(I) It never happened to me before...

Pre-planned for a change...Expectations where high

Packing was quick and different 

Group was large and varied

One Man One Place made it EPIC!!!

Day 1 in Lab  (yeah Day1)
Its been 11 days I was not part of this WORLD and my 1st Day here... I don't know what to do literally my twitter updates ->
@khedkarsupriya DO I belong here??? Everything seems so different...It's a new world...it's a new place... 
It was the time when neither the REAL nor VIRTUAL world made any SENSE!!!

To my realization "I got Leh'd" 'I did' "I got Leh'd" That's what its called...Truly Leh'd!!!

Here I RELIVE those MOMENTS those Days again...

"An early morning wake up call on 5.8.2011 made sure I boarded my flight to Srinagar On Time!

A sleepy flight journey from Benguluru to Dilli took care that I wasn't bored at the height 45,000ft speed of 800mph and a temp of -45 Degree Celsius outside!Dilli to Srinagar flight was good mainly due to the scenic beauty outside and a Kashmiri co-passenger with whom had a nice talk about Kashmir-Srinagar and the SITUATION there!

On Srinagar airport I had the unexpected HEAT SHOCK ( I can bet even Bangalore and Mumbai were colder that day)On the airport two locals had come to receive me on behalf of Isha tours and one of them Muzarraf delivered a dialogue I won't forget Madam 

                   "Bambai ka fashion or Kashmir ka Mausam kab badale koi keh nahi sakta"

Muzaraff's houseboat is where I met the GROUP rest 34 of us! Yes! in total we were 40 of us on the trip to the 'Top of the World'"

Evening in Srinagar

"6.8.11 and the Road Trip on NH-1 began...
We knew we had to cover Zojila today and let me just introduce what Zojila is...

'Zoji La is 9 km (5.6 mi) from Sonamarg and provides a vital link between Ladakh and Kashmir. It runs at an elevation of approximately 3,528 metres (11,575 ft), and is the second highest pass after Fotu La on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway.'(Wikipedia)

Zojila

 Zojila is the place where people with motion sickness had their worst times but then by the evening we were in Drass the Second coldest place in the World obviously not so cold when we went there!

Now that we were at Drass 'The Gateway to Ladakh'

"We knew we were under Enemy Surveillance
 We knew we are at the place where Kargil war was fought
 We could see Tiger Hill from where we took a halt
 We could see the Tololing range at the backdrop of the War memorial built in Kargil
 We could see the walls built by Indian Army in a single night to protect NH1 D from the Enemy
 But we couldn't see into the eyes of the BRAVE WAR soldiers (yes!we met them they are now once again posted at Kargil after the war in 1999)who spoke out of their hearts about the war times! "

And even when I write this I get emotional... I literally cried that evening...Life is difficult and weird and in war times more so difficult and weird!

But as NH 1 goes on so does Life :)"

"Night well spent at Kargil we left for Alchi on 7.8.11 conquering Fotu-la pass having a nice time at Lumayuru monastery and Moonland!

This day this patch of NH1 D got me high yes! I got High!

Best of NH 1 I would say...

The mountains-the inseparable river alongside the road-the valley-the colors-the blind turns-the rocks-the trees-the melted snow marks from the previous season...

Man!!! AWESOME!!! EPIC!!!FANTABULOUS!!!

Alchi  is gem of a place had the Best night here...

Pitch dark 'Shooting Stars' and 'Milky Way' what more can I ask for!

(At Alchi we met sporty bunch of guys who took NH1 on CYCLES yeah!!! That's so COOL Dude types! All we wanted to do that night was to know their story! I don't know if anybody else thought so but they where not the same guys whom I knew before... faces content and happy and minds filled with recently experienced AWESOMENESS of a different and EPIC kind!)"

L to R: Subhash-Aditya-Anni-Ravi-Akshay-Ashwin

 "Next morning the guys left ahead of us Cycling to Leh form Alchi and what the road had to offer cannot be described but only seen in the picture below I just LOVE such roads and now you would know why the mention why the words of praise and why hats off to BRO...

And finally on the EPIC road that it is we reached the other end of NH 1-> 'LEH'"


What happened next needs another post...
What we experienced on NH1was as we say just the Trailor
Awesomeness continued to achieve new levels and heights in the coming days...

