Can we for once, focus on the issue????

A lot of furore was generated last week over a scientific study published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, which claimed to have uncovered a new "superbug" - multi-drug resistant strain of bacteria, which reportedly originated in India, and is spreading worldwide from Indian shores due to medical tourism. The study was by a British research group, and involved a few scientists of Indian origin too. The furore it created in India was over a couple of issues;

• One, the gene encoding for the particular enzyme responsible for conferring this deadly resistance to bacteria was named NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamse.

• Two, the paper concluded with remarks which the growing industry of medical tourism, i.e. people from other countries coming to India for affordable, world-class healthcare, responsible for this superbug spreading across the globe, effectively serving as a travel advisory and dissuading people from receiving such services in India.

While the first issue according to me is pretty trivial and not worth a debate, the second one is quite serious, as it directly aims at our economy as well as national reputation. Many have argued that it is NOT the job of a medical journal to act as a travel advisory. They could have just presented the facts of the study and let people draw their own conclusions. The Lancet has come under the scanner as much as the research group for this publication. Though I do not feel qualified to comment on the issue without having read the actual paper, from what I have heard on T.V. and read on the Web, it does seem that the findings of the study, their method of sampling, and data obtained are not enough to taint the surgical procedures done in India as potential risk factors, not yet anyway. To quote Wikipedia "NDM-1 was first identified in December 2009 in a patient hospitalised in New Delhi with a Klebsiella pneumoniae infection. It has since been detected in bacteria in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States" ................................................ "The NDM-1 enzyme was named after New Delhi, the capital city of India, as it was first described by Yong et al. in December 2009 in a Swedish national who fell ill with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection that he acquired in India. The infection was unsuccessfully treated in a New Delhi hospital and after the patient's repatriation to Sweden, a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain bearing the novel gene was identified. The authors concluded that the new resistance mechanism "clearly arose in India, but there are few data arising from India to suggest how widespread it is." In March 2010 a study in a hospital in Mumbai found that the majority of carbapenem-resistant bacteria isolated from patients carried the bla_NDM-1 gene. In May 2010 a case of infection with E. coli expressing NDM-1 was reported in Coventry in the United Kingdom. The patient was a man of Indian origin who had visited India 18 months previously, where he had undergone dialysis." .................................... "A study by a multi-national team was published in the August 2010 issue of the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. This examined the emergence and spread of bacteria carrying the bla_NDM-1 gene. This reported on 37 cases in the United Kingdom, 44 isolates with NDM-1 in Chennai, 26 in Haryana and 73 in various other sites in Pakistan and India"

Ok, that is a LOT of quoting! But the question that arises from this study is that is the data sufficient to malign the entire hospital industry in the country? When Barkha Dutt asked one of the main authors in a program that how can they confirm that the nodal subject of the study, the Swedish national, didn't pick up the infection from somewhere outside India, or in Sweden, his response was Sweden is a much cleaner country, with better disease control policies. Does he mean to say that no one ever gets a bacterial infection in Sweden? Quite an absurd reasoning from a scientist.

But anyway, the point that I realized from that program was, how serious the problem of antibiotic abuse in India is. And as usual, instead of addressing the key issue, we collectively as a nation chose to focus on the purported strike against our false sense of national pride. The few sane voices on that show all stressed on one thing only, that naming of the gene after the national capital and other issues are secondary. The main thing is to recognize this as an opportunity to set out own house in order, and be glad that this controversy has at least opened up a debate on antibiotic abuse and emerging drug resistance. No one can deny the fact that these are major healthcare issues all over the world, and especially in our country. We have developed a dangerous culture of self-medication , reliance on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and taking the word of the local chemist instead of bothering to consult a doctor. Pill-popping has become alarmingly popular in society and there is a serious lack of awareness about its ill-effects. Its a pill right? It can only do good, no harm in popping one!!! Well guess what, it's more likely to do more harm than good.

