pLaN Z

I am very fond of alternate strategies. So much so that I feel being swallowed up by an unfailing pessimism. The idea of taking any kind of risk simply freaks me out. I always have this feeling that the idea of doing something which I look forward to might never work out or turn out as I expect it to, thereby ending up making thousands of  subsidary plans. On several occassions how I had wished to let go of a failed attempt instead of jumping to plan B, if not B then plan C and so on. I wonder how different would that life have been! The mere thought of idling makes me sad. I hate floating on an  oarless boat. Not that I am good at rowing. I just end up propelling the boat in the direction of the wind, which is as good as an oarless boat I guess. The thought of undirected propelling apparently being better than floating aimlessly, I realise, is the root of the problem. It gives you a superficial impression of being engaged. Propelling or floating is all the same if the motion is Brownian!
I so envy people who can take decision on spot. And here I am.. unable to decide what to choose for lunch! I have to make my mind up on the way to the canteen to save myself some extra time at the counter! Having said that I think Plan b isn't that bad. It just saves you from being reckless. But what are dangerous I guess are plans C-Z! Always being on the safer side just makes you miss the mini adventures in life.. :)

wHen To dO oR nOt tO Do iS tHE QueSTioN!!

The transition from being a child to a grown up is complete when the decision of sharing the chocolate you have in hand doesn't bother you so much as the dilemma of whether you should say or do something.. somewhere.. infront of somebody.. in that situation... given the weather conditions..

..the lunch you ate... the dinner you are going to have ...and other mundane factors that must be taken into serious consideration before you end up doing something... somewhere... and the cycle continues!!

Have you ever been trapped in this cycle?? Then my dear friend you have come of age... Congratulations!! If you think that you can escape this ordeal of making the "right decision", then you are on the wrong side of the fence.  There's nothing called "right"!! Right has always been relative... It has always been playing safe avoiding anything thats absolute.. No matter what,you are going to be judged. Theres no escaping...You have to face it... Yeah one of the biggest cons of being a grown up!

People suddenly become so judgemental around you and so do you. People start giving internal grades irrespective of whether you talk or don't, you dance or sing, sleep or eat, run or laugh... nothing really matters..and the biggest problem being you are not even handed the report card. All you have to do is grind your head thinking if you really ended up offending or annoying someone. Yes you can bypass all these if you are least interested to what grades you are going to get from someone. But thats quite difficult because at a certain point of  time even you would be confused thinking what exactly do you want and what gives you peace of mind! As has been rightly said you can love or hate certain things but you can't ignore them.. neither can you decide what to do about them nor can you infer anything from them .. :D

a DeLicACy cALleD "DhOP eR cHoP"

"Dhoper Chop" is a common recipe with divine Bengali cuisine flavours. Chop is hindi means 'pakoda'. I am sure "dhoper chop" is quite famous in other places as well since the process of making it is universal. Just that it is known by different names according to its place of origin with some subtle differences which might have evolved over the years. Anyway my post today mainly focuses on the preparation of this famous dish and then you might be able to guess its name in your mother tongue. For Bengalis reading this post, theres no suspense left since the title suggests it all..but as you have already started reading it, sparing two more minutes might make a little more sense as opposed to the one minute already wasted in reading up to this point.


So before describing the recipe for "dhoper chop" in details let me give you all an analogy. I am sure most of us like to indulge in biriyani once in a while. But making biriyani is an art. You just can't come up with biriyani by putting rice and chicken together. The reason why we prefer fried rice over biriyani in a random restaurant (no offence to fried rice though!!). So you see just like biriyani, making dhoper chop is also an art. Most of the people are just average in making this. The problem with chop is that if you are not good at it, it might crack while deep frying it and the oil seeps inside. And the real problem starts when a gastronomically challenged person is forced to eat it.

"Dhoper chop" should ideally involve doing some small research about the topic on which your dhop revolves. Making dhops is far more diffucult than catching an imperfect one. And thinking that the person on the other side will not be able to see through your "dhop" is another big mistake. So if you dont have the time to do your homework (which is quite obvious considering how busy we are), refraining from making up any "dhops" is the best option. People who are blunt are actually the respected ones at the end of the day. But then if one lacks the expertise, will he/she just give up on making dhoper chop?? NO WAY...practice is waiting for its turn :D ....Practise making up your own small harmless dhops and serve it to your near and close ones. Check their reaction. If they are not able to make out..then come next day and tell them that you had made things up...so that next time they might become a little seasoned when you serve them "dhoper chop". In the end, you eventually train both your friend and yourself. Mutual benefit you see :D ...But then after a certain point of time they might stop believing you. So a little discretion is required from the chef's side.

