A day after the dooms day - marking my 5th month stay in Kolkata

I am increasingly aware of my scantier posts in this blog site, but nevertheless, it is never out of my mind. Every time  I have something interesting happening, I wish to blog, but time does not allow me. Today I am marking 3 days short of my 5th months India and Kolkata stay. Yesterday happened to be the dooms day and ironically in some TV channels movie 2012 was playing. I watched this movie with bewilderment/ amusement and boredom and finally slept. It is time to have a good laugh over all these things, especially on future predictions.

About a week back I happened to visit a place in UP called as Mau MaunathBhanjan. I have never heard of this name before, but the organizers of the meeting said that they will send a vehicle to the airport, that will  take me from Varanasi to Mau. It is about 130 KMs from Varanasi on the treacherous road. I will blog more about the place later in my blog, but I would like to talk more about the return journey, where I was packed into a first class compartment in a train. My co-passengers were an old retired professor and another very interesting person respectively. He was an astrologer with 10 rings on 10 of his hand fingers. He also looked strange. The moment he boarded the train he made few calls, presumably to his clients. The summary was what they should be doing in coming days to get over a certain obstacle. He initiated a conversation with the retired professor - the other co-passenger. As expected, he started with, you seem to have some problems in your family. When the guy nodded his head in negation, he immediately changed it to "problem in your brother or sister's family". After that I went to toilet, did not know much about what conspired between the two. After I came back about 5 minutes later, I saw both the men bonding very well. I said to myself, he may have convinced him that indeed he can predict future and knows history. Do you think there is any science that can tell with exact precision on what is going to happen?

While talking, he mentioned the Ashrams he is running, his foreign tours and his life style. That convinced me that he is a man of means. When a fortune teller become rich, you have reason to believe that there are many people who believe in him. Here in India I have found a dastardly trend with people - talking about fate and luck. While it has been an integral part of the culture, people have very little faith in the work they do or the hard work they put in. If someone is materially successful or failure that is invariably because of luck or some other person rather than he/she herself. Good happens - fate; bad happens - fate... Now result is the fortune teller becomes very fortunate in this process. This is a very dangerous trend when people rely on fate rather than their own ability. This may appear as a simple innocent belief, but it is not. You open the newspaper, you will see someone somewhere kills someone else, because that person is doing black magic on them. Some people also commit unthinkable act of human sacrifice, some even rape their own daughters in the belief system is that, that is going to change their fate. People, please wake up, it is you alone who can change your fate. It may be more difficult for some people than others, but it will work out, if you put in your 100%. Hope at least one person changes after reading this post... Have a great day!

Sold another house in 5 months time

This is events of our life time! In last 5 months, we sold 2 houses, one in USA and one in India. The house we sold in US was bought during Jan 2008 and we finalized the deal on 26th June 2012, merely after 4  and half years of our stay. Here is a link of the photos made into a video of our Texas home. We left our house in US on 4th July and checked into a hotel till 23rd July before we finally boarded a plane to India permanently.

The Mumbai apartment was our first house that we bought with great deal of difficulty. It was around 13 years ago and we were still studying. The loan both soft and hard was overwhelming to manage. It costed us around 11 lakh rupees in 1999 and most of the money was in form of a bank loan. When I saw it for the first time, I fell in love with it. It was a cozy compact house with an area of 414 sq. ft. as carpet area. Sounds awfully small, but in Mumbai in Goregaon, this area is considered large for 2 people. The flooring and kitchen slabs were granite and marble. Although I bought it with my sweat, but could stay in that house only for about a year. I got a job in Chennai and Bangalore and left for the place. My husband lived one year more till 2001 and then we never had chance to stay there. I made extra kitchen storage space while I was  there.

This November 27th, we visited Mumbai and signed the dotted line in the property office transferring the apartment to a couple about 12 years our junior. I said to myself, this is the right age guys to buy a new house... So, summing up, looks like in a span of 5 months we have released 2 houses that we acquired over a period of 9 years. Good going!!

Today marks the 4th month of our Kolkata stay

Today marks the fourth month since we came back to India and Kolkata. I have been documenting my life ever since we came back here and it looks worth it. It helps us analyze our activity and whether we are doing things right or not.

I am now happy that life is somewhat back on track. Smaller things that makes me happy is; we can now make copies of the documents at home and at work too. The frustrations are still fresh in our minds when we landed here, and for making copies we had to run around places. The second most important thing is now we are back into our workout routines. The gym in the apartment complex serves well. I can run for 10 mins and do trademill for 40 mins followed by little bit of weight training. Although it is not as rigorous as body pump, but still serves the purpose. We have started doing yoga and pranayama. I can do zumba at home too and download music from you tube for new songs. So, I would say in a way things are going well.

Work wise few students are listed to register under me for their Ph.D program in December and I am working on their project proposals. Hope, once that is back on track, I can focus on my own work. My server is in place, and most of the software have been installed. Now I have to get back into completing my papers that were left in lurch.

Teaching and collaborations are in right speed. Met few collaborators and now finding some new ones on the way. Teaching Ph.D course work at the institute, and lined up for teaching NIPER as well as in a Post Graduate college. Then there is a workshop that invites me to deliver lectures. I am extremely grateful....

Zumba - LMFAO Sexy and I know it - by Medina from Kazakhstan

Come 4 months and what have we done so far

It has been a while since I last posted my real article. I am now posting more slowly than ever, could mean 2 things: 1) I am getting busier 2) It is less happening. While The first point is more desirable, I would like the second point to NOT be true.

It has been about 4 months since we came here to Kolkata. Let me catalogue what all we have done so far:

Office Front:
1) Bought a digital microscope
2) Bought a laminar flow
3) Bought 3 rack servers and allocated static ip to it
4) Bought printers, scanners, copier, UPS, network switch
5) Got my office painted
6) Bought furniture for my office
7) Placed orders for glassware, wet lab stuff, some equipments
8) Placed order for students computers

Presentation-wise:
1) Made an RC presentation on 2nd Nov 2012
2) Presented encode project on 11th September
3) Teaching Ph.D course work for Bioinformatics and bio-statistics
4) Hooked in to teach Ms. Microbiology
5) Hooked in to teach in NIPER

Collaboration-wise:
1) Struck collaboration with Shanti-Niketan
2) Struck collaboration with West Bengal State University and Kolkata University
3) Struck collaboration with NBFGR, Lucknow
4) Wrote 2 ICAR pre-proposals
5) Wrote Welcome-DBT pre-proposal
6) Wrote one CSIR pre-proposal.
7) Wrote one page write out for CSIR networking project
8) Wrote a white paper on plant genome sequencing for Ayush
9) Collaborating on Arsenic work with Dr. Giri
10) Collaborating on cancer transcriptome work with Susanto Roy-Choudhury

Student-wise
1) Got one Ph.D student officially although she is not working for me directly.
2) Lined up another 5 students for Ph.d
3) Got one MTech student
4) Got 2 final year BTech students.
5) Advertised for a research assistant

Trip-wise
1) Made an invited trip to Lucknow NBFGR
2) Made a trip to Shanti-Niketan
3) Made a trip to Puri
4) Made a trip to Bhubaneswar
5) Lined up for a trip to Mumbai to sell our apartment
6) Lined up for a trip to Benaras for giving lectures on bioinformatics (Dec 10-13, 2012)

Home-wise: (Although my contribution is minimal here)
1) Found guest house
2) Got cell phones and number
3) Got internet
4) Furnished our house completely
5) Got gas
6) Got car and driver
7) Got a maid to work in our house
8) Selling our Mumbai flat
9) Taken care of bank things
10) sorting out many other pending issues

Now Pramod is all set to move to Mumbai on Bank Of America's coming back to him again

Work wise I am super excited to start my first sets of BGA sequencing sooon......

Jai Ho - pop routine

I know you want me-Zumba with Erika

Shhh!!! Cumbia-Dance Fitness

J-LO ft PITBULL - "Dance Again" - Choreography for Dance Fitness

Bananza Akon Zumba

Rain Over Me Zumba

*NEW* ZUMBA DADDY YANKEE "LOVUMBA"

Should I feel happy or sad....

