When I decided to become a researcher in the field of biological sciences, research was the one and only thing that excited me. After struggling with research for almost five years it has lost the charm and I’d rather be doing anything but science. I have often thought that we work of money and hope to enjoy it too…but in reality we work for money. And then I come across article like this…

I can’t even imagine how much this guy actually loves his work and how strongly he preaches it too.

Euripides once said “Money is the wise man’s religion”. And that is probably the driving force for putting in endless hours into our non-motivating, essentially boring and monotonous jobs. What if you did not have to work for money? What if there were sufficient funds so that you did not have to think twice before mindlessly spending it? What would you do then? Believe it or not, it just baffled me to imagine myself in this situation. There are probably a million things I want to do everyday instead of waking up each morning and dragging my sorry ass to work. But I still could not think of what I would do with the hypothetical endless amounts of money.
The more I thought about this situation, the more confused I got…even though the answer is simple- own a beautiful mansion, purchase a (maybe more) sleek and sexy sports car, wine and dine at the finest restaurants, oh…how can I forget all the shopping and above all travel across the globe. Now, in this laundry list of ‘to dos with tones of cash’ the only thing that appeals to me is the sports car and travel. This is bizarre…I somehow lack the art of spending money…even hypothetically!! I probably have to kill some more brain cells to figure this one out.
After carefully considering all the pros and cons…countless days and weeks of sleeping in late, no stressing about work, simple plain boredom of doing nothing, I would like to settle down in a remote, underdeveloped part of the world and set up a small teaching center. Far away from being prim and proper all the time, far away from being politically correct and far away from the ‘getting complicated everyday technology’. One does not really need a whole lot of money to do the philanthropic things. I guess it is psychosomatic; it is the idea of not having to work for something in return that gives the sense of liberation. It just might be true…money can buy everything, even the sense of freedom.

We emerged onto the cold but crowded street after the New Year eve party “Indian Experience istyle”; everyone either trying to haul a cab or waiting for their ride. While my girlfriends and I were trying to keep away from the nasty wintry winds in the corner of the building, this friend of ours was approached by a Latino guy. This Mr. Mexicano approached Mr. Friend a couple of times and we got a little uncomfortable when Mr. Friend walked with him into a gully. Much to our relief our ride arrived and we heard Mr. Friends saying, “I cannot help you any further…I have to go”.
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As I was reading the previous blog ‘More updates’ one of the bullets read ‘Movies besides books as main menu - since we all love movies :)’…the light in my brain just went off as my thoughts drifted towards this movies that I saw last week- ‘Dus Kahaniya’. It is a really interesting undertaking. I would probably not classify it as a movie. It is more like a series of really short stories; interesting stories, mostly predictable, but not boring and no dull and drag moment.
My favorite short movie was ‘Rise and Fall’. Interesting irony in the lives of two mafia dons. The attempt to do an O’Henry with the religious discord angle in ‘Stranger in the night’ is pretty good. Overall it is worth a see.

Christmas is around the corner and exchanging gifts is a part of the modern, western commercial culture. Being a member of this civilization I could not get away without indulging in the gift buying ceremony.  I love my friends and colleagues, and I don’t mean to sound like I am whining about spending time shopping rather than killing myself at the gym…It is a seriously difficult task to find a decent gift!!  

So yesterday I went shopping. I was tired after a day of doing nothing at work and reeling myself though n number of crowded stores, and swore that TJ Max was going to be my last store for the day. Suddenly, this angry young lass almost runs me over with her cart; she was talking to someone on the phone and these were the words that hit my ears “I don’t fucking need your gift, just give me the money…I don’t want anything, just give me the money…how much easier can it get for you, just give me the money”. The only thought that crossed my mind was ‘Tis the season for love and cheer?

A PECK ON THE CHEEK….This is the name of a wonderful Mani Ratnam movie that I watched past weekend. It is a very well made movie (there are some glitches and in my opinion non-required songs). It is a story about a girl, who was abandoned by her biological mother, adopted by a lovely couple and sets out with her foster parent to find her biological mother (who is involved in guerrilla warfare in Sri Lanka). I found this movie great because in a manner it propagates the idea of adoption; an idea that I hold very close to my heart. Adoption should not be viewed as the last hope for couple who, for whatever reason, could not have their own baby. Even animals in general take good care of their young ones; in fact there have been some rare incidents (not those mentioned in fables) where an animal from one species took care of the young one of other species. At least we as human beings, the supreme species, can have a better attitude towards our own species.

http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=56

Apart from this movie per say, I found out about filmmovement.com. If you are a movie buff like myself and enjoy independent and no-commercial theme based movies, this is a really interesting site.

The only thing constant is change. With every passing day, with every thought-provoking event, we are evolving. Being raised as the eldest (female) child in my family, I grew up with pretty strictly enforced traditionalistic ideas. And then, I came to a small college town in US of A. There is a miniscule population of Indian students, who seem to be not very fond of me…can’t do anything about that!! Anyway, so it is only the non-Indian souls that I interact with on a daily basis. There are endless discussion about cultural differences, traditions and modernism. There are a millions of things that never crossed my mind, never once in 20 something years of my life; until one fine day, when I lent my ears to people who had so much to say. Since such a gifted thinker I am, my neurons go crazy evaluating the pros and cons of every view that it encounters. Imbibing the ideas that appealed to my sub-conscious mind has become a regular thing. Hence, I have become an extremely rapidly mutating species and probably rightly accused of being easily influenced by others. Well, there are people on the other side of spectrum, who impart ‘influence’ to sub mortals like myself. I went around asking people if they were the influenced or the influential. Most people (actually all) thought that they did not get influenced by anyone (it could be a self satisfying egotistical answer, nonetheless the held their belief of not being influenced)…It almost made me feel that I was the only adaptive species. And despite
Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ theory and the well-know phrase ‘peer-pressure’, everyone seems to be doing really well without changing. And I on the other side seem to be getting ‘Americanized’ everyday. Is being actively open to changing ideas a bad idea???

I don’t know if people have heard of this upcoming movie “Gandhi, my father”. It is a story of the strained relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal, who deviated from Gandhi’s path to get the love and attention his father deprived him of. The movie was premiered past weekend in
Johannesburg, South Africa. South African President Thabo Mbeki said after watching the movie said that the film was a gift to the people of the world and that is showed that Mahatma had made great sacrifices for the greater good.

In my opinion Gandhi was a great man, and in fact the whole world accepts this fact. It is said that behind every successful man there is a woman; the support and sacrifice of people behind these great men almost always is not acknowledged. Having said this, I am glad that someone decided to tell their story and what better candidate than Gandhi’s family. I am really looking forward to this movie with high expectations.