While I was watching that debate on NDTV, I realized how clueless my mother was about the whole thing. I ended up explaining the entire thing to her in detail, and realized that this is the core problem. Lack of awareness among the general population in India. We don't think twice about reusing old, left-over pills for similar symptoms, buying the same meds from the last prescription, not bothering to complete the prescribed dose as soon as the symptoms seem to subside, buying OTC based on recommendations from "well-wishers", and so on. People have to be made aware of what such abuse of antibiotics can do to you. Awareness camps in schools and colleges, pamphlets at healthcare centers, TV commercials in public interest, whatever it takes!!

Antibiotics, are chemicals which prevent microbial growth or kill them by targeting one or the other metabolic pathways in bacterial cells. Now, micro-organisms evolve at a much faster rate, and adapt to their environments quite easily. They do this by accumulating beneficial mutations in their genes over generations. And generation time in bacteria is of the order of a few hours. So when confronted with a drug which threatens their populations, a few resilient specimen survive by evolving alternate mechanisms to the ones which the drug targets, or by devloping means to flush the drug out of their cells. When these surviving bacteria reproduce and establish populations which inherit these defense mechanisms, the bacterial popualtion is said to have developed resistance to that particular drug.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to the health security and scientists and labs all over the world are fighting against time to develop methods to counter drug resistance, and/or develop newer drugs. However, Developing a new drug requires at least 15 years of time and more than a Billion dollar investment, with no guarantee of success. Hence the number of new drugs launched in the past 2 decades is negligible. And it often takes less than 10 years for resistant bacterial strains to emerge after a new drug is launched. So it should be evident how grave a problem drug resistance is.

When we indiscriminately use antibiotics against infections without medical supervision, or discontinue or prolong a drug dose at our own whim, what we unintentionally do is to equip the bacteria to get used to the drug, and evolve mechanisms which enable them to work around it and survive. This is how antibiotic resistance spreads through their abuse. And in fact a major problem is MDR, or multi-drug resistance in bacterial strains, which implies that the bacteria is able to fight the assault from a range of antibiotics and not just one. This makes healthcare very difficult, as no one drug is able to cure an infection. This has been a major reason why we still have no fool-proof weapon against diseases like tuberculosis. And in this context the threat from NDM-1 is even more worrying, as NDM-1-carrying bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs.

So it is no wonder that our healthcare system should come under the scanner. People are just not aware of the dangers of pill-popping. And is it really their fault? Whose job is it to make them aware? Who is responsible? The obvious answer which pops up is the usual scape-goat - our Government. Well yes, of course the Government has a major stake in this responsibility. But I feel the real culprits in this scenario are our esteemed doctors. This I say from my own experience, which has been restricted to the government healthcare centers like CGHS dispensaries, AIIMS and Safdurjung Hospitals. Doctors I have encountered, are just not bothered to explain to the patient what is his/her condition, what is the cause, what is the course of treatment and more importantly its basis, and the need to follow the proper dosage. They are more than content to perform a quick diagnosis, and write a prescription and inform the dose to be taken. Questions are not welcome!! Being from the science field, when I do ask questions pertaining to the illness or the medicine, the docs are just taken aback!! They don't expect you to question them, and most don't take to it kindly. It is just assumed that the patient, or common man, is not going to understand the medical details and need not be bothered. Some don't even tell you what the disease is! People too are more often than not just content to receive their prescription and walk away. This mutual understanding between the lazy doctor and the blissfully ignorant patient has proved to be a fertile ground for drug abuse. But then again, the number of patients these doctors in Govt. hospitals are forced to cater to per day is so huge that one can't really blame them for not having the patience to counsel each patient.

One can only hope that this study, which just now I read in the newspaper, has received the backing of WHO, may be a blessing in disguise, and more debates like the one on NDTV the other day, may be a small step in creating awareness about this major threat to our society's health. If it saves lives, I don't mind the bug being named after New Delhi. And just to make it clear, its the gene/enzyme responsible for conferring the resistance in bacteria that has been named NDM-1, not a bacteria per se, as most of the Indian media seems to think. :-P

Happy to be reading again!!