It is exactly 12 weeks since we landed in Kolkata. The changes so far has been tremendous in terms of adjustment, getting used to the system, setting up, office front, home and so on. I sometimes feel if I took the right decision in coming to Kolkata for a govt. job at all. Previously I have worked in places like Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai before leaving for US and had a completely different experience altogether. Kolkata is such a place, you can't get anything moving when you want it to; it will happen but at its own time and pace. Whether you are still having patience or  interest is entirely upto you.

Here in the office, a lot has been happening and one of the most important part of it all is my salary. Just before completing a month, I went to the state bank of India branch near the office and opened an account. That is not even a straight forward procedure. That lady made us come few times for that already. When that was done, I thought, gosh, this is such a big job, now let me give my account number to the salary department and now be in peace. Alas, little did I know that after running behind them for 3 months and following up finally I have given up on my salary after receiving a pittance for just 7 days.

The story goes like this: After one and half months, I went and asked the salary dept if they have credited money to the account. To that they said your fellowship has not come (I joined as Ramalingaswamy fellow). I have already got a letter from DBT saying the money has been transferred but these people say no  I muttered to myself. After 15 days I went again, and heard the same thing. Called back to DBT, they said money has already been credited. Then went to that section again and asked about the money, the man responsible said the same thing "money has not come". I went 2 days after and asked and got the same answer. I was very frustrated, then a colleague of the guy that was searching for the money, came and suggested another search option (To begin with, I was never satisfied the way he was searching, and was glad that someone from them suggests the different search option). Lo and behold, the money was already there!! Then I sighed of relief and asked the guy to give me a check and he said NO to that. He asked me to get hold of Mr. A and ask him about it. Mr. A is sitting next to that guy by the way. I was surprised and was wondering why can't he talk to Mr. A. Anyways, I tried to get hold of Mr. A several times, but he is never at his desk. Finally I got hold of him and asked him about my salary, to that he said he is waiting for some bill from bill section. Well again waiting. They said next week you come, you will get your salary. I went the next week, and they gave me a meagre 7 days salary. I asked what happened to the rest ( 2 months)? They said not processed yet. Again I went to Mr. A. After chasing him for few times, he said he can't do much, I have to speak to Mr. B at the bills section. My chase continued and finally found Mr. B at his desk. Mr. B says he can't do much Mr. A has to work on it. Few days later I found Mr. A and Mr. B in their seats at the same time!! How lucky I was , I caught the rarest of the constellations I thought. Then I managed to make Mr. A and B meet. They were extremely friendly to each other talked in Bengali. Now finally Mr. B left, I asked "Mr. A now we are good right, will I get my salary"? He said "NO, Mr. B has to give me something in writing". Then I went and asked Mr. B about it, he said there is something Mr. A has to do. So back again to  the deadlock. Now with this, I give up the hope of getting my own money. This is IICB admin staff for you. I am wondering now whom to complain. Is this the govt. system, the people, people of this particular region or Bengalis, I am completely at loss of words. In my several years of job experience, never I had to go behind people like this for my salary....

The bright side of everything is, I feel happy that I have got a lab at least by sheer luck. Guess how? - all because I did not take a single break and joined here immediately. The prince I mentioned in some of my previous posts (August end 2012), joined 3 weeks after me. He got everything done quickly, but still did not get a lab. All beacuse there is no space. I happened to have taken the last vacant spot!! What could that mean is , not being able to order anything and that takes a dangerously long time here. Had I joined little bit later (e.g; after the prince - after a break may be), I would probably have been left like him. So, I thank my lucky star, even if I don't get my salary, I just have a lab to relish....

Visit to ShantiNiketan

We happened to visit Shanti Niketan on a work trip to meet my professor from my masters days to collaborate on Blue green algae project. Prof. Adhikary has the largest BGA collection in India and he heads dept. of Biotechnology in Shanti Niketan. It was a great trip. We boarded KanchanJanga express at 6.30 AM from Sealdah that took about 3 hours to reach Bolpur, Shantinikatan. It was a small railway station with small shops and thelawallahs surrounding it.

The University was set up by Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore many many years back, but the condition has not changed ever since. Although it is a known tourist spot, it has since been neglected a lot. The govt. apathy in creating nice walking trails and roads has taken a toll on the site. The entire area looked very unkempt and dusty. Although there were nice road side shops that were selling hand made bags, purses, crafts and door wall hangings. I wanted to buy them all, but realizing that we don't have enough space in our present house, kept myself under check.

The campus was very pretty with lots and lots of mango trees. The campus has a place called as the pathasala where students sit under the tree and take lessons. Most of the girl students were wearing saree and boy students wearing traditional attire. Although they were all looking very cute, I could imagine how uncomfortable it must be to clad in saree in a very hot and humid environment. But the girls were looking very comfortable in the dress and even I saw girls playing and running in saree. It must have been a matter of practice I guess.

We were taken to Ravindranath Tagore museum, where most of his photographs, his daily use objects and his living room etc. were carefully preserved. We could not take pictures there because it was forbidden. We saw the tree under which Ravindranath Tagore used to meditate. This cropped up a thought in me - the watchmen that are lucky enough to be there the entire day when not many visitors come, could potentially become Ravindranath Tagore, if they had the inclination:-)) We came back taking a chair car ( A train that has only sitting arrangements - Maa tara express). If you happen to get down at Sealdah, never take a local train to your place. It gets insanely crowded even on a saturday evening. Kolkata is so much exploding with people that you don't know where they were coming from. It is sad to see so many poor people sleeping on the platforms...

Art house: opens only on specific days

The Bell for the entire campus

Students sitting under a tree

Students sitting under a tree

They have all kinds of languages including chinese as a subject

Some of the pictures I have taken since last 2 months

Kolkata-LucknowSept2012

Do we see nice people everyday?

I met a lot of amazing people on my first official trip ever since I joined my new job in India (1st August 2012). One scientist from NBFGR (National Bureau of Fish Genetics Resource) was communicating with me since last year. He was in touch with me constantly and was very keen on collaboration.So, he along with his director invited me to visit the Institute and discuss collaborative options. I landed in the serene campus at around 9 PM on 23rd Sept 2012. Dr.Pradhan was waiting along with a driver. They picked me up and dropped in the guest house.The first thing that caught my attention was the nice and wide roads. The airport was also small and cozy and nice. I have never visited Lucknow,but somehow carried a poor picture of the state UP because it was constantly governed by lousy parties. I saw few of the Mayawati parks on my way to the guest house. The campus houses and the guest houses had nice pebbly exterior, that did not require and painting. One of the houses just in front of my room was decorated with real plants in the balcony,making it a very pretty sight. Next day on my casual walk, I saw luxuriously green Amla trees full of Amlas. Then there were peacocks - very beautiful ones. Food in the guest house was regular but nice. Chai was always available. I went to visit the labs and then made project presentations and discussion and retreated to my room at about 4 PM. Had really sometime to myself, so that I could stroll in the campus and took pictures. Caught some beautiful peacocks strolling on the roads carefree. It made a really pretty sight... I found a palatial house in the campus that belonged to the director, who happened to be an Oriya person. I planned to take pictures, but could not do that because it was already dark. The next day, I was taken to one of the nicest aquarium they had in the campus.Many exotic fishes were there. Then we went back and met  the director again and this time he actually invited me to his house for dinner, although he was not going to be there!! It immediately sounded very exciting.Yesterday while passing by the house, I may have secretly wanted to enter into the campus and see how it is - and lo and behold, I got an invitation..We reached their house at around 8.15 PM and it was very nice there. Director's wife is one of the nicest women I have ever met, very simple and down to earth. While talking we discovered that, they lived very close to my parental house in Bhubaneswar and her son knew my cousin's son. So it was instant bonding She had cooked a variety of nice vegetarian food for us and it was a very delightful evening. She then showed me her nice kitchen garden with lots of interest. This again strengthens my faith in my future gardening company since so many people out there are actually interested in growing a garden.

Today I am coming back to Kolkata and with loads of good feeling about everyone I interacted the last 2 days. The campus was something that I could stay for ever and take pictures. It was a very delightful trip I have had that I will remember for the rest of my life..Photos coming...

Life goes on - Miss you Aja...

