Writing a post is not as easy as it was. I mean, I’m jealous of those people who actually have jobs and yet manage to dole out wonderful pieces of write for their blogs. I didn’t write when I had time; blame Facebook. But now that I don’t at all have the time, I miss MM like the pain of an old wound you had gotten so used to.
Last week, the first of the new year, I took a break that I was entitled to for over a year. And what a break it was! Wonderful place, breath-taking scenery, the coolest of weathers (the way I like ’em), engaging company, traveling in fast cars and me running 102˚F temperature. I hated it. And boy, we sure know to pick the trips. No internet connections as usual, evenings were spend playing cards and me under the blankets, as I had a tendency to be blown away by the sporadic gusts of wind. Dad’s mobile web wasn’t working, a bit later neither were the phone calls facilities active, my cousin’s intelligent act of bringing is laptop backfired as the connection there also failed. Top it with trouble in ‘paradise’, thanks to the activities of the hospitable, nice and warm people who go by the name of Maobadi-s! Let’s not go into details about the finer aspects of our trip, and skip over the punctured tyre that couldn’t be changed, failing brakes, melting rubber, my hyper elder cousin, frantic relatives, tiffs back home, power failure, me as weak as a bamboo leaf in a storm, heat stroke at 5˚C weather, my cousin falling ill after me, my uncle with slip-disc, hundreds of cups of tea, broken stone roads, lunch-less short trips and slippery rocks around the waterfall, and let it suffice by saying, it was a memorable week-out with the newbies in traveling by car. Psst, we traveled around 700 kms one way to reach the place, which is at an altitude of 3100m (that was reached in mere 30 kms, with ~30 hairpin loops, needless to say how steep the ghat roads were!)
This week I joined a Project in my Department faculty’s lab. I would have gotten a project anywhere but the only reason behind the decision was the people I know, friends I have working in here already. And fingers crossed, I am enjoying the work, till now. Though I’m still more ecstatic about getting a day-off today. A friend of mine in the next to next lab asked me whether I was planning to do my PHD from here only, ‘I have no idea why you are working so diligently for a damn project!’, though she didn’t tell me the short-cuts like how to work less for just-a-project, and its difference with projects in PHD. But I agree, always ask a lazy person for the shortest and the most efficient routes and planning of the work. Plus, job-delegation is another of my speciality and it’s good when the other person you are working with thinks less work is equivalent to sacrilege. So, I’m happy with my working conditions.
I am working on yeast genetics and signaling on the interface of MAP Kinase pathways and cell growth. Using deletion mutants of Schizosaccromyces pombe lacking components of MAPK signaling cascade, I have to over-express cdc25 of cell cycle to see the effect of the same on signaling and cell growth. Routine work till now, let’s see whta happens post-transformation. Previous experiments tell me that I’d better be on my toes.
S. pombe: the fission yeast I’m working with.
But, I decided I want to be a house-wife erm, home-maker with servants at my beck and call and then sleep all day. When I wake up I want to blog, read and play. Though my fiance dashed my hopes saying we’re aren’t going to survive on single salary, just to make sure I work and he dangled the coveted Porsche as a bait over my head. People have this notion I’m brilliant and should be in lab, they just don’t understand I’m expeditious and lazier than them. Anyway, even though I was really pressurized the last few months about having no project in hand, I’m very skeptical about my decision to join the lab. I was having a great time, sleeping and lazing all day long. And the worst part about working is I not only have to get up early in the mornings during winter (it’s pretty cold in Cal), I have to take morning bathes too.
So, not telling my fiance, I’m trying to find options for me that will help me to earn money by staying at home. Suddenly I find Adsense a lucrative and shining path for easy money. Surely, there’s some compensation of having a 100+ followers on my blog even though most are not readers! I wish I could also convert hours spent over Facebook, farming and tweeting into dollars (and spend them as rupees). Or I can even take over the theoretical aspects of the research work while delegating the actual tasks, experiments to others, and being involved only in observations and conclusions. After all, I do love the subject and enjoy it too. I just don’t like the hours I have to keep! So, I am doubtful how good I will be working labs that too in a foreign country while doing my PHD… I guess, I’ll have nothing better to do, and then I remember around $26,000 p.a…. well, that’s incentive enough, I think! At least I won’t be working Saturdays there, they won’t make me!
