Amma and DNA

Last week I sent some DNA to Joel, my PhD advisor and now my collaborator. Amma was curious. How does the DNA look? I told her that we had dried down the DNA and it cannot be seen. Then what will Joel do with it? He will dissolve it in water and give it to bacteria. The bacteria will make more of the DNA, then we will make protein, and use that protein to synthesize our inhibitor. She nodded her head. Ever since then she has been curious to know whether Joel resuspended the DNA in water. Yesterday night when I came back from my walk she had gone off to sleep. Appa was awake and I was telling him how Joel had sent me some reagents and we are now almost on to the track to determine to function of the protein that I work with. Amma heard the word Joel and woke up immediately. Has Joel dissolved the DNA in water, she asked? She was most disappointed to know that Joel still has not done it.

As amma gets ready to go back to her beloved Madras and the serials, more than me, it is the rest of the gang who are going to miss her. My gardener who brings in big bunches of curry leaves for mataji, Ravi who does the ironing, and Lata and her husband who do the cooking and the cleaning. In fact Lata misses her the most as amma keeps everything ready for her, all the vegetables chopped and washed, the stove neatly wiped, and almost no utensils in the kitchen sink. And then she and Lata enjoy a cozy gossip session and every thing is hunky dory. After amma leaves, Lata has to come to an empty house as I am never there when she comes to do the house.

Amma shares one trait with my students. They never tell me when they are going to get back. Usually when my students go off home, they give me a probable date of return. I wait for a week or two then ask the rest of the students for the correct date of return. With amma, I ask Lata as to when her mataji will be back in Delhi. Invariably she knows to the dot when amma will be back in Delhi.