Oh my gosh, this theory is heart-pounding! It's diabolical and brilliant. And it might just be true.
Is there anybody in the world who has not been boggled and captivated by the MH370 story?
Prayers to those poor folk aboard that plane....
Monday, March 17, 2014
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Durga
Hurray! My little baby girl turns 1 tomorrow!
Little Durgoose, when you grow up and discover this blog, feel free to treat it with appropriate filial disdain. And always remember that mummy wants only happiness and good health for you forever.
Little Durgoose, when you grow up and discover this blog, feel free to treat it with appropriate filial disdain. And always remember that mummy wants only happiness and good health for you forever.
Monday, March 10, 2014
No Man's Land
People get confused by postdoctoral research fellowships.... and nobody gets more confused about them than postdocs.
Postdocs are, by all accounts, the slavish workhorses of the academic research industry. As a postdoc, you:
a) get paid lower than staff;
b) don't get perks enjoyed by staff, like parking or 8-hour workdays or accessible child care or free food on Employee Appreciation Day (gimme at least a cupcake, dammit!)
c) don't get no respec' from nobody
d) don't get any recognition from lay public when you tell them what you are (huh? postdoc? you mean you're not a real doctor?)
e) are nowhere close to being faculty, so let's not even talk about how you don't get faculty perks
f) aren't permanent, so don't count in university- or institute- census counts
g) are expected to move on, but are given no training in how to do so
h) are expected to bring in grant money, but see (b)
The Higher-Ups will, no doubt, benevolently smile and say that all this provides incentive for postdocs hurry the heck up with their training and move on... okay then Higher-Ups: why do residents get paid more than we do? How come their training has clear goals and expectations and milestones?
Sure, they save a few lives here and now, but I will save millions of lives in 20 years. Gimme that money!
So postdocs, I realize I'm hardly one to dispense with advice, being very much in the same boat as the rest of you, but here's my two cents: You don't owe anybody anything. Stay in the job as long as you feel you are getting value out of it, leave as soon as you can. You may ask, "But Varsha! Leave where? And how? We are over-educated, overly book-smart, but we have no clue how to find a job in real life! And all our contacts are postdocs too!"
To which I shall reply, "Use thy postdoc for getting all this stuff! Create an alter ego and build skills that are useful for getting real jobs, not temporary scientist positions. You're getting paid peanuts, and you might as well use the time and money for advancing your goals, without alienating your boss". Don't get me wrong, some bosses are amazingly great (like mine, for example). But can he provide you a job for the next 10 or 15 years? Most likely not.
So, let me take my own advice and get cracking....
Postdocs are, by all accounts, the slavish workhorses of the academic research industry. As a postdoc, you:
a) get paid lower than staff;
b) don't get perks enjoyed by staff, like parking or 8-hour workdays or accessible child care or free food on Employee Appreciation Day (gimme at least a cupcake, dammit!)
c) don't get no respec' from nobody
d) don't get any recognition from lay public when you tell them what you are (huh? postdoc? you mean you're not a real doctor?)
e) are nowhere close to being faculty, so let's not even talk about how you don't get faculty perks
f) aren't permanent, so don't count in university- or institute- census counts
g) are expected to move on, but are given no training in how to do so
h) are expected to bring in grant money, but see (b)
The Higher-Ups will, no doubt, benevolently smile and say that all this provides incentive for postdocs hurry the heck up with their training and move on... okay then Higher-Ups: why do residents get paid more than we do? How come their training has clear goals and expectations and milestones?
Sure, they save a few lives here and now, but I will save millions of lives in 20 years. Gimme that money!
So postdocs, I realize I'm hardly one to dispense with advice, being very much in the same boat as the rest of you, but here's my two cents: You don't owe anybody anything. Stay in the job as long as you feel you are getting value out of it, leave as soon as you can. You may ask, "But Varsha! Leave where? And how? We are over-educated, overly book-smart, but we have no clue how to find a job in real life! And all our contacts are postdocs too!"
To which I shall reply, "Use thy postdoc for getting all this stuff! Create an alter ego and build skills that are useful for getting real jobs, not temporary scientist positions. You're getting paid peanuts, and you might as well use the time and money for advancing your goals, without alienating your boss". Don't get me wrong, some bosses are amazingly great (like mine, for example). But can he provide you a job for the next 10 or 15 years? Most likely not.
