Arangetram

On the 21st of May, my cousins did their Arangetram. For those of you who don’t know, an Arangetram is a dance show that a student of dance does to present herself/himself to the world as a dancer. It’s is a big deal! And my cousins did theirs with a bang!

The show took place at Jubilee Hall, Raffles hotel. The auditorium was so elegant, and seated about 400 people. The stage was done up with a beautiful backdrop, and seats on the left for the musicians, and an idol on the right. The show started with a prayer and set the mood.

I met quite a few people I know…not just family. Some of the musicians were old friends of my mom, and many people we knew were in the audience. I was walking around in a sari, and so many people didn’t recognise me - it was so funny!

Since the two of them (Sumna and Shovna) were doing the Arangetram together, most of the items were duets – except for one solo each. I loved the two solos. Shovie’s was first. She looked like she was having so much fun! I love the enthusiasm she puts into all her dances! Sumna di’s was basically just of her playing with a ball…! It was such a cute idea! She looked so nice up there! Her costume was beautiful!

In the interval, our names were actually part of the people she wanted to thank! We were part of the thanks-for-coming-all-the-way-from-India bunch! It felt so good be named! I don’t know why, but I was really thrilled with that!!

They looked great, the audi was beautiful, and best of all…they had FUN!! Even though they have never lived in India, they have managed to keep on going with Bharathnatyam!Congratulations you guys!! I’m proud of you!

Dinner, Lunch and Final Farewells

My last few days at Biopolis were the most torturous of all! Every time I would do something, I would think “Gosh! This is probably the last time I do XYZ”. And everyone – in their own way – made it so much harder!!

Last Friday, the group took me out to dinner. We left work around 6, and took two cabs to East Coast – which, turned out to be the wrong side of the island to be on for SUNSET!! We went to “Mango Tree”, this coastal Indian restaurant. The food was great, the company was great, the surrounding was great, everything was just…great! I enjoyed every minute! I got some cool pictures! And I will never be able to reach Kallang with a straight face EVER again!!

My last day was the most depressing. I had to finish up the last bits of my two reports (You guys still owe me one by the way!!!) and by 5, I had to hand over my keys and ID card! The lady I handed over my stuff to was most dispassionate about the whole thing. The place is WAY too fast and efficient! I hadn’t even been out of BII for a day, and my email was “de-activated”. It was REALLY depressing.

Saying bye to the people I’ve been around this whole time was depressing. Right up from Derek and Chandra to the lady in the little shop and the secretary who has different coloured eyes everyday…was just…depressing! (I know I’ve used that word too often, but it’s true)

Today, the DAY I was leaving, they took me to lunch – AGAIN. Yesterday, I met Sandeep in the hall, and he asked “Oh…you’re still here??”. I’m assuming he thought the dinner meant I’d be gone the next day. I said “Today is my last day, I’ll be gone tomorrow I promise!”…and there I was at BII for lunch at 12:30 this afternoon!! He must have been thinking “God! She just doesn’t LEAVE!”.
We – after A LOT of discussion - went to a pizza place! Then we had ice cream across the road at Haggen Daaz. It was so cool. I had to rush off to meet my mom at Citibank, Orchard to cash my last cheque though. I wish that last wave didn’t have to be so rushed…but it was really nice, squeezing that lunch in!!

Thanks for everything you guys! Enjoyed every moment I spent at BII! Look me up if any of you are ever in Bangalore!!

Sharing The Joy

I just realised that I have just about a week left at work. I’m quite depressed about the whole thing. Work is exciting. I feel inadequate ALL the time, and it seems like everyone who speaks around me is always just a syllable away from losing me, but I enjoy every moment of it all! I think I have said that one too many times.

I’ve actually got a lot of that lately. I am working in the most amazing place in the world. I am staying with my closest friends in the world. My cousins are about to have their Arangetram and they are going to be awesome. My guide and his boss and practically everyone here are so cool and fun to be around! So I have loads of things to be happy about right now. I have never actually been so happy with EVERYTHING in my life, and lately I’ve noticed that I’m actually the only one who cares!! And those who are nice enough to pretend that they do think I’m weird. But then, since this is my blog…so there.

I never run out of stories to tell about this place. SOMETHING funny, or interesting, or confusing has always happened. One particularly eventful day, Parita, Aunty Rajni and Uncle Manu were driving home from work from Bugis. I think I talked to Parita about work the ENTIRE drive home. And by the time I realised that I was talking so much, we were home! =D But then, she is equally thrilled with her job, so she then talked to me about HER job! Not everyone is that interested though.

In one conversation with a friend, I asked what exciting plans she had for the summer. She replied “Oh! Loads of fun things planned! I’m gonna get at least 3 piercings, and cut my hair and get a completely new look! Well, I think that’s exciting. Your idea of exciting is probably reading a book.” Yeesh. So, I’ve become more conscious about talking about work now. Other people want to talk about more interesting things. Like – guys, or piercing, or what whose boyfriend bought what for her and how cute it all is. Eh. Oh well…

I guess I’ve realised that everyone has their own idea of excitement, or fun. I suppose the majority of people reading this think my job is the most boring thing on the planet…but that doesn’t make any less overwhelmingly cool for me. So, if I were to use a cliché, “to each his own”! What say you??