My only surviving grand father passed away yesterday night around 3.30 AM. Not that it came as a surprise for us. It may be something that probably we all were waiting for ( I am ashamed to say this, but this is the truth!). My grand father was 95 and was kind of strong until a fortnight back. He would eat normally, walk and live normally except that he had some kind of mental illusion or probably a slight bit of schizophrenia where he was imagining a lot of things and saying it aloud. Other than that physically he was fine except he had diminishing vision and hearing. About 15 days back he kind of had some fever and was not eating regular food. He was just living on some liquid and water. He stopped urinating and the doctor suspected kidney failure and gave him only 24 hours on 10th September. My parents took a train and we all hoped that Aja should hang on till they reach. But yeah, he made it when they arrived on 11th. Not only that, he also was getting little bit better even though the bladder was not functioning. Then my uncle and his family took him to another doctor and they said that Aja's kidneys are fine, but ultrasound revealed that his urinary tract has a 3 inch tumor and they wanted to operate upon it. But, suddenly doctors decided against it because of his age and some other blood factors. His pulse rate, blood pressure constantly rose for some time along with uric acid. Doctors tried Dialysis, but that did not work. At that stage they decided to leave him alone and released him home. All along, the best part is he did not loose his senses. He was responding to questions, although he was very weak. The saline with some medicine was his only food for last 15 days. Every time, I get a call from my uncle's home, I would dread if aja is alright. I was to visit Lucknow on an official trip from 23rd September to 26th September. Part of me wanted to visit just because I wanted to see him. Now, I am sad that I can't see him upon my visit to Lucknow. Not only that my uncle's family and mother would also leave for Puri soon to carry on the last rites, so I may not see them as well. My mood is sombre, but at the same time, I am telling to myself that he is not having any pain and suffering any more. He is in a better place now.

Revisiting past, our aja (my mother's father) was one of the most welcome visitors to our house. Whenever he would come he would take 4 of us (all 4 brothers and sisters) to near by sweet shop and let us eat anything we liked. That was the best part of it. I was small and greedy. Often I would order more that I can eat - much to the displeasure of my older brother. He was kind of ashamed of my greedy behavior and will flag through his angry face not to behave that way, but hey who cares.... Aja would let me order anything I liked and I could pack them home, if I could not finish it then. Visits to Aja's house in Jamshedpur was always fun. Great food, nice new clothes and festive occasion is all that I remember. My grand mother passed away long back (in 1982) and my grand father was all by himself since then. He lived with my uncle for a long time (about 26 years). We have not done anything for him as such which I regret to say. We just knew that he existed, but did not have chance to call him, since he couldn't hear much. Every time he fell sick, he would bounce back, but this time he could not. With all this, I wish to give you a final good bye Aja -  may your soul rest in peace...

Customs clearing agents in India - Do you really need them?

Our shipping landed in India coast at Khidirpur, Kolkata around 2nd September 2012. We had sent them on June 24th 2012 from USA, so the time it takes for shipping is not very efficient. I got a call from someone here, who said that they will charge us some amount for handling our stuff from SriLanka to here. However, we were told the shipping money we paid in US covers coast to coast transportation. In any case, there seem to be some grey area somewhere we could not understand. Well, after talking with her, she said their price will be maximum 10,000  INR. When I told her that we had only a small pellet, she said the cost will be way below that. Then she tells us that we have to hire a clearing agent and gives us address of one such person. On contacting that person, he quoted some price, that will be 2-3 times the cost of my entire shipping goods. We were contemplating if we could do it ourselves without an agent. I am writing this article for people who are in the same boat as we are. If you are NOT willing to pay bribe and want to get your things out quickly, then PLEASE DON'T HIRE CLEARING AGENTS.

We did hire a clearing agent who just talked us into believing that he the best one out there and threw around his weight saying that he does handle big stuff. His charge was 6500 INR, but he added everybody's cost and charged us 25000 INR. This included the cost of transportation from Srilanka. This man said the cost is 11500 contrary to what we were told in the beginning. From the very beginning, I did not believe anything he said. But he convinced us that everything is receipted, so we breathed little easy. The next thing he does is asks around 5000 INR saying that it is speed money. If we don't give this amount our goods will be delayed further. When probed into it, he said they have to pay something to the custom officials in order to get the job done. When we asked them if this was bribe money, he carefully avoided that word. So, in other words, this money seemed perfectly legal to him (or he wanted us into believing that). When we said we are not going to pay a single penny beyond the receipted money, he said fine. Then he sends one of his fellows to accompany us to the customs office. I found the customs people are much better than the clearing agent people. Clearing agent people want to make the process appear very complicated where as it is not. They also have a component, where they want to justify their existence and somewhere during this procedure, they introduce the bribe mechanism. I have now strong reasons to believe that they are only rotten apples in the whole system. If you want to really go to customs house, go there and meet the PRO and talk with them to find the procedure. You may get things done faster than going through an agent. They not only delay you, but also create a practise of bribery for their own benefit. So the practise of hiring a clearing agent should be ABOLISHED completely. There may be some complicated going around, but I think you can do it yourself by asking people around. For our stuff, we did everything including the valuation, listing by yourself. After the customs are paid, the next thing is to go to the port and get our stuff. Here again the clearing agents person caused great deal of trouble. We reached there by 11 AM and he kept on going back and forth without telling us what is happening or why we are waiting. We met the customs commissioner, and that guy was a very nice person. Our agent kept on telling us for 2 hours that our things are getting taken out from the container. At around 2 PM when we asked the status, he said nothing has started. To that, we got very upset and started physically moving towards our goods. Then there were labors, they came running and started emptying the container. Our small pallet was there in one corner of the container. Finally, that was removed. Then, we called the customs official and he wanted to just look at the TV in our presence. He saw and was convinced that the pricing was right. Then no other question was asked. Finally, we were ready to get our stuff. But in any case, since we were processing our goods through the clearing agent we could not take it by ourselves. He had taken the charges for delivering at our house at a very high price. Finally at around 11th midnight got our stuff home.

The DOs for taking your stuff if you have shipped them will be:
1. Talk with the local handling people.
2. Go to the customs office and talk with their PRO.
3. Find out the steps and procedures.
4. Take your address proof (electricity bill etc) with you.
5. If your passport address is different from your present address, then you have to make an affidavit in that effect. So, get that done.
6. Keep few of your identity proof with you handy.
7. Always carry your passport.
8. If you are in Kolkata start at 11 AM. People go for lunch from 2-4 PM, so don't expect anything to be done during that time.
9. Go personally to all the counters. They are nice people. When you go with an agent or the agent goes alone, they expect bribe( I am not sure if that is paid to the customs or the agent swallows it)
10. The agent wants your stuff to be in the port for a long time, so that he can take the rent for that. So, never encourage that.
11. Go to the port by yourself and get your goods cleared.

If in this process you ended up paying some extra money to the labors, then so be it, at least you are fighting against an un-necessary step and un-necessary people. NEVER EVER HIRE A CUSTOMS CLEARING AGENT. You can ask me specific questions regarding this.

The Hindu : Opinion / Open Page : The God within

The Hindu : Opinion / Open Page : The God within

Process of Customs Clearance In case you are shipping your stuff from overseas

Yesterday, on 7th September, I spent my entire day at Delhousie (A place where most of the official buildings in Kolkata is housed). Ask why? We were told that our cargo has landed in Kolkata (That was about 2 weeks back, and we were summoned just now by our customs clearing agent - that is how it works here) In my last post here, I have written about how we shipped our stuff.

