I am going to write a book. I am fairly sure it is NOT going to get published in Mills and Boon, which is where I will first send it to because they have some kind of audition going on to find India's next great Mills and Boon writer (did you even know India had a Mills and Boon-India edition? I didn't. Checked out the books that have been published under its aegis- exactly the same story lines as the British/Aussie ones, except with Indian names... and maybe with brown skin. I say maybe, because that really is not a sure deal with these things- for all you know, the heroine will be described as being "tall, fair with green eyes", with a name like Ashtanga, so that non-Indian readers will be familiar with it).
My mother-in-law and I had a conversation about this some time back when she was here in the US. We share a deep love of romance novels. I had mentioned to her that I wished there were at least one book with an Indian hero. The only romance stories with Indian heroes in them are the truly ghastly ones in Women's Era and frankly, I get completely sidetracked with the spelling and grammatical mistakes and can't pay attention to the story, which is probably pedantic and pedestrian anyway. That's one thing my story will not have: spelling and grammatical mistakes. I might throw in a few split-infinitives here and there (because I don't know what they are, but believe that they are not in vogue), but I make a solemn promise here and now: my book won't make any self-respecting person who likes words and grammar cringe or wince. Of course, it may make its readers cringe or wince for other reasons, but that's something I do not promise not to do. See? I keep achievable goals for myself.
So where was I? Oh right, I was whinging about the lack of truly great Indian romantic heroes and my mother in law said, "Well. What do you expect? Your hero will probably want curd rice and pickle for dinner, and he'll keep shedding hair all over the place and burp and fart and expect his wife to do pretty much everything around the house" (she didn't say those exact words, but you get the picture). Hmm... she had a good point. But then again, novels are fiction, not fact. And in my novel, I can pretty much make my guy into whatever I want. He will be the epitome of a romantic hero- courteous, considerate, courageous, compassionate, funny and handsome... hey, kind of like my husband, without the burps and the farts and the shed hair!
Actually, our great classical books and stories have some pretty damn good heroes, except they are not in the modern mold. I just have to pick up a convenient one and tweak him here and there. Let's see: I don't think I would pick Arjuna or Bhima, for obvious reasons. Maybe Yudhistira, but he's a gambler and those guys are always a bad bet. Maybe Nakula or Sahadeva, about whom I know nothing except they were good with animals (... not bad... maybe I'll make my guy a veterinarian). Or how about Harishchandra- the king who valued truth above everything else... maybe after his stint as a grave digger? Or maybe Chandra Gupta, with his daring and cunning and political machinations... or am I thinking of Chandragupta Maurya? Who was the king who was made king with the help of Chanakya? Can't remember whether he was a Gupta or a Maurya. Or... a truly radical thought... I could just go right up to the heavens and pick Krishna... all the elements of the great romantic hero are in Krishna: he's handsome, affectionate, funny, wily, enigmatic, loves everybody and everybody loves him. Too much of a playboy, perhaps? There's good potential there.
Anyway, lots of decisions to be made and lots of writing to be done. I love being busy with such projects!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Thursday, November 17, 2011
A Pat on the Back
It's been 1 month and 1 week since my parents left for India. And I think I can at last say, at the risk of drawing the attention of some mischeivous imp of Fate, that I am beginning to better juggle the different roles I play.
Evidence: I am actually on time (in fact, well before time) for the 9am lab meeting. This is the first time I have managed that in many, many weeks. And I did this and managed to pack lunch for Ani, get a decent breakfast into him, give him a bath, get myself ready and didn't forget to pay his daycare expenses. Hurray!
Now, to repeat this ad infinitum.
Evidence: I am actually on time (in fact, well before time) for the 9am lab meeting. This is the first time I have managed that in many, many weeks. And I did this and managed to pack lunch for Ani, get a decent breakfast into him, give him a bath, get myself ready and didn't forget to pay his daycare expenses. Hurray!
Now, to repeat this ad infinitum.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Inspiration at last!
I had been feeling, for close to a year now, the lack of any reading material that could inspire, advise and entertain me. I had written in this blog some time ago about how the only books I seemed to have consumed gluttonously in my time in Pittsburgh were useless, forgetable and senseless romances. Yet, the books I had on hand which were not romances were hardly the inspirational, philosophically deep books that I felt the need for.
I am happy to report, at last, that I have found a book that suits my purposes completely: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
This is a book that is wise, humorous, tolerant and lays out a beautiful framework for living life without being pedagogical or preachy. There is such energy in the writing, it draws you in as soon as you read the first few words. This is a book that can be savored all life long, with deeper shades of meaning becoming apparent with growing experience.
