Grumps and rants

I woke up late for work, in July oppressive,  muggy New York area heat. I caught jitney bus to port authority bus terminal as usual to catch subway. I landed in the back seat, always the back bencher since ages. I sit and involuntarily a person greets, exchange pleasantries in Spanish. I respond in Spanish, I only know two, three words and they do put smile on other when put and replied for exchanging greetings. He suddenly changes language and hello again, we both laugh. He was sipping coffee, I ask how it is, fine he replied. As conversation ignited he asked where am I from I responded India. The conversation furthered, traffic was notorious as was the day. He asks if I drink coffee, I told no, tea is my to-go; coffee is A-OK. He continued saying his country got tea from India (he turned out from Turkey), as I told him it was British rule that brought in India. Meanwhile he tells what and how tea in Turkish is pronounced, written with a tick beneath C in Chai , so and so forth. He w

I was running around on Friday, June 21, beginning of summer solstice. I was perspiring by the time I got hold of things from cafeteria. I had a check-list for Friday, after an hour or so quickly walked down athletics department to empty my locker rom. The deadline was June 30 as the session starts in July end or something, until then all the lockers need to be emptied.  I was in rush, to get back to my seat to complete the week. In this hurry I saw 2004 Nobel Prize winner. I had had seen him few times earlier on-campus, in a seminar or crossing streets. This time I wanted to speak with him, just for a conversation, have his autograph. I stopped, thought multiple times and the process got stuck. He was holding a folder with multiple pages, wearing suit-tie in black and white color. Inevitably I went ahead and said "excuse me". I mumbled few words to confirm if he were Dr. who got Nobel prize. He graciously nodded. I rummaged myself for pen and paper for an autograph, of cou

Date 06/11/2019 Back in 2010 or so I used to visit an NGO; that used to assist kids with special needs. I and few of my friends were part of a group to meet kids, teach, spend time with them. These kids had genetic disorders, learning disabilities and such. Again, and again we taught them A-Z, or 0-9, or names kid would fail next day or next minute, splitting heart into smithereens. I didn't recall a day where my eyes didn't well up there; I was torn apart, as I was in tears. I wasn't strong enough to face them. After these sessions I used to get back to routine, fun as it was the end of my college education, again cycle continued. I visited the NGO once a week and as time went the visits got sparser; I didn't visit in later months of my under-graduate college. I couldn't summon courage to visit or insincerity got better of me. These days I work at a research-based, academic-hospital setting. I see loads of kids with severe genetic disorder, kids with spec

Recently, I am watching Designated Survivor TV series on Netflix. To give a backdrop it's a political thriller based out of Washington DC, USA, where the entire government is assassinated save two-three people. From these remaining, one gets to become the President of the United States (POTUS). The drama then begins chasing culprit, closing in on leads, betrayals within the government so and so forth. The series also spans on political challenges one administrator faces such as tabling of a bill, domestic issues of violence (gun), etcetera. Amidst all scandals, politicking, bills the ruling office hires someone who can direct and improve overall public image of ruling party. The hired professional says appearance is reality. He goes to back and forth with his prolix language to have POTUS agree to his. After watching episode and in last few weeks having digressive discussion over this I have starting to believe this more and more. It's all about packaging. There are certain

I grew up in a city, studied in an English medium school, went in a school bus, had access to high-end facilities at school such as library, playground and such. For me saying "My name is so and so" was easier than cutting cake, mention my father's name, address, city in English; I was adored in my village more than two decades back. It was unheard of someone who can say one line in English.  Village where access to electricity is somewhat equivalent to water accessibility in cities like Bangalore in summers, now. There would have been successive days where one had had electricity for say more than five hours. To me back in city it was rare to have electricity shed except summers, or early mornings. I can say I had had a fancied childhood, a fortunate one. Touch wood. In summers I played marbles, did mischiefs all around in weddings, house inauguration, looked at night full of stars, made wishes for good marks in grade exams gazing at falling stars, wondered at shift of