Few things you need to know when you are trying to ship your items:

1. The shipping cost you pay in US is not all you have to pay eventually. In our case, it was written that the local clearing and handling cost has to be taken care of by the client. That means, there will be about $300 you have to cough of to pay for the transportation of your goods from international water to your destination. It sounds ridiculous and the jobs sound to be overlapping, but that is how it works.
2. We were introduced to a new terminology called as a "clearing agent". I was wondering what is a clearing agent was. Came to know that they are the ones that actually interfaces between you and the customs officials. Here are my ramblings about a clearing agent:

So, what does a clearing agent do? All will convince you that without a clearing agent you could not get your stuff from customs. We were also convinced by this trap. We went to the clearing agents office at 10 AM and he had one 2 page form filled out (of course with our feedback) and there were multiple copies of the declaration of goods paper with the prices (and that document was prepared by me!!) and a paper saying that we authorize the clearing agent to release the items on our behalf from the dock. I was told that there are 2 ways to deal with customs officials.
1. Pay and get it done quick,
2.don't pay and get delayed.
We opted for the later. So, the clearing agents employee first takes us to the PRO(public Relations Officer) in customs office. They were nice and looked into our declarations and had few questions about the pricing. We convinced them and they signed. Then the employee takes us to another place and comes back and whispers into our ears that they are asking money. We straight said NO to that. Then the waiting began. There was a clerk sitting putting up a reluctant face; he pulls out some large tattered registers and looks at our price declaration intently. That is where actually they pull people, negotiate for money. He began circling the items saying that these are customs chargeable. We came prepared with a printout of the rules and regulations and showed it to him saying that what he says are customs chargeable are actually not. He putting up a long face had to oblige. Then the paper went from that person to another person across the hall. He also asked for money, we refused. We failed to understand what they were actually doing with the paper other than pulling a huge note book and scibbling all of those again and agian and wasting our time. Then we were told the papers went to someone else who will check the pricing (note here, the same thing has been done 3 times already). There we were delayed for 1 hour more. Then the employee from clearing agents office took us to another place (in another building). That guy again asked for all passports, present future past addresses and was looking for every avenue to pull us, so that he could make some money. My current passport has US address, because that is where it was issued in 2005. He had problems with that. Then I had to explain the reason behind it. We had to show our present address with proof. Then he said, go and make an affidavit. I was failing to understand why this step is needed. I am the person declaring with proof that, this is my present address, with my proof of identity, how a third party who did not know me or has got anything to do with my address can certify that and how that certificate becomes more authentic then my own declaration!! Well, this is how our system is designed. So, we went downstairs. There were brokers, who took 3 times more money than the actual cost of stamp paper, typing and signing. So, in other words you always end up paying to a middleman because you don't know where to run (Can we please eliminate these useless steps!!). Finally, we took the whole thing up to the person who asked for it. There we found the seat was empty. Our waiting began (Probably here money would have shortened our waiting time). We waited patiently and after 2 hours another guy taking pity on our situation asked for our papers. He was carefully looking at everything, so that he can find flaws and ask for money. We kept no loop holes, carried everything with us. Then he did something (I am not sure what he did - probably wrote something and signed on the paper). Then those papers were carried to another person sitting across the hall. He also asked money, we resisted and he kept the paper on his table for half an hour before releasing them. Honestly, I am not sure what he was doing with them either. Then our agent told us that we have to go to another building. We obliged and followed him. There he made us wait outside for 1 hour. Then the man inside that room called us and started calculating the customs duty payable on those. Then our agent took us back to the office we started from. At this step, we are suppose to pay the customs duty. The man who is supposed to take the money for duty payment asked money. We refused. Angrily, he left and said it is already 4.30 PM and they can't take cash now. We fought saying that there is still time. In any case, he finally took the duty amount and returned us the receipt. It took him one hour for this job. Then finally at 5.30 PM, the first set of clerks were to write down something in their thick book and this took about 30 minutes to complete. It was almost 6 PM and finally we made full circle by returning to the PRO's office (where we started of that day). So, in all I would say that, few signatures, a simple calculation, cash payment which should not have taken more than 30 minutes took us 6 hours!! Hiring a clearing agent actually did not help. Other than guiding us from one place to another, he actually did not do anything. He instead was coaxing us to pay the bribe amount. We had a great sense of achievement that we could get our job done without paying a single penny extra!!

So, if you are shipping your things be aware that, you could actually do everything yourself, just ask the PRO how to proceed and your job may be done faster than going through a clearing agent.

Sixth weekend in Kolkata

Today we mark our sixth weekend past landing Kolkata. Things have certainly cooled down a lot. We did NOT have to get up get ready and go somewhere to complete some job. Although we still don't have a gas connection and managing to cook in 2 induction heaters (see what is an induction heater here) quite efficiently. Pramod is even taking a nap right now because we discovered that most of the shops remain closed during after noon hours in Kolkata.In any case, it just feels good that we are self sufficient now after working through it for almost 6 weeks now. We have so far got some utensils for induction cooking, managed to get good drinking water delivered, a maid clean our house every day morning, a milk man deliver milk, a paper wallah for news papers, an istriwallh (man who irons the cloths) press our clothes, electrician, plumber to take care of daily complaints, watchmen for miscellaneous jobs.

For house, we have either already got the furniture or ordered the furniture that are at various stages of delivery. Here, the problem with furniture is, you have to go and order it one day and they will deliver it atleast after 15 days. But the assembly will take place some other time. So, it takes 3 sessions minimum to get a furniture to your home. It is another thing if your furniture is not what you saw in the showroom. Same thing happened with our bed. For the second time after assembly we realized that the bed is of smaller size. In this case, you call them after assembly, they will send someone to dismantle it. That weill happen on one day and another person will come another day to pick that up. So, altogether 5 iterations for a faulty furniture. For our bed, we have this done twice already - meas we still have 0 bed status but have gone through 10 iterations. Cutting short my cribbing, let me tell you now what we have got so far. We have got a table, a chaste with drawers, a bookself, a dining table, a living room furniture, center table, dining table, a ward robe and a mattress in our house. Two chairs for office are delivered but not assembled yet. So, that makes it already 25 +10=35 sessions for these. The remaining things like a sofa set, a bed, another ward robe is what we are waiting for now. We also have a refrigerator, washing machine, induction heaters purchased. I forgot to mention, the mother of all, that is a Tata Indigo car is bought yesterday!! Waiting for a driver. So, looks like not bad at all. We came to this house on August 8th and in about 23 days all these incredible amount of work has been done by Pramod. Our gas is also approved, we only have to go pay and collect it. The last things in this lot is to get our shipping (cargo that we packed from US) handed us over soon. That is a very complicated procedure, I will write about it in my next blog post.

In my office front also a lot has been done. May be some people will laugh if I detail all that, because we all assume that everything should have been done by the appropriate people before I even landed, but sadly that is not how it works here. You have to struggle and get things done all by yourself. Here is what I consider a great feet that has been done in my lab in last 6 weeks:
1. Got my official id
2. Set up my email id
3. Set up my personal web page up.
4. Got my start up money approved by director.
5. Started placing quotations.
6. Already bought a microscope and got the payment paper work done for it.
7. Got my medical card.
8. Got a data card for browsing.
9. Got an office to sit.
10. Got my medical test done.
11. Got some furnitures via donation(I am not entitled to furnitures here since we are moving to salt lake office  soon)
12. Got a printer.
13. This weekend actually they are painting my room.
14. Co-wrote 2 grant proposals.
15. Participated in CSIR networking projects.
16. Interviewed Ph.D students
17. Inducted for teaching bioinformatics to graduate students.
18. Started getting emails from a number prospective students.
19. Working on another major grant.
20. Working on remaining set of start up budget.
21. Got my DBT money released(spoke to meenakshi munshi and her PA couple of times already)
22. Opened an account in a public sector bank (It is a big deal if you are dealing with State Bank of India - they are all paranoid about address proof).

There may be many more things that I did and don't remember right now to include. So, this looks to me as super productivity. Although there are hindrances, I am actually making progress!! Now I am feeling good that I have summarized all these as it goes.

The system may be complicated and difficult to follow, but once you get a hang of it, it is a piece of cake. Now, the canteen man does not give a scornful look. He actually chooses the bowl with more curry and puts in my plate:-)

To work, I used to take a taxi before, but now we take a cycle ricksaw till the main road and from there I walk about half kilometers and get a shared auto and then get down about 1/2 km from office and walk on the pedestrian path to office. When I compare the day we landed and today, I feel a lot of difference in our perspective. First day the road seemed crammed with pedestrians, auto, taxi, cars, old buses. But now they don't appear as such. They appear as people whom you may know. Even the roads sometimes appear empty(If you are there before 9 AM). I think space and cleanliness is a relative term. If you come from USA and land in Kolkata, it may appear very dirty, crowded, but if you come from say Mumbai, this may appear as a piece of cake (Sorry can't give a better example because don't know a place dirtier than t his). Now, I am at peace with the crowd, the dust, smoke and have adapted to carrying a handkerchief on my nose and walk. Even the homeless people staying on the pavements appear very familiar since I see them everyday. One of them stays near the auto ricksaw stop. He is actually a very clean guy and has a very healthy street dog as his companion. Many times I have seen him keeping a nice clean bowl of water for his companion and buying some biscuits. One day even I saw him sitting by his dog that was taking a deep carefree sleep on the pavement . The homeless man covered his dog very carefully with his only belonging - a bedsheet. A perfectly harmonious relationship they shared....