Picked up a book after a loooooooooong time today. The last time I read a book not related to Biology was many months ago, and that was Chetan Bhagat's "2 States: The Story of My Marriage". Something which didn't take more than a day, nor provided the required satisfaction for my long literature-deprived brain. I have been reading 4 as long as I can remember. My mother used to take me and my sister to the neighborhood library regularly. Starting out with Noddy, I grew up on a staple diet of Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, then moving onto the Classics like Jane Austen, Alexander Dumas, Thomas Hardy, The Bronte sisters and so on. I read passionately throughout school, and though time was scarce, I continued during my time in Venky, when I came across some of my all-time favorites like The Idiot, Eva Luna, An equal music and so on.

However, I can count the number of books I have read ever since I went to Pondicherry on one hand! Hence, When I finally picked up Jhumpa Lahiri's "Unaccustomed Earth" this Sunday, (that's when I had started writing this, :P) it was another exercise in reclamation. Reclaiming the one good hobby I had. As soon as I started reading it, I could actually feel the rush..... It felt like the sluice gates had been opened after ages, allowing a sudden gush of gallons of water into vacuum (aka my brain). It was almost like my brain was literally devouring the book, as if it had been fed after years!!!

The book is a collection of short stories, and the first one was finished immediately, not even putting the book down during lunch. And it was amazing. Can't wait to finish the rest of it, as well as other books by her. I do recommend it to everyone else who enjoys reading. And your recommendations are more than welcome! :-) I owe it to Ms. Lahiri, who not only got me reading again, but performed an even greater miracle, which was to induce my mother to pick up a book again, and finish it................... after a long, looooooooong time!!!

The Scientist

Jaaye to jaaye kahan???????

So the vicious cycle continues......... another entrance exam, another failure. This time, it was JNU - 3 courses. Had high expectations for at least 2 of them after the exam ............. result day arrives ................ not selected - not selected - not selected. It was like someone stabbed me right in the heart three times!!! For the first time, the results of an entrance exam had affected me so deeply.

With these results, all the pent up frustration and doubts have crept back in. But on the fateful day, i.e. Sunday, the 27th of June, the over-powering emotion was of anger. Anger at not being selected in the Bioinformatics course. The exam had gone off pretty well, as far as I thought. Maybe, in fact, in all probability, I am mistaken. Maybe I performed horribly. I make no pretensions that I prepared a lot for the exam or anything. In fact, I hardly prepared, I admit, and probably don't deserve to be selected. But my anger's origin owed to a different realization. The realization of the utter worthlessness of my post-graduate degree. Though when I took up M.Sc. Bioinformatics, I wasn't so sure, but over the course of the two years, I fell in love with this subject. I got it ...... I enjoyed it. But now that MSc is over, and a dark, uncertain future looms ahead, I begin to doubt the sanity of this judgment. Was I a lunatic to take up something as new and fresh as Bioinfo? For one, it has not done anything at improving my chances at clearing any of the exams that I MUST clear, to have any hope of a career in research in a good lab - CSIR-NET, DBT, ICMR and so on. Leave these exams, which totally cater to students of pure life sciences, a masters in Bioinformatics from any Indian university is not even good enough to give you an edge in the ONE exam meant solely for Bioinformaticians - BINC - BioInformatics National Certification examination. Even in this exam, a MCA or computer science grad, who has excellent programming skills and a basic, working knowledge of biology and bioinformatics, is much more likely to succeed than a BIOINFORMATICS post-graduate! Irony anyone? It's a different matter altogether though that the people in charge of this exam have such high standards that NOT EVEN A SINGLE person was found worthy twice in the short 5-6 year history of this exam.

