I have been trying to get some reagents from US. From Joel, my PhD advisor, to be precise. My colleague also needs some reagents from the same place so Neelima and I decided to combine everything. As these reagents need to be shipped on Dry Ice the shipping is expensive so combining shipments makes sense. We agreed we would pay for the reagents. Turns out Fed-ex has some bureaucratic process that does not allow them to ship cell lines if paid in India. However, they have no problems if the payment is done in US. So we called another agent World Express. They said they can do it but the charge comes to USD1200. Our hearts sank. My lab runs on USD7500 per year. This includes all the consumables that I need to purchase to do the experiments. And I have four students. There is simply no way that I can pay USD1200 to get these reagents from US. Now I am hoping Joel will be good natured to send them to me at his expense!
On a similar note, we wanted a reagent called mant ATP. It is a fluorescent reagent. No company in India makes this stuff. The only way to get is from US. Which means I have to pay not only the price of the reagent but also the shipping expenses.
Sometimes I wonder what am I doing out here...
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