Through Franklin's eyes, I can see America as it once was, a colony of England, and then as a new country. There is a quaintness in the idea of a journey from Boston to New York taking 3 days by boat, or with Philadelphia and Boston being considered two separate countries (Boston still, even in those days, being more expensive than Philadelphia), of having to row a boat from New York to Philadelphia because there was no wind for the sails. But what is also apparent is the drive, the hope and the determination of the people of the day to take things into their hands and make their lives better. Franklin's depiction of America reminds one of all that America stands for in the minds of people all over the world- a place where one can wrest control of one's fate and succeed. This is not the America of greed or obesity or parochialistic bickering that we see on TV. This is the very philosophy, the foundation of the IDEA of America- not the country, but the way of life.
It's funny how true Confucious's saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" is. Were I to have come across this book even 2 months ago when I was still finishing up my thesis, I would have raced through it and not really spent the time pondering it. Postdoctoral fellowship, while being more demanding, is also giving me the time and the space to think about life and how it ought to be lived.
I am happy to report, at last, that I have found a book that suits my purposes completely: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
This is a book that is wise, humorous, tolerant and lays out a beautiful framework for living life without being pedagogical or preachy. There is such energy in the writing, it draws you in as soon as you read the first few words. This is a book that can be savored all life long, with deeper shades of meaning becoming apparent with growing experience.
Through Franklin's eyes, I can see America as it once was, a colony of England, and then as a new country. There is a quaintness in the idea of a journey from Boston to New York taking 3 days by boat, or with Philadelphia and Boston being considered two separate countries (Boston still, even in those days, being more expensive than Philadelphia), of having to row a boat from New York to Philadelphia because there was no wind for the sails. But what is also apparent is the drive, the hope and the determination of the people of the day to take things into their hands and make their lives better. Franklin's depiction of America reminds one of all that America stands for in the minds of people all over the world- a place where one can wrest control of one's fate and succeed. This is not the America of greed or obesity or parochialistic bickering that we see on TV. This is the very philosophy, the foundation of the IDEA of America- not the country, but the way of life.
It's funny how true Confucious's saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" is. Were I to have come across this book even 2 months ago when I was still finishing up my thesis, I would have raced through it and not really spent the time pondering it. Postdoctoral fellowship, while being more demanding, is also giving me the time and the space to think about life and how it ought to be lived.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Perspective
After one month in my new postdoctoral place of work, I went back to my old lab today to backup some data.
3pm on a Friday afternoon. Not too many people around. Firstly, PG himself was off on vacation, then Deena, our supervisor had her usual annual bout of pneumonia. Lori, my ex-lab roommate and good friend, was also off on vacation (why in the world are so many people taking vacation in the beginning of November?). Importantly, Anwesha, the new graduate student, was off at classes. Which meant I had full freedom to sit at her desk and pull out my data from the deep depths of her computer. I suppose I no longer felt any sense of possession of that computer and desk, which had been mine for 5 years. But as soon as I entered the room, the sheer neatness of it made me lose any sense of nostalgia or ownership of that room or desk or computer- it looked nothing like the way it used to.
Copying my files, I came across many presentations which I hadn't opened or seen in years. Here are some titles of some of my presentations at lab meeting: "The Science of Language: A Primer", "Food, Sex and Fruit flies", "Jeopardy!", "Anxiety in Pregnant Rats" and so on. PG would gently remind me, at the end of these talks, that perhaps I should concentrate on something related to my thesis project, or at least that was pertinent to the vast field of Microbiology, if not infectious diseases. But he never stopped me from giving these HOUR-long presentations on completely irrelevant topics, nor did he make me feel like I was wasting his time or the lab's. These presentations reminded me forcefully about what a truly great place I trained at. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor to do my PhD with.
What a wise mentor PG is!
Nonetheless, I am SO happy I am no longer working on the project that I was! No project dealing with disease pathogenesis is easy, but seriously, noncytolytic CD8 antiviral mechanisms are, to me, the most frustrating. And after 5 years of working on that stuff, I still don't have enough data to publish a complete story. It's enough to make a sane person completely sick with rage and impotence. *Deep breath* it's okay. It's okay. It's all over now.... more or less.
3pm on a Friday afternoon. Not too many people around. Firstly, PG himself was off on vacation, then Deena, our supervisor had her usual annual bout of pneumonia. Lori, my ex-lab roommate and good friend, was also off on vacation (why in the world are so many people taking vacation in the beginning of November?). Importantly, Anwesha, the new graduate student, was off at classes. Which meant I had full freedom to sit at her desk and pull out my data from the deep depths of her computer. I suppose I no longer felt any sense of possession of that computer and desk, which had been mine for 5 years. But as soon as I entered the room, the sheer neatness of it made me lose any sense of nostalgia or ownership of that room or desk or computer- it looked nothing like the way it used to.
Copying my files, I came across many presentations which I hadn't opened or seen in years. Here are some titles of some of my presentations at lab meeting: "The Science of Language: A Primer", "Food, Sex and Fruit flies", "Jeopardy!", "Anxiety in Pregnant Rats" and so on. PG would gently remind me, at the end of these talks, that perhaps I should concentrate on something related to my thesis project, or at least that was pertinent to the vast field of Microbiology, if not infectious diseases. But he never stopped me from giving these HOUR-long presentations on completely irrelevant topics, nor did he make me feel like I was wasting his time or the lab's. These presentations reminded me forcefully about what a truly great place I trained at. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor to do my PhD with.