Speaking out should be an option everyone should choose...

Today we are completing exactly our four weeks stay in India. It has been full of experiences since then. I don't even remember how many times, I have visited to people's office to get small things done; how many times I have got shocked that they actually don't work or bother; how many times I have realized that the procedures should have been simplified 50 years back and so on. Now I am getting used to visiting people's office, writing notes(applications), getting simple things done on crooked way etc. These does not bother me, if the system is such, we have to follow. However, today something noteworthy happened and I would like to know from my readers what should be done regarding this.

The story goes like this: When I joined this institute, I had a regular position offer and a fellowship offer. I wanted to join the regular job but wanted to keep my fellowships contingency(this is a valid option) since the salary offered by the job was substantially higher than the fellowship. But the admin office said me unless I complete the medical test, I can't join the regular job, so I have to join as a fellow and I can change it to the regular position only after the medical test is done. That was fine with me and I thought medical test should be going to be a one day trip to medical and that is it. But that is not quite what happens here. The office admin sends a tattered paper to a place called Swasthya Bhavan ( A govt. agency) by post. Once that letter received at that place, they will send another letter to you to your office address specifying a date for medical test to be done at a state run medical college. But before that one has to complete a number of tests at a separate clinics and bring in all the reports to the board. It sounded weird to me in the first place. I waited for this letter from Swasthya Bhavan to arrive but it never came in 15 days. So, we set off to salt lake to Swasthya bhavan to find out what is happeneing. As ususal, govt. office, all are either yawning, playing games with the computer or not there at their desk. Everybody looks extremely bored. We were tossed from one place to another in search of the place that can tell us the section that deals with such things. Finally after few rounds we reached at the right place! But alas, the right person was not there. Someone looked into our eyes and in a cold blooded manner said that he is expected to come in 2 hours. Damn we said to ourselves, since it was already 3.30 PM, in 2 hours it is bye bye time. In any case, we decided to wait, then suddenly saw a weak man sitting leaning over a pile of paper and looking intently into it. Out of curiosity we asked him what was he doing? And then it turned out that actually he is the one that deals with my types of papers. We asked him about ours, and bearing a bored countenance he pulled out a thick file and searched. My letter was there in the bottom ( The ones that come first gets to the bottom). Then he kindly replied us that he has sent the letter a day back and that should reach us in sometime.

A week later, I got that letter from despatch, looked into the requirements. It asked us to do urine exam, chest exam, eye test and carry all the reports and appear before a board on 24th August. We did the needful, another day off for me! Getting the reports back is again another days work.In any case, going to the medical board happened exactly a month after I joined (that is today).

We had a scientist joined day before yesterday. He was from some University in DC. He said his medical exam was not done and IB clearance was not done, but he was being able to join the institute. Surprise for us, many thought may be they have changed the rules in a months time. Today at the stae run medical waiting room, I discovered him. I was shocked. I thought to myself, he may have been confused and instead of Swasthya Bhavan he may have landed here. SO, I went and was trying to talk with him asking whether he needed to go elsewhere. Then he said a firm 'no', the office issued a letter to Swasthya Bhavan and he took it along and got the dates for today and did the medical tests the same day (all in just one day!!!). It sounded impossible in Kolkata since I have heard from other scientists that it took atleast 2 months to complete everything. I was admiring him and was thinking he must be really a smart guy to have gotten those lazy asses work for him in a few minutes. Then the waiting began for the medical board. The medical board constitutes  3 doctors and a helper. They are suppose to see all the reports and ask additional questions to make sure you are physically fit. I thought there may be some order  in which they will call people (i.e first one first) and was expecting them to call me first. But to my surprise, they called that guy first and my name followed immediately after him. When my turn came, I saw his papers lying on the table (since he was done) and one of the doctors got a phone call. After the call ended, the doctor informed the rest of the people indicating that fellow's file that "He is commissioner's son in-law". Then I saw very pleasant smile on all others faces which was indicating their inner happiness to have served the "prince". Now everything started making sense to me. For him, there are no rules, no queues. He can break the rule and break the queue and as a result, the genuine people get pushed back. I don't think I am going to leave this here. I may take it to the next level and let everyone know about it.

The guilt of my inability to do anything or raise voice against such actions got partially erased when I did something today fearlessly. This may even cost my hard earned medical report go awry. Shocking as it may sound, one of the doctors in the exam room was continuously smoking. The exam room and the waiting area was getting stuffy with that. I could not stop myself from telling him that he should not be smoking there harming everyone around. While saying that, I was fully aware that I know no commissioner, they may as well screw up my medical report and make me do everything all over again or may declare me misfit for the job. But I chose to speak out and he finally said sorry. I am hoping next time when he lits his cigar in a packed room he will think twice....

Coming back to the earlier chapter about my colleague, I would like to know what should be done to stop such queue jumping.

Our first 2 and half weeks in India

We are going to be 3 weeks old in this city this Wednesday!! Now we are feeling much at ease and comfort. What we (Pramod) has done in these 3 weeks are remarkable. Being new in this city, it is hard to find a rental place, but he actually did find us a rental place within 10 days of moving to the city!! Within 2 weeks of coming to this city, we have already moved into our rental place, purchased most of our furnitures that are at various stages of delivery. We have been cooking for last 3-4 days, have a maid now for last 3 days, have news paper delivered to us for last 3 days, plumbers fixed few things,  ironing of our clothes taken care of, milk delivery taken care of. Cell phones are up and working for last 10 days, suitcases unpacked a couple of days back, kitchen arranged couple of days back. We have discovered few local vegetable markets, day to day shopping places. Life is finally looking up. Most importantly, we have figured out how to go to office from my new rental place. Here 5 Kms is considered a big distance. My office being 5 kms away from the office is considered far. Our housing society is something like half kilometers from the main road and given the road condition, it is not advisable to walk and taxis would not go from here. So, the best way is to take a cycle ricksaw till the main road (Partly because we want the ricksaw guys to get some money), then take an auto till another half kms away from office and then walk. It may sound horrible in the beginning, but we will get used to it.

Joining a Govt. job after long overseas stay

Landing in India this time was quite different from  landing in India before. Since this time it is permanent, we started looking at things more critically than ever before. I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Fortunately or unfortunately I have come to a place where the systems and protocols are very much tangled in a mess. I have been associated with govt. organizations before, but this one appears like much different.

From USA, I have been sending documents from time to time for signature, but did not know until I arrived here that they have actually lost some of them!! Let alone sending it the right place. That is kind of shocking. I was surprised to see that people are still dealing with papers and files for procedures. Nothing works through email. You must make your presence felt, stand there and actually literally walk along with your paper, so that it moves from one place to another.

Here are few things that took me for surprise. I realized there was no sitting place for me, there was no id created for me, there was no email id and so on. What about computers? I must be kidding, that is even far away… Who is supposed to do all that? Looks like me. I have to run around between places and speak with the departments and make my case. For my fellowship to be released, I need a piece of paper to be signed and sent to DBT. But that will not happen until I go grab the paper, get it signed and send it personally. I thought that was the job of the admin staff, but hey who cares.

