November 26, 2006
[ Please note this post was retroactively edited on March 12th 2007 ]
Having completed six years of Education in Biomedical Engineering, and almost 3 months of research in Electrophysiology, I feel well poised to make comments about my experiences with being educated in this field. What started as an alternative route to become a geneticist when I was in my high school, turned into a field I have eventually come to complete my Masters in.
When I fist walked into the Biomedical Engineering Department at Manipal, I was extremely impressed by the 3 people I met there (Dr Niranjan UC , Dr Rajendra Acharya and Ganest Bhat ( that was his name if my memory serves me right) ) and received some very loud assurances from one of the professors, Dr Rajendra Acharya that it would potentially set me off on the path I was looking to get into further down the road. I was informed that once I had completed my Bachelors degree I could go for my higher studies in the field I wanted to get into which was Genetic Engineering. Management Consulting in Biotech and Pharma seem more like what I would like to do now. Change of plan!
However, 4 years passed by while I shared a love hate relationship with Biomedical Engineering and finally applied to Masters and Doctoral programs in Biology, Genetics in the United States.
All my applications to the field I wanted to study fell flat on their faces. I needed more training and coursework before any of the programs would accept me. This is May 2004 and I decided to apply to Drexel University which promptly admitted me ( and with a partial fellowship to boot!). Torn between staying back to pursue some research work to strengthen my application for next year and leaving for Drexel, I chose the latter ( these choices are like coin flips, in retrospect, it's 50-50 ). Enter USA and Drexel University. Drexel had one of the typical Biomedical Engineering departments that you would find in many parts of the US and in a few other countries around the world, a legacy of the Whitaker Foundation. Read on to find out the saga of the educated pioneer Biomedical Engineer ( or is it guinea pig ?)
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November 17, 2006
Alan Jackson's song "Remember When" is recommended if you're in that nostalgic mood about love, life and close ones. Country music has such wonderful gems that even with the simple guitar and a great voice and some thoughtful lyrics you can do a much better job of making good music than with all the electronic gadgetry and amps that are available and so all the techno gimmickry fades into nothingness and noise when you're listening to some good country tunes.
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October 18, 2006
De Bono's seminal book on how perceptions are central to our thinking and hinder in more ways than one the advance of humankind and progress.Language with all its advantages is highly inaccurate in expressing things as they are and rather effectively creates a perception in the mind which may or may not be what it actually is.
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October 15, 2006
Waiting on the world to change,
Waiting on things to happen,
Unxepected returns on previous investments,
Love, life, people and work.
Are you waiting on the world to change ?
Are you expecting things to happen ?
Are you waiting for that next email ?
Are you waiting for the next promotion ?
Are you waiting on the next job change ?
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Turn your head around,
All that you thought would happen,
All that you thought would not happen,
Didn't and did.
What is that you want ?
Whattttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ?
Somethings are going to change and somethings are not.
You've got to live no matter what.
Are you finding today good ?
Without a sound,
Without a word,
Everyday counts in so many ways.
She's on your mind,
He's on your mind,
They're on your mind.
Lose control of things,
Gain control of your life.
Killing the desire of expectation,
A rat in a maze ?
The maze builder ?
You're none.
You're the guy who was born and will die.
You're the guy who may make a difference
Given a will to do it...
Love, life, people and work.
Enter your own maze
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October 14, 2006
Hah....I finally started looking at the obsession that is called CAR for Americans. Manipal was all about bikes and rattling off names and makes of bikes was a matter of necessity....here I am looking at graduate plans for BMW bikes and checking out BMW cars and it just grows on you. Good things are being said about the BMWs.....competing for my attention are the Lamborghini Gallardo and Aston Martin Vanquish S, both extremely beautiful and the modern horse of kings. The Motley fool does a good job if you're looking for a good research article on how to buy a car and they also have excellent cost calculators to tell you where you stand.They have a slew of excellent suggestions to continue your research and get more info and finally settle on that baby of yours.
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October 11, 2006
The book seems to lose focus towards the second half and it becomes a series of examples. However, the idea being proposed is worth exploring and it would do good if corporations and governments did actually use decision markets in their operations more often. There are currently examples of decision markets being used among companies.
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October 05, 2006
Like shifting goalposts
Dreams of yesterday look farther today
Have they moved or have I ?
Dreams closer home
Appear out of the sky
And beckon.
Being called to take a road
A road not taken often
A road not taken because others said you could not
A road not taken because you never know it was there.
Dreams beckon,
From yesterday and today,
A dream from the past wakes up and shows you it can be.
A dream whose road was different in the past
A dream which exists down a new road
A dream from the past meets a dream in the future
The road not taken opens up again.
