Totally in awe!

I’m posting this just as soon as I managed to pick up my jaw from the floor.

Yeah, I am still at the conference and still feeling incredibly insignificant.

Some thoughts on today’s experience:

• The weather was so amazing today. It took so much effort to get to the conference site without making a detour.
• How the hell do some people get to be so incredibly smart?? It really beats me. Some of these scientists are amazing people, or should I say amazing thinkers (what kind of people they are?? I really can’t say). Their thought processes are really amazing. I know I’m saying “amazing” too many times, but that just gives you an idea about how amazing they are.
• How the hell do some people get to be soooo good looking and sooo smart as well?? Some scientists can be damn good looking (total eye-candy). It’s a pity I couldn’t really concentrate on what they were saying for some time because of just that.
• Some people are so so so smart. I’m so in awe. Can’t you tell? I was totally blown away by some of the work presented today. I wish that someday I could be half the scientist that these people are.
• Was impressed by this Japanese student who presented his work to 1000 scientists from all over the world, inspite of speaking very little (read bad) English. He couldn’t understand what people were asking him but he was so cool and kept laughing at himself (together with the audience). I thought he had so much guts to do that. Really!
• Some ideas presented today were really great. I could mention specifics but that may be too boring for some. How people can think of such things is really something I can’t fathom for the life of me.
• Indians make great speakers. I thought the Indian scientists made great presentations and were incredibly smart too. I’m not biased when I say that today’s most impressive presenter was an Indian. It may sound silly but it makes me proud. 

Witnessed some great scientists present some great science. All in all, a very productive day!

Back to Reality

“NEWSFLASH!! This is not your vacation. At least, not yet. You are here for a conference! Even if you are in Switzerland, you are here first to listen to these people talk about their work and contributions to research!” That’s what I was telling myself, sitting at the conference today where I got a steady dose of data and facts about breakthrough research and basically, reaffirmations that I am but a nobody.

I felt so small, sitting with the likes of Ralph Steinman and Ken Shortman. (For the uninitiated, these are the leading scientists working in my field of research). I was even breathing the same air as them. You would think it would be inspiring. Not so much! It's actually intimidating, scary even.

Will I ever be in the same league as them, or even come close? I don’t know. But right now I’m feeling so damn insignificant. How the hell am I going to present my work to these people. I just want to curl up and hide someplace where I won’t be seen for the rest of the conference.

First Impressions

After dreaming about it for a long time, watching it on endless Karan Johar movies and contemplating for the last six months, I’m finally here!!! I’m in Switzerland! I’m not on vacation as I’m here on a conference but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Just landed here this morning. I’m supposed to be jetlagged but I don’t think I can sleep. I’m so excited!

Some random thoughts:

• I had my first vision of snow (yeah, I’ve never seen snow before)I could see the snow on the Alps today but it’s still so far away. I will be going there soon, in about a week’s time. I can’t wait!
• The weather here is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Anywhere you look, there’s a beautiful picture-perfect, postcard-view! That reminds me, I need to buy a few (postcards , not views)
• My room in the hotel overlooks the Lake Lugano and It’s amazing to sit out and watch. I could do this for hours.
• I can actually wear my Harvard Sweatshirt without having to take it off in a minute because I’m feeling hot.
• I have been here for one whole day and I haven’t had a bead of perspiration.
• There is SOOOO much time on my hands. Maybe I’m jetlagged and that’s why I can’t sleep too much but works for me.
• The people here are so beautiful. The men are total eye candy. Even the women are so hot, even if I say so.
• The dogs here are incredibly cute and there are so many of them. It seems like they are allowed anywhere, even on buses and in departmental stores!
• The birds are fat, Trust me, a sparrow is twice the size of any sparrow I’ve seen.
• The cheese is great and is present in every possible food you decide to eat. Actually, so is meat. I guess a vegetarian could live just on the cheese. But I wonder how the people here stay so fit.
• There was a marathon here today. Felt good that I was watching instead of running it. J I guess I just answered my own question (on how people stay fit). People are actually running in sweatshirts! After running in Singapore, where I cant imagine running in anything but shorts and singlets, it’s amazing to think you can actually run and not feel hot in sweatshirts.

I will post pictures soon, just not today. I’ll be here for some time even after the conference is over. I hope I do get time to blog and share a little :)

Bizarre

It so happened that a colleague of mine came back after a long vacation and she looked  (lets just say) different. She originally had non-existent eyebrows and today, there was this nice design on her forehead. Turns out that she had eyebrows tattooed onto her forehead. “Nice plan’, I said, smiling at her. I wish it had stopped at that.

