the opposition, the thrills and the disappointments they had to face on the way. It was really heartening to hear how the environmental and social impact of their endeavor has been such a high priority for them since the beginning. They spent years and years just to find a spot that would pose the least threat to human and wild life. They spent time, manpower and money to educate the nearby folk on what their project was about and how their livelihood would not be intruded. Even their website shows their dedication to this. I've never seen such an extensive FAQ page anywhere on the net. They've entertained the most fundamental and controversial questions that I bet a lot of other scientists would dismiss or get agitated over. Obviously, societal acceptance is a big deal for them and that seems to be a rare trait in these days of anti-nuclear agitation. I bet if the Kudankulam N-plant planners, politicians and experts involved really had nothing to hide, they would've have taken a little more reasonable and educated approach to pacify the displaced and the activists.

Dr. Murthy described to us how they had almost settled on a spot in Nilgiris to be the site of the INO, but a clearly unintelligent newspaper (no prize for guessing which) needlessly agitated the people in the areas by raising baseless concerns about radioactivity and resource depletion. This resulted in the cancelation of that plan and further delay, not to mention seemingly diligent scientists being attacked. Now I feel disgusted at this hyperactive, disillusioned, irresponsible role the media played. Because as Prof. Murthy said, there is no question of harmful radiation, since the entire focus of their experiment is based on keeping the lab surroundings as unpolluted of radiation as possible! Any radiation would defeat the purpose. Hence, it was like accusing a germophobe of bad hygiene!

Today, Science and Industries are dangerously close to being labeled the enemy. And incidents like Kudankulam, Bhopal tragedy, Tata's Singur plant and countless others are responsible for this. I'm hanging on to my belief that the INO project will change this trend, and show us that it is possible to be socially responsible in the path to progress. Otherwise, pursuing science journalism might end up taking a bigger toll on my conscience than I'd imagined.

Now Running: Nobel Prizes 2011 Verdict: HIT!

I'm starting to acknowledge that reading good science stories give me more of a kick than anything else. Suddenly now, I want to become a science journalist so painfully bad.
Anyway, this week was the Science Nobel week, and the Medicine and Chemistry ones have some really kickass stories behind them. PS - I've written in good english for so long in college that I'm suffocated. I'm letting loose my bad-english-monster below..

MEDICINE/PHYSIOLOGY

Firstly Ralph Steinman. Turns out he discovered dendritic cells! All those years I had to study Immunology, I never bothered to even remember his name till 2 days back. Anyway his story is made for an Oscar winner. So back in 1973 he discovers this type of cell in mammalian bodies called dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are a type of antigen-presenting-cell (APC) that detect and present foreign harmful substances (virus, tumours, peanuts..if you're allergic that is) to T-cells and B-cells, which terminate those pesky bastards. Steinman's allegation didn't get accepted too easily, like most important discoveries. So he had to do more and more research before it finally got the acknowledgement it deserved. Now thousands of scientists are clamouring for a piece of the pie, trying to use these dendritic cells to combat cancers, AIDS, allergic reactions etc.. So yeah, Steinman led the pack and he worked tirelessly especially against cancer.
Now the twist. In 2007, Steinman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the very disease he was training his dendritic cells to fight! Talk about irony..(this is one of those times that are tailormade for the usage of 'irony' though it might be wrong) Now at this point, if I were him I probably would've burst into self pitying tears and waited to die, content that people would probably remember me for those blasted cells and all. By now, you've probably guessed that Steinman was different. He decided to use this to his advantage. Say what? Ha, I'm not kidding I swear! The dude is so full of scientific spunk that he actually decides to use his own ailing body as a human guinea pig! I wonder what his wife had to say about that.. So yea does all that. Ends up living 4.5 years which is like a century compared to expected life expectancy for pancreatic cancer-diagnosed (Sorry Steve Jobs).
Now the Nobel people have a rule that they don't award dead dudes. So Steinman was really hoping to hang on till the announcement. Unfortunately he passed away 3 days before D-day. But hey, guess what happened next.. The Nobel committee screwed up. Either that or the Rockefeller University are a bunch of clever buggers! Whatever the reason, the Nobel committee were unaware of Steinman's passing till an hour after the announcement. So for the first time, a Nobel was awarded to a deceased guy. Nobel didn't ask and Rockefeller didn't say! Who can you blame really.. And hey if you ask me, Steinman deserved it a whole lot more than anyone in Big Boss is gonna deserve their cash prize, whatever it is.
What a story eh..