Somewhere sometime,
You did not lost sight of it.
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September 28, 2006
James Surowiecki makes a compelling point in his book the Wisdom of Crowds.....the rather eerie predictive accuracy of crowds which puts to shame even the best of experts. The theory that mobs and crowds are crazy at the worst and dumb at the best has come a long way and James makes a strong argument about that. A rather interesting point about the whole thing is that HSX ( Hollywood Stock Exchange ) can make predictions about new movie box office results with a pretty good accuracy and are actually selling their data to Hollywood people.
A caveat however is that there are 3 things which are required in the composition of the crowd to be successful.....more on that later.
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September 23, 2006
Those days in the company of friends,
Sometimes a moment remembered,
The people absent.
The feeling of belonging,
A feeling explored many times,
Cloistered with a need of the human touch.
Who's alone now ?
Is it you ?
Who's alone now ?
Is it you surrounded by people you cannot talk to ?
Clamoring to be heard,
Clamoring to be at peace.
In a crowded place,
In a restaurant,
In a cafe,
I have spoken,
I have not been heard,
I have had your ears,
But you did not listen.
I'll never be with you.
I'll never be with you.
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September 09, 2006
Ok. I'm suddenly where I don't want to be..I've spent time doing "certain" things I should not have gotten into and....at the end of it...I'm regretting a tad bit too much. Other than that, today has been a generally mundane, lazy, boring, saturday afternoon...contemplating about my aimlessness in life and things that I could have done or should have done.The hopeful thing is that it's not too late and I still look like a fucking undergrad or worse ( read high school student).
If one of you crazy humans happens to come onto this page through the most often than not orkut link....please don't waste your time reading my thoughts....i've just become too lazy to write them down in a diary...more signs of my illiteracy.
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July 31, 2006
Hamlet to be or not to be
To do or not to do
That should not be the question
Hamletesque attitude,
Thy name is tragedy.
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July 18, 2006
Somethings need time,
You don't know how much though,
All you need is just a little patience.
Shedding tears alone,
For things that you expected,
which never happened.
Shedding tears of joy alone,
For things that you never expected,
which happened.
All you need is just a little patience.
Things will work themselves out fine.
They always do.
All we need is to do what we can,
And do the right thing,
And do the best.
All you need is just a little patience.
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July 11, 2006
Something you can do right now,
Something you can touch and feel.
Living for tomorrow,
Living for expectations,
Hopes undying,
That is not your reason to live.
Your reason to live is in front of you,
In your day today.
Is this what you want ?
Look at your life.
Tangible is all that it is,
And all that can be tangible,
Roads lay ahead,
Paths unknown but a short patch of it highlighted,
The patch that is today and right now.
The glory in your work
The glory in doing
The glory in living
As best as you can.
Glory in the eyes of the dying man who smiles,
Glory in the eyes of the school kid who submits his homework,
Glory in the eyes of the blue collar worker at the end of a day of work.
Sometime is today and now
Paths unknown lay in front of us
But it is good,
That which is today,
given to us and never to come back.
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July 08, 2006
Change is unstoppable,
Today is not.
Stop and look at it,
Don't close your eyes
This is your life.
You stand to lose everything and gain everything,
Everyday and every moment,
Is this who you want to be ?
Choose and pick the rose
The thorns are there on the way.
There are many roses in the garden with their thorns,
Pick one and don't look back.
Is this what you want ?
Is this who you want to be ?
This is your life,
Don't close your eyes.
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June 25, 2006
A joke never well put across,
A smile overlooked,
that sheepish grin never forgotten
Another time and day would tell me where I am.
Today is beautiful in itself
Today is the only day I have
At this moment
nothing matters but whether it's spent well.
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June 20, 2006
Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones got it right on that one......the test of fire makes fine steel they say.However, the experience itself is not exactly something you'd like to live through, given a choice. But we're not given much choice in life about what we experience......so when it comes across...making the most of it is the wisest course of action. Getting burned truly helps you appreciate the meaning of love in its deepest sense.
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June 17, 2006
Life's this and life's that
Life's crazy and then you die.
Laugh at it when it gets to you
It'll back off.
Don't let it get to you
It's not worth it,
You won't survive it anyways.
But live and laugh,
Have fun and make hay while it's bright.
Somedays just get to you when you are so down
Got to stand up and say ha ha ha.
What's everything worth anyways
As much as you value it: isn't it.
Bad poems and good ones,
Are you still reading me ?
The key to the door of life ?
Laugh at it.....laugh at it.....laugh at it.