2018, what a year I must say. Year got tougher in every aspect unthinkable. For the starters,  I turned 30 in October 2018. I'd pined to write on this but schedule was difficult. Three decades complete, with last decade full of a roller coaster ride. I moved around few number of cities in India: Bhopal, Pune, Gandhinagar, Mumbai, etc. I moved to another nation, the US; moved here to three cities: Atlanta and most currently New York City Area, Weehawken township. I made few or close to no new friends in the decade save college ones from under graduate, give one or two from masters'. The ones from work were non existential and are none to say.  I think it is good for me to see how things have shaped, unshaped in this decade or several years combined. I got my first job in 2010 Dec., I got my first paid intern in year 2014. I saw a good number of movies until 2011 thanks much to under-grad hostel and LAN. Movies rarely added to my schedule after 2011 give or take few A-OK an

I bought Troublemaker by Linda Howard on kindle as this was shown on my home screen. I purchased it looking at the ratings, title and thought to give a try as the author was unheard of. I finished reading it in around ten days and the reason I read it so quickly was that I had wanted to see when the title of book plays role.  The book begins with an attack on Morgan who works for an agency. In his journey to recover from a near-fatal attack he meets Bo (Isabelle) in a sub-urban Virginia town who is a police chief of town.  Book traverses how Morgan and Bo fall into love, flirt and how a lovely dog gets to be a focal point of plot. Novel is set in a small town where author does an A-OK job about case which Bo as a chief leads but nothing fancy about it. I'm truly disappointed the way book progresses. The book erroneously and perpetually revolves over the golden retriever dog (Tricks). With all due respect I love dogs and golden is my favorite. Dog's food time, dog's

Apart from Indian cuisine, I enjoy Thai food among others. For the first time I'd Thai food was in Washington, DC after I moved there in 2015. It was served in a seminar, all the more reasons to attend talks. My boss used to pick on me for it. He knew where to find me when there was an invited talk for I attended these for food only. Initially I had my reservations for it as I were to move out of mental blocks to try noodles, hold sticks, lumped rice and meat laden dishes served. For the sake of not eating my self-cooked food I tried dishes which to my surprise ended up really good for my palate and bowel. It ended up served in repeated occasions which made me choose Thai food if possible whenever checking out restaurants.  Last week or two back with a colleague I visited Rain II restaurant near West 168th street (close to Columbia University Medical Center). He owed me food for all genetics data sharing and cranking  I did . I've visited this place around 3-5 times

The Temperature's been hovering near freezing point all day long, I welcome this chilly weather that was much dreaded. I'd attended an invited talk yesterday. The talk focused on extremely rare diseases, genetics and data behind. My interest shrunk as the voice was unreachable and being a back bencher I registered very less amount of her words but I was interested in the study, design she'd conducted.  She had worked with/on diseases in Hungarian gypsies, fascinating, I know right? She did her education (Phd) back in Belgium. Also, the research was narrowed onto pediatrics; she worked closely with clinicians, helping parents to curate diet for affected children, develop personalized medicine by zooming into the cause of disease. She worked with such rare diseases ( for example  - a form of progeria) that case (affected individual) count of two was great. To give an idea my research is conducted on data that include 10,000+ people. Her research worked with families aff

The new year has begun. I feel filled with high hopes, which hasn't been a forte of mine since as long as I could remember. I know I know, this isn't quite me and not what I had something in my mind after tumultuous 2018. 2018 was year with a different set of hurdles and I went with them sometimes sideways, at times along with them, and if psyche abandoned me so did I the troubling thing. I struggled with new job for the first half of 2018. It takes around six to eight months to learn the ropes at new position, manage expectations, set expectations with self and maintain the spirits having defeating challenges which seemed insurmountable once.   Besides work and apart from regular hiccups I'd my share of issues with life of looking bride which has been an untamable task so far. Situation looks grim at times, at times OK and at times stale, and again rejuvenated. It's a tough call to make. It's not easy to decide and look through the next years how this is goin