When I complimented her on her nice eye-make-up, she coolly told me, “No, it’s actually a tattoo too and it’s permanent. Now I don’t have to wear eye makeup everyday and still look pretty.” She had actually gotten even her eyeliner tattooed on her eyelids. That had my eyes popping out of their sockets.  Though she did admit that the process was extremely painful, I’m not sure she mentioned it was worth it. She told me it was so painful that later that night she had to be taken to the hospital for pain medication.

I know I have a tattoo too. So, I can’t really be the one to be commenting on my friend’s tattoo, so what if it is in a “sensitive” place. I guess it is a personal choice to decide what is “ok” for you and what is “extreme”.

I know it was her choice and her suffering but I was really shocked. What if the person doing it missed or had a shaky moment? The lesser risk would be that you would have bad eye make-up for the rest of your life and worst case your eyes could get damaged. I am really glad that it didn’t happen to my friend but I couldn’t help but wonder, where is the line? Just how far are you willing to go to look good?

E-Manna-ting Radiance

So, we were arguing on whether to go to the concert or not, because the tickets were priced quite high. “But, it’s Manna Dey!!, It’s definitely going to be worth it”  I told R. After much debate about the costs of the concert, we finally decided to go and booked tickets a week before the show. “ Manna Dey-In the flesh”, the concert was called. Though I have been a fan of his singing for a long time, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this concert. I was crossing my fingers, hoping to hear him sing for at least half the time of the concert without too many ‘fillers’ as is the trend today.

All excited, we were at our seats by 7:15, though the show was supposed to start only by 7:30. Though the curtains were drawn, we could hear notes of instruments being tuned and a voice I guessed was Manna’s. It was a pleasant surprise at 7:30 that even though half the seats were still empty, from behind the curtains, Manna Dey’s voice said, “ I promised I’ll be here at 7:30, I am here. Are you there??”

And there he was, the legend himself, sitting at an old harmonium and all set to start. No one to give long speeches (read irritate),no nonsense MC, no gimmick, he was all set to start the show. But as the organizers would have it, they wanted to do a short interview with him before he started singing. Though he expressed displeasure at not being allowed to start with the music, he agreed to answer a few questions. After the Q&A session, he started the music with “Ae malik tere bande hum” along with another lady with a decent voice by his side. She accompanied him for the duets. 

And then started the saga of the 3-hour musical fest that was. With each song, he remembered the music director, the composer and the lyricist, which I thought was a herculean effort. And he mentioned a few anecdotes with each one of the songs. It was like adding a personal touch to each one of his songs.

The musicians who came with him were all one of a kind. You could see that they had been with him for a long time, as they knew exactly what he expected of them. One person played the tabla, another the dhol, one on the piano and one on the bass guitar. But the most interesting of them all was this old man who had like a magic box of odd things, with which he added beats at different times in different songs. He had this set of ghungroo (musical anklets) and then so many other things that I can’t really name. He made these beats that were so much a part of the old hindi film songs that made each song so unique. And the best part was this 85 year old MC who had a very  “shayarana mizaj” and kept reciting sher after sher and made fun of all the things that he could set his eyes on and mostly himself, and left the audience in squeals of laughter. Listening to the music however was once-in-a-lifetime experience for me atleast.  Few of the songs he sung were, ‘Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare’,  ‘Tu chupi hai kahan, main tadapta yahan’, ‘Yeh raat bheegi bheegi’, ‘Laga chunri me daag’, ‘Ae meri zohre jabeen’ and 'dil ki girah kholdo', among many others. And every one of them, he made sure he sang the complete song.

When asked what he thought were his favorites, he mentioned “Kasme Wade pyar wafa” and “Ae mere pyare watan”, which are my favorites too. My only complaint from this concert was that he didn’t sing these songs. I was anticipating that he would definitely sing them but he didn’t. And they ended the whole thing so abruptly, that there was no time to even request the songs. The audience gave him a standing ovation in the end and applauded for a good five minutes, which no doubt he truly deserved.