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June 15, 2006
Ek tha panchhi
Ek tha Aakash
Panchhi udne lagi
phir use aakash ne kahan
tum udo jitna man chahein
tum udo jitna oopar ho sake
Magar bhoolna mat
Tum bane thhe mitti mein
Aur ek din tumhe wapas udhar jaana hain
Is Aakash ke paas sirf do din ki khushi
Par uske liye mitti ko na bhoolna.
Panchhi ne kahan Aakash se
Hum mitti ke hain zaroor
Aur use bhoolenge bhi nahin
Par is din hum aakash mein udenge
Kyon ki is din wapas nahin aayega
Aur is din ki kahani hamare dil mein rahegi
Saari jeevan ke liye!
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June 12, 2006
Sunlight sunshine bright light and hope
Make a new day look better in every way.
Hope is that tomorrow will be better
Hope is that tomorrow will not be worse
Hope is that tomorrow will be as good as today.
Sunlight on my shoulders on a cold wintry day makes me warm
Sunshine on my body after days of cloudy waste make me happy.
Passage through darkness to bright light makes me realize that life is in light and in darkness
Happiness is in living with hope and cherishing today's gifts.
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June 12, 2006
If you died today what is the last thing you would want to do ?
Do it now.
If you feel sadness....appreciate it,
Maybe it'll teach you the worth of the happy days you had and those to come.
Words of wisdom,
Seldom followed
Felt from the heart
And then they become yours,
To be believed and followed.
Tomorrow is a promissory note,
Today is the only cash I got.
And I've got loads of it.....maybe.
Doesn't matter....because I can only spend today.
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April 24, 2006
Tough times bring out the best in some people, but for some life is viewed as a continuous tough time....no matter what they are doing. If you're one of those, think about it....are times really tough or do you enjoy being in your comfort zone of worrying about tough times ALL THE TIME ?
If you came through life worrying about the next thing or the current state of affairs, or the past, you may well belong to the league of gentlemen who feed on worries.
Life, no matter what our actions are, is very little in our control. What is in our control is our state of mind and our attitude. No matter what is happening around you, realize this: Things will change and you will survive.Worrying will add nothing to the roster of your life except for misery, unless you enjoy being in a state of misery, then you belong to the miserly league of gentlemen.
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March 27, 2006
There is a certain girl
Who is "of the sea",
Calm and deep as the ocean,
Time with her stands still.
She lives somewhere here in my heart,
Hidden from the world at large.
When I was younger,
Younger than today
I met her,
And I forgot the years.
There is a certain girl
Who is never far from my mind,
Pure and beautiful as the falling rain,
Life with her is a lot of things.
She stays around the corner,
The deepest corner of my heart,
Always a source of strength and trust.
Sometimes I look back and find her,
Waiting and smiling.
There is a certain girl
Who has eyes like a mischievious deer,
A vastness of ocean lying inside them.
A worker bee making her hive proud,
She's my queen bee.
During rainy days and sunny ones,
She's the one to clear the skies,
She's the one to be the shade for me.
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March 17, 2006
You are me
Me is you
and you are the one I've known
Since I was born.
Trips into eternal depths.
To know you.
I still need to know you.
I want to be you.
I am so incomplete,
I need to know you.
You're within me.
My spirit.
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March 17, 2006
Tung tu tung
La la lad la
The guitar and piano play.
Cross out your mental resistances
And seek the atom.
The atom never lies.
Atoms walking through this life.
You're one of them....
The core to your life
The one answer,
Your atom.
Keeps you from trouble.
Stolen lines from a song never made any sense.
Let the judges frown for five at a time.
Are you there to seek it ?
Are you blinded by the world ?
Where is your atom ?
You are an atom.
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March 13, 2006
A need to feed,
A need to breed.
A need for every time of day,
A need for every cerebration of your mind.
Relationships of need.
Everybody wants you,
If you fill a need.
To make them feel the ability to feel superior
And act as saviours of you,
Also fulfils a need.
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March 06, 2006
Have you heard of the story of the boy who never tried,
Who grew up to be the man who never acted,
And died the old man who left behind a legacy of emptiness.
A tiny step each moment
A longer distance covered in a day
Walking up
Knocking on doors
Waiting a short while before they open or don't
Finding others to knock on till I'm done.
I'm never done until the day I'm done.
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February 25, 2006
A numbness engulfs you for a while and then you rationalize
It helps and then you move on.
Crossroads of some path leading to an unknown future lay before you
Your choices are not made for you when you are rejected,
Now is the time that they have to be created.
Now is the time to quickly minimize your losses.
Now is the time to meme this snippet and get going.
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January 04, 2006
A beautiful Christmas spent at a beautiful American family home in suburban Philadelphia.
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