Something I saw yesterday, I think should be documented here. There are a lot of admin staff sitting on the downstairs in a big hall. Each of their tables are filled with files and and files. I was told that I should have my medical card ( I am not sure if this is equivalent to a insurance card). Then I asked a fellow scientist whom should I contact for this. He gave me a name and a department. I went to that department only to find that she is on leave. The I asked another fellow in that office about the card. Then he gave me a conditional statement – Go to billing dept -> meet Mr. X and if he is unable to do it then come back here. Okie Dokie, I went to the billing department, met Mr. X and at 2.30 PM, he was having his lunch. He said casually without even looking at me come after 4.30 PM. I obliged and went again at 4.30 PM. This time he asks me if I were a permanent staff. To me permanent has no meaning, no one is permanent, this term is actually obsolete. In a govt. institute no one gets a permanent position before a years time and people issue their cards much before they complete a year. So, in order to simplify things, I said yes, I was permanent. Then, they say, they have received no circular about it and feigned ignorance about my whole existence. Then another guy from behind tells, she is Ramalingaswamy fellow. To that, the lady sitting near by makes a ridiculing gesture  and tells “you should not say you are permanent, you should say you are a Ramalingaswamy fellow”. Well, I had to brush her aside and asked that guy that we are entitled to all benefits, now he takes out a thick note book and looks for names that were Ramalingaswamy fellows and had health cards. Luckily that day I spoke to a R fellow and knew about his joining date. Mr. X looked at the register for some time and coolly said his name is not on the list. Then I had to tell him to look at year 2010 records. There you go, it was there. Then he reluctantly dragged his feet, got up and went to the other side of the room opened an almirah overflowing with papers and notebooks, pulled out a big form and handed it over to me. In these last few days, I have mastered filling these forms,  so not an issue for me…

Job Redundancy:

I think much of the problem stems from job redundancy. In other words no one knows their responsibilities and boundaries. One job can be performed by many people technically. So, that leads to passing on responsibility from one desk to another. For my guest house stay extension, I asked one of the section officers and in the end, I said I was not sure if that was his responsibility. Then he tells, OK, you go to section X in room No Y meet Mr. Z ask him for a letter. I was testing the water, so did not follow what he said. Went to Director’s assistant and asked him, if he could draft a letter and get it signed by the director and he said he would!! Well, now I wonder why then it has to follow this circular route.

Another instance I faced today was about getting my R letter signed by director and send it to DBT. The section officer emails me saying the letter is ready please come and get it signed by director. I went down and asked the concerned person and he says, we will get it signed, so don’t worry. In the end of the day, just to check I went to that section only to find there was a summit of all admin officials. They are having a gossip session. I asked him if the letter was signed.

An Expat’s story of landing in India after 10 long years….[1]

I feel like documenting my life more now than ever before. This way, I guess I can reach out to other fellow country men who are trying to come back to their country after a long overseas stay. I hope this will help them in getting ready for things and what they should or should not expect from here.

We landed in India on the  24^th July at New Delhi (NY -> Brussels -> New Delhi) about 9.30 PM. The flight was on time, Jet airways was awesome. Most importantly, the one way tickets costed much less from NY than from anywhere else. It was just about half the price of a one way fare from DFW. The flying time and journey was uneventful. We had windows and isle seats and that was the best combination ever. Jet airways had much more leg space than any other airlines we have traveled. I have also traveled in Air India and the leg space is comparable to that. People were friendly and the choice of channels was awesome. I managed to see many episodes of the Big bang theory. One comparison I would like to make here with the airlines I traveled to China (I think probably US airways and China Eastern airlines). The difference between these airlines and Jet was obviously with food and hospitality, and most importantly with the choice of TV programs on board. In those airlines, the choice of programs were limited to  very few and there was issue with synchronization. In other words, if you choose to play a program, then it will appear that the program is running already like a regular TV show, and you have to wait for a certain period of time to get that re-broadcasted. This may be because they are using very less bandwidth…

In any case, we landed in Delhi only to realize that one of our baggage was missing that contained all our documents. We initiated all the procedures, so that it should be delivered the next day to the hotel we checked in. We spent the whole night in Delhi airport. They have a guest lounge area where you can stretch yourself. Our flight to Kolkata was in the morning at 6.40AM. We checked in all our bags and belongings at 3.40 AM and were killing time in the airport. Finally, we boarded and reached Kolkata on time. My brother was there right on the gate (he works at the airport). Then surprises followed. The hotel we booked through hotels.com informed us that the hotel is actually not booked. My brother tried to use his connections in getting us a place, but finally it turned out that they let us stay in a suit that costed 3 times the price we would have liked to pay. To add to our troubles, there was also taxi strike. Some news channel type people came to me asked me about my experiences about the strike. I am not sure if they had broadcasted it or not, but it was funny. I emailed Dr. Mandal (A chief scientist, who I was in touch with from the very beginning of my recruitment procedure at IICB) about our housing woes and thankfully, they managed to book guest house from the next day for 10 days. I would join the institute as a Ramalingaswamy fellow initially at the insistence of the director. The regular position will take a while is what I was told. In any case, after that being done, we decided to proceed back to the hotel and slept a lot. The next day morning, we proceeded to the CSIR guest house that is located by the side of the Ravindra sarovar. It is a very nice place with high speed internet in each block. It is managed really well. After a long time, I did not have to lift our overweight luggage, somebody else actually did it for me:)) We called the laundry guys to come and take our dresses for washing and drying. I guess, my dresses must thank me for that since they were never pressed in last years…Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner was served along with morning and evening tea. Again another luxury, did not have to wash utensils in 10 years. We just eat in the dining room (Food served) and walk off. Food comprises of Rice, Roti, 2 veggie items, dal, salad and sweets. I am enjoying it. The room cost per employee (IICB) is Rs.25 and Rs 50 for Pramod. It was very cheap and nice place to be in. Now I am feeling little bit like home since we will be here for a stretch of 10 days. Looking back I realized ever since we vacated our home (on July 4^th), I never lived in a place for longer than a week. So, this definitely appears long term. My second day in Kolkata was really good. We booked a car for the whole day and ferried around the city. I managed to talk with the section officer of the institute, clarified some employment related questions, filled up some more forms and came back to guest house. We took walk by the sarovar side that has beautiful walking trails. The next day 27^th July was also a good one. I  send my photos for id making, followed by making some progress into taking students and my office space. On 28^th our baggage arrived and we obtained a data plan for cell phone. The next thing remains is to buy a phone.

Kolkata has not changed ever since independence I guess, with all the old dilapidated structures and non-functional traffic. It is impossible to go from one place to another without frequent halts. I am not sure why the govt. is not taking any actions. There are old vehicles, taxis ferrying around and people with their unpleasant demeanor make situation more worse. But slowly, you will realize that behind their grumpy face does not lie any anger towards you, but rather that is their true native state.

The first few days appears extremely similar to my CPMB joining dates for Ph.D programs. The only difference is, I was much younger and in-experienced then. I am now tempted to write about a comparative account of landing in USA VS landing in India. I am sure there will be many parallels as well as perpendiculars. Life is slowly settling and I am feeling better each passing day.  

Our Last Month in USA

Soon after we sold our house that is on 26^{th June}, our new home owner allowed us to be there at home till 4^th of July. We had everything else sold except the refrigerator.  We gave away all small items including the office tables, chairs, hangers, kitchen items, groceries etc. On 3^rd night one person comes and enquires about the fridge. He agreed to pay only $100 for the fridge. We still had some food items inside. We are big tea fans, so just replenished our organic milk supply on 3^rd not realizing that the fridge will no longer be there after the next day. The next day, on the 4^th July, our new owner arrives with his entire crew (his wife, children)  at about 9 Am while we were still having tea. We just started boiling milk then. In any case, after seeing them, we did not want to hang around there for any longer. We decided to leave with all our belongings to the hotel. But the actual check in time for any hotel was around 2 PM. It was really very hot outside and we reached our hotel thinking that they will let us in. But, since it was holiday time, they said there is no guarantee that you will get a room even though it is booked. We could not wait any longer because we would spill and spoil the milk. So, we moved in with all our belongings loaded in a car from one hotel to another. Finally the one very close to our house, most importantly close to Y was available. We booked that and we had an early check in. Among other things we carried, utensils, kitchen papers, toilet papers, small amount of groceries. But it is needless to mention that we used each of the items that we so painfully carried with us. The next day, I was all set to go to VA to conduct workshop and jamboree. My trip to VA was very enjoyable. I will post about it later. Pramod poor thing lived in seclusion for all those 9 days and managed to sell his car on the Sunday after I came back from VA. It was all very memorable. I re-made my yoga video, put the annotations and music in it. Spend my time really leisurely going to Y, talking on phone having nature walk.