This man was so old he had trouble standing by himself after a while. But he sang with this soulful melodious voice, which didn’t show any signs of aging at all. I consider it my honor to have witnessed his singing. It will be one memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Buying music CDs: $

Tickets to a concert: $$

Witnessing a 90-yr old legend sing in-person: Priceless

Celebrating Independence Day in a foreign land

Found myself at the Indian High Commission on an early Sunday morning to celebrate the Independence Day. After getting out of school, August 15 meant little more than an annual holiday. Now being in a foreign land, I was compelled to be there at the Indian embassy to celebrate the day. May be I was compelled by a sense of duty to be there when the Tricolor was being unfurled. May be it was a need to justify to my country that I’m not a foreigner, to tell her that I still love you even though I am not with you right now. I don’t know what it was, but I am glad that I was there.

At the celebration, a bunch of school kids were performing to this song and then as is the way with things, they go wrong and all of a sudden, the music just stopped. The poor kids were in a fix, not knowing what to do. Then, something happened. There was this chorus from the audience, singing the song so melodiously and so in sync that it sounded like a practiced performance. The kids then continued to dance as the chorus sang on till they set the audio right.

Had a depressing discussion with a friend about what India doesn’t have and what we have that we should be really proud of. Of course, we argued on a few things but what we agreed upon without a doubt was Indian music and how music binds us all together, in one way or another. I think it’s in our blood.

In the evening, I went to this concert by Shreya Ghoshal. She’s a popular playback singer who made it big recently. She sang quite a few popular hindi numbers and then sang a Bengali song. Though probably 80% of the audience didn’t understand Bengali, they still enjoyed the music, applauded and encouraged her through the song. This can happen only in India, the acceptance to other languages and cultures. We enjoy music in any form, language no bar. Music does bind us all together.

And in the end, when she suddenly burst into the national anthem, the response of the audience was almost synchronized; every single person rose without a moment’s hesitation and sang along. I know it is what we are supposed to do but it was a feeling I cannot begin to describe. For a moment, it was as if we all knew each other. It was a sense of pride, a sense of belonging.

Birthday blues!

I turn 30 in a week. 

I was always terrified of turning thirty. I don’t know why but it was my scary age. I  wanted to make sure that by the time I turn 30, I should have done enough as a big chunk of my life would have passed by.

I can’t remember when I actually came up with this list but in the last few years, I’ve added to the list and its always been there at the back of my mind and I kept working on it for as far as I can remember.

Now that D-day is a week to go, I thought I’d see how I fared.

1) I should own my own motorbike.

This was the first one to come true. I owned my first bike, my pulsar 180 about 6 years ago. Though she’s not mine anymore, she’ll be my favorite one always. I own one now, which I am fond of too. So yes, that one’s done.

2) I should have run a marathon.

I ran my first and (I think) my last marathon last year. That was one of the most difficult things I did in my life and I’m proud of myself for that.

3) I should be able to cook a decent meal for myself.

Oh, yes, I can do more than a decent meal. I can cook a mean gourmet meal. Even at the risk of sounding immodest, I am a good cook.

4) I should have a blog and should write regularly.

My Blog. Here it is and I am actually putting up the rest of the list on it. About doing it regularly, I’m getting there. I’m trying. Aren’t I?

5) I should know what I want to do with my life, career wise.

I was confused for the longest time. But finally, I think this is what I want to do. I enrolled into a graduate program this year, one of the best things I did for myself. Hopefully, I should end up with a PhD in 4-5 years, but I am getting there.

6) I should have visited at least 2 foreign countries.

Counting Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, I’ve visited 4 countries. Not bad eh?

7) I should have learnt to play a musical instrument.

I started learning to play the guitar 3 years ago. Though I’m not extremely good at it, I can play a decent tune.

8) I should learn to swim.

I can swim all right, maybe not as well as I’d like to, but I cannot drown in a swimming pool. How I’d fare in deeper waters is a different question altogether.

9) I should be fit and in the best shape of my life. X

Well, I am fit but I am not exactly in the best shape. I got my gym membership a couple of months ago. I should get there in another year or so.

10) I should have a tattoo.

After thinking about it for soooooo long, I finally got myself a tattoo last night.

Yes, it did hurt a little bit and yes, it feels great!! With that I did indeed complete my list of things to do before I turn 30 and I still have a week to go. :)

Looking back, I think I’ve done reasonably well. 8.5/10 is not that bad. I thought it would be scary. But turns out, its not anything like I imagined it would be.

When I was younger, I looked forward to my tomorrows and I couldn’t wait to be older. When I am older, I know I will look back at my yesterdays, wishing I could go back.

For today, I’m content. Being just me and being 30 !!!