SO Cool!

I thought that the work was finally beginning! I had the best day ever at work yesterday.

The morning was quite uneventful. I finished the whole alpha/beta structures thing. Quite interesting. Had lunch with Derek, and he decided that I should start computational chemistry. YAY! So after lunch, we went to Chandra’s office to transfer some Quanta files to his computer. That was the program that had the various protein structures. The one we wanted was P53, attached to another protein. So we put the P53 on one file, the other bit on another file, all the relevant numbers, energies etc etc on different files, and tried transferring it to Derek’s computer. The first time we tried to run it, the whole thing crashed – at least, it looked like it was crashing – and there was this skull and crossbones staring at me on the page. Derek saw my shocked expression, and he goes “Oh yea, one more thing. It almost never works the first time!” It turned out that the Hydrogen in the Histedine residues weren’t specifying which Carbon atom they were pointing towards. So we made it all HisD (pointing towards carbon delta). Then, after running it again, it turned out that there was another Histedine molecule, so we had to do it again. THEN, it turned out that the Quanta on two different computers named the carbon atoms slightly differently. So, we had to change all the deltas to epsilons. We finally got it to work the fifth time. Sounds frustrating, but it was so cool…seriously!

Basically, what (Dr.) Derek does, is this: he takes the protein structures, puts it in a solvent (on the computer) and makes it move by providing energy. Each movement has to be measured and unraveled, one NANOsecond at a time! And each nanosecond takes a day to work out! So imagine how long one SECOND would take. It’s a tedious job...and he loves it.

So we opened those copied files on his computer, and put the P53 along with the other bit in a cube of side 5 Angstrom. So now we had the protein, in its solvent. We did have to add 3 Cl- ions to neutralise the overall negative charge in the protein, but that worked out! The problem? From what I understood, the final file didn’t transfer properly, and the code isn’t working. So now, he and Sandeep have to figure out what’s wrong with the darned thing!

This entire process took till about 6 in the evening. I didn’t realise the time was flying, and since my phone picked yesterday of ALL days to die, ma was panicking. I met Parita at Bugis, and drove home at close to 7. Long day, but the best one so far!

I have to wait a week for the program to run, and give me results. Guess what I get to do till then? Read up on beta structures. Not that it isn’t interesting; it’s just getting a bit monotonous that’s all. Especially since I got all excited about starting the computing yesterday! Oh well, I’ll get down to it eventually…

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PS - Don't ask me how I know, but this is my 50th post! YAY!

Speech Fright - Again

Here we go all over again. This fear of public speaking seems SO darned familiar! Why does this always happen to me...! It’s worse than a valedictorian speech this time though...

I have to give a presentation on protein structure in about an hour and a half. Not looking forward to it. As it is, I hate talking in front of an audience. Now I have to talk to four BRILLIANT scientists about what they majored or PHD-ed in, and they are supposed to listen to me! Oh my God...I am going to feel so stupid. If I have understood something wrong, there will be four people who will instantly know!! If I were there talking to them about something they don’t know about...like Odissi, or something...I wouldn’t be feeling this freaked out...

Well, I guess it is better to just go and get it over with! Wish me luck...

Waqt Well Spent!

Despite the fact that I’ve been working, I have had time for other things! I had a long weekend since Monday was a holiday for Labour Day, and enjoyed every minute of it!

Saturday night was Sound Of Music – the musical. We drove past Suntech city, and walked into the huge spherical building! (I later found out, that the shape is supposed to be a Durian. But sphere sounds nicer – don’t you think?) We were cutting it short with time, so we RAN!!! But my breath was really taken away when I entered the auditorium! It looked like one of those where the Oscars would be held! With the round and really high ceilings…! Aunty Rajni bought killer tickets, and we sat in the centre balcony with the best view in the place! It was awesome! The show itself matched its glamorous venue! The sets were beautiful, entrances and exits were perfect, scenes flowed perfectly and Maria was a really good actress! The music was on the dot like in the movie! I think we compared it to the movie so often that left us a bit disappointed since they had changed sequences and things like that…but as a musical, it was amazing! I had such fun watching!
Verdict – 4 stars!

Sunday morning we went and watched “Waqt”. Starring Amitabh Bachan, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra, among others. The first half was hilarious! And the second half was so sad! We ALL cried! It was so funny...we walked out all teary eyed; people were wondering what was wrong with all EIGHT of us!
Verdict – 4 stars!

The same night, we watched “Main Hoon Na” on TV! Shahrukh is so cute! I can watch that movie 200 times and not get sick of it!
Verdict – 5 stars! (Guess why?!)

Well, that was Sunday. Can you imagine? I fly overseas and go watch HINDI movies all day! And that was my weekend! Didn’t get much sleep – but I had a blast! How was your weekend???