What you say DOES matter...

Bandra station

1st Incidence: Time :       Sunday morning 7-7.30amLocation : Bandra station ticket line
 There is a believable but given the time and day unbelievably long queue for suburban (local) train ticket. I am one of those unfortunates standing in the line. Just one person ahead of me is a Cool guy(soon you will come to know why I refer to him as Mr.Cool) standing in the queue with his friend (I prefer not referring her as his girlfriend)Next what the girl asks is exactly what I was thinking about at that moment( which is pretty obvious given the above details) -
Girl: Why is it so crowded at this hour on a sunday?Cool guy: looks like all the people out here just want to get out on a Sunday morning and explore the suburban train network out there...waiting to get itself explored!Girl:laughsI : smile  2nd Incidence  Time :       Monday evening 7.45pm (today)Location : somewhere in Bandra A guy tweets about the insane traffic in Bandra@b50 Bombay AddictAvoid Bandra. Word's out that it holds the portal to leave this world which ends tonight at 8pm. Everyone's here.I: smile and it reminds me of the first incident and one thing common to bothHow it REALLY does matter what you say... When you are helpless there is nothing you or anyone else can do...in such situations a little sense of humor does much more than just letting it go it brings that unexpected smile and gives you a stress relief :)

Why I love doing what I do?

If you follow me on twitter or you have spoken to me or just happen to be around you will know
How F***ed up I am currently with my experiments...I am in the phase..yeah PHASE where things just go wrong or don't work for some unknown reasons and all you have is a horrible day/week/month -PHASE in the lab!!!

The irony is...still I want to write or I am in the mood to write yes! about the

"Pleasures in doing Science(biology)"

photos clicked by vidhi patel

I have been blessed by some truly AWESOME ( here even awesome is an understatement) moments for which I LIVE and do SCIENCE.

I may never in my Life win a Noble, I won't! But surely more than once I Win through some moments that make me happy amidst the situations when things are difficult! 

These moments may neither be big events nor be to be bragged about success stories...they are simple and yet they put a huge SMILE on otherwise tensed face!

The moment when-

• the tube inside the electroporator doesn't arc...

• after n rounds of cloning et al the plate shows the clones/mutants the sight of that off-white small tiny-tiny colony! :)

• the gel picture has bands of perfect size (so perfect that the reviewers might suspect it to be Photoshopped)

• positive and negative controls are picture perfect! Specially the negative control!!!

• at one go I hit the bulls eye... pick up the right number of tubes and weigh the right quantity!

• I start with a new project and it looks all interesting and the euphoria of looking at new things is like the one when you are gifted with a new toy!

• I read an amazing piece of literature...listen/read to a logical and well reasoned argument!

• when I talk to a biggie in the field! You always want to meet and talk to the successful well established peers in your field! 

• when after an Eureka moment things START MAKING SENSE

• I am satisfied (though never) and happy as to what I am doing!(mind you very few people fall into this category)

and THE moment for which all of us...every researcher works hard,contemplates,procrastinates 

INVENTION/DISCOVERY/FINDING (peer reviewed :P)

Such moments just "work" they are part of enjoying your job and its just not me it seems it happens to best of us... like my friend working in Computational Biology says 'The kind of joy and satisfaction he gets once he is through a difficult to code Code is surreal'

While we pursue the Questions we ask we also 

Cherish the Moments that lead to it!

And This is part of sharing 'those' moments -

(via twitter)

AndyKraemer Nascent Biologist 

Meetings always re-energize me - they remind me why being a scientist is so much fun! #evol11

 AlecJRoss Alec Ross 

20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://www.w3.org/Proposal.html

  
 @edyong209 @RogerHighfield
It's about time the public realised science is mainly done by 23 yr olds with hangovers.

  
khedkarsupriya supriya khedkar
1of d reasons I luv Lif sci: it has many best kept secrets waitin 2 be fathomed,each findin addin new dimension 2 ur understanding of life..

   
edyong209 Ed Yong RT ed by khedkarsupriya
MUHAHAHA! I have full individual access to ScienceDirect. (I have no idea how; possibly in response to an email I sent months ago)

   
NeilWithers Neil Withers by khedkarsupriya

Very handy! Bookmarked RT @JonSatriani: My new favourite site: http://copypastecharacter.com/.

khedkarsupriya supriya khedkar
Almost forgot in the middle of the hectic day that was - CSIR AWARD LETTER IS "FINALLY" HERE!!!! :)

khedkarsupriya supriya khedkar
when I say I LIKE discussing science-biology and fundamental questions in biology...I actually LOVE it!!!