CHEMISTRY
Now the Chemistry story which actually inspired me to finally update my blog is quite different. Not so Hollywood-esque perhaps but still pretty darn inspiring. So the winner Danny Shechtman discovered quasi crystals, which have properties thought impossible by the entire chemist community, led by double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling (of alpha helix fame.. btw his story about the race to DNA structure with Watson and Crick is damn exciting too). So Shechtman's allegation of this type of crystal was in the 80s a bit like alleging that chickens can fly to the moon. Ofcourse he had proof but it was all so overwhelming and taboo for some reason that his peers began isolating him. Uppity jerks, scientists can be sometimes! Anyway, Shechtman hung on to his beliefs doggedly, until finally word spread and chemists started thinkin that maybe.. just maybe this guy wasn't so full of shit after all.
Turned out he was right, and these quasi crystal thingies do exist (Take that Pauling!) and are pretty damn useful at that.
More than his story, it was Danny Shechtman's manner of talking that made him my favourite scientist of the day. It's so refreshing to see people genuinely excited about the work they do, and at the same time humble and oh so adorably honest. So check this video out to see if you agree.

The Damned Grey Area

This Saturday, Amy Winehouse, 27, died, presumably of drug overdose, an event which the whole world had apparently been waging lighthearted(???) bets on. [www.whenwillamywinehousedie.com]

Meanwhile, the country of Norway (considered a champion of peace and humanitarian efforts and one of the biggest contributors to the UN) made a rare entry into the Breaking News, reeling from twin terrorist attacks that have killed nearly 100(?) persons.

My friend then pointed something out to me that ignited this need to understand something. We noticed that on our Facebook walls, tons of people paid a tribute to Winehouse (including me) but it wasn't easy to find one that said R.I.P Killed People of Norway or whatever. Of course the natural reaction of a wannabe-journalist should have been to condemn or to be disgusted with the fb generation's apathy. But since i was one of the RIP-Winehouse-posters, my instinctive reaction was on the defensive. So in twisted way, this conflict created a balance which allowed me to look at this somewhat neutrally.

THE QUESTION. Is our generation doomed because we evidently care more about the death of a popular musician with a figurative timebomb around her neck than the mass killings of innocent civilians in a country far away?

The truth is, we're doomed anyway. But not quite for the reason mentioned above. The sad fact is that most of us, except the News TV addicts most likely heard about Winehouse's death first (Source: FB updates, SMS's, radio.. whatever). In my case I read about the attack, but when i did the news report said 2 people dead so far, so I'm ashamed to say the event did not really register at that time. All the bad news on newspapers have desensitized me. But's lets leave that for another day.
Bottomline is, that i'm quite sure a lot of the current pop-crazy generation did not know about Norway and naturally did not tweet/fb about it. Now that comfortable ignorance is what is highly disturbing.

That being said, lets consider the possibility that everybody did know about Norway when it happened. Still I'm not completely shocked by the fact that Amy Winehouse's death gave people a jolt more than Norway did; I'm being brutally realistic here. Music is such a powerful thing, that it misleads the listener into believing he/she knows the artist personally. So it seems that people connect more to Amy Winehouse, the self-destructive druggie than the innocent 100 of Norway, who they did not know.
I'm not sure how this point of view projects me as a person, but i'm trying to make it as objective as possible. Think about it. If your much looked-up-to 95 yr-old teacher passed away the same time as 300 people in Genovia (yes, I know there's no such State), which tragic loss would impact you more? If it happened to be the former, must we feel ashamed of that? Is it fair to judge people who did not virtually vocalize their distress abt Genovia as much as they did the teacher, whom they did not really know as a person but loved for her teachings?
I'm not sure myself. The selfish truth is that we all only feel pain when it happens to us.

Those who are fortunate enough to not agree with this, you're all much bigger people than I am. The World needs more of you.

Some trivia I found interesting for some reason: Amy Winehouse was arrested in Norway for marijuana possession back in 2007

By the way, if you visit CNN.com's homepage now, it looks like Winehouse is given more space than Norway. Now that I feel is irresponsible journalism. You can't be as lenient with an entire News corporation as you can with individuals.

Image: dailytelegraph.com

First Day of College – TAKE 3!