So, let me take my own advice and get cracking....
Thursday, March 6, 2014
To frost or not to frost
My attitude to cake is undergoing an insidious, not-so-subtle, and possibly permanent change.
When I first started to bake regularly, about a couple of years ago, once Ani got old enough to get excited by it, I was all for low-fat, low-sugar versions. I would assiduously study lipid profiles of various oils and butters, check out glycemic indices of various sweeteners and experiment with whole-wheat, instead of all-purpose, flour and so on.
And I would never make frosting.
Have you ever tried making frosting? It's very easy: take a gazillion pounds of the fattiest substance you can find, and add a gazillion kilograms of powdered sugar (if you don't have confectioners'.. in which case, add some corn starch to the mix). Beat the heck out of it and voila! It's a living, breathing, sinfully tempting nightmare to anyone in the least bit artery-diameter-conscious.
My healthy, virtuously naked cakes had varying degrees of success- sometimes spectacularly amazing (did you know that you can replace butter/oil and eggs altogether with whole milk yogurt? or a ripe avocado?); at other times, not for the faint-hearted (have you ever tried adding millet flour, or ragi, as it is known in India, to cookies or cakes? Unless you have a penchant for chipped teeth, don't add millet flour ever to anything that needs to be baked).
In the past few months though, my craving for frosting has drastically increased (as has my waist-line). Maybe I'm falling sick? Maybe I'm secretly stressed out? Maybe my insulin levels are out of whack? Can I excuse myself on grounds of being merely human?
I used to cheat: I would make frost-free cakes at home, but sneak in a decadent frosting-covered delight for lunch from the cafeteria. Then, my slide towards cake-perfidy accelerated: I have started making frosting up my cakes at home: chocolate ganache, buttercream, strawberry cream! Yum!
Much to my amazement, Ani doesn't like it. He always gobbles up the frosting when we buy cake outside, but he absolutely will not eat whatever I make at home. He insists that it is not healthy. I pause momentarily out of shame.
At least Ani's admonitions have the effect of making me think twice about making off some insane kingdom of frosting, as I wish I could sometimes.
When I first started to bake regularly, about a couple of years ago, once Ani got old enough to get excited by it, I was all for low-fat, low-sugar versions. I would assiduously study lipid profiles of various oils and butters, check out glycemic indices of various sweeteners and experiment with whole-wheat, instead of all-purpose, flour and so on.
And I would never make frosting.
Have you ever tried making frosting? It's very easy: take a gazillion pounds of the fattiest substance you can find, and add a gazillion kilograms of powdered sugar (if you don't have confectioners'.. in which case, add some corn starch to the mix). Beat the heck out of it and voila! It's a living, breathing, sinfully tempting nightmare to anyone in the least bit artery-diameter-conscious.
My healthy, virtuously naked cakes had varying degrees of success- sometimes spectacularly amazing (did you know that you can replace butter/oil and eggs altogether with whole milk yogurt? or a ripe avocado?); at other times, not for the faint-hearted (have you ever tried adding millet flour, or ragi, as it is known in India, to cookies or cakes? Unless you have a penchant for chipped teeth, don't add millet flour ever to anything that needs to be baked).
In the past few months though, my craving for frosting has drastically increased (as has my waist-line). Maybe I'm falling sick? Maybe I'm secretly stressed out? Maybe my insulin levels are out of whack? Can I excuse myself on grounds of being merely human?
I used to cheat: I would make frost-free cakes at home, but sneak in a decadent frosting-covered delight for lunch from the cafeteria. Then, my slide towards cake-perfidy accelerated: I have started making frosting up my cakes at home: chocolate ganache, buttercream, strawberry cream! Yum!
Much to my amazement, Ani doesn't like it. He always gobbles up the frosting when we buy cake outside, but he absolutely will not eat whatever I make at home. He insists that it is not healthy. I pause momentarily out of shame.
At least Ani's admonitions have the effect of making me think twice about making off some insane kingdom of frosting, as I wish I could sometimes.
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