Supriya "Kamal jhali tujhi"

No I dont know how happy You where when I was born

Neither do I remember how much You pampered me when I was young

But I know I enjoyed the bedtime stories

I loved spending the evenings with You

I enjoyed the time I spent arranging the toys before You came home!

We never talk much but we communicate more

I am surprised how You understand me without exchanging a word

I don't know how You figure out what's on my mind

When I am myself doubtful about my own decisions How do You know I am right!

I regret and feel sorry for

not being there on your 50th birthday 

disappointing you by my under performance

hurting you with the failures I had

the times that you needed me and I wasn't there!

I feel blessed and luckiest when You 

give me the freedom the space I need 

stand by my decisons

ask me to learn say 'no'

say something which I thought of but never told!

The mornings You wake me up 

The times when You take my side

The outings we go for

The time we spend

Are the best and most treasured moments I have! 

I love the times 

When I am with you

When you say "Supriya kamal jhali tujhi"

When someone refers me as 'Your Daughter'

And today when I say 

You are the best I mean it Papa I mean each and every word I said 

Your daughter Loves and Respects you the most!

Happy Father's Day!

Mumbai Rains!!!

As my tweet goes "April sky...full of dark clouds pouring like never before!!! looks lik a july evening in Mumbai" :)

I do a summersault and dive into the pool of nostalgic-awesome-refreshing goosebumpy moments I have witnessed during the heavy Mumbai rains!!!

As a kid :P ;)

• first day at school and you end up wetting your new uniform in the rain on your way to school.
• Dry your umbrellas, rain coats et al in the class making the class look like a shop selling wet umbrellas and raincoats.
• Back from school and it still rains heavily outside; have a quick lunch and slip into the warm blanket...trust me its heaven and I wish I could do it often on every rainy afternoon!
• Get drenched in the first rains...first rains that are distributed over a weeks time or even more!!!
• Jump in the puddle of muddy water and sail boats in the stream that flows from the building to the gutter outside!

Ruia days

• first year and experiencing the infamous "26th July" 

Palan Mam taking lec amidst 100 calls from home, amidst mass evacuation in Ruia due to rains,  admidst the deafening noise of the pitter-patter rain drops!!! 
One hell of a day it was walking in knee deep water from Mahim to Bandra reclamation, dropping the phone in the flood water, being hit by a huge wave of flood water created by a passing car, playing cards in candle light post reaching home and then one week no college!!!

• Post second year with apna gang

1. everyone armed with an umbrella is walking and suddenly you feel some water drops kind of sprinkled on your body and its vids rotating her umbrella!!!
2. followed by someone purposely tapping the umbrella to repeat the sprinkler effect!!
3. someone will then try to invert part of the umbrella, try collecting water and since this process takes time everyone will figure out the strategy and try to run off and the collected water will be wasted in the process!!!

---the story of rain drop fights over the years!!!! it just requires a moment of silence either when we are walking or waiting for chai and then steps follow in the order 1 ->2 -> 3 and 1 again!!!

• not to forget the lohgad and visapur trek and the story of never ending and constantly diluting tea in the rains!!! 

Some awesome moments-

• Its not the first rain...but you know the kind of day when the rain is welcoming like never before: its heavily,violently raining at around 5pm; me and my cousin look out of the window call up 3-4 friends, get into a rick and land up straight to bandstand and what we experience there is by far my best getting drenched in Mumbai rains experience!!! It was surreal...!!!!
• when it rains heavily at night the deafening sound of the rain fills the atmosphere and in competition to it you play your fav song in full volumes!!! aah this has to be one of the best moments!
• the occasions when its so windy that umbrella turns-over or just flies off, its fun!!! Man!!! that's so...Mumbai rains!!!
  
• Not to forget hogging on garam garam batata wada and onion bhajiya whilst having kadak garam aadrak ki chai!!!

I am so missing Mumbai rains,already!!!!