So here I am again, 6 years after my first time, trying my hand at this college thing once more. There were some significant differences this time however. One, I actually WANT to pursue this course; two, I have absolutely no idea what to expect and three, I’ve never been part of a class which reeked so much of self-confidence. At the orientation programme today we met Mr. Sreekumar Menon whose presence took I think about 90sec to extract a sense of awe, kin-ship and respect from the crowd. He was effortlessly hilarious, and his though he very quickly had the whole crowd wrapped around his little finger, it was quite obvious that his jokes, full of intelligent sarcasm, were ones that you don’t wanna take too lightly. Even when he’s advising us against something, he does it in such a way that you don’t feel pressured.. you just feel stupid for ever having done that something. Because Sree’s da Man.. He might not look it, but trust me you don’t wanna mess with this wise old fellow.
The whole orientation talk maybe lasted an hour, during which he outlined to us the core courses, the structure of the whole course, introduced the other faculty ( consisting of a Ranji trophy cricketer, a musician who supposedly takes part in students’ mischiefs, a raahu-kalam believing dynamic radio journalist etc.. ). He also said something very relevant I think, to many of us present there. He said that during the interviews that we all had gone through as part of the admission procedure, he noticed one thing. Almost all of us apparently mentioned to the panelists one thing, that we chose this course because we love to write (I don’t remember clearly, but I think it’s a safe bet to say that I might have been one of them). He said that he found that admirable, since he himself is petrified of writing, something that made me, and possibly others feel rather small and naïve. Brashly, yet effectively showed us what a disillusioned bunch we were by revealing that our so-called-passion for writing wasn’t exactly shared by the readers of our essays; a comment that was greeted by sheepish laughter. To think that each of us one hundred and fifty students was secretly basking under the perception that our writing talent was something special is quite hilarious.
I was expecting the cream of the intelligentsia with an attitude to match among the student crowd. Can’t say I’m disappointed but thankfully it didn’t feel as intimidating as I expected, at least not today. Everyone was as anxious to make friends, I suppose. Everybody smiled sweetly at each other, exchanged names and backgrounds. An elaborate mating ritual, everybody waiting to meet, to choose that handful of people whose shoulders they can cry on, whose work they can copy, whose car-pool they can join, during the months to come. I played my part, met quite a few people, saw traces of future bitchiness, brilliance, phoniness, stupidity and a lot of hidden dynamism in the relatively quiet ones. But it would be a mistake to start judging prematurely so I’m keeping an open mind and minding my own business as always.
Monday, is when the wheels actually start rolling. An inaugural address by noted, controversial historian Dr. KN Panikkar on "IS DEMOCRACY WHAT DEMOCRACY DOES? REFLECTIONS ON INDIA'S POLITICAL PRESENT" will kick-start the day. I’m reading up on democracy so I don’t unecessarily embarrass myself.
Till next time.

My Sick unhealthy fascination #1

Today I found myself watching on TV, girls trying to convince heiress Paris Hilton to choose them as her BFF (Best Friend Forever).
I'm amazed by how Paris can take herself seriously; how insecure (or secure? I'm not sure) must those 20-something girls be to be willing to portray themselves as such spineless un-intelligent suck-ups on international TV; how can ANYBODY not burst out laughing while walking on a fake red carpet with a maddeningly serene looking Paris Hilton (See photo below for her trademark expression.. drives me crazy.. ALMOST - emphasis on almost - makes me want to watch her infamous sex-tape just to see if she looked that vapid and peaceful even mid-coitus) and face a phoney paparazzi and answer questions like 'How does it feel to be Paris's new BFF?' (Read, Paris's new disposable toy) or 'Do you think you're more famous than Paris?' (No prizes for guessing the right answer to that one)

How sickly self obsessed can a person be to conduct and judge a competition where girls have to try their darndest to look like you (bleached blonde pigtails in Paris's case.. apparently the more unperturbed you are about looking like a drag queen, the more Paris likes you), and the winner gets to be your BFF? How dumb can you be to actually be under the illusion that you actually WANT to be Paris Hilton's New BFF?? I'm baffled! I'm nearly hyperventilating here, yet I cannot bring myself to switch channels; I'm mesmerized by the - i can't even pick a word, absurdity? outrageousness? frivolity?. And after all this, if Paris isn't happy with your level of subservience, you're eliminated, which of course, that would be the end of the world. Forget a cure for Cancer, global warming, diamonds even.. what a girl really wants, is to be Paris Hilton's use-and-throw dummy.

I think Ms Hilton isn't as stupid as she looks. She is a sadistic rich b**** who fills up the voids in her heart with the insecurity of other people.

Or PH's new BFF is simply a show made by sad people starring sad little rich girls, watched by sad people .

The third possibility is that or the whole thing is staged. God knows she has the money to pull it off. The producers are smart and the girls in the show are just really good actors; all of them collectively feeding on the masochistic tendencies of the audiences to raise their TRP's. In that case, what can I say.. the joke's on me.