Even in case of an entrance exam for a PhD in bioinformatics, (not many of which are there in India btw), as in the afore mentioned JNU exam, THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE QUESTION RELATED TO BIOINFORMATICS. The whole paper was based on logic, maths, physics, chemistry, statistics, and computer sciences, with a few biology questions thrown in for courtesy sake I guess. So the message I get from this is, that you'll welcome physicians, chemists, mathematicians, computer and programming experts to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics with open arms, but the doors are shut, or tightly jammed for a trained, PG student of Bioinformatics!!??? Believe me, I'm not implying that a Bioinformatician need not know these subjects, or experts in these fields should not be allowed in Bioinfo, nor am I trying to absolve myself of the responsibility of studying for these tests, which clearly state that students from these fields are "particularly encouraged" to apply! Biology already is extremely generous - welcoming students from all fields- any entrance for a biotech or bioinfo course is always open for maths, physics, chemistry, stats, computer sc. students too with no biology background whatsoever...... All I am saying is, where does a Bioinfo PG go!? You can't clear NET as easily as other life sc students, there is hardly any requirement for bioinfo teachers in good universities, the exams "meant for your subject" are "not designed or meant to be cleared by you"....... aakhir, jaaye to jaaye kahan!?

Anyway, all I can do is - try! And try I will, in another 20 days, at ICMR. Let's see how that goes. But from the looks of it this is the kind of a situation (this vicious cycle of entrance exams followed by disappointment), which reminds me of my favorite lines from one of my favorite songs - "jo khatm ho kissi jagah, yeh aisa silsila nahi...........".

Why I loved RAAVAN

I guess my blog is taking on a "one post a month" form..... not the way I had envisaged it to be, but what can I do? Laziness has no cure......

This year, many hugely anticipated movies are scheduled for release. The first of them, Kites, turned out to be a huge, HUGE, disaster.......as I found out yesterday when it came on T.V. When it came out, I had been told not to bother watching it even if someone offered to pay for your ticket. I whole heartedly agree now, it wasn't even worth the time spent watching it on TV!!!

The next big release in line was Rajneeti, which has done pretty well, followed by Raavan, the movie which I had been waiting anxiously for, along with Action Replay and Guzaarish. That should tell you, that I am a HUGE Aishwarya Rai fan!!! :P But the directors associated with each of these projects too add to their appeal. Anyway, so Raavan released on the 18th June, and after finishing a grueling, frustrating 7 hour CSIR exam on the 20th, I rushed off to Sangam, and bought three tickets for the next show. And imagine my surprise to see no queue at the ticket counter, on a Sunday, for a MEGA release like Raavan, and that too in a cheap-skate hall like Sangam!!! I assumed all the bad publicity and reviews of the past two days were at work. Anyway, we set out at 6:30 for the show, and were made to sit through a nihaayati boring documentary on Emus n their farming in India!!! I mean, what happened to the good ol' trailers!!!???

Now the whole world might be trashing the movie, but I loved it. Nothing new in that, those who know me will say, considering I almost always like the movies shunned by the rest of the world, (read Saawariya, The Village, Zinda etc.) and tend to shun the movies which majority likes (Om Shanti Om, - the worst movie ever made in the history of cinema according to me). The basic complaint with both Saawariya and Raavan is the same, - that there is no story, nothing moves forward or backward, its static, nothing happens.......!!! Rubbish I say......!!! First of all, Raavan is nothing but a different take on the basic premise of the Ramayan. Now, its quite contradictory, and nonsensical, according to me, to say that a movie based on the greatest epic ever told has no storyline!!! pffft...... Plus, the movie is sol layered, that a black - n - white objective view cannot be applied here. I can understand why some people may have found it boring, n I assume these are the kind of people who made OSO one of the biggest blockbusters ever! :P ......