On 18^th July, we decided to check out of the hotel and stay in one of our friend’s house. We littered their house with unending number of trashy items, and feel bad about it. On 18^th evening, I could go out and say bye to all my friends. That night however, was very memorable for us for the in-appropriate behavior of our friend’s husband. It is hard to believe… The explanation for their behavior was not satisfactory and we have decided to dissociate from them. That was quite an experience. When we look back and think what has happened, we just feel overwhelmed for our new experience. Of course there is always some kind of sadness involved in losing the friendship of a close one, but hey that happens in life…

On 19^th we started for NY from DFW. Everything was good. Returned the vehicle on time, The overweight luggage bags with the domestic flights were waived in consideration of our international travel and so on. Finally, we reached in La guardia airport. We booked a room through airbnb website. I would recommend that site to anyone who does not want to pay a lot of money to the hotels and at the same time, seek the comfort of home for a long term stay. Our guest house was located in Bronx and it was just 6 miles from La guardia airport. Booked a cab, landed there by 3 PM. Pramod started his office work and I also started my work. I must admit one thing here, the internet speed was awesome. I never had experienced such high speed internet. I could do all my data downloads from the guest house. I would highly recommend this place to anyone. The place is called Sobro guest house. It has a shared kitchen, groceries, shared toilets. But nevertheless, everything was extremely clean. We went around on 19^th, did some shopping and ordered Chinese take out. The stay in NY was awesome. Then Vidya joined us on Saturday and showed us around the city. We appreciate her company and her time and moreover, it was good that we met her before we left.  We had the experience of testing some exquisite Thai tea, nice Indian Masala Dosas and some Indian Buffet. On Saturday, we managed to walk in on the Brooklyn bridge, empire state building, then time square. On Sunday, we visited the world trade center(9/11memorial) , Rockefeller center and central park. We went back to room at around 7 PM. I managed to cook in the rest house earlier and we had the opportunity to eat home cooked meal. That night, all the house-mates were very active, having Vodka, talking and playing cards etc. There was a film suit also going on at the same time. Then comes 23^rd, we set for leaving to the airport. Only dis-appointment was the taxi prices. The local taxis cost about $45 from Bronx to JFK airport, but this taxi which we thought should take $35, charged us $65 eventually.

So, in the end of our stay we learned 2 important lessons in life: 1. Never to get too close to anyone and get so attached that their behavior will hurt you. 2. Never assume anything.

My VA Trip....

Every year I enjoy my trip to VA. It has become a ritual ever since I started working from home.I get there, take few lectures on structural annotation, Nextgen sequencing and hands on exercises and participate in annotation jamboree and come back. But this year, it was really special. Every year although I assume trip to VA may be the my last one, but this year it was the "real" last one, since in less than 1 week after the workshop and jamboree I was suppose to leave for India. I don't know how but I somehow managed to keep that creepy feeling of separation away from me.

The best part of the trip was Chitii and Dewal-Rana's visit. I can't appreciate enough for the time they have spent in coming all along to say good bye to me. But in true sense, I know we will meet again somewhere sooner than we did this time. Both Dewal and Chitti  are nature lovers and their company always tempts us to explore the natural trails that Blacksburg  is blessed with. Chitti arrived from Ohio (non-stop driving) and Dewal and Rana arrived from DC after a 4 hours drive on evening of 7th July 2012. It was already evening, but we did not waste any time, managed to go to Pandapa's pond, made a full circle around the ponds. In the night, we had dinner at the sole Indian restaurant in Blacksburg followed by a VBI tour. Rana Dewal and Chitti were visiting their sitting places after a long time. By the way, although I was technically an employee of VBI, they have banished my sitting place and the computer.

The next days plan was big and adventurous. Sadly, we just had the day of 8th on our hand, since they all had to start working on the 10th onwards and 9th was kept for driving back home. I also had my jamboree on 9th. Hard pressed with time, we did something incredible. We started off in the morning after breakfast to explore the hucklebury trail from the NRV mall [More about huckleburry trail here]. We took the entire trail leisurely and completed the whole trail in 2 and half hours. Sweating profusely and beaten by scorching sun, there was no looking back. It was nice to see people cruising across the place in bikes and in running mode. Completely exhausted, we reached at the library and took Chitti's car (thanks Chitti !!) that was parked near the library to the mall. Chinese food and ice cream seemed the perfect combination at that point. Rana vowed not to come again with us that evening. We decided to take the cascade hiking that same evening - it was odd but we had no time left. But the only hitch was, we were supposed to meet Nishant, Nileshwari and their little boy in the evening for dinner and that was suppose to be at 8 PM. We reached our respective rooms by 3.30 PM and took small naps and then started of to the cascade fall at around 5 PM. As it is about 20 minutes drive and we had our own delays in stopping and taking pictures, we could reach the foot of the mountains only at 6.30 PM. However, our frequent stoppages and breaks delayed the process quite a bit. We were just about 15 more minutes to go before we reached the tip, it was already 7.30 PM and we were suppose to meet Nishant family at 8 PM. Dewal started calling them frantically from the mountain trails. But there was no network, so we decided to descend and go back directly to dinner in our sweat soaked state. We were actually quite late for dinner and I was really glad that we came down. Did not want a toddler waiting for us late in the night for dinner. I was meeting with Nishant/Nileshwari and their little boy after a long gap of 4 years!! It was great meeting with them.We 4 (Chitii, Rana, Dewal and I) went to my room after dinner at the Holiday Inn and chit chatted till wee hours of the night before parting away. Chitti stayed on for Monday. Soon after my jamboree at 5 PM, we decided to explore mountain lake. [More here]. We took pictures on and off wherever it appeared interesting. This is the place where the famous 1987 movie dirty dancing was shot. The most difficult part of the trip was climbing up the mountains and the steep sideways. I was constantly warning Chitti to not look anywhere, and poor Chitti obliged to it.

On Tuesday morning, Chitti left and I was all by myself again. Days were busy but in the evening, I always had company. On Tuesday Biswarup and Endang took me for dinner, wednes day my lab buddies Regina and Hua Wise took me to an Italian place and on Thursday, there was big dinner party at Chunxia's. This time I missed going out swimming with Chunxia. They are such sweet people. Then Susan came to pick me up on thursday night to her place to Roanoke. On Friday, I was to leave for TX. I met her girls and it is always nice to watch them grow. The little one (Natalie) likes to mingle with strangers. Both girls are soooo cute. Friday was the end of my final VA journey. I miss you all my dear friends, it was great knowing you all.... I will publish the video I made out of the photographs shortly. [Publishing the video]

Our last few days in Texas

I wanted to enjoy every day we had in Texas and it feels nostalgic now. Is it so difficult to let go of a place? May be, but writing a blog on that really helps. On July 4th we left (read rather evicted of ) our house and checked into a hotel (made sure that we moved close to Y). I left for VA on the 5th for my annual workshop while Pramod stayed on in the extended stay and managed his office work etc. My VA trip was great and I enjoyed a lot. Going to write about it in my next post with pictures and videos. I returned back on 13th, spend time very leisurely, getting up late etc. Pramod managed to cook some fish and dal and some leafy vegetables for me as welcome lunch. Went to my body pump class at 11.30 AM, had a swimming schedule in the evening but could not do it. On sunday early morning, our car was sold finally and we went and picked up a rental car, a nice one that to.

Lately Y became my lifeline...

My favorite ladies: My Zumba instructors at Y.

Sunday Lunch in Suchismita's house, followed by dinner in Pushpa nani's house. It just passed so quickly. Then came monday, I created a new yoga video and posted it. Tuesday Zumba class, took pictures with my instructors, wednes day body pump class and that is it. We went to visit one of our friends and wanted to stay back that night and something really in-appropriate happened. That made it more bizarre. We have communicated with the right parties and in few more days we may be able to do more about it.[Update: The parties have apologized, so we are good to go]. But hey, life is so full of experiences and that teaches us a lot about life. I will write about it, when I am completely out of it.[Update: Now I am out of it completely]...

Let go of things

On 30th June, we have had a Chakra workshop by my favorite yoga teacher at the Gratitude Yoga center Mansfield. It was incredible and I wish to share my experience in one of my later blogs. However, just thinking of giving a glimpse of what I learned. One of our chakras are responsible for letting go of things. We have seen people in our lives, who can't let go of things easily, they hold everything onto them - be it people, objects, relationships, grudges, feelings etc. This is an extreme form. We take up a quiz in our Chakra class and it asks few questions subtly, that brings about an insight about our ability to let go of things. Although I was not very strong in that chakra, but nevertheless I scored well. Now in real life example, I wanted to try and see where I really stand for in 'letting go'  department.

