Exams as I see them!

The exams like the proverbial iceberg from the Titanic loom
Now I know what they mean by impending doom.
One would think that I'd be immune after 5 1/2 years
But eight months without exams seemed to magnify all my fears.
Now as another potentially life changing exam I have to give
I wonder how much longer this life I have to live
For studying seems to stretch ahead like an endless road
I'm really beginning to get rather bored.
For the actual giving of exams aint too bad
'Tis the pre and post tension which is rather sad.
The results which have the power to make or break
And the darn entrances are never a piece of cake.
To judge a few years of knowledge in a three measly hours
When experience(not book knowledge)is what we need in the MD wars.
For as Mr Einstein himself recounts:
Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that's counted counts.

Liff As I Know It!

The wheels of Creation grind slowly,but they grind fine.

Innovation is perceived to be the exclusive prerogative of sentient beings.I wonder whether that actually holds true.Nature's pretty darn creative:Each person has an individual fingerprint,a personalised iris pattern.Each snowflake that falls is unique.In fact.the whole point of sexual reproduction was to introduce new variations into the gene pool.A new recipe in the primeval soup and lo!we have life.Evolution,in my opinion, is Nature's way of innovation,of introducing a few quirks here and there,which will eventually result in a whole new world.
Mother Nature's got pretty lazy over the past few millenia though.I mean can you think of a single really cool genus since good old Homo or even a funky species since Sapiens.I mean if we can think of the X-Men would it kill Her to bring Wolverine(Read Hugh Jackman with an adamintinum skeleton.Doesn't that give a new meaning to buns of steel?) to life.
But would we as humans even have come into being without the species before us,would we be what we are without our DNA?Everything in existence is built on what came before,and new paths are broken in a series of steps so small that we don't even realise that we've taken them till a great mind illuminates the way with a blaze of glory.

The inspiration for this post:A debate on an online forum regarding innovation in the current age.It was the opinion of some that there hasn't been much in the way of actual originality(over the past 25 years),we are but improving on past glory.They lament that there don't seem to be any Einsteins or Edisons in the world today...that we as a species seem to be stuck in a rut of mental decay.

This was my opinion :
One might say that the World Wide Web(1989 incidentally) and the Internet are path breaking discoveries,but would they be possible without the PC(which in turn is an improvement on Charles Babbage's machine).And would that even be possible without electricity which would therefore qualify as an even more revolutionary concept.We can trace history back even further to the wheel or the discovery of fire or a primate who decided to become biped.
My point being that a blazing fire of knowledge and discovery is all very fine,but life/history has a whole marches on in a series of sparks!So while an Einstein or a Watson and Crick may revolutionize the world,its the humble researcher who tweaks a few details and works on it daily who's the building block of the system for he/she actually brings it to the common man.
So we slog on with our genetics,pharmaceuticals and nanotechnology hoping to do our bit to make a difference and hold the fort till an Edison or a Faraday comes along to propel us to an even brighter future.

Liff As I Know It!

New Year's Resolutions

It's a never ending source of amazement to me
That permutations and combinations so many
Can be achieved by a bunch of quarks and gluons
The building blocks,whether quantum physics or neurons.
And though every day new applications are discovered
There are still so many mysteries to be uncovered.
But the world around us moves at a mind-boggling pace
Nothing remains the same for long in this corner of space.
Everyday around me,new breakthroughs I see
Whether it be medicine,computers or nanotechnology.
You might ask why this revelation struck me today
Why this sudden introspection,you might say?
Well,in my daily dose of the newspaper an article I read
"Fullerenes found in Ajanta-Ellora and Tipu Sultan's sword,"it said.
"What the heck are fullerenes and nanotubes",I thought
Greek and Latin it was and had me flummoxed.
And so to the Church of Google did this humble seeker make her way
The magnitude of her ignorance she learnt to her dismay.
A world of geodesic spheres,fullerenes and buckyballs.
Its applications in buckypaper and paper batteries et al.
Which then led me to think this
So caught up in the daily hustlebustle how much do we miss?
For in sticking to one's specialty,one passes up on all the fun
The sheer delight and complexity of the world around one.
In blissful ignorance,I so far chose to vegetate
So my New Year's resolution albeit late has been made today
To be not in my attention so frugal
To explore in greater depth the world of Google.
Today,a promise to myself I make
My thirst for knowledge I will more often slake
To the wonders of Creation I shall be not so blind
And make this world my personal diamond mine.

Liff As I Know It!

The Ultimate Question:Man v/s Woman

The Battle Of The Sexes-that term I detest
Somehow it represents a never ending contest.
A need for supremacy,a victor and a vanquished
Somehow,all the equality has then vanished.

Men and women each have their roles to play
Each has their strength in their very own way.
Men have the superior strength in physical matters
Which is perfectly suited to the role of hunter-gatherers.
Women are stronger emotionally,from what I see
A quality needed for those that bear and nurture the babies.