“Dear God, I promise to make good use of them, just don’t make me work too hard for it”
N.B. To Self: I wrote a post!!! G.:)
Image courtesy: ehow.com; ftp.cs.kuleuven.be; mckeogh.googlepages.com; blogs.poz.com
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About Guria
An Artist in Science: A Misfit 'cause I choose to be one. "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform" And a Maverick, because, I'm... umm... brilliant?
Maverick Misfit 
welcome back dear…and I enjoyed reading this post more than your stories..not that I don't like your stories; but i got to read about you here 🙂
and now I understood that the work you are doing is alien; that's why that alien language is there on twitter these days..
lol @ home-maker thought…don't worry, I will sue TM if he makes u work ok 😛
amen – for the last sentence :))
WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!
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Hey Sreya
Wow…thats a great write up yaar.
Now i know where did Sreya vanish for about 2-3 weeks…
Adsense is a great idea only if u have 1000s of visitors daily….!!
“I remember around $26,000 p.a…. well, that's incentive enough, I think! At least I won't be working Saturdays there, they won't make me!”
Lols…..26,000 dollars per annum is mouthwatering….and worth it.
Cheers and Take very good care of yourself.
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You know you are not that much of an evil as you think you are..:P
as far as trying to focus on getting money from blog is, there are dim chances in them… instead try to convince TM or whatever the code is (that Neha has commented above) to earn, infuse in him the ambition to work harder…:P that is easy…:D
and I skipped the middle paragraphs cos i hate biology…:P
But that explains ur tweets…:P
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Our projects are so similar ! You : over-express cdc25 ; me : over-load cdc2 thru cdc5 🙂 cdc — corporate data centers ..
Good to see you back Mav. So everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong on that trip ? Sorry to hear that. But it will make a good conversation piece 10 years later — ek bhayanak yatra 🙂
I'm sure you know, but, be sure to not join a desi prof's lab if you want your weekends once in the US. Seriously, not kidding ..
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may be i can understand your situation…lolzzz
i am laughing out a loud…
poor chap! (really?)
keep Smiling!
P.S.: btw i didnt all that yeast thing and i wonder who will get it except you or may be your mate in labs..lollzzz(if they bear with your blog :))
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Yay you wrote a post!
And yay you took a trip!
And you're very cruel, giving those poor already deficient yeast protein-cancer just to see how they bloat… (Yes I understand no more of that. Shoot me.)
The amazing power of laziness won't be understood by the average workperson, it takes at least a gifted individual to comprehend the drive to conservation and efficiency which others read as being lazy… I hear you G, I hear you.
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“Wonderful place,” “breath taking scenery,” “traveled around 700 kms one way to reach the place,”…..
Arey, which place was it, anyway?
And after writing 2-3 paragraphs you've suddenly switched to some alien language with awful pictures. Which language was that?
All in all, good to know you YANJAAYED! 😀
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Good to see you back and that too with a great post.
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Welcome back! May the Almighty grant all your wishes and may you dream on and dream big 🙂
Kalighate giye pujo diye esho kintu…
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it is interesting when you chase happiness it chases you back with equal effort, and we keep going in circles all through our lives.
Somewhere then will lie a break,and you will exit the loop.!
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Nice post.. your project is interesting..yeast work is way better than animal work, atleast they dont have a mind of their own. Good luck with your experiments. Good thought.. eventually I wanna become a homemaker as well, quit this lab work (but publish few papers miraculously). I guess its lab-o-phobia 😛
As for PhD ina foreign country, I can give u all the tips to keep urself alive and working. Weekends will totally free for sure.
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lol!!
nice post!
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And yeah.. U have bene awarded on my blog. So please visit and do the honours 😀
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Welcome back sweetie 🙂 Sorry reading the post really late! Looks like too many things went wrong on that trip but I am sure you must have had a nice break. “It's good when the other person you are working with thinks less work is equivalent to sacrilege” -> same here. Even I like to work with such people sometimes, since I get to learn more stuff 🙂
Btw “At least I won't be working Saturdays there, they won't make me!” -> wont happen.. hehheeh.. you will be working even on sundays 😛 It's too much of slogging here dear 🙂 I have spent more nights in the lab than at home!! I am not discouraging you because even though I had to slog, I thoroughly enjoyed my grad life 🙂
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Welcome back. Nice write up. I did not understand some of the technical words.
You quored in dollars as $26000. You in India or USA. If it is USA, it is a very poor incentive.
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ho ho ll join Neha in sue'ng TM :)… cya around
HaRy
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