For one, I have never seen a movie more aesthetically shot. Each and every frame of Raavan is pure, visual delight. I for one was left wondering, where in India such pure, untamed wilderness, n virgin forests are still found!!!! The waterfall, an integral part of the movie, was breathtaking, and so was watching the lead protagonists trying to scale it. For sure, the movie had me in its folds within the first 20 minutes or so, with the song Behne De. The way that song has been incorporated in the movie, and the way it has been pictured, shows the class of Mani Ratnam as a director. Very rarely do the lyrics of a song fit the situation in such an apt manner in hindi movies. Aishwarya, in a dazzling performance, betrays perfectly all the emotions a person in that situation would go through, fear, anger, feigned courage, helplessness.......... while during that particular song, Abhishek's Beera is totally bewildered and flabbergasted with the courage of this slight, young woman....... played to the tee by Abhishek. Though I agree, in general his performance throughout the movie was jerky, and overdone and overcooked. But seriously, words fail me. I cannot describe the poetry n beauty of how that song lifts up the movie, its worth going to see the movie in a theater just for this, or rather, all the songs. Never before has music been so beautifully used in a movie, and actually carries forward the story. What the dialogs do not state, the lyrics of the songs exemplify. For e.g., thok de gilli exposes the under-stated Naxal element of the storyline, with its hard-hitting lyrics. The lyrics of Katta Katta, act like a double edged sword, literally referring to the plight of the groom one day before the wedding, and also serving as an indication of the imminent downfall of Beera and his clan. (Or maybe I read too much into it! :P) ..... What took me by surprise was how the chartbuster Raanjha Raanjha was used. You don't get to hear the actual song in its entirety in the movie as such. Instead, the lyrics of the song are almost chanted or narrated, in the voice of Richa Sharma at fist, and then Ila Arun in the movie, to lay the foundation of emergence of Ragini's growing attraction towards Beera. And Khilli re Khilli, has to be the most aesthetically choreographed songs in recent times, with Aishwarya delivering a graceful and beautiful performance. i believe, her chemistry with Vikram was even more sparkling as compared to that with Abhishek. Basically, awesome ,music by Rehman, beautiful lyrics by Gulzar and very intelligent use of both by Ratnam.

Except for Mr. Bachchan, none of the performances were found wanting. Aishwarya really excelled in a role, tailor-made for her, though appearing a bit too shrieky n shrill in a couple of sequences. The most impressive were the supporting cast, primarily, Govinda, Ravi Kissen n Priyamani. Watching Govinda's take on Hanuman, I somewhere felt he was born to essay this role - the perfect Hanuman. Though in the guise of a forest guard, his antics, n the tree -to -tree jumping skills, (which frankly speaking looked quite unrealistic) and expressions remind you instantly of the monkey-faced deity and he fits the bill to play the traditional version of Hanuman, I say. Ever since Bigg Boss, I have found Ravi Kissen really really irritating and intolerable, but in this movie he was quite watchable and his character, though under-written, does manage to leave an impression. Priyamani too impresses in the couple of scenes and a song she is there. It is with the introduction of her character, that the Ratnam twist on the classical Ramayan begins to unfold. Suddenly, Raavan is not the ultimate villain, and Ram not the immaculate hero. I quite liked this twist, as the movie progressed, you get to see the humanized version of Ram in darker and darker shades. Vikram is quite convincing, though never great in this role.

I really don't know why this movie failed to impressed the masses. Or did it really? Cuz most people I know who actually saw the movie have appreciated it. The reviews too were a mixed bag, and the Tamil version is a runaway hit. I guess, its just the media hype, and the usual "build something up to epic proportions and then drag it down mercilessly" phenomenon on which the TV industry thrives on today. Also, a failure to appreciate the cinematic beauty of the exchanges between the lead pair, the various internal conflicts each of the character goes through, may have put off some people. What really pissed me off was the insipid, mind-numbingly boring and mediocre dialog writing. The dialogs simply lacked conviction and strength which the characters demanded, and miserably failed to put the point across. However, the brilliant performances made up for that most of the time. I really believe it is one step ahead for commercial hindi cinema, and a movie which is truly deserving of a visit to the theater, even if only for the brilliant cinematography and music.

Goodbye.

It's been a long time since the last post, and with good reason. I finally did take something seriously, my project work. But now it's all over, and I'm now, Aditya Sharma, B.Sc., M.Sc.!