Anyway the aim is to make the batter thick. A runny batter wouldn't give you a strong hold. Work on the batter. Even I am working on it :D . And refraining from serving people average dhoper chop and waiting till you master the art is a better option than you know what...

Patiently Hoping for a Degree~~ PhD

I have seen two kinds of people opting for this long term commitment. One, who are highly ambitious and inquisitive to the core, individuals who believe they can change the way certain things are supposed to be. Then there’s the other kind...

People who are most of the time lost in some random thought. Folks who know they wouldn’t be able to survive in the corporate sector, if at all they find a place there, because of their perpetual contemplation in excess. They have always dreaded to make an effort to find out where is their life leading them to, so they chose to avoid the question and thereby sparing themselves the trouble to find any answer to it for a considerable part of their life!

By reading the details of the well analysed group above, one would be easily able to make out the category of the crowd I belong to. The wait isn’t that bad as people think it to be. You are given a fair compensation for mulling over things...for the time you spend figuring out what exactly you want from life (as well as from the costly chemicals that you are pouring down the sink).

Your bank balance might just refuse to grow as compared to people with professional or technical degrees. But then who cares as long as you have just enough to indulge yourself.

People say there is a good chance of being daunted by stagnancy here. But life is quite long and so participating in the rat race as early as one’s twenties would be too tiring. It’s awesome to get hypnotised by the wall clock while you have your lunch..to sink into a short luxurious siesta once in a while..to think more..to try rowing at your own pace to steer your life..to explore things you had always wanted to as a child...to make mistakes..and then may be repeat them again (depends on one’s advisor :P ) before you finally learn and in the mean time Patiently Hope for a Degree. There will always be time to run the race :) . Btw to the people with six or seven digit bank balance..at times I do envy you on the last day of the month!

ThE LiFE Of bActeriA~~

I was asked by one of my very close friends to write something on bacteria... So here I go! Now.. where do I start from! Well I can’t imagine my life without bacteria! Today I am what I am...and in future too I will be what I will be because of them :P ..

Everyone of us as a child has been asked about their preference if given a chance to born again. Answers like bird, tiger, whale, ant etc are the common ones. But did anyone hear bacteria as an answer? Atleast I didn’t. They are the most neglected species on this earth since time immemorial.

Do you prefer test matches over T20?? If your answer is no then why don’t you give bacteria a chance. When you can have a luxurious and contended life in 20mins..then why even think about counting years! Maintaining quality instead of worrying about the quantity would certainly lead you to happiness!

Here are some of the points that might help you taking your decision!

These little creatures are the most pampered ones I have ever seen! How many of us live on a pH maintained diet?? I personally don’t have any specific diet. I eat almost anything that comes my way till I am hungry! But I always make sure I prepare pH maintained food for these little ones, strictly made with RO water and sterilised for a certain fixed amount of time! How many of us get to eat such stringently cooked food everytime!??

Being a bacteria has its own advantage. You can easily have your own production unit of anything you wish for. So this saves a huge amount of your money which you would end up spending on a protein rich shampoo, hair colour, cream, medicines etc. If you need something ..just clone the gene of interest in your DNA and you are good to go! Glow in the dark ( you again have the opportunity to choose your favourite colour here :P ...red, green ,yellow...anything you want),

secrete any protein you want ( use it....throw it if you have excess ), produce any antibiotic you want to keep off your enemies or use it just for your own survival...etc etc...the list goes on.. Do you see the advantage?? You would be spoilt for choice...I can guarantee you that... And what’s more!! You can even pass your acquired traits to your progeny at no extra cost :D ....your legacy continues...generation after generation ;) ..

And the most fascinating thing that I find about bacteria is time travel :D ....Well not that exact kind of time travel that comes to your mind... If you are bored of your life and wish to take a break...flash freeze comes to your rescue :P.

Freeze yourself and stay at -80°C for months! Let people know when you want to continue again. So there you are...Starting a new life, 2k-3k generation time ahead....while your fellow bacteria, in some other vial who had shared the same box with you at some point of time, would have perished long back and lost in the sands of time :P ...

I can go on and on...but one must stop before others start getting bored :D ...So I hope I could change your views on bacteria a bit...there’s no denying that they have a better life than we have. Having a fulfilling life of twenty minutes is certainly better than 100years of slogging. I hope you have made up your mind and wished to God about what you want to be in your next birth ! Just make sure you end up in some lab and not in garbage ..else you might really have a tough times surrounded by all kind of bullies :D ...