In being a woman,I revel
With all its privileges,aint it swell?
Dressing up and looking pretty
Being treated to good,old-fashioned chivalry.
But that doesn't take away from my professional side
A doc I shall be till the day I die.
And though lampooning the male sex is such a laugh riot
An anti-men crusade is not my daily diet.

Men and women have their strengths and their Achilles' heel
As long as the minds meet,what is the big deal?
Tags like stronger or weaker should cease to exist
For they are just a wee bit sexist.
Though some roles are pre-defined by fate
But wouldn't a little flexibility be great?
When all in conjunction play their parts
Mutual respect isn't too much to ask.

Dumbing down will no longer be the order of the day
Both meet on an open field and as equals play.
A joy in the differences we should celebrate
The sparks may fly,and sometimes there may even be hate.
When free will as humans is our fundamental right
An imposition of one's opinions on another is a blight
The ultimate answer in this case is unknown,it's not 42
But hey,that's The Symbiosis of The Sexes for you.

Liff As I Know It!

Mind of Man

A joke that's stuck in my memory
Is about a mom warning her to-be-married chickie.
That men are after only one thing and I quote
"They all want control of the remote"
Now I completely fail to see
What is so perenially absorbing on TV
For men do not watch one program
Continuous channel surfing is their master plan.
A wise woman in her book did relate
That back to prehistoric times,this does date
Apparently,when the hunter-gatherers were tired
They amused themselves with the flickering of the fire.

Now the female mind is a complex thing
Many a Samson to his knees,it does bring.
For though machines may be their cup of tea
When it comes to a woman,they're usually at sea.
Now all women say that they can't understand men
So what does that say about the male mind then?
But a conversation with a friend(Thank you,Bharat) I now recall
He said'"What makes you think we have a mind at all?"
Now that was a possibility I hadn't envisaged,I confess
That on the mental marksheet,men score a teeny bit less.

But I have my own theory about this,y'know
I think it's testosterone which doesn't allow a man to grow
Beyond adolescence...for if you see
The two sexes are the same till puberty.
But while oestrogen makes a woman like fine wine ie mature
Testosterone has the opposite effect for sure.
It's supposed to give the man the drive to hunt
But it reduces their communication to a series of grunts.
But the irony of my theory,maybe a woman is God
It's that very same testosterone which makes a man bald.
But that ties in too.Oh this feels so good.
For that alopecia is the harbinger of a second childhood!
Liff As I Know It!

The Greater Bombay Studyathon-Day 3

Another day of studying draws to a close
Of Ophthal I've had a freakin' overdose.
But the sodding subject stretches on without end
With great pleasure to hell,I'd the optic nerve send.
At least then I wouldn't have to face
The fact that I'm going to lose the race
Of finishing my portion before the exam!!!
That's the sound of my books hitting the wall.Wham!
Why!Oh why,did I this course undertake
When for me studying aint a piece of cake?
The practical part leaves me euphoric,it is true
But giving exams without end leaves me quite blue.
This self imposed study leave is driving me nuts
Work is my fix so bunking it is kinda tough.
Well,that I finish Ophthal today,I pray
As Scarlett said,"Tomorrow is another day"
Unfortunately,I have no Rhett to sweep me off my feet
So on the morning after,I shall have to patrol the beat
Of The Greater Bombay Studyathon-Day Four
Oh God!Please,no more,no more!!!
Oh heck,who on Earth do I fool
Tomorrow,will be another day uncool
A day of pegging away at my books
Even though at them,I would gladly never look.
To myself,I'm gonna have to give a pep talk
"Parvati,for 18 days more only,this path you will walk.
And then you can go back to the days carefree
Of your much awaited posting-Surgery."

Liff As I Know It!

Happy New Year

A thousand words are nowadays said
But I wonder how many of those are meant?
Happy New Year is one I can off-hand recall
A greeting today from one and all.
But I wonder how personalised are those words
Whether it's the one who wishes or the one who hears.
Scraps,mails and SMSes are sent by the score
And to reply I find is quite a bore
To those by whom the wishes are not meant
And who for form's sake have their greetings sent.
One of the greatest problems I see today
Is that people do not always mean what they say.
For rather than assembly line regards
I would prefer a personalised New Year card.
A message which is full of feeling
Not just a standard Season's Greetings.
For such regards are a joy to read
And to these wishes I pay all heed.
For they signify that I am remembered with esteem
And are ceratain to make me beam.
So this goes out to those who truly meant their wishes today
That God watches over you forever I pray.
Contentment,love and joy I wish for you
And I hope that your dearest dreams come true.
Thank You so much for being my friend
I hope that our camaraderie never ends.
To you all a New Year's toast I drink
In your chain of friendship,consider me a link.

P.S.: A SMS doing the rounds is HNY.Funny how that can be read as horny.
Liff As I Know It!