Never in my wildest dreams a few years ago, had I ever imagined that I'd ever do a Masters, that too M.Sc. For me, it was something very high on the intellectual ladder, something which extremely brilliant people do, others just get a graduation and get a job. If I had only known better.............!!

It all seems surreal still, can't really fathom that a split-second decision made at the spur of the moment, could have led to all this - these two amazing years of my life spent in Pondicherry. My decision to do a Masters was a well-thought one, unlike the one regarding B.Sc. I just didn't want to remain only a graduate all my life. I know, not the best of reasons to get into higher education, but doing a M.Sc. at that point of time was an absolute must for me, an essential qualification that I HAD to obtain. But then again, Bioinformatics was never on my radar, and Pondicherry most definitely not!!!! I used to see scores of advertisements from dozens of Universities all over India, in The Hindu, everyday, many from the south of India. But never was I compelled to apply. And I have no clue what drove me to apply  for Pondicherry Central University. And also, what propelled me to change my original course of choice (Ecology) to Bioinformatics. It was a decision taken in a split-second, when a friend's mother was getting the application procedure for her done, and I was asked to decide on the spot whether I wanted it to be done for myself too. And I said YES!!!!

It feels weird to think what my life would have been, had I said no then. There are a multitude of possibilities, but I had said YES. And all the events which henceforth followed, such as giving two exams on the same day (TERI & PCU), extreme difficulty in finding the center for PCU, bioinfo exam, these two being the only two entrances I managed to clear, taking admission in TERI (where I always wanted to study, albeit in a different course than the one I was offered), then making up my mind to drop a year and withdrawing admission from TERI, and finally, getting a call letter from PCU on the very same day I ditched TERI. In retrospect, it reaffirmed my faith in the butterfly effect.

Initially the stay in Pondicherry was conceptualized as just a six-month long experience, to fulfill some fantasies, such as travelling alone, staying in a hostel, experiencing life away from home. I still can't pin-point when did I decide to stick it out for the long haul, and complete the course. But I do know for sure, it was this awesome bunch of 18 people I met here ( 2 later left), along with the scenic beauty of the place, and the jungle like nature of my new dwelling place, which compelled me to do so.

I had never realized how quickly time flies by, as I did in the past 2 years. These two years have gone by in a blink. Seems like it was just yesterday I left home. But, I also changed, a LOT, in this one day. A little older, a little wiser, a little more cynical, a lot more confident and comfortable in my own skin.

And now, as I type this blog post from my computer in my Lab, it strikes me that these are the last few hours I'm spending in this lab, which for the greater part of the last two years, has been my home (yup, the lab is where I spent more time, as compared to the hostel). It really is an unpleasant feeling when it strikes you that whatever you are indulging in, could be the last time you are doing it, whether u liked that thing or not. I have been plagued by this feeling for the last couple of weeks now, when every look at the beautiful shades in the sky during the daily ritual of the sun rising and setting, every chirp from one of the plethora of beautiful winged-creatures that abound here, every sight of each and every corner of the university bathed in a sea of spring -time yellow finery, every whiff of the refreshing sea breeze (except when it is accompanied with the stench of drying fish), every morsel of inedible, unfit-for-human-consumption food, every laugh and cup of tea shared with my friends, reminded me , that this could be the last one! And now, finally those last moments have actually arrived.


For almost the entire year gone by, I bitched and complained about each and everything I hate about this place. Till a few weeks back, I couldn't wait to get out of here. I still am relieved to a great extent, of being deprived of all those things that made me miserable. But, somehow, it's not accompanied with happiness. It's not a nice feeling now that the good I'm leaving behind strikes me as hard as the bad. There is just so much that I'm leaving behind - student life, hostel life, complete independence, awesome friends, super fast unrestricted internet connection, living in a jungle, awesome sunrises and awesome sunsets, always being near d beach.

