Waiting for Visa

I got a fellowship to go to US for three months.

It all started when our paper got accepted. In that euphoria Joel and I discussed plans to work on the structure of our protein and the inhibitor. I offered, very rashly, to come to UVa and work on it during the vacation period. Joel accepted. This was in October/November.

Money was obviously an issue. One needs something to live on. I found that UICC gives short term fellowships. It was a long shot and the application went awry. They wrote to me asking for lots more details. I submitted everything in January.

From January to April was a long wait. I filled the time very sensibly by attending the refresher course, going to Young Investigator's meeting, and Protein-DNA interaction meeting.

April came and it looked as though it might go without any news when finally on April 20th the email came. I had the fellowship.

Oh, since I have the fellowship, I assumed, I can just get a business visa. No, UVa said. I need an Exchange visitor visa. We started the paper work.

It took three weeks when finally Joel snatched the papers from the International office and couriered them to me.

Now comes the icing on the cake: The Consulate is not giving any visa interview appointments. They are booked solid.

So it is back to waiting game. And me, I am not known for my patience unless it happens to be embroidery. Other than biting my nails (yuck) and chewing my lips (eesh) there is nothing much to be done. Therefore, I am doing what I am best at: harassing my students and my parents.

Of course if I had any sense I would have never said no to the Green Card 7 years back. But I was so sure that I wanted to be back in India and that opportunities like the present one would never arrive, that I canceled the petition and moved back home. My sensible mother, other than saying I told you so and you should listen to your mother, would also add that if I had any sense I would have never moved back to India!

As we mull over...

The good thing is the Arjun Singh is not in the cabinet. So hopefully the HRD will get a sensible minister.
The bad thing is that the whole education system is a mess. Under the new reservation scheme, we need to reserve even PhD seats. Which is ridiculous because the number of PhD seats available varies depending upon the positions available in each laboratory in our department. However, starting this year we have to take 2006 as the baseline and account for 27% increase and this will be the number of the students we have to take every year irrespective of the available positions. It is pretty stupid because PhDs cannot be doled out but who can explain it to the minister/bureaucrats/agitating students. Many of the PhDs churned out are actually unemployable but no one is worried about that.
Universities are a battered lot. Our M.Sc students are invariably exported out. The students themselves no longer wish to work for 5-6 years to earn a PhD. They prefer the European pastures because you get a PhD in 3 years. That you cannot do much in 3 years is not something they are bothered about. Quick and fast are the keywords.
In these fast track times comes the news that even US universities are mulling the option of introducing 3-year courses.

Cooperativity

In the biological world, at the cellular level, there is a great ado about cooperativity. Simply put, it means that one event greatly helps another similar event to happen. The easiest example is a protein known as Hemoglobin, the same thing whose depletion causes anemia. Hemoglobin binds to oxygen and delivers it to our tissues. The molecule has the ability to bind to four oxygen molecules. When it binds to one oxygen, it greatly aids and abets binding of the next oxygen molecule and so on and so forth. This is positive cooperativity.

There is also something called negative cooperativity wherein happening one event will discourage the happening of another event.

What happens at the micro level, of course, happens at macro level too.

We are in the midst of severe water crunch. The faculty and the non-teaching staff have been extremely cooperative in dealing with the situation. Many of them have sneaked in a booster pump to collect water into big sumps in their yard so that the next door neighbor does not get any water. On Saturday the crisis hit the peak as parts of the campus went without drinking water. The administration has brought out a notice asking people to desist from using booster pumps.

Meantime, the electricity is also in shortage. We have big generators for power backup. The backup is supposed to be for our instruments but not for Airconditioners. But of course we have never lived without ACs all our lives and to live without it for one hour would is simply unthinkable. So some of the enterprising faculty have connected their ACs to the backup power. This eventually led to the melting down of the generator but hey, don't blame us. See the next door person is also doing it, why aren't you telling him/her?

The merry game goes on and we lurch from one day to another, perfectly cooperating with each other, aiding and abetting both water and power crisis.