What a wise mentor PG is!
Nonetheless, I am SO happy I am no longer working on the project that I was! No project dealing with disease pathogenesis is easy, but seriously, noncytolytic CD8 antiviral mechanisms are, to me, the most frustrating. And after 5 years of working on that stuff, I still don't have enough data to publish a complete story. It's enough to make a sane person completely sick with rage and impotence. *Deep breath* it's okay. It's okay. It's all over now.... more or less.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Thesis
Guess how many chapters my thesis consists of?
NINE!!
I'm a lean, mean writing machine!
Either that, or I'm still favoring quantity over quality...
Oh God, let me be a QUALITY lean mean writing machine!
*snort*
Lame-o
NINE!!
I'm a lean, mean writing machine!
Either that, or I'm still favoring quantity over quality...
Oh God, let me be a QUALITY lean mean writing machine!
*snort*
Lame-o
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Books
I need to read something a little more intelligent than romance novels.
I read better books in India, when they were hard to come by, than I have in the US. The reason is simple: I would have to buy books in India, whereas I don't in the US. The number of books that are sheer muck (think Charlaine Harris or Stephanie Laurens) that I have unashamedly gobbled up here makes me cringe a bit.
In my 6 years here, what are the truly memorable books that I have read?
a) Atonement by Ian McEwan
b) At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances by Alexander McCall Smith
c) Brother Cadfael's Penance by Ellis Peters
d) The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
e) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
f) A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
Gosh. And that's it. I can't think of anything else that I have read completely and can actually say that it made an impact on me. How lowering that I should have checked out so many books from the library in the past 6 years and barely a fraction of a percentage actually registerd. I need to get back to treasuring quality over quantity.
I read better books in India, when they were hard to come by, than I have in the US. The reason is simple: I would have to buy books in India, whereas I don't in the US. The number of books that are sheer muck (think Charlaine Harris or Stephanie Laurens) that I have unashamedly gobbled up here makes me cringe a bit.
In my 6 years here, what are the truly memorable books that I have read?
a) Atonement by Ian McEwan
b) At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances by Alexander McCall Smith
c) Brother Cadfael's Penance by Ellis Peters
d) The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
e) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
f) A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
Gosh. And that's it. I can't think of anything else that I have read completely and can actually say that it made an impact on me. How lowering that I should have checked out so many books from the library in the past 6 years and barely a fraction of a percentage actually registerd. I need to get back to treasuring quality over quantity.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Overkill?
Came to the decision some weeks ago that I would not pursue a research-intensive post doc, and would instead focus on a teaching-based one.
Love the decision, feel good about it, and the birds are singing, the sky is blue, etc etc.
Now, I fear that I might have been a bit too aggressive towards getting my dream job. *Cringe*
D.J. is the post of lecturer at University of Pittsburgh. Awesome, right? I WANT this job. I would be good for them, and they would be good for me. Everyone wins.
But what if, in my confident (over-confident?) enthusiasm, I have put them off? Let me tell you what I did: put in my application, got my 3 referees to write their letters on time, then got my adviser to mail them (about 2 weeks after he sent the recommendation letter, reiterating the main points), VISITED them and told them about myself and that this was my top choice, AND when my labmate said that she would write a recommendation letter for me, egged her on to do it.
Might this be a case of over-exposure? *wince*
I might have killed my chances, or raised unnecessary expectations, or even resentment.
Oh nooooo :(
It's been 52 days since the deadline and I haven't heard back from them... or, come to think of it, from anybody else whom I applied to. I wish there could be a tracking system where I could see my status among all the candidates and modify my behavior as and when necessary.
Love the decision, feel good about it, and the birds are singing, the sky is blue, etc etc.
Now, I fear that I might have been a bit too aggressive towards getting my dream job. *Cringe*
D.J. is the post of lecturer at University of Pittsburgh. Awesome, right? I WANT this job. I would be good for them, and they would be good for me. Everyone wins.
But what if, in my confident (over-confident?) enthusiasm, I have put them off? Let me tell you what I did: put in my application, got my 3 referees to write their letters on time, then got my adviser to mail them (about 2 weeks after he sent the recommendation letter, reiterating the main points), VISITED them and told them about myself and that this was my top choice, AND when my labmate said that she would write a recommendation letter for me, egged her on to do it.
Might this be a case of over-exposure? *wince*
I might have killed my chances, or raised unnecessary expectations, or even resentment.
Oh nooooo :(
It's been 52 days since the deadline and I haven't heard back from them... or, come to think of it, from anybody else whom I applied to. I wish there could be a tracking system where I could see my status among all the candidates and modify my behavior as and when necessary.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)