Am I gonna miss all this? of course. Am I wary of the uncertainty that the future holds? YES. But I still look forward to the future, back to the familiarity of the place I love, Delhi, and my home, and keeping all the good of Pondicherry university meanwhile firmly with me. I may not be able to say with the utmost certainty that I'm happy or glad about it, but I definitely do not regret saying that YES!!

Delhi University: The road to DU.

After more than a month of oscillating between periods of extreme workaholism and utter wastage of time (the latter eclipsing the former in both frequency and duration), I have finally decided to get back to the instrument of my salvation. This is one of the rare occasions where the mind is brimming with topics to write about. But the past few weeks have been very nostalgic with regards to the years spent in Sri Venkateswara College, or lovingly called as "Venky", University of Delhi. And all thanks to Facebook, the glue holding so many people all over the world together with their near and dear ones. The trigger seemed to be the uploading some of the photographs from the good ol' days in Venky, along with conversations and chats with many of my fellow guinea pigs. So here's an attempt to capture the best and worst of those days, while they are still slightly fresh in my memory.

Unlike most ambitious kids nowadays, I had never given much thought to what I would wanna do with my life after school. Yes for sure, there was the standard dream of becoming a doctor, given a keen interest in biology and total disdain for engineering. I had coasted through my years in school with pretty good grades without much hard work. I guess, that proved to be my undoing. I just couldn't get myself to put in the effort required to clear the onerous entrance examinations to get into a medical school. Very casually, after the board exams of class 12th ended, I indulged in all the delights deprived to me during the Boards, actually there was just one, watching television. I would eventually pick up the books, for an hour or so, just before going to bed. To me, that was more than enough. As for joining one of the myriad coaching institutes mushrooming all over, grilling students into entrance-exam clearing machines, it was out of the question. Hell, I'm too good for that! I was ashamed of even taking tuition for maths in 11th and 12th grades, though gave in to my mother's insistence. But that was as far as I'd bend. I stood my ground and staunchly refused to take classes for Physics, Chemistry or Medical entrance exams. Needless to say, each and every entrance exam was a zor ka jhatka, jo kaafi zor se laga.......! Still I kept up the charade of preparing for these exams for the two months after board exams. By the time I had realized that I don't stand a chance of clearing any of them, at least that year, it was time for the madness that descends on Delhi annually, the Delhi University admissions! Every year, from June 1st to 15th, admission forms are up for sale for the 80 odd colleges and numerous other departments and institutes that constitute the great University of Delhi (DU). Lakhs of students from all over India grapple for 60,000 odd seats in these colleges. And then from 25th June to 15th July the admission mayhem begins. This is seriously, one of the most entertaining phases in the year on Indian news channels. Their coverage of the newbie school students taking their first steps out in the "real world", some with their over-protective parents haggling along, while others trying to make it on their own, makes for an entertaining watch! Fashion trends are keenly observed, and college rivalries are played out at their optimum. Student Unions get into the act of impressing and attracting new followers and voters, and offer various sops and "assistance". Its an exciting time all around, as it was for me, making rounds of the South and North Campuses, attending orientation programmes, buying forms, trying to decide on the most favorable course and college option. It helped that I had secured enough marks in 12th to score a decent college and course. Like many others who appear for the afore mentioned entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges casually in their first attempt, I had a PLAN B - which was, not to waste one year, take admission in DU, (also can be read as, block some other kid's seat), spend that one year sincerely preparing for these entrances, and cracking them next year. It seemed easy and simple enough. So I took admission in B.Sc. life sciences, at Sri Venkateswara College, a five minute bus ride away from my home. It was an easy enough choice on the college, but not so much on the course. Though I was not severely inflicted with Decidophobia at that time, I was still switching from Life sciences to botany to anthropology to geology to english to history to chemistry. But keeping in mind my Plan B, I went for Life sciences, thinking it would be ideal for my medical preparation. So after a horrifying interview at St. Stephens, I took admission in Venky, and thus became a part of the elite DU alumni.