I was holding onto this job for this long, that was a big part of my problem. I always thought how it will be to let go of it. Well, in March I just said I am leaving, it felt little bit bad, but not nearly as bad as I would have expected. In April, we almost sold our house, in May our bed was sold. Before all that I imagined how it will feel when the bed is gone, but then boom it is really gone and felt nothing at all to sleep on the floor. I did not miss it at all. In May, my favorite car was sold, I was surprised that I did not miss it as much as I would have thought. Then slowly our sofa, other furniture, TV and most of the garden tools are gone. The last thing to go was the fridge - of course that should have been the order. We let everything go so easily, so looked like the Chakra workshop was right. Today finally is the day, when the new owner of our house evicted us around 10 AM. It was creepy, I wanted to finish my tea, pack everything and go before even he showed up, but he showed before we did any of those things. As he sat, we took each of our items from kitchen soap to kitchen cups to bathroom soaps one by one. That was kind of pressure, and the result is; we have left some of our essential items. Did we let that go easy? Well it hurt to be homeless even though for few hours. And today is July the 4th and we have hotel booking from 2 PM onwards and we were not sure what to do from 10-2PM with milk and other easy to spoil items under the hot summer inside a hot car. We slowly moved with our full car to the hotel. There, they said the rooms are full, we hopped to another hotel and the same fate. Now, it really felt like we were homeless. Finally at about 12.30 PM we reached at a place where the hotel cost was significantly higher, but they had rooms. Finally we checked in. This is a 120 sq. ft room. and until10 AM today we were living in a 2400 sq ft house and now it is 20 times reduced space. How does it feel like? We feel shrunken and shoved in a small place. We are not devastated, but it feels strange. We still have to work on our let go part, to keep going with the ups and downs of life...

What is my blogging worth? Hmm may be a digital camera and a digital camcorder:))

I have been actively blogging for the last 6 years. Some of my posts have bigger hits than others, but that does not make the lesser viewed posts undesirable for me. My scientific blog is being actively used by researchers all over the world and it gives me immense fulfillment when I see someone saying my blog has helped them solving some problems. I also gain some points through ad sense, but that is very little. My personal blog adorns my random musings, some of them could be just random thoughts, some may be life events and some others may have some knowledge. Now more than anything, I feel like recording my life events through blogging, it serves a very appropriate sense of  purpose in addition to documentation of my own life and time.

What makes successful people stand out than the not-so- successful ones? I would say it is the lack of organizations, be it in thought, work or anything else. I feel blogging helps one to get slowly organized. From my point of view, I never give any event a lot of significance, unless it is really life changing. And after few months or years, I regret why I did not record that moment or take a picture. Now since I have started blogging, I give a thought to every moment and try  to record it by taking pictures. I may as well end up only blogging later part of my life - you never know. Ever since I have started blogging, I feel like taking pictures every now and then and as pictures speak thousand words. I know I am deviating from the topic that I originally had in mind before writing this post - hope constant blogging will help me get over this. All that I wanted to say today is what material benefits I have got since I have started cataloging my ideas? Quite a lot actually. I have got a digital camera a while ago, today I got a digital camcorder (I always wanted one - the one we have is a analogous one) and few months back I won an ipad3!!! As usual I never took picture of my digital camera but today I took picture of my digital camcorder and sharing it. I am just so overjoyed over receiving a digital camcorder through my blogging through Science Advisory Board. I had enough points to go for a Kindle or something similar, and I chose this toy. The earlier version I chose( that was in the catalogue), would run through external batteries, but they cited that, that particular item was out of stock and substituted that with this one. Lets see what it has:

1. Internal memory(I am yet to discover the quantity)
2. Wifi connection
3. PC/TV port
4. Digital picture taking.

I am so excited today. It just reached me in 3 days and guess what tomorrow we are leaving this home for good!!! So, the timming could not have been more perfect than this. Hope everyone take a cue from this and start doing what you truly believe in...

sambhar masala

Sambhar masala
3 spoons dhania
1 spoon zeera
1 table spoon tuor daal
1 table spoon chana dal
1/2 mustard seeds
2-3 red chillis
5 black pepper
15 methi seeds
1/2 cinamon
1/2 poppy seeds

Chole masala

Here is a nice Joke on Indian National Congress

sonia gandhi died and went to heaven. as she stood in front of saint peter at the pearly gates, she saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. she asked, "what are all those clocks?"

saint peter answered, "those are corruption-clocks. every organization on earth has a corruption-clock.
every time a member of organization does corruption, his/her organization clock will move.

"oh," said sonia, "whose clock is that?"

"that's salvtion army's. the hands have not moved indicating that they have done no corrupt act."

"and whose clock is that next to it?"

"that's nun teresa's missionary of charity's clock. the hands have only moved just a few notches telling us that they have done it a few times ."

"where's the congress clock?" sonia asked.

"congress clock is very special. in the old days of mahatma gandhi we used to keep here and it would not move. since your family took over we took it to jesus' office."

sonia, feling touched: really? why?

he's using it as a ceiling fan."

My First ever Yoga video

This 54 mins Yoga routine contains the full yoga workout in sequential order. For example the beginning pre-warm up phase where there are a series of breathing in and out steps followed by warmup stretches followed by more difficult stretches. The names of the asanas are not described, but if you simply follow the steps with controlled breathing, you are guaranteed to get the benefits you would otherwise get.  The background music is ocean sound. Enjoy....

How we shipped our stuff to India

This post is for those, who want to move back to India or any other country from USA and still want to carry some of your essential items with you the cheapest way. We booked our freight through AMID Logistics LLC. The web site where you can calculate your freight is here: Site

The next step is to calculate the fare. If you want to book a pallet (Pallets are nothing but a combination of boxes and other items bundled together into a cubic dimension), you have to decide on the dimension. For example, height, width and Length. Typically, small pallets are calculated in terms of inches. For instance, we booked something with Length 48 inch, width 40 inch and height 40 inch with an estimated weight of 600 lb. The total volume comes to about 1.26 cubic meters and the charges are $338. You can calculate this from their web site, and decide on what dimension you need and the price.

Packing Boxes into pallet:

We are busy sorting papers

Stacking boxes in the given area

Finally UHAULing to the shipping place

The next real big thing is to buy boxes that will fit into the dimension and the boxes should also be able to carry your items both big or small. We had few items we had decided to take, no matter what. And then there were bunch of optional items (we will take it if there is space and leave it otherwise). So, what we did was, in the corner of a room, marked the length and width and drew a rectangle. Then started arranging our essential items (In our case a chair, TV and printer and telescope). Once they were sitting pretty, we decided on the sizes of the boxes. Often, you will not be able to have all the boxes of the same size fitting into the space. Either you may overhang or you may waste space. So, we got boxes of size 14X14X14 from walmart and tried packing our stuff. Then there were a number of irregular space available. For that, we could not find the desirable boxes even though we hopped several stores. So, the best way to get irregular shaped boxes are from local walmart after 10 PM in the night, when they actually unpack their goods and throw the boxes. This process is tiring, but nevertheless a very useful one. We made 2 such trips and got hold of several boxes of different dimensions. Now like fitting puzzles, we started fitting those boxes into the given space. Once, we figured out which boxes fit in, then the packing step began. It took quite sometime for us to fit in the boxes actually. Since we had optional items remaining, we only decided on which ones to take only after they fit into the boxes. Since we chose to drop the boxes at the shipping place at 1220 Texan Trail, Suite 200, Grapevine, TX 76051 , we were in charge of arranging those into pallets. So, we numbered the boxes and took visual map of boxes by taking pictures and drawing maps on plain paper. Once that part is taken care of next thing was to rent a UHAUL and carry those things to the venue. 
Once taken to the venue, someone may come to help you with palletizing. There will be a wooden plank like structure based on your requirement and all that you have to do is stack boxes on them. We followed our map and did it efficiently. We took a lot of extra things such as comforters, pillows, towels, bedsheets, cushions etc. to provide extra cushion to the packing. Once, everything is stacked, we asked the person at the venue to wrap them with plastic wraps. Once they are in place, you can take it to the counter, where they do a final weight and dimension checking and given you a receipt. We did all this on Sunday, and got an email on Monday morning about declaring the items. Now the waiting begins.....