Voting for the first time

So finally I voted in a General Election.

Whew!

It was fun. Apparently one has to first get the bit of paper containing your name and the polling booth number. This is generally door-to-door delivered but of course I am never at home. So I went over to the booth outside the polling station and got the paper. Then came the revelation. These booths are manned by party workers. The one I approached was manned by BJP workers who earnestly asked me to vote for BJP.

At this point I looked around and found a booth manned by Congress workers and another by CPI workers. There was no sign of BSP or other parties, but presumably they were there for I was told by the faculty at MSU, who had been roped in to do election duty unlike us privileged Central University teachers, that each polling booth has party workers from every party as observers to ensure free and fair elections.

Inside, there are host of characters. One checks your name, the other gets you to sign, the third puts the indelible ink on your finger, and then you vote.

I finally felt that I belonged to some country instead of being just a vagabond.

Water and Electricity

There is no rhyme or reason to water supply. Most of the days the main water stops coming by 7 in the morning. Maybe even earlier. The water supply in the evening is also curtailed. The water department is supposed to announce the water supply timings but whenever they say that the water supply is curtailed we get plenty of water. Now days there is an ominous silence which I take means that there will be no supply.

Electricity has not been hit till now though one of the hostels has seen no electricity for more than 16 hours.

It is so stupid. Go to the Delhi Imperial Zone (DIZ area) and you will find 24 hour water and electricity supply. Why are they so important? Wouldn't it be nicer (and more democratic) if all of us got equitable supply of water and electricity? That way all of us are in the same boat and learn how to conserve water and electricity.

But...Oh well.

Soot and Water

Across the villages there are no cooking stove, no gas cylinders. Women cook using chulha, a mudstove, often using woodsticks or cow dung patties as fuel. Now a recent study says that this is one of the causes of global warming.
The mudstoves are lethal in other ways too. They are inefficient, women and children have to search for the wood sticks to burn. They produce enormous amount of smoke...
The easiest would be harnessing solar energy. India, of course, unlike certain other countries, is blessed with plenty of sunshine. The problem is that the solar energy cells are expensive. TERI has been working on this area for a long time. Lately, they have been providing solar lamps to villages. Apparently, now they are working on stoves too. Let us see how far it goes.

Meantime, there is no water supply. The tanker was called in yesterday and I lifted buckets and buckets of water up. Today morning the water, brackish brownish stuff, made its appearance around 7ish in the morning. Promptly, the residents opened their tube and started watering their lawns. Grrrr....

Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri

Finally, that is what the elections are about. Who will become the prime minister? Who will get posts? in the cabinet? How much money can I make?
Alliances are fluid, devoid of any ideology. It all depends on wheelings and dealings. How much money can change hands and who will offer whom the minister positions.
I know I am being cynical. But truly, there is no space for any debates. As Yogendra Yadav lamented in an article in the Hindu, no newspaper/TV channel is even discussing the manifestos. The media reports only how Narendra Modi called Congress Budiya and then Gudiya and how Priyanka Gandhi asked reporters whether she looks old. Oh for heaven's sake!
There are issues at stake. There is recession in place, food, shelter, health, education...can we talk about them for a change?
Ah, ha! There is an article in Frontline how every major party is now promising the poor cheap food. Rs 2/kg rice and Rs 3/kg rice. The Congress has in fact promised a Right to Food bill in the parliament if elected to power. Will these promises be fulfilled?
However, every thing is not dismal. There is an increase level of awareness, an eagerness to participate, and signs that politicians will not be allowed to get away with it. The shoe throwing by Jarnail Singh was just one such instance. There is an ad doing rounds in the television (I think I saw it when I was staying at IMTECH guest house)where a politician comes to ask for vote. The voter asks his qualifications. Qualifications, the politician laughs. I have been in this business for ages. Yes, agrees the voter, but what have you done. What is the proof? The ad has been issued by Janagraha in collaboration with TATA tea.
So let us see how it all turns out.