Nightmare

I've always had very vivid dreams.. nightmares a few as well. This one stood out on the strange-scale and had me pretty weirded out for a couple of weeks. Last July 2010..

It was a fairly big lunch party. 10-20 people from the looks of it. All kinds’ Indian, black and white. A long table was set on the largest open area in a sort of bathroom, a hostel one. People were lounging around the room. A slight disturbance could be noticed among scattered members of the party. Worried looks and puzzled glances. While walking out of hall, I walk by big black man(basketball uniform clad) surrounded by friends, looking very upset. Told myself it was none of my business but when I happened to see him cry just before I shut the door, I asked if he was okay. Big Black man nodded his head vaguely and I walked out, passing the shut door of another room.
Cut to kitchen. Three women were cooking pie. They were joking around at ease. They playfully teased big blonde (4th grade mum in New adventures of old Christine) about being a career woman. Big blonde tells petite blonde that it is good that Petite Blonde has decided to go back to her husband after committing some grave sins. Petite Blonde seems to be in much greater spirits than she was previously. They slice the cheesy pie on a pan which was a bit bigger than the pie itself. Petite Blonde was making up to her husband.
Cut to living room.
Brother’s watching TV. By now, definite bad vibes were apparent. I look out into the sky and see war-of-the-worlds-cloud formation. I tell my brother but he isn’t very shocked as this has seemingly occurred before. So we knew that we’d be safe for a little while longer.
Cut to bedroom. Mother is changing. I ask her if she’s noticing what’s happening. She replies that she hasn’t, but she did realize it was getting darker. I show her the cloud formation. Being too short she, had to crane her neck.
I start walking back to dining room. From a door emerges level-headed Mowlik (or it might have been my dad) who I walk up to. He looks half amused-half concerned. I ask him if his friends inside are okay. He says no, something bad is about to happen. I share my experience of Big Black Man. He nods and walks back in, as I wait. He returns and tells me he does not know what is going on, but his friend just said the world will end on March 17th . March 17th, he says.
I woke up with a jerk.

March 17th of this year is gone.. so hopefully posting this jinxes out the possibility of March 17th, 2012 happening.
Cheers!

Cheerleaders versus Cheerqueens

So one of the new franchisees of the IPL decided to do away with those bold and busty cheerleaders as had become customary, and instead introduce traditional Indian dancers to do the cheering job at the sidelines. What is it with these Pune and Mumbai people that makes them think they're better Indians than the rest of us. I mean look at them: Mumbai INDIANS... Pune Warriers INDIA.. No other teams have India in it do they? It seems to me like they have this inherent need to convince others of their superior brand of patriotism. And then this new cheerleaders development.

For most of us (women, at least) the bimbo cheerleaders were rather annoying and borderline demeaning even, feministically speaking. I wonder if they would have dancing men wearing thongs for a women's version of the IPL... I hope not. Most of these girls especially the foreigners aren't even that pretty.. they just show skin, vapidly smile and dance un-coordinately. And except for the first part, the other two are mighty hard to do in the Indian heat so hats off to them.

What were cheerleaders originally meant to offer to sports, anyway? We've grown up reading books and watching movies that project getting into the cheerleading team as the ultimate fantasy of any high school girl.. which by corollary means that you get to date the soccer captain of course. The idea of an activity developed for sole reason of boosting male egos seems so pointless, frivolous and insulting. Thankfully Indian high schools haven't adopted adopted that particular fad yet. I'm not saying cheerleading is easy. God knows how crazily athletic you need to be to get those moves right, but then why not just call it gymnastics?

Which brings us back to the IPL cheerleaders, who the franchises clearly utilize not because of athletic prowess but only due to sex appeal. Like everything else about the IPL, if you think about it. The IPL is like the pleasure I imagine one would derive from a tasteless energetic quickie.. a one night stand, as opposed to a test match that gives us the satisfaction of a fulfilling marriage.. initial excitement.. ocassional bland patches.. but so much more wholesome. So now that we've justified the role of the cheerleaders in the IPL ie. to tantalise and nothing else, is there a need for the interference of Mohiniaatam, Bharatnatyam and other elegant Indian art forms into this tacky display? Obviously, Subrato Roy, with his righteous moustache 'n all wants to make a statement, but I think its unnecessary. Ultimately, the dancers themselves go through a whole lot of hassles with costumes, make-up and choreography to cheer a crowd that understandably isn't in the mood to appreciate the detailed nuances of such dance forms. It doesn't make sense.