Btw did you know that there are slow growing bacteria as well.. who take weeks to double. And life isn’t that easy in a 100mm dia petri plate :P ...Nevermind, theres always a second chance ;)

The Ordeal

Durga Puja....the most important festival for a Bengali! No matter in which corner of the world you are...if you are a Bengali, you would definitely yearn to come back to Kolkata during this time of the year! The decked up streets bustling with people equally decked up...in tune with the festive feel....children walking enthusiastically ignoring their shoe bites....the music on every corner of the road...food stalls...rides and yess the pandals! All of a sudden the city seems so lively...

I have never missed a Puja in Kolkata since the last 10 years of the life. Specially in the last two years....I skipped classes, did all I could do to prepone or postpone tests....stood in the line for tatkal tickets...travelled in sleeper class with a RAC ticket during the hot and humid month of October....everything seemed worth those 4-5days of joy!

This time it was a complete disaster though. I had booked my tickets well in advance. But because of the schedule of my exams had to cancel them...Then I decided to book another set of tickets after I realised I could do nothing much to change the dates of the exams.. By then the tickets were no longer available from Bangalore. I booked tickets to home via Chennai... waitlist though! I have an uncle who has VIP reservation quota in the railways. So there was my only chance to go home.

I wrote exams on Panchami and Soshti here at the institute. On Soshti night I took a train to Chennai. I reached early in the morning. Chennai central is quite a familiar station to me. During my M.Sc. days I used to travel to my home via Central. Anyway so after reaching there, I went to the ‘PNR status checking’ kiosk. The chart hadn’t been prepared by then. I sat for two hours in the station watching the local advertisements shown on the television in the station and waiting for the chart to be prepared. I had seen most of them in the last two years but it didn’t matter much.  At around 6:30am the chart was out and I came to know that my ticket was still in the waitlist. I didn’t know what to do. I sat in a chair and cried for 15-20mins. It seemed to be the best option. Flight fare by then was too much to be afforded by me. However I was determined to go home. I went to a “reservation after chart preparation” counter but was turned down.... caught hold of some random TTE in the station. I even thought of getting a general ticket to get on to the train and then pay the fine later. But my father just asked me to return back to hostel.

I so wanted to go home. I didn’t know whom to blame...my profs for jeopardizing my puja plans or my uncle or the unaffordable flight fare or that person in the “reservation after chart preparation” counter. The next train to Bangalore was after 20mins. I had to locate the ticket counter for local trains...which was in a different building. I finally got a ticket for myself 10mins before the train would leave for Bangalore. And then after 7hours I was back to the station from where I had happily started the night before! So I spent my Maha Saptami in travelling to Chennai and then coming back. And here I am today sitting in my room sulking on Ashtami morning. I might go out in the evening to some nearby pandals here with my friends. But then home is where the heart is. I wish September had never ended!

A MuNdAnE LifE

I am a very boring person. Well...it might not be a very appropriate sentence to start your post with but couldn’t think of anything else that would suit better. I sleep at 12 o’clock at night and wake up at 7:30 in the morning....do all sorts of boring chores which regular people do and then rush to my morning classes.

I don’t follow much in the classes though. Sometimes I would just stare blankly at the board (mostly because I am too lazy to either blink or look somewhere else :P).... sometimes I would be lost in the thoughts of people who are ignorant about the spectrum produced by a compound or are oblivious to the fact so as to what would happen if a particular amino acid is replaced by something else in the alpha helix!! Is life too tough for them? Obviously the answer is no. Then why it isn’t the same for me? Why do these facts seem so indispensable to me? It seems my life would stall without the answers! Frustrated and dejected, I decide to pack my bag and leave for some place unknown..away from the people I know. Just then, the instructor pulls me back to this earthly world by asking a question or enquiring if I am still there in the class!

I really wish I could go home..to my city. Not that I have been forced to stay here. But I have always wished for it ever since I had to stay away .... right from my postgraduate days. I feel a connection with Kolkata, which I have failed to make with any other city I have lived in. It has a charm of its own which draws you towards it. Anyways, you will find a lot of articles about Kolkata but not on my life :P ..the sole reason why I started writing on it this evening.

Well, nothing seems too interesting to me to hold back my attention for long. Change seems to be the only key to hold me back to this world. But then again I hate changes. So you see the problem ;).

Anyway, it’s almost time for my dinner. I have spent more than two years of my life living in hostel, still I have not become comfortable with the timely meals. The strict schedule seems to encroach on my freedom!! Thanks for reading this to the end! The most mundane thing on my blog! For a change I thought writing